Matt Maroon, an ex pro poker player, thinks an entire sports season is too long to wait to play fantasy sports. With his startup DraftMix, he aims to make playing a fantasy game as quick and easy as sitting down for a hand of poker.
Fantasy sports is big business online. Figures vary, but estimates place the market at about $1-2 billion with 15-18 million fans following their leagues. Fantasy fans generally run their leagues on services like Yahoo Sports or CBS Sportsline (FleaFlicker is free and ScreamingSports is a good team management service). Players often pick their whole team and ride out the entire season to find a winner.
However, Y Combinator’s DraftMix is doing things a little differently. DraftMix is picking up the pace of fantasy sports by letting you play single fantasy teams head to head. They’ll be hosting games and picking winners as frequently as a weekly basis.
On DraftMix, fantasy sports fans can play single pickup games against each other for virtual dollars, with real money coming in the next couple of weeks. Open live games are listed in a lobby where players take spots in games ranging from 4 to 10 players at a time. Each player buys into a game for a fixed amount (currently only virtual currency). DraftMix also ponies up a nightly cash prize for a free game as well.
When a game is full, players pick their teams from active professional players in timed drafts. Each fantasy manager’s team is scored on their players stats in the upcoming “real world” games. Since stats are needed to find the winning team, the time it takes to finish a game varies by sport. Football fantasy games are finished weekly, since all the teams play each Sunday. Basketball can finish a bit faster since teams play daily. The manager with the most points wins the money pot, with 10% of real cash games going to DraftMix.
Now all this may sound fine playing fantasy sports for fantasy dollars, but doesn’t bringing real money into play amount to internet gambling? No, says co-founder Matt Maroon, who points to the fantasy sports exemption in the “Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act”. The act, which was a big blow to sites like PartyPoker, specifically exempts “participation in any fantasy or simulation sports game or educational game or contest”. Fantasy sports is seen as a game of skill and played for a fixed cash prize. Although a quick perusal of the exemption leaves you feeling they’re at least bending the rules.
But other fantasy sports leagues already have similar operations, although they obfuscate the process. CBS Sportsline pays out weekly and seasonal prizes to winning players based on their level of membership as outlined in their fantasy product description. For instance, Double Diamond players can buy in for $499.95 per team, with the league winner taking home $3,500 at the end of the season. This doesn’t strike me as all to different from paying $10 per team for a single fantasy game and winning up to $90 as DraftMix does. DraftMix will eventually get into the longer games as well.
Regardless, DraftMix’s short form fantasy sports model is a sure win for fantasy fans, even if they only play for virtual dollars and keep the betting offline.
I am big fan of Protrade , amazing fantasy sports website
Based on my experience in the fantasy industry (former VP of fantasy at SportsLine, co-founder Commissioner.com), I think these guys could run into some legal issues. One of the big reasons that fantasy sports is considered a game of skill is that, over the course of entire pro sports season, skill can overcome random events like injuries, weather, etc. Games that are based on the outcome of a single weekend’s worth of games probably won’t pass that litmus test. Of course, I’m not a lawyer, but I would definitely suggest that these guys consult with one.
We have certainly consulted with gaming attorneys. The short format typically removes injuries from consideration (in football you know throughout the week who is playing on Sunday for the most part). If anything, those add randomness to a full season league that they don’t to ours, because losing a star player in a full season league is often a death blow.
We’re examining laws on a state by state basis. We’re confident in our ability to operate successfully in most states (we’re currently excluding 11).
Thanks.
I cannot offer much experienced insight into Fantasy Sports, but I’ve seen Draftmix in action and it looks fun as hell. The guys running this know exactly what they’re doing and truly understand their market. I can’t wait to see this blow up because it’ll be huge.
Pretty cool, good idea. Can’t wait till they allow some real money.
Should be making millions pretty soon.
@Matthew – Sounds like you’ve got lawyers involved and thats obviously the most important thing. Their opinion counts more than mine.
With that said, I’m not sure your depiction of the impact of random events is correct. It’s not really about knowing the injury report leading up to the weekend’s games. It’s what happens in the games. If you’ve got Tom Brady as your QB and he breaks his leg in the first quarter, you’re pretty much screwed. No amount of skill is going to overcome that loss because there’s basically nothing you can do at that point. In a season long game, you can make trades, pick up free agents, etc. Basically, use your skills to compensate for the injury.
Interesting that the law seems to state specifically about individual players and not teams. Does that mean that March Madness can’t be a money game online?
March Madness is definitely not a fantasy sport. Other than that I don’t really know for sure, but I’d suspect it’s not legal in most states.
Boring and time wasting!
If you are gonna do sports do Madden ‘07.
http://fakestev...er.blogspot.com
Dave,
Thanks for the added analysis.
Matthew,
It falls under CBS SportsLine and Yahoo’s fantasy sports section. That’s why I asked. I’m not sure if they apply money to it or not.
Matthew,
Any invite codes that you would be willing to send out? I really like the idea of single game fantasy matches and would love to try it out. Thanks in advance, but I understand if you are unable to accept more members at this time.
Drop me your email through our site.
I’ve played some DraftMix and I like it. I know the DraftMix team and I know they’ll be successful. It’s a huge market and these are exactly the guys to exploit it.
I like Draftmix.
Well, I have heard good things about Draftmix from some of our bloggers (like Fanprophet) who use your site. We wish you luck.
Alec Peters
CEO
ScreamingSports
I know Matt. He is a cool guy. Same with his website.
remainds me of mudbowl
The idea sounds like a pretty good one. I won’t speak to the legality of the idea because I wouldn’t have any amount of insight into the spirit or purpose of any governing laws. However, I will say that part of the enjoyment (at least for those that I participate with for fantasy sports) is that you are playing in “leagues” amongst friends. On the surface, it doesn’t sound like there is an effort being made to group people with their friends. This service sounds like one that is more for those that are into the gambling side of fantasy sports than the friendly competition side. If that is solely your target market and your intention, then it sounds like you are right on the mark. If you want to broaden this, you may want to consider a way to allow people to set up a “league-type” week to week format amongst friends. GOOD LUCK with your endeavors.
Thanks Rich,
We plan on appealing to both. We will have full season leagues, and private ones too so you can invite only your friends. We already have some friend functionality and will continue to expand that.