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Making the Deal: One Tip to Trading In Fantasy Football

May 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
2960460858 c2e93f601d m Making the Deal: One Tip to Trading In Fantasy Football

League Members (Photo credit: D.Clow - Maryland)

In order to have success in fantasy football you have to be fundamentally sound and aware of how to trade with owners in your league. Sometimes this is easier said then done. Depending on the type of league that you are playing in it is essential to have a good relationship with fellow owners. The goal of any one trade is to receive value for both parties. What each person considers valuable is subjectable to the wants and needs of their team.

My advice has always been to keep a running dialogue with guys in your league. It makes it easier for them to want to work out a deal because they trust you aren’t trying to take advantage of them. Never just blast offers especially if they appear to be one sided. I’ve learned this from personal experience. You can easily offend other owners this way. When you do this they will want nothing to do with you and they will think you are angle shooting them. Communication is the perfect tool to get a deal done. Trades in fantasy football just like the NFL do not happen in seconds. There is a process.

When you are negotiating it is important that you sell the benefits of what you are offering to your counterpart. You have players that are over performing it is the perfect time to maximize their value to your team by moving them especially when you have needs in different categories. These guys rarely outperform for a whole season. It comes in bunches. You were lucky enough to have them for a portion of that big surge now it’s time to get something in return. You do this by showing the interested owner on how this guy has been playing. Never sell the guy on the future. Sell them on what they’ve been up to in the past week or past two weeks. People are fascinated by the “it” thing of the moment and they will pay for it if they think their team will be better because of it. You have to plant that seed.

What you are seeking in return should always fill holes in your roster. It’s important to not downplay their players that you want but convince them that they’ve got a lot of pieces that are already in place that you can manage without this or that player.

In the end you have to be flexible and the trade has to provide value to both parties but it is important to sell the value of your outperformer so it makes it look like the owner is getting a steal of a deal when in fact its actually win-win.

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Fantasy Football and its Effect on Productivity in the Workplace

May 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
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Do you spend 10 minutes a day at work managing your fantasy football team?
If so, you could be one of the millions of people costing employers as much as $1.1 billion weekly in lost productivity during the National Football League season.
So says a new report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., the Chicago-based employment research firm that tracks corporate office trends. The study takes the estimated number of fantasy football participants — a fast-growing 36.8 million — and multiplies that number by their average earnings every 10 minutes, about $6.
Challenger’s calculation assumes participants spend 10 minutes per day, or almost an hour a week, drafting players, setting rosters and plotting strategy at the office. A more conservative estimate places the weekly lost productivity number at $500 million.
A survey of 1,200 fantasy sports participants by West Virginia Wesleyan College found that two-thirds spent at least five hours per week managing their teams. The survey also found that 60 percent spend more than hour each day thinking about their fantasy team, so from that figure Challenger, Gray CEO John A. Challenger said “it’s not out of the realm of possibility” those folks are spending 10 minutes of office time fantasizing about their fantasy team.
So what’s a boss to do? Nothing, Challenger added in a statement. A 2003 Ipsos poll, sponsored by the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, found that 40 percent of respondents said fantasy sports participation was a positive influence in the workplace. Another 40 percent said it boosted camaraderie among employees, and 20 percent said it enabled them to make a valuable business contact.

300px Sexy miniskirt high heels and pink G String Fantasy Football and its Effect on Productivity in the Workplace

Sexy miniskirt high heels and pink G-String (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Employers should avoid squashing employees’ brief participation in fantasy football during work hours,” Challenger said. “The potential damage to morale and loyalty resulting from a … ban could be far worse than the loss of productivity caused by 10 minutes of online team management. Companies that not only allow workers to indulge in fantasy football but actually encourage it by organizing a company league are likely to see significant benefits.”

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Fun Ways to Spice Up Your NFL Fantasy Football League

May 10, 2012 By 1 Comment
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Fun Ways to Spice Up Your NFL Fantasy Football League

As you read this, more than 27 million Americans are gearing up for their 2013 fantasy football draft.

That's right, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, nearly 10 percent of the U.S. population will be entered in some sort of a fantasy league this football season. In addition, the average participant plays in 2.5 leagues and will kill nine hours of their life per week on fantasy football, which has turned into an $80 million industry.

