ESPN Fantasy Football: Back for More than Ever Before in 2018

• No. 1 fantasy football game launches 23rd season on app, web, television, audio, and more;
• Unprecedented collection of game features, expert analysis, news, and statistical data and insight;
• ESPN Fantasy Football Marathon returns August 13-14;
• The Fantasy Show with Matthew Berry debuts second season on ESPN+.

The No. 1 most popular fantasy football game, ESPN Fantasy Football has begun its 23rd season with enhanced game play and expanded content on the ESPN Fantasy App and ESPN.com, as well as the fantasy sports industry’s most comprehensive collection of expert analysis, news, statistical data, and tools across app, web, television, and audio.

For 2018, the ESPN Fantasy App, the No. 1 fantasy app on iOS and Android devices, includes enhancements that make playing ESPN Fantasy Football faster, easier and more insightful. In addition to simplified navigation that makes switching between teams and leagues a breeze, new features this season include a personalized video playlist on the homepage of the ESPN Fantasy App, which delivers updated, expert analysis about players on each roster. ESPN also partnered with IBM to embed Watson capabilities into ESPN Fantasy’s in-depth projection and player comparison tools, available on every fantasy football player page.

As always, the ESPN Fantasy App makes it easy for fans to sign up, create or join a league, customize their league and draft, make trades, add players, follow matchups with real-time scoring, see expert analysis and video, and view and post messages to other league members. The app also allows fans to play the entire suite of ESPN Fantasy games, including Fantasy Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, and Streak, all in the same app. All ESPN Fantasy games are free to play.

The ESPN Fantasy Football game on ESPN.com is also improved for the 2018 season, with redesigned draft functions that make the most important thing fans do in a fantasy season — drafting a team — simpler and easier than ever. The new draft has a clean, sleek interface, improved player search and chat, and more ways to share draft results on various social media platforms.

Fantasy Football on ESPN.com provides multiple tools for a draft including a Fantasy Football Draft Kit, which analyzes and projects the performance of more than 500 players. Cheat Sheet Central, rankings and strategy tips are also part of the kit, as well as new editions of Matthew Berry’s Draft Day Manifesto and his Love/Hate column. In addition, the ESPN Mock Draft Lobby runs nearly unlimited live practice drafting sessions for all ESPN fantasy football players.

Once the season begins, fans can follow their weekly fantasy matchups for free on ESPN FantasyCast with real-time scoring updated as the plays happen on the field. Embedded player profiles provide the latest statistics, news and injury information for players on their roster, and allow fans to quickly and easily add, drop or trade players to build a championship team.

Each league also features message boards, chats, polls, and smack boards, and fans can interact with ESPN Fantasy throughout the season on social platforms.

ESPN Fantasy Football Insight and Analysis
For years ESPN Fantasy has delivered to fans the most comprehensive, in-depth news, analysis and insights on fantasy football from the No. 1 roster of writers, analysts and media personalities in the industry. This season is no exception.

• Matthew Berry (a.k.a. “The Talented Mr. Roto”), Fantasy Sports Writers Association (FSWA) and Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) Hall of Famer, will host The Fantasy Show with Matthew Berry on ESPN+, appear weekly on ESPN.com and the ESPN and ESPN Fantasy apps, as well as Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday Night Countdown during the NFL season. His weekly column will be published Thursdays on ESPN.com and the ESPN App.
• Field Yates will continue to co-host the daily Fantasy Focus podcast with Berry, write his weekly free agent pickup column and contribute to ESPN.com fantasy rankings.
• Mike Clay will continue to drive ESPN’s season-long and weekly projections with his popular Fantasy 32 column every Tuesday, highlighting a fantasy fact or trend from each of the NFL’s 32 teams. He will continue his industry-leading wide receiver/cornerback matchup analysis every week and explore a new statistic: “opportunity-adjusted fantasy points,” an evolution of the opportunity-adjusted touchdown statistic.
• NFL writer Matt Bowen, who spent seven years in the NFL as a safety, will continue to bring to ESPN fantasy his experience and X’s and O’s acumen, identifying under-the-radar players who could benefit from their team’s game plan during specific weeks of the season.
• com senior writer and FSWA Hall of Famer Eric Karabell will write daily and post his popular Flex Rankings every Thursday.
• Tristan Cockcroft, an ESPN.com senior writer and FSWA Hall of Famer, will continue to compile ESPN’s exclusive Consistency Ratings and write his popular Fantasy Winners and Losers column, highlighting the most significant takeaways and performances from each game on Sunday.
• Fantasy injury analyst and ESPN.com senior writer Stephania Bell, who last year became the first woman inducted to the FSWA Hall of Fame, will continue to provide her injury analysis expertise on a variety of platforms, including the Fantasy Focus Football podcast, Fantasy Football Now on ESPN2, and various columns and features on ESPN.com and the ESPN App.
• KC Joyner, The Football Scientist, blends proprietary metrics with video analysis to bring insights into the game within the game. He will focus on the battles at the offensive and defensive line to find favorable matchups to exploit each week.

Berry, Yates, Clay, Karabell, Cockcroft, Bowen, Bell, and Joyner all will contribute to ESPN’s PPR and non-PPR Tuesday Rankings, one of the most popular pieces of content on ESPN.com. Fans also will find insight from ESPN.com’s football experts and analysts.

