2. ESPN Fantasy Football

Website: www.ESPN.com

Users: Doesn’t release specific numbers, but “this season, we have seen participation growth of 30% over last year, and that is after big years the last two years as well,” Paul Melvin, a spokesman for ESPN, said. “Since 2006, participation has grown more than 150%.”

Cost: All features, including live scoring, are free to all players.

Features: You can customize leagues, play by standard rules and play in public or private leagues. Plus, there’s the Emmy-winning Fantasy Football Now, broadcast on ESPN.com on Sundays at noon.

Updates: ESPN recently added a bunch of new options. The enhanced game features a broad lineup of free features including live scoring, multiple draft options (including a new auction-style draft), mobile alerts and team management; fully customizable rules and scoring; and a broad collection of expert analysis, news and statistical information.

Comments from the Resident Expert:ESPN.com fantasy football analyst and columnist Matthew Berry on what sets this site apart from the others: “We’re the one site that’s not a bait-and-switch. You get everything free – including me. We’re a total sports company, not a research company dabbling in sports. Everybody in the company plays, from the producers and anchors to the PR guy. We solicit feedback from our fans and really listen to what they want. Auction draft capability, for example, was something we kept hearing people suggest.”

Pros and Cons According to WhereIStand.com Sports Topic editor Geoff Decker:

Pros: Predictably, ESPN is the biggest and best at analysis. It has a team of at least six bloggers and columnists, including Matthew Berry, who is something of a fantasy celebrity. It has new stories daily, based on breaking news, last week’s performances, injury updates, next week prognostications, rankings, etc. It is never lacking for fresh content.

It’s got some nice tools for picking up and dropping players, doing trades and swapping starters for bench players. It’s a little bit more intuitive than CBSSportsline and there’s seems to be better flow.

Cons: Once again, the message board is no good. It’s all based around specific topics and threads, which creates the impression that if you’re not posting on the specific title of that thread’s subject, it’s going to be irrelevant. It’s not good for encouraging a lot of owner-to-owner interaction.

League homepage is cluttered and confusing. The "recent league activity" feed, which is supposed to act like a sort of Facebook NewsFeed, doesn’t look at all engaging. To find anything relevant to your specific league, you need to scroll down half a page to see standings, the message board, recent scores, etc.

In general, the design. This might be personal, but I much prefer CBSSportsline’s lighter colors as a background than ESPN’s black background. ESPN feels like I’m visiting a goth site.