Take Notice: NFBC Improvements!

[Gekko]

Over the past two years there have been massive improvements to the NFBC (&NFFC) sites. Here are a couple...

ADP
Remember when adp could only be provided in L7 days, L14 days, etc. Now we have the user input whatever start and end dates they want. AWESOME!

FAAB
Remember when you had to search each of your league FAAB pools to determine if a specific player was available. Now, on a single screen, you can look for a single player across all of your teams AND place bids on him. AMAZING!

Ability to search for a specific player you own and see which of your teams you have him on
I don't even think this option existed a couple years ago. Now, on a single screen, when Jose Ramirez hits a HR and steals a base in the Indians season opener, I can quickly identify all of my teams that benefited!

1099
What can I say, this is amazing. Years ago, we had no insight into this (unless you kept track yourself). Now you can find out how much yur 1099 will be issued for in almost real-time. AND you have the option of pre-paying for next year's leagues to reduce (or eliminate) your 1099 amount. this might be my favorite improvement

contest lobby
years ago, you had to go to the MB and hope greg and tom had time to manually add every damn signup to a MB thread. Now, with the contest lobby, you can see how close a league is to filling AND see who has signed up for it. Great add!

improved draft champion timers
remember those STUPID 8 hour timers that drove nearly everyone crazy?!? the'yve been replaced with 4HR and 2HR (and rounds 30-50 timers get cut in half). love it guys!!!

NFBC, Greg, Tom, Darik, IT, etc...THANK YOU.

[Deadheadz]

And didn’t I read they added online auctions hosted at their own site?
That’s huge too.

The contest lobby doesn’t allow for anonymous signups anymore. Some will like that a lot.

contest lobby
years ago, you had to go to the MB and hope greg and tom had time to manually add every damn signup to a MB thread. Now, with the contest lobby, you can see how close a league is to filling AND see who has signed up for it. Great add!

[Greg Ambrosius]

Thanks for the kind analysis Gekko. I really hope people use the 1099 Tracker this year to see in real-time what their tax analysis is for 2018. If you want to add to your 2018 entry fees total you can certainly do that by paying for any 2019 entries by Dec. 31st. That pertains to the NFBC and the NFFC since we launched the NFFC Registration yesterday for 2019. It's a great advantage for owners who won big in 2018.

While we admit we have a lot of work yet to get the site where we want it -- and get our full history of past results for everyone -- I think there were a few other accomplishments in the last year that makes playing here better than ever before. They include:

** A much better online draft room. Remember, we were using Flash technology before, which isn't even supported on computers anymore.

** The ability to make online draft picks via your smartphone or any device.

** Queues for every single round of any online draft. You can now set up separate queues for Rounds 31 and 32 before you go to bed and you will be assured of getting the top available player from each queue.

** Multiple Round Auto-Pick. Again, another new feature that allows you to set auto for 1 Round, 2 Rounds or no rounds.

** The addition of Darik Buchar. Hey, we don't like to give him any more credit than he deserves but he's been a great addition to the team. Adding a third member to me and Tom has helped across all sports. We are now staffed up properly to handle all online drafts, the live drafts, accounting and the addition of a fourth sport this Fall: hockey. You'll see more help coming from the corporate office in terms of Marketing soon, too.

** It's a pain in the ass right now, but you'll see benefits to us moving to this new back-end platform soon. The new platform will allow us to launch each sport earlier each year, getting drafts rolling sooner each year.

** The addition of the MFL10s. I know the impact hasn't been felt yet in baseball, but it's important for all of us to continue to recruit new potential players to our high-stakes sports. We can't just have the same core audience here without any growth, so in the last year we've really tried to add new players, first through our NFFC $25 and $50 Best Ball games and last year with our NFBC50s. Then in February we acquired the MFL10s and had almost 80,000 teams competing in that Best Ball football format. Those are potential new players in our football contests and this year we will look to expand that model to other sports, including baseball.

