One of the highlights of the evening was the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to Jack Whitaker, sports commentator and essayist, by  Jim Nantz, play-by-play announcer of “The NFL on CBS,” NCAA college basketball and golf on CBS.

“We are honored to be presenting Jack Whitaker with our Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Malachy Wienges, Chairman, NATAS. “I had the pleasure of working with Jack for eighteen years at CBS, and Jack is a sports icon and a class act.”

In addition, NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell was honored with the Chairman’s Award representing the networks and their patriotic coverage of the historic 10 year anniversary of September 11th last year.

The Sports Emmy® Award recipients were chosen by a Blue Ribbon Panel of industry peers.  The awards recognize outstanding achievement by individuals and programs broadcast throughout the 2011 calendar year.

American Airlines is the official airline sponsor of the 33rd Annual Sports Emmy® Awards.  Street & Smith’sSports Business Journal is the exclusive magazine partner.  Definition 6 is the official post production facility of NATAS and Vermont Spirits is one of the pre-show sponsors for the event.

For Official Sports Emmy Awards photography, visit: http://www.bryan-brown.com

A detailed listing of all awards is below as compiled by the independent accountancy firm of Lutz and Carr, LLP. A list of winners for the 33rd Annual Sports Emmy Awards is also available on the National Television Academy’s website at www.emmyonline.tv.

About The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) is a professional service organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, educational and technical achievements within the television industry. It recognizes excellence in television with the coveted Emmy® Award for News & Documentary, Sports, Daytime Entertainment, Daytime Creative Arts & Entertainment, Public & Community Service, Technology & Engineering, and Business & Financial Reporting.  Primetime Emmy® Awards are given out by our sister organization, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). Regional Emmy® Awards are given in 19 regions across the United States. NATAS also presents the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Global Media Awards™ which recognizes excellence in the world-wide intersection of digital entertainment and technology. Beyond awards, NATAS has extensive educational programs including National Student Television and its Student Award for Excellence for outstanding journalistic work by high school students, as well as scholarships, publications, and major activities for both industry professionals and the viewing public.  For more information, please visit the website at www.emmyonline.tv

For more information, please contact: Paul Pillitteri, Director, Communication, ppillitteri@emmyonline.tv

Winners by Network Group

Winners by Network

 
For most people, playing fantasy football is a way to have some fun with friends and spice up the NFL season. For more serious leagues, hours of analysis go into planning the draft and setting the weekly lineups. Statistics and predictions mean everything, which is why websites such as ESPN and Yahoo! have editorial staffs dedicated strictly to fantasy sports.

 
For Steelers fan Nik Bonaddio, the statistics and predictions he was finding online weren’t good enough. Nik felt the projections were often based on opinion, rather than statistical evidence. Nik insisted that “Wall Street doesn’t work that way,” referring to the gut-based decisions for statistical predictions rather than fact-based projections, and neither should fantasy sports.

 
Based on success in his own fantasy football league and his Wall Street background, Nik launched numberFire, a fantasy sports analytics platform. numberFire uses an algorithm based on similar scenarios to determine the future success of any player at any position. For example, if Aaron Rodgers is playing the 49ers in San Francisco, numberFire will calculated a projection for Rodgers based on his own statistics throughout the season, past performances against defenses similar to that of the 49ers, and other performance factors such as weather, time of day, and stadium. numberFire uses data mining and cloud computing as the basis for the algorithms.

 
Nik developed the algorithm while playing fantasy football with a group of college friends.

 
Discussions about numberFire began between Nik and his current partners Sean Weinstock and Keith Goldner after the 2010 fantasy football season. Since then, they have focused on fantasy football but also recently completely a March Madness predictions tournament. numberFire has active partnerships with ESPN, SBNation, and Sports Illustrated; all of whom need as much analytics as possible.

 
numberFire first got its break when it was selected to present at a TechCrunch conference. They have now been live full-time for about ten months but active for about two years. For now, their main focuses are on fantasy football and building a one-stop shop for analytic data. Their plan is to expand into other sports in the coming years as well as launch an ad platform next year.

 
For more information, visit www.numberFire.com.

