It's time for the annual Q&A with Footballguys owners and founders, Joe Bryant and David Dodds. We asked our message board to ask them anything. Here are the results.
1. First of all, how are you?
David Dodds: Doing great here. I am about to get married in Maui on June 25th. Site is rocking on numerous fronts. My daughter is excelling at the University of Oregon. Life really is awesome right now for me.
Joe Bryant: Thanks for asking. I turned 50 this year so that's something. People ask me about being half a century old. I think I sort of thought I'd be more mature and wise at this point. Instead of still wearing Vans and fun socks and listening to the music my kids like. But what are you going to do? It goes fast. Buckle Up. Have fun. Enjoy the ride. And do all you can to make things as interesting as possible.
2. Who came up with the Footballguys name?
JB - David snagged the Footballguys.com domain years ago. I love our name as it perfectly illustrates I think what we are: A bunch of Footballguys that just love the game.
And when I say "we" I mean everyone like you that cares enough to be reading a goofy interview like this. The power of Footballguys is you guys. I'm not one of those guys that thinks the success or failure of a company is inherently tied to the name of the business. But I can't imagine a better name for what we do than Footballguys. I love it.
DD – I got this domain as a fallback position after selling mrfootball.com to FanBall. It was a hedge in case I wanted to get back into this business. And minutes after selling mrfootball.com, I realized that I wanted back in. Fanball eventually reneged on their deal (not paying all the monies owed to me) and that voided the no-compete clause allowing Joe and I to go forward with Footballguys.com.
3. Did you guys see yourself getting to where you are now back in the day when you were simply cheatsheets.net? Explain the key decisions that led Footballguys to be the company it is today.
DD – I think we would be lying to say either of us saw all of this super clearly. A great friend of ours (Bob Harris) suggested we would be lucky to sell 4,000 subscriptions in year 1. Had Bob been right, we probably would have never even made it to year 2. We suspected that a huge market could exist, but the idea of people paying for internet content has always been a tough sale. I saw enough in year 1 though that I quit my government job that was paying me $80K+ a year.
The biggest decisions in my mind are these:
- Creating a daily email update that everyone looks forward to. We don’t take days off. It has been hard doing these for the last 15 years, but it is the prime mover for us. It allows us to stay in contact with our biggest supporters. With 310,000 emails now on this list, we can move mountains when we need to. It has allowed us to branch into apps, contests, etc.
- Hiring the smartest guys in the room. Joe and I don’t know everything, but we are both very good at evaluating talented / hard-working people. Our staff is second to none with guys that are self-starters that can churn out awesome content/apps, etc. Bill Gates credits Microsoft’s success to surrounding himself with guys smarter than himself. We have done the same.
- Allowing people to do what they want to do. It sounds so simple, yet most companies don’t work this way. We don’t assign many things. We just allow the writers to write what they want to write about. We have added a tad more structure over the last few years, but I think our general structure is one that allows for the best possible content to be created.
JB - We're in the forecast and prediction business - of course I saw us right here...
Seriously, one of the most enjoyable parts of an internet business is that we're all plowing relatively new ground. So I can't say I knew we'd be here. But I'd also be lying if I said I didn't think this thing had huge potential.
Footballguys was created with a simple vision - It's the site I wished existed. It wasn't there. So we built it. And I think there are tons of guys like me that want what I want in a fantasy football site. So with that, I'm not surprised this happened.
In some ways, it's an old model. We're basically a magazine subscription where people subscribe for access to our content. It's just delivered via the internet. So in lots of ways, it's not a new model at all. It's just a new medium.
For decisions, a few things stand out for me.
*** It's a Team. Back to the philosophy behind the "Footballguys" name. Note the plural there. David and I knew that if this thing was going to have any real scale, we had to build a great team. In everything I've ever done, identifying talent and assembling a strong team has been a huge factor. This was no different. We've got the best guys in the business. I've always run with the idea of surrounding myself with people way smarter than myself and letting them do what they do best. That's Footballguys.
*** It's Not About Us / Partnering With The Customer. We realized very early on that this wasn't about us. This is about helping our guys win. And giving our guys the tools they need to do that. That's an easy to overlook angle that's been crucial to our success. We win when you win.
*** Understanding Customization. I came from the Rotisserie baseball world in 1988 where standard leagues were the norm. Leagues played with the exact same number of teams with the exact same salary cap. Everything was standard. When I started playing Fantasy Football in 1990, I found the incredible value and fun in the huge variety of leagues and scoring systems. Jerry Rice in one league might be correctly valued radically differently in another league. The lightbulb came on that fantasy owners were making huge valuation errors trying to force cookie cutter cheatsheets onto their unique league and scoring system. I put together the concepts of Value Based Drafting and the rest is history.
*** The Daily Email Udpate has served us well as I wanted a way to communicate with our readers and stay connected to them. The amount of man hours necessary to make this happen every day is sort of ridiculous. But it's the heart of Footballguys.
