PlayLine Enters the Fantasy Sports Ring
PlayLine, a new fantasy sports game, landed just in time for the NFL and fantasy football season, and brings with it a new, easy to use, format and unique game style to get all fans involved in the game!
A few weeks back, I received a notification that Riddick Bowe was now following me on Twitter and I thought, wow , I wonder if the two-time heavyweight champ reads Picks and Pivots, my daily fantasy sports column for FanDuel. We started to talk both publicly on Twitter (mostly trash talk) and privately through messenger, about a new venture he was involved in called PlayLine. We also talked about our shared love for fantasy sports, and how daily fantasy sports in particular has completely transformed the industry bringing in unheard of revenue streams, and with it both insane popularity and continuous scrutiny.
As a life-long fantasy sports fan who grew up ingrained in the traditional season-long game, and has more recently transitioned, head-on, into the Daily Fantasy Sports world ruled by FanDuel and DraftKings, I have come to understand the limitless potential of the industry that combines the love of sports, the competitive feel of traditional fantasy leagues and an analytical challenge that makes the game both incredibly frustrating and wildly exhilarating at the same time!
I had the opportunity to sit down and talk about the Fantasy Sports Industry with four members of the PlayLine team, Aaron Avruskin (Co-Founder), Jason Falovitch (Co-Founder), Michael Bisping (UFC Middleweight Champion and Co-Founder) and Riddick Bowe (PlayLine Ambassador and former 2x World Heavyweight Boxing Champ) to get their thoughts on the current state of the industry and how they believe the fantasy sports landscape will change over time!
PlayLine – a Q&A Session:
FantasyCPR.com’s Brian Tulloch sat down with PlayLine Co-Founders Aaron Avruskin, Jason Falovitch, Michael Bisping and PlayLine Ambassador Riddick Bowe to discuss the current state of the fantasy sports industry and how they expect the fantasy sports landscape to change in the future.
"Brian Tulloch: “I grew up playing season long fantasy sports and my interest level grew as the industry, tools & games advanced and have recently made the transition to jumping full on into the Daily Fantasy Sports wave that has transformed the industry over the last few years – how did you get into fantasy sports?”"
Aaron Avruskin: “As I imagine is the case for most people reading this, my passion for sports developed at an early age. Like most kids, I collected baseball cards and I’d spend hours going over the stats – committing to memory who the .300 hitters were, who was good for 30 HR, and which guys could get you 100 RBI. I had my first experience with fantasy sports in 1993. It was an NHL box pool that was advertised in one of the major city newspapers, and I convinced my dad to cough up the $25 buy in. They’d send out the standings once a month, but the first thing I’d do everyday when I got home from school was run to the mailbox to see if anything had arrived. I didn’t come close to winning anything (I remember selecting first overall pick Alexander Daigle) but from there I was hooked.”
“Once fantasy went online – which was the industries industrial revolution moment, so to speak – I began playing all sports religiously. I can honestly say, and I think this is true for a lot of fantasy players – that if not for fantasy, I wouldn’t be nearly as involved in the day-to-day happenings of each league as I am today – let alone co-founding a new and exciting daily fantasy sports platform.”
"Brian Tulloch: “One of the cornerstones of DFS as it stands today is that it is focused on uncovering the “sleeper pick” or “hidden gem” that ultimately makes or breaks your line-up. Michael, as a UFC champ and superstar within your sport – is there a way where we can turn the focus of fantasy sports back on the superstars when we want to play these contests?”"
Mike Bisping: “Most definitely. Even though I’m a sportsman, I’ve never been the biggest sports fan outside of MMA. I’ll watch a game with my buddies here and there and I know the top guys, but beyond that, you’ve always had to be an expert on the various leagues to play fantasy. Could I draft the first couple rounds, sure I could – but it’s making the picks beyond that always made me shy away, and I love competition.
With PlayLine.com, we’re all about the superstar players. Sports leagues are star driven more now that ever – look at the UFC – star power is the reason people pay to watch people like myself and George St. Pierre fight, or Conor or Ronda. I think we’ll see the same thing with PlayLine because we’re focusing on the guys you know and love, which will also help make the casual sports fan feel way more comfortable when playing our DFS game.”
PlayLine – a Q&A Session:
"Brian Tulloch: “For those of us ingrained in Daily Fantasy Sports we have seen the rapid rise in this platform, the accompanying advertising wars, the legal/regulatory issues etc. and along with it, a much more complex product that has made committing to playing the game a very time-consuming but enjoyable hobby for many – what is your take on the current state of the fantasy sports industry and what do you think some of the pros/cons are within the current ecosystem? “"
Jason Falovitch: “The great news for daily fantasy sports fans is that pool of players continues to grow, and there are a variety of sites out there with different styles of game play – which from a user perspective, is great. I encourage everyone to play where they’re most comfortable. There are so many positives when looking at daily fantasy, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore any negatives.
