The business of fantasy sports gaming is an ever-growing universe, thanks to the all-powerful Internet Age. So there are ever more options to choose. Who offers the deepest and most customizable fantasy games? Whose are free? Fantasy bass fishing anyone? It's all out there. UPDATE! kicked the tires on some of the biggest and best Internet sites that offer fantasy sports games. Here's our special report:

Yahoo Fantasy Sports is at the top of the heap in terms of total worldwide fantasy players. It offers fantasy games in each of the four major team sports plus additional games, including golf and stock car racing. Having played many fantasy games on Yahoo, I personally think that Yahoo is more for the beginning fantasy player.

Yahoo Fantasy Sports are all free to play (except the PLUS leagues in baseball and football). So if you are planning a league with friends, you can set up your own stakes. Also, if you just like the entertainment for yourself, you can join a public league and battle against others around the country. One aspect of Yahoo that I like is that it keeps track of all the fantasy games that you have ever played on the site, along with your rankings and the standings of you leagues.

The site does offer add-ons for the four major sports. They cost $9.95 each and run the gambit from draft kits to StatTracker, a feature that updates scores in real-time. Also for baseball and football, the site offers a scouting report for $14.99.

Yahoo offers a plus format in baseball and football, which is $24.99 per team or $124.99 for your entire the league. The fee includes the aforementioned add-ons.

An area Yahoo needs to improve upon is personalization. The games are limited by how much you can really tailor to your own, or leagues' specifications. With the size of the Yahoo "empire" as a whole, it allows a great amount of content on sports as a whole, not simply in terms of fantasy. The athletes in each sport are all linked to informative profiles, a feature that many smaller sites cannot offer. The site also offers many of Yahoo's own very knowledgeable fantasy analysts. In addition, they offer links to stories on fantasy sites such as Rotowire, KFFL and Fantasy Guru.

Yahoo's versions of fantasy baseball, basketball, football and hockey are all very popular, primarily because they are free. They are good sites for your leagues, but overall they are very basic.

Yahoo also offers several pick'em games which pit you against the world including: Auto Racing, which has players pick drivers from each of three tiers; Fantasy Golf, where you choose golfers each week and get scored on strokes out of the lead in each tournament; and Yahoo also offers pick'ems for NFL games weekly, college football bowl season and the NCAA basketball tournament.

ESPN Fantasy Sports has one thing that no other site can compete with, an avalanche of news content. CBS SportsLine and Yahoo keep you informed, but ESPN is a whole different animal. The site also has full-time fantasy experts (nice work if you can get it) who are even becoming somewhat known personalities on the ESPN family of networks.

Eric Karabell, for example, appears weekly on at least one of the ESPN networks. Recently ESPN also purchased the very popular fantasy site The Talented Mr. Roto, a move which is sure to provide ESPN with an even more vast fantasy base.

Subscribers to the ESPN Insider receive a discount on entry into all of the league's pay to play fantasy games. Customers who play multiple games on the site get additional discounts. ESPN offers fantasy games in each of the four of the major pro sports as well as NASCAR, golf and even bass fishing. Here's the lowdown on each:

Like most sites, ESPN's fantasy football is it's most popular. The league manager lets you set up your league pretty much any way you want it. The cost of the league is $99.95, with a $20 discount if you sign up early. Single teams are also available for $29.95, three for $49.95 and five for $69.95.

ESPN.com now offers a completely free fantasy baseball league manager as opposed to years past when they only offered a pay version. This is most likely a move to compete with the likes of Yahoo and the other big fantasy sites. You can join or create either a free or prize-eligible league. The game play for the two is essentially the same, with the main difference being that in the prize league, you pay (1 entry is $29.95, 3 for $49.95 and 5 for $69.95) and the grand-prize winner gets a trip to New York to meet the band Rock Opera and attend a taping of Baseball Tonight. It seems to me that the pay league is not really worth the money, especially since the other major sites offer free games with cash prizes.

ESPN's fantasy basketball allows you to join or create a public or private basketball league and allows for a great deal of customization. You play against the people in your league, and along with players across the world. A team will cost you $29.95 for the season (before any potential discounts). Prizes include gift cards of $3,000, $1,100 and $500 for first, second and third place. ESPN's fast break challenge is a free, salary-cap game that is played on a daily and weekly basis. Both contests have first and second place prizes of cash cards. ESPN also offers tournament challenge games for both the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournament.

