Is There Interest In A Single-Entry NFBC Contest?

[DOUGHBOYS]

For me, I play the Main Event because it's the Main Event.
I would have different thoughts for a single-entry Event.
I believe a 'single entry' format can stand on its own and not be a derivative from the Main Event.
A single-entry on its own, would be much more enticing to me than just a bet on my Main Event team.

[KJ Duke]

For me, I play the Main Event because it's the Main Event.
I would have different thoughts for a single-entry Event.
I believe a 'single entry' format can stand on its own and not be a derivative from the Main Event.
A single-entry on its own, would be much more enticing to me than just a bet on my Main Event team.

And that may be the case for players with excess capacity to manage more teams. But for those of us with limited time who would rather play against every owner one time not five I think the answer is different.

Both concepts will no doubt appeal to some owners and not others but I would bet a good amount the $500 add on concept fills a lot faster and has legs over time.

[DOUGHBOYS]

Good luck with it, KJ !

[KJ Duke]

Good luck with it, KJ !

Umm, I'm not running it Dan! I'm just ready to play if they make the right decision. 🤟

[DOUGHBOYS]

Good luck with it, KJ !

Umm, I'm not running it Dan! I'm just ready to play if they make the right decision. 🤟

I know. I meant good luck with it being a thing.

If it were me, I'd put a different spin on the contest.
Every other week FAAB, since everybody is in the same boat.
Things like that to make it easier on drafters time.
(Not as easy as your concept, of course, but it would be a help in time)

[KJ Duke]

Good luck with it, KJ !

Umm, I'm not running it Dan! I'm just ready to play if they make the right decision. 🤟

I know. I meant good luck with it being a thing.

If it were me, I'd put a different spin on the contest.
Every other week FAAB, since everybody is in the same boat.
Best ball scoring to ease lineup decisions.
Having skin in another team with those kind of rules would make it easier on contestants time.
(Not as easy as your concept, of course, but it would be a help in time)

Something like that I might have interest in, too. Certainly much more interest than another lower-stakes but equally time-consuming overall contest.

And just to finish all this up before I head back to football. The single-entry lower stakes $1K was a success in football, I believe, because a) the single-entry concept does have appeal, and b) managing one more football team isn't a big deal. That said, it still took quite a while to sell out which leads me to believe the fate of a similar baseball contest would fall short as did last year's attempt. On the contrary, football contests with ME add-on side contests have been very popular for another operator and thus I think the odds of it working in baseball are quite good as it hits on the good of (a) above while avoiding the struggle of (b). And if they set the payout at an above-avg rate, say 90%, since their marginal cost is smaller ... that is a major enticement that should make it an easy sell out. But if they decide not to run something like that I'm probably better off anyway as I haven't had a top 10 finish for a couple years anyway.

[Philippe27]

I'm not sure I'd do the add-on personally, I already think a big portion of our entry fee goes to the overall contest and wouldn't want to put up another 500 for a 1 in 30 chance of getting a payout.

I do think for the single entry to gain traction it needs to be significantly different from the Main. My suggestion was $1000 entry, 15 teams, FAAB once a month and 2 extra bench players.

FAAB once a month would add some excitement but at the same time limit the time commitment. The extra 2 bench players would be just enough to avoid being penalized too much by injuries and in a full month there's enough changes and callups that it would keep FAAB interesting.

[DOUGHBOYS]

To sum up, and answer the subject question, there IS interest in a single-entry event.
The running theme through every concept or suggestion is less FAAB.
It should probably be a 15 team league. It is what the customer base enjoys most.
A good starting point for the one-entry contest.

[Greg Ambrosius]

And if you can sweeten it above the 80% payout, I'm sure interest would be even higher.

Thanks for the feedback KJ. We would definitely pay at least 90 percent on a concept like this since we don't have any event fees. Credit card fees and state licensing fees would be the over-riding expenses, so I think we could do 90 percent here.

But I don't think this is a concept where we create the prize pool in advance. This side contest could be based on the number of entrants we get as long as everyone knows that in advance. Maybe we offer this to those who want a "side pool" Main Event and see how many we get this first year. We guarantee that we'll pay 90 percent of total revenue and pay down at least 5 spots and a max of 10 spots depending on levels of signups. I think that might be a way to grow this concept.

I don't agree that the overall standings will look the same. Our overall champion had multiple teams, but only one cashed. Who's to say he thought that was his best team on Opening Day? I think several folks who take multiple teams don't know for sure which one of their teams is going to be the best one. Heck, it could be a tougher decision for that owner than it is for owners who have only one or two Main Event teams.

That being said, the $500 price point might be a bit too high for most owners to "double down" on that $1700 investment. But the concept is worth discussing, and as you said, we know other contests have had success with somewhat similar ideas and we know there are several owners who would do this now. I've even thought that a bracket-style, elimination contest with your current roster could be fun and I might look deeper into that concept.

And we're not done pursuing the single-entry contest idea just yet. I think we realize that it does need to be 15 teams, limited to 12 leagues or so and slightly different than the Main Event. We realize that FAAB is a big reason why some folks might not add another contest, so we need to look at that. Having FAAB every week might be too much and once a month might be too little. So we'll look at all of this.

But thanks for all the feedback. It always helps us open our eyes to the possibilities of what can be done with new and existing contests.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Umm, I'm not running it Dan! I'm just ready to play if they make the right decision. 🤟

I know. I meant good luck with it being a thing.