*** Be More / Leveraging the Power of the Internet. It's possible to read an article online and have the exact same experience as reading the article in a paper magazine. But it shouldn't be. The power of the internet and computing allows the online experience to be so much more rich. It's the same words in both articles but the online version has the ability to leverage all the tools of technology to make the experience better. It's the question we always ask about our content: "What about reading this online is going to make it better than reading the same words in a paper magazine?" You'd better have a good answer.
4. What do you look back as mistakes that you've made through the years? How has that impacted Footballguys moving forward?
JB - I should have bought way more Google stock... Honestly, we've made, are making and will make mistakes because we try so many things.
I always want our company to be known for pushing the edge on ideas instead of sitting back. So we'll have our share of things we try that didn't work. Like most people, I'm sick of hearing the word "disrupt" but it's pretty apt for a lot of what we do.
But like with most things, there's a balance. We're not in the business of being reckless. Meaning, we've never "bet the company" on something that felt risky. Instead, it's been more trying to create a culture where Staffers feel comfortable trying new stuff. Even if it doesn't totally make "business sense" on the front end.
Sigmund Bloom and Cecil Lammey starting our Footballguys Podcast, The Audible, is a good example. Back when podcasting was in it's infancy, they wanted to try their hand with this new podcast thing. I said sure - give it a shot and see what happens. That turned out pretty well. Our Rate My Team app turning Dr. Doug Drinen loose was another. Lately, a focus for this has been our Mobile Apps. We're breaking new ground there that's super exciting.
You'll miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Corny, but dead on accurate.
DD - I can’t think of any mistakes that we made that ever really impacted things very negatively. We lost money on some things. We unleashed a virus on the website. We lost our ability to send email through Google Groups when that got hacked, etc. But we always learned from such mistakes and our customers have always been kind to forgive us when we screw things up. That’s the positive piece to working as hard as we do while charging a fair price for that work. It affords us some slack when we don’t execute perfectly.
5. Do you two still own the site or just run it? What would it take for you two to sell Footballguys? What is the exit strategy?
DD – Joe and I own 87% of FBG. The rest of the 13% is owned by staffers. We have been approached multiple times about selling FBG. That sounds glamorous to some, but we really enjoy what we do and love doing it our own way. I guess at some point we will need some type of exit strategy, but for now we are super focused in creating great content, having the best apps, and pushing the boundaries on season-long contests. My guess is Joe and I’s exit strategy is simply a transfer of power/shares/voting rights to other FBG that share our common vision.
JB - David and I own the majority (87%) and the Footballguys Staff owns the rest. Part of that "building a great team" thing involves the team having ownership in my opinion.
I suppose there is always an offer out there that is unrefusable. But I can't imagine what it might be. The reality is we love what we're doing and we love charting our course where we can put the interests of our customers front and center. It's very difficult to put a price on that for me. So with that said, I'm not much of an "exit strategy" guy. I love this. Why would I want to exit?
6. What advice would you give for someone who wants to become an entrepreneur?
JB - Do some soul searching and try to nail down what excites you. This isn't always as easy as it seems.
Once you know what excites you, do some more soul searching to honestly determine what you're good at. Don't kid yourself here. If you need help on this part, ask some people that you trust to be honest. (not necessarily the people that love you the most)
I can't think of many jobs better than being a successful musician. I just happen to have less than zero musical talent. That one's obvious. Most are way more subtle. But find that intersection of what you like and what you're good at and lean into it.
Now tell me this:
1. How is this thing going to add value to someone?
2. What problem is this thing going to solve?
3. Why would they want this thing that you're good at and you like doing?
Do not pass go until you answer this part fully. If you don't nail this part, you've found yourself a hobby, not a business.
And don't listen to the noise. Find a few people who love you and have your best interests at heart. Listen to them. But ignore the rest and consider it noise. Trust your heart. And start ignoring all the reasons why you can't do what you want. Just start doing it. And see what happens.
While you're at it, stop whining. Nobody cares that you have a tough situation. Get in line. Cry me a river. Either do something or don't. But don't be the guy who sits around and is all talk and no action. As we say in Texas, don't be all "All hat and no cattle". Chase that idea. Own it.
Realize it's not all about the money. Don't get me wrong, given the choice of having money or not having money, I go with the money. But if having money means accepting a miserable job, count me out.
If you've got a good idea, if you're able to execute it, and you're able to bring in more money than you spend - you win. Now it might work out where you're able to bring in a lot more money than you spend. That's awesome. But in my experience, it's hard to craft the thing where "lots of money" is the end game goal.
DD – It sounds like a cliché, but do what you love. You can have the greatest idea in the world, but until you are ready to eat, sleep, and dream about it, it’s probably not the business you should own. Secondly – Just Do It. You won’t have all the answers, but until you try you won’t get them. Joe and I started this company with less than $5K. We brought on staff and told them we were not sure we could pay them (We issued credits in year 1 and converted those credits to dollars once we knew how many subscriptions sold for instance). It doesn’t always take lots of money. It takes time and energy and hard work. Add value for someone and you can build a thriving business just like we have done.
