The New SportsHub FAAB Software For NFFC 2018

[Greg Ambrosius]

This is something we posted on the NFBC Message Boards last month, but with the 2018 NFFC season just a few months away, let's get it on these boards as well.

At this year's live drafts, we promised everyone a better FAAB setup in 2018 under SportsHub Technologies and we are well on our way to delivering that. While we have a lot of items we hope to improve on our new sites in 2018, nothing is more important than saving you time each week during the season on FAAB. It's the one area that has limited our growth from year to year.

I've heard from enough owners that they've either cut back on the number of teams they've taken in past years with us or from owners who have quit altogether with the NFFC because FAAB took up too much of their time each week. It's one of the reasons why the Draft Champions format is so successful. And while we can't eliminate FAAB completely, we will do everything we can to make that FAAB process less time consuming. One way is to give you the ability to Search for free agents across all of your teams with the click of one button. After that setting up FAAB bid threads needs to be easier.

Tom and I have worked closely with our programmers to get everything you need for a better experience in the NFFC. We have looked at all aspects of the new software and much of it will debut this baseball season and be tested and ready to go for 2018 NFFC. FAAB has been a top priority in all of our tech conversatoins and the programmers know what needs to be done. It's going to be much better everyone, I promise. And our FAAB setup under STATS was good, but we're going to make that even better.

Let's tackle the issues one by one and if I missed anything please chime in. Here we go:

1. Conditional Bids will be exactly the same as we had it with STATS, which I think was set up as the best in the industry. Once you make a bid for a player, you can then click on Conditional Bids and hit 10 players in 10 seconds to load at $1 each. You still have to change the bid amounts, but all of this will be the same. However, one nice addition is that we'll have a drag 'n drop process to move players up and down more easily on your bid threads. I think STATS had this but it didn't seem to work very well. This will work easily and quickly.

We will default the Player List to Percent Owned and this part will be much improved. We will have % Owned and % Active based on the size of the contests. So Cutline percentages will be just for 10-team contests; Online Championship % Owned and Active will be just for 12-team contests; and Classic & Primetime will be just for those contests. STATS had one % Owned and one % Active FAAB list and it even included Draft Champions leagues, which really threw off the % Owned totals. These will be separate for each format and DCs won't be included. The rest of that page will have all of the same features, including the drop-down box that takes you to your other teams, right to the FAAB list.

2. We have developed a system that will allow you to click on any Free Agent name and find out if he is available in any of your leagues. This is going to be as easy as this: Click on Ricky Seals-Jones in your FAAB list of players and his player box will pop out showing you the list of 30 teams you have and a note that Yes or No he's available in your leagues. I think that action will allow you to bid on him right from that player page in each league. I'm certain that this one click will show you which leagues he's available in and you won't have to go to every league to find that out. In fact, do this for as many free agents as you want from this one page and keep a tally of which leagues they are available in before finally setting up all of these bid threads.

3. This same concept will work if looking for a player on any of your rosters. Again, let's say you have Ezekiel Elliott on your Main Event team and today his suspension is final. You now want to see which leagues you have him in since you have 30 of them and you click on his name from that roster. His player box pops out and shows you the teams you have him on. Again, I'm not sure what action can happen after that because we're not done with this, but that's the concept.

4. As for the FAAB process, we will continue to run FAAB by the highest dollar amount on any bid, no matter what the preference order. It will run the same as before, but just wanted to point that out.

5. Watch List: We are developing a Watch List for baseball that will allow you to keep a handy list of players -- free agents and drafted players -- and have you see their availability across all of your leagues. Rather than do a team-by-team Watch List, this will be your personal Watch List that encompasses all of your teams and leagues.

I think that covers FAAB. Again, we already have a good start on all of this and when it is done and styled to the new NFBC pages we will post some screen shots and have a group of owners test it out. We can post those images and comments on the NFFC boards, too. Heck, we can have a different test group well in advance of the start of the season here too in order to check it out and report to others on it. We know this is important to you as you plan your season ahead, so anything we can show you in advance to prove our point is helpful. Count on it.

I hope this helps. Again, if I missed anything or if you see anything that could save you time even more let us know. We are trying to make playing in the NFFC more enjoyable and less time consuming. Thanks all and good luck the rest of this season. Then get ready for an earlier and better 2018 NFFC season.

[Sandman62]

This is great news guys! I actually enjoy the whole weekly FAAB process, but am definitely in favor of some software improvements.

A few thoughts:

2. We have developed a system that will allow you to click on any Free Agent name and find out if he is available in any of your leagues. This is going to be as easy as this: Click on Ricky Seals-Jones in your FAAB list of players and his player box will pop out showing you the list of 30 teams you have and a note that Yes or No he's available in your leagues. I think that action will allow you to bid on him right from that player page in each league. I'm certain that this one click will show you which leagues he's available in and you won't have to go to every league to find that out. In fact, do this for as many free agents as you want from this one page and keep a tally of which leagues they are available in before finally setting up all of these bid threads.

LOVE LOVE LOVE the Cross-league Watch List! I've suggested that to friends many times in conversations. That's actually how I start my research each week - by first building a non-league-specific target list of players. Then I go hunting through my leagues to see where they're available.

