We thought we had seen it all when the AFFL announced signups for its 2010 contest while being sued by their 2009 Grand Prize Winner for non-payment. Well, nothing surprises us in this industry. Today is a new day in the world of High Stakes Fantasy Football.

Stan Misthios has surfaced back into the fantasy landscape, but this time, it’s not as an owner of the now defunct FFOC, it’s as the owner of a NEW contest, called “Stanima Fantasy Football Open”.

Stan mentions on his website that he is offering a NEW contest this year, FOR 2010, and it’s ONLY available to former FFOC free entry winners. On his website, he states that the prizes are substantially less than what was offered in FFOC, and that he wants to raise them in the future. “This will depend entirely on how my identity and character is perceived in the fantasy sports community by developing the initiative of this website. Based on how things ended with the FFOC, I fully understand and appreciate that there will be a lack of confidence and integrity associated with anything that I may offer in this space.”

Also from the site, he states that Dustin Ashby, who operates the World Championship of Fantasy Football, is also providing to former FFOC winners, entry into their FREE One and Done contest, at some point this season. “STANIMA is very pleased to announce that through the gracious generosity of Dustin Ashby and Jesse Herron, owners of Gridiron Fantasy Sports who operate the World Championship of Fantasy Football (WCOFF), all of the FFOC players who won a free entry into what was supposed to be a 2010 FFOC game will get to compete for FREE in a 2010 special edition WCOFF “One and Done” contest.”

He also goes on to mention that this is completely seperate from the former ownership team of the FFOC. “Finally, you should all know that I have developed this entire initiative on my own – completely independent of any of my former partners with the FFOC and Poised To Stomp Sports. It should be stressed that I am not in a position to comment or provide any information on the closing of the FFOC.”

More information can be obtained by clicking his website: http://www.stanima.com

FPA Statement: Well… we’re at a loss for words. This is a time we have reserved to study draft boards and Average Draft Position, while we all prepare for our annual big trips to Vegas. While it’s nice to see that an attempt is being made to help scorned players, there are just too many unanswered questions regarding the closure of the FFOC, and the million dollar prize winner. Until those questions are answered, the FPA is taking a wait and see approach before advising entry into this contest.

WCOFF getting involved is a different issue. Again, it’s a nice gesture to the players, but a puzzling one. It would seem if WCOFF wanted to come to the rescue of former FFOC winners, why risk association with an unproven contest and a contest organizer who went silent on his players.

We hope to speak to both Dustin and Stan in the coming days and will report back as soon as we make contact.

contest · dustin ashby · FFOC · online contest · stan misthios · wcoff

Dustin Ashby represented his contest, the World Championship of Fantasy Football, when he appeared on CNBC today. Check out the link below for an entertaining, what we consider ground breaking moment for our industry:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1575070041&play=1

FPA’s Statement: We’re very proud that our obsessive hobby has came this far. Some of us yearn for the day we’ll see LIVE high stakes draft coverage on Television. In our opinion, it’s not a matter of if we’ll see it, only when.

dustin ashby · wcoff

In an absolutely shocking development, the FPA has learned that the AFFL has intentions to open registrations for the 2010 season.  While this may seem like an April Fool’s joke to those who have followed the news regarding the AFFL’s default on prize payments and the pending lawsuit by the 2009 prize winner, I assure you that it is very true. Owner, Wade Gollab posted the following on the AFFL boards:

Hey guys,

We plan on opening signups for the 2010 season within the next week. Hopefully, by Monday, the 19th. More news will be coming soon.

Wade

FPA’S Statement: We at the FPA have confirmed that 2009 Grand Prize winnings owed by the AFFL still remain uppaid. It is due to this, that we strongly caution any High Stakes Fantasy Football when joining the 2010 AFFL. In our opinion, no contest which has outstanding prizes from the previous year can be endorsed or trusted by the High STakes Fantasy Sports community. We hope that the AFFL owners can shed some light on their surprising plans but anything short of “we will be sending 100% of the monies owed” will be unacceptable.

AFFL · high stakes contest · high stakes fantasy football

………. It was announced on FFPC message boards last night, that a new Commissioner product has been selected, and that partner is RTSports . RTSports is a recipient of a FSTA’s  Recognition Award for 2007.  