7. It is no surprise that the world economy has taken a beating the past six years, I am sure that has influenced revenues etc. With the economy improving, do you believe that the good times are coming back or have many casual fans left the hobby for good?
DD - The hobby appears to be stronger than ever from my perspective. Daily Games are exploding and have Wall Street’s attention. The app space is still in it’s infancy, but is already producing great sales numbers. Subscriptions continue to grow at 15+% a year for us. And we sold 5,800 teams (at $350 each) for the Footballguys Players Championship. Matt Berry of ESPN has about 600,000 Twitter followers and his fantasy football book cracked the New York Times Best Seller list last year. I see nothing pointing out a decrease in activity. OIder players might be playing a few less leagues, but younger adults are jumping in and more than filling any perceived void.
JB - I'm not sure any business is truly "recession proof" but Fantasy Sports seem as recession resistant as any I've experienced. We're selling relatively low dollar items supporting a subject that customers are highly passionate about.
It's like anything else in life - are you bringing value equal to the price you're asking? It's not real complicated.
8. Give us your vision on where Fantasy Football - as an industry - is today and where it is going in the next few years?
JB - It's funny to me in how things change. In 1990, "entrepreneur" meant you couldn't get a job at IBM. And Fantasy Football had the image of guys with pocket protectors. Today, Shark Tank is one of the most popular shows on television and Fantasy Football is as mainstream as it gets.
The Fantasy Football industry to me feels like it's in a nice sweet spot as it's mature yet continuing to grow. The NFL remains ridiculously popular and we're facing a relatively peaceful labor situation. The NFL Draft draws a huge prime time audience. It's crazy. Plus I've got faith in the powers that be running the league to make the right decisions going forward. Their track record has earned them that. There are minefields like Concussions and Medical Lawsuits and that type of thing they'll navigate. But the league seems to be in a fantastic position and that means good things for Fantasy Football.
DD – I think it has risen by as much or more than the actual NFL game. It continues to be extremely popular with a wide set of demographics. The explosion of the Daily game sites (or weekly in the case of fantasy football) has attracted a lot of younger players as well. These daily sites have also brought Wall Street investment money into the space which has attracted even more attention nationally to fantasy sports. Overall, I don’t think the space has ever been healthier.
9. Where do you see Footballguys in 5 years?
DD – On the premium subscription front, it’s all going to be about customization of content to a subscriber’s actual teams. Subscribers saw that first-hand last year with MyFBG where you could sync your Yahoo, ESPN, My Fantasy League, etc leagues and get expert advice tailored to those leagues. That is a major area of focus for us over the next years.
On the apps front, I think you are going to see us deliver mobile products that you simply can’t live without. People will be drafting and running their leagues from their phones or tablets starting strongly this year. Our Mobile Draft Dominator is a Game Changer in this space and we expect to continue to dominate with some other planned apps as well.
On the year-long contest front, we have teamed with the best guys in the business (Dave and Alex from the FFPC). We have a great new contest we will be introducing jointly this year. Additionally, we have worked closely with them to deliver a new league management system to run our leagues. That product will continue to evolve and as soon as next year, we will likely see a lot of vertical integration of FBG info within the league management framework. The Footballguys Players Championship will have a record $2M prize pool this year. It’s clear to me that this contest is now positioned as the grand championship in fantasy football and a $1M Grand Prize is within reach within 5 years as well.
Within Daily Games, we see us taking a major lead in providing the tools and content that this segment desperately needs. I am writing a book about the Daily Space (will be available in August) and we have bolstered our staff to better handle what daily players want each week to crush the different games that exist.
JB - For the core business of the Footballguys Insider PRO subscriptions, the angle I'm going for is enhancing the "Over The Shoulder" experience.
I want to deliver a level of customization and personalization to our readers that gives them the option of them feeling literally like we're right there with them as they manage their team. From picking up that particular free agent that is somehow still available in their league to making sure their scoring system is reflected in the custom rankings we're providing.
MyFBG has been our first step into this and we're taking that to the next level for this season. Again, it goes back to value. There is good content out there for free. We have to deliver great content to stay viable.
I'm excited about the other areas too. The tagline I created for our Mobile App advertising this year is "GAME CHANGED". And that's not just marketing talk. We're breaking new ground there with features that seemed unthinkable not long ago.
I see us continuing to deepen our offerings in the Contest Space. The Footballguys Players Championship has been extremely successful. We sold 5,800 teams for 2013 and this year expect that number to continue to climb. The contest area was one of those "team building" things where we've partnered with Dave Gerczak and Alex Kaganovsky from the Fantasy Football Players Championship www.myffpc.com. Their administration and customer support is second to none and that relationship has been fantastic.
