Previous Fantasy Sports Newsletters (FSN) by FISO - subscribe here

FSN 15 9.00 a.m. 16 May 2001

A very brief newsletter today mainly with some hot off the press fantasy golf news about Your-Golf Pick who are running a special 2 for 1 offer this week so go and double your chances to go to Dubai! 

This week anyone who registers for Your-GolfPick will receive one FREE account for every account they open. As a Your-GolfPick manager you will pick a manager for each week's tournament. Every dollar he earns will be converted into points, which will go towards your challenge for a golf holiday for 4 to Dubai and a host of other prizes. Your-Golf Pick is only one week into their season if you register before the next tournament's tee-off on Thursday and with some surprising results in the first week it will be very easy to make up lost ground.

Don't delay make a pick today!

FOOTBALL

With the climax of the fantasy premiership football season only a matter of days away, we take a quick look at some of the fantasy football tables which show us that:

Sky's Football Fantasia - 
Andy Luckhurst has a 14 point lead over Dave Watson and is well placed to retain his title.

Telegraph Premier League Online - 
Whilst I (Chris King) could lose the lead (abut 70 points clear) on the last day it would take some freak results so fingers crossed for plenty of boring 1-1 results! For those that play TPLO and are interested, regardless of the outcome on Saturday I will disclose the team and 12 transfers that did so well in TPLO this year.

The Sun's DreamTeam -  
It's a close run thing between Daniel Rofe, Errol Julian and Matthias Luck for the race to the £100k first prize, although the 2nd and 3rd will be very handsomely rewarded as well.

Premierwin.com - the stress must be immense for those in the top 10 with doubts over the £1m payout (even after assurances from the Liquidator). A points update to 11 May has been processed which sees the team 'The Spooky Mob' leading by 22 points. There is no indication who the team managers are in the league table although I do know a few who are in the top 20.

At the independently run FootyFantasy.co.uk, Simon (Hoddles Doddle) 408pts nows leads the fight from Mark (Zulu Warriors) with 401pts followed by Nick (Loose Cannon) 387pts. 


Finally, in case you have not heard Sky have moved their live coverage on Saturday back to 3 p.m. presumably to ensure fairness between Liverpool, Leeds and Ipswich in the race to the third Champions League spot. Both Liverpool and Leeds will be broadcast Live at 3 p.m. on two of the Sky Sports channels. For TPLO players this means less points are on offfer (which is a terrible shame!).

FSN 14 9.00 a.m. 14 May 2001

Last week Chris King of FISO talked to Andy Luckhurst, defending champion of
Sky's Football Fantasia, and who as at 11 May 2001 is again leading the competition. We've warned Andy that at least one of his very close contenders in the current game (Dave Watson - team: Wineracks, who was just 11 points behind) subscribes to FISO's newsletter so he won't be giving too much away on his current team line-ups.

1. Hi Andy, when did you first play Sky's Football Fantasia (SFF) and which
years have you won it?

I think it must have been 95/96, but 96/97 was the first time I played
properly. I won in 97/98 and 99/00.

2. Which other fantasy sports games (online or newspapers) do you play or
have done well at in the past?

Most football games, usually cricket games, and Sky's Rugby, where despite
not having a clue, I won £500 first time out!

3. Is SFF you favourite game and what do you particularly like about it?

Yes it is. Probably the most skillful game (in my opinion), and familiarity of course.

4. Have there been any problems with SFF this year and are there any changes
you'd like to see to the SFF format?

Yes they have had problems with the clocks changing, which they are to a
limited extent aware of. However in the interests of fairness, virtually every game I have played has had problems. I would like to see the points rule giving players 1 point for a team win removed, as it would make players from more clubs possible as selections.

5. As you know I'm a great fan of TPLO and am also trying to hang on to my
lead. Did you try TPLO this year?

Never played, although a friend of mine, David Browne, tells me it's a very good game.

6. Have you tried the Fantasy League's original game?

Yes, reached the quarters I think last year in my first attempt, although I
suffered a horrendous computer crash as I was entering my team this year, thus a Non Runner.