Just as in the other games, ESPN's fantasy hockey allows you to join or create a public or private league. You play against the people in your league, and along with players across the world. One team costs you $29.95 for the season and prize money is offered in the aforementioned gift cards.

ESPN's NASCAR games include stock car challenge and driver pick'em. The stock car challenge is free and each entrant selects five drivers while remaining below the cap of 100 points. Scoring is simple: The amount of points a driver receives is based on the Nextel Cup points system. The pick'em game requires you to pick the higher finishing driver of 10 match-ups. Prizes include a $1,000 Circuit City gift card and a Playstation 3.

ESPN's best ball challenge is a free fantasy golf game where players pick four golfers under a salary of $50 million and accumulate the most points based off the golfers' performances. Each weekly winner gets an ESPN T-Shirt! Hey it's a free game.

OK, I personally know less than nothing about bass fishing. So here's the short version. ESPN offers two different games and both are free. Hey, if bass fishing is your thing, then ESPN has it for you. A ton of prizes are available for these games though, including fishing equipment, apparel and gift cards.

The Major League Baseball league Internet site offers a game called 2007 Open, which is very similar to many other points-based fantasy games. Overall league customization is fairly limited with roster sizes and scoring options being set in stone. The graphics for the actual leagues are excellent. The overall winner receives $10,000 and the top 32 receive entry into the site's postseason fantasy tournament and $100 gift certificate to the MLB.com shop

The NBA league site offers four different fantasy games, all of which are free to play and have prizes that end up with you putting money into the NBA.com store. Better than nothing though. The two fantasy games are pretty standard but the pick'em games are pretty original.

The Ultimate Fantasy Commissioner game allows you to create or join a public or private league. All leagues are free to play, have free live scoring and can be played on a rotisserie, points-based or head-to-head basis. The public leagues have limited options for you to customize it but do offer prizes to each league champ. The private leagues are separated into Standard and Full Control. The two are very similar but have subtle differences in terms of league and roster sizes and scoring options.

The Salary Cap Challenge is your basic point-based fantasy basketball game. Design a six-man team under a $35 million cap. Grand Prize winner gets a trip for two to New York City and 2 tickets to see an NBA game (unfortunately a Knicks game). 15 others get $100 gift certificates to the NBA.com store.

The All-Star game has players predict the winners (and other places) in all of the All-Star weekend festivities. Grand Prize winner nets a basketball and jersey signed by NBA player(s).

The Pick One Challenge calls for participants to pick one player for each day of the regular season that a game is played. Points are based on points, rebounds and assists and rookies are worth double points. The catch is you cannot pick the same player twice. Grand Prize is a $1,000 gift certificate to the NBA.com store and an authentic jersey of winner's choice, as well as a official Spalding NBA basketball.

The NHL has joined the other pro leagues by offering its fantasy game, Bench Boss. The game costs $19.95 plus additional $1.00 per transaction (after the first 25 for free). Each roster includes 12 players (4 wingers, 3 centers, 3 defensemen and 2 goalies) within a $50 million cap. The game does offer pretty much every scoring category possible and even includes points for penalty minutes, scoring for plus/minus and bonuses for hat tricks,. First prize is $500 plus 2 tickets to a Stanley Cup Finals game. Second and third place plus league winners net prizes ranging from $15-$150.

The PGA has ventured into the realm of fantasy sports with 3 different games; League Championship, Match Play Madness and Salary Cap Cup. The grand prize winners will receive a PGA Tour Experience in which you choose either a trip for two to be a VIP at a PGA Tour event or attend a PGA Tour Golf Academy and get to play where the pros play.

League Championship has you draft a team of 12 Tour golfers and compete against other league members on a weekly basis. You can join a public league with others or create a private league for just you and your buddies. You can also play in either rotisserie or Match Play style leagues.

Match Play Madness requires you to fill out a bracket for the Accenture Match Play Tournament (similar to the NCAA March Madness) and whoever picks the most winners wins.