Every wonder what it takes to put on one of the biggest and most respected road races in the world? The Boston Athletic Association, the organizers of the Boston Marathon, released this infographic which breaks down the marathon into its simplest parts.

This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Sports will go to the Sports Commentator and Essayist, Jack Whitaker.

“This is an outstanding year for the sports community and for The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences,” said Malachy Wienges, Chairman, NATAS. “The entries received in this year’s Sports Emmys resulted in a record 175 nominees, illustrating the quality of these entries.  We are also honoring Jack Whitaker with our Lifetime Achievement Award.  I had the pleasure of working with Jack for eighteen years at CBS, and Jack is a sports icon and a class act.”

In addition to Jack Whitaker, many of the today’s leading sports broadcasters, personalities and television professionals will be in attendance as presenters at the event.

The networks of ESPN (ESPN, ESPN 2, ABC, ESPN 3D & espn.com) lead the nomination totals with 55, the NBC Sports Group (NBC, Versus, Golf Channel & nbcsports.com) garnered 32, CBS (CBS, Showtime, CBSSports.com) entries received 26 nominations, while Turner Sports (TNT, TBS, NBA TV, NBA.com & truTV) have 22.

American Airlines is the official sponsor of the 33rd Annual Sports Emmy® Awards and Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal is the exclusive magazine partner.

A complete list of all nominees is attached and also available at www.emmyonline.tv/sports

About The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) is a professional service organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of television and the promotion of creative leadership for artistic, educational and technical achievements within the television industry. It recognizes excellence in television with the coveted Emmy Award for News & Documentary, Sports, Daytime Entertainment, Daytime Creative Arts & Entertainment, Public & Community Service, and Technology & Engineering. NATAS also presents the Global Media Awards™ which recognizes excellence in the world-wide intersection of digital entertainment and technology. Excellence in Primetime programming and international programming is recognized by its affiliate, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.   Regional Emmys are given in 19 regions across the United States. Beyond awards, NATAS has extensive educational programs including National Student Television and its Student Award for Excellence for outstanding journalistic work by high school students, as well as scholarships, publications, and major activities for both industry professionals and the viewing public.  For more information, please visit the website at www.emmyonline.tv.
For Press information, please contact:

Paul Pillitteri, Director Communications: ppillitteri@emmyonline.tv

33rd Annual Sports Emmy Award Nominations By Network Group

Network                                                                                        Nominations

ESPN (ESPN, ESPN 2, ABC, ESPN 3D, espn.com)                                  55

NBC Sports Group (NBC, Versus, Golf Channel, nbcsports.com)     33

CBS (CBS, Showtime, CBSSports.com)                                                  26

Turner Sports (TNT, TBS, NBA TV, NBA.com, truTV)                            22

HBO Sports                                                                                                    19

FOX Sports Media Group (FOX, SPEED)                                                  16

NFL Network                                                                                                  12

MLB Network                                                                                                   8

DIRECTV                                                                                                            2

MLB Advanced Media (MLB.com, MLBAM)                                              2

NFL.com                                                                                                           2

NCAA.com                                                                                                       1

PGA.com                                                                                                         1

33rd Annual Sports Emmy Award Nominations By Network

Network                                                                                        Nominations

ESPN                                                                                                         35
NBC                                                                                                           23
HBO Sports                                                                                             19
CBS                                                                                                           15
ESPN2                                                                                                      15
FOX                                                                                                           15
TNT                                                                                                           15
NFL NETWORK                                                                                       12
SHOWTIME                                                                                             10
MLB NETWORK                                                                                       8
VERSUS                                                                                                    7
TBS                                                                                                            3
ABC                                                                                                            2
DIRECTV                                                                                                    2
ESPN 3D                                                                                                    2
GOLF CHANNEL                                                                                       2
NBA TV                                                                                                      2
NFL.COM                                                                                                   2
CBSSPORTS.COM                                                                                  1
ESPN.COM                                                                                                1
MLB.COM                                                                                                  1
MLBAM                                                                                                      1
NBA.COM                                                                                                  1
NBCSPORTS.COM                                                                                  1
NCAA.COM                                                                                               1
PGA.COM                                                                                                  1
SPEED                                                                                                        1
truTV                                                                                                          1