As I said above, our Mobile Apps are currently the biggest area of growth. Our goal is to deliver the same quality experience to people on their mobile devices that they've become used to on their desktop. Our Simon Shepherd has been instrumental in leading this charge and I fully expect us to make huge waves in this space.
But in the Spirit of how we've always done things here, some of the best stuff we'll be doing in five years is something I likely haven't even thought of yet. We'll keep innovating and keep pushing to make sure it becomes reality though.
10. In this age of up to the minute information at everyone's fingertips, aside from sheer insight and experience, in the realm of analyzing and delivering information technologically what do you do that adds a competitive advantage over others sites for the FF owner researching on his own?
JB - I see the rise of technology as something of a "judo move" for us. It's one of those things where "The good news is that you can access 10,000 football articles today from your phone". And the bad news is "You need to sort through 10,000 football articles today on your phone".
Some of what we offer as a value add is using sheer manpower to sift through the "haystacks" of information to find the "needles" of information that's actionable. The fact that the flow of information has gone from a trickle to a firehose is both good and bad. A firehose is unmanageable for many people. So in some ways, we're doing the grunt work for guys who don't have 20 hours a day to surf the internet.
For other things, the vale add from us is the expertise we offer. I think we have the sharpest fantasy analysts and forecasters on the planet. When it comes to projecting what players will do on the field, we offer a great value.
For others, it's a strategy value add. Years ago, the guy who won his league was the guy that knew the most news. Today, that edge is shrinking because it's become easier to be informed. As that field levels, the people who are taking the knowledge and executing a better strategy are the ones rising to the top. I say that knowledge is the ammunition. It's how one uses that ammunition that wins the battle.
DD - We have a LOT (as in close to 40 people) of smart guys on our staff. Many are extremely skilled in IT, programming, writing, etc. What we do is simplify your need to do all the busy work so you can concentrate on winning your league. We publish over 50,000 pages of internet content every year. At $29.95, I believe it remains the best investment in this space. And perhaps the easiest way to sell someone on our premium subscription is to simply try it. If you are not 100% satisfied with what we do, you can request a full refund all the way through September 30th.
11. With sites that rank the pros like FantasyPros becoming more popular and having more experts participating. Do you guys feel added pressure to stay in the top? Have you ever considered having a ranking scale of Footballguys experts?
DD – We have always put a giant premium on creating great projections. It’s the reason we have 4 guys doing them in the preseason and have created tools like the Projections Dominator. Great numbers drive everything.
The Footballguys brand is not about saying one staffer is better than another. It’s about getting a lot of smart guys to tell you why they see things through their lens. Collectively, it generates great discussion that we believe is more beneficial to the fantasy player than speaking in absolutes. This is in sharp contrast to many other websites, but I believe everyone else is doing it wrongly. Here are 15 guys all ranking and providing comments on how good Tavon Austin will be this year. That’s the discussion people want to see take place.
JB - For sure there is pressure anytime sites are competing. We think that's a great thing though. Much of the features we've come out with over the years have been in response to the bar being raised. It's all good.
12. The freemium business model - was that intentional from the start or did you back into it?
DD – We chose to go down this path early on. We knew we wanted to have a giant staff of the best writers / programmers and knew it would be next to impossible to accomplish as a free site relying solely on internet advertising.
JB - We were on the Freemium path before I'd even heard that name. To me, it's the most logical model. I know there are other sites that have been extremely successful making all their money from ads but that's just not the experience we want to give our readers. For us, Freemium makes by far the most sense.
13. What is your thinking on what to go free and what to go pay? Do you have a specific strategy or is it a gut feel type activity?
JB - It's a gut feel combined with the calendar. July 15 has been the traditional date the "pay wall" goes up for the Footballguys Insider PRO. That feels about right as early July is when things seem to hit a fever pitch. That gives us two full weeks in July to lay our "cards on the table" and show folks what we're going to be doing.
And of course, our Money Back Guarantee helps a ton with that.
DD – We release virtually everything before July 15th as free content. We feel like that is a happy middle ground. A lot happens in August that changes things. Our subscribers get that insight for their drafts plus us along for their entire season. People that do not subscribe get to see what we are all about before teams start camps. Things like the news, depth charts, daily email, podcasts, and message boards always felt like they should be free.
14. When you got into freemium, were there any particular sites (ff or not) that you looked at and thought, we could use that.
DD – We don’t pay all that much attention to what others are doing. Once we open shop, it takes all of our focus to execute our plans. Each of our staffers have their favorite non-staffer writers though so we are told about great innovation that they see.
As an industrial engineer by trade, I was taught a concept called the “Solution After Next” that I routinely apply to what we are doing at Footballguys. It starts with the end in mind. Assuming no constraints, what is the perfect solution? Now figure out (with constraints), how close to that perfection can you get? That is the Solution After Next. So in designing our draft app for mobile for instance, we did not spend much time at all studying what the competition was doing. We mapped out what the perfect Draft App would look like and sought to build it. This approach has always worked well for us and our brand.
