2013 NFL Draft Pari-Mutuel Fantasy Sports Game Results

To continue the early testing of the totally new pari-mutuel fantasy sports game website, ProContest.com, a free play game based on the NFL draft was offered.  Crafting a bona fide fantasy sports game around the NFL draft is a completely new concept, never before seen.  This game has great potential with regard to monetizing this huge event that attracts approximately 25 million viewers each year.  This game was alluded to during the reporting of the Week 17 results at the end of last year's regular season in this post.

The four races that constituted the NFL Draft game were:

1. Position Most Selected Rounds 1-4
2. Position Most Selected Rounds 5-7
3. Conference Most Selected Rounds 1-4
4. Conference Most Selected Rounds 5-7

Here are the results for the various game elements along with their final odds to Win as determined by contest entrants:

Position Most Selected Rounds 1-4
Win    Other/Field / 14:1
Place  Cornerback / 28:1
Show  Defensive End / 4:1
Favorite:  Defensive End at 4:1

Position Most Selected Rounds 5-7
Win    Offensive Line (Any) / 5:1
Place  Running Back (Any) / 7:1
Show  Other/Field / 9:1
Favorite:  Offensive Line (Any) and Wide Receiver at 5:1

Conference Most Selected Rounds 1-4
Win    SEC / 4:1
Place  Other/Field / 11:1
Show  Pac 12 / 23:1
Favorite:  SEC, Big 10 and Big 12 at 4:1

Conference Most Selected Rounds 5-7
Win    Other/Field / 10:1
Place  SEC / 7:1
Show  ACC / 10:1
Favorite:  Big 10 and Big 12 at 5:1

For the early round position race, the favorite Defensive Ends did finish in the money, just a whisker behind the second place finisher Cornerback.  The Cornerback position was a longshot at 28:1 and came in second.  The Other/Field entry was at 14:1 but did come in first by a wide margin.

For the late round position race, the favorite Offensive Line (Any) did win but the other favorite Wide Receiver finished out of the money.  The Runningback position at 7:1 placed and the Other/Field entry at 9:1 showed.  The finish order was fairly closely correlated to the final odds for this race, with the exception of the co-favorite Wide Receiver.

For the early round conference race, the favorite SEC did win and won convincingly.  The Other/Field entry placed just ahead of the Pac 12, which showed.  The Pac 12 was a longshot in this race at 23:1 but came in third and just missed a second place finish.

For the late round conference race, both favorites Big 10 and Big 12 finished out of the money.  The second favorite SEC placed, but the Other/Field entry, at a reasonable 10:1 won.  Rounding out the in the money finishers, the ACC also going off at 10:1 showed.  This might have been reasonably expected as the big conferences should do well in early rounds with minor conferences or Division II or III players potentially being selected late, making the Field/Other entry more attractive.

Overall, the NFL Draft pari-mutuel game performed well with regard to game mechanics.  It definitely is an option to be offered as a pay-to-play prize awarding game in the future.  We're initially thinking of an entry fee in the $5 range, with prize tiers (multiple winners per prize tier that vary based on total number of entries) in the range of $250/$50/$10.  This kind of high prize to entry fee ratio should be more attractive than that offered by those other "daily" fantasy sports sites.  Just think that perhaps next year, you can watch the NFL Draft and have the potential to win cash prizes!

Stay tuned to ProContest's blog for further developments on that, other games/sports, and general ProContest info.

Nevada Making Preemptive Move to Solidify Sports Betting Competitive Advantage

Nevada Senate Bill 346 is moving through the initial legislative processes.  What this bill will allow is for the expansion of sports betting in that groups of people could form an entity and bet as a group.  Currently, only individuals can make sports bets in Nevada.

According to the AP story, the bill sponsor, Senator Greg Brower, a Republican, explained that the bill would add entities could be formed and authorized to make sports bets. The groups could act as a type of hedge fund and wager big dollars on football, basketball, baseball and other sports. In turn, they could seek out investors to put up money and allow an expert to make the bet.

This expansion of sports betting would further distance Nevada from other gaming states and could bring some of the estimated $380 billion per year wagered illegally on sports into the open, where it can be regulated and taxed, which in addition to assisting the Nevada gaming industry, is of keen interest to State of Nevada.  If this bill does pass, gaming industry estimates sports betting handle would triple to $10 billion per year within 5 years.

The bill hasn't yet moved past the committee, so this is still in its infancy, but stay tuned.

ProContest Creates New NFL Draft Fantasy Contest

ProContest continues its early stage testing of new fantasy sports contests.  The latest test is the creation of a totally new fantasy sports game for the upcoming 2013 NFL Draft.  Using pari-mutuel wagering principles, contest entrants can predict what positions or college conferences will be selected most during this April's draft.

This totally new game further shows the breakthrough utility of the patented pari-mutuel fantasy sports concept.  This game is a free play/no prize game as the intent, as with the other early games, is to check the game logic and play functionality.

The NFL Draft is now a very big television event, with approximately 25 million tuning in to watch.  The first three rounds are broadcast live in primetime, with rounds 4 through 7 occurring on Saturday.

For those that will be unable to register on ProContest.com and play, here are the screen shots of the various questions (races) that contestants will input their predictions.  You will see that the screens have similar "wagering" data and odds displays to pari-mutuel tote boards at horse and dog tracks.  If you're familiar with pari-mutuel race wagering, ProContest's fantasy sports games should be a snap to play.

How the contestants will play the game is that they will select the question (race) and then input the number of bet points (virtual currency - no monetary value) in the yellow-shaded area to reflect their choices.  All entries start out with the same amount of virtual currency.  A person can enter the contest more than once, but the startingvirtual currency for each entry is the same.

You will see for Question 4, Conference Most Selected Rounds 5-7, that in early play, the SEC is the early favorite at 2 to 1 odds.  As more people make their selections, the Current Trend information will update and the odds (Win odds) will change accordingly.

The contestant's intent is to make the correct selections such that they will finish the contest with higher levels of virtual currency to qualify for the various prize tiers.  In these early test phases, the games are free play/no prize.  Ultimately, pay-to-play fantasy games with top prizes on the order of 50 to 100 times the entry fee are envisioned.  So for a game like this, an entry fee might be $5, but the prize levels might be on the order of $250, $50 and $5 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd Prize.

This game concept also allows more prize winners in that it is not just the top three finishers.  In these games, the prize levels are actually prize tiers, with the ability to award many prizes within a tier.  So, if in a game where 100 people enter, there might be 1 $250 1st Prize, 3 $50 2nd Prizes and 22 $5 3rd Prizes awarded.  But if in the same game, let's say actually 450 people enter.  In that case, there might be 2 $250 1st Prize, 13 $50 2nd Prizes and 99 $5 3rd Prizes awarded.  This is a big advantage over typical fantasy sports games in that many people can win valuable prizes, not just a few.  Also, with the high prize to entry fee ratio, even at low entry fee levels, nice prizes can be won.  The low entry fee allows contestants to make multiple entries to apply different strategies, such as all longshots, entering early to take advantage of any bonus virtual points, waiting until just before the game starts, etc.

ProContest's new approach could be the big innovation that the fantasy sports industry has been looking for.  For those interested, feel free to register at ProContest and try out the NFL Draft game.  The NFL Draft begins on April 25th.