So, if you're one of the millions and millions of Americans that is going to put that much time and effort into fantasy football during the next four months, you might as well get the most bang for your buck. We compared notes and came up with 10 concepts that you should implement this season in order to give your league a little more life.

As always, we want to hear your ideas as well. If there's a fantasy football variation that you know of that we didn't put on the list, send us e-mail at customerservice@ff-winners.com. We'd love to hear your ideas. Either way, happy drafting!!  Fun Ways to Spice Up Your NFL Fantasy Football League

 

10. Penalize the last place team
Not that any of us here at ff-winners.com has ever owned a fantasy team that was out of contention within the first few weeks of the seasonshades smile1 Fun Ways to Spice Up Your NFL Fantasy Football League, but, believe us, we've seen it happen. And – from what we've heard – there's nothing worse that drafting a team that you envision winning the whole ball of wax, only to see injuries and a boatload of bad luck sack your chances by the time the calendar turns to October. So instead of watching these unlucky bastards lose interest in the league and start tanking games, set up a stiff penalty for the team that finishes last – something much worse than simply being the ridicule of the rest of the league's members. Whether it's a penalty that hurts their wallet or something even more humiliating (how about making them mow the first place team's lawn for a month come springtime), do something to keep owners from throwing in the towel midway through the season.

9. More payouts = more interest
Granted, every one in your league wants to win the championship, both for monetary reasons and bragging rights. But your league should be about more than just who finishes atop the heap in December. For instance, in addition to the yearly payouts, you can install monthly or even weekly winners for most points scored. Also, at the end of the season you can award the team that scores the most points in a single week. This way even the cellar dwellers will have something to play for throughout the entire season.

8. Make rookies matter
Rookies can be a scary proposition in fantasy sports. That college stud who was drafted in the first round could turn out to be overmatched or he could be an All Pro. To force teams to take a chance on these precocious players, require owners to draft and hold on to a certain number of rookie players throughout the season. Want to make it even more challenging? Make it a rule that every team has to start at least one rookie every week.

7. Make defenses more meaningful
You've probably heard the phrase, "Defense wins championships." Well, whoever said it first, probably wasn't a fantasy football commissioner since most leagues out there treat defense as an afterthought. Instead of drafting just one team defense, have teams select a couple of individual defensive players. Slot one guy as the "interception" player, one as the "sack" player and one as the "tackle" player. And add in big bonus points if a defensive player finds the end zone.

6. Stop the waiver wire madness
Every league has a guy who ruins the spirit of the waiver wire. You know the one – maybe it's you – the owner who is always trolling the waiver wire searching for the player that has slipped through the cracks and could turn out to be a one-week wonder. It seems like every time he makes a midseason pick-up it happens the transaction happens at 3 a.m. While it is admirable to see someone so dedicated to stealing a player from right under everyone else's noses, it's also quite annoying.

An interesting concept to add to your league is to restrict the number of waiver wire picks a team can make each week or each season. This makes the waiver wire a commodity, something you can trade and get some value out of. Trades are much more interesting and a lot easier to make when you can throw in waiver picks.

5. Award winners with more than just money
Hey, I love cold, hard cash as much as the next degenerate. But sometimes it's nice to have an added incentive to shoot for when it comes to fantasy football. So go ahead and add some intrigue to the final standings. Make the three last-place teams bankroll the food and beverage budget at next year's draft. Allow the first-place team to choose the draft date and location for next year and — like the Masters — choose the food that will be served. Or, as one of our associates recommended, have a booze reward league where the teams that finish in the bottom of the league have to buy the upper echelon teams a bottle of liquor or case of beer. The cost and quality of the booze prizes are staggered by the standings, with the last place team buying the first-place team the highest -shelved item. And make it a requirement that everyone gets together during the NFL playoffs to exchange and drink the prizes.

Fun Ways to Spice Up Your NFL Fantasy Football League4. Penalize distracted owners at the draft
One thing I can guarantee is that on at least two or three occasions during your draft somebody will select a player that has already been drafted. It doesn't matter how big your draft player board is or how organized the people in your league are. It's just something that is going to happen. So, in an effort to stop this aggravating delay in the proceedings, have some sort of penalty for the people who commit this fantasy crime. Make the offender drop $20 into a pot each time they do it and then put all of the money collected at the end of the draft towards dinner, drinks or adult entertainment. Or make the penalty a shot of tequila. Just use something that might help stop this kind of despicable action.