JB - Within fantasy sports, I have a ton of respect for the FanDuel guys and their site design. Most of what I look at though is outside our industry. I've been a huge fan of Evernote for years. I love their product and their Freemium model. Wall Street Journal Online is a radically different site but uses a similar Freemium model. The Music streaming sites like Pandora and Spotify have been really helpful for the Freemium model. And then the tech sites like Mashable and TechCrunch are hugely valuable for staying on top of changing tech and marketing trends.
15. What is a Footballguys Insider (free) subscription? How does it differ from an Insider Pro subscription?
JB - We have three levels of access on the site. Some of the site is completely free. Have at it.
But our very best free content is available to our folks who are Footballguys Insiders. It's 100% free to become a Footballguys Insider and it opens up huge portions of the site to you. It also allows you to participate in our MyFBG section where you're able to link your league to our projections in order to get customized rankings. In addition, you'll be able to tell us about what kind of league you play in and what features are most interesting to you so that we're able to give you the best experience reading our site. The goal is essentially a Netflix type experience where the idea is that we can anticipate what you're looking for.
But what you really need is our Footballguys Insider PRO subscription. That's everything on the site with the ability to customize it completely to your situation. Last year it was some 50,000 plus pages of content which is pretty ridiculous for $29.95. We're able to give our Footballguys Insider PROs the "over the shoulder" experience where we're able to highlight the most valuable free agents in their leagues as well as recommend optimal starting lineups and roster moves. And we have a full Money Back Guarantee so there is zero risk.
DD – Joe will provide more detail here, but we are moving our anonymous users to Insider Free accounts. We are doing that because we have a ton of customization type projects in play and we can’t provide that information when we don’t know who is visiting the website.
After July 15th, you need to have a Pro account to get everything.
16. What do you wish that Footballguys offered that it currently doesn't? Are there plans to offer that in the future?
DD – We have some revolutionary ideas that we will be implementing in the next few years in the app space. I don’t want to go into details because being 1st to market is almost as important as making sure the product is awesome. Additionally, we plan to have the best league management commissioner product in the not-so-distant future.
JB - I continue to think we have opportunity to improve our community. The Footballguys Message Boards have been around from the beginning and I feel like there is room to improve there. We'll see.
League Management is a natural market for us that we're already in with our contests. Expansion into other areas likely makes sense.
I also see us expanding into more contests as we listen to the market and our customers.
And the mobile market is of course a giant focus. Who knows where this technology will be able to take us but we are "all in" with this platform.
17. Will we see the return of the "follows closely" on the message board? Helped identify homers much easier.
JB - Maybe. Unfortunately, we're beholden to Invision and their software. I do know with the size and volume of our message boards, we continually push the limits for their software.
DD – We use the Invision Power Board and they are constantly adding/deleting tweaking features. We generally update to the newest versions because the net changes are generally improvements in speed and performance of the board. Occasionally though we lose features we never wanted to lose.
18. Will you consider limiting the boards to subscribers only during Sunday Mornings during the NFL season?
DD – The boards are always going to be free to everyone. Everyone thinks the boards will be better with limited access, but that rarely has turned out to be the case in this industry. We like providing the fantasy football community a free place to hang out and talk football 24/7.
JB - I've said no to this forever it seems and I don't see changing that. In my opinion, there is just too much positive that comes from a public forum. Especially with the message board medium losing ground to other social media platforms.
19. Daily games sprung onto the scene the last few years. How is Footballguys positioning itself in this rapidly emerging market?
JB - We see Daily Games as a very important segment of the market. The companies providing games are strong and well run businesses with excellent products. Clearly they seem to be here to stay. The Daily Games are a natural fit for us as we project detailed stats for every player each week. Our guys have had tremendous success using Footballguys data to compete in the Daily space and we'll be expanding this coverage even more in 2014.
The beauty of Daily Games for us is that we're already doing most of the hard work in projections already. Leveraging that raw data into useful information for Daily Customers is a natural extension.
DD –I am a big believer in the daily format and love the immediacy of the results. We felt we covered the space pretty well by the end of last year showing optimized lineups for the different sites (against our various projections) as well as articles on how to beat different games. I operated a successful blog where I deposited $50,000 and played in different formats at FanDuel. My findings and other insights will be published as an ebook (that will be available in early August to FBG Subscribers).
We plan to do a lot more strategy discussion around the daily space that we expect will be very well received.
20. What type of growth are you forecasting for daily (weekly) fantasy football over the next 3-5 years? How much (negative) impact will that growth have on seasonal FF? Accordingly, how do you see Footballguys content evolving to incorporate this growth?
DD – I know FanDuel has grown revenue 4X year over year for the last two seasons. That is crazy growth. I doubt that kind of curve can last much longer, but the format is compelling and there is a large pool of players that play season long fantasy to at least try daily. I don’t view any of it as a negative at all. It just makes what we do even more valuable.
