Reeling in a $1 million payday to make fantasy sports history

FLW Fantasy Fishing points leaders head to Pittsburgh to catch $1 million grand prize

MINNEAPOLIS – Who will be the next fantasy sports millionaire? Will it be the auto production worker from Kentucky, the utility maintenance worker from Oklahoma or the UPS manager from Tennessee?

Poised to make history again, FLW Fantasy Fishing (FantasyFishing.com) – an international, online fantasy fishing game – will award $1 million to the player who has accumulated the most points over the course of its 2009 season. Founded in Minneapolis by FLW Outdoors, the company that produces the Walmart FLW Tour and the “FLW Outdoors” TV program (broadcast in high definition on VERSUS), FLW Fantasy Fishing allows bass-fishing fans and fantasy sports enthusiasts of all walks of life to create their own fantasy teams from among bass pros who compete on the FLW Tour, the world’s richest professional bass-fishing tournament series. Last year, FLW Fantasy Fishing was first to award a guaranteed $1 million payday in fantasy sports history.

On Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009, the $1 million grand prize winner will be announced before a crowd of more than 10,000 bass-fishing fans attending the weigh-in ceremonies at the Forrest Wood Cup, presented by BP and Castrol, where 77 of America’s best bass pros compete for a $1 million prize themselves. The event will be broadcast live, via satellite over the Internet through FLW Live, available at FLWOutdoors.com.

For this season-ending finale, FLW Fantasy Fishing has invited the top 10 finalists of the 2009 season to the Forrest Wood Cup, where they will touch shoulders with America’s best bass anglers. Each finalist will receive a major prize based on the points they each accumulated during the six-tournament season, which began in February and concluded in July 2009. One of the top 10 finalists will learn that he accumulated more points than any other FLW Fantasy Fishing player in the world to claim the game’s $1 million grand prize.

The second-place finisher will win a new Ranger Z20 boat powered by a 250 hp Evinrude engine, valued at $54,000; the third-place finisher will win a new Ranger Reata boat, powered by an Evinrude engine, valued at $36,265; the fourth-place finisher will win a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu sedan, valued at $27,000; and the fifth-place finisher will win a $25,000 Walmart gift card.

In its second season, FLW Fantasy Fishing has rocketed to the top of the fantasy sports world, gaining fans from all over the globe attracted to the game’s $10 million in cash and prizes, representing the highest payout of any fantasy sports game in the world. FLW Fantasy Fishing is played in 123 countries, and prizes ranging from fishing equipment to gift cards have been awarded to FLW Fantasy Fishing players in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Serbia, Germany, Japan and even the Maldives, an island nation off the western tip of India.

“The intent with FLW Fantasy Fishing was to bring more people to fishing,” said Irwin Jacobs, chairman of FLW Outdoors and creator of FLW Fantasy Fishing. “By making FLW Fantasy Fishing fun and easy to play, offering great prizes, and connecting them with bass pros who are entertaining to watch and learn from, we’re hooking new anglers on fishing every day in every part of the world.”

The top five $1 million FLW Fantasy Fishing finalists

The top five finalists for the $1 million FLW Fantasy Fishing grand prize have been determined based on the total number of points accumulated over a six-tournament season. None of the top five finalists will know in what place they finished the entire season until Aug. 1, when the $1 million winner will be unveiled. The top five finalists include:

• Chris Chappel, a power plant maintenance mechanic from Oologah, Okla., a suburb of Tulsa

• Andre Daniel, an athletic trainer from Oak Creek, Wis., a suburb of Milwaukee

• Terry Moberly, an auto production worker from Berea, Ky., located near Lexington

• Danny Richardson, a manager with UPS from Knoxville, Tenn.

• Jeff Short, a cabinet-making instructor from Tompkinsville, Ky., located near Nashville, Tenn.

In addition, FLW Fantasy Fishing will recognize the players who finished in sixth through 10th place for the entire FLW Fantasy Fishing season at the event. These finalists include:

• 6th place: Gayle Janes, a retired assistant sheriff from Bermuda Dunes, Calif. (located near Palm Springs), who won a $15,000 Walmart gift card

• 7th: Jason Willbur, a program manager in the automotive supplier field, from Wixom, Mich. (Detroit area), who won a BRP Can-AM Outlander All-Terrain Vehicle valued at $8,000

• 8th: Terry Allbee, a biologist and business manager from Bismarck, N.D., who won a BRP Can-Am All-Terrain Vehicle valued at $8,000

• 9th: Mark Kinsey, a private high school bookstore manager from Hixson, Tenn. (a suburb of Chattanooga, Tenn.), who won a BRP Sea-Doo Personal Watercraft valued at $8,000

• 10th: Donald Stanley, a furniture manufacturer production worker from Newton, N.C., who won a BRP Sea-Doo Personal Watercraft valued at $8,000

How FLW Fantasy Fishing works

FLW Fantasy Fishing is free to play and is open to adults, 18 and older, throughout the world, wherever it is legal to play. Participants log on to FantasyFishing.com and register to enter the game. Players can sign up any time during the season, up until the day before the final tournament of the six-tournament fantasy fishing season.

Prior to each Walmart FLW Tour tournament, FLW Fantasy Fishing participants select a fantasy team of 10 FLW pro bass anglers. Participants earn points for each tournament, based on the performance (placement in the designated tournament) of their fantasy team pro anglers. Participants could win prizes for an individual tournament as well as accumulate points over six designated tournaments to be eligible for a $1 million cash prize, which is awarded to the participant with the highest overall points for the season. Six $100,000 first-place prizes went to the participants who earned the most points for each tournament. A $5 million bonus is eligible to the first player to correctly rank the top seven finishers in an individual tournament. A $3 million bonus is eligible to the player to correctly rank the top five finishers in the Forrest Wood Cup. Participants could subscribe to Player’s Advantage to get the edge when selecting their team by accessing expert advice, inside information and cutting-edge statistical tools.

The Forrest Wood Cup, presented by BP and Castrol, is the final event of the 2009 FLW Tour. To catch all of the action at the Forrest Wood Cup, watch FLWOutdoors.com, as well as the “FLW Outdoors” television program, which is broadcast in high definition (HD) on VERSUS, the network that brings anglers the best fishing programming on television featuring the most trusted authorities on the water. The Emmy-nominated “FLW Outdoors” airs each Sunday from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Eastern time.

About FLW Outdoors

FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world and is offering anglers the chance to win more than $33 million through 231 tournaments in 2009. For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player’s Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.