I'll Chat Today At 2 ET

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue Jun 29, 2010 5:12 am

Lots of things we can talk about so let's have some fun this afternoon. Bring your questions, comments, concerns, fears and I'll do my best to answer them all.

Roger · Post by **Roger** » Tue Jun 29, 2010 5:40 am

Following up on some of the earlier posts, any new thoughts on doing auction satelite drafts or auction-DC satelite drafts at some point later on this summer? The interest appears to be there.

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue Jun 29, 2010 5:45 am

Originally posted by Trust In Bill:
Following up on some of the earlier posts, any new thoughts on doing auction satelite drafts or auction-DC satelite drafts at some point later on this summer? The interest appears to be there. We haven't finalized our satellite plans. We hope to do that soon. We will certainly take those ideas into consideration. We know the interest is there for satellite auctions so we'll see what happens when we make the final decision.

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Jun 29, 2010 5:49 am

Tom, so last night it was announced that two competing high-stakes events are now going to use the same back-end software. I find that incredibly interesting and even worthy of talking about on our boards. It just seems unbelievably odd for two companies competing as hard as they are in the same space on the same weekend to have the same provider rushing to get teams entered, etc., for both companies. I'm not saying it can't work, it just seems odd, doesn't it?

Anyway, I'm interested in Tom's feedback on this subject along with other NFFC members. Heck, our back-end system -- which by the way is working very well in baseball and received two nice upgrades yesterday with one more coming soon -- gets talked about all the time on other boards. I am convinced now that our FAAB with Conditional Bids will be the best in the high-stakes industry along with many other features. But all of the games will be fine this year.

What's your thoughts on this latest scenario?

da bears · Post by **da bears** » Tue Jun 29, 2010 5:58 am

There is no doubt in my mind that your backend is already the best in the high stakes fantasy business Greg.

I love the current free agency setup for the NFBC especially being able to see the free agency bidding results in a couple of minutes. I'm sure the NFFC will be the same way.

Yeah it is interesting to see that those two contests are using the same provider. It takes alot more time to enter bids and do free agency with the backend that those other contests are using thats for sure. Plus the free agency results aren't known for at least 30 minutes.

[ June 29, 2010, 12:11 PM: Message edited by: da bears ]

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue Jun 29, 2010 6:00 am

I think it was a very interesting development. How this impacts two events using the same back-end is going to be very interesting to watch. We've all seen the heavy discussion about back-end services. We took plenty of heat in the NFBC for a poor Week 1 but like Greg said, since then the site has run exceptionally well and we continue to add new features, such as the ones we unveiled yesterday. As I posted a few weeks ago, the great news about this is many of the same programming features for the NFBC will be utilized in the NFFC as well. And if you guys want a quick FAAB process, you won't find a faster one that what we're offering. Our FAAB in the NFBC has been done in 2-3 minutes. Our IT guys have done a great job with that.

We all know that things are heating up in the high-stakes football arena. Each of the main entities have made some big moves in the past year. I believe the fact we have our own back-end in place is going to give us a huge advantage going forward because there is so much cost associated with paying someone else as we did for the first five years with STATS. Now that we have it and own it we can continue to improve it to make it as ideal as possible for the competitors in both of our events.

As far as what other events are doing, I wish them the best of luck - even the ones who appear to delight in taking shots at Greg, myself, Ryan and/or Fanball on a daily basis for reasons that make little sense. My focus is on our events and what we can do to continue making them exciting and fun for all of our participants.

[ June 29, 2010, 12:00 PM: Message edited by: Tom Kessenich ]

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue Jun 29, 2010 6:02 am

Originally posted by da bears:

I love the current free agency setup for the NFBC especially being able to see the free agency bidding results in a couple of minutes. It is pretty sweet. STATS did great work for us but sometimes it would take around 30 minutes or so for the moves to be processed. I didn't complain but having it done in two minutes or so is pretty amazing.

BillyWaz · Post by **BillyWaz** » Tue Jun 29, 2010 6:41 am

Am I the only one who feels that the whole dialogue between Tom and Greg about the other companies "back ends" resembled "good cop/bad cop" (with you both being the good cop!

For the record, I think Fanball's back end is and will be the best in the business starting with this fall in football.

As for the Fanball Fantasy show on Sirius, can we get a little more talk about FANTASY? Was not real impressed by the 5-7 minute segment that was hyped up as the next "big thing". I think it has potential to be, but that was a bit disappointing to say the least.

Any changes in the works?

Greg Ambrosius · Post by **Greg Ambrosius** » Tue Jun 29, 2010 6:41 am

Originally posted by da bears:
There is no doubt in my mind that your backend is already the best in the high stakes fantasy business Greg.

I love the current free agency setup for the NFBC especially being able to see the free agency bidding results in a couple of minutes. I'm sure the NFFC will be the same way.

Yeah it is interesting to see that those two contests are using the same provider. It takes alot more time to enter bids and do free agency with the backend that those other contests are using thats for sure. Plus the free agency results aren't known for at least 30 minutes. And it just got better Matt. We FINALLY have Overall Standings with period tabs on the site. I know it took a long time, but those are done and they are done for ALL of the national contests. Now every day you can compare your team to every other team in those contests. This is a really, really nice feature we just debuted.

I do agree with you. And FAAB took TWO MINUTES to run on Sunday night for 2,850+ teams. Amazing. After almost killing us the first week, FAAB is now the shining star of that baseball back-end. And it will be the same setup for football and run just as fast. The one snafu we had was a BAD ONE, but we've been very good since.

Thanks man. It's a very, very, very interesting industry right now and this area of the industry just got a lot more, ah, well, interesting.

Tom Kessenich · Post by **Tom Kessenich** » Tue Jun 29, 2010 6:49 am

Originally posted by BillyWaz:
Am I the only one who feels that the whole dialogue between Tom and Greg about the other companies "back ends" resembled "good cop/bad cop" (with you both being the good cop!

I really don't want to spend unnecessary time commenting on what's happening on other boards. I don't understand that mindset but if others choose to boost their business by attempting to tear others down that's up to them. That's not something I'm interested in doing. I believe in what we have to offer with our events and I think at the end of the day we'll again deliver a quality event that people will enjoy. That's where my focus is.

For the record, I think Fanball's back end is and will be the best in the business starting with this fall in football.

I think we have a shot. We just unveiled another feature for the NFBC site today which will also be part of the NFFC back-end. We have some sharp people working with us in St. Louis so there is a lot of potential here.

As for the Fanball Fantasy show on Sirius, can we get a little more talk about FANTASY? Was not real impressed by the 5-7 minute segment that was hyped up as the next "big thing". I think it has potential to be, but that was a bit disappointing to say the least.

Any changes in the works? That's really outside of Greg's control or mine. The show is new and evolving and Kyle was talking today during a conference call about the need to talk more fantasy going forward. So I think we'll see more of that. With any new show there's a process involved where you find out what works and what doesn't initially. Kyle and Ray are sharp guys so I think we'll see a good evolution with the show as it goes along. And hopefully, we'll be able to do more with the NFFC. That'd be nice.