Greg and Tom Will Host Live Chat Thursday 10 AM ET

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 8:00 am

Okay, before I head to Phoenix for the AL and NL LABR auctions with Mr. Shawn Childs, I thought I'd hold a Live Chat with Tom and our NFBC members. This is more for me than you!! I need tough questions so that I can look up the answers and be semi-prepared for Shawn this week!!

So don't hold back with the tough questions.

I'll also answer any and all NFBC/NFFC/STATS/Fanball questions you may have. Let's have fun with this and make a morning of it. Then I have to hit the road and fly to Sun City. So we'll have a couple of hours to converse and then it's time to split.

Go ahead, load us up with some questions today so that I have PLENTY of time to sound smart tomorrow.

Thanks all.

bjoak · Post by **bjoak** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 8:10 am

Sooo...about those ADPs. When might we get a set?

How about some typical rounds for the faster guys?

Pierre

Davis

Abreu

Bourn

Roberts

Bourjos

Brantley

Thanks!

[ March 02, 2011, 03:21 PM: Message edited by: bjoak ]

Quahogs · Post by **Quahogs** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 8:48 am

Any thoughts on getting a first mover January rag on the market ? I always thought it was a good vehicle to carry the event to the uninformed.

Net net is producing a magazine a money maker or is it more work than it's worth ?

Thunder · Post by **Thunder** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 9:23 am

Greg/Tom

who do you like?

Prince or Howard

Morneau or Morales

is Cargo your #1 outfielder?

what do you expect from Sizemore and Beltran this year? or is it simply too early to tell?

[ March 02, 2011, 05:06 PM: Message edited by: Kentucky Reign ]

bjoak · Post by **bjoak** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 11:55 am

Greg,

Can you talk a bit about how you got hooked up with STATS for the big deal? Have they expressed interest in the NFBC in the past? Were you calling them about the back-end and they expressed interest in the whole enterprise? Did you call different companies and they bit? Something else?

crazytown · Post by **crazytown** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 12:59 pm

Guys,

A couple of auction values/questions.

Would you pay more than $30 for Utley?

How high would you go on Greinke?

Would you pay more than $20 on Posey?

wahooblue · Post by **wahooblue** » Wed Mar 02, 2011 3:33 pm

Greg and Tom,

Now that the NFBC has parted ways with Fanball, what is the likelihood of St. Louis not being a draft location for 2012 ?

ScottieBaseball · Post by **ScottieBaseball** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:16 am

Greg, many thanks to you and Tom for keeping this thing going. I know we all appreciate your efforts and know that you have been working your butts off but those Coronas are coming soon!

My question is in preparing for the upcoming Auction drafts, what was the highest dollar player bid on last year? Just trying to get an idea where the range was for the top tier players compared to the mid range players. Also, the draft for the "leftovers" at the end of the auction draft is really interesting. Do you think guys will hold off on some players hoping to draft them later to save their free agent money?

Thanks!

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:08 am

Originally posted by Quahogs:

Any thoughts on getting a first mover January rag on the market ? I always thought it was a good vehicle to carry the event to the uninformed.

Net net is producing a magazine a money maker or is it more work than it's worth ? We are working on that. We'd definitely like to get back on newsstands with another magazine. Not only is a great branding opportunity for our events but Fantasy Sports Magazine has a rich history with fantasy players and it's unfortunate that Fanball decided to end it for this year. But we hope to be back on newsstands, possibly for football. Stay tuned.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:09 am

Okay, the floor is open for questions. I'm sorry I'm late, but I've been running around trying to get packed for today's trip to Phoenix. Plus I'm trying to download this crazy Excel spreadsheet that Shawn sent me with our AL and NL dollar values. I swear he's not sending me everything just to keep me in the dark during these auctions!!

He's got another surprise up his sleeve and he better share it with Mr. Heart Attack here first.

Should be fun.

Okay, here we go. I don't have any prepared answers, so bare with me as I do some quick typing.

Babe Ruthless · Post by **Babe Ruthless** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:10 am

Thanks for the great job you did to get the NFBC going this year.

Are you or Tom in a baseball leagues?

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:11 am

Originally posted by Kentucky Reign:

Greg/Tom

who do you like?

Prince or Howard

Morneau or Morales

is Cargo your #1 outfielder?

what do you expect from Sizemore and Beltran this year? or is it simply too early to tell? I'd go with Howard and Morales. I love Morneau but I feel better about Morales and as good as Prince is, I don't think you can take him over Howard given Fielder's lack of RBI output last season.

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:12 am

I think it's too early to tell for Sizemore and Beltran although of the two I'd probably gamble on Beltran. I think I've reached the point where I'm washing my hands of Sizemore.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:17 am

Originally posted by Quahogs:

Any thoughts on getting a first mover January rag on the market ? I always thought it was a good vehicle to carry the event to the uninformed.