** Online Auctions: Yes, this is another sweet addition that we now own. You'll love the software, which debuted in football. Let's create a day of the week that people can plan around these and have a fun off-season of online auctions, both with FAAB and with DC formats.

** In-Season Fantasy Games: This year you'll see some in-season game offerings from the NFBC in a few different formats. We can still be a season-long contest that starts that season at different times. Stay tuned. We'll also have a Tuesday Night NFBC/Fanball Contest that will award a FREE 2020 NFBC Main Event entry to the winner that night. Our software is going to allow us more flexibility to use it even after Opening Day, something we believe our die-hard audience is going to like.

We still have a list of improvements that we are working on, everything from some Live Scoring enhancements to My Teams to Set Lineup. Keep the suggestions coming and if they are feasible we will try to update them. We appreciate the acknowledgement of the good things we've added and hopefully we can add a few more to make this second year on the SportsHub site even better and more enjoyable. Good luck all.

[meanguy]

One issue that I'm having again this year is that I can't scroll through all the positions when drafting via phone, which makes it very challenging. I know that last year it was described as some type of programming issue related to LG phones. Was hoping it would be resolved for this years draft room. I would like to join more of the DC's but am forced to wait for the "express drafts" in late January when I can draft the entire draft via computer. If there can be any fix to this issue it would be appreciated.

[sfeschuk]

I've only been drafting with NFBC for a few years but I think the improvements have been amazing – and the experience overall is great, both online and in person. This is a hobby for me and it wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable without the ease of play and the attention to detail. Keep it up, guys!

[Atlas]

Might be nit-picky, but scrolling through the position eligibility list, we have categories for everything except SB. A position player will carry headings for the 5 pitching categories, but not for all the hitting categories. Just so happened I wanted to check a position for a rookie and what he did last year on base paths.
Meh...2 cents...

[Greg Ambrosius]

Might be nit-picky, but scrolling through the position eligibility list, we have categories for everything except SB. A position player will carry headings for the 5 pitching categories, but not for all the hitting categories. Just so happened I wanted to check a position for a rookie and what he did last year on base paths.
Meh...2 cents...

Yeah, that's not right. I'll get SBs added there. Thanks.

[Darik B]

One issue that I'm having again this year is that I can't scroll through all the positions when drafting via phone, which makes it very challenging. I know that last year it was described as some type of programming issue related to LG phones. Was hoping it would be resolved for this years draft room. I would like to join more of the DC's but am forced to wait for the "express drafts" in late January when I can draft the entire draft via computer. If there can be any fix to this issue it would be appreciated.

Please reach out to me via email and I'll see what I can do...I can't tell who you are as MB usernames don't have to be same as signup names. Thanks.

[email protected]

or call 651-895-0583

[Daren E]

Has there been any progress made to be able to get an automated text message when my pick is up? I don't get emails on my phone so a text message would be helpful. I don't want a text message for every pick just when I am on the clock.

[rkulaski]

Great improvements everywhere.

Small request:

On the “Set Lineup” page, Can you make it to where we can organize our pitchers from best to worst? For example, right now Paxton is near the bottom of my listed starters. I’d like to move him to my number 2 starter .

Thanks.

[Tom Kessenich]

Great improvements everywhere.

Small request:

On the “Set Lineup” page, Can you make it to where we can organize our pitchers from best to worst? For example, right now Paxton is near the bottom of my listed starters. I’d like to move him to my number 2 starter .

Thanks.

Yup. We've asked for that feature to be put back.

[Tom Kessenich]

Has there been any progress made to be able to get an automated text message when my pick is up? I don't get emails on my phone so a text message would be helpful. I don't want a text message for every pick just when I am on the clock.

It's being discussed. It's not an easy addition due to carrier rates and so forth but we would like to get this implemented at some point in the future if possible.

[DOUGHBOYS]

Any update on .....

Previous year's teams?

Up/Down arrows for our drafting queue?

Texts as a notification option?

[Tom Kessenich]

Any update on .....

Previous year's teams?

Up/Down arrows for our drafting queue?

Texts as a notification option?

