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Draft 2.0 — Fantasy sports finally built for mobile
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Tim Chae
dude i love this. daily fantasy football for the every day man.
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Jeremy's been thinking about the fantasy sports space and mobile for as long as anyone I know and I've thought for a while that Draft is the slickest experience I've seen. Some (not so quick) questions for @jerlevine:
1) It seems like Draft is a "pull out your phone at a bar and make a lineup in 2m" experience versus other games oriented around heavy research (for desktop). What pushed you in this direction? Do you think this is what's going to take off with "normals" (NFL fans that don't play fantasy, season-long players)?
2) It seems like the media has been pushing this narrative that the only way to make money in DFS is as a "pro" -- that it's just as hard or (even harder) than playing Vegas books. Do you think large companies focused on tournament play are going to run into this issue? Do you think the future is in low-stakes play with friends?
3) Patriots run it back this year? Looks like it should be a challenge (especially with the hits to our secondary) but I'm psyched! Bills and Dolphins both look good this season too.
Thanks for this--really excited to see your progress!
@arjunblj Thanks Arjun!
1) Really a lot pushed us towards simple/mobile. What we had built with StarStreet (which after starting as a sports stock market pivoted into being a direct competitor with Fanduel and Draftkings) was really targeted at the hardcore of the fantasy market. The entire time we were building it, we really wanted to build something simpler that could appeal to a wider group. To date, there are just about 2.5 million people who have played daily fantasy for money (FD and DK) , yet there are over 50 million fantasy players. That's a big gap. Even bigger, there's about 250 million sports fans in America, yet only 50 million play fantasy. We thought if we could build something simple quick and mobile we could fill those gaps. As we became more and more confident we wanted to build a mobile game we spent a lot of time looking at what games that aren't hardcore or graphics intensive had succeeded. We kept coming across successful turn based games (words with friends, draw something, quizup, dice with buddies, etc etc). It quickly hit us that a draft is a turn based game, so what we set out to build was essentially words with friends with fantasy. If we succeed at this, we're not only going to be a lot of peoples first time playing real money or daily fantasy, but we're going to be a lot of peoples first time playing fantasy.
2) I think Fanduel and Draftkings are going to continue to have tremendous success. I have so much respect for both of them as companies, and both their founding teams. The things they've been able to do to grow the market in such a short time have been so amazing to witness from up close. That said, I do think the skill gap and onboarding of new players is a constant challenge that comes with salary cap daily fantasy. You need to look through longs lists of players, find that undervalued player at the bottom of the list who may be staring this week, and you're playing against lots of people who are doing it full time. Playing salary cap daily fantasy effectively takes a lot of skill. I was lucky enough to work with Peter Jennings (CSURam88 in the DFS World) at StarStreet for about a year, so I got to sit next to one of the best players in the world every day and see what went into playing at such a high level. I certainly think it's a better experience for a first time player to be playing a friend than the Peter's of the world.
3) Yes. The division certainly did get a lot better and I think the Bills have the best D in football, but I've got faith in our boys. Bill and Brady in F U mode certainly doesn't hurt our chances.
I am a HUGE fan of Draft. As a big player on Draftkings and Fanduel, I was always looking for a more casual Daily fantasy sports game to play with friends and family. Draft has provided a great platform to quickly draft a team each night and add a competitive aspect when watching the current games. It has helped me stay in touch with my cousins and friends in NYC since I moved to San Francisco this past year. People tend to think of the daily fantasy space as one where only the pros win and the necessity to be intense in your research and dedication. However, majority of fantasy sports games attract the casual gamer looking for a fun league. I believe that Draft is set up to capture this space as the season long fantasy players look to the Daily fantasy space for their fun and competitive league with their friends. Congrats on the launch Jeremy!
@jerlevine is a total hustler, plain and simple. the interface is beautiful and super intuitive, and the real money "skill-based gaming" aspect of it takes the DraftKings / FanDuel crowd and opens it up to an even broader, more casual audience. Nice work guys!
Hey Jeremy - I'm interested in the business side here. How were you able to do another DFS app immediately after selling? I'm surprised there were no handcuffs.
Free Brady!
So far, I've won $23.84 on Draft in playing my first 5 friends. I've never played fantasy sports before! It's less intimidating signing up for Draft and competing with a few friends, one-on-one.
A small nuance I love is the projected rating by player when its your turn to make a selection. It makes me feel like I am making a smarter choice than I otherwise would be.
How do you come up with the projected ratings?
@johnexley Gotta give all the credit there to our good friends at NumberFire. Their projections are 🔥🔥🔥🔥.
