Fanball.com Acquires NFFC, F+W Fantasy Products

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 11:52 am

Originally posted by Ugly Yellow Tomatoes:
I was very happy with F+W ... but it's almost always better to be in the heart of the business model ... then an after thought or side business ... so the move to Fanball should be an improvement for the player.

I am pretty sure the MORE money you can make from sponsors and web advertising and larger numbers of entrants ... the better it will be for the player. I am looking forward to this.

Big Mike Thanks Mike. It was a comfortable feel with Krause Publications, but at the end of the day the fantasy sports division was less than 1% of the total revenue here and it was a publishing company. Folks have no idea how hard it was to really get folks' attention here to the fast moving fantasy sports industry. I worked 20 years at a publishing company in an Internet driven industry.

Now we are part of a division that is 100% fantasy and every part of the company thinks fantasy sports 24/7/365. I'll let Ryan and Charlie deal with Liberty and requests there, but they sure moved quickly on this deal and got it done with an obvious good deal for F+W. I believe Ryan began this process in May and here we are today. Pretty cool.

So everyone can feel good about our past performance under KP and F+W, but we're now part of an Internet driven, fantasy company with major media reach. This is going to be better, trust me.

Gordon Gekko II · Post by **Gordon Gekko II** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:06 pm

Congrats to Greg, Tom, Charlie, and Ryan! Time to build a monster!

Gordon Gekko II · Post by **Gordon Gekko II** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:07 pm

Also, what's the chances of getting some good eye candy working the drafts in NY?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:13 pm

Originally posted by Glenneration X:
I do have a few questions about the NFBC & NFFC future however based on past threads or current thoughts.....

-Greg, in a past thread you considered moving the live NYC draft to a new location. Does this move expedite that, is that now a non-consideration, or some other option? Being a Long Islander, I'm very curious about this.

-Greg, in another past thread you threw out the thought of having multiple Main Event draft dates with the possibility of owners purchasing multiple teams for the same Main Event. Where does this stand now that this deal has been made?

-Will the possibility of adding additional Main Events with multi-league grand prizes be added....such as a DC multi-league format or an Auction multi-league format?

-Will payout percentages increase in this deal? I have no worries about Fanball being able to pay considering its financial muscle and long history. I am curious that with that muscle and the new additional streams of income that will come due to cross-promotion, advertising, etc. if that can translate into greater profits for the NFBC/NFFC and a larger cut of the pie for the players.

Sorry about the long post & multiple questions, but this was a pretty big announcement.

Congratulations again,
Glenn Thanks for the kind comments Glenn. As I said before, you fit in perfectly with this group I've already assembled!!

We have no contracts in the East Coast for baseball yet and none in Chicago. We have the Flamingo for the NFBC and that's it. It was a no-brainer deal with hotel rooms during March Madness on the Strip at $109 a night. For football 2010, Ryan has bigger and better plans.

To be honest, we may have a couple of East Coast locations for baseball. We're looking at one offer that could really blow folks away and we'd likely stay there for football too. Ryan has bigger expansion plans than I can handle, but that's good for the players if we promote this right. So NYC is an option, but it's not our only option out there.

We're the only contest that doesn't have multiple dates for the main event. I'm not against it, it's just that I love the national contest with everyone starting simultaneously and everyone having one team. That's just me. Maybe the economics will change those plans, but for 2009 that's our setup. Tom talks about the pressure of that 2004 draft right before we started and the pressure came from me in Las Vegas because I told all three cities that we MUST start at the exact same time and we WON'T wait for anyone. We established that early and our guys know that if they snooze by 1 minute we are going without them.

You know, history has shown us that you can expand too fast too quickly and just because we're with a bigger fantasy company we'd be foolish to guarantee huge prizes in many different events that at this point haven't shown a track record of having big attendance. I've told everyone who will listen that our key is selling out each event, no matter what that number is. The NFFC Primetime has no chance to be a big money maker even if we sell out, but the main event doubleheader and lower price point makes sense right now. Guaranteeing grand prizes that we most likely won't reach in many other events is dumb business and I won't do it.

So I guess my answer is that I'm a conservative guy, I think we can expand conservatively and in more sports and more ways, but you won't see us make the same mistakes that others have when they thought this imaginary market was out there just waiting for us to grab their wallets. The high-stakes fantasy space is extremely limited with players and thinking this is the World Series of Poker is poor judgement.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:20 pm

Originally posted by Gordon Gekko II:
Also, what's the chances of getting some good eye candy working the drafts in NY? See, I knew once I brought back that image of that FX Sports girl in 2004 with the Bengals tattoo in the right place you'd have your mind in the gutter.

I don't think we'll have the eye candy this year as our main focus on Draft Day is:

a) having facilitators that can recite the alphabet
b) having facilitators that know what each position is in football
c) having facilitators that know the names of the players
and d) having facilitators that know how to place a sticker on the board

Most eye candy can't do any of those!!!

But you are right, it does make the drafts feel better.

King of Queens · Post by **King of Queens** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:31 pm

I have only one question for Greg: Shouldn't you be out drinking?

This is great news for all of us. Heck, we should all be out drinking!

Shrink Attack · Post by **Shrink Attack** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:37 pm

Greg...do you think we'll get back to weekly prizes for the high scores?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:42 pm

Originally posted by King of Queens:
I have only one question for Greg: Shouldn't you be out drinking?

This is great news for all of us. Heck, we should all be out drinking!

I'm at home drinking!!!

It's a good day for all of us, you are right.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:43 pm

Originally posted by Shrink Attack:
Greg...do you think we'll get back to weekly prizes for the high scores? Of course we'll have weekly prizes in the NFFC. We had them last year, we just didn't announce it until later in the year. Every weekly winner in both contest got NFL Replica jerseys from FansEdge.com.

I think Ryan has better connections than me in the memorabilia field, as you can see by our Fence Sitter's Special giveaways. Look for a list of items for the Weekly Prizes by Week 1.

trueblue · Post by **trueblue** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:59 pm

greg

you mentioned earlier about drink tickets.
do us chicagoans qualify?

bill