From that page, beyond just showing us a Yes or No, can the Yes be made a hyperlink, so we can jump directly to the FAAB page in that league (and shift to that player's position)? Then, throughout the week, as we return to this page, instead of just showing Yes/No, if we've already placed bids on a player, show the bid amount(s)? That way, we know we've already addressed that league. Still offer the Yes hyperlink though (or turn my bid into a hyperlink), so that as the week progresses and more news comes out, we can jump back in to alter our bids.

3. This same concept will work if looking for a player on any of your rosters. Again, let's say you have Ezekiel Elliott on your Main Event team and today his suspension is final. You now want to see which leagues you have him in since you have 30 of them and you click on his name from that roster. His player box pops out and shows you the teams you have him on. Again, I'm not sure what action can happen after that because we're not done with this, but that's the concept.

As I suggested above, hopefully "shows you the teams" means "provides a direct hyperlink to each league you have him in to the FAAB page for that player's specific position".

[Cocktails and Dreams]

Nearly all of your competition has a way to set lineups on one page,rather than having to move in and out of all your teams. So much better. This page also has a search function so you can get a guy out quickly if he is a late scratch etc. Shows right on that page where you have him. This cannot be hard to put in place if everyone else has it. I can send screenshots if you need to see examples.

[Cocktails and Dreams]

Also, if default is owned, if you want to sort by points, it should save that method of searching when you move to other positions. It is painful to have to switch search preference every time you move positions. A nice cutting edge feature would be a copy bid amount on down to the rest of the thread. For example, at the top I want to bid 100 on Kamara and then want to bid 2 on the other 15 players in my string, If I could bid 2 and copy that amount down if i want it would be game changer, especially in cutline where this is a dastardly pain in the ass. Players that are not owned or do not have points if searching that way should also be placed in alphabetical order, rather than just some random senseless order so they can be found easily without scrolling up to search box.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Also, if default is owned, if you want to sort by points, it should save that method of searching when you move to other positions. It is painful to have to switch search preference every time you move positions. A nice cutting edge feature would be a copy bid amount on down to the rest of the thread. For example, at the top I want to bid 100 on Kamara and then want to bid 2 on the other 15 players in my string, If I could bid 2 and copy that amount down if i want it would be game changer, especially in cutline where this is a dastardly pain in the ass. Players that are not owned or do not have points if searching that way should also be placed in alphabetical order, rather than just some random senseless order so they can be found easily without scrolling up to search box.

Tom and Darik tested out the new FAAB software for baseball today and I believe that feature is already in there on your followup bids. STATS has them all going to $1, but the new software copies from the bid above. I'll have Darik confirm.

And yes on the rest. Keep sending suggestions. They are working on all of it now and we'll show screen shots and have NFBC guys test it out by next month. Thanks.

[Darik B]

Confirmed....Bid $100 on Kamara and then $2 on your conditional RB (or any position)...every conditional bid after that will default to $2 because that was the last price you set...

Also, if default is owned, if you want to sort by points, it should save that method of searching when you move to other positions. It is painful to have to switch search preference every time you move positions. A nice cutting edge feature would be a copy bid amount on down to the rest of the thread. For example, at the top I want to bid 100 on Kamara and then want to bid 2 on the other 15 players in my string, If I could bid 2 and copy that amount down if i want it would be game changer, especially in cutline where this is a dastardly pain in the ass. Players that are not owned or do not have points if searching that way should also be placed in alphabetical order, rather than just some random senseless order so they can be found easily without scrolling up to search box.

Tom and Darik tested out the new FAAB software for baseball today and I believe that feature is already in there on your followup bids. STATS has them all going to $1, but the new software copies from the bid above. I'll have Darik confirm.

And yes on the rest. Keep sending suggestions. They are working on all of it now and we'll show screen shots and have NFBC guys test it out by next month. Thanks.

[BillyWaz]

Other than the changes that have been listed here (which sound awesome!), the biggest one I would like to see is the DROPS for the week on the SAME PAGE as the table that currently reads from left to right on the FAAB RESULTS tab......

TEAM
PLAYER
BID
RUNNER -UP

Who was DROPPED should be added on this page as well. It is a colossal pain in the ass to try and decipher the HISTORY tab for these drops and read through "activate" and "bench"......ESPECIALLY when you manage a lot of leagues.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Other than the changes that have been listed here (which sound awesome!), the biggest one I would like to see is the DROPS for the week on the SAME PAGE as the table that currently reads from left to right on the FAAB RESULTS tab......

TEAM
PLAYER
BID
RUNNER -UP

Who was DROPPED should be added on this page as well. It is a colossal pain in the ass to try and decipher the HISTORY tab for these drops and read through "activate" and "bench"......ESPECIALLY when you manage a lot of leagues.

Thanks Billy. I've sent to IT for consideration.

[edelman24]

Nearly all of your competition has a way to set lineups on one page,rather than having to move in and out of all your teams. So much better. This page also has a search function so you can get a guy out quickly if he is a late scratch etc. Shows right on that page where you have him. This cannot be hard to put in place if everyone else has it. I can send screenshots if you need to see examples.

I second this, it is absolutely a must must must must have!

[Greg Ambrosius]

Nearly all of your competition has a way to set lineups on one page,rather than having to move in and out of all your teams. So much better. This page also has a search function so you can get a guy out quickly if he is a late scratch etc. Shows right on that page where you have him. This cannot be hard to put in place if everyone else has it. I can send screenshots if you need to see examples.

I second this, it is absolutely a must must must must have!

It definitely will be done. We're already working on it.