Designing a private DFS football league for 2016-

[QuikSand]

So, I got invited to a private group of FanDuel players several weeks ago, and my interest in DFS football has now skyrocketed. I had dabbled before in the various anonymous games, with so-so results, but never felt very attached to my teams. A few close calls with substantial money was fun, but not a big deal.

Now, after 8 entries and a few nail-biters later, I want to set something up for next season. Either as an open invite to play in a weekly contest among friends, or possibly a "league" setup. I haven't thought through the latter, but I love the idea.

Right now, the group I'm playing with is fairly simple. 5 entries each week, $25 flat entry per team, winner gets $100, runner up gets money back, and then the bottom three pay the top two on point differential ($2/pt for the winner, $1/pt for the runner up). That has generated a winner for between $150-250 most weeks, in part depending if someone has a terrible week. In 8 rounds of this, I'm up about $450, which i'm sure has contributed to my own enthusiasm for the system.

(FYI, we play on the site for $0, and settle the money privately...no apparent reason to pay FanDuel anything)


Anyway.. I'm thinking about what I could set up as a game for friends who are unlikely to play at those stakes. I suspect dropping the point differential as a factor is probably wisest (though i love it)...but I'm not all that thrilled about just running a "play when you want, $10 a team, here are the prizes" setup.

Any thoughts on how to turn this into something more intriguing than a weekly cash pool?






Note: and if/when Maryland joins the trend and declares this illegal gambling, then this might be mooted for me personally.

[Logan]

A fw close calls with substantial money was fun, but not a big deal.

Can a mod please fix this typo?

runer up gets money back, and then the bottom three pay the top two on point differential ($2/pt for the winer, $1/pt for the runner up). That has generated a winner for between $150-250 most weeks, in part depending if someone has a terrible week. In 8 rouns of this, I'm up about $450, which i'm sure has contributed to my own enthusiasm for the system.
...
no apparentl reason to pay FanDuel anything)

All of these too, please.

(FYI, we play on the sir for $0, and settle the money privately

How can you play on a sir? That just seems preposterous. Please fix.

Oh and also edit out that unnecessary hanging hyphen from the thread title. Thanks and god bless.

[digamma]

Just thinking out loud, what if you had a season long prize as well as weekly prizes. I agree the differential adds an element of excitement. Maybe total points is a way to capture that while capping weekly exposure.

[QuikSand]

Yeah, right now my leaning is toward some combination of big weekly prizes but then some piece gets held back as a season-long award.

Something like $25 per entry, submit as many as you want. $15 from each gets churned back into the weekly prizes, and then $10 set aside toward some sort of aggregate scoring title.

I don't think making it into a wins-and-losses "league" is best (though I have one friend who likes that a lot) -- so I'm trying to square the way to leave it open to multiple entries per person but not giving an advantage to those who might play more than one. I've thought through several permutations on that... but I'm stuck.

[Barkeep49]

If you're talking casual people I think that a W-L league can be very effective.

[Suicane75]

I don't think I'd be down for a multiple entry format unless it could be competitively balanced, the amount of money would get out of my price range very quickly. But other than that aspect, you can count me in.

[stevew]

Can you bypass fanduel entirely and use an existing fantasy format that you can customize to be exactly like fanduel? I had a similar thought as well before the season with friends. Was a but concerned that PayPal transactions could invite unwanted scrutiny. Maybe you do a blanket buy-in(say 100$) that covers your first 10 entries and allow for re-ups throughout the season at specified points? Say every 4 weeks?

Like the concept of an end of season prize, perhaps the average of each weekly entry added up and divided by 17(to encourage people to play each week).

More people at a lower price point should increase the winning potential I'd imagine.