Greg & Tom Live Chat: Friday, 3 pm ET

[Greg Ambrosius]

Conventional wisdom has the Reds in the tank this year, but what makes Hamilton, Phillips, Votto, Frazier, Bruce, Mesoraco, Byrd so bad? Rotation of Cueto, Bailey, DeSclafani, Cingrani (who many of us liked last year) with Chapman as a closer...Personally I have seen worse, you?

Cozart...that is the sole reason they are terrible.

That is not the sole reason or even the main reason the're terrible. Votto is a a high paid number 3 hitter that has averaged about 50 rbi's over the last 3 years and Jay Bruce is just plain awful. Cincy is not good because the guys that are getting paid haven't produced. Same thing for the Mets, they keep looking at the SS but it is Wright and Granderson that are not producing and until they do they wont win.

Yeah, what the Champ said!!!

[Greg Ambrosius]

When is first FAAB for all leagues ... are all on the same schedule ?

Yes they are: Sunday, April 5th. Easter Sunday baby we leave our families for FAAB!!

[KJ Duke]

Melvin seems to have gotten off on the wrong foot this Spring ..... will this save your auction partnership with Shawn Childs?

[Greg Ambrosius]

To what do you attribute the slow uptake of the FAST DC format? If demand does not pick up during the last month of the draft season, will you still offer this option next year?

Yes, yes, and yes. The idea is great and it will be a big hit in football and next year in baseball. We added this mid-season and couldn't change the marketing efforts to account for these because of everything else we're working on.

So starting in football you will have on Registration a link for $150 Draft Champions and under Date/Time it will say 8 hours. A 4 hour option will be under that in the pulldown. It will be much easier to find this option and to sign up for it. Secondly, we'll create its own promotional box on the DC Contest page so that people are well aware in advance that it is offered, available and how it works. Awareness is key here.

I do think Tom is right that most people feel the 8-hour time frame allows them to continue working and living a normal day. For a lot of people 2-4 days is a nice pace. But we do need a second, faster option or we'll lose a strong segment of this audience who would love to draft a team in a week. Heck, just doing it in less than 10 days would feel good, which is a doable pace of 5 rounds per day. But you need a faster clock than 8 hours to do that and now we have it.

I'm excited about the future of the DCs and if we can give you more options beyond 1 Round Auto then look out.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Melvin seems to have gotten off on the wrong foot this Spring ..... will this save your auction partnership with Shawn Childs?

Well, we do have 1 LABR NL League title under our belt in about four years together, so I can't kick him to the curb just yet. But keep warming up in the bullpen KJ because this is a big prove-it-to-me year for my partner!!

Nah, we have fun doing these together and not even Shawn would be so crazy as to gamble on B.J. Upton this year. I mean, I forgive Shawn for gambling on Mark Teixeira and C.C. Sabathia last year , but I think he's going off the stars n scrubs strategy and picking just younger players with potential. We're going with 22 $10 players and 1 $40 player!!! Unfortunately we won't get Trout for $40.

[Gekko]

if i take home the al auction again this year, will you replace childs at labr-al

[DOUGHBOYS]

Summertime, boys go door to door, asking if we'd like our lawn mowed for a price.
Winter time, do boys go door to door asking if needing a roof raked in Wisconsin?

[Greg Ambrosius]

Who the hell woke up JD Martinez and do you think he will even get close to the same numbers this year?

That was one of the most amazing turnarounds I've seen in recent years. I mean, he really did nothing in three years at Houston and showed like he was going to be a career 4th outfield. He was among the best FAAB pickups of 2014.

I heard him on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio recently talking about the environment in Detroit and playing with Victor Martinez and Miguel Cabrera. He credits both guys for teaching him different things about hitting. It's possible that at Age 27 he just got it, but baseball can be a cruel game. If you pay for last year's stats, you could be disappointed. Or he's for real and continues to blossom as a hitter. Your call, but I'm leaning toward a regression of numbers.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Anybody besides Bulter and Lawrie going to get 500+ AB in Oakland this year, and if so, who?

Easy one: Ben Zobrist. He plays everywhere and will be fine there.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Summertime, boys go door to door, asking if we'd like our lawn mowed for a price.
Winter time, do boys go door to door asking if needing a roof raked in Wisconsin?

No, but if you have a plow in the front of your 4-wheel drive pickup you definitely can make a lot of extra money!!

The interesting thing about Wisconsin is that we don't get all that much snow. I think Green Bay averages 45 inches a year. We probably have had 3-4 inches on the ground since November, but no major snowstorms this year. We can get major storms and two of the last three years I've had to rake my roof of snow, but definitely not this year.

What we get is a lot of Arctic blasts. Last Wednesday after our radio show I got in my car and it was -18. It's below zero here again today. It's been 6 degrees per day below average through February. Canadian blasts tend to come down through the middle part of Wisconsin often and even living in Milwaukee is much better than where we live. But that one week a year we get in July is worth it all, so who am I to complain?

