Let's start a Dynasty League (NFL fantasy football)

[QuikSand]

So, I'm a bit thirsty for sports. Got into the NFL draft. That's over. I can't just occupy myself fully with prop bets and win totals and New Zealand rugby and marble racing.

So, I have never played a full "dynasty league" for football. Have played fantasy sports for years and years, including leagues with keeper systems - but never the keep-everyone concept.

Anyway, I started looking at online sites that run their own thing. I like the idea, and want to do it. But it pisses me off that many of them seem to only pay back 60-70 cents on the dollar in prizes. I mean - I get it, they're running a business, but that seems like a huge leak of money, just to have a "house" run the show.

So... let's set one up here.

I will volunteer to serve as, at least, the league treasurer. Let me be clear, I have zero interest in doing this for nothing. I want to play for stakes, and preferably for stakes that move my needle. So, basically, I'm game to run a league for the highest stakes for which I can get a 12-team cohort signed up.

I have been commissioner/treasurer for years for a league of my own (with 100% payback) for years, including a number of people from this site. I have a good reputation for being fair with trades and rules, and have a spotless reputation for paying out winnings. I'm volunteering myself as "the solution" to calm fears that this is a walk-away situation...but if there's an alternative, I'd be open to it.

My plan would be to just poach the rules (like roster limits, etc) from some online site and follow them, conduct a slow-moving draft here, and then run the league on a free site like ESPN.

I'll frame the "interested?" question in a post below... but for now, I'm soliciting interest.

[QuikSand]

Okay, from online sites (who protect themselves against walk-aways), it seems standard to ask team owners to pay up front for two full seasons. So, answer this with that in mind.


Express interest by leaving the accurate sections of these lines intact:

I would play for (per season):
$1000 $500 $300 $200 $100

I would prefer to play:
Best Ball Standard Rosters

...and I'd welcome any other setup/structural thoughts.

[QuikSand]

Here's a set of rules for an online site that runs dynasty leagues... have a look, and let's chat here about anything that requires some thoughtful setup in advance of people committing real money.

Page not found - Apex Fantasy Football Money Leagues

I can be thick skinned about "I don't want to just leave that to you, QuikSand" here... especially if we end up setting this up as a meaningful money thing. I get it.

[kurtism]

I'm your huckleberry. Good for any amount up to $500/year, any more and I suspect I need to speak to a family lawyer. Flexible on roster construction, and a dynasty newbie, so no preferences there either.

[Butter]

I would play for (per season):
$100

I would prefer to play:
Best Ball

[panerd]

Interested, would be more interested in using a free site for an auction than a snake draft but I get how it would stretch the time out per your first sentence.

As far as money goes I think I agree with the $100. Dynasty (which I prefer for sure) has way to many controversial trades to go any higher than that even with close known friends. Not exactly sure how trades even work in best ball never played that.

I would play for (per season):
$100

I would prefer to play:
No preference

[QuikSand]

Note here... a slow draft here could easily be set up as an auction, methinks. We could nominate 12 players at a time, and have some structured way to bring them to a close, given lots of time to do it.

[kurtism]

Could even use Online Fantasy Draft Board | Clicky Draft

[TLK]

This is in my wheelhouse. I run a few deep-keeper leagues and am always looking to add another one. Depending on the details, I might be interested. I'm back to work as of Monday and have no idea what I'm walking into. As far as a few suggestions:
-Depending on the buy-in, you can't go wrong with LeagueSafe. It makes the process a ton easier. Payouts are a breeze.

- As far as a host... for keeper and dynasty leagues, there is no better than MyFantasyLeague. The site isn't so much glitz and glamour, but it's solid and can do almost anything you would need and more. When setting the league up, if you say you are bringing the league over from another provider, your first year is free. I've heard decent stuff about Sleeper. Think it's only an app, but is considered #2 for dynasty leagues.

Link to one of my leagues on MFL. : Fantasy Football: Death or Glory Dynasty League

[Racer]

Originally Posted by TLK

This is in my wheelhouse. I run a few deep-keeper leagues and am always looking to add another one. Depending on the details, I might be interested. I'm back to work as of Monday and have no idea what I'm walking into. As far as a few suggestions:
-Depending on the buy-in, you can't go wrong with LeagueSafe. It makes the process a ton easier. Payouts are a breeze.

- As far as a host... for keeper and dynasty leagues, there is no better than MyFantasyLeague. The site isn't so much glitz and glamour, but it's solid and can do almost anything you would need and more. When setting the league up, if you say you are bringing the league over from another provider, your first year is free. I've heard decent stuff about Sleeper. Think it's only an app, but is considered #2 for dynasty leagues.

Link to one of my leagues on MFL. : Fantasy Football: Death or Glory Dynasty League

I'm not interested in joining as I like to keep the number of leagues I'm in to just one but I also highly recommend MFL and leaguesafe.com.