Salary Cap Cup is a game where you select a roster of five (5) golfers for each tournament and must remain under a $5 million salary cap. Player's cap values are based on their World Ranking and scoring is based on the Tour's new Fed Ex Cup system plus bonuses. Additional prizes include golf balls for weekly winners.

FantasyCup.com is a sister company of CDM that offers 4 separate NASCAR fantasy racing formats. The challenge games, similar to most auto racing formats, are split in to 2 separate seasons.

Nextel Cup Circuit Challenges offer two separate very lucrative games for NASCAR fans. The games cost $19.95 each to join, plus additional transaction costs. Teams consist of 8-drivers with a cap of $10 million and the scoring parallels that of the points in the Nextel Cup Series. Grand Prize is $25,000 with an overall prize pool of $250,000. The Busch Series Circuit Challenge is one of the few games for the junior NASCAR circuit. The game costs $19.95 to join plus additional transaction costs. Scoring is identical to the Nextel Cup version, including qualifying results as well as race finishes for an 8-driver team with a cap of $10 million. Grand Prize is $25,000 with an overall prize pool of $250,000.

Fantasycup.com offers two additional games; Pick'em & Race and Budweiser Shootout. Pick'em & Race is a game where you pick one driver for each race. Entry is $9.95 and the overall winner nets $500. The Budweiser Shootout costs $25.00 to play and works like the circuit challenges with and 8-driver team with a $10 million salary cap for the NASCAR's non-points Budweiser Shootout race. Winner gets $10,000 and top 100 teams split total $20,000 prize pool.

MyFantasyLeague.com is one of the leaders in fantasy football league hosting. It allows for pretty much any customization. The league costs are between $69.95 and $89.95, depending on how early you sign up.

RTSports.com is a football league only site and for my money it is the best. I have played them all and served as a commish in many and RTSports is the most player- friendly. It offers real-time scoring and unlimited ways to mold you league into exactly what you want. RT offers Gold and Platinum packages, and to be honest, I have never played the Platinum league but you can’t go wrong with choosing the Gold option. To run your league for the year will cost $89.95 for the Gold and $149.95 for the Platinum. My favorite aspects of the site are: the Actual vs. Best scoring comparison, the ability to have double- or triple-headers per week, the chat room and the detailed reports for your team that you just don't get at more mainstream sites.

CBS SportsLine is the one of the most popular fantasy sports Internet sites around. It offers seven different football formats, seven baseball, three basketball, two hockey and even auto racing. Similar to ESPN, CBS SportsLine has a great deal of resources at its disposal and provides a ton of information to its fantasy players. The site also offers real-time scoring for each of its commissioner formats.

Having played and been commish in multiple leagues on the site, I found it to be one of the best. But SportsLine needs to pay for some new default logos for owners who aren't savvy enough to create and upload their own. The current batch are cheesy and have been around forever. Here's a look at each of CBS SportsLine's fantasy offerings:

The most popular fantasy format on CBS SportsLine is the football commissioner game in which you run your own league. It is the standard league-hosting site and allows a fair amount of customization. The site charges $149.95 for the whole season.

The remaining six fantasy games are essentially the same and allow for same personalization, with differences in fees and prizes. Entry fees in these leagues run: $14.95 per team in basic and $7.95 for each additional team. Gold level costs $39.95 for the first team, $29.95 each additional team. Winners in each league earn $200. Platinum level is $99.95 and $79.95 for teams with a first prize of $600. Diamond level runs $249.95 and $229.95 with a $1,600 payoff for the champ. Double Diamond is $499.95 and $449.95, and league champion wins $3,500. That's something for everyone.

You can set up your own league and customize it with CBS SportsLine's fantasy baseball commissioner. It allows substantial amount of personalization in terms of drafting, rosters and scoring. The league will run you $129.95 for the season.

The remaining six fantasy games are all essentially the same and allow the same amount of customization, with the main differences in entry fee and prizes. Fantasy baseball free is obviously — uh — free. UPDATE! and its band of insiders used this game as the engine behind its mock draft challenge: http://www.fantasysportsupdate.com/mlb/mockdraft21907
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Basic level costs $9.95 for the first team and $7.95 for each additional team, and has no prizes. Gold level costs $29.95 and $24.95 for teams with league champs winning $150. Platinum level is $99.95 and $79.95 per team. First prize is $600. Diamond level costs $249.95 and $229.95 with a first prize of $1,600. Double Diamond level runs $499.95 and $449.95 with league champion winning $3,500. So play like Trump or the poor college student you are. It's all fun and games.