7. You've entered your teams in SFF under the names 'eddie woo' or 'woo
again'. What's that all about?

My ex-girlfriends little boy, who I still see regularly has this nickname, so I guess he'll be entitled to decent presents for a while for bringing me luck.

8. What do you do when you're not concentrating on your fantasy sports
teams?

Drink, look for the perfect woman, and various other failures!

9. Do you think that with most fantasy sports games you need to play each
game once before fully appreciating the effect of the rules?

Not necessarily, but you should improve.

10. Do you prefer games to keep pretty much the same rules or change things
each year to liven things up?

I like to win every year, that's of course the most important thing, but yes I do think change as long as it's an improvement that is desirable.

11. What have been you're main SFF tactics for the year?

To try and win. Dave Watson (WINERACKS) will really upset me if he ruins all this hard work! OK - to evaluate the importance of each position, and grab the most important revaluations (possibly less important this year than an
average one).

12. What sports websites do you use a lot?

Not a lot. Teamtalk.com is best by a mile, although Sportinglife.com is a
great site, Sky do a fair job, and onefootball.com which I haven't really
used yet, looks great for overseas.

13. What are your plans for next year, either on SFF or on fantasy sports
games generally?

To enter less teams in SFF, spread my effort more evenly, and understand the
rules and their implications more fully.

14. What do you think the top 5 clubs in the Premiership will be next year?

Man U, Leeds, Liverpool, Arsenal, Fulham, in that order.

15. Do you have a couple of premiership players for people to watch next
year?

Saha, van Nistelrooy, Finnan.

16. Have you got any tips for people out there playing fantasy football?

Enjoy it. Thus play games that enable you to do this, not necessarily your
daily newspaper game.

17. Which teams close to you in SFF are you worried about for the last 2 weeks?

Dave Watson - Wineracks.

18. Will you come back and tell us what your final line-up for your top team on Saturday 19 May was?

Yes (although it will tell you very little).


Many thanks to Andy for taking the time to answer a few questions and we hope to hear similarly from Dave Watson later this week.

FSN 13 10.30 a.m. 9 May 2001

Quite a bit to get through today so we've deferred Andy Luckhurst's
interview until later in the week and in fact hope to follow it quickly with
an interview with Dave Watson who is close on Andy's heels in Sky's Football Fantasia. There are only 11 points separating them in the race to the £25k first prize and Dave is hoping to take Andy's title away from him rather than settle for the second place prize money. Dave is the reigning Sky Sports Fantasy Golf Champion and is one of the few people to win something so far on premierwin (a weekly prize in January), to which there is an update below. Their battle looks like going down to the wire in the same way as the 3rd Champions League spot in the Premiership will be decided on the final day! They both need to be careful on whether Sky Sports cover an 11a.m. Live Match on the final day (19th) which I understand is in their plans.

Before we hit the hot topic of the year again (the premierwin debacle), we
highlight two great fantasy golf games. 'Your-Golf Pick' gets underway
tomorrow and 'Fantasy League's Golf' game got going one week ago but with minor golf events last week new entrants should not be at a disadvantage (and in fact may be better placed to pick a team aimed at this weeks high prize money B&H event). Both games use a combined US and Euro tour and cost £10 to enter. So the message is pick your teams today for great golfing fun over the next 6 months!

Your-Golf Pick

Play Your-GolfPick and you could be taking 3 friends to Dubai to play a
week's golf and stay at the fantastic 5 star Jumeirah Beach hotel. On top of
this there are a set of irons up for grabs, 2 for 1 green fees, personalised
golf balls and a number of other prizes. As a Your-GolfPick manager you will
pick a golfer for each week's tournament. Every dollar he earns will be
converted into points, however you can only pick a golfer once, so the
question is when do you pick Tiger?

Fantasy League Golf

Fantasy League's golf game uses a squad system (always popular amongst
die-hard fantasy sports players) where only 6 of your 10 man squad score in
any week. 15 transfers are allowed for the season with only 2 between each
tournament, although unlimited substitutions are allowed. Team changes can be made up to 15 minutes before tournament start time. Tiger Woods is very very expensive so squad manipulation is the key. The points system is not too heavily stacked in favour of the winner so you should not find the early leaders running away with the competition which can prove disheartening in some games. The main prize is a fabulous holiday.


