RIP SnapDraft?

It appears that SnapDraft will be joining the long list of well funded Daily Fantasy Sports websites to go under since 2008. SnapDraft was an obvious copy of what we were doing at Fantasy Sports Live, but missed the point of our business model completely. Owned by Fanball.com, SnapDraft wanted to use the high margin model used in season long fantasy sports. They ended up setting their margin (rake) at 20% which was twice as high as anyone else in daily fantasy sports was charging. It was ridiculously high. A $10 heads-up league only paid out $6 in profits to the winner. You would really need to be a fantasy sports God, or find consistent match-ups with complete fish to beat that rake long-term. As a result, we never really considered them as a competitor, but more of a site where people played for fun with no hope of profiting long-term. They also put little to no effort into the structures of their games, or their player cap costs, and were notoriously horrible at customer service. All in all they were pretty bad for the daily fantasy sports industry by attracting players, and then leaving a bad taste in their mouth for daily fantasy sports. If you were a Snap Draft player, and want to try out a site that pays out 92.5 to 96% (vs. 80%) of the fees in cash prizes, Fantasy Sports Live is the place to play. Use bonus code “blinders” and get $10 free with a $50 initial deposit, or $20 free with a $100 initial deposit.

SnapDraft was a property of Fanball.com that has announced operations will cease in mid 2011 after the current fantasy foootball, fantasy basketball, and fantasy hockey leagues complete. There has not been a formal announcement on what will happen with SnapDraft, but they will probably cease operations sooner, as they are a daily fantasy site without long-term leagues. The shut down is pretty complex, and it is possible that some of the pieces, including SnapDraft, could be sold off and continue to operate.

Fantasy Cup, a fantasy NASCAR site also owned by Fanball, will not be running Fantasy NASCAR leagues in 2011. The season long fantasy NASCAR sites have been hurt bad by the recession, and are closing down fast. We will continue to offer Weekly Fantasy NASCAR at Fantasy Sports Live, and hope to pick up many of Fantasy Cup’s customers. We are starting to become the only game in town for Fantasy NASCAR, and we will do our best to serve that community.