Yahoo!, the number one free fantasy football league in the U.S., angered a lot of fantasy football players this week when their servers failed during online drafts on Tuesday and Wednesday. With the first game of this week on Thursday, the problem couldn’t have happened at a worse time for fantasy GM’s drafting and for Yahoo!, who according to this article had a lot of scathing remarks left on its’ discussion boards. Fantasy sports is big business and you’re messing with more than these players’ money. We’re talking pride here folks!

Some stats from the article just to exemplify the power of fantasy sports fans:

Fantasy sports researcher Kim Beason estimates that fantasy players number up to 19.5 million in the United States, Canada, and U.S. protectorates, and among Americans abroad. The industry draws up to $3 billion in annual revenue. Yahoo claims about 4 million players.

Given the competitive nature of fantasy sports players, Yahoo! and other fantasy sports providers have very little margin for error with their online services. If some of you recall, ESPN’s fantasy baseball service had problems in April in allowing managers to make changes to rosters or waiver moves, as well as not showing live scoring changes. In response to the problem, ESPN capitulated to fan complaints by offering full refunds.