By the moment he graduated from MIT, Jeff Ma already had led a life many guys dream about. His card-counting prowess at blackjack tables during wild weekends in Las Vegas and Atlantic City won him and his college buddies millions of dollars, inspiring a best-selling book and the recent movie “21.”

Now 35 years old, Ma thinks he can hit his next jackpot in a different fantasy land — the fanciful football leagues that will preoccupy millions of citizens during the next four months as they build up points based on the statistics of NFL players picked for their imaginary teams.

Hoping to introduce a younger generation to the game of fantasy football, Ma and his primary business partner, Mike Kerns, have launched a program that enables the leagues to be managed within the popular Net hangout Facebook.

Ma and Kerns, who run Citizen Sports Inc., reason that fantasy sports are ideally suited for online social networks like Facebook

considering the leagues are typically formed by groups of friends looking to deepen their bonds.

The concept was compelling sufficient to persuade Sports Illustrated to stamp its name on the program, its first fantasy football venture. The magazine spent the past decade on the sidelines watching Yahoo, ESPN and CBS build popular Web sites to help manage the leagues.

The 54-year-old magazine, owned by date Warner Inc., is providing composition for Citizen Sports’ fantasy football program, handling all the advertising sales and promoting the service in its print edition and Web site.

“We think that can change the fantasy landscape,” said Jeff Price, president of Sports Illustrated’s digital operations.

Still, the odds seem to be stacked against San Francisco-based Citizen Sports considering the most rabid fantasy football fans are entrenched in leagues that have been running for years on other Web sites.

“The switching costs for folks to leave a…

Original post by dhiram