Here's The Plan For 2017 NFFC

[Greg Ambrosius]

It's time to launch the 2017 NFFC season, but before we do let's get everyone on the same page when it comes to where we do our drafts, how we do our drafts and how we run our teams this year. Here we go.

As most of you know, last year our high-stakes events -- the NFFC, NFBC and NFBKC -- were sold from STATS LLC to SportsHub Technologies. SportsHub is an upstart company that was founded by Rob Phythian, an FSTA Hall of Famer who co-founded Fanball and Fantasy Football Weekly with Paul Charchian back in the mid 1990s. Rob and Paul sold Fanball in 2005 (for a reported $22 million) and Rob later started Sports Data, which is now part of Sport Radar, a data company that competes directly with STATS.

Long story short, SportsHub is a technology based company that is starting to roll up other industry companies to possibly form one of the biggest pay-to-play services in the industry. SportsHub first acquired CDM Fantasy Sports and then purchased Sports Technologies, which runs games for the NCAA, NASCAR, the NFL and other leagues. After acquiring our high-stakes events, SportsHub then acquired LeagueSafe with Rob and Charch combining forces again. LeagueSafe will be the eWallet setup we will use for all of our games going forward, giving players much more flexibility with their prize money.

The move to SportsHub will provide all new software, mobile applications, new web sites and more. But all of that is going to take time to develop. If we're going to do this right, we need to develop every page on the site, create a new online draft room, develop and perfect our back-end system for all of our sports and more. We must fully test everything beforehand and make sure that our initial launch is ready for the type of growth we expect with enhanced features. We certainly know what you guys want to make your jobs easier and the new IT department has everything in front of them now. But again, it's going to take a full year to get all of this done.

This acquisition was finalized in October and our first launch of our new product will be baseball 2018. We have contracted with STATS to run our games through football 2017. Our NFBC members are currently on the same STATS platform this season and drafted online using the STATS HTML and Flash draft rooms. As I stated on another thread, it was a record-breaking year for the NFBC as we finished with over 8,600 teams and will pay out over $3 million in prizes.

So for the NFFC in 2017, there is no change when it comes to the back-end software. We are still on the STATS site using the same STATS draft room and in-season game management. We will add some small tweaks to improve the product -- like a new landing page, a link to Today's Drafts, and a few more wrinkles -- but the real changes will happen in 2018. Let's make this season work and plan for an even better tomorrow.

So here's the plan:

** STATS is working on the site now and we will launch the new site before the NFL Draft. I'll have a better idea of the timeline after tomorrow's meeting, but we've been guaranteed that everything will be done before April 27th.

** Once I know when the launch will be the first thing we'll do is create a signup thread for the Draft Champions Leagues and get them ready to go on the first day that the draft room is ready. The draft room should be ready when we launch, so plan accordingly. Our first DC last year was April 20th and we'll be in that range again this year.

** I have all of the Contest pages together already and will start posting the Rules, Prizes and Schedule of Events for each contest on the Message Boards shortly. This will allow everyone to plan ahead before the site goes live.

** We will have an Early Bird Special for our Classic and Primetime events with $100 off for each contest if you sign up by Friday, May 20th. Look for more details on that, but that's available again this year.

** Our live events this year will again be limited to New York and Las Vegas on Labor Day weekend (Sept. 1-2) and Las Vegas on Sept. 7-9. We do not have hotel contracts, but we have talked with our sales reps at the Bellagio and New York Hilton and have an idea on what is available for space. Tom is talking to a couple of hotels in New York now and should have more information soon. I have some work to do in Las Vegas, but we're getting closer.

** For the NFBC we partnered with SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio to broadcast our NFBC Ultimate League draft live. It was a four hour broadcast and it was great for the NFBC and great for the players. We will try to work that same deal with the New York Super League this year on Friday, Sept. 1st. No guarantees, but we're trying.

** Payments should be much faster through your Player Accounts this year. I need more details on all of this, but I believe we start this with baseball and football will use the same method. Again, more details to come.

** We remain on the same site for football and will use the same STATS software for drafts and in-season management. Everything will transfer over to the SportsHub platform starting in 2018.

** Once we start taking signups, we don't need any payment until Aug. 1st. You can sign up for contests at no risk and hopefully many of you do take advantage of our Early Bird Special. Lock down your spots early because definitely the high-stakes private leagues will sell out quickly. All past members of the Platinum, Diamond, Ultimate and Super Leagues have first dibs on spots through May 31st and after that we'll take new members for those leagues. You can definitely get on any of these lists before May 31st, but just remember we do honor last year's players first.

** Exempt States. This is still a work in progress. We became licensed in New York in March, so no concerns there. We continue to work with Indiana, Virginia, Tennessee and other states to remain in compliance and become licensed where needed. We have multiple games at this company now, so it makes sense to work with every state if possible. I'll have more details as I get them.

Hope this helps. I'll update or add to this as we move forward and look for contest information on the Message Board shortly. Thanks all and good luck this season.

[Coltsfan]

Thanks for the update Greg - it's great to hear what's happening! I"m glad that the new software isn't coming out til 2018. I was afraid that you were going to try and rush it this year and we would end up not drafting til August.

