Back in June, Jason McIntyre sold The Big Lead to Fantasy Sports Ventures for low seven-figures. (Score!)

At the time, FSV CEO Chris Russo had high praise for McIntyre’s work ethic and approach.

“You can’t out-ESPN ESPN, but you can take a different approach,” he said. “Jason covers general sports and celebrity with an in-depth focus on sports media. Through good journalism and good luck, The Big Lead has succeeded.”

It will continue succeeding if Russo’s newest gambit works.

According to a release, Fantasy Sports Ventures will rebrand itself as “Big Lead Sports” by FSV, giving McIntyre’s platform top billing at the highly trafficked group of sports sites. The CEO explains the decision:

“We are very excited about our new brand positioning and believe that we can better serve our users, advertisers, and partner sites as Big Lead Sport. When we launched Fantasy Sports Ventures in 2006, we never expected to become a top 5 sports property or reach 15 million users. Given the growth and evolution of our business, the re-branding will help us communicate our distinctive products and leadership position to the marketplace.”

FSV only trails Yahoo Sports, ESPN.com, and FoxSports.com in terms of unique visitors.

Monthly uniques (July ’10)

Yahoo Sports: 39,064,000
ESPN.com: 27,197,000
Fox Sports.com: 25,951,000
Big Lead Sports by FSV: 15,420,000
CBS Sports.com: 14,702,000
MLB.com: 12,136,000
SI.com: 9,923,000
NFL.com: 9,744,000
AOL Sports: 9,666,000
NBC Sports.com: 7,845,000