DraftDay Launch Extravaganza: $500 Freeroll and Interview with Founders
In case you haven’t noticed, DraftDay is running a little promotion this weekend for RotoGrinders Members, to coincide with their site arriving on the Daily Fantasy scene. DraftDay is the next big fantasy site, complete with big guaranteed tournaments, slick software, solid promotions, and lots of players to play against. Founded by online poker industry experts Taylor Caby and Andrew Wiggins of CardRunners, DraftDay brings a unique and much-welcomed twist to the Daily Fantasy Industry. This weekend, if you join DraftDay through RotoGrinders, you can get access to a $500 Freeroll for Week 7, $25 to $100 Bonuses over the next four weeks, and a 20% Deposit Bonus. We got a chance to interview one of the DraftDay founders about the DraftDay Extravaganza this weekend, their unique approach to the industry, and also the notable $1,000,000 promotion they have going on (yes, one million dollars). Make sure to check out the interview and details below, and we hope you enjoy the newest site on the scene!
From Online Poker to Daily Fantasy: Meet the DraftDay Team
We recently got a chance to speak with Andrew Wiggins of DraftDay more candidly about the unveiling of DraftDay, their background in the online poker industry, and their vision for Daily Fantasy Sports via their latest venture. After chatting with them throughout the week and playing on the site, I think these guys are going to be an amazing addition to the industry! Here’s what Andrew and I discussed:
RG – What’s your background in general, but specifically in fantasy sports? How did you get involved?
AW – I’m from Chicago. I started playing fantasy sports seriously in college and was hooked. I come from a family that isn’t big on sports and I was a casual sports fan at best before I found fantasy. After I got into fantasy, I became a sports junkie. NBA is probably my favorite, but I enjoy playing MLB and NFL as well.
RG – To the newer ‘Grinders’ out there, what is DraftDay? What is your long-term vision? What separates you from other Daily Fantasy Sports sites?
AW – Our goal with DraftDay is to provide the best daily fantasy sports experience possible. I feel that our experience in the online gaming world gives us a unique advantage over our competitors. We understand that providing an easy to use and well performing site as well as top tier customer support is the way to thrive. We plan on doing just that.
RG You mentioned your experience with online gaming. For those not familiar with the online poker industry, tell us about your background, and your journey from poker players to poker instructors to daily fantasy sports entrepreneurs.
AW – I initially got hooked on poker in high school. I would play 1-2 times a week with friends. When I got to college, I had trouble finding games and started playing online. I was immediately hooked. This was 2003. In my earliest days online, I was not very good. I was plagued by overconfidence and a lack of deep knowledge of the game. After countless hours and a lot of hard work, I began to thrive. In 2005, Taylor and I were both doing quite well and we were looking for some business experience on the side. We thought Cardrunners could provide us with a chance to learn a few things and also help out fellow poker players. We never guessed it would become as successful as it did.
Taylor and I had been eyeing the fantasy industry for several years. Mostly we were looking for a challenge. We also really wanted to spend more time working around fantasy sports. It’s a passion of ours and it’s always fantastic to be able to spend your day working on something you love. But it wasn’t until late last year that the stars aligned and we were able to move forward with DraftDay. We feel we are uniquely qualified by being both experienced in online gaming and also being fantasy junkies. We’re very excited to have a presence in an industry we love.
RG – What aspects of Online Poker have you uniquely brought to Daily Fantasy?
AW – We understand how important it is to listen to the customers. We want to provide exceptional software and customer support that will bend to our customers needs. We also want to build a community where people can come and hang out with others who share their passion of fantasy sports. All of these aspects are shared with the online poker community.
RG – What is your favorite aspect of Daily Fantasy that wasn’t present in Online Poker?
AW – Fantasy sports is much more mainstream than poker. I love how all of my friends are getting into daily fantasy sports. Daily fantasy provides opportunities even for those who don’t play season long fantasy. It eliminates the commitment. It’s great to see so many people getting into it.
RG – DraftDay is brand new, and already has some excellent and innovative features, great job! What are some things you have in store for DraftDay in the future that our users should know about?
AW – We have so much that we plan on doing. The biggest things are adding more sports and live drafts. Most importantly though, we are going to listen to what the customers want and add those features. We want our customers to have a huge say in the features we offer.
RG – Seriously, who throws a $1,000,000 promotion!? Tell us more about the promo and why users should drop what they are doing and register NOW.
AW – We wanted to enter the industry with a bang. The promo is quite simple. If you can construct a fantasy team that includes all of the highest scoring players at every position – the perfect lineup – you win 1 million dollars. It’s not easy to do, but it’s also not impossible. If you get a week where the top players show up and dominate the leaderboards, it’s actually quite possible to accomplish. It’s the weeks when the Torrey Smiths of the world dominate that make it so difficult.
We’ve insured the payout so that players can have no qualms about getting paid. It also means were rooting for you guys! We’d be ecstatic to give someone 1 million dollars.
DraftDay Launch Extravaganza
Here are the elements of their launch promo with RotoGrinders:
- $500 Week 7 Freeroll – Open to anyone who signs up an account after clicking through a link on RotoGrinders. (We will email out the link to the Freeroll shortly and post a Members Only link on RotoGrinders by Saturday for those who miss the email)
- $25 Instant Bonus if you cash in the “Quarter” – DraftDay’s single entry, $4K Guaranteed, SINGLE ENTRY $25 tournament. To receive the $25 bonus you must have your DraftDay screen name in your RotoGrinders profile when the tournament starts on Sunday.
- $100 “Benjamin” Seat Giveaway for Week 7 will be awarded to the RotoGrinders member that finishes highest in the $5 “Frenzy” (The Frenzy is a multi-entry tournament).
- $25 Instant bonus each week for the next four weeks to the RotoGrinders Member that finishes highest in the Quarter.
We centered our Launch Promotion around their Guaranteed Tournaments because RotoGrinders’ loves DraftDay’s tournament philosophy. Their goal is to raise their Guarantees as much as possible each week – if a tournament fills or gets close to filling the prize pool will increase the next week. Look out for Overlays!
Important Note – Sign up to DraftDay by clicking through a link on RotoGrinders and enter your DraftDay Screen Name in your RotoGrinders profile to be eligible for prizes.
DraftDay: Noteworthy Observations
- Perfect Lineup Promo – $1,000,000 if you can pick the highest scoring player at each position. Nearly impossible, I know, but an awesome promo. It’s free to enter and they pay other prizes as well. Great, great marketing piece here. We’ll have more details on this ridiculous promotion coming soon to RG.
- Over $10,000 in prizes in Weekly Guaranteed Tournaments – this is an impressive number for a site that is less than a month old. Taylor and Andrew are committed to growing these prize pools as often as they can, even if it results in them paying part of the prize pool out of their pockets.
- Lots of inexperienced players – there should be some fish to take advantage of on this site. Their original launch efforts brought in a ton of poker players, and they are still there grinding away. A lot of you guys may find a nice edge there.
- Lower Rake – DD is launching with an 8% rake – that’s progress in the right direction!
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% |
So, that’s a good amount of info to take in for now. We’ll be back with more details on the $1,000,000 Perfect Lineup shortly. For now, we recommend checking out DraftDay directly, or heading on over to our DraftDay Review for more info. If you like what you see, be sure to take advantage of all the promotions listed above, and hopefully a ‘Grinder’ will be concocting the perfect lineup in the near future!
Cameron MacMillan
RotoGrinders.com Fantasy Content Manager