Phenoms fantasy sports not paying out prizes...

[Cocktails and Dreams]

If his story is true, he obviously knew when he took our money this year for entry fees. Our entry fees going to pay for his shitty decionmaking is garbage. Just pathetic.

[Pitch12]

I mean, how can you trust ANYONE? There's been so many of these stories. You are trusting your money over the Internet. So for people to say "Oh no, I trusted so and so". You really are playing with fire if you have that mentality.

Once upon a time, Bernie Madoff was one of the most trusted money managers. And look how that turned out.

[Greg Ambrosius]

If his story is true, he obviously knew when he took our money this year for entry fees. Our entry fees going to pay for his shitty decionmaking is garbage. Just pathetic.

This is the same story that AFFL used, right? I mean, do people really pay $400,000+ to a programmer using the entry fees? If so, why wouldn't you just keep your business on MFL.com? There's no way he was paying anything close to that to a third-party operator, right? This is all too crazy to believe/understand.

[kjduke]

Once upon a time, Bernie Madoff was one of the most trusted money managers. And look how that turned out.

No he wasn't. He accumulated a lot of assets based on relationships and his stature in a former role. He did not pass without red flags on a number of levels for those who did proper due diligence. Same for fantasy - if you don't want to lose money from shaky start-up operations.

[THEICON]

Yea this sucks it was my 2nd year playing a dynasty leauge there. And joined a basketballleauge this year. Thank god they only got 200 of my money. Hopefully I'll get my 50 for basketball and my 50 deposit for football back but we shall see. Mike the owner seemed like a good guy I've personally talked to him on the phone. But like greg said you should never dip in the prize money. Secured account ideally.

[boutrous11]

turns out i cashed in 3 leagues this year out of 14 or so. and 2 of them were Phenoms leagues!!!

[Greg Ambrosius]

I hate to bring up bad news, but does anyone know if Phenoms Fantasy Sports or Ultimate Fantasy Sports ever paid out their prizes last year? I heard that UFS told its customers that it was going under as well, so I'm curious to find out if either of these contests paid their winners in 2014. We don't want to lose industry players if possible and we'll try to help here if we can like we've done before.

We hate it when other industry contests can't pay off their winnings and we've seen this far too often. Let's do all we can to keep those good fantasy players in the industry and let them know there are other good contests around who will GUARANTEE that their prizes will be paid in full and in a timely fashion.

If there is a Phenoms Fantasy Sports player or UFS player out there who has never played in the NFFC before and didn't get paid by those game operators, send them our way and we'll give them a 10% discount on any 2015 NFFC game. This is our way of trying to keep good players in the industry and it's something we've done before. We don't want to lose good players because of bad management, so if you have friends in those contests who are turned off by our industry please turn them our way. If they are first-time players here, we'll make it worth their time and effort to try the NFFC. We know they will love it here and stay for years.

Many people will remember in 2009 when Jared Danielsen and his buddies won a grand prize and didn't receive any payment from that company. We personally reached out to him and gave him a deal to play here. At the time he said he was so fed up with the industry that he was going to walk away from it and all of his buddies felt the same way. We're sure glad we reached out to Jared then because he's now one of the best players we have in the NFFC and he continues to play more of our contests and he continues to meet more people in Chicago, Las Vegas and Online. The industry should feel lucky that we didn't lose him and his gang of die-hards.

Hopefully we can do the same thing with this offer to Phenoms and UFS customers. Spread the word and let's keep those folks playing in the pay-to-play space. Thanks all.

[Cocktails and Dreams]

Another of your competitors asked me if they should do something about Phenoms. Much more than a ten percent discount. I advised no. It pisses off your current clients that got stiffed far more than the business it will drum up out of the blue offering a ten percent discount. Some of your best clients also got stiffed. Something to keep in mind. It comes across as using a negative situation to try and drum up business, rather than really giving a shit about people getting stiffed to me.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Another of your competitors asked me if they should do something about Phenoms. Much more than a ten percent discount. I advised no. It pisses off your current clients that got stiffed far more than the business it will drum up out of the blue offering a ten percent discount. Some of your best clients also got stiffed. Something to keep in mind. It comes across as using a negative situation to try and drum up business, rather than really giving a shit about people getting stiffed to me.

Having been in this industry Chad for 26 years and seeing more companies go under than I ever imagined, I can promise you that I do give a shit. I'd love to help everyone who was affected by Phenoms and UFS, but I can't. If the Phenoms customers go away forever because of these bad business practices, that's a shame and not good for anyone in the industry. If one of them continues to play because of any promotion we tried or someone else tried, good for all of us. If they play with one of our competitors because of a better offer, then I'm still happy because at least we didn't lose them completely. I honestly don't care how it looks because we do want to keep these players in the industry and it's the same type of offer we made when WCOFF folded and other companies folded.

And unfortunately, I doubt it's the last time we make this offer. Let's hope nobody else folds without paying prize money this year, but the odds are against that from happening.

[nails]

Greg, I agree with your take on this 100%. 1. knowing you the way I do and everyone knows.. you do care.. that is the main reason I play in your league over the ffpc. im not crazy about management over there.. I don't get feeling they really care about their players.. I KNOW you do. but I also know this is a business.. you have to increase your base and this is a great opportunity to do that and I don't care that they are getting a discount for playing here.. it's a tough business... and I know simply getting their base is not the intent here.. but you also have to make money which everyone needs to understand.

Mike.