Net net is producing a magazine a money maker or is it more work than it's worth ? I am still confident that we will be able to buy back Fantasy Sports Magazine, but that isn't done yet. I'd also like to see us get back into the custom publishing industry and produce magazines for other websites like we did before, thus helping us cross-promote our games with those products and getting some draft magazines into your hands on Draft Day. That would be fun again.

My plan would be to produce just one magazine for baseball and one for football. Doing two per sport is too tough now with advertising dollars dried completely up. So we'd probably hit newsstands around Feb. 15th for baseball and July 15th for football. With any luck, we'll still have time to do a football magazine in 2011 and find a way to put your pretty mug inside. Our NFFC champion, Tom Carbone, will grace the cover!!

King of Queens · Post by **King of Queens** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:19 am

At the conclusion of the 2011 season, what do you feel a realistic date would be for all NFBC winners to be paid?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:21 am

Originally posted by bjoak:

Greg,

Can you talk a bit about how you got hooked up with STATS for the big deal? Have they expressed interest in the NFBC in the past? Were you calling them about the back-end and they expressed interest in the whole enterprise? Did you call different companies and they bit? Something else? It's a great question Brian and it's funny that there isn't a business reporter in the industry asking the same questions. There are two "business" stories, if you call them that, out there now where the people copied and pasted my posts from the Message Boards to write the story. How lame. Obviously I legally had to watch what I could say during the negotiations and I was trying to let you guys know that I felt things would work out while not ruining the negotiations. It was a very fine line that was difficult for me because I didn't want all of your folks leaving the NFBC for another game, yet there was no guarantee that this would work out. I was very confident after the first discussion with the rep at Liberty that we'd reach a deal, but nothing is certain.

So give me a few minutes and I'll write this answer in full because I do want to get this out there. Thanks.

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:25 am

Originally posted by crazytown:

Guys,

A couple of auction values/questions.

Would you pay more than $30 for Utley?

How high would you go on Greinke?

Would you pay more than $20 on Posey? I'd probably top out at $30 for Utley. If healthy, we're talking about someone with 30-20 potential so I think it's worth being aggressive for that given his talent.

I've never been one to pay aggressively for top-line starters so my approach may be different from some in that regard. I typically top out around $20 or so for my No. 1 starter so that's probably where I'd go for Greinke. Honestly, though, I'd probably let people chase after Greinke and have my eyes on Marcum. I think he's the better value play.

I wouldn't pay $20 for any catcher, even one with additional eligibility. So my answer would be no on Posey even though I like him a lot. Catcher is like tight ends in football with me. I'll let others chase the top-tier guys and I'll try and bargain shop.

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:27 am

Originally posted by Babe Ruthless:

Thanks for the great job you did to get the NFBC going this year.

Are you or Tom in a baseball leagues? I'm not in as many baseball leagues as I once was. I need to get into a really good one again. I think I'll come up with a fake name and sign up for the NFBC.

Likewhat17 · Post by **Likewhat17** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:27 am

When do you anticipate players drafting the 2nd weekend of the main will receive their draft slots?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:28 am

Originally posted by King of Queens:

At the conclusion of the 2011 season, what do you feel a realistic date would be for all NFBC winners to be paid? If the season ends in late September this year, you should certainly have your payments before Halloween. Honestly, it's just not that hard to end the season, figure out the winners and get checks out.

Our process will be to get all of the winners on a spreadsheet and this year that could be over 600 cash winners from 200 or so leagues. That takes a day or two for Tom to get all of that together and get it in the form that STATS will need it in. Then you need to verify the winners, make sure you have W-9s for everyone and get it set up in accounting and all of that takes 1-2 weeks. And then you physically need to print and mail the checks.

The key this year will be getting a simple online process to retain your W-9s on file. I'm not sure those transferred with the acquisition, so we may need to start from scratch. But once the process is set up, this should be easy and checks should be able to go out in 3-4 weeks, max. That's my hope at least for this year and every year/sport going forward. STATS doesn't have a lot of games, so we should be able to do this.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:45 am

Originally posted by bjoak:

Greg,

Can you talk a bit about how you got hooked up with STATS for the big deal? Have they expressed interest in the NFBC in the past? Were you calling them about the back-end and they expressed interest in the whole enterprise? Did you call different companies and they bit? Something else? Okay, here you go:

While I knew there were some rumblings that Liberty wasn't totally pleased with Fanball, I never expected them to shut down operations without selling to another company. It just never seemed like that was the way they would go considering Fanball was the largest pay-to-play company in the industry. So the scenario that played out just didn't seem possible.

But on Christmas Eve I heard that they might shut down operations and still pay all customers. They just didn't want to continue in the space and wanted to end operations after 2010 games were done. Then the employees were told that was going to happen on Dec. 28th and for a week the industry knew the rumor while the employees were not officially told about anything until Tuesday, Jan. 4th. That week of hanging out in the wind naked was the worst time.

