The NFBC is returning to the beautiful, wonderful, lovable Bellagio in Las Vegas!!
Can you tell I'm excited? Yes indeed.
Last year after our football drafts, we were walking across the street on the Strip to grab dinner and my friend Brady Tinker said to me "NEVER take the Bellagio for granted. We are so lucky to be hosting drafts here."
And he was so right. There's just not a better hotel in Las Vegas for us and all of the staff there embraces our live drafts, our drinking customers and our fun atmosphere. They actually love helping us with the screens, the computers, the buffets, the rooms, etc. And the rooms are perfect for what we offer, while the aesthetics are beautiful to behold. And now that we've found the Executive Penthouse Suites upstairs it's the perfect place for our NCAA Viewing Party and some of our smaller drafts. We love the Bellagio so much.
So I'm happy to report that we will be returning to the Bellagio for both weekends. We don't have a room block for either weekend yet as we're late in the game for that and the Bellagio isn't giving a lot of discounts because both weekends are incredibly in demand. They have asked our customers to go to MLife.com right now for the best rates. If I can get anything lower than that for you folks I will post here, but right now become an MLife member and check out that site.
This will be our 7th straight season of hosting live drafts at the Bellagio. It's amazing because before we came here we hosted live drafts in Las Vegas at the Rio (2 years), the Stardust (before it was imploded) and the Flamingo. I've been hosting either drafts or the Fantasy Sports Trade Conference in Las Vegas since 2000 and some of the venues we've used for the NFFC and the FSTA include the Boardwalk Casino (imploded right after in 2000), Palace Station (one NFFC draft), Sahara (FSTA), Excalibur (FSTA/NFFC), Flamingo, Stardust and the Bellagio. Nothing compares to the Bellagio.
Let me explain the delay in the official announcement of the Bellagio: Obviously the ruling by the Nevada Attorney General against DFS and the national publicity from New York and other states surrounding DFS scared all of the hotel lawyers in Las Vegas. They were uncertain on whether they could host live season-long games or not. Myself and others in the industry reached out to the Nevada Gaming Control Board to explain our situations and we got very timely and informational feedback that we relayed to the lawyers. It soon became apparent that we weren't in the crosshairs and if we followed state laws there would be no reason for the MGM or Caesar's properties to ban live fantasy events.
We agreed to follow some rules that won't change anything for us, but that reassured them that they could work with us. Obviously NOBODY can be playing in a DFS contest on their computers at the Bellagio during our live drafts. There's not even any baseball or football going on at that time, but we will announce this before each draft just to reassure everyone. We also won't have any DFS sponsors at the live drafts or working with us before the season. We understand and we agree. We are there to host live season-long drafts with residents from states that allow this and nothing more. Let's get it done.
Now, onto the drafts.
This is the second straight year that our First Weekend events aren't on the First Weekend of March Madness. That makes me sad, but the schedules between the NCAA and MLB aren't meshing for us. Nobody would like to see us hosting live drafts on opening weekend of March Madness more than me. I just LOVE that time of year out in Las Vegas. Not having them together hurts our live event totals, no doubt. But we can't go 2+ weeks before Opening Day with our live drafts, so our draft weekends are March 25-26 and March 31-April 3.
It's also the second straight year that Easter lands on one of our draft weekends and the second straight year that Chicago and New York are affected that way. Sorry again, but blame MLB for this. We won't host any live drafts on Easter Sunday, so the First Weekend in each city is Friday-Saturday, with New York hosting some Thursday night drafts and auctions. I'll host live drafts on Thursday in Las Vegas as well if demand is there.
Second Weekend in Las Vegas should be fun, but it's going to be mighty busy in Sin City. The National Auto Dealers Association will host its event at the Las Vegas Convention Center during the week and prices for hotels are pretty high right now. Please secure your travel plans now if you know you're going to Las Vegas. The NADA is spilling over to the hotels and much of the meeting room space at the Bellagio is taken during the week and into Friday morning. We are very limited for space on Thursday and Friday, similar to last year. My hope is that we can squeeze out that big boardroom for the auctions like we did last year and then host some events in the Executive Penthouse Suites throughout the week and weekend. Stay tuned.
Bottom line is that everyone should find hotel rooms soon and lock down their travel plans. Also, once we sell out the Thursday and Friday morning events we will shut those off because we don't have multiple rooms. We should have plenty of space on Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday, but right now we're working hard on everything. Lock in your drafts and auctions now before they close out. Thanks all.
We will host an NCAA Viewing Party on Thursday, March 31st starting at 4 pm PT if we can get the rooms we want. Look for more details soon. The NFBC will sponsor that, so plan accordingly and come into town early. It should be a blast. I also hope to have a special suite for the Ultimate, Super and Rotowire Online Championship Plus drafts during the week, so if you want to be treated like kings and queens for those plan on drafting live in Las Vegas with me and Tom. We're going to make the mid-week drafts fun for those who stay between the weekends. Plan accordingly.
That's really about it for Las Vegas. Everything is selling out nicely and I'm going to start publicizing the Rotowire Online Championship Plus drafts more in a separate thread. I really think those are great for you, the drafter. For one thing, you can now come to Las Vegas and draft live for as low as $750 and still win a $4,000 league prize and a $100,000 grand prize. We've never offered a live event this low with these type of prizes. My hope is to do most of these in the Executive Penthouse Suites to give them that local draft league feel, while wining and dining folks in a unique way. A large majority of the prize money for these $750 and $1500 leagues stay within the league, so I really think these are great leagues for the players and a great entry point contest for those who want to come to Las Vegas and meet everyone.
I'll be pushing that contest more during the coming weeks because it's new and I'm not sure everyone understands the benefits of this format. I'm very proud to have a $100,000 grand prize in that format and for the Rotowire Online Championship. I'm also going to be pushing Chicago hard because this is a critical year for that city to remain on the docket going forward. Let's see some support there. More to come on that. New York is already looking solid, so good job all there.
We have some good things coming this week with the unveiling of the Cutline Championship and the new HTML draft room. We're also back at the Bellagio, where we can host the best family reunion this industry has going. I can't tell you how stressful it was working through the lawyers to get this done, but we've finally done it. My sales rep at the Bellagio is the best and he just loves fantasy sports. He worked hard with me to get this done. I'm buying him the Corona's this year!
Now let's fill up all of these leagues and get baseball rolling. I couldn't be more excited about the season ahead and it's great to still be in Las Vegas for our live drafts. It's a positive message for the entire industry. Now get studying and we'll see ya in Sin City in 2+ months. I CAN'T WAIT!!
I kid. 