Tag: Fantasy football »

Fantasy football is massive, which is something the AAF understands. It's a new American Football league that's two weeks into its first season. It's designed to serve a number of different masters - for one thing it's positioned itself as a second chance league, a place where NFL players who didn't make the cut can play meaningful games and prove that they're worth another look.

But it's the technology that the league uses that we're going to have a look at today - namely the app that you can grab right now from the App Store or the Google Play Store. The reason we're interested? Because you can now play along with the games live, tracking moves and making predictions on the fly.

Even if you're not a fan of American Football, it's a really interesting new way to engage with sports that could well become more and more popular if the AAF manages to take off over the next few weeks.

Last season didn't go the way you wanted it to in fantasy football. You were super happy following your drafts or auctions, convinced you had outsmarted everyone. You were all set to hustle on the waiver wire, work out some sweet trades, and make room in your possibly imaginary trophy case.

And then the football season actually happened, and things went wrong. Injuries. Suspensions. Scheme changes. Other people having better luck with their mid-season acquisitions.

In any case, you didn't get the glory you sought, and now here you are getting ready for a new campaign and hoping that things will be different. There's no excuse not to be prepared, since info that you could only get by buying magazines a decade ago is literally at your fingertips today, or more precisely in your pocket.

Obviously, you should have the app for your league's platform of choice on your iPhone, whether that's ESPN or Yahoo Sports or what have you. But how about other apps to help you with your fantasy football prep? We've got five that may help you make sure things are different this year.

Well, until your first round pick goes down in Week 1, of course.

Draft Day is a new fantasy football app from Grant Hancock.

The app lets you build a team and develop your own stadium. Players can then push their players to victory or trade them away. Just be careful to stay within your budget, otherwise your dreams of glory will be shattered.

Draft Day is free on the App Store now.

With just over a month to go until the NFL season begins again, it's time for fantasy football players to start setting up their leagues and prepare for a draft or two. Ahead of the season starting, the NFL Fantasy Football app has been rebuilt, bringing new features into the fray.

Alongside live scoring, player news, and the ability to set up weekly line-ups, the app now features the ability to take part in live and mock drafts - meaning being on the move won't stop users from making a move for their favorite wide-receiver. Users can now also propose and accept player trades with other teams from within the app.

The NFL Fantasy Football app is available now and is free to download.

Ready to slyde? Our friends at Powerslyde, the app recommendation app (say THAT ten times fast), are back with another list for this past week. Here are some highlights:

NFL.com Fantasy Football 2013
NFL Pro 2014 : The Ultimate Football Simulation
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2013
Clash of Clans
The Simpsons: Tapped Out

This week's list is dominated by sports (three apps this week if you include the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2013 app). Football season is right around the corner, so it should come as no surprise that NFL.com Fantasy Football 2013 and NFL Pro 2014: The Ultimate Football Simulation top our list this week. Who knows what other football-inspired goodies will show up on our list in the coming months.

But for those who prefer their competition to be more virtual than gridiron, there's Clash of Clans and The Simpsons: Tapped Out to keep them occupied. So no matter what type of competitive battle you want, there's an app for that.

Thanks again to Powerslyde for our list this week. What apps do you recommend? Drop us a comment below, or send us a message on Facebook or Twitter. See you next week!

Spending a lazy Sunday afternoon plastered to the couch with an adult beverage in hand, while enjoying America's favorite pigskin pastime has become a critical strand in the fabric of our culture. Along with the sport itself, fantasy football is quickly becoming just as ingrained in the day-to-day lives of fanatics everywhere. What if there were a way that fans could meld the world of fantasy sports and social media together? The trading card company Topps has stepped in with their new hybrid application Topps HUDDLE to fill this critical void.

It is hard to define what exactly HUDDLE is as a piece of software. Is it a game? Could it be a social networking tool? Might it even be considered a research source for fantasy football owners? Ultimately, the aim is for this to be a fan's one-stop shop for football statistics, fantasy information, and up to the minute briefs on the biggest names in the National Football League.

The game portion of HUDDLE consists of initially acquiring "packs" of players, like in trading card packs, which makes complete sense given Topps' brand history. Each player in the pack is assessed with a plus or minus points value at the end of each week. These cumulative totals are used to compare against friends via Facebook, contact lists, or just strangers met at random. There is also a sit vs. start mechanic, where only seven active players can be selected per week. True to the freemium design model, additional packs of players can be purchased to further build out a roster.

While the game portion of the application is solid enough, where it will shine for fantasy owners is in the news section. Many of the daily ins and outs of the season will be constantly updated, including such juicy tidbits as injury updates, statistical analysis, and suggestions for budding players on the rise. For those that are fans of twitter banter, there is even an option to keep in touch with NFL standouts via their personal twitter profiles, all of which are seamlessly accessible from within the software.

Players also have the ability to trash talk, message amongst themselves and even swap players between rosters on Facebook. It pretty much goes without saying that there is a little bit of something for every NFL fan.

Trying to explain to someone what Topps HUDDLE actually is proves to be a rather tricky proposition. Though it attempts to fulfill the needs of several different types of fan, the lack of focus and direction ultimately renders the application/game a somewhat confusing amalgam of stats and social media. Fortunately the free cost makes the barrier to entry minimal, leaving it far more appealing to the masses. If given the chance, Topps HUDDLE could prove to be a strong mid-season replacement for your stat tracker of choice.

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That's right, football fans, SportStream Football provides quick, real-time access to footbal news, updates, scores, live tweets and game highlight alerts right as they occur. Fantasy football fans will surely agree that this is could be their secret weapon - all the football data they can lay their little iOS fingers on.

