Winds of Change – An Editorial

Jeff Haverlack

oldfootballTimes change!

For those that doubt that statement (who would?), one only need look back at the year that was 2015 in fantasy football.

There have always been shifting trends in sports that serve to cultivate fresh hope for the year to come or as a bitter reminder of the year that was.  All of our favorite games usher in new stars, styles and surprises that further build upon the foundational legacy of the sport while simultaneously erecting its future.  All of it provides fodder for historians.  The NFL-AFL merger in 1966 and ABA-NBA merger in 1976 unequivocally shaped today’s leagues dramatically.  Polarizing team stories such as the rise of the Yankees in 1927, the era of the Boston Celtics or the arguable dynasty of the New England Patriots in the decade beginning year 2000 generate fandom which provides even greater fervor for the sport.  And the icons over the years:  Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Bill Russell, Michael Jordan Jim Brown, Jerry Rice, Peyton Manning become the heroes that fuel our youth and tomorrow’s stars.

To be sure, even the controversy has played an important role in the construction of our favorite pastimes. The conspiracies, corruption, strikes and stigma of performance enhancing drugs whether we like to acknowledge it or not, have all shaped the games and their respective histories.  From many of those controversies have come great strides in humanity. Without the racial integration on the backs of some of the games’ greatest stars of the past, our games wouldn’t be representative of our great nation and would, instead, be extremely one-dimensional and flat.

At this time I celebrate all that has been – and will be. One of my favorite movie clips of all time speaks to this passion.  It may be baseball related but it doesn’t have to be:

In the past 20 years, much has changed with how we, the fans, choose to support, follow and cheer for our favorite teams and players.  The changing and shifting fantasy landscape has had a profound effect on all major sports. Who among you can say that you haven’t found yourself abandoning, to some degree, your favorite team for a period of time to root for another team or player or, worse yet, players competing against your favorite team.  In some cases, myself included, gone is the ‘favorite’ team, replaced instead by favorite players.  Each year, I lament the loss of excitement leading up to the weekly game of my once beloved Dallas Cowboys and even to some degree, the disappointment that always followed a loss.  It seemed that the week that lay ahead would be characterized by a win or a loss on the Sunday before it.  But there was an attachment nonetheless.

I have tried to recapture the love of a team through its players that I own in my favorite leagues, only to find that I falter once again when those players retire, are traded or removed from my fantasy team.  I now simply accept that I am one of the faceless many of fantasy degenerates who have abandoned their team for love of another game.  I could don a stoic face to argue the purity of following particular players rather than an entire team but to do so is far more a defense rather than it is my true belief.

It is understandable why so many within the sports and the industries supporting those sports have no love for the fantasy masses or the games themselves.  To some degree, the walls of team reverence have yielded to the unstoppable wave of fantasy.  Even as I admit my own role in this ‘progression’, as DirecTV’s Red Zone carries me from game to game, I find myself taking great enjoyment from those diehard fans in the stands remaining loyal to their Sunday warriors, their weeks about to be characterized by an accomplished win or an upset loss. There also exists tacit jealousy.

The winds of change have blown with a greater velocity this past year.

Having been a part of the fantasy movement since the mid 1990s, I have enjoyed the migration of the game.  It’s true that we took what I would consider to be a front row seat in 2006 when set upon creating DLF, descending the proverbial mountain not unlike Moses to deliver our truth to the masses.  I wouldn’t be so bold to consider fantasy football a religion in the truest sense, but with an estimated 50 million people now fully engaged, one could make the comparison.  To each group, Sunday worship does have meaning, but perhaps a different alter.

The migration of fantasy from pencil and paper games in the 80s, to an online medium in the 90s to a multitude of formats and systems today has shifted with great violence once again this past year – the arrival of daily fantasy. When DLF first came online we were arguably the first site to fully cover the dynasty format in entirety to the degree that we did.  Redraft leagues were still all the rage, keeper leagues were very common and many were finding even greater enjoyment in the newer dynasty format.  The dynasty game had been around for decades but the Internet uncorked the bottle so to speak.  I will always have a great amount of pride that we helped pop that cork and are still here today.

All fantasy sites have had to navigate these new waters.  Daily fantasy didn’t just arrive on the scene as much as it exploded.  Every other commercial, fantasy internet ad and sport radio spot seemed to be  touting this new gametesting called daily fantasy and how easy it is to “pick up your check”.  I fully accept daily’s place in the fantasy ethos as I’m not such a purist or hypocrite as to suggest that there isn’t room for another format or that this new arrival is far more gambling than is the traditional game.  I’ve heard some even utter that daily will spell the end of traditional fantasy sites that aren’t willing to create these games or challenges.