ESPN Fantasy Football on TV
ESPN will provide fantasy players with more insights, information and analysis on its television networks for the 2018 season, including:

• ESPN Fantasy Football Marathon III: The third edition of the ESPN Fantasy Football Marathon expands to 29 straight hours of fantasy football news, analysis and fun. Starting Monday, Aug. 13 at 6 p.m. ET through Tuesday, Aug. 14 at 11 p.m. ET, the Marathon will be televised on ESPN and ESPN2, with special Fantasy Football Marathon segments on SportsCenter and fantasy football-themed editions of ESPN shows, including Get Up!, Golic and Wingo, First Take, SportsNation and NFL Live. All programs during the marathon will be streamed live on the ESPN App across mobile and OTT devices.
• ESPN2’sFantasy Football Now: The award-winning show debuts Sunday, Sept. 9, at 10 a.m. ET with new host Molly Qerim Rose from a new studio on ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., campus. The award-winning three-hour fantasy football show is packed with insights from trusted analysts Berry, Tim Hasselbeck, Yates, and Bell. Fantasy Football Now also includes the latest injury reports, live updates from NFL stadiums and answers to fan questions submitted with the hashtag #FFNow.
• Senior fantasy sports analyst Berry will again be part of Sunday NFL Countdown (10 a.m. ET, ESPN) and Monday Night Countdown (6 p.m. ET, ESPN).

* All ESPN networks are available to stream live on the ESPN app. Schedule subject to change.

The Fantasy Show with Matthew Berry
On the heels of a highly successful first season, The Fantasy Show with Matthew Berry made its 2018 debut July 30 on ESPN+. With Berry’s insightful, irreverent style and his unconventional cast of characters, The Fantasy Show continues to deliver a daily mix of news, analysis and special guests to help fantasy football players win their leagues.

On ESPN+, The Fantasy Show will take deeper statistical dives into even more players, with a few new twists and characters joining Matthew, Daniel Dopp and their puppets to push the fun even further.

ESPN+ provides Berry and his sidekicks the freedom to produce double-digit preseason themed shows to get fantasy players ready for their drafts. Fans will get episodes dedicated to key positions – QB, WR, RB, TE – as well as top sleepers, breakout stars, rookies, Berry’s Draft Manifesto, and many more. The themed episodes will be viewable as they are added to ESPN+ daily or fans can binge-watch them all the night before the draft.

Once the season kicks off, themed shows will continue to get fans ready for each week. From recaps to waiver wire specials, Berry’s signature Love/Hate and the match-up preview shows, fans will get added information not available on other ESPN platforms on who to start, who to sit, who to trade, and who to pick up.

The Fantasy Show with Matthew Berry on ESPN+ promises to continue to make you a much smarter fantasy player and a much dumber person, now at the times most convenient to you.

ESPN+ is the premium multi-sport, direct-to-consumer video service from The Walt Disney Company’s Direct-to-Consumer and International (DTCI) segment and ESPN. Fans subscribe to ESPN+ for just $4.99 a month (or $49.99 per year) and can cancel at any time.

ESPN Fantasy Football on Audio
Fantasy Football content on ESPN Audio will include expanded programming and new content for the 2018 season.

• Hosted by Berry, Yates and Bell, along with Dopp, ESPN Fantasy Focus Football Podcast, the No. 1 most popular fantasy sports podcast, delivers to fans in-depth player previews, game overviews and strategies, as well as featured guests and interviews. Fantasy Focus Football began its daily preseason schedule Monday, July 30, with the first of a series of 16 “Double Trouble” shows covering two of the NFL’s 32 teams per show. Episodes in August will also feature weekly NFL preseason recaps and Berry’s Love/Hate Preview, as well as key topics heading into the last week of the month, including Bell’s top injury concerns, definitive draft rankings for 2018, draft strategies and preparation tips, and a live mock draft on Friday, Aug. 31. Fantasy Focus Football is available on the ESPN App, the ESPN PodCenter on ESPN.com and wherever podcasts are available. Also for the 2018 season, each episode of the show will be streamed live on Twitter (@ESPN_ff) at 11 a.m. ET.
• ESPN Radio – ESPN Radio covers fantasy football throughout the season but especially on Sundays, including Fantasy Focus at 11 a.m. ET with Dave Rothenberg, Myron Medcalf and Karabell providing a super-sized hour of final lineup questions and advice. On Sunday afternoons, Yates joins in Operation Football and Football Frenzy to check in on the day’s fantasy picks and to get fans ready for the rest of the weekend and the next week’s lineup.
• 13th Annual Fantasy Draft Convention and Championship – ESPN 1000, Chicago’s No. 1 sports talk station, will host its13th Convention and Championship at Joe’s Live Rosemont in Chicago on Saturday, Aug. 25, from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. CT. Hosted by ESPN 1000’s David Kaplan, the event will include special guests Yates and Bell, along with ESPN Chicago 1000 voices and former Chicago Bears Steve “Mongo” McMichael and Tom Waddle, Marc Silverman, Carmen DeFalco, John Jurkovic, Jonathan Hood, and more.
• 4th Annual ESPN New York Fantasy Football Convention – On Monday, Aug. 27, 98.7 ESPN New York will host its 4th Annual Fantasy Football Convention at Resorts World Casino in Queens, NY, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. ET. ESPN NFL and Fantasy Football analysts and ESPN 98.7 FM hosts at the event will include Berry and Anita Marks. The convention will include an in-depth panel discussion, during which the hosts will provide fantasy football advice for the upcoming season. Fans can visit com for more information on the event.

ESPN The Magazine
ESPN The Magazine’s College Football Preview issue, hitting newsstands Friday, August 10, includes coverage of the National Fantasy Football Convention. From the best picks to foolproof strategies, The Mag provides the best of what was overheard at this year’s event.

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