Seems pretty cool based on comments here and the Play Store description. Would like to try it out, but struggling a bit with the in-app onboarding: immediate prompt for new username -- then phone number? Not sure some of my friends will get past that.
Also, as someone not nearly as interested in pointy-ball sport ... how does Draft work for MLB?
@edecaria Hey Ed - thanks for the feedback. We learned we could do real money for Android recently, so we had to move really quick to get it live. Definitely a lot we still want to improve in the app and the onboarding flow is certainly part of it.
For MLB, the drafts work almost exactly the same except the roster requirements are 2 pitchers, 3 hitters.
Since early August, I've been inundated with FanDuel and DraftKings ads on the subway, tv, podcasts, Twitter and anywhere else I spend my time. On one hand, I understand that FanDuel and DraftKings' massive marketing budgets are raising awareness and possibly lifting the tides for all DFS apps. On the other, how are y'all going after installs?
I'm intrigued by playing with my friends instead of the sharks, but I also feel like Draft is asking me to be a commish not just once, but X amount of times to get games started with my buddies. A benefit to seasonal fantasy is we are all there so if I volunteer to run the league, I only have to run one league. With Draft, I have to send invites out and then probably follow up with friends via text to convince them to play.
I'm game, but I'm also curious about what y'all are doing to help increase the active user base so I can find my friends on Draft as opposed to wrangling them into Draft.
@noahchestnut Hey Noah - thanks for the question and the interest.
The short answer is a lot. A slightly longer answer, along with a lot of the more traditional channels you'd think for apps, we're focusing a lot of people. On draft you can engage one on one with someone in a fairly easy way. We're thinking of it as an engagement of social channels and we've got some stuff lined up around that.
Heck yes. Football season, I've missed you. Congrats on the launch @jerlevine!
This is by far my favorite DFS app. I'm a casual but serious fantasy football fan and don't have an army of quants to help me win a FanDuel tournament so for me, Draft is the best of all worlds. Easy to get going, no long term commitment, and the best part of any fantasy season being the draft.
Today we're proud to be launching the 2015 NFL season here on Product Hunt. As a special for you, when you enter the promo code #FreeBrady you'll even get to watch the greatest quarterback of all time play in the kick off game.
In all seriousness, we're really psyched to be launching Draft for Android and Draft 2.0 for iOS. We got the very first version of Draft iOS out at the tail end of last NFL season and have spent the last nine months working hard to improve the experience.
I'll be here all day, so feel free to AMA whether it's about Draft, the exploding daily fantasy industry (I've been in it for about 6 years), or even if you want some quick fantasy advice (we've got 11 big time players here in the office, so I'll be sure to crowdsource the answers).
If you want to do a draft against me download the app through playdraft.com/jerlevine and we'll be matched up or just search and download "Draft" in the app store and search for "jerlevine" to challenge me.
@jerlevine maybe Brady gets off "free" but it seems Belichik's legacy may not go down as well as he would have hoped as more people start questioning his entire history
@jerlevine ha ha ha. i had to have SOME trash talk on here since you opened with it :) but I'm sure you've seen the ESPN reporting including this: http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/stor...
I remember distinctly the first time I met Jeremy back in 2009 and within the first few minutes I was infected by his passion as a true fan for revolutionizing the fantasy sports space. Over the years since I've watched him test and iterate on numerous experiments and ideas, and then there was the moment he pitched me Draft when it all seemed to come into focus. The lightweight, mass market appeal, ease of use, all make so much sense for the large market of small money casual fantasy sports players in leagues amongst friends and coworkers, and to put a fine point on it the live drafting feature is just a ton of a fun to use amongst your friends on game day. I'm incredibly excited to see this product finally going wide. You can challenge me by searching for user "Sean"
There is a need for a better mobile fantasy sports app. This looks good. Any plans for adding NHL? I am Canadian, after all.
@alexputici Absolutely. We'll have NHL. We've also got an office full of hockey fans and a couple Canadians.
@jerlevine awesome. ETA? How do you plan on competing with an offering like CBS Fantasy Sports, exactly? It's pretty great - other than the fact their mobile is lacking.
@alexputici Will be live for the start of the NFL season. We're not planning to compete with CBS or season long fantasy at all. Really focused on the short duration daily/weekly games. Think that providers for a way better mobile experience.
I love this app! The design is simple and beautiful! Any plans for occasional money prizes for free matchups? Could be a cool feature. That feature has kept me involved with other DFS apps. Again, great job on the app! Really well done!
I don't know anything about football, but I bet I'm 50/50 challenging @jerlevine in Draft -- love that a casual watcher can have so much fun with it.