DraftBoard Review

What is Draftboard?

Draftboard is the newest addition to the growing family of daily fantasy
sports websites. Highly-respected Poker Professional Phil Galfond teamed up with his
good friend Dan Quinn to create what they believe will be the most fair and
unique experience in the DFS market. Their vision for making this process a reality falls
into three main categories.

Keep it simple. Keep it fair. Keep you contacted. These three “mottos” are
Draftboard’s core principles they look to follow in order to surge past and stay
ahead of their competition. Their attempt to even out the playing field and
offer innovative interfaces to their site’s experience is what they hope will
make Draftboard stand out.

Before we get into all the juicy details that make this site exclusive, let’s
start this review by explaining what the buzz surrounding the DFS community is
even about.

What are Daily Fantasy Sports?

If you haven’t played daily fantasy sports, what are you waiting for? Do you
like to watch football? Are you in a season-long fantasy football league with
friends or co-workers? Hurry up and join in on the action that is DFS.

Daily fantasy sports are exactly that-daily. Forget about committing to the
same players for the entire season. Avoid injuries and tough matchups by picking
your players and setting new lineups each and every day. Once you set your
lineup, you watch your players perform. See if your lineup can beat out the
other people who set lineups. It’s that simple!

The beauty of daily fantasy sports lies directly within its name. The daily
aspect of it means we don’t have to be committed for the full season. If we are
busy one week, we can lower our volume of contests or not play at all. If our
wives are out of town the next week, then start firing in some lineups!

The landscape of daily fantasy sports is a fast-growing industry that appeals
to many types of people. Whether you are a hardcore grinder or a casual fan
looking to put a few bucks on some players, daily fantasy sports sites can
become your best friend.

The specific rules and particulars about Draftboard will be covered in a
later section below. Let’s first talk about what sports you can play on
Draftboard.

Bonus Details

• $1 Automatically Loaded into New Player Accounts

Yes, you read that correctly. There are no fine lines or hidden fees here.
Galfond wants to show you he appreciates you trying out the site. For every new
user account that is created, Draftboard adds $1 into that account, without a
need for an initial deposit.

If it sounds like they are giving away a free dollar to every new customer,
you are basically right. Once you sign up, you can enter a $1 contest in the
rookie lobby before ever making a deposit. That is what we call, quality
customer service.

This isn’t the only new and exciting feature we found with Draftboard.

We don’t want to keep you at bay about these exciting new additions that
Draftboard has added to the DFS community. While Draftkings and Fanduel have the
huge player pools and guaranteed prize-pools, check out what Galfond came up
with for his new site.

What Sports are Offered on Draftboard?

Still in its infancy stages, Draftboard is currently only offering NFL
contests. That will change once the 2017-2018 NBA season gets underway shortly.
Galfond has focused his efforts on making the customer experience exceptional,
not attempting to flood the market with countless contests with massive
guarantees.

He is trying to build this business from the ground up, and that starts by
building his brand as a reputable site with extraordinary perks that other sites
don’t offer. Galfond and Quinn don’t want Draftboard to be like Draftkings or
Fanduel- they want it to be better.

Draftboard – Two New Innovations

While spending over two years to create and develop the product that recently
launched, Galfond and Quinn knew they needed to be different. They needed
something, a “secret sauce” if you will, that would make their site stand out
among the flurry of sites out there. Here’s what they came up with.

Watch Live

The “watch live” section of Draftboard is the first of its kind amongst the
daily fantasy sports sites. Watch live is the area or page on the site where all
of the action can be followed. Once the lineups are submitted and the contests
are locked, watch live will track every single one of your players’ every move.
This won’t be done via text alert or just a simple line stating a player scored
a touchdown.

Watch live adds a visual element to the experience. It will closely resemble
following a game via the official game tracker or using game update apps.

Since the site is starting with their focus on the NFL season, we will use
NFL as an example. Once you set your eight-player lineup, open the watch live
page and get immersed into the action. All your players’ progress will be
tracked visually, as any points or yards they accumulate will be shown with cool
animations of the players on a field.

Don’t worry about ever missing out any of your player’s performances as
everything is tracked, followed, and presented in a well-organized an efficient
manner. Galfond and his team are the first ones to arrive on the scene with this
advanced visualization of tracking your lineup.