High Stakes players from around the industry have been wondering who this would be since the FPA first broke the original story of FFPC’s lack of a provider back on April the 8th.  At that time, we were told by Alex Kaganovsky, co-founder of the FFPC, the following:

“So to answer, the issue is pretty simple. We are currently in negotiations with Mike Hall of MyFantasyLeague.com for the 2010 season. The reason why this is still in the negotiation process is because Stats Inc, which is the live stats provider to MFL as well as most other league management companies (RT Sports, Fanball, etc) has a contractual provision with MFL which prevents MFL from selling their hosting services to commercial entities such as the FFPC. So the bottom line is, Stats wants to get paid more money, whether its from MFL or from the FFPC.”

MyFantasyLeague.com was the commissioner product for the first two years of FFPC’s existence so this change marks a significant event in the history of this contest. Things at MFL worked at a high level, so this is the expectation of all players moving forward. Just how it will work out is yet to be seen, but it appears they’ve addressed one of the biggest concerns that some of the High Stakes players have with RTSports, which is the blind bidding service offered, which has appeared to lack some of the functionality that many high stakes players enjoy. Specifically, the ability to group the bids into groups.

(see below for an example)

Another of the issues the FFPC contractually addressed are the bids within the group. Prioritizing bids at the user’s discretion rather than by bid $ amount is a nice feature which adds another layer of flexibility and control.  Finally, FFPC contractually requested that all bids be made public after the bidding has been ran, to offer transparency to the process.

Alex continued by highlighting several other areas important to choosing RTSports.

“In addition to the new blind bidding interface, RTSports has agreed to build a Victory Points standings program for the FFPC, which they have not offered previously. RTSports will allow VPs to be an exclusive feature of the FFPC and will not offer VPs to any other HSFF contest it hosts. In turn, Victory Points will be made available as a new feature for individual commissioned leagues purchased from RTSports. Our next major area of concern was online live drafting software. This is an area that RTSports excels in as their draft room is easy to use and dependable. RTSports also provides live-commissioned drafts as an option, which was another important point for us.”

FPA’s Statement: Finally, an answer. Many players had expressed concern over the lack of a league management provider so this is welcome news on a Tuesday morning. With the issues we’ve seen from league management providers in our recent past, we can’t help but be a bit concerned that RTSports will be attempting to introduce changes this late in the game. It’s closing in on July, so that leaves a little over two full months to implement the necesary changes that the FFPC is requesting. 

The FPA does however fully support all three of the contractual concerns regarding the bidding functionality. It’s important that owners have full control over bidding and it’s an important issue for FPA members to know not only who won the bids for certain players, but by how much they were won by.

We’re excited to see the changes that come about for RTSports with this as we enjoy using their product in several other leagues across the industry. We also can’t help but be interested to see if WCOFF additionally decides to alter their bidding capabilities based on any player feedback that may arise.

In addition, Alex has agreed to sit down with FPA President Scott Atkins, to not only discuss the new partnership, but to do a full blown behind the scenes interview on the discussion of just what went down with this apparently new licensing issue and what specifically served as the catalyst of change in the FFPC’s backend provider.

What questions would you like answers to? We’ll do our best to address all of them.

CONDITIONAL BIDDING GROUPS EXAMPLE:

You need a receiver and you have two in mind, Jarrett Dillard and Mike Thomas. In this scenario, you only have $150 to spend as your budget. You feel however that $100 is enough to win either player, but you feel that $50 might not be enough to get it done.

In a grouped scenario, you could put Mike Thomas’s bid on top for $100 and ALSO bid on Jarrett Dillard for $100. You will drop Josh Morgan for either if you can win one of those two. You feel pretty confident you’ll get one or the other, but you’d ALSO like a chance to win both. In group #2, you could THEN put down Jarrett Dillard for your remaining $50 dropping a different player, Malcolm Kelly. This way, you can win BOTH Thomas AND Dillard for $150. Without groups, as we understand it, you’d only be allowed 1 bid for each player, which is a big drawback for experienced players.