CBS SportsLine's fantasy basketball commissioner allows you to host your own basketball league and allows for a great deal of customization. The league will cost you $129.95 for the season.

The remaining five fantasy games are exactly the same, however, each has different entry fees and increasingly better prizes. Free fantasy basketball is obviously free to play. Basic level costs $9.95 for the first team and $7.95 for each additional team and has no prizes. Gold level costs $29.95 and $24.95 for teams. Winners in each league get $150. Platinum level costs $99.95 and $79.95. First prize is $600. Diamond level runs $249.95 and $229.95 with a grand prize of $1,600.

CBS SportsLine's fantasy hockey commissioner allows you to host your own hockey league and for ample customization. The league will cost you $149.95 for the season.

The site's two other fantasy hockey games are free fantasy hockey, and gold level, which costs $29.95 and $24.95 for teams. Gold offers a $150 prize for each league winner.

CBS SportsLine's fantasy racing is free to play. The game provides a salary cap of $1,000,000 to spend on five drivers. The better they finish, the more fantasy points your team will accumulate. The system is based on total Nextel Cup points accumulated by each of your drivers. The team with the most fantasy points will win weekly race prizes ($100 for overall leader in points) and first- and second-half season prizes ($1,000, $500 and $250).

CDM Sports is the granddaddy of Fantasy Sports. The site currently offers no less than 40 different fantasy games. 12 different baseball formats, 12 football, five basketball, five hockey, five auto racing and one soccer game. One of my personal favorites, CDM offers pretty much everything you would want in a fantasy site. It offers pretty much any kind of fantasy format you desire. CDM also offers fantasy news, from RotoTimes, in its Hot Sheet report and even offers a $10 off refer-a-friend bonus, which is nice.

CDM's TQ Stats League Manager allows you to run and customize your own league. The entire season will run you $89.00. CDM's remaining 11 fantasy baseball games all come in different shapes and sizes.

Free Fantasy Baseball is a free to play (not including transaction fees), points-based league. First prize is $3,000.

Draft and Play features five different levels of play and allows for different types of scoring as well. You can play for as little as $25 and for as much as $5,000. Prizes range from $100 to $30,000.

Diamond Challenge is CDM's most popular game. This roto-game runs $39.95 to enter but believe me; the transaction costs as the season goes by will make this a pretty expensive game. First place does pay $25,000 and there are also cash prizes for division and league winners. (CDM also offers late season versions of the game with Diamond Challenge Second Season and Diamond Challenge Playoff).

Fantasy Baseball 2007 is a point-style game. The game costs $24.95 to play (plus transaction costs) and prizes include $15,000 for first plus a ton of other cash prizes. (CDM offers Fantasy Mid-Season for late-comers as well).

Internet Challenge is a roto-style game that allows for changes twice a week. Of course all those transactions will cost you. Basic entry into the game costs $39.95 and the grand prize-winner nets $10,000 cash.

Fanball.com Cap Challenge is CDM's budget game. This points-based game costs $29.95 flat fee, no transaction fees. Overall winner pockets $5,000.

High Roller is CDM's big money game. It costs $1,000 to enter this typical 10-category, Roto game. Overall grand prize is $25,000, with second and third taking home $15,000 and $10,000 respectively. League winners net $4,000.

Super Challenge is an original game that combines four different CDM games (Fantasy Baseball 2007, Diamond Challenge, Fanball.com Cap Challenge and the Internet Challenge) to see who the best fantasy baseball player is. Entry is free, if you are signed up for all the included games. Lowest combined ranking gets $250 and an entry into the following year's High Roller Challenge.

CDM's TQ Stats League Manager allows you to run and customize your own football league. The entire league will run you $69.00 for the basics, although additions are available.

CDM has another 11 fantasy football games; virtually every format imaginable is represented.

Free Fantasy Football is a free to play (not including transaction fees), points-based league. First prize is $5,000.