No other sites across the DFS industry have created such a cutting-edge way
to follow the action. Being the first one to the party is something Draftboard
hopes will launch them into the discussion of being the optimal DFS site in the
near future.

Getting to the optimal DFS site takes more than having an advanced and
accountable interface. Daily fantasy sports players have been complaining for a
while now that certain contests are just too difficult to cash in, let alone
win. “When the professionals are putting 100+ lineups into a tournament, how am
I supposed to compete with only one lineup” is a question that has been asked
far too many times.

Draftboard has solved this growing issue with their “fair match” system the
site follows.

Fair Match

The fair match application to the site is something that will be applauded by
most recreational users. It may however cause some push back amongst the
professional community that look to make their money by preying on the
weaknesses of new, amateur players.

The fact is, DFS was not created to simply be an ecosystem for a tiny
percentage of professionals to prosper in while everyone else loses. DFS is
meant to be a fun, entertaining way to bet on certain players doing well,
without being attached to the teams’ final results.

Draftboard’s fair match philosophy aims to please their customers by offering
two separate lobbies.

The first lobby, entitled “rookie,” offers contests with buy-ins ranging from
$1-$5. The second lobby they call “veteran,” targets more experienced players
and offers buy-ins from $10-$50. As the site grows, this number will surely
increase and higher buy-in contests will become available.

Another thing that makes Draftboard’s fair match policy unique is the
procedure they use for finding your opponents. A random opponent selection
process takes place once you enter. The days of experienced professionals
targeting weaker, first-time users is off the table.

Once a player enters a contest in one of the lobbies, they are only allowed
to enter contests in that particular lobby for the remainder of the day. In
other words, once you enter a $50 contest in the veteran lobby, you can’t go
into the rookie lobby and pick on the players in the $1 contests that day. Once
you pick your respective lobby for the day, you are locked into those contest
offerings.

Protecting the players should be a major concern for all DFS sites. By
implementing such a firm set of guidelines, Draftboard should avoid some of the
issues players on the sites have experienced, and thus complained about.

Owner Dan Quinn told the Legal Sports Report during an interview,

“The way the current sites in the industry were structured, it wasn’t
particularly fair for new users coming in. So we saw potentially there was an
opening for us there.”

This further cements the idea that had been brewing inside Quinn and Galfond
for over a year. The site can only be as good as its integrity in what it
offers. Completing and carrying out the fair match phase of the site will prove
to be substantial in sustaining long-term success.

Now that we have touched on two new features that will make Draftboard stand
out, let’s get into the breakdown of rules and scoring. The settings are similar
to those of other DFS sites, with a few tweaks.

Rules and Scoring

The scoring and settings on Draftboard will look like those found on other
DFS sites. The first difference we saw was in the roster construction. While
football lineups on Draftkings and Fanduel require nine players, we select eight
players to form a lineup on Draftboard. the roster construction is as follows.

• 1 Quarterback
• 2 Running Backs
• 2 Wide Receivers
• 1 Tight End
• 2 Flex Players (Can be any position)

Notice the “2 flex players” that Draftboard calls for. As experienced users,
Galfond and Quinn quickly recognized DFS players love options. When it comes to
making a lineup, they wanted to give the users choices. Fanduel forces you to
choose a kicker and offers no flex spots. Draftkings has a flex spot, but you
must select a team defense.

Draftboard is clearly trying to supply what the daily fantasy sports players
crave. The ability to have options when choosing their lineups is one thing.
Focusing on the core, offensive positions that tally yards and score touchdowns
is what the casual DFS fan really wants. They aren’t looking to grind over the
research of kickers and team defenses. Give them the players they want. That is
what Draftboard has done.

The scoring system also varies from other scoring systems across the
industry. Check out how players earn points during contests run on Draftboard.