3. Penalize unprepared owners at the draft
Plain and simple, if an owner can't correctly pronounce the name of the player he is drafting or can't state the team and position of the player, he shouldn't be able to draft said player. This deters unprepared owners from coming to the draft with nothing but a cheat sheet from a fantasy football magazine and very little knowledge of the players on the board in the middle to late rounds.

2. Try a Suicide Fantasy Football League
Suicide Fantasy Football Leagues are a relatively new development in the world of fantasy sports. They're fun, different and easy to operate. And best of all, the dreaded injury factor is taken out of the equation. Here's how it works. There is no draft at the start of the season. The owners pick their team each week and every player is available to every team. Here's the catch: you can only use a player ONCE throughout the entire season. For example, if the league runs for 16 weeks, you will need to use 16 different quarterbacks. There is a lot of strategy involved here since you have to map out when you want to use certain players by virtue of who they're playing and you have to try and save some high-profile players for later in the season when the picking starts to get slim. Try it. You may never go back to a regular format.

1. Make draft day special 
For most leagues, draft day is the only time of the season when the entire league gets together under one roof where it can conduct the kind of necessary trash talk and ridicule that is a must in fantasy sports in person. Heck, there's a lot of leagues out there that either use an auto-draft format or do it online simply for geographical reasons or scheduling conflicts (family and jobs have a way of spoiling a lot of fun, don't they?). Those are the leagues that are missing out on what it typically the best day of the year for fantasy football owners.

Make an effort to conduct your draft in a live format. Hold the draft at a place where it will be uninterrupted and don't rush through the proceedings. Make a day out  of it. Plan on having everyone stay after the draft to watch a college football game on TV or play some poker. Make a tradition out of it. And if you're really ambitious, go to Las Vegas for your draft. Some of the major casinos have started to market Fantasy Draft Weekend and are holding specials for fantasy football fans. Take advantage of it. After all, draft day only comes once a year and you should make the most of it.

 

 
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One Fantasy Football Secret

May 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The biggest key to success when you are playing fantasy football will be that you are able to successfully forecast the performance of a broad spectrum of players, making your decisions – as far as who you will add to your team, who you will drop, and who you will start – accordingly. This means that there will be a lot of guesswork in fantasy football, as you surely know if you have played for any significant amount of time, but you can also maximize your chance of success by eliminating guesswork as much as possible – and the best way to do this is to know certain things to look for in forecasting fantasy football performance.

Going with players whose names are familiar – or worse, going with players who everyone seems to like – is a mistake that a lot of rookie (and even a lot of veteran) fantasy footballers make; if you want to be successful in fantasy football, you will have to broaden your perspective beyond just the players you are used to seeing and hearing about.

150x104 One Fantasy Football Secret

When you are playing fantasy football, it can be easy to get caught up in past performance, but in order to properly project future performance, you will want to pay attention to trends; for instance, players at certain positions begin to decline at a certain age, and certain teams will try to change their offensive philosophy, and this will affect the performance of certain players. By making sure you are staying aware of these things, you will put yourself in much better position for making guesses as to how a certain player’s season will turn out.

And the last thing you need to make sure you realize is that fantasy football is all about minimizing risk by maximizing opportunity; for instance, if you are trying to choose between a running back who is explosive, but who only gets ten to fifteen carries per game, and a running back who is not nearly as explosive but can be counted on for twenty-five carries each game, your best bet will always be to build your team with the latter type of guy, as this will give you your greatest shot at fantasy football success!

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Fantasy Football for Dummies

April 22, 2012 By 1 Comment
150x103 Fantasy Football for Dummies

FOXBORO, MA - NOVEMBER 08: Ricky Williams #34 of the Miami Dolphins scores a touchdown as Brandon Meriweather #31 of the New England Patriots defends and Jake Long #77 of the Dolphins celebrates the play on November 8, 2009 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Okay, let’s get one thing straight right off the bat, we are talking about American football here, you know the sport with the funny shaped ball! Anyway, let’s not waste time on semantics I have stuff to do.

