FLW Fantasy Fishing to Award First-Ever $1 Million Grand Prize in Fantasy Sports History

 Media Alert: Event Venue Changes to Columbia, South Carolina from Atlanta



    MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 17 /EMWNews/ -- FLW Fantasy Fishing, an

international online fantasy fishing game will crown its first champion and

award a guaranteed $1 million grand prize in a suspense-filled event

scheduled to take place on Thursday, Aug. 21, in Columbia, S.C.



    FLW Fantasy Fishing will invite its top 15 overall points leaders to

participate in a major media event that will take place at Colonial Center,

located at 801 Lincoln Street, in downtown Columbia, S.C. The $1 million

Forrest Wood Cup Champion, winner of the nation's premier bass fishing

tournament, will unveil the first $1 million champion of FLW Fantasy

Fishing - - the player who has accumulated the most points over seven

tournaments. In addition to the $1 million champion, the top 15 finalists

will walk away with prizes such as a new Chevy Silverado (a $40,000 value),

a $25,000 Wal-Mart gift card, a $20,000 BP gas card and a Ranger Z19 bass

fishing boat powered by a Yamaha engine (a $52,000 value). The winner of

the last tournament of the season, the Forrest Wood Cup, will receive a

check for $100,000.



    The $1 Million FLW Fantasy Fishing event will begin at 12:00 p.m. EDT,

with a free lunch to the first 4,000 fans, and conclude at 1 p.m. The event

is free and open to the public and will include free Berkley fishing rod

and reel combos for the first 1,000 attendees and free FLW Fantasy Fishing

t-shirts. A convoy of 15 Wal-Mart FLW Tour bass fishing rigs will bring

each of the 15 FLW Fantasy Fishing finalists to the event, depending upon

the weather.



    This event had originally been scheduled to take place in Atlanta, but

due to the potential effects of Tropical Storm Fay and the overwhelming

response by the community to the Forrest Wood Cup Championship, which took

place in Columbia, S.C., this past weekend and the efforts of the Murray

County Tourism Board, the $1 million event has been moved to Columbia, S.C.



    "The Murray County Tourism Board did such an outstanding job of

handling the Forrest Wood Cup that we decided to make a last-minute change

and bring our $1 million FLW Fantasy Fishing event to Columbia, S.C.," said

Irwin Jacobs, chairman of FLW Outdoors and the creator of FLW Fantasy

Fishing.



    In its first season, FLW Fantasy Fishing has rocketed to the top of the

fantasy sports world, gaining fans from all over the globe attracted to the

game's $7.3 million in cash and prizes, representing the highest payout of

any fantasy sports game in the world. FLW Fantasy Fishing, which is free,

fun and easy to play, asks players to select 10 pro bass anglers from among

the 200 anglers fishing the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, the nation's premier

professional bass tournament, a series of seven tournaments that kicked-off

in February 2008 and climaxed with the Forrest Wood Cup, the pinnacle of

professional bass fishing, which took place during the weekend of Aug.

14-17, in Columbia, S.C.



    FLW Fantasy Fishing has attracted a wide array of players such as a

suburban mom from Little Rock, Ark., and an 18-year-old high school senior

from San Francisco both of whom won $100,000 for coming in first place

during their respective FLW Fantasy Fishing tournaments conducted earlier

this year. So far, after six FLW Fantasy Fishing tournaments, nearly 4,000

players around the globe have won prizes, including six players who each

won $100,000 for coming in first place for each FLW Fantasy Fishing

tournament. Players from countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom,

Poland, South Africa, Indonesia, Canada and even Estonia, have won prizes.



    "It's just like fantasy football, but with fish," said Shellee

Kuykendall, winner of FLW Fantasy Fishing's sixth tournament. "But, unlike

fantasy football, which my husband played all the time, the prizes are

incredible and even someone like me, who doesn't know anything about

fantasy sports or fishing, can play and win."



    How FLW Fantasy Fishing Works



    FLW Fantasy Fishing is free to play and is open to adults, 18 and

older, throughout the world, wherever it is legal to play. Participants log

onto FantasyFishing.com and register to enter the game. Players can sign up

any time during the season, up until the day before the final tournament of

the seven-tournament, fantasy fishing season, the Forrest Wood Cup

championship tournament.



    Prior to each Wal-Mart FLW Tour tournament, FLW Fantasy Fishing

participants select a fantasy team of 10 FLW pro bass anglers. In 2008,

participants earned points for each tournament, based on the performance

(placement in the designated tournament) of their fantasy team pro anglers.

Participants could win prizes for an individual tournament as well as

accumulate points over seven designated tournaments to be eligible for a $1

million cash prize, which will be awarded to the participant with the

highest overall points for the season. Seven $100,000 first-place prizes

went to the participants who earn the most points for each tournament. A $5

million bonus is eligible to the first player to correctly rank the top

seven finishers in a tournament. Participants can subscribe to Player's

Advantage to get the edge when selecting their team by accessing expert

advice, inside information and cutting-edge statistical tools.



    The 2008 Wal-Mart FLW Tour consisted of seven tournaments, including:



    -- Lake Toho (Kissimmee, Fla.): Feb. 28 - March 2, 2008



    -- Lewis Smith Lake (Jasper, Ala.): April 3 - 6, 2008



    -- National Guard Open -- Lake Norman (Charlotte, N.C.): April 24 - 27,

2008




    -- Wal-Mart Open -- Beaver Lake (Rogers, Ark.):  May 15 - 18, 2008

    -- Fort Loudoun-Tellico Lakes (Knoxville, Tenn.):  June 19 - 22, 2008

    -- Chevy Open -- Detroit River (Detroit, Mich.):  July 10 - 13, 2008

    -- Forrest Wood Cup at Lake Murray (Columbia, S.C.):  Aug. 14 - 17, 2008

    About FLW Outdoors



    FLW Outdoors(R), named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of

Ranger(R) Boats, is the largest tournament organization in the world. In

2008 alone, the organization is offering more than 90,000 anglers the

chance to win more than $40 million through 230 tournaments in 10 circuits.



    Wal-Mart and many of America's largest and most respected companies

support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as an

FLW Outdoors sponsor in 1997 and today is the world's leading supporter of

tournament fishing. For more information about Wal-Mart, visit Walmart.com.

For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, browse

FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.



    FLW(R) is a registered trademark of FLW Outdoors, Inc. Note: For a

complete list of rules for the FLW Fantasy Fishing, visit

http://www.fantasyfishing.com.