Diamond Challenge To Join The NFBC Suite Of Contests
Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2020 10:38 am
We are excited and proud today to announce a new addition to the NFBC high-stakes family of games. Let’s give it up for the NFBC Diamond Challenge!!
That’s right, today we are welcoming the industry’s premiere salary cap game – and one of the most influential games in the fantasy baseball industry – to the NFBC suite of games. CDM Diamond Challenge has been around for almost 30 years and has paid tens of millions of dollars in prizes during that time. It was one of the first salary cap pay-to-play games in the industry and it once gave the industry’s largest grand prize ($50,000) when it was aligned as the USA Today Diamond Challenge. Since its inception in 1992 as Carol’s Fantasy Baseball, this contest has awarded even more prize money than the NFBC, which has already awarded more than $28 million in prizes.
Today we are changing that game model to fit more of the NFBC model, allowing players to win more money and to compete in smaller league sizes. One of the biggest changes we are announcing today will be one set price at the beginning of the year with no transaction fees after that and guaranteed prizes that pay over 80 percent for each contest.
We are confident that the changes we are making to the Diamond Challenge this year will send this game back to previous heights. Today’s market is more familiar with salary cap games than ever before thanks to the rise and growth of Daily Fantasy Sports, so we know the salary cap market is there. Now we just need to align the price points and the payouts with other industry season-long games like the NFBC to allow it to be a big hit again.
Here are some of the changes you will see with the NFBC Diamond Challenge:
League Size: Each league will now consist of 15 teams, down from 25 in past years.
Costs: The NFBC Diamond Challenge Roto will have an entry fee of $400 with no transaction fees. Owners can make player switches during the season, just like in the NFBC, at no cost. Free Agent pickups are also available at no cost, but they are limited to 16 for the season like they were in previous years. On average last year, CDM owners paid close to $400 for Transaction Packages and transaction fees, so the price point is in line with past years of the Diamond Challenge.
Payouts: We are now paying the Top 3 teams in each 15-team league, with first place earning $1,800. Second place in each league is $800 and third place is $400. We are also guaranteeing a $40,000 grand prize, while paying the Top 12 overall. That new grand prize is up from $25,000 in recent years. We are also shooting for 60 leagues this year, 900 teams, which is up from past years. We believe it’s time to grow this salary cap format and more aggressive payouts will do that.
In-Season Roster Moves: We will allow Friday hitter moves in the Diamond Challenge, just like we do in our NFBC contests. This will give a little more roster management for owners throughout the season.
One Landing Spot: The Diamond Challenge will now appear on the NFBC site and the contests will appear within our NFBC lobby. We will have a separate salary cap tab for those games, but we’ll create a Forum on the NFBC Message Boards for feedback and questions, and we’ll interact with promotions and Q&A on the NFBC Live Chat just like we do for all of our NFBC games. The stand-alone CDM site will disappear as all former CDM games will be mingled into the NFBC, NFFC, NFBKC and NFHC web sites, creating more uniformity between those gaming audiences.
Special Packages: We also will take $100 off for a 3-Pack of Diamond Challenge games as we know some of our veteran players will be back for multiple teams. The 3-Pack will now be available for $1,100.
Diamond Challenge Points: We also will be offering an NFBC Diamond Challenge Points national contest this year with a $250 price point, 15-team leagues, a $1,200 league prize (Pay Top 3) and a guaranteed $15,000 grand prize. Again, the contest will have no transaction fees, an 80+% payout and prizes for the Top 10 teams overall. We are shooting for just over 500 teams in this contest. There will also be a Special Package of $50 off for three teams ($700 total).
Football Challenge: You will see the same concept debut in football this year with the NFFC Football Challenge games (both Roto and Points). We will offer one set price, 80+% payouts and great guaranteed prizes.
It’s time for salary cap games to enter the high-stakes space and CDM Diamond Challenge transitioning into the NFBC Diamond Challenge makes perfect sense. It was high-stakes before there was high-stakes fantasy sports, so it fits in perfectly with us.
From a historical standpoint, CDM Fantasy Sports and the Diamond Challenge means so much to all of us here. This was one of the first national contests in our industry, first as The Sporting News Diamond Challenge in 1993 and then as the USA Today Diamond Challenge. The $50,000 grand prize in the early 2000’s was the industry’s biggest at the time and it brought prominence to our industry.
In fact, USA Today was set to buy CDM Fantasy Sports before MLB Advanced Media chose to deny their license in 2006. MLBAM made a power play to limit the number of fantasy sports licenses even though CDM Fantasy Sports was their first fantasy sports licensee and it set off a firestorm in the industry. CDM sued and won a landmark case that showed that fantasy sports game operators or content providers did not need to be licensed to use the names or statistics of publicly recorded contests. That decision changed the landscape forever. The owners of CDM – which included Charlie Wiegert – personally financed that lawsuit, which allowed the industry to grow and prosper.
For that, we as an industry owe a debt of gratitude to those owners. And now it’s time to return that gratitude with a high-stakes version of their signature game that will benefit the players and grow each year. This new model can do that because nothing about the game format changes. The only changes -- a set entry fee, smaller league sizes and better payouts – greatly benefit the players.