The way fantasy football works is like this, every participant or owner as we are called in the Fantasy Sports World, drafts or buys through an auction a team of players. For the purposes of this introduction we are going to assume the fantasy football league is NFL, but it could also be based on college players. The way the actual completion plays out depends upon the individual fantasy football league you happen to belong to. In some fantasy football leagues the winner is determined by total points at the end of a season, while others actually play against each other weekly with the team having the best record at the end of the fantasy season being declared winner of that fantasy football league.

The internet has been responsible for taking fantasy football from a hobby played out in sports bars and individual homes to a multi-billion dollar industry now according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. According to the FSTA, nearly twenty million players participate in fantasy sports and the industry has a growth rate of around ten percent. Fantasy Football is the most popular of all the fantasy sports available and continues to grow even faster with the explosion of websites and software to help with the game as well as the proliferation of fantasy football magazines available today.

Most fantasy football leagues will be made up of around ten or twelve individual teams which will have their own mock drafts before the season starts. Because you are drafting real players and their performance really matters it pays to stay in touch with what is going on with them during the off season and pre-season. For example if you draft a Ricky Williams and he decides to go off and smoke dope, too bad, you are screwed out of a running back! In some fantasy football leagues each owner must draft a new team every year, while in others you may be allowed to keep a handful of players which will not be entered in the draft. Some leagues have even gone as far as to create so-called dynasty leagues where an owner may maintain his team from the previous season and only draft incoming rookies. This is very similar to how a real football league works.

Players that are not drafted are designated as “free agents” and may be chosen during the season by trading players that an owner may currently have and making them free agents. The rules that govern this practice vary from league to league.

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The Dangers of Untreated Fantasy Football Addiction

March 31, 2012 By 3 Comments
3224547373 b626450435 m The Dangers of Untreated Fantasy Football Addiction

Hunky and Oski (Photo credit: CarbonNYC)

In 2007, the Fantasy Sports Trade Association reported that an estimated 30 million individuals over the ages of 12 on up have participated in playing fantasy football. This proves that sports fans are increasingly becoming more and more addicted to playing fantasy football. When considering the definition of addiction, thoughts that commonly run through someone’s mind are referring to drugs and alcohol, and not necessarily fantasy football addiction. But with the addiction to fantasy football rapidly on the rise, it has managed to make its mark as an unofficial and unexpected addiction to some. Whether it’s playing fantasy football just to win some money, or for the feeling of authority of pure entertainment, there’s no question fantasy sports are slowly becoming an addicting sport.

It can be said that men everywhere have created their own self-addiction to fantasy sports. Whether it’s the fall season and football season is about to take off, or it’s March and spring training for Football is in session, the addiction never really stops. It’s a year-round leisure pursuit that has captivated the lives of sports fans. The phenomenon is a timely and tedious process that requires sports knowledge and sometimes a lucky charm. A typical fantasy football draft can take anywhere from one to five hours to complete. Individuals that are participating in the game, break down player stats, injury reports and opposing predictions when creating rosters.

When dealing with addiction, denial is often the primary psychological indicator that someone is involved with a personal struggle—for example, asking someone who religiously takes part in fantasy leagues on a daily basis at the expense of other responsibilities when claiming it’s nothing important to them. A lot more woman are starting to take notice when their husbands are starting to stay on the computer all the time. It might not be what you think; he could be part of the growing addiction of Fantasy Football.
A clinical psychologist warns that extreme football fanaticism may actually be an addiction that can damage life’s most significant relationships. Even in parts of the country where football madness is normal, the psychologist states that Fantasy Football fans need to become more alert to the danger Fantasy Football turning into obsession. Over-indulging in sports viewing can negatively impact a person’s quality of life. The psychologist says it isn’t only about the number of hours you spend in front of the television or computer, but how that involvement might be taking you away from everyday, real-life commitments.
Are you an addict? Answer the below questions to find out if you have a Fantasy Football Addiction:

  1. Do you have football on your mind even when you are involved in other activities?
  2. Do you prioritize the game over significant events in your life such as birthdays, anniversaries and key social gatherings?
  3. Do you feel depressed, angry or become violent if your favorite team loses?
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