If it were me, I'd put a different spin on the contest.
Every other week FAAB, since everybody is in the same boat.
Best ball scoring to ease lineup decisions.
Having skin in another team with those kind of rules would make it easier on contestants time.
(Not as easy as your concept, of course, but it would be a help in time)

Something like that I might have interest in, too. Certainly much more interest than another lower-stakes but equally time-consuming overall contest.

And just to finish all this up before I head back to football. The single-entry lower stakes $1K was a success in football, I believe, because a) the single-entry concept does have appeal, and b) managing one more football team isn't a big deal. That said, it still took quite a while to sell out which leads me to believe the fate of a similar baseball contest would fall short as did last year's attempt.

The NFFC Silver Bullet did take time to sell out, but once leagues began selling out it didn't take long for the stragglers to grab those final spots. I really believe people were watching where the top players were going and waiting until they could grab one of the last spots in a league they felt comfortable with. It was definitely a strategy to sit back and wait, and maybe avoid someone like Chad. I'm convinced that was more of it than a lack of interest in the concept.

A baseball single-entry contest should have the same appeal. Hell, I keep hearing from owners who wish we'd go back to the old days of one team, one drafting day and everyone with the same knowledge and time before Opening Day. That just won't happen again, not only for us but for every other contest in this space. But a single-entry contest with the right setup should be appealing to some folks in the industry and we just have to keep pursuing the right format. Yeah, we failed last year and now we have to improve the format we offered last year.

We'll see. This isn't a guarantee for 2020 and we didn't even budget for this contest, but I think there's enough time to keep hammering out the concept and hopefully with continued feedback we'll figure out if the time is right for this or not. If not, no big deal. If so, good for all of us.

[KJ Duke]

Not sure how you pull off a bracket-style in baseball, but the most fun leagues each week in football are the Gridirons with weekly prizes and Guillotine with weekly eliminations. If there's a way to capture some of that weekly suspense to baseball I'm interested.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Not sure how you pull off a bracket-style in baseball, but the most fun leagues each week in football are the Gridirons with weekly prizes and Guillotine with weekly eliminations. If there's a way to capture some of that weekly suspense to baseball I'm interested.

We are toying with a Guillotine-style NFBC game now. Same type of format. Stay tuned.

Bracket-style game could be somewhat similar, but using existing teams (say Main Events). It would be head-to-head between two teams for multiple weeks with teams being eliminated down each time like an NCAA bracket until two teams are left. Not sure it can be done, but we are looking and it's something that I've wanted to do in football for years. It can work in baseball, too.

[COZ]

The NFFC Silver Bullet did take time to sell out, but once leagues began selling out it didn't take long for the stragglers to grab those final spots. I really believe people were watching where the top players were going and waiting until they could grab one of the last spots in a league they felt comfortable with. It was definitely a strategy to sit back and wait, and maybe avoid someone like Chad. I'm convinced that was more of it than a lack of interest in the concept.

A baseball single-entry contest should have the same appeal.

Finally, I think we are zeroing in on the big difference between the football Silver Bullet & Baseball: Chad Schroeder. The fact is he signs up for most, if not all, of the online contests and it seems to me some of the hard-core football guys felt a contest with one entry per owner would somehow level the playing field and minimize his dominance. I just don't see the same issue for baseball. For me, the Main Event still has the feel of a level playing field for the most part and thus I see no real necessity to minimize the number of teams entered by certain owners. I would be more inclined to play the Main Event than a single entry contest myself but of any of the ideas, I might opt for KJ's idea, but even then I'm not sure I would do that. Just my thoughts, I just don't see this taking off like in football.

As a side note, this idea of FAAB breaks just on completely random weeks for summer activities with the family & BBQing is silly and just dumbing down of the game. It's once a week, not daily. However, I feel a break the Sunday before the All-Star Game would be great and moving it to a mid-week Wednesday FAAB is an idea worthy of further discussion.

[homer35h]

I live in Iowa, so I haven't played NFBC since 2009,but still follow it all. Like the $500 entry point, but my favorite
part might be the 180 team limit. Keep it from lottery type contest. Just my two cents.

[Greg Ambrosius]

I live in Iowa, so I haven't played NFBC since 2009,but still follow it all. Like the $500 entry point, but my favorite
part might be the 180 team limit. Keep it from lottery type contest. Just my two cents.

First of all, we HAVE to get you back in the NFBC. Iowa has allowed us to be licensed now, but the licensing requirements are so onerous that we haven't gotten it done yet. We will keep talking and hopefully we can get Iowa away from the exempt list.

We shall see about the single-entry contest. Having 180 unique owners battling for a national title in a familiar format has its appeal, so we'll see. Keep the feedback coming.

[the icon]

so i was playing around and love this format myself. so with a 1k entry and a 90% payout 15 ppl leagues and 12 leagues 180 total teams. ive got 10k going to the league and 3.5k to the overall which is 42k and paying out top 5 overall.

overall payout league payout
1st 20k 1st 5k
2nd 10k 2nd 3k
3rd 6k 3rd 2k
4th 4k
5th 2k
i think the league payout is great and there is still a nice cherry on top if you have a great year. we roll with this out you'll need 179 more id be locked in and would even consider going to vegas to do this if need be.

[the icon]

so i was playing around and love this format myself. so with a 1k entry and a 90% payout 15 ppl leagues and 12 leagues 180 total teams. ive got 10k going to the league and 3.5k to the overall which is 42k and paying out top 5 overall.

overall payout /league payout
1st 20k 1st 5k
2nd 10k 2nd 3k
3rd 6k 3rd 2k
4th 4k
5th 2k
i think the league payout is great and there is still a nice cherry on top if you have a great year. we roll with this out you'll need 179 more id be locked in and would even consider going to vegas to do this if need be.