We’re DFS players too, so with PlayLine.com, we’ve set out to create a platform with an easy to understand model of game play, a focus on the superstar players you know and love, and some of the biggest prizes in the industry with our Perfect Line Bonus Promotion that’s offering $1,000,000+ prizes each and every week. Right now everything is free to play, and everything pays out real cash. There’s no risk, and big rewards – you really can’t beat that.”
"Brian Tulloch: “How do you see the industry adjusting and changing as we move forward?”"
Aaron Avruskin: “There are so many yearly fantasy players who haven’t made the jump to daily, and close to 250 million sports fans in North America who may have heard of fantasy, but don’t know what it’s all about. With PlayLine, we’ve created a game not only for hardcore players, but the more casual fans as well. Our game play is so easy to understand – just pick the stat line of the featured players, the closer you are, the better your chances of winning. Everyone understands that sports yields stats. The salary cap model is great for more experienced players – but I don’t care who you are, it’s very time-consuming. Asking your users to spend 60 or 90 minutes every night putting together their roster is a really steep ask.”
“It’s also no secret that approximately 90% of contests are won by just 1% of players – that’s not right. Why play a game that requires so much of your time, when you’re pretty certain your chances of winning aren’t very good? With PlayLine, we’ve stripped away some of the more complex data analytics, which we believe will help even the playing field, and will most definitely take far less of your time. It’s still going to take skill to win, but for most new players, when it comes to salary cap games – they don’t know what they don’t know. If DFS is to continue to grow and thrive, we need to continue to grow the player pool, and that starts with a great first experience, which we hope to provide at PlayLine.com“
"Brian Tulloch: “Do the recent legal/regulatory challenges the industry has faced in the past, present new challenges for companies entering the market?”"
Mike Bisping: “When it comes to the legalities of daily fantasy sports, I see a lot of similarities between DFS and MMA. Early on, MMA was known as No Holds Barred fighting. No rules, no weight classes and no sanctioning bodies. It was a free for all – much like the DFS industry. What made the UFC so successful, I believe, is that Zuffa moved towards regulation rather than running away from it. I see a lot of the same things going on now in DFS. States are regulating the industry, and even though it makes it a little more difficult for new platforms to get into the market, these regulations ultimately protect the consumers. Consumer confidence is key, especially when it comes to a new platform with a whole new style of play like PlayLine.com“
PlayLine – a Q&A Session:
"Brian Tulloch: “Riddick you and I were introduced to each other over social media and quickly got to trash talking over who was the better fantasy player and honestly at its core that is what Fantasy Sports is all about – it’s about bringing that competitive spirit to contests among friends and you seem to embrace that. Whether the contest is for $1 or $100 it really is all about the trash talk and the competition in selection your players – is that the mindset you take when approaching these games and why you chose to get involved with the PlayLine concept?”"
Riddick Bowe: “Man I like you, you alright in my books but you know I’m going to beat your ass this week on PlayLine! See I tried playing DFS but man it was too complicated for me, too much info and I don’t get the salary cap stuff! I watch just some my guys, like the main players, I don’t know any sleepers or that stuff so PlayLine for me is easy because it’s the guys I know – the superstars. Money aside man I made $10 million fighting Evander Holyfield but I would have fought him for free because I like to win – it ain’t just about the money! That’s whats up. Bowe”
"Brian Tulloch: In one or two sentences, why should someone take their daily fantasy sports skills to PlayLine?"
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Aaron Avruskin: “Whether you’re a self-proclaimed fantasy sports expert, or just looking to play for the very first time, PlayLine’s easy to play game and multi-million dollar prizes promises to take your sports viewing experience to a whole new level!”
Jason Falovitch: “The game is in the name! Just PLAY the stat LINE of our featured players by predicting how they will statistically perform in that night’s games. We offer a variety of competition formats and a highly customizable, and completely different fantasy sports gaming experience.”
Mike Bisping: “We’re revolutionizing the way daily fantasy sports is played, every contest is free to enter, and it’s money right from my pocket – what else is there to say!”
Riddick Bowe: “I’ll show you why, just come find me on Twitter and Imma beat yo ass one on one. Bowe.”
"Brian Tulloch “I sincerely want to thank the guys from PlayLine.com for spending some time to talk about the fantasy sports industry and their newest venture for all fantasy sports fans – go ahead and give it a try – take on the champ himself, Riddick Bowe in a “friendly” head to head – he promises me he will go easy on you!”"
Next: FanDuel Week 2 NFL Picks and Pivots
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