Back to the premierwin situation. The Press are now becoming aware of what
has happened but whether they run any stories may depend on whether the
Liquidator does cough-up the prize money to the two main winners. I
understand a reporter from the Sunday People has tried to interview the
ex-directors who strangely seem very reluctant to talk. Keep your eyes
peeled for newspaper reports. Parker Wood have again confirmed that they
believe the prize money should be made available to the two main winners
within the specified time period. Below is a standard message from Software
for Windows which should answer the main site queries players have.

Message from SFW on premierwin.com:

SFW are one of the suppliers to Football Manager Ltd, who trade as
premierwin.com, and we constructed the site and ran the helpdesk for them.
We suspended the support services some weeks ago, including points updates, due to non payment from Football Manager Ltd. If you have not already done so, please read the statement on the home page of www.premierwin.com.

The Liquidator of the Company is Paresh Shah at Parker Wood of 28 Church
Road Stanmore Middlesex HA7 4XR telephone 020 8385 7086, fax number 020 8385 7087.

The following is a summary of the emails that have been received and we hope this helps answer at least some of your questions.

(1) Team Changes / Points updates

The site is being kept open on a voluntary basis by ourselves and the other principal creditor involved as this is probably in everyone's best interest.
Team changes are being recorded. We have just received a backlog of results from Opta and have updated the points for matches up to 27th April. We hope to continue to update points as and when we are able and to continue to provide the service to allow you to make team changes.

(2) Your emails to support@premierwin.com

These  are not necessarily being read, but e-mails from the beginning of
April will be forwarded to the Liquidator.

(3) Unsolicited emails

Emails from admin@premierwin.com are not coming from us, but are being sent by Wonderquiz. To reply to these emails please send your response to
other@wonderquiz.co.uk. Do NOT reply to admin@premierwin.com as that will be sent to us and not Wonderquiz.

We are not responsible for any other unsolicited calls or emails attempting
to sell you any products or services.

(4) Refunds

Queries regarding refunds must be addressed to the liquidator.

(5) Problems getting in to the site and other support issues

In response to the liquidation of the company, we took the site down at the
end of March for a few days, but the site has been fully operational since.
Don't forget to clear your browser's cache if you are still seeing the page
telling you the site is down for maintenance. To do this on IE, select
Internet Options on the Tools menu, then select Delete Temporary Internet
Files.

We're sorry we are unable to respond to any other support queries such as
password change requests.

A number of players have been discussing the situation in the Premierwin
Game Forum (click on It's Your Shout in the Manager's Office).

We hope this helps. SFW.

FSN 12 9.30 a.m. 1 May 2001

Before we take a look at the current FANTASY CRICKET scene, a quick update on the premierwin.com situation. The following is a statement placed on the premierwin website on behalf of the liquidator.

PREMIERWIN.COM

'premierwin.com STATEMENT: FOOTBALL MANAGER LIMITED the Company trading as PREMIERWIN.COM has gone into Creditors Voluntary Liquidation.

As a result it will not be possible to pay the weekly and monthly prizes. It is hoped that the game can however be continued to be played for the purposes of the main and runner-up prizes for which funding has been secured. It is also hoped that the site will continue to run for team changes to enable participants to continue to play.

The Liquidator of the Company, Paresh Shah at Parker Wood of 28 Church Road Stanmore Middlesex HA7 4XR telephone 020 8385 7086, fax number 020 8385 7087 hopes that the game can continue to be played for the purposes of those two prizes and wishes all the players good luck in playing for those prizes.'
SFW, responsible for running the site, have also confirmed that all the team changes that have been made will count and that they are currently awaiting updated results from OPTA so that they may calculate the the points for the site.

Whilst it is good news that the season prize money does appear available for the winners it is disappointing that the status of the game was not clarified earlier. In our view, the Directors of Football Manager Limited did very little to look after the participants of the game and did not seem to fully understand how to manage a fantasy football game and what people enjoy about playing fantasy football. If any premierwin players have any questions they would like FISO to put to the Liquidator then please email me at CK@fiso.co.uk.

