Talking With Jonathan Stewart and Buzz Draft
I always wondered what it would be like to play fantasy football against a star in the NFL. Would they only pick players from their own team? Would they leverage their position for inside info and totally dominate my lineups? Or would they let their pro-athlete egos show-off and draft themselves in the first round no matter what? Well, ponder no more; BuzzDraft has burst onto the Daily Fantasy scene and given users the chance to find out the answers to these questions, starting with Jonathan Stewart. Not only that, the one and only J-Stew agreed to interview with us after his first contest to talk about his first experience with Daily Fantasy Sports.
The match was limited to 9 skilled BuzzDraft users who had to earn their right to play J-Stew in a 10-man Daily Fantasy contest by qualifying for free through a variety of methods, including the RotoGrinders.com member with most paid game wins. In addition to getting to play with the pros, these nine lucky users competed for a $250 prize pool, Jonathan Stewart signed merchandise, and some BuzzDraft schwag that was awarded to the users. Anyone who scored higher than Jonathan Stewart, also got a special prize.
The eventual winner our very own RotoGrinder J21Willy, who not coincidentally also has amassed over $50,000 in Daily Fantasy Winnings since October 2011. Jonthan Stewart gave some words of wisdom to J21Willy when we spoke, here’s what else J-Stew and Jeff Lande, founder of BuzzDraft had to say:
Jonathan Stewart Talks Daily Fantasy With the Grinders Community
How does it feel when people tell you they have you on their fantasy team?
JS – We play the game to win first and foremost, we don’t play for statistical purposes. However, it’s pretty cool to have people pick me on their team, it’s a good feeling.
Do you play in any regular fantasy football leagues? Play with any teammates from Oregon or Carolina?
JS – I don’t unfortunately.
Was this your first time playing in a weekly fantasy league format and how did you like it?
JS – Yes this was my first time, I thought it was pretty cool. I like being able to have a different team every week!
You had a great season this year give your fantasy fans some reasons why they should draft you next year?
JS – Thanks…this year was fun as we rolled out a different offense, but obviously we had to work through some new things. That said, it’s only going to get better next year!!! It’s going to be a big year for the Panthers in 2012!
J21Willy was the winner of the BuzzDraft challenge anything you would like to say to him?
JS – Congratulations, you did a great job! Spend your winnings wisely!
Buzzing onto the Daily Fantasy Scene
After we chatted with Jonathan Stewart about his thoughts on the industry, we talked with Jeff Lande, co-founder of Buzz Draft, about their future plans and Pro-Athlete Promotions. If you missed our podcast interview with them, you can check that out here.
How did the Jonathan Stewart promo come about, how did the final contest go down, and what was your overall take on the event?
Jeff – BuzzDraft wanted to bring the fantasy game to another level by letting sports fans compete with the pros they see on TV everyday. While you may not be able to take on a pro like Jonathan Stewart on the football field you can definitely conquer him on the fantasy football field!
The qualifiers all got in to the final game in different ways so the skill set was pretty varied. There are 9 ways to qualify to the final game like winning a free roll, playing the most games to the funniest tweet & facebook comment! In the final contest Jonathan’s team “Ducks” (After his time at Oregon) was very loyal to his team and stacked almost all Carolina Panthers players including himself. But in the end Rotogrinders member “J21Willy” got first place and everyone ended up getting cash & cool prizes sent to them in the mail as Jonathan came dead last!
How did the relationship with BuzzDraft and Jonathan Stewart come about?
Jeff – We chose Jonathan to kick off our play with the pros promotion as he is a very approachable guy, has a loyal following and loves to use social media. (@Jonathanstewar1) It helped bring awareness to the promotion as he was constantly tweeting about it to all his followers and posting on his Facebook fanpage.
Are there any other celebrities we can expect to see playing on BuzzDraft in the future?
Jeff – Yes we have a whole group of exciting NFL, NBA, NHL & MLB players set to play against our users! The next pro plays for the Chicago Bulls and will be announced very soon! We plan to make the fan/pro interactions even better as these challenges go on eventually even having the pro come and play some live 1 vs 1 vs the winner of the final challenge!
Tell us more about BuzzDraft, and about you. How did the site come to fruitiion? What’s your life story? Fantasy experience? What’s your vision for BuzzDraft?
Jeff – BuzzDraft was the brainchild of some entreperneurs mixed with poker players to create a product that we ourselves would love to use everyday. We just all love working in fantasy sports and will do anything to make this project succeed. The 12hrs a day we spend on skype working on BuzzDraft just flies by as it doesn’t feel like work at all. For some of the poker players on the team it’s pretty funny that the very same law that stopped them from earning a living playing poker in the US (UIGEA) has a special carve out for fantasy sports and is the reason a site like BuzzDraft came to exist!
What features does BuzzDraft offer that sets it apart from the competition?
Jeff – Aside from playing with pro players BuzzDraft has a robust VIP system that rewards loyal users way better than any other fantasy site out there. You get milestone cash bonuses as you play and you can level up to a higher VIP point mulitplier to earn bonuses at an even faster rate! On top of that our customer service is lighting fast and so are our cashouts. We are just starting out right now and will be rewarding those who are willing to give us a shot!
Do you have any promos or events coming in the future you’d like our readers to know about?
Jeff – We’ve got more great pro players comming up to qualify to play against and some amazing stuff in the pipeline including one sport with millions of fans that has never had a fantasy game before, so stay tuned!
Grinders, if you’re not yet a member of BuzzDraft, you might be missing out on an opportunity to play with a star. We offer a HUGE, exclusive 50% Deposit Bonus on your first deposit! Just check out our BuzzDraft Review for more info. You must use Promo Code GRINDERS to get our exclusive deposit bonus of 50% up to $250. The normal bonus is 20%, so this is a nice increase for Grinders members!