It’s probably the most venerable sports media brand in existence, but even the mighty Sports Illustrated has struggled to adjust to mobile. Its app experience has been sub-par and it has failed to deliver the video goods in a digital landscape where that kind of content seems to get more important by the minute.

But in the last few weeks, Sports Illustrated has done a complete turnaround, with a shiny new, video- and native-ad-friendly website optimized for mobile devices (it doesn’t look all that different from our very own Brief, interestingly enough), a live-streaming 24-hour online network with sports content from MLB, NHL, NBA and other partners, and, most interesting of all, a revamp of its FanNation app designed to make waves in the realm of fantasy sports.

The Sports Illustrated brand is one of those powerhouses that would have retained readership for years to come, even without the recent changes. But to actually grow and remain relevant to a younger generation of fans nowadays, a sports media company must do more than just provide great content and a fluid user experience. Fans want to watch and read, but they also want to play themselves, and they want to do it via fantasy sports. ESPN offers it. Yahoo offers it. An entire network caters to it. It’s a multi-billion-dollar industry and it’s growing at a frantic rate. It’s kind of shocking Sports Illustrated didn’t already have a fantasy sports element (other than analysis, which they’ve had for a while), but maybe they were just taking the time to do it right. FanNation puts a supercharge into fantasy sports, offering a slick, easy and addictive experience.

The general rules of fantasy sports-playing involve creating teams in the given sport by conducting a mock draft from the currently available pro rosters, then playing out a season, with games between teams determined by how well the players do in real life. There are salary caps involved, trades and, with most fantasy leagues mirroring the entire season of the chosen sport, participation can involve quite a commitment.

Sports Illustrated, and game designer Daily MVP, has emphasized quick, daily match-ups on FanNation. Rather than enduring hours- or even days-long drafting procedures, gamers can set up a fantasy contest within minutes. To play the current sport available, baseball (football, hockey and basketball options will arrive with the seasons) you simply choose between a head-to-head or multiplayer contest, pick a pitcher, outfielder and infielder for your three-person team, and decide if you want to play for free or throw down some cash. You can also invite friends to challenge you, or get assigned random opponents.

For hardcore fantasy sports players who relish analyzing reams of daily statistics and conducting player swaps, FanNation is too light on the numbers and strategy to be appealing. But Sports Illustrated isn’t trying to woo those people. As Jim DeLorenzo, VP and GM of SI Digital, recently told the “New York Post,” the company “realized we really needed to rebuild from scratch. We obviously did this whole thing thinking mobile first.”

Sports Illustrated knows it missed the boat on the in-depth fantasy sports movement (good luck wooing entire entrenched leagues from their already established sites). Instead, FanNation is both an app I could see my mother using on her desktop and, with its incredibly simplistic game play, ideally suited for a young generation glued to their mobile devices. Plus, you don’t have to know anything about sports to enjoy it, unlike most fantasy sports opportunities. While it certainly helps to know who’s hot and who’s not, a Fantasy Equalizer point system automatically levels the playing field between competitors, meaning even those who don’t know what they’re doing have at least a chance.

Many will play FanNation simply for its gambling feature, which is dangerously easy to indulge in. Starting at $2.00 for a $3.60 payoff in a head-to-head match, the entry fees go all the way up to $500.00 for a $930.00 pot. Select from a drop-down, pick a wager, and viola, your money is on the line, with a good chunk of it going into Sports Illustrated’s soon-to-be-much-deeper pockets. Because while content may be king in this day and age, the industry of good old-fashioned sports-betting lived long before its regime, and will proceed to outlive us all. For the present moment, FanNation has built a pretty nice place for it to live in.

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