JB - The Daily Companies are seeing explosive growth. Some of it in the 300 - 400% range which seems crazy and doesn't seem sustainable but that's what it is now. With their growth, comes increased interest in the content we provide.
It's hard to know for sure but how the Daily Game impacts the regular players remains to be seen. It feels like there are plenty of guys who play both but also plenty who firmly stay in one camp or the other. We see them both as customers.
21. Would Footballguys ever add its own drafting site?
JB - We're doing our own League Management site this year that will be running the Footballguys Players Championship as well as the FFPC events and are extremely excited about it. I love having the flexibility to create a product we feel our users want. How we expand that past the contests we're running is something we'll consider for next season.
If you mean a Drafting App, check out the Footballguys Draft Dominator Mobile App when it's ready for release. You won't be able to draft again without it.
DD – As in drafting, I am assuming you mean league management (sites like Yahoo, My Fantasy League, ESPN, etc). Up until now, we had not done it because frankly we felt the options out there are really quite good. Yahoo, ESPN and NFL offer very nice products for FREE.
Up until this year, we had RT Sports power the Footballguys Players Championship. That contract ended and they were not interested in powering our games going forward. So by necessity, we have been working hard with our good friends at the FFPC to create a league management product to run both of our contests. Additionally we have been hammering away at what we know will be the best Draft App to hit phones and tablets this summer. I see everything converging over the next few years where we do indeed have a great league management system. We believe the vertical integration we could do with our content would make it the preferred platform for many. We just need to walk before we can run though. So this year is all about powering our own games and getting our Draft App near perfection.
22. The Footballguys Players Championship sold 5,800 teams last year. What are the plans and expectations for 2014?
DD – We have created a $2M guaranteed prize pool for 2014. League prizes remain at $2,000 per league. We have capped entries at 7,500 teams and have prize payouts to 650th place. There is no better season-long fantasy contest out there.
JB - The FPC continues to be a prime offering for us. It's not very complicated - offer a great product with great payouts for a fair price and people want to play. We're capping entries this year at 7,500 and I expect we'll sell out early. I love it in that for a $350 entry fee, you can have a great experience playing with a ridiculously large prize pool. We see it as a great opportunity for guys who want to compete for serious prizes in an excellently run contest with an escrowed prize pool and live commissioners during the draft.
23. Apps appear to be a major focus point for Footballguys. What is the game plan here?
JB - It's not news that Mobile Apps are the future. They're not really the future anymore - they're the now. The challenge for us has been delivering the quality and details for mobile that our customers have come to expect from us on their desktop. And we can do that. So the goal there is the same as our goal for the desktop - to be the leading provider of information in helping guys win their league.
DD – Our game plan is full domination of the space with the best apps for fantasy football. We have spent a great amount of effort this offseason improving on our draft and magazine apps and have more offerings coming out this year as well. We expect stiff competition in this space, but I believe our products will be preferred by the most serious fantasy football enthusiasts.
24. I honestly don't expect this question to be included in the interview, but here goes anyway: Why the severe reluctance to improve upon the Draft Dominator (and it's sister products)?
DD – We have done some stuff with the Dominators (created Mac versions that were difficult for instance). The biggest items that people seem to have been clamoring for were breakouts between all sorts of different flex situations (WR/TE only, RB/WR, IDP breakout, etc). Simply stated providing these solutions was something we had not cracked yet. It took our apps developer, Simon (a fresh pair of eyes) to add key insight to the needed algorithms to solve any kind of issue like this. We implemented all of this variety last year into our mobile app with great results. This included adding returners, breaking out IDP, and all sorts of flex possibilities. There was not enough time to make these types of changes in our desktop versions. It is a major priority for us this year though.
JB - The Draft Dominator has been a victim of it's own success I think. Because we poured so much into it early on, it matured very quickly and became the leading draft software available and remains that today. As is the case with any mature product, the effort required to make a slight improvement became a lower priority than expending that effort in places where our offering wasn't as good and a substantial improvement could be made. But this year, Bruce Henderson, the man behind our Draft Dominator is focused on several significant improvements that I think people are going to love. Most have to do with breaking out IDP positions which doesn't affect the majority of users, but for those that do play IDP, it's going to be very well received I believe.
25. Fantasy success, how much is skill and how much is luck?
DD – It takes both to win championships. Skill alone can keep you very competitive in most all leagues though. But your stars need to avoid major injuries and you generally need to find that super deep sleeper / waiver pickup that hits big in the closing weeks of the season to win championships. Great fantasy players continue to dominate the high-stakes contests which tells me that skill is still the bigger piece of the equation.
JB - Our latest models are showing it's 19.8% luck. Seriously, I always say with a ball shaped like a football, there's going to be some luck involved.