(feel free to correct us on this or add suggestions in the comments section below)

alex kaganovsky · commissioner product · ffpc · fsta · high stakes contest · myfantasyleague · rtsports

As the FPA previously noted back on May 18, those involved with the NFFC are stepping up and promoting selected fantasy players with the release of a new magazine.  Well goodbye print, hello airwaves. Now comes a radio show on Sirius 125. Greg Ambrosious of Fanball and the National Fantasy Football Championship announced that several past champions of their contests will be guests on Sirius’s new show – Fantasy Football Drive w/ Kyle Elfrink and Ray Flowers as co-hosts. They have announced that the show will air for 3 hours daily, 7 days a week from 5 – 8 pm EST.

Greg also announced, “The NFFC will have a 10 minute segment from 7:20-7:30pm EST daily Monday-Friday during the first two weeks and regularly after that.”

According to Greg, their plan is to feature their top players right away by conducting a quick hitting Q & A session discussing such things as sleeper picks,  past success and predictions. Here is the announced official lineup of high stakes players that will be appearing as guests -

Monday, June 21, 7:20 pm ET:
Steve Luzzi, 2009 NFFC Classic champion, winner of $105,000 who will be doing both main events and the Super League in Las Vegas

Tuesday, June 22, 7:20 pm ET:
Jules McLean, past NFFC champion, member of the NFFC’s Top 50 Money Leaders list, owner of www.fantasyfreakingfootball.com and recognized as the top female fantasy sports player in the industry

Wednesday, June 23, 7:20 pm ET:
Glenn Schroter, one of the top fantasy football players in the country who won more than $100,000 in various contests last year, having won the NFFC $1300 Draft Champions League, and second in the NFFC Ultimate League. King of Queens is Top 10 among NFFC participants in career earnings

Thursday, June 24, 7:20 pm ET:
Shawn Childs, one of the most recognized and successful fantasy players in the industry with four NFBC league titles and four Top 5 NFBC finishes, Shawn will give some quick tips covering football and baseball.

Friday, June 25, 7:20 pm ET:
Billy Wasosky, the Lifetime Standings leader in the NFFC and a member of our Top 50 Money Leaders, will join us to talk about excelling in all styles of play: 14-team & 12-team drafts, auctions and even Draft Champions formats

Monday, June 28, 7:20 pm ET:
Bill Strickler, our 2009 NFFC Primetime champion earned $40,000+ last year in our 12-team format, but he’s trying to win another national title in baseball right now. We’ll get Bill’s winning strategy from 2009 and ask him if anyone will ever win national titles in multiple sports

Tuesday, June 29, 7:20 pm ET:
Rob Benetti, our 2006 NFFC $100,000 champion rode Stephen Jackson to the title four years ago and now he has special feelings about Ryan Matthews. Rob will make bold predictions about some players and even pump up Buffalo, his draft site for 2010

FPA’s Statement: Once again, any media coverage for the fantasy players is exciting and welcome news here at the FPA. 5 of these same 7 players have already been guests on our High Stakes podcast Red vs Blue, so we were thrilled to see these well deserving names get a little air time on Sirius XM. In fact, Greg Ambrosious was just on our show for a full two hours this past Friday night. While we won’t go as far as Greg and call a 10 minute spot on a 3 hour show a “featured guest” , we’re grateful for any air time the players can get on a national scale. We can only hope for two things. 1. That the competition on the NFL channel isn’t too difficult to overcome, and 2. That the producers of the show quickly realize the tremendous value these high stakes players provide to the listeners and extend the airtime allotted significantly in the future to more of our respected community. 

In timing of the launch of the FPA’s new site, the FPA will also be debuting several in depth player spotlights so members can gain a closer look at some of our most proven players in the industry.

bill strickler · billy wasosky · fanball · glenn schroter · greg ambrosious · jules mclean · nffc · red vs blue · rob benetti · shawn childs · steve luzzi

This article was the lead story today on the Fantsy Sports Business website.

Lawyer Travis McCoy provided a particularly valuable presentation on the first morning of the FSTA summer conference Wednesday, detailing the nine states that have been giving fantasy companies trouble.