FANTASY CRICKET

As a Yorkshire man, born and bred, cricket is close to my heart. With the English County Championship just underway, we take an in-depth look at the Telegraph's Fantasy Cricket competition which is recognised as the most popular fantasy cricket game in the UK. If anyone is interested in joining the FISO team in a Super League entry then please contact me.

The Telegraph's fantasy cricket competition is only open to residents of the UK, Isle of Man, Channel Islands and the Republic of Ireland who are aged 18 or over (Juniors have a separate league). The game has an entry deadline of 9 May and can be entered by post, telephone or on the internet. The cost of entry is £2.50 plus an extra £1.50 if you wish to use the internet to carry out your transfers. First prize is a super 10-day holiday for two to watch a Test match anywhere in the world, 2nd prize £2,000 and 3rd gets £1,000. The top Super League receives £5,000. Super League teams cost between £5 and £3 per team (plus the £1.50 for internet transfers) depending on how many teams are entered - minimum 5 and if 15 or more then £3 each - and the chairman receives a fortnightly points update and league standings for the league.

With well over 100,000 teams expected to be entered, the competition will be hard fought. Transfers are limited to 12 for the season (season ends on 16 September) and there is the complication of double points for Test matches and One Day Internationals but many test players will have an enforced rest from county cricket. Pick 5 batsmen, 1 all-rounder, 1 wicket-keeper and 4 bowlers with a total rating of 26 or more (each player has a rating from 1 to 5). Points scored are doubled for your selected captain (who can be changed no more than 4 times). The points scoring week runs from Tuesday to Monday and transfers during a week are only effective from the midnight on the Monday.

FISO's factors to consider include:

1. Good batting pitches are the homes of Surrey and Northants plus Notts have excellent new outfield covers which should ensure more play than normal during the English summer. Some counties have suffered badly with the floods earlier this year.
2. The favourites for honour this year are Surrey, closely followed by Lancashire and Yorkshire.
3. With the game starting a few weeks into the season, you have a chance to study early season form which is always very important. Bearing in mind 1 above, a couple taking the eye earlier on are G Blewett of Notts and M Ramprakash of Surrey.
4. The 2 test between England and Pakistan are from 17 May to 4 June, the One Day Triangular Series takes place between 7 June and 23 June and the Ashes from 5 July to 27 August.

If Telegraph fantasy cricket is not your cup of tea, another good fantasy cricket game is:

http://www.dreamcricket.com/   - which concentrates on one-day internationals.

Coming up from FISO is an interview with Andy Luckhurst, the 'eddie woo' of Sky Sports Football Fantasia, who is odds-on to retain his crown as champion of Sky's fantasy football competition.

FSN 11 - 11.30 a.m. Friday 20 April 2001

The 'rise and fall' of Premierwin.com - the £1m prize fantasy football game. 

Premierwin.com was launched by Football Manager Limited in the summer of 2000 and advertised on talkSPORT and Sky. Football Manager Ltd promised a prize of £1m to the season winner and an extra £100,000 to the best '10 week' scorer for the season as well as generous weekly and monthly prizes. The construction of the game website was outsourced to Software For Windows (SFW) who, using statistics from OPTA, ran the fantasy football game for Football Manager Ltd. Technical problems led to the restart of the game on 30 September, having originally started on 9 September 2000. On 6 October 2000 Watchdog did a 5 minute piece about premierwin and the game chaos.

At 11.30 a.m. today (20 April 2001) a Creditors meeting of Football Manager Limited takes place at the Convening Accountants, Parker Wood, under the Insolvency Act 1986 for the purpose of a full statement of the company's affairs to be laid before the creditors and, if thought fit, to appoint a Liquidator.

The Convening Accountants have verbally stated the following:

1. The money earmarked for prizes is held in escrow which is a joint account between talkSPORT and Football Manager Ltd;
2. There are a number of legal issues to resolve in respect of the escrow fund and they are not yet in a position to say what will happen to the fund;
3. Unpaid creditors of the company include SFW, Opta and the company's ISP;
4. When the legal issues are resolved it is intended that a message will be posted on the premierwin website.

The status of the game and the prize money is thus unclear at this stage.