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, thanks all. I think I got to them all. Gotta finish up some things now, but I'll be around all weekend, so feel free to post any question you want here. Always fun to interact. And four weeks from now we'll be in Las Vegas in a private Bellagio Penthouse Suite hosting drafts and auctions. It will be worth all the work and effort. Thanks all and good luck.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on in the world today?

Beheadings of innocent people by a gang of thugs.
A political opponent assassinated in Russia.
Russia expansion to get back some of the Soviet Union.
A U.S. Congress that won't even fund Homeland Security because of ideologies.
So much political bickereing in the world's greatest country that it makes you sick.
A worldwide youth population that has little to no hope for a bright future even when there is one.

I grew up in the Jetson's age when the 21st century was a promise of living in space and beaming ourselves to wherever we want to go. Now Spock is dead and it looks like our society is going backwards not forward. What in the hell is going on. I can't even watch CNN and God forbid if the channel ever goes to Fox News for the right-wing agenda. I sure hope things change soon because I'd hate to thing my kids are growing up in a world that is regressing not progressing.

Thankfully it's the start of a new baseball season. There's hope for everyone. Everyone has a chance to win. I hope the rest of the world gets the message.

[COZ]

Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on in the world today?

Beheadings of innocent people by a gang of thugs.
A political opponent assassinated in Russia.
Russia expansion to get back some of the Soviet Union.
A U.S. Congress that won't even fund Homeland Security because of ideologies.
So much political bickereing in the world's greatest country that it makes you sick.
A worldwide youth population that has little to no hope for a bright future even when there is one.

I grew up in the Jetson's age when the 21st century was a promise of living in space and beaming ourselves to wherever we want to go. Now Spock is dead and it looks like our society is going backwards not forward. What in the hell is going on. I can't even watch CNN and God forbid if the channel ever goes to Fox News for the right-wing agenda. I sure hope things change soon because I'd hate to thing my kids are growing up in a world that is regressing not progressing.

Thankfully it's the start of a new baseball season. There's hope for everyone. Everyone has a chance to win. I hope the rest of the world gets the message.

Nationalism and religious ideology, the root cause of War since the dawn of civilization. Nothing's changed since Mesopotamia. But baseball, the timeless remedy, or, at the least, an escape from the ills of the World, always provides a respite from reality. And especially this time of year, the hope of a World Series Championship, much like the hope for world peace, springs eternal this time of year.

COZ

[Captain Hook]

BRAVO Coz

[Deadheadz]

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Late question for Greg/Tom:

For those who take advantage of the FanDuel promotion, when/how do we get confirmation that the $100 discount will be in effect for our next signup?


Thanks,





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[Tom Kessenich]

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Late question for Greg/Tom:

For those who take advantage of the FanDuel promotion, when/how do we get confirmation that the $100 discount will be in effect for our next signup?


Thanks,





.

You can email me for confirmation. Keep in mind we have so many leagues selling out each day that we don't always get confirmation from Fanduel before charges are run. Should that happen the $100 discount would be applied to a future signup. In the event you don't sign up for another contest we'll send you a $100 check sometime in April after the season has begun. So no matter what you'll get the $100.

But you can email me at [email protected] with Kyle from Fanduel CC'd to confirm you are getting the discount.

[low talkers]

I’ve been thinking a lot about this whole industry shift of players flooding into DFS, and how that relates to the NFBC. Daily sites are targeting and getting new customers from the yahoo players to guys who play just a local league with their buddies. The idea is that there are much better things than being in an anonymous yahoo league with people you don’t know, or being the only guy in your local league who plays all year. The incredible growth of Fanduel and Draftkings has a lot to do with the allure of DFS, but it also really shows the power of advertising. Of course, you guys don’t need to be running millions of dollars of TV ads, but I think there is still such a huge untapped audience out there that would love the NFBC if only they knew about it. The radio show is great, and certainly helping, but there’s just no way that there aren’t thousands of people out there would love to be a part of the NFBC. Everyone on SiriusXM talks about NFBC ADP’s all day, is there some way to leverage that more? Maybe strategically send out NFBC ambassadors to be on all these radio shows, talking it up. Just curious I guess if you guys have any ideas on how to reach more customers, because they are definitely out there.

[Deadheadz]

I’ve been thinking a lot about this whole industry shift of players flooding into DFS, and how that relates to the NFBC. Daily sites are targeting and getting new customers from the yahoo players to guys who play just a local league with their buddies. The idea is that there are much better things than being in an anonymous yahoo league with people you don’t know, or being the only guy in your local league who plays all year. The incredible growth of Fanduel and Draftkings has a lot to do with the allure of DFS, but it also really shows the power of advertising. Of course, you guys don’t need to be running millions of dollars of TV ads, but I think there is still such a huge untapped audience out there that would love the NFBC if only they knew about it. The radio show is great, and certainly helping, but there’s just no way that there aren’t thousands of people out there would love to be a part of the NFBC. Everyone on SiriusXM talks about NFBC ADP’s all day, is there some way to leverage that more? Maybe strategically send out NFBC ambassadors to be on all these radio shows, talking it up. Just curious I guess if you guys have any ideas on how to reach more customers, because they are definitely out there.

