Check out the DraftDay Review to learn more about the Daily Fantasy site brought to you by the founders of CardRunners.com, an innovate leader in online education for online poker players. If you are familiar with the online poker scene, this is a very credible name, and one we’re happy to welcome to the Daily Fantasy scene. These guys are some of the best minds in poker, and have advanced experience with online gaming software. In this review, we’ll see if the CardRunners team was able to transition their talents over to the Daily Fantasy Industry.
Game Offerings
DraftDay offers Standard Games ranging from 2 to 10 entrants, and also Guaranteed Games, for the four major sports, NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. Standard Games are your standard Salary Cap leagues you see across most sites, and their Guaranteed Games are DraftDays’ “GPP” or “Large Field” contests, which have a Guaranteed Prize Pool regardless of the number of entrants. While they may in the future, currently there are no Live Sit and Drafts on DraftDay.
The Guaranteed Prize Pool selection on DraftDay is pretty awesome. There are offerings of both the Single-Entry and Multiple-Entry value, and the buy-ins range from $1 all the way up to $100 weekly. There are currently also two freerolls running: a $100 Freeroll capped at 1,500 entrants and The $1,000,000 Perfect Lineup, which is an incredible promotion that we’ll touch on later in this DraftDay Review :)
Software and Interface
DraftDay comes to us from minds that know online gaming software, and they deliver a quality experience. The online poker layout shines through in one of the most simple and easy-to-use game lobbies in the industry. Small touches, such as the icons in the Game Lobby with hover-over text, make the entire experience better. It’s simple, clean and intuitive. New users will be fond of the simple and easy-to-navigate lobby that DraftDay has created, and this DraftDay Review is going to give them a tick up in the rating for the ease-of-use.
The buttons are clean and simple: Choose your sport at the top, then your buy-in, then the field size you prefer. Below the lobby filters the games, and you can sort by each column. In a take from the poker industry, the draft rooms have names as opposed to numbers like most sites. For instance the $100, 100 player NFL contest is “Slingin’ Sammy”, and the $10, 10 man MLB contest is called “Bash”.
The lobby also has the ability to sort by Salary Games or Private Games, making playing private leagues that much simpler, and avoiding clutter in the chat box. Speaking of chat box, DraftDay does an excellent job of positioning it. No matter what page you are on, the chat box is custom-placed in the most convenient location to keep you involved in the discussion. Props to DraftDay for this, though I’d like to see private messaging and the ability to see who is online.
The draft selection process is very smooth on DraftDay. After you select one position, it auto-tabs you to the next position available, which is a small but helpful addition. When you click on a player you get a Player Info card with detailed information covering Player Overview, Game Log and Split Stats. This is presented in a seamless pop-up and is very helpful when drafting. Another nuanced but amazing detail is the ‘Average Salary Remaining Per Player’ addition. This is constantly displayed, and shows you the average salary you have remaining for each of your empty roster spots. It may not seem like much, but it goes a long way in creating a smooth drafting process.
Then there is the Rapid Replace feature which allows you to seamlessly edit a player across ALL of your line-ups. When a player is on multiple teams, you will see the smallest amount of excess salary displayed. For example: Let’s say Ryan Howard is on 2 teams and had $1,000 excess salary on one team but $200 excess on another. You will only be able to pick a player that costs at most $200 more. Well done DraftDay!
Community Section
The Community is great on DraftDay, mainly because of the conveniently placed chat boxes. The chat boxes also have a pop-out feature, which I always find convenient. In addition however, there is a DraftDay Blog, Forums, Strategy Section, and the Perfect Lineup.
Roster, Rules and Scoring
DraftDay offers NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL. Their roster settings are relatively standard, but their scoring is unique to the industry, though not drastically different nor innovative. For instance, there is a DH spot in MLB, but it is used as most sites use the Utility spot. There is full Point Per Reception (PPR) and -3 points for interceptions in NFL.
One awesome addition, is the custom length of contests on DraftDay to each particular league. For instance, if you join a heads up NFL league and both you and your opponent only have players involved in Sunday games, you don’t have to wait until Monday for the contest to complete on DraftDay; They wrap it up after all players in each draft are done playing! This will make players happier, as they get instant gratification and quicker payouts.
I tested the Salary Structure in the lineup above using Matthew Stafford, on the same day as a lineup I used on FanDuel. The lineup filled the salary cap on FanDuel, but was over budget on DraftDay. So for a frame of reference, it appears that DraftDay’s salary caps will be slightly tighter than FanDuel’s. Personally, I think this can be a good thing, but it does depend on the situation. It is more a frame of reference for the sake of this DraftDay review.
See the Scoring Tab for full Scoring Details
Customer Service
DraftDay’s customer service is excellent. They are professional, courteous, and attentive to the site, and you should be able to get help from them within the chat box at anytime. You also have the option to submit a form or email at any time. The CardRunners team really brought their customer service experience over to DraftDay, and you can expect top notch service and safety on DraftDay.
Rake
DraftDay’s rake is:
| GPP | Rake % |
|---|---|
| $1 | 0% |
| $5 | 9.8% |
| $25 | 8.5% |
| $100 | 8% |
| Salary League Buy-In | Rake % |
|---|---|
| $1-50 | 9% |
| $100 | 8% |
| $200 | 7% |
| $500 | 5.9% |
The $1,000,000 Perfect Lineup
The $1,000,000 Perfect Lineup – And here you have it, the biggest promotion in Daily Fantasy history, by a mile! You get one entry, and if you pick the highest scoring player at every position (QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, WR, TE, K, D/ST), you are a millionaire! Sure it’s a bit of a long-shot, but even if no one wins the Grand Prize, the Top 25 spots are paid out each week regardless from a $395 freeroll prizepool (1st – $100, 2nd $50, 3rd $25, 4th-25th – $10). So at worst you have $485 in freeroll prizes between both freeroll options on DraftDay each week, with a shot at_One Millionnnn Dollarrsss_ (yes, use cliche’ Dr. Evil voice when reading). If you win, the money is paid out in $25,000 installments over the course of 40 years.
Bonuses and Promotions
EXCLUSIVE to RotoGrinders: DraftDay has an excellent deposit bonus, that you can see and benefit from at the top of this DraftDay review. We are talking about an up to 40% Deposit Bonus whenever you join! That’s one of the best out there. The bonus is accrual based, and earned as you play.
Cashier
Usually this section is pretty straightforward for the sites we allow on RotoGrinders, but not in the DraftDay review! It’s great to see the emphasis the founders and team are placing on the security of your funds, being from the poker industry, I am sure they are aware of the potential issues that can happen if you are not meticulously careful with players’ funds. DraftDay offers all of the preferred deposit and withdrawal methods: PayPal, Check, Credit Card. What I love to see however, is this statement from the founders at the bottom of the About Us page:
DraftDay seems poised to make some noise in the Daily Fantasy industry. They have a credible team, with experience and knowledge in a very similar industry. What I love beyond the great minds on the team, is that they bring something new to the table. Coming from success in the poker industry, they could bring a new flavor to Daily Fantasy. Their innovations and viewpoints are innovative, and that could lead to some huge improvements in an industry that is still young and impressionable.