No ETA just yet Dan. All are on the To Do list. We'll post updates when we get something definitive.

[DOUGHBOYS]

Tom, will we get the previous years teams before the larger drafts start coming in March?
This has taken a very long time.

[Tom Kessenich]

Tom, will we get the previous years teams before the larger drafts start coming in March?
This has taken a very long time.

We hope to at least have last year's teams available. We know how important it is.

[Darik B]

We're shooting for the week of February 11th for 2018 teams. Earlier teams will take a while longer. As Tom said, we understand the importance of this. If we could just push a button, we would. Unfortunately, it is not that simple.

[Daren E]

I second the motion on getting up and down arrows for the Q in the draft room. Also the double arrow up and down would be great to have again to move someone to the top or bottom of the Q with 1 click. It's very frustrating to have a Q of 40 players and then try to move 1 from the middle to the top or bottom. Takes too long. And moving players around the Q on my phone is next to impossible without arrows.

[Wolfpac]

We're shooting for the week of February 11th for 2018 teams. Earlier teams will take a while longer. As Tom said, we understand the importance of this. If we could just push a button, we would. Unfortunately, it is not that simple.

Wait can we uncheck these teams if we dont want to see them on our front page?

[Baseball Furies]

I second the motion on getting up and down arrows for the Q in the draft room. Also the double arrow up and down would be great to have again to move someone to the top or bottom of the Q with 1 click. It's very frustrating to have a Q of 40 players and then try to move 1 from the middle to the top or bottom. Takes too long. And moving players around the Q on my phone is next to impossible without arrows.

Another vote for this as well. The drag and drop feature is often tedious and inaccurate.

If not this year, then definitely next year, it is time for customizable text alerts to be part of the equation for all the DC draft formats on all except for those of the Express variety. I believe my personal cell phone data usage for text alerts to NFBC players has probably eclipsed the $25,000 mark to date by now. It's the next evolution in 21st Century drafting.

[Darik B]

We're shooting for the week of February 11th for 2018 teams. Earlier teams will take a while longer. As Tom said, we understand the importance of this. If we could just push a button, we would. Unfortunately, it is not that simple.

Wait can we uncheck these teams if we dont want to see them on our front page?

My understanding is that they will not be in the same spot as this year's teams. Different page, I think.

[Darik B]

I second the motion on getting up and down arrows for the Q in the draft room. Also the double arrow up and down would be great to have again to move someone to the top or bottom of the Q with 1 click. It's very frustrating to have a Q of 40 players and then try to move 1 from the middle to the top or bottom. Takes too long. And moving players around the Q on my phone is next to impossible without arrows.

Another vote for this as well. The drag and drop feature is often tedious and inaccurate.

If not this year, then definitely next year, it is time for customizable text alerts to be part of the equation for all the DC draft formats on all except for those of the Express variety. I believe my personal cell phone data usage for text alerts to NFBC players has probably eclipsed the $25,000 mark to date by now. It's the next evolution in 21st Century drafting.

We'll ask about the up/down arrows.

We also want text alerts; we are looking into it.

[DOUGHBOYS]

Not to be a pest (too late), but a couple of the smaller things that should be readily fixable....

In the draft room, Forrest Whitley with two 'rr's is spelled with one r.
I bring this up only because when stats start rolling in, 'Forest Whitley' may not be recognized as Forrest Whitley.

Yoshi Kikuchi is still listed as a free agent. He's been with the Mariners for almost a month.

Thanks for the listen....

[Tom Kessenich]

Not to be a pest (too late), but a couple of the smaller things that should be readily fixable....

In the draft room, Forrest Whitley with two 'rr's is spelled with one r.
I bring this up only because when stats start rolling in, 'Forest Whitley' may not be recognized as Forrest Whitley.

Yoshi Kikuchi is still listed as a free agent. He's been with the Mariners for almost a month.

Thanks for the listen....

I'll send these to IT, Dan.

[KJ Duke]

Why was avg pick time removed from league page ... someone's feeling get hurt?