What Is Going To Happen To High-Stakes Fantasy Football?

Old School · Post by **Old School** » Wed Aug 24, 2011 9:22 am

Originally posted by blue devils:
please correct me if i'm wrong but i was under the belief that fraud, stealing, misrepresentation, etc. was a crime with some pretty harsh consequences and punishment. what hapenned here anyway? did someone get away with the equivalent of white-collar murder? Knowingly deceiving customers while having knowledge that insolvency was present, is indeed fraud. Though not easy to prove, it does open up personal liability of director/owners and pierces the "corporate veil" of protection

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:14 am

I don't want to bring up an old, negative thread, but I think at this time we have more information to answer the question on this thread: What Is Going To Happen To High-Stakes Fantasy Football?

The answer is: It's going to Continue To Thrive And Prosper. This space took a MAJOR hit with WCOFF defaulting on all of their prize money from 2010 football and possibly 2011 baseball, but we will survive. We still don't know how that is going to play out completely, but it sure doesn't look good for the players. Still, this space can continue to move forward with the two contests that are currently there. Both contests delivered this season and I know that both contests will pay in timely fashions and in full in December and January.

However, let's just look at the numbers from this year. The FFPC and NFFC combined had 1,360 Main Event teams. The NFFC, FFPC and WCOFF last year had over 1,720 Main Event teams combined. So that was a dropoff of 21%. It also was the first time since HSFF began in 2002 that there were fewer Main Event teams than the previous year.

Still, the number of participants overall didn't fall. The NFFC and FFPC had almost 4,000 teams combined at the $350 Online Championship level compared to less than 3,000 teams for all three contests the year before. Satellite league offerings were also strong despite the delay caused by the NFL lockout.

It's going to be very tough for players to recover from the loss of trust caused by the WCOFF debacle, not to mention the loss of more than $1 million in prize money. But we will recover. The consumers still supported the two remaining games and next year both should have record years again. And unquestionably, someone else will create a new contest with unbelievable prize payouts and the promise of the biggest payout percentages and first class service. All I can say is: BUYER BEWARE!!

Good luck all and thanks to all of you who supported the HSFF space again. I think you will be rewarded with timely payouts and the best customer service we all can provide. The Customer Is King, just the way it should be. We as an industry can NEVER let this happen again. We've survived, but barely. Good luck all and thanks again.