Louisiana has been the one in the news lately, but Arizona, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, North Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont and Washington all present gambling laws that either directly outlaw or create a fog of illegality concerning residents paying for a chance to win at fantasy games.
McCoy ran through the various specifics in each state’s law that presents trouble for fantasy. He related that despite differing language, it’s probably not safe at this point to residents of those nine states to compete in your pay-to-play games.

Beyond that, though, even free games can be tricky. Anti-gambling statutes tend to focus on participants risking something of value, which we tend to think of as a buy-in or entry fee. McCoy, however, pointed out that state courts have set the “something of value” bar pretty low — meaning that fantasy companies should be careful and probably seek legal advice in setting the parameters for even their free games.

Of course, the Louisiana story grew because of an effort to change that state’s rules. The stark failure of that effort and the fact that consecutive Maryland bills haven’t even reached a vote on the floor highlights the need for lobbying work from the fantasy industry.

Legal challenges could be possible, as McCoy pointed out — particularly in relation to the federal Commerce Clause. The Supreme Court has interpreted from that clause the “dormant” Commerce Clause, which McCoy summed up this way: “A state’s law may be ruled unconstitutional if that law places an undue burden on interstate commerce.” McCoy said he would consider the restrictions on fantasy payouts in certain states damaging to interstate commerce. The problem with challenging the laws is that it would be a costly, lengthy process whose outcome might be trickier. It would be open to judge interpretation of existing laws. The lobbying front could work to educate and encourage politicians, seeking to push for introduction of new legislation — such as the bills recently presented in Louisiana and Maryland.

We saw the lack of knowledge about fantasy in Louisiana, where it took just a single e-mail blast from the misguided Louisiana Family Forum to scare off all but 16 House delegates. Rep. Thomas Carmody said he has no plans to pursue another bill, and he and his colleagues would have little motivation to pursue something that is a very minor issue to them and brings potential political downside.

In Maryland, a House bill has been brought two years in a row to legalize fantasy payouts. Neither iteration has even made its way to the floor for a vote.  We’ll see what the FSTA and companies throughout the fantasy industry decide to do going forward, but it’s becoming clearer that they need to do something.

FPA’s statement: Thanks to the guys from FantasySportsBusiness.com for bringing this to our attention.  We as players need to keep a close eye on these types of issues as they eventually find their way down to us the players.  Events such as the WCOFF have always blocked players from the following 7 states: Vermont, Montana, Iowa, Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana and North Dakota. Adding Maryland, Tennessee, Washington and Louisiana would be a huge blow to fantasy players everywhere. We can only hope we have the right men and women in the house who realize the financial implications of such harsh decisions.

fantasy sports · fantasy sports business · fantasy sports industry · fsta · fsta conference · legislation · louisiana · maryland · travis mccoy

FPA: Marc Quitsch, a very accomplished veteran high stakes player shares a story about his dealings with Fantasy Jungle, a contest that ran off with players money.

_________________________________________________

With all of the talk about the FFOC and their lack of payment to the prize winners, it’s a daily reminder for me on who to do business with. Two years ago, I wrote a few articles for a website that catered to making cheat-sheats for fantasy football. I enjoy writing, and this was perfect for me as I wrote about fantasy football, without a deadline, and I had no boundaries. After all, I wasn’t getting paid for the articles.

My agreement there simple. If I continued to write for this website for a season, I would eventually work out a deal for a percentage of new subscribers. I only wrote a few articles and it never panned out because I play in umpteen fantasy leagues. Its very hard to juggle so much AND win money in the high stakes area of the fantasy market. But in one of my articles, I promoted(without being paid) a fantasy contest called http://www.Fantasyjungle.com. I played in a few of their contests and thought they had a GREAT, simple idea. They offered $50 fantasy leagues. These leagues gave you your draft spot as soon as you paid, and there was no in-season work. The website awarded you the best score each week automatically, and there were no free agent pickups to worry about. To me, as an avid fantasy football player, I thought this was GOLD.

Before I wrote about this site, I asked some friends about it, and they had played before, enjoyed the site, and even won some money. So I knew at that time this site had a good reputation in the time they were in business. I also asked the owners if it was ok to use their name in my article since I didn’t know the legalities. The owners got back to me and pretty much said that any advertising is good for business, and they were anxious to see the article.

