I know I’m spoiled, but it’s always surprising to me how late many developers get their fantasy football apps out. It’s August and training camps are starting already – I want my fantasy football now!
Now that I’m done throwing my fit, plenty of 2010 fantasy football apps are already in the iTunes App Store. Not enough that we’re overwhelmed with options, but certainly enough to get ready for your draft and to start preparing for the season.
Fantasy Monster
As a Yahoo! Fantasy Sports user, MyFantasyTeams very well may be my favorite fantasy app of all time. With that said, the app isn’t perfect, so I was more than a little intrigued when I discovered FantasyMonster (on sale for $2.99, regularly $3.99). Like MyFantasyTeams, FantasyMonster gives you access to all your Yahoo! leagues, not just football. And while you can’t do things like draft on your iPhone, nearly everything else is accessible with the app. It also has a professional look — easily on par with Yahoo!’s official fantasy football releases. While I’m not yet ready to switch my allegiance, I will say FantasyMonster is a must download for Yahoo! users who aren’t fans of MyFantasyTeams, as well as for those who are just looking for something different
Fantasy Football Cheatsheet ‘10
The Fantasy Football Cheatsheet app is becoming as much a part of summer as sweltering hot days and trips to the beach. The latest incarnation of this draft day app, ingeniously titled Fantasy Football Cheatsheet ’10 ($2.99), is really more of the same from developer 290 Design – not that that’s a bad thing. Design-wise, users will see a very similar app, while all the features and information that have made this app so popular have returned – customizable scoring, projected stats from AccuScore and player news courtesy of RotoWire. There’s a bunch of other stuff as well, such as past stats (dating back to 2008), depth charts and the ability to create multiple drafts. The lesson here? When you’ve got the best app of its kind, it’s okay to have more of the same.
2010 RotoWire Fantasy Football Draft Kit
Of course, Fantasy Football Cheatsheet isn’t the only game in town, as 2010 RotoWire Fantasy Football Draft Kit ($3.99) is a quality and worthwhile alternative. This is far from the first venture into the app world by RotoWire; so like 290 Design, they’ve figured out what fantasy football owners are looking for. That means essential features such as projected stats, customizable league settings and depth charts (sound familiar?) are all included. The big advantage with this app is that it addition to its player outlooks, it also has detailed write-ups on hundreds of players for those who don’t want to rely on numbers and rankings to make their draft choices. While a really bland design and higher price tag don’t help RotoWire’s cause, it’s absolutely just as good an app as Cheatsheet and one of the best in the genre.
FBG Mobile
FBG Mobile from FootballGuys.com is less about getting you through your draft and more about getting you through your season. There’s a lot going on in this app, such as access to articles from the website, as well as other major fantasy columnists, podcasts, depth charts and player news. There’s even a nice “Time Wasters” section that has some fun trivia and other things with which you can, you know, waste time. Better than all of that, the app is free. So why am I waiting until now to tell you about the seemingly perfect fantasy football app? Well, to access things like player rankings and projections, you have to subscribe to the website, and it’s not cheap – $27.95. Also, there’s very little good to say about the app’s appearance, a downer for one that includes so much great content to read. Despite those things, you should still download the app and check it out for yourself — even without the premium content, it deserves a spot in your starting lineup.
Stay tuned, more on the way
Speaking of Yahoo!, any day now, we should see an official fantasy football release from the company. While they’ve been free in the past, they’ve also been unfortunately limited, not allowing you to do things like view other teams. Now that there are two solid alternatives, hopefully they will figure out what iPhone fantasy users want.
We will also hopefully see a fantasy football draft kit from ESPN, once again an app that has traditionally been a free download. Like the RotoWire draft kit, the app’s biggest selling point is detailed player outlooks, not to mention top-notch design from this company that already knows what iPhone users want.
