You have many options when it comes to picking a fantasy football Internet hosting site. Each one has features designed to lure you into registering.
As years have passed certain sites have become the most prominent. A combination of recognizable corporate names and technological advances has made this possible.
Here are some of the most popular fantasy football hosting sites along with brief descriptions and some pros and cons.
NFL.com
To start you can head straight to the source and play on the official NFL site. Here you can be in a league with custom settings or one that is NFL-managed. There are no costs involved with using NFL.com.
A big advantage to playing on this site is that it tends to be very accurate with player information. This is helpful when needing to know something like player injury status at game time.
One drawback to NFL.com is that it occasionally runs very slow due to high traffic. This can be a problem if it occurs when you try making last minute roster adjustments. Some users also do not like that the homepage lacks a lot of the site’s valuable information.
Yahoo Sports
Best known as a search engine and news source, Yahoo is also one of the largest and oldest fantasy football sites. Yahoo once charged for premium fantasy services it provided. Today it is completely free for you to play on Yahoo.
A big reason many fantasy owners like Yahoo is the variety of league settings. Excellent quality of live scoring also draws people to Yahoo.
On the down side, Yahoo analysts have occasionally been known to give wrong information. Also some Smartphone users are frustrated with Yahoo’s mobile service. Many with devices like the Blackberry say that Yahoo’s mobile access fails to deliver everything it promises.
CBS Sportsline
The CBS television network offers fantasy football through its sports division. You have the option of joining a premium league or playing for free. A premium league requires money to be paid per team but offers a cash prize for the winner.
Fantasy Football at CBS has become a favorite due to user-friendliness of the site. The homepage immediately greets you with everything necessary to know. When it comes to playing, there are leagues for all levels of skill and experience.
What some owners dislike about CBS is that a large number of analysts post information. This causes a problem since they tend to give contradictory player information at times.
ESPN
A major sports network like ESPN is certainly in the fantasy football discussion. Free leagues with custom settings or ESPN standard settings can be created. Prize eligible leagues also exist and require money from each team.
Fantasy football veterans usually suggest ESPN if you are just getting familiar with the game. The software is considered to be the easiest to use. ESPN also offers plenty of how-to advice and technical support.
Just like NFL.com, ESPN suffers some site slowdowns because of high user activity. Also, you must be cautious when reading ESPN news updates. Sadly, accuracy is sometimes sacrificed when competing to be the first to break a story.
Fox Sports
Media giant Fox is also begging to serve your fantasy football needs. If you decide to become a team owner at Fox, there is no cost for it. However, a new fantasy game known as The Long Story has an interesting real-time twist and can be played for money.
Multiple partnerships of Fox give some advantages over other fantasy sites. Since fantasy here is “powered by” MSN, owners can sign in with Hotmail accounts. The holdings of News Corporation feed the site a variety of NFL related content.
A major complaint against Fox is that live scoring is sometimes slow and inaccurate. Others have reported that online drafts on the site have occasionally faced technical difficulties as well.