I was a bit surprised to hear the guys on the CBS Fantasy Baseball podcast refer to "NFBC ADP" several times Friday.
By being a leader in early offseason drafting, the NFBC has positioned itself as the earliest and deepest barometer of the perceived value of players drafted in rotisserie.

It's not really an answer to your question, I'll leave that to Greg and Tom, but I wanted to give that opinion.


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[Greg Ambrosius]

I’ve been thinking a lot about this whole industry shift of players flooding into DFS, and how that relates to the NFBC. Daily sites are targeting and getting new customers from the yahoo players to guys who play just a local league with their buddies. The idea is that there are much better things than being in an anonymous yahoo league with people you don’t know, or being the only guy in your local league who plays all year. The incredible growth of Fanduel and Draftkings has a lot to do with the allure of DFS, but it also really shows the power of advertising. Of course, you guys don’t need to be running millions of dollars of TV ads, but I think there is still such a huge untapped audience out there that would love the NFBC if only they knew about it. The radio show is great, and certainly helping, but there’s just no way that there aren’t thousands of people out there would love to be a part of the NFBC. Everyone on SiriusXM talks about NFBC ADP’s all day, is there some way to leverage that more? Maybe strategically send out NFBC ambassadors to be on all these radio shows, talking it up. Just curious I guess if you guys have any ideas on how to reach more customers, because they are definitely out there.

Thanks for the thoughts Champ. In the recent 8-page article on Fanduel in Sports Illustated there was a graph that showed Draft Kings and Fanduel as the 3rd and 4th largest advertisers to sports programming. They both continue to raise VC money to keep that advertising program going. It makes you wonder what our favorite TV shows would look like if online poker or sports betting ever became legal!! They would dominate the airwaves as well with ads because it doesn't take much to lure Americans into a quick wager/competition.

I think if a season-long contest flooded the airwaves we'd see an uptick but nothing like you're seeing on daily games. Why? Because we're not an impulse buy. We're a commitment. Baseball is a chore. But you are totally right that any uptick in advertising and marketing will lead to an increase in participation. The trick is making sure every dollar brings in two dollars and that you're not spending more than you can make. We've seen enough previous fantasy game operators do that and screw the players out of their rightful winnings.

We get accused of not marketing our games enough and I"m sure that's true, but other competitors would kill to have the exposure we have on SiriusXM and other avenues. Our ADPs can be found on other industry sites and we'll continue to add to them because we feel like this is the best exposure we can get for our games. When people trust the ADPs they will check out our site and our games and hopefully play at some point. We also have a new Marketing Director who is really into Search Engine Optimization and we'll be spending more there and doing more on TV as well. We had a good meeting yesterday that will allow the NFBC ADPs to be seen more often on the Bloomberg Sports telecast on Fantasy Sports Network and we may even make a weekly appearance on there starting soon. They are small steps to increased awareness.

Also, I believe that we have limited ourselves with the season-long games. It's been proven that folks like the one-week fantasy football contest and we should run more of those for our customers. And why not do that in baseball, too? Hey, in July when some of your teams are struggling, wouldn't it be fun to play on the NFBC site for $25 or $50 and win prizes that could include a free entry into the 2016 NFBC Main Event? Of course. I think there are ways to get new customers to try us out and get used to our game outside of just hoping they leave their local league and jump right into our Main Events. This could work. Maybe adding a mock draft site to let folks familiarize themselves with our new online draft software would work, too. It's all things I've been kicking around to help with our growth.

But let's at the very least look at where we are now compared to just four short years ago. In 2010, WCOFF was almost too big to fail. I know what their revenue was at that time and what we had for baseball and football. Our combined sports revenue was equal to that. Today our revenue is almost three times what it was four years ago and we top WCOFF's record at that time not only in football but baseball as well. FFPC is more than twice what WCOFF was at that time. So the entire industry has grown, you folks have grown and stepped up your participation in high-stakes season-long games and the best is yet to come. There is NO DOUBT that we can grow in so many ways beyond where we are today, but where we are today is night and day from where we were in February of 2011. So I'm proud of where we are, but I know there is so much more.

And I see good signs from our new ownership group toward this space. I see more resources coming our way in IT and Marketing that will impact us soon. I see some of the benefits of the addition of Bloomberg Sports coming our way. I see more acquisitions coming that could help us. I see the technology improving for our live events and at the same time our online technology showing improvements now and more on the way. I see how adding Player Accounts is going to make it so easy for you guys to sign up future events and keep track of your winnings/costs. I see how DFS is making lineups so easy, making Live Scoring so easy and knowing that we have to keep up to retain our customers. Everyone is pushing the envelope on each other, which is good.

Sorry for the long answer, but it's more than just advertising dollars. It's improving the product to retain what is no doubt the best fantasy baseball community in the industry, while giving you more tools to enjoy more drafts/contests each year. And then it's definitely spreading the word through so many different avenues to attract new customers while doing it smartly without overspending for those new customers. DFS has put an enormous price on the per customer acquisition and they can do that with the VC money they have. We have to be smart year-to-year, sport-to-sport, while still growing each year. And we will as long as we keep innovating and keep improving. Thanks for the question Dave.