A Look at FantasyDraft’s “Players First”

As a Card Player reader, you have probably seen an ad or email with the tagline “"FantasyDraft":http://www.cardplayer.com/online-poker-bonus/48-fantasydraft Puts Players First.” But what does that really mean? We’re going to dive in and figure it out.
 
According to their site, the main points of FantasyDraft’s Players First philosophy are lower max-entry caps, flexible lineup structures, a larger PayoutZone, and Six Degrees of Pay. We’ll tackle each of these, one at a time.
 
Let’s start with lower max-entry caps. What this means is FantasyDraft doesn’t allow as many entries to be submitted by each user in their contests. Talking to their Co-Founder, Steve Krombolz, this has always been one of their most important differentiators. He says this is to ensure that “no one player can buy a bigger advantage” in their contests. Competing against 20 or even 50 lineups from a single user is a big difference than competing against 150. 
 
Krombolz continues, “Other sites allow as many as 150 entries per user in their contests, this gives a big advantage to the player with a large bankroll. We are trying to level the playing field for the average player by keeping our allowable max entry caps lower.”

We really like the idea of lower entry caps. It is nice to see a site that is concerned about building and maintaining a healthy ecosystem. The more money that can be spread around a larger number of players the better. Bravo to FantasyDraft for taking an approach that could sacrifice short term profits and focuses more on long term success, not many are willing to do that.
 
As for flexible lineup structures, FantasyDraft’s co-founder explains “daily fantasy can admittedly be fairly complex… it’s a game of skill with quite a bit of a learning curve. If you expect to win in the long term, you have to put in the time.”

To help shorten the learning curve, FantasyDraft has simplified their lineup construction by removing rigid position requirements. In practical terms, it means that you’re only drafting infield, outfield, and pitchers in baseball (rather than individual positions like most other sites); guard, forward/center and two utilities for basketball; and they have no kicker position and two utility slots in football. Their “utility” positions can be filled by any position player, so it essentially gives you more options. That means that in a 5,000-entry contest, at least 1,250 entries will win. We have to admit this makes drafting a lot more fun and much easier for the newer, less-experienced player while still leaving plenty of room to find value while drafting.

If you have seen any of FantasyDraft’s promotions, you have probably heard them mention the “PayoutZone.” According to Krombolz, the PayoutZone is “the entire range of winners for a contest, how the prizes are distributed.” Obviously, every DFS site has winners, so what’s the big deal with FantasyDraft’s PayoutZone? The big deal is that at least 25 percent of the entries in their featured guaranteed contests will be “in the PayoutZone.” That means that in a 10,000-entry contest, at least 2,500 entries will win. It is nice to see a much flatter payout structure than we are used to seeing from other sites, with more people rewarded for having strong lineups.

Six Degrees of Pay is FantasyDraft’s referral program and it sounds a lot like the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”. It’s a bit of the same concept. Not only do their players get commission for anyone they refer, but also for anyone their referrals refer. As the name suggests, this continues till you get to the sixth person down. All daily fantasy sites have referral programs, some of which have been maligned for becoming more restrictive recently. FantasyDraft hasn’t changed theirs at all. And apparently, according to the company, Six Degrees of Pay has been pretty successful, with some users making thousands of dollars a month through the program. We really like that there are no restrictions to participate and no fine print that will cause you to lose your commissions from one month to the next. 

It looks like FantasyDraft’s Players First philosophy is the real deal. If you are looking for an up-and-coming site with real growth potential, we suggest you give them a try. ♠