So I posted a nice write up on contests I, as a player myself, liked to play. Fantasyjungle was only one site I mentioned, but I went into detail on each contest I liked and why. Within a day of my article, I was contacted by the owners of http://www.Fantasyjungle.com and the loved the write-up. So much, that they asked to talk on the phone. I gave them a call and I was offered a job with them. I would write all NFL player news for their website each week during the NFL regular season. In return, I was going to receive approximately $1,300, in http://www.Fantasyjungle.com leagues. They had a higher entry level contest, and they were going to pay me via free entries.

After giving it serious thought, I turned it down. Mainly for one reason. I was already signed up for 6-7 other contests outside of fantasyjungle and if I took the job, I would have more work, with a deadline,ON TOP of more work via their “payment” to me, which was in more leagues I would have to handle. I turned down the offer and someone else took the job.

http://www.Fantasyjungle.com closed it’s doors at the end of that season, and left their contest winners without payment. To this day, I’m still amazed. They made some upgrades to their site that year, and had a bump in sign-ups from their previous year. Everything seemed to be going their way. But they took the money and ran, and I was lucky enough NOT to take that job writing for them. I hadn’t won any of their $50 leagues so I only found out about the website not paying people through friends and messageboards of other contests.

I only hope my story helps other fantasy players/writers use extreme caution when investing their time and money on contests that aren’t legit. I don’t know how to stop this crime from ever happening again, but if high stakes fantasy sports is going to last, there is going to have to be a way that each fantasy player ABSOLUTELY knows that he/she will be paid every penny of what a contest offers. Until then, there are very few contests I recommend to anyone, just in case this ever happens again.

Marc Quitsch

FPA’s official statement: Thanks for sharing this Marc. This has happened far too often to the players the last few years. We need to recognize the signs of a contest having issues and be strong enough to question with boldness when things don’t seem right. Hopefully, we are headed in that direction.

fantasy jungle · FFOC · marc quitsch

 3 days ago, the FPA broke major news when the FFOC was found to have closed their business as their official status on the South Dakota Secretary of State website had noted.

Today, someone at the FFOC replaced their homepage with a black background and the following message: www.ffoc.com

Dear FFOC Players:

We want to thank all of you who have played in our leagues over the past two seasons. It is with great regret that we have decided to shut the game down for the upcoming 2010 season. This was a difficult decision to make, but in the end our only choice given the present, difficult economic environment and the unavoidable delay in coordinating the 2010 draft. While disappointed, we feel that this is the best decision for everyone. Thanks for all your kind words and support, and we hope that we offered some excitement over the past 2 years. 

For the 136 teams that won their leagues, the $180.00 cash prize will be sent to you within thirty (30) days, as we are in the process of coordinating these payments. To assist in this process, please send written notification of your current address to: Poised to Stomp Sports, Inc. c/o Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman, LLP, 1441 Brickell Avenue, Suite 1420, Miami, Florida 33131. Good luck to all of you as you pursue your fantasy sports dreams. 

The Retraction

Additionally, there is ostensibly some confusion over previous, mistaken posts. Contrary to any statements or representations that may have been previously made, Fanball has no involvement, ownership or liability in the financial risks or awards of FFOC’s contests. We apologize to Fanball and Ryan Houston for any resulting confusion and inconvenience. We have enjoyed a great working relationship with Fanball, and wish them continued success. 

FPA’s Statement: It’s good to see someone at the FFOC stepping up and formally announcing to everyone what we had already learned.

http://www.fantasyplayersassociation.com/fantasy-news/breaking-news-ffoc/

We are VERY encouraged that the 136 players still owed free entries are being promised payment within 30 days. That’s a sum total of nearly $25,000. The biggest concern still existing is obviously the $700,000 that we have yet to confirm is still owed to last year’s grand prize winner.   Under the rules of the contest, that prize was to be awarded over the next 10 years. Confirmation from the grand prize winner has been requested. There are also many teams apparently still owed FREE entries to 2010 league contests. These free entries were awarded instead of cash prizes. Those apparently are not being addressed by assigning them a cash value.