Speaking of not drafting. I did think that everything was worked out with all of the stats in the purchase of the nffc a few months ago. Now it sounds like it might not be. I know in Indiana that we are not allowed to sign up for leagues after April 1st. I sure hope the NFFC gets this done. I know Dave G has been lobbying Indiana hard with no success yet. If there is anything any of us can do let us know. I have zero connections with the congressman who authored the legislation. All I know is that he had never heard of season long high stakes fantasy football when he agreed to the bill banning it without a fee.


Wayne

[Greg Ambrosius]

Thanks for the update Greg - it's great to hear what's happening! I"m glad that the new software isn't coming out til 2018. I was afraid that you were going to try and rush it this year and we would end up not drafting til August.

Speaking of not drafting. I did think that everything was worked out with all of the stats in the purchase of the nffc a few months ago. Now it sounds like it might not be. I know in Indiana that we are not allowed to sign up for leagues after April 1st. I sure hope the NFFC gets this done. I know Dave G has been lobbying Indiana hard with no success yet. If there is anything any of us can do let us know. I have zero connections with the congressman who authored the legislation. All I know is that he had never heard of season long high stakes fantasy football when he agreed to the bill banning it without a fee.


Wayne

We are not rushing the new software out for any of our sports. We're going to get this right. I've seen some of the work already done and it's going to be nice.

I'm not sure what you're saying above, but what happened last year in Indiana was that the state allowed any fantasy game operator who was in business before the bill passed to continue running their business as usual until the state got the application ready. That is what allowed all of us to take Indiana residents. We continue to talk with them and in fact I know there was an update last week while I was in Las Vegas. We're having meetings next week and I'll get the latest state-by-state updates then and post here.

Hope that helps. We need more states to recognize the difference between season long and DFS. All of us are in favor of consumer protection, so let's protect the consumer and not just do a money grab from a hot industry.

[Coltsfan]

I shouldn't say it's banned in Indiana Greg, I should have said that operators have to pay the $50,000 fee as well as submit to all of the other crazy terms. None of the contests that are currently drafting accept residents from Indiana as of April 1st which I assume was the deadline for Indiana. Now the fee must be paid for us to sign up and draft.


Wayne

[Greg Ambrosius]

I apologize that the NFFC site isn't live yet and it won't be live until next week I was told today. It's not because Tom and I were busy with baseball or busy after our live events. We've had the changes ready for the 2017 season for some time, but we need to wait another week to have it go live.

One issue of note is that STATS will still make the site live and will run the back-end of the games this season. Everything will change over to SportsHub starting with baseball in November of 2017 for the 2018 NFBC season. SportsHub will process all credit card payments for football, however, so when you finally do pay for leagues you will see that CDM Fantasy Sports is processing your payment. Don't panic when you see that receipt. And when sending in checks, we will give you the SportsHub Accounting address, so don't send payment into STATS LLC.

The credit card transfer is a bigger process than we had wanted, so that is holding up our Draft Champions Leagues. We hope to get the first ones live in the next week and definitely before the NFL Draft, but first we need to get this finalized. Making sure the money is going into the right account has to be done first.

Also good news this year, SportsHub will take American Express credit cards, so NFFC owners can use that credit card again. Glad to have AmEx back with us.

More info to come soon. Thanks for your patience all as we transfer ever so slowly from STATS LLC to SportsHub Technologies.

[Big Cheese]

Sorry if I missed it but I haven't seen any updates recently about the status of Indiana residents playing season long in 2017. Seems like I remember seeing something awhile back about a July 1st deadline for signing up, pending legislation being finalized. Is this still the case? I typically don't like to draft until the pre-season is underway but was wondering if I need to sign up this week to secure some teams for this season... Thanks

[Greg Ambrosius]

Sorry if I missed it but I haven't seen any updates recently about the status of Indiana residents playing season long in 2017. Seems like I remember seeing something awhile back about a July 1st deadline for signing up, pending legislation being finalized. Is this still the case? I typically don't like to draft until the pre-season is underway but was wondering if I need to sign up this week to secure some teams for this season... Thanks

Yes, we have paid our licensing fee to Indiana and we're just waiting for the license from the state of Indiana and from the state of Virginia. We have completed forms for both states. Indiana is allowing us to continue taking signups through July 1st even if we didn't apply for a license, but I believe we can continue to take signups there after July 1st because we have applied for the license and paid in full. We were all hopeful that it would be done before July 1st and I'll check today, so you should be fine signing up later.

Virginia does not allow us to continue to run our business while our application is being processed, so unfortunately Virginia residents can't sign up for anything now. But we are confident that this will be done in the next month, so hang in their Virginia residents. We have every intention of being licensed in Virginia and Indiana despite the six-figure licensing fees. We are committed to both states long-term and will be there this year and for years to come with all of our games under the SportsHub Technologies brand. Thanks for your patience.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Sorry if I missed it but I haven't seen any updates recently about the status of Indiana residents playing season long in 2017. Seems like I remember seeing something awhile back about a July 1st deadline for signing up, pending legislation being finalized. Is this still the case? I typically don't like to draft until the pre-season is underway but was wondering if I need to sign up this week to secure some teams for this season... Thanks

It looks like Indiana has granted three licenses to DFS companies today and this article says that CDM also applied for a license. That would be the SportsHub Technologies license involving NFFC. Here's today's story and hopefully our license will be cleared soon:

http://www.heraldbulletin.com/news/fant ... 5954f.html