Draft and Play features three different levels of play and allows for different types of scoring as well. You can play for as little as $25 and for as much as $300. Prizes range from $100 to $2,000.

Football Challenge is CDM's most popular game and runs $39.95 to enter plus transaction costs. It is an eight-category roto-style game. First place pays $25,000 and there are also nice cash prizes for division and league winners. (CDM also offers late-season versions of the game with Football Challenge Mid-Season and Football Challenge Playoff).

Fantasy Football is CDM's basic point-style fantasy football offering. The game costs $39.95 to play (plus transaction costs) and prizes include $20,000 for first place plus a ton of other cash prizes. (CDM offers Fantasy Mid-season for late-comers)

Fanball.com Cap Challenge is CDM's budget game. This points-based game costs $24.95 flat fee with no transaction fees. Overall winner pockets $25,000. (CDM also offers a Playoff version of this game).

Fanball.com High Roller Football is CDM's big money game. It costs $1,000 to enter this typical eight-category roto game. Grand prize is close to $10,000. League winners net $4,000.

CDM also offers a Pick'em game in which you pick a different team to win each week of the season until you lose. You can purchase one entry is $10 or three for $25. Prizes range from $25-$5,000.

CDM's TQ Stats League Manager allows you to run and customize your own basketball league. The entire league manager will run you $69.00 for the bare bones but additional services are available. CDM also offers 4 other fantasy basketball games.

Free Fantasy Basketball is a free to play (not including transaction fees), points-based league. First prize is $3,000.

Basketball Challenge is CDM's most popular game and runs $39.95 to enter (plus transaction costs). It is a nine-category roto-style game. First place pays $10,000 and there are also great cash prizes for division, league and field winners. (CDM also offers late-season versions of the game with Playoff Basketball Challenge).

CDM also offers a Pick'em game for the NCAA Tourney (call Elite 8).

You try to pick the most teams in the Elite Eight of the tournament. One entry is $10, or three for $25. Prizes range from $50-$3,000.

CDM's TQ Stats League Manager allows you to run and customize your own hockey league. The entire league manager will run you $69.00 for the bare bones with additional services available. CDM offers four other fantasy hockey games.

Free Fantasy Hockey is a free to play (not including transaction fees), points-based league. First prize is $2,500.

Fantasy Hockey is CDM's most popular game and runs $39.95 to enter plus transaction costs. It is a nine-category, points-style game. First place pays $10,000 and there are also great cash prizes for division, league and field winners. (CDM also offers late season versions of the game with Playoff Hockey).

Hockey Pool has you select players from a pool for a 18 man roster scored on a 10-category points system. The game has a flat fee cost of $29.95 and the grand prize is $10,000.

CDM offers five separate fantasy racing games. Nextel Cup Challenge is CDM's most popular racing format, costs $29.95 to enter and has a grand prize of $25,000. Like most all fantasy racing games, it is split into two seasons, Circuit One and Circuit Two. The format is scored in terms of the amount of points your driver earns.

CDM's other racing games are Draft and Play, the Victory Lane Challenge and Playoff Fantasy Auto Racing. Draft and Play has you in a league with seven others and you must draft and beat you opponents. Entry is $25 and each league winner nets $100. Victory Lane Challenge is a free game (not including transaction fees) with a typical fantasy racing scoring system and a grand prize of $3,000. Playoff Fantasy Auto Racing has players pick drivers during the Chase portion of the Nextel Cup season and they acquire points based on their finish. Entry is $10 for one entry and $25 for three. Grand prize is $2,000.

CDM offers four separate fantasy golf games. Tour Trade is CDM's marquee golf format, costs $24.95 to enter and has a grand prize of $10,000. Like most fantasy golf games, this one is split into two seasons, Tour Trade One and Tour Trade Two. The format is scored in terms of the amount of money the pro golfers earn and includes Champions Tour golfers.

CDM's other games are One and Done and Majors Challenge. Both are pick'em games, One and Done has you pick one golfer every week and you accumulate money as the golfer does. Entry is $19.95 for one entry and $49.95 for three. Grand prize is $5,000. Majors Challenge has players pick four golfers for the four majors and who ever accumulates the most earnings wins the $3,000 cash prize.