We also cannot tell you exactly who posted this message, as no name is associated with it. Only the official FFOC logo is present but someone at the FFOC is stepping forward to dismiss ownership  questions  surrounding Fanball, which were further fueled by a post on May 7th, then owner Stan Misthios made when he stated that Fanball was indeed an owner of the FFOC.

http://www.fantasyplayersassociation.com/fantasy-news/ffocs-stan-states-fanball-does-own-foc/

The FPA will release it’s full report in the coming weeks on this continuing story for all concerned. In the meantime, anyone who is owed prizes from FFOC may contact us at info@fantasyplayersassociation.com regarding this issue.

fanball · FFOC · stan misthios

 Okay gang, here’s what we know:

After researching the FFOC situation, FPA has learned that Poised to Stomp incorporated in the state of South Dakota.

A simple name search on “Poised to Stomp” at the secretary of state website confirms this.

http://apps.sd.gov/applications/st32cprs/soscorplookup.aspx

A few days ago, the status read, “Cancellation Pending”. Yesterday the status on the Secretary of State website switched to “Inactive”. Additional documentation was listed at that time, however now it appears that the supporting documentation is no longer available on the secretary of state website.

Thankfully, copies were retrieved before they was removed.

Below, FPA has uncovered the official documents before they went dormant. The interesting thing to note here is that on Poised to Stomp’s official Article of Incorporation, under Article 3, the Principal office is listed at the following address:

11756 Borman Drive, Suite 200, St. Louis, MO 63146. A simple google search returns this as Fanball’s office address.

http://a.imagehost.org/view/0707/Poised_Page_1

http://j.imagehost.org/view/0249/Poised_Page_4

FPA’s statement: It’s disappointing to see FFOC shut down its operation without explanation to its customers. What’s more concerning to the FPA are the players that are still owed free entries into next year’s contests. Additional concerns are with the Grand Prize winner. We have not made contact with him, but according to the FFOC website, the million dollar prize was to be awarded in the following manner:

9. *THE $1,000,000 WILL BE PAID OUT AS FOLLOWS: THE WINNER WILL RECEIVE $300,000 IN LAS VEGAS AT THE MAIN EVENT AND WILL THEN RECEIVE $70,000 PER YEAR ON THE FIRST BUSINESS DAY AFTER JANUARY 1ST OF EACH YEAR FOR THE NEXT 10 YEARS, 2011 THROUGH 2020.

As for FFOC incorporating and using Fanball’s office address to do so the FPA isn’t jumping to any conclusions at this time, however keeping in mind Stan Misthios’s admission of Fanball ownership coupled with Fanball’s recent offering of a similar contest called the Cutline Championship, we are continuing our investigation into this matter.

fanball · FFOC · Poised to Stomp

Greg Ambrosious of Fanball and the National Fantasy Football Championship recently posted on their message board an exciting new magazine will be hitting the newsstands this summer, centering on the players of the High Stakes world of Fantasy Football. “Wow, the first issue of Fantasy Sports Magazine is in my hands now and it LOOKS MAHVELOUS!! Wow, you’re really going to like this one.”

Greg went on to add, “This is definitely THE NFFC’S MAGAZINE. I’m diggin’ it. A finer promotional vehicle couldn’t be out there right now for us.”

The magazine in question is entitled: “2010 Fantasy Football Preview, FANTASY SPORTS, The Official Magazine for the High-Stakes Fantasy Player.” Greg states, “we are going to dedicate an entire issue of Fantasy Sports Magazine to the NFFC and the high-stakes player.

Now, how will fantasy players get their hands on one? June 8th this magazine hits the newstands. It will feature Drew Brees on the cover as well as last year’s $100,000 winner, Steve Luzzi. Greg provides additional details, “Look for this issue soon and remember that you can order all five Fanball magazines on the NFFC registration page and they will be home delivered to you. Otherwise this one will be on newsstands in early June. Enjoy. You’ll love it.”

FPA’s statement: This is a fantastic idea. A magazine dedicated to the players who play the contests. We’ve seen promotional magazines before, but this one sounds like the focus is squarely on the player. We’re sure it will focus solely on the NFFC, but understandably so. Can’t wait to get our hands on this one!

greg ambrosious · nffc