Mashable, in its story from January 6, 2008 entitled “Advertisers Increasingly Eyeing Niche Social Networks” states that advertising on social networks is on the rise as is the amount of advertising spent on niche social networks. In 2007, $920 million was spent on social network advertising and of that amount, or roughly $75 million. It is predicted that in 2008, the total amount advertisers will spend on social networks will more than double, to $2.1 billion, and that about 10% of that will be devoted to niche social networks. That’s a lot of green to go around, and you have to figure some of that will be going to sports and fantasy sports-based social networks.

At least Rotonation thinks so. And it’s hard to argue with that assessment. Although it’s in a broader niche of sports network, Yardbarker (www.yardbarker.com) had over 130,000 visitors on its site in December 2007. Now that sports networks are demonstrating they have traffic and staying power, it’s obvious that fantasy sports-related networks like Fantasy Sports Matrix will get some love as well.

It’s clear the advertising dollars going to the expanding social network realm are going up and the result is that niche networks are going to be getting an increasingly larger piece of that pie in the near future.