• The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, December 12, 2007 11:32 AM

Irwin Jacobs, a Minneapolis-based financier who owns boat maker Genmar Holdings and is chairman of the professional bass-fishing tournament group FLW Outdoors, yesterday announced that the winner of an online fantasy-fishing competition would receive a $1 million payout. The Web site, FantasyFishing.com, was tested last year and attracted several hundred thousand participants.

Wal-Mart Stores has been a title sponsor of the real-life FLW, which has grown from seven professional and amateur events to 240. Many of the events have their weigh-ins at Wal-Mart parking lots. The purses also have grown; this year the FLW awarded a top prize of $1 million to a professional angler during one event.

John Fleming, Wal-Mart's chief merchandise officer, says that while he doesn't fish, as a retailer he is very interested in fantasy sports' growth rate, particularly the fantasy-fishing offering. "Wal-Mart has 140 million customers, and it's hard to get growth out of such big numbers, so I am interested in seeing how this plays out," he says.

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