Offense

• Rushing Touchdown / 6 Points
• Receiving Touchdown / 6 Points
• Return Touchdown (Kick or Punt) / 6 Points
• Offensive Fumble Recovery Touchdown / 6 Points
• Passing Touchdown / 4 Points
• Two Point Conversion (Pass, Run, or Catch) / 2 Points
• Reception / 0.5 Points
• Passing Yard / 0.04 Points
• Rushing Yard / 0.1 Points
• Receiving Yard / 0.1 Points
• Interception / -1 Point
• Fumble Lost / -1 Point

This scoring system will be very familiar to those of you transitioning over
from season-long leagues. What you don’t find here are the in-game bonuses
players accumulate on sites such as Draftkings. No extra points are awarded to
players who achieve in-game milestones such as rushing or receiving 100 yards,
or having a quarterback throw for 300+ yards.

The scoring system is simple, cut and dry. Everything is right there to see,
avoiding any confusion as to how a player arrived at a certain point total. This
level of transparency is more than important in this industry- it is imperative.
Galfond and Quinn’s awareness to this subject is common throughout the entirety
of how the site is run.

Is the Site Safe?

The site is so new at this point, we can’t show examples of customer reviews
raving at how well the site operates. What we can do besides admire the cool
ground-breaking features, is vouch for Phil Galfond.

Who is Phil Galfond?

Phil Galfond is the master brains behind Draftboard. Galfond got his fame and
fortune by playing and winning in some of the largest cash games in the world.
Primarily playing online under the aliases of “OMGclayaiken” and “MrSweets28,”
Phil has been able to rise to the top of the poker world, where he has been a
mainstay for years.

After much success on the felt, he shifted his focus into coaching poker, and
running a teaching site called Runitonce.com. His continued excellence across
the board makes Phil someone we know works extremely hard, and takes his craft
seriously.

As a poker coach, his commitment and utmost respect he has for his students
leaves us feeling comfortable and secure that Phil will take this site
seriously, and run it professionally. This treatment towards his customers will
resemble the relationships he will want to form with his new partners- the DFS
community and their users.

His passion for sports, combined with the DFS structure being so similar to
that of poker was a perfect recipe to help Phil decide what he should dive into
next. Along with trusted friend and business partner, Dan Quinn, the pair dove
head first into the deep depths that is the DFS industry.

Fairness and Equality

Thanks to the new fair match platform Draftboard has created, all customers
can sleep well at night knowing they will be competing against people like
themselves. If you are one of the hardcore professionals doing 30+ hours of
research per week- prepare to face off against similar foes. If you are the
casual and recreational NFL fan looking to spice up your Sunday action like the
majority of us- be happy knowing your competitors are in similar shoes.

Trustworthiness

Have you ever heard of the saying, “you are only as good as your word!” Well,
that’s how we like to judge sites when we are talking about things as important
and sacred such as our address and credit card number. Our personal information
transferred over the internet is no joke, and we want to make sure everything is
safe.

Despite the site being a new operation, we are firm believers that Phil
Galfond putting his name behind the site gives it instant credibility. Being up
front up and promoting complete transparency gives customers the security they
are seeking before depositing any money into the site.

The two years of research, dedication, and attention to detail was put in to
make sure they covered all the bases before the site was open to the public.

In the online poker world, quality communication and customer service are so
crucial to being a successful and trusted company. We have faith that they will
be willing to tackle any potential issues head-on should they ever arise.

We don’t anticipate any funny business taking place for the variety of
reasons we mentioned. Signing up for an account is the first step to playing on
Draftboard. Let’s see if you are eligible.

Am I eligible to Play on Draftboard?

This is where things can get sticky. The good news is Galfond and his team
respect the authorities and don’t try to cut corners and find loopholes. They
like to abide by the law with a strict set of guidelines set in place describing
they eligibility requirements for potential players.

The bad news is that leaves many of us out of the loop for this new and
enticing site. Citizens and residents of the United States of America and Canada
can create an account and enter contests. The caveat is that residents of the
following states are not eligible to sign up and play:

Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois,
Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York,
Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington. Residents of Puerto Rico are also
prevented from playing.

This means anyone from any of the states listed above is not allowed to play
on Draftboard. Notice all countries outside the United States and Canada are
prohibited from playing on Draftboard. At least for now that is. These other
regions happen to make up a huge portion of the potential player pool. They will
have to wait until new legislature is changed and improved before they can
experience Draftboard.

