Double Header Issue Today

We had a major issue today with the SEA/CHI Doubleheader.  When the baseball contests were scheduled yesterday, the double header was not on the schedule.  Normally the extra game will be added to the existing schedule before the normally scheduled game and will not effect our contests.  Today, they re-scheduled the 7PM game to 5:05 pm and added the second game afterwards.  Since contest start time is determined by the first game start time at the time the contest is scheduled, we were left with a 5PM starting game in a 7PM starting contest.  This is vastly unfair, because you would be allowed to adjust your fantasy team based on scoring that has already happened.  We were forced to cancel all contests that had a 7PM start time and included the rescheduled 5PM game.  All accounts have been refunded their entry fees for these contests. A new batch of contests has been scheduled for 7PM that includes the second game of the double header.  You may re-register for these contests if you would like.  We are very sorry for the inconvenience, but we were forced to take this action for fairness reasons 

Snapdraft vs. Fantasy Sports Live - Fantasy Baseball

Lets face it, there is tons of competition out there in Daily Fantasy Baseball.  Although, we were first with Salary Cap based daily fantasy baseball in June of 2007, there have been numerous other sites that have launched since then.  Some have failed, and others continue on. Today the two largest sites in terms of traffic are FantasySportsLive.com and SnapDraft.  We always check out new sites when they launch, and below is our comparison of the two sites in some of the more important areas.

Payouts

Snapdraft: Pays out 80% of contest fees in prizes.

Fantasy Sports Live: Pays out between 88-100% of contest fees in prizes with nearly all paying 91% and higher.

Advantage Fantasy Sports Live

Overlays (Payouts in excess of 100%)

Snapdraft: Rules do not allow overlays.

Fantasy Sports Live: Any multiplayer league may pay an overlay.

Advantage Fantasy Sports Live

Transparency

Snapdraft: Opponents are not disclosed prior to registering.  Leaderboards are reset periodically and show only top 10 players.

Fantasy Sports Live. Registered opponents are always shown prior to registering. Leaderboards are all-time and show top 75 players.

Advantage Fantasy Sports Live

Cash Prize Guaranty

Snapdraft:  Only guaranteed in the event of a full contest.

Fantasy Sports Live: Always guaranteed if there are 2 or more competitors registered for the league.

Advantage Fantasy Sports Live

Cap Structures

Snapdraft: Pay based salary cap draft.  All contests use same cap amount.

Fantasy Sports Live: Pay Based, Performance Based, and No Salary Cap Drafts.  Wide variety of cap amounts to choose from.

Advantage Fantasy Sports Live

Contest Hogs (Good, experienced players who only play beginners on the site)

Snapdraft: Encourages this behaviour by concealing your opponent, and offering a single structure that allows for one click blanketing of all contests that are currently forming.

Fantasy Sports Live: Discourages this behaviour in many ways including: not concealing your opponent(s), not allowing for one click drafting, offering multiple cap types and amounts that require unique teams, and offering higher payout percentages on higher buy-in leagues.

Advantage Fantasy Sports Live (Unless you are a contest hog)

Contest Traffic

Snapdraft: Generated a large user base from parent site / partner affiliation.

Fantasy Sports Live: Generated a large user base from two years of consistent growth.

Advantage ????  (Snapdraft hides contests that fill making it impossible to determine their exact traffic levels.  Both sites have substantial contest traffic)

Winner Take All Leagues

Snapdraft:  All leagues are winner take all

Fantasy Sports Live: Offers some winner take all leagues

Advantage: Snapdraft if you prefer winner take all

Hybrid Leagues (Multiple sport)

Snapdraft: Hybrid NASCAR and Golf leagues

Fantasy Sports Live: No Hybrid Leagues

Advantage: Snapdraft

2nd & 3rd Place Payouts

Snapdraft: Only pays first place in all leagues for a higher variance lottery style game.

Fantasy Sports Live: Pays top 2 in six player leagues, and top 3 in ten player leagues for a lower variance skill emphasized game.

Advantage Fantasy Sports Live

Overall Winner

Is it not obvious?  Fantasy Sports Live is still the leader in daily fantasy baseball with the highest payouts and most transparency.  I am not really sure why people play at snapdraft beyond convenience.  If you have not checked us out yet, click on this link to get $10/$20/$30 free with a $50/$100/$200 initial deposit.  If you don't think we are better as shown above, just cash out after you use your bonus funds, and head back over to Snapdraft.

2009 Daily Fantasy Baseball for Money

We are off and running with our third season of daily fantasy baseball for money at fantasysportslive.com. We made several tweaks to our scoring system to help balance starting pitching and position player scoring this year and it seems to be working out pretty well. The following changes were implemented.

Pitching:
Win - changed from 10 to 8 points
Earned Run Allowed – changed from -1 to -2 points

Batting:
Run Scored – changed from 1 to 2 points
Run Batted In – changed from 1 to 2 points

Overall, this brings the mix of scoring and ranking cap values for Fantasy Baseball to about 1/3 pitching, and 2/3 batting. Last year it was closer to 50/50. The player salaries have been updated for 2009. Position players get a salary equal to their 2009 actual salary divided by 162 games. Starting pitchers get a salary equal to their 2009 salary divided by 32 games. The maximum salary for a pitcher is 350k, and the minimum is 100k. Position players have no max salary, and a minimum of 10k per game. The ranking cap values start out based on 2008 statistics. Over the first month of the season these values will transition until they are entirely based on 2009 per game MLB statistics. New players will be added to the draft pool over time based on minimum start or at bat requirements. Since we are shaking things up a bit with the new scoring rules, we would love to get your feedback on Fantasy Baseball, so drop us a comment. Also let us know if there are any players you would like to see added to the draft pool.