Without a doubt, the arrival of daily fantasy has challenged the model but we here at DLF fully believe that it can be either or both and that choice is up to each of you as individuals.  Our hearts are still firmly set upon the dynasty experiences but the ubiquity of daily and its players make for a relatively easy creation of content for those that partake.  Many will disagree or rail at the inclusion of this content, but as an online site largely dedicated to a niche format, we must widen the audience as much as we can to ensure our survival.  It’s an extremely competitive landscape out there.

It certainly seems that the future of daily fantasy sports is being written with each new day or, more aptly put, with each new court action.  That could be expanded to include all fantasy sports, not only the daily variety.  There’s a fine line between gambling and games of chance. No one would be so naive as to suggest that fantasy football doesn’t involve a large amount of chance.  But unlike a slot machine or a spinning ball,  I will vehemently defend against the belief by some that there exists no skill in the selection of a fantasy team or my performance over a long period of time.  Should that not be the case, then my placement in the games, be them daily or over a decade would be shown to be completely random.  I have not found that to be the case.  Not in the least.

We may be splitting hairs.  In a prior life, I learned to count cards for blackjack before I was old enough to go to Las Vegas.  In my early 20s I frequented Vegas numerous times a year and had great success at the game.  I was not a high dollar gambler by any stretch nor did really play for any other reason than because I found it challenging and fun.  Eventually, I stopped playing (burned out) but to this day if I do play blackjack, I still seek out fewer decks and still count cards.  Does my application of ‘skill’ into this game remove the label of a gambling activity?  I can’t answer that concretely but I can most certainly state that should I not have been able to turn the tables in my favor by counting cards, the game would not have appealed to me.  Does the inability or unwillingness to count cards in blackjack return the game to pure gambling?  Does the absence of an applied ‘skill’ in a game turn any activity into gambling?  I think this is the crux of the questions be waged in courthouses across the country today.

What I can say with all seriousness and incredulity is that if the government seeks to make daily fantasy gaming illegal under federal law then they should, with the same swing of the gavel, do so with online stock daytrading as well.  What is really the difference between the two when reduced to being an intraday event and the selection of players vs. stocks?  Dare I say the answer is in the regulation and the governmental income generated from the activity?  With that statement I feel you can draw a conclusion about where I believe the ultimate ruling will fall.

Beyond the legal battles of daily fantasy, my primary interest rests much more on the effects of daily on the more traditional fantasy games.  When driving I can be most often found listening to Sirius/XM fantasy for, I myself, remain a huge fantasy fan.  Many of those I listen to I respect greatly and some I consider friends as well.  I swell with pride when I’m asked to appear on one of these shows or when I get to hear a DLF representative give an interview. How could I not?  Over the past year, however, so much of the time is now monopolized by daily fantasy discussion, usually pertaining to player value and lineup creation.  It’s becoming more and more obvious that daily fantasy is taking over. At least that is my perception.

DLF has a wonderful relationship with FanDuel and we’re very pleased to call them a great partner.  In the past, we’ve partnered with Draft Kings as well and I’m sure we’ll have another partnership to communicate for 2016 with one of these two primary players.  But it’s not lost on me that much like how the fantasy game has changed the sports experience for millions of sports fans, so too is daily fantasy changing the experience for traditional fantasy coaches and the sites that support those coaches, including DLF.  I can’t say that the future is well defined within my own crystal ball.  Does the arrival of this new format threaten traditional fantasy games?

Like most  subscription sites, DLF requires monetary support from advertising and our Premium members in order to continue offering the services that we do.  Should the pond shrink or disappear altogether, our model will irrevocably change.  I’m happy to report that even with the introduction of the daily game over these past two years, DLF has not seen a slowing in membership or support.  Our community continues to add hundreds of new participants each month.  My unfounded hypothesis is that the daily game has, instead, actually increased the number of players in fantasy and DLF is just one site that has benefited as these players seek to not only play daily but other traditional games as well. Going further, I would offer that if there was a material impact on any of the games it would be to the traditional redraft leagues.

I would be interested to hear your own experiences relating to playing daily fantasy and how it impacted, if at all, your play in traditional leagues.

Because we are food for worms lads –  Seize the day!

Thank you for supporting DLF in any way that you do!

jeff haverlack