Other than blocking out certain regions of the globe, Draftboard remains open
and transparent to the public. Of course, any professional athlete whose
individual performance has an impact on any of the contests will not be allowed
access to playing on the site. Again, protecting the customer is in the
forefront of the site’s mission.

Keeping anyone with insider information and athletes who can personally
affect the outcomes off the site will only help the site gain stature. This
includes employees from not only this site, but the other major sites as well.
This prevents the wizards who are paid handsomely to research and come up with
player projection models for the customers from entering the contests
themselves.

Taking multiple steps to provide users with an unmatched experience is what
Draftboard has done, and is currently doing. Monitoring the player pool is a big
part of that. The banking options accepted is another part.

Banking Options

We mentioned that transparency and reliability were vital to Phil Galfond
when he was creating this site. Using small, relatively unknown third-party
payment processors was not the route Phil wanted to take. He witnessed
first-hand the potential atrocity this could bring. Phil comes from the world of
depositing and withdrawing money into and off your online poker account. This
makes Galfond a prime candidate to understanding the importance of having a
dependable and consistent way to get your money on and off the site. Without the
assured ability to deposit and withdraw, the site really has nothing.

Depositing

Galfond is intelligent. He understands consumers want fast, and they want
easy. This is evident in the deposit process. Throw all those payment processing
companies we have never heard of out the window.

The process to deposit money into your account on Draftboard is done through
major credit cards and or your PayPal account. Simply type in your credit card
information and choose how much money you want released into your Draftboard
account. Otherwise, deposit money through PayPal, the largest and most trusted
online payment system in the world.

Once deposited, the funds are held in a separate company titled Draftboard
Player Funds Inc. This corporation is legally prohibited from blending with or
into any other individuals or companies.

Once you deposit your money, it is safe and legally can’t be touched by
anyone.

Withdrawing

Keeping the theme with simplicity, this is very straightforward. All of
Draftboard’s withdrawals are processed through PayPal. Galfond skipped and
avoided any mess or confusion from your bank or third parties. Click the
withdrawal button and the money will appear in your PayPal account within 48
hours. Once into your PayPal account, you can simply transfer the funds into
your bank account. That process is done within 24 hours.

We must applaud the banking options Draftboard offers. Many issues and
problems customers have had in the past with other sites will simply be avoided
by sticking to this consistent method.

Summary & Verdict

Reviewing this site has been a pleasurable experience, as we have been
looking for a site to pop-up with new and exciting features. The fact that this
site has taken such dedicated measures to creating a unique and exceptional
experience proves that they want to be here for the long-run. Creating platforms
that hope to rival and surpass those of its competitors are exactly what Galfond
and Quinn have focused their efforts on.

The only real knock on the site we found is something that isn’t even under
the direct control of the site. It must be noted that the 20 states in the USA
excluded from playing on Draftboard is more than double the amount of states (9)
that Draftkings prohibits. Fanduel blocks participation from the same nine
states as Draftkings, plus a tenth state in Texas.

The only other thing we noticed while researching information for the site
was just that- researching the information was somewhat hidden. We aren’t
convinced that Draftboard is the best and most adequate name for the daily
fantasy sports site. Because the word Draftboard is associated with NFL teams’
actual “draft boards,” the google search engine floods us with information and
articles about NFL draft boards.

To further add confusion, Owner of Draftboard Dan Quinn shares the same name
as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons, Dan Quinn! You can imagine what happened
when we googled “Dan Quinn Draftboard”. Needless to say, extensive information
about the Falcons upcoming draft plans were plentiful.

Perhaps a different name could have served a better purpose, but if all goes
well, this minor issue will be long forgotten.

Off the bat, we don’t expect Draftboard to compete with Draftkings and
Fanduel. Those companies spent over 80 million dollars in 2015-2016 advertising
their product. Galfond isn’t trying to flood the market with television
commercials and offering hundreds of contests.

Draftboard is trying to win over customers by providing the best and most
fair product on the market. Only time will tell if this proves to be the case.
Galfond and Quinn had a plan in place. The execution and carrying out of their
plan is officially underway and in full-force.

Clearly, their experience and skillsets are a tremendous combination to build
and administer a daily fantasy sports site. Let’s hope the experience you have
playing on Draftboard is as smooth as it appears!