SportStream Football allows users to choose their favorite team or teams, read up on Fantasy Football news, opt in to push notifications for game events, check in to games, post comments to Twitter about scoring alerts, view detailed stats info, and more.

Features include:
• Top Football News
• Game check-ins, alerts and progressive scores
• Fantasy News
• Injury Report
• Tweet your comments directly from alerts
• Plus, a news channel for every team!

Seriously, what more do football superfans need? SportStream Football is published by Seattle and San Francisco based Evri, a company focused on pulling together deep content streams about specific content across the internet and providing it to their users via the web and iOS.

SportStream is available now in the App Store for free.

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Oh fantasy football, how I love thee.

Every August or so, I, along with 30 million other people around the world, play the ultimate fan game of fantasy football. While most people find playing only on their computers is good enough, the tech savvy (or fantasy football obsessed) sometimes feel the need to take their favorite game with them. I mean, what if I'm out on a Sunday night and a player gets hurt in pregame warm-ups? Hey, it could happen.

Most though just use mobile fantasy apps to check their league scores, and that is fine too. Whatever your needs are, you need the best app out there. Here are my four favorites.

Fantasy Monster

While I don't judge people on what fantasy service they use (except for people who play on the slow as molasses Bing-powered Fox Sports), I tend to favor Yahoo! and ESPN leagues. Fortunately for me, Fantasy Monster provides simultaneous access to both leagues, letting me trade players, set lineups, and see my league scores all in the same place. The interface isn't the prettiest thing on the planet, but this is football people! We don't need no stinkin' pretty here!

If you also play fantasy basketball, pick up the pro version. If not, save $2 and get the football only one.

CBS Sports Pro Football/ Yahoo! Fantasy Football/ ESPN Fantasy Football

If you play in one of the big 3 fantasy leagues (Yahoo!, ESPN, or CBS Sportsline), each of the services offer their own fantasy app to support your addiction. Instead of just showing rosters/ letting you manipulate them and fantasy scores (the fantasy app standards), all of the app have a bit more in them to sweeten the pot.

Content wise, the Yahoo! app is the lightest, giving you the standard abilities of a fantasy app with a few episodes of a Yahoo! Fantasy Football webisode. The CBS Mobile app is a bit more packed in, giving you your fantasy controls as well as a bunch of fantasy news plus a live gamecast, so you can see exactly how your favorite player is doing in his game. Both the CBS and Yahoo! apps are free, so any and all features are just bonuses.

ESPN on the other hand is a bit more proud of their fantasy app, and they make you pay for it. Like last years model, the app gives you all the standard fantasy football controls with some news, but the app also pushes you info about the players in your starting lineup. Drew Brees goes down in warmups week 1, finally realizing that he shouldn't have been on cover of Madden this year? ESPN will let you know... the others won't. Is it worth your hard earned cash? If you're in any money leagues, or value your football pride over $5, yes.

Fantasy Draft Genie

If you are still in pre-draft mode and have a modified scoring system, Fantasy Football Genie is an indispensable tool. You just load up your scoring system, as bizarre as it may be, and it'll rank your players accordingly. If you get really ambitious, you can even enter in all players drafted in real time and the app will give you a top 3 recommendation when it becomes your pick. I have a few PPR and return yardage leagues this year that could definitely use some draft help.

iHandy Coin Flip

In Fantasy Football, no matter how much of a grizzled veteran you are, any tight game can come down to complete chance. Anyone who says that it's all luck is a fool, because the game definitely revolves around great mid season pickups and trades (and setting your lineup... *shakes head*).

Sometimes though, no matter how much thought you put into deciding which player to start on a given week, you just can't make the decision. Do you go with old reliable or the streaky pick with a ton of upside... what will happen come game time is anyone's guess. Don't stress though, just flip a coin. Don't make it a real coin though, go digital.

iHandy Coin Flip lets you flip and of the 50 state quarters that you want, as well as 10 presidential coins. If you want a comprehensive coin flip app fit for a serious decision, make iHandy your choice.

"It's the most wonderful time, of the year!"  As the popular Christmas tune rings through my head, ironically, I am not thinking about the holidays.  For many men, myself included, the most wonderful time of our year is the kickoff to the fantasy football season.  Whether you are a seasoned veteran or a green rookie, the key to having a good season is having strong draft selections right out of the gate.  Thank goodness ESPN has our backs, recently releasing an awesome new draft tools application for iOS devices.

The 500 top picks and NFL prospects will be at your fingertips, helping to make draft day that much more successful this season.  Here are some of the other features of the application:

• 2010 Rankings and Projections for 500+ players


• Player Cards with images, projections and ESPN analysis


• Players sorted by name, rank, team/bye week and projected points


• The ESPN bottom-line with the latest sports news and updates


• Updated rankings delivered to the app as soon as they are available Plus…


• Better manage the player list with the interactive draft tool


• Email your draft lists right from the app


• Get updates all season on every player in fantasy - And much more!

I wish apps like this had existed a couple of years ago when I was just learning the ropes of fantasy football.  It would have been great to have a leg up on my competition, considering they were hell-bent on destroying me anyway.  Either way, it is here now and you better believe that I will be taking advantage of it.

Why a draft specific app, though? Why wouldn't they just integrate this feature into something that could be used all season, instead of just a single week leading up to the kickoff?  I guess we will have to wait and see what else ESPN has up their sleeve.  They are pretty smart folks, so I am  sure they have some sort of world domination plan in the works.

Oh, and one piece of advice if you are participating in a live draft, please make sure you can pronounce your pick's actual name.  You don't want to end up like this guy: