Sports.ws Fantasy Sports

Site History

In 1994, friends at Wesleyan University decided to compete in a fantasy basketball league. They invented their own rules based on a full 82-game head-to-head schedule. They realized that a big 16-team league would make the manual scheduling much easier, so they recruited some of their pals at Wisconsin to join the league. The league was a success, save the fact that its youngest member won the title at the age of 13.

The following season, the manual scoring was automated and a free game was hosted on a web site run from the Wesleyan dorm rooms. When it was opened to the public at 94feet.com, it was the first site to offer free head-to-head fantasy basketball. With the backing of Xanthas Creative Industries, it was rebranded as Sports.ws in 2000. That year it launched football, hockey, European football/soccer, and Olympic games to complement its basketball.

Today, every mainstream fantasy site offers a head-to-head scoring option, and Sports.ws remains the largest to use the per minute flavor.

Sports.ws developers are scattered throughout the world, but its headquarters rest in Los Angeles.

Company announcements will be posted here periodically in anticipation of the launch of new games in 2010.