Phenoms fantasy sports not paying out prizes...

[boutrous11]

Sucks. Really liked that they had football auctions and a variety of league types. seemed legit, i'm going to cash in at least one league there, won't be getting paid.

It is with deep regret that I inform you that Phenom Enterprises, LLC, ('Phenoms') will be unable to meet the full prize money obligations for the 2014 football season, barring any last minute deals. A portion should be available, estimated to be between 20 and 40%.

In November of 2013, Phenoms hired a web development company to develop a full fantasy league hosting platform. This software development would eliminate the need for Phenoms to use Myfantasyleague, Fantrax, and ESPN to handle drafts, auctions, and league management. The idea was to deliver an excellent web experience. The developer's estimate for the project was $200,000, an amount affordable to Phenoms, and was to be completed prior to 2014's football season. So far, the project has exceeded $630,000 in development costs, and is still not complete (despite being several months behind schedule). It is Phenoms' opinion that if the site had been completed in time and on-budget, Phenoms would have had no trouble meeting the financial commitments of the company and would continue to be a profitable operation for many years to come. Phenoms is weighing legal action against the developer.

In order to fix the problems caused by the delay in the site, Phenoms has conducted an extensive search to find interested investors to provide Phenoms with a capital infusion. Despite numerous meetings and serious discussions, Phenoms has not been able to secure funding. Barring any last-minute deal, Phenoms will be forced to sell off the software code that has been written and the player database to reduce the shortfall in prize money. If anyone has any interest in taking over Phenoms as-is or buying the software, please email me immediately. This is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of investment, merely a request for interested parties to contact me to learn more.

Before the end of the month, Phenoms will provide you with additional information regarding these matters. At that time, information will be made available regarding the claiming of prize money and deposits, the future of the dynasty/keeper style leagues, and the ongoing NBA and NHL leagues. It is expected that NBA and NHL leagues will be canceled with entry fees refunded. Dynasty/keeper league deposits may be refunded in full. You may email me with any questions or concerns. I will maintain open lines of communication throughout the winding down process.

As the owner and manager of Phenoms, I take ultimate responsibility for all that has transpired. You were counting on the prize money. You encouraged friends to join, putting your own reputation on the line. You have spent time managing and building your fantasy teams. I am deeply sorry that Phenoms has failed you. I can only ask for your forgiveness.

Sincerely,
Michael Zangrilli

[KenGill]

Incompetent management -- the entire world must be off it's rocker.... $200K for a website that didn't appear to be needed? And then costs more than TRIPLED, and the guy didn't cancel the project well before it got to this point?

Although unlike the creeps (or fill in your own word) who ran those other high stakes league that failed, at least this guy seems to have some clean, although far too late.

Play here, people. Problem solved.

[BillyWaz]

Yep.....I got robbed by Fantasy Jungle and those guys are every bit the scum of the Earth that the WCOFF clan are, and it totally sucks. Luckily, the Fantasy Jungle experience helped me get out of WCOFF the year before the disaster.

I agree with KenGill.....play HERE. You are guaranteed to get paid.

[Greg Ambrosius]

I just say this via email from one of our customers and it just SICKENS me. I went over to FootballGuys.com to see a 4-page thread on this subject as he seemed to be a regular on that site. Looks like thousands of owners were affected and close to $1 million in prizes, according to some posters. I'm going to look further into this and talk with some people on the FSTA board who may know him better. This is utterly ridiculous.

This is the same excuse that Neil gave at AFFL.com. They didn't want to pay a third-party provider, decided to hire a programmer and then got too expensive to finish. Somehow all of the prize money went towards the developer???? Who does that? C'mon, this is crazy.

We hate to see so many die-hard fantasy players hurt this way. It's just totally ridiculous, but just like in the cases of AFFL, Fantasy Jungle, WCOFF, Ant Sports and others, consumers thought they knew this owner and could trust him. Turned out he was a good guy, a fantasy football die-hard, and a bad businessman. Or worse.

Sucks for the entire industry. We've had worse black eyes, but this is definitely another one. I'm going to see if I can learn more about this one.

[BLACKHAND]

i know that a bunch of you play the other couple contests and thats cool...... as for me , greg and tom are the only guys i trust 100% without a thought of any problems. it's a good feeling not to even think about payout problems.

[Glenneration X]

Yeah, played at Phenoms for the first time this year in a Dynasty start up. I checked them out and they seemed like an honest outfit and came recommended by others in our high stakes community. I guess you never know.

I spent this first season mostly building a team for the future. Little did I know there would be no future.

I'm assuming my deposit might be lost now. Even worse is the year spent trying to create a "Dynasty" team.

I guess after what WCOFF did to me and others, along with some other contests that stole from people, it's not as shocking as it used to be. Still, extremely disappointing. After a couple years of quiet news on the defaulting front, this year saw both Phenoms and Antsports go under. From now on, I'm sticking with who I know.

[boutrous11]

i would only do NFFC leagues, but I want:
lower that $150 buyins
auction leagues
2 qb leagues
draft only leagues (that have the other things i've mentioned)

snake drafts bore me compared to auction leagues.

these leagues don't exist at a major, well known site.


edit: wow, look at all of the phenoms leagues:
http://football99.myfantasyleague.com/2 ... &submit=Go

[Jim Christie]

I wouldn't give my hard earned money to those other sites; have not played Fantrax, etc. love listening to my gut

[TR]

i know that a bunch of you play the other couple contests and thats cool...... as for me , greg and tom are the only guys i trust 100% without a thought of any problems. it's a good feeling not to even think about payout problems.

DITTO...this is the only high stakes contest I will ever participate in!

[Greg Ambrosius]

I'm not sure what ticked me off more today, this announcement or the way my Packers played today!! Okay, it was the Packers' pitiful effort that ticked me off the most today. I guess we finally found out what it's like to cheer for a team with a mortal QB. Geez Rodgers was terrible today. Did he get in a spat with Olivia last night or what?

Honestly guys, it's not that tough to run a contest while holding prize money to the side and paying off expenses with some of the non-prize money. You don't EVER dip into prize money for operating expenses, but yet we've seen that time and time again from one-man game operators. It's crazy. And as we all know, some of these guys run very reputable businesses for years, pay out high percentages and then realize they're not really making a good profit and make decisions that become lethal for the company and players. It's a pattern we've seen too often.

I don't blame folks for trying out other games, but unfortunately there are few guarantees in this space. I can think of a couple and that's it. The DFS space is volatile as well and hopefully all of those game operators are well backed. As time goes on, we need to keep adding unique games or formats that you like elsewhere so that there's no reason to play anywhere else. That's on us to make that possible. Good luck all and hopefully few people here got burned over there.