Important Note: SnapDraft’s Parent Company, FanBall, has closed its doors for Operations. The RotoGrinders staff highly recommends that you do not deposit to their site. If you have any questions, you can email us at Support@RotoGrinders.com
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SnapDraft was one of the first sites on the daily fantasy sports scene and even though they were gone for a while, they are back this season with a great new site and software that has really improved the performance of the site. SnapDraft has developed partnerships with giants such as Rotoworld, NBC Sports, Facebook, and Twitter in hopes to grow their number of users and are currently offering hundreds of leagues each week. While these partnerships haven’t led to SnapDraft becoming a leader in the daily fantasy sports industry yet, it does show the potential of how big SnapDraft can become. This SnapDraft Review will cover all of the features of this daily fantasy sports site.
Game Offerings
SnapDraft currently offers salary cap leagues for NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB. SnapDraft’s entry fee range satisfies most types of players by offering buy-ins from $1.00 all the way up to $100. SnapDraft is a great site for new players in the daily fantasy sports industry because they offer $1 leagues that let new players learn the ropes while still being able to play for cash prizes. In addition to standard head-to-head leagues, they offer large field tournaments of 25 team leagues each week and sometimes offer special tournaments such as the MLB Opening Day which has 1000 openings for a chance to win the $8500 1st Place prize.
Software and Interface
SnapDraft has a very slick new site that not only looks great, but it is very user-friendly and easy to navigate through. In the main draft lobby it is easy to customize the view to which game, league-size, or buy-in you would like. My favorite part of the site is after you join a league and are ready to pick your team. In my opinion, SnapDraft has come up with the best draft room software in the industry. Instead of having your open roster spots and a long list of players available to choose from, they let you actually see where each player’s position on the field, court, or rink is. It really is a clever idea that makes selecting your team more entertaining.
Once your leagues have started on SnapDraft, check out the ‘My Contests’ tab to check in on your leagues with live scoring updates. The layout of this page is very useful because it will list all of your leagues, how much they are for, and even show you what place you are in. This makes it easy to track all of your leagues at once and if you want to check the detailed scoring for each league, all you have to do is click on the League ID. One feature that would be nice for SnapDraft to offer is the “Import/Export” feature so that you don’t have to select each team individually.
Roster, Rules and Scoring
SnapDraft utilizes a unique scoring system that has slight changes from what you will find on most daily fantasy sites, but still creates a fair scoring system. The most notable difference is that in the NFL, each roster spot and defense that you choose receives 3 extra points if their corresponding NFL team wins. This adds a major change in strategy when selecting your team and offers something different than your usual scoring that you see on most sites. This interesting system will make you think twice about taking fantasy superstars that are on bad teams and even make positions such as the kicker a very important position. Their NFL Defense scoring is also a little different. It is very simple and only awards points for points allowed, safeties, and defensive TD’s. This scoring system makes for high-scoring, fun matches. For a complete breakdown of each sport’s scoring system click on the Scoring tab at the top of this SnapDraft Review.
One of the major problems SnapDraft had in the past was their inability to have consistent Salary Rankings. There were always big gaps between what you would expect a player to be priced and what their actual salary was which took away from a lot of the strategy that goes into picking a team each day/week. But now that SnapDraft is back with the new site, they appear to have corrected their salary rankings so this is no longer an issue.
Customer Service
SnapDraft’s Customer Service is decent, but it would be nice to see more support options other than the Form Submission option. Generally, they respond within 24 hours with an adequate solution, but some sort of live chat or email support would improve the customer service immensely. But in the end, you will get a timely answer back if you contact them by using the Form Submission.
Rake
While SnapDraft offers great game play, one of the major drawbacks is the site’s rake. It is really hard to stomach a 20% rake if you are looking to grind out a profit playing daily fantasy sports. The Rotogrinders community already has issues with many sites having a 10% rake and for SnapDraft to take it up to 20% in $1-$10 leagues, it really affects the long-term profitability of many players. To check out the rake at some of the other daily fantasy sports sites, check out the Rotogrinders Reviews section.
While SnapDraft does have a high rake for smaller entry fee leagues, they do cut back their rake to only 10% for $100 leagues, which is the industry standard. So if you love the high stakes games, then the 10% rake here is about the same as you will get anywhere else. The general problem with high rake in the industry is that even an experienced grinder has a tough time achieving a profit when the rake is high because it eats into your ROI.
| Entry Fee | Payout Percentage | Number of teams entered |
|---|---|---|
| $1-$10 | 80% | 2,3,4,5,10,25 & all other sizes |
| $25-$50 | 84% | 2,3,4,5,10 and 25 |
| $100 | 90% | 2,3 and 4 |
Bonuses and Promotions
SnapDraft has many resources and a great site which makes it frustrating to see that they aren’t offering any great promotions for new users. Many sites in found on Rotogrinders have initial deposit bonuses, but SnapDraft has yet to offer one. They do however have a $5 Refer-A-Friend bonus in which you’re credited $5.00 when your referred friend joins. In addition, SnapDraft offers some really cool bonus prizes that you won’t find on other sites. Special leagues in the past have offered autographed memorabilia such Chris Johnson mini-helmets which add to the prize pools and help cut the rake down.
Cashier
Adding funds to SnapDraft is made simple with Credit Card deposits. The amounts you can deposit are: $10, $20, $50, $100, $250, and $500, and the money is placed in your account immediately. Withdrawing funds is simple, though they bury the link to do so deep inside the ‘My Account’ page. The only downside of withdrawals is that they are only processed via check and they take a few weeks to arrive at your address. Winners may be requested to complete an affidavit of eligibility and a liability/publicity release (unless prohibited by law) and/or appropriate tax forms in order to complete the withdrawal of their prizes.