Injuries to me are the biggest wild card in that there surely does seem to be a randomness involved. And there are always situations where an NFL Team's interest and your fantasy team's interest don't align. A running back that's pushed out on the 1 foot line and sees the backup RB vulture the touchdown on the next play can be attributed to "luck" for fantasy owners. But for the team, it's just a touchdown.
But by and large, this game is built on a decent sample size. And as the sample size increases, the better and more skillful owners start rising to the top. So I think it falls back to the Louis Pasteur quote where he said, "Chance favors the prepared mind."
26. What are the top 5 factors in identifying undervalued players in redraft/auction?
JB - Identifying the undervalued guys is a key to success. I try to emphasize a few points:
***Use human nature to your advantage and realize people love the shiny new object. I see this often with WRs. Fantasy owners will become enamored with this year's crop of rookie WRs and forget about last year's crop of rookie receivers. Many of whom are now ready to take the next step with a year under their belt.
***Look at points per opportunity. For a great many players, this game is all about opportunities. While everyone else is looking at season long numbers, focus more on fantasy points per game. Or fantasy points per target. If a player earned a starting job in Week 8 last season, his season long numbers are going to be dramatically skewed downward. Everyone knows this. But they seem to overlook it when valuing a player for the upcoming year. So find the guys who excelled last year in limited opportunity that could get much more playing time this year.
***Target the lower profile players. In today's NFL, every team has extensive coverage. But some teams still grab more spotlight than others. Unless they're the home team, players from teams like Arizona, Oakland and Jacksonville may be undervalued compared to players from teams that are constantly in the news.
*** Take advantage of short memories. The game moves so fast these days with players rising and falling overnight. Use this to your advantage if a player drops off the radar due to a situation that's been resolved like returning from injury or taking over a starting position.
DD – I just do my projections and let that stuff float to the surface when compared to average draft position. If I had to guess the list looks something like this:
- Players that were hurt last year
- Older players on a team that drafted a rookie to eventually supplant him
- Players on non-playoff teams
- Players with a huge increase in opportunity (new scheme, free agent loss, upgraded situation)
27. The game seems to be changing - favoring wide receivers and quarterbacks and even pass catching tight ends, and downplaying running backs. Do you see this as the future trend or more of a temporary fad? Does the lack of a big free agent contract for any running back and the lack of a first-round rookie back signal that teams just don't value the position that much anymore? Which of the younger generation of running backs, if any, do you think can buck the trend and be a 300-carry/40-catch, all-around back for the foreseeable future?
DD - The game has changed and I don’t see it going back in favor of the all-purpose running backs. It makes sense (to NFL teams) that the back you want on third down and nine has different physical characteristics than the guy you want to score from the 1 yard line. The NFL has become all about this specialization. As the dollars diminish for the RB position, look for the athletic college players to also avoid this position and play WR or CB. But right now there is a LOT of college RBs that can play in the NFL.
In my opinion, the younger backs that get 300 carries and 40 catches will be based more on opportunity than by desire by NFL teams. What I mean by that is a key back up misses time so the team has no choice but to ride one of their backs excessively resulting in a lot more touches for the player.
JB - The game has absolutely changed for the running backs. We must never forget that the NFL is a bottom line business and teams have figured out they can "run their business" without having to pay huge contracts to running backs. They can shuffle lineups and interchange players without having to pony up the giant contracts which now are reserved for quarterbacks and cornerbacks.
In a salary cap situation like the NFL, this isn't just a nice strategy, this becomes a huge advantage for teams that can fill a position for less money than their competitors. And we all this league is a copy cat league so you once you see teams have success with this, others follow.
28. With the always improving data and advanced stats we are collecting on college players is watching tape becoming less important? It seems it is next to impossible to watch tape without biases and human error getting in the way. Professional scouts watch the same tape and come to different conclusions all the time. Watching tape has it's place and always will but what do you guys see changing in the future in regards to new and improved scouting methods?
JB - Watching college tape continues to be a fascinating subject for me. On one hand, we have the guys who put tons of emphasis on the tape and game play. While others will put way more emphasis on the combine and pro day workout. I think the truth lies somewhere in between. Our guys like Matt and Sigmund and Cecil and Jene watch a ton of tape and I put them up against anyone. But I also know that for most of these guys, we need to see them against NFL competition to truly judge where they are.
DD – We have guys like Matt Waldman, Sigmund Bloom, Cecil Lammey and others that watch a lot of college football to assess how they think these guys will do at the next level. I personally don’t watch much at except to see highlights and wait until I can catch a glimpse of them in preseason or real game action. I do this because I believe the NFL game is so much faster (and generally requires great film study to be somebody good). I don’t generally have that high of an opinion on rookies UNTIL they actually do it on an NFL field. That might make me undervalue the best of the best prospects, but in general fantasy football players generally overdraft rookies by a significant margin anyway (making them non-value picks for your team).
29. During the regular season, how many complaints do you average per week? How many are legitimate and how many are from people that can never be satisfied?