It’s a new structure of a well-loved fantasy game. We look forward to your feedback and we are confident that this is the right move for the Diamond Challenge and for the NFBC. Enjoy and thanks.
That’s right, today we are welcoming the industry’s premiere salary cap game – and one of the most influential games in the fantasy baseball industry – to the NFBC suite of games. CDM Diamond Challenge has been around for almost 30 years and has paid tens of millions of dollars in prizes during that time. It was one of the first salary cap pay-to-play games in the industry and it once gave the industry’s largest grand prize ($50,000) when it was aligned as the USA Today Diamond Challenge. Since its inception in 1992 as Carol’s Fantasy Baseball, this contest has awarded even more prize money than the NFBC, which has already awarded more than $28 million in prizes.
Today we are changing that game model to fit more of the NFBC model, allowing players to win more money and to compete in smaller league sizes. One of the biggest changes we are announcing today will be one set price at the beginning of the year with no transaction fees after that and guaranteed prizes that pay over 80 percent for each contest.
We are confident that the changes we are making to the Diamond Challenge this year will send this game back to previous heights. Today’s market is more familiar with salary cap games than ever before thanks to the rise and growth of Daily Fantasy Sports, so we know the salary cap market is there. Now we just need to align the price points and the payouts with other industry season-long games like the NFBC to allow it to be a big hit again.
Here are some of the changes you will see with the NFBC Diamond Challenge:
League Size: Each league will now consist of 15 teams, down from 25 in past years.
Costs: The NFBC Diamond Challenge Roto will have an entry fee of $400 with no transaction fees. Owners can make player switches during the season, just like in the NFBC, at no cost. Free Agent pickups are also available at no cost, but they are limited to 16 for the season like they were in previous years. On average last year, CDM owners paid close to $400 for Transaction Packages and transaction fees, so the price point is in line with past years of the Diamond Challenge.
Payouts: We are now paying the Top 3 teams in each 15-team league, with first place earning $1,800. Second place in each league is $800 and third place is $400. We are also guaranteeing a $40,000 grand prize, while paying the Top 12 overall. That new grand prize is up from $25,000 in recent years. We are also shooting for 60 leagues this year, 900 teams, which is up from past years. We believe it’s time to grow this salary cap format and more aggressive payouts will do that.
In-Season Roster Moves: We will allow Friday hitter moves in the Diamond Challenge, just like we do in our NFBC contests. This will give a little more roster management for owners throughout the season.
One Landing Spot: The Diamond Challenge will now appear on the NFBC site and the contests will appear within our NFBC lobby. We will have a separate salary cap tab for those games, but we’ll create a Forum on the NFBC Message Boards for feedback and questions, and we’ll interact with promotions and Q&A on the NFBC Live Chat just like we do for all of our NFBC games. The stand-alone CDM site will disappear as all former CDM games will be mingled into the NFBC, NFFC, NFBKC and NFHC web sites, creating more uniformity between those gaming audiences.
Special Packages: We also will take $100 off for a 3-Pack of Diamond Challenge games as we know some of our veteran players will be back for multiple teams. The 3-Pack will now be available for $1,100.
Diamond Challenge Points: We also will be offering an NFBC Diamond Challenge Points national contest this year with a $250 price point, 15-team leagues, a $1,200 league prize (Pay Top 3) and a guaranteed $15,000 grand prize. Again, the contest will have no transaction fees, an 80+% payout and prizes for the Top 10 teams overall. We are shooting for just over 500 teams in this contest. There will also be a Special Package of $50 off for three teams ($700 total).
Football Challenge: You will see the same concept debut in football this year with the NFFC Football Challenge games (both Roto and Points). We will offer one set price, 80+% payouts and great guaranteed prizes.
It’s time for salary cap games to enter the high-stakes space and CDM Diamond Challenge transitioning into the NFBC Diamond Challenge makes perfect sense. It was high-stakes before there was high-stakes fantasy sports, so it fits in perfectly with us.
From a historical standpoint, CDM Fantasy Sports and the Diamond Challenge means so much to all of us here. This was one of the first national contests in our industry, first as The Sporting News Diamond Challenge in 1993 and then as the USA Today Diamond Challenge. The $50,000 grand prize in the early 2000’s was the industry’s biggest at the time and it brought prominence to our industry.
In fact, USA Today was set to buy CDM Fantasy Sports before MLB Advanced Media chose to deny their license in 2006. MLBAM made a power play to limit the number of fantasy sports licenses even though CDM Fantasy Sports was their first fantasy sports licensee and it set off a firestorm in the industry. CDM sued and won a landmark case that showed that fantasy sports game operators or content providers did not need to be licensed to use the names or statistics of publicly recorded contests. That decision changed the landscape forever. The owners of CDM – which included Charlie Wiegert – personally financed that lawsuit, which allowed the industry to grow and prosper.
For that, we as an industry owe a debt of gratitude to those owners. And now it’s time to return that gratitude with a high-stakes version of their signature game that will benefit the players and grow each year. This new model can do that because nothing about the game format changes. The only changes -- a set entry fee, smaller league sizes and better payouts – greatly benefit the players.
It’s a new structure of a well-loved fantasy game. We look forward to your feedback and we are confident that this is the right move for the Diamond Challenge and for the NFBC. Enjoy and thanks.