Background information gathered by FISO from various sources about Football Manager Limited and its
game, premierwin.com, are as follows:

a) It is believed that premierwin were expecting enough entrants to produce 250,000 teams. This would have produced game revenue of at least £1 million (with a minumum average team entry of £4). Actual team entries have been reported on the premierwin message board as 17,000 people with 36,000 teams.

b) The company was incorporated on 9 February 2000, has a Registered Office care of Sorskys in London and is not due to file its first accounts until December 2001.

c) According to Companies House, and as at 1 April 2001, Football Manager Limited had authorised share capital of £15,000. On 1 June 2000 an amount of £15,527 was raised through the issue of 464,900 1 pence shares at a premium of 2.34 pence and this is the only share issue recorded at Companies House. Its annual return confirming Directors and Shareholders was due to be filed by 9 March 2001 but is overdue.

d) All but one of the Directors, Mr Ackerman, have resigned - most on 29 March 2001.

Comments from various parties on the premierwin situation have been as follows:


talkSPORT - advertiser:

'talkSPORT's relationship with Premierwin is that of broadcaster and advertiser. We have no more influence over their business than we have over Ford, Renault, or any other advertiser. Premierwin advertised in many
mediums with many companies. We are led to believe that the game will continue to its conclusion. Before we took their advertising we insisted that the prize money be placed in an escrow account which should ensure it is available to winners.'

Please do not contact talkSPORT in relation to premierwin - what they know has been communicated to FISO and is repeated above.


SFW - software supplier:

'SFW is one of the suppliers to Football Manager Limited (FML) who trade as Premierwin.com. We constructed and ran the site and helpdesk for them. From about January this year we, and others, were experiencing increasing trouble being paid. We learned a few weeks ago that FML had decided to commence
proceedings to place itself into voluntary liquidation. We, along with most other suppliers, have suspended provision of services, as we are owed a very significant amount of money and FML could not give any assurances that they would be able to pay the ongoing running costs. This is why there is no editorial content, points update or helpdesk.
Messrs Parker Wood of Stanmore, Middlesex have been appointed convening accountants prior to a Creditor's meeting at their premises at 11.30 a.m. on Friday 20th April, whereupon a liquidator will be appointed. The convening accountants are having various discussions over the future of the company. We do not know what they intend to do. However, in order to give the Premierwin.com website the best chance of survival, and its players and potential prize winners the opportuntiy to complete the game, we have left the site running for team changes. This is so that the winner could be properly identified.
We are deeply disappointed that Premierwin.com does not appear to be able to meet its obligations to its customers or suppliers. We hope that the convening accountants will put up an announcement shortly.'


Fantasy League Limited - since 1991, creators of Fantasy Football

In response to the news from FISO that Insolvency proceedings are in force against Football Manager Limited - 'We at Fantasy League were mainly saddened by the news that Premier Win appeared to have ceased trading. This may sound odd as they were a potential competitor, but from the day they told us of their plans we were highly sceptical of the sort of projections they were making. Even with a million pound prize and a considerable TV budget they were never going to recoup the investment they would have to make.
Most users play fantasy games because it is fun and enhances their enjoyment of their favourite sports, that is how and why we started up. The prizes are usually supplementary to the game (Fantasy League Professional, our most popular game still has no prize). In Premier Win's case the prize was the driving force and as a result the game and feel of the site suffered considerably.
Our main concern is that this event damages the whole fantasy games market. For many users the Premier Win game was their first experience of online gaming and probably the first time they have paid for something online. Having now had a bad experience it will take years for users confidence in the market to be rebuilt. They are all asking how a company can set-up, offer these prizes and then just close down in the last month of the season (the fact that the company lost a considerable amount of money is irrelevant to the user).
Fantasy League Limited has been trading for 10 years and we run games around the world and live and die by our reputation. The market that we created has now been damaged. Many sites will suffer as they are tarred with the same brush.
Our suggestion... If you want to win a million pounds, play the lottery, if you want to enjoy the 2002 football season take a look at the more established games in the market.'

If FISO learn anymore useful information about Football Manager Limited and its game premierwin, then we will endeavour to let our subscribers know.