When Liberty did officially inform the employees they announced that everyone would still be employed for the next six weeks and they wanted everyone to finish their jobs, make sure all games that were continuing were run well and to help make sure all winners would get paid. I thought it was fair, even though I was still in shock about the company just folding.

That day I did have a conversation about an asset purchase of the NFBC and NFFC and the conversation was very positive. I had thought about all of this over the previous week and I knew exactly what I needed to do. I knew that I was NOTHING without technology. Yes, I could have probably consolidated the games with another high-stakes provider, but at the end of the day neither one of us owned the technology. So to me, consolidating high-stakes games that owned zero code wasn't the smart thing to do. I know this area of the business well enough to realize that the back-end service is a huge yearly expense and I liked what we were doing at Fanball in owning the code. And I always had a great, great relationship with the guys at STATS, so there was no doubt in my mind where my first phone call was going.

I made the phone call to my buddy at STATS and he answered the phone from Switzerland. Those guys were working on some international soccer championship and we talked briefly. He was flying to Qatar next. But I briefly told him what I had in mind and there was no doubt that ownership and a partnership was what I was proposing. I wanted us both to be incentivized to put all our efforts into making this work and just hiring them as a back-end provider wouldn't be smart for either of us. So we were on the same page right from the get-go and one trip down to Chicago had both sides on the same page. I think we both know what we can do together in this space, we now own the code and can make it perfect for everything we want to do in baseball, football, basketball, hockey, racing, etc., and this is now a more viable business because we are together.

As for me calling different companies, yes, I did have a few options. But again, people need to realize that the options for back-end software that you just hire to run your games is limited to really 2 or 3 companies. And the amount we pay those companies to cow-tow to your every needs is so small that I'm not sure how much longer these companies will do this for the prices we want to pay. That's why I knew that I had to own the technology with a company that was committed to this space. In my mind, STATS was one of the only options and they became the best option when they showed me their vision.

Remember, they hired me as the General Manager of Consumer Fantasy Contests and our goal is to expand our consumer fantasy games model. The NFBC and the NFFC are just the start. We want to host salary cap games and a variety of other fantasy games in house and we have the technology to make this work. The NFBC and NFFC are just the start of what we hope will be the top pay-to-play game provider in the industry. I have a lot of work to do in that area, but that's our goal.

Hopefully this makes more sense and thanks again for the question.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:54 am

Originally posted by bjoak:

Sooo...about those ADPs. When might we get a set?

How about some typical rounds for the faster guys?

Pierre

Davis

Abreu

Bourn

Roberts

Bourjos

Brantley

Thanks! We have to get accounting rolled out and our back-end Admin finished before we get to ADPs. If we don't charge you folks for these contests pretty soon we'll never have any money for ADPs.

Stay tuned for those.

Here are four recent Slow Draft results with these players (Round and pick in that round):

Pierre: 6.15, 6.6, 6.12, 9.11

Davis: 9.3, 9.3, 8.9, 10.6

Abreu: 10.11, 11.9, 11.9, 13.13

Bourn : 9.15, 9.5, 9.2, 7.9

Roberts: 11.13, 11.8, 12.3, 13.3

Bourjos: 14.3, 17.9, 21.1, 21.4

Brantley: 21.11, 15.6, 22.15, 26.5

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 3:58 am

Originally posted by wb:

Greg and Tom,

Now that the NFBC has parted ways with Fanball, what is the likelihood of St. Louis not being a draft location for 2012 ? I'm very happy that we now have one full Main Event league and one full Live Double Play league in St. Louis. Because our home office was located there and we have staffers who live right there, it made economical sense to host drafts there. And again, we're happy to have full leagues there again and it should be a good, good time for everyone involved. Pujols 5 is a very nice setup and we have the entire conference room inside the restaurant for ourselves. With just one league being held there, it should be perfect.

That being said, I would think that next year we'll look this over closely and see if maybe there isn't a better option in the Midwest. Hey, Atlantic City isn't overwhelming us at this point so maybe St. Louis isn't so bad after all. But with new costs involved next year, maybe we'll move out of St. Louis. We'll see.

King of Queens · Post by **King of Queens** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:02 am

Greg, do you have any surprises in store for Shawn?

Tom, any passion and energy planned for the weekend?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:03 am

Originally posted by Kentucky Reign:

Greg/Tom

is Cargo your #1 outfielder?

He is for me. Heck, when you look at those incredible Coors Field numbers he put up last year -- .380-26-76 -- it's hard not to make him the top outfielder. Ryan Braun is definitely right behind him and I like Carl Crawford at Fenway Park as a Top 10 pick. I wouldn't let him out of the Top 10, that's for sure. So those three are my top outfielders.