DD – It is all part of this business. I try very hard to have perfect rankings / projections. I pride myself in the amount of time I put into that process each and every week. But the reality is that things don’t go as planned. That’s the good / bad of fantasy football. And when I miss, I do get complaints / anger venting. I get it. But it’s funny because the ones wanting to kill you the most, almost universally never want their money back and eventually say they are sorry for over-reacting.
I am usually pretty good at defending WHY I chose to rank someone over another. In hindsight it is not always right, but at least it is not random. I have a pretty good track record (best weekly ranker over the last 5 years at Fantasy Pros) so that helps mitigate some of the criticism.
JB - This story from a couple of years ago sums this up for me:
Monday night of Week 16, I received an email from a customer that said, "I just wanted to say thanks for Footballguys. I'd never made my playoffs before and this year I subscribed to Footballguys and I just won our Championship because of help from you guys. Footballguys rocks".
The very next email in my mailbox arrived exactly two minutes later and it read, "Bryant - you're the stupidest guy in Fantasy Football. You cost me my season today I'm never coming back to Footballguys".
Stuff like that keeps me grounded. By and large, most people are super cool and know that we're doing everything we can to put out the best information we can.
30. Which one of you does Chase have pictures of?
JB - David.
DD – Yes - I am the one to congratulate for hiring Chase. He was a kid still in high school when we hired him, but showed a crazy dedication to football and the Jets. I took a chance on him that the analysis side I saw in him would surface strongly if he were on our staff. Many deemed me crazy at the time, but it has worked out great for us. Chase is an outstanding analytical writer and creates some signature pieces for us that people love.
31. The entire staff of Footballguys is having a meeting in a warehouse when there's an earthquake. You are all trapped indefinitely and have access to water but no food -- which fellow Footballguys staffer would you vote to eat first?
DD – With our staff, I am pretty sure we would find a way to survive without eating anyone. It’s a pretty resourceful group.
JB - I've been around these guys in a group setting and I've seen them eat. I'm pretty sure we'd be able to last for a good while if the food was cut off. Drink, not so sure.
32. Explain Twitter to us in a few sentences.
JB - Twitter is the ultimate meritocracy where walls are not just overcome, but blown out. If you're good, the quality of your information will carry you. And that news will be delivered instantly. When you consider how news was distributed just a few generations ago, what we have today is ridiculous.
DD – A collection of thoughts from the people you follow. For football enthusiasts, it is where information (and analysis) breaks.
33. What is something no one knows about you?
DD – Very few know about my attempt at stealing a large Pepsi sign in the city of Gardenia while in college (thought it would look cool in my dorm room). Cops rolled up and I sprinted across the roof top and started making my get-away. Once on the ground I ran until I hit a giant fence. I attempted to leap the fence, but tripped up on my ankle and crashed to the ground. I rolled over and saw a cop rapidly approaching the same fence on foot. I continued to run realizing that it would take him a bit to scale the fence. Problem was that fence was there to protect people from running out onto the freeway. Well to get away, I did exactly that. I crossed the freeway and scaled the other fence on the other side. I ended up ditching my hoodie and settled in at a donut shop with paper before calling a friend from the outside pay phone to come and get me. At the time I was a Student Senator and College Resident Advisor at USC. Getting busted would have probably been a very bad thing. My two friends with me were caught that night, but they never ratted me out. They just said they knew me as David.
Why the donut shop? I figured that was the last place they would look for me at. In fact many police cars parked right outside while I read my paper inside waiting for my ride to show up. Overall, pretty reckless behavior by me and something I wish I could take back from my history.
JB - My college freshman room mate was a guy I didn't know from Boston and we spent the first week together not being able to understand a single word the other one said and being too embarrassed to admit it.
And I'm the one guy who loves Metallica's Saint Anger Album. I can't explain it.
34. Thoughts on your father-in-law (or another relative) cutting your lawn, unannounced?
JB - Father in law? Great. Matthew McConaughey? Not great.
DD – That would be pretty awesome actually. I generally hate doing yard work and love spending time with family members.
35. In your opinion, what is love?
DD – I see it as a passionate commitment that is nurtured and developed.
JB - I like to think about what Love "does" instead of what Love "is". Maybe that's why I love Bob Goff. So I ask "What does Love do?". And that's a big question.
In a nutshell, Love Does Stuff. I think love is getting over yourself and putting others in front. And not just thinking that but acting and living that out. Go do stuff. Let people know you love them. Think of yourself more like a "river" with love flowing through you and on to other places instead of thinking of yourself as a "lake" trying to keep everything to yourself.
36. 5 Guys or In and Out?
JB - Five Guys. In-N-Out is the Chick Fil-A of burgers. Good, clean, consistent and fun. But a lot of hype. Five Guys has a better burger and much better fries. And that's pretty much what a burger place should have.
BUT - I'll take a local joint over Five Guys or In-N-Out by a mile.
DD – I prefer In and Out burgers, but I like both.