You do have to pay $70 (or $90 if you pay after June 10) to run your league on MFL but I found it to be well worth it. You can do a LOT on MFL and I feel like it's fairly user friendly.

If you do want to run the league on a free site like ESPN then you could still consider running the draft on this site as you can do that for free. It allows for a slow draft with the trading of draft picks. I am also pretty sure it allows for a slow auction draft though I've never done that.

I believe Leaguesafe.com charges a 2% service charge on payments if you allow owners to pay by Echeck or credit card. If you select just Echeck only then there is no service charge. You can also change it back and forth at will. I think there is also a small fee to withdraw winnings from leaguesafe.com if you choose to be paid by check or direct deposit. I believe it's like $5 but I've only been lucky enough to withdraw money once or twice. I feel like it's worth it though so I don't ever have to deal with holding onto other people's money.

Here is the dynasty league I run:
Fantasy Football: Gridiron Greats League

We're entering our eleventh season. It's definitely been a lot of fun and we've had very little league turnover during that time so I definitely think you starting one up is a great idea.

One other piece of advice is that I recommend having some sort of basic constitution with a a commissioner oversight rule that gives you discretion about correcting any rule oversights that could happen.

[bhlloy]

I'd be very interested in doing this


Okay, from online sites (who protect themselves against walk-aways), it seems standard to ask team owners to pay up front for two full seasons. So, answer this with that in mind.


Express interest by leaving the accurate sections of these lines intact:

I would play for (per season):
$1000 $500 $300 $200 $100 - any of the above

I would prefer to play:
Not Best Ball - personally I like the challenge of setting your lineup and living with those decisions. But I'm pretty flexible and will go with the majority.

[TLK]

If you go the MFL/LeagueSafe route. Set the league up first on MFL and then there's an export to LeagueSafe that will transfer all the owner info over.

The slow auction on MFL is great. They added a few features that greatly enhanced the experience this year. If I had it my way, my leagues would be slow auction for everything. But some folks love to draft.

As far as the 2x league fee at league startup. I'm not a fan of doing that but it is the norm. What I did in the leagues I ran was charge whatever the league fee was and have each team pay an additional 1/4 fee to the league fund. Commish has power over the league fund to give a discount to an owner that takes over an prphan. The amount depends on the quality of the team. If the orphan sells at full price, the original owner gets his league fund payment refunded. Another option is to charge teams if they trade a future pick. Guys will take over a shitty team, they tend to not like teams without 1st round picks.

[QuikSand]

Like the ideas, keep them coming.

For those of you who "run" your own leagues... do you give back all the $ in payouts, after covering costs of the site or whatever else? I'd presume so, just checking that this is the norm.

[QuikSand]

Also, related questions... I'm assuming there's not really a way to have a +EV in these online setup-for-strangers leagues that only return 60-70c on the dollar back in prizes, right? I'm just assuming that the caliber of managers who are willing to put up $1000 would be self-selecting to the point where even as a good manager (which I suggest I am) I wouldn't be able to overcome that huge rake and expect to win long term.

I mean... I'd play in ten $1,000 best ball leagues if I felt fairly comfortable that I should clear a few K a year doing so. But I'm assuming there just aren't enough fish out there at those stakes.

Sound right?

[Racer]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

Like the ideas, keep them coming.

For those of you who "run" your own leagues... do you give back all the $ in payouts, after covering costs of the site or whatever else? I'd presume so, just checking that this is the norm.

Yeah, I give all the money back minus the $70 to pay for MFL each year.

[TLK]

No profit in being a commish for me. More a labor of love I guess. Hell, I've never got a tip or anything, but I make sure to tip in a league I win that I don't commish now.

I guess the biggest benefit to running these online leagues with mostly random folks, is that you get to start with a ruleset that you like or think will be cool setup. Sometimes it's a slippery slope and you find yourself in a 4 copy, superflex. IDP league with doubleheaders and victory points.

I play in a ton of leagues and have an understanding with my wife that if I lose money at the end of the season, I'll cut back the following year. So I always prepare a spreadsheet just in case I ever get called on it. My highest profits normally come from the leagues with the highest juice. The FFPC high stakes leagues. I can't explain it because it seems like lost money every year with their setup but always end up with a healthy positive.

[QuikSand]

Okay...

A set of default rules, asking for a "yes, I would do THIS" as a soft commitment... if we need to tweak, we can do that, but for now:

$200 per year to play
12 teams, all $ goes out to winners, no overhead
25 player roster
best ball format
0.5 ppr scoring format
scoring and rules appropriated from a site that runs something comparable
QuikSand as commissioner/treasurer, and will run a team

[bhlloy]

Yep, I’m in for that, although I’d still prefer not best ball would just be happy to get it off the ground

[kurtism]

In

[Butter]

I think I'm in