What are Fantasy Sports?
Fantasy sports are a type of online game where individuals assemble a virtual team of real players and compete against each other for glory and bragging rights. Fantasy sports can be based around a large variety of sports including American football and baseball to golf and auto racing. ESPN has even hosted a Fantasy game for the American dating show The Bachelor. Needed to say, people will take any excuse to compete against each other for (pretend) domination.
The origins of fantasy sports can be traced back to the 1960s in America but became increasing popular since the birth of the internet. It is estimated that the number of fantasy sports participants in the United States and Canada alone in 2017 was 60 million people with a total market of approximately $7 billion. A big piece of the market is from something called daily fantasy sports (DFS). Rather than picking a team and potentially being stuck with a loser for the whole season, DFS allows you pick a new team everyday. The two biggest players in the space are FanDuel and DraftKings. Both companies are currently valued over $1 billion. This is a wildly successful industry that has seen steady growth for years. There couldn’t possibly be anything wrong with, right?
Issues in Fantasy Sports
An industry as big as fantasy sports is going to have its own set of problems. The possibility of legislation is always looming over the space. DFS organizers claim that it isn’t gambling and that it is a game of skill. This is the current stance, but it could change. With fiat currency involved, there are also waiting periods of up to 10 days to withdraw money from the sites to a bank account.
With the two giants of DFS, there isn’t a lot of serious competition that can compete with the marketing budgets of FanDuel and DraftKings. This has lead to ever increasing fees on the platform (approximately 15% “rake”). Many players also complain that there are too many good, high volume players that keep more people from winning. This combination of issues has left many people looking for an alternative. Something different that will make the experience easier and more enjoyable. MyDFS is looking to be that alternative by incorporating blockchain technology (the technology behind Bitcoin) into their platform.
Why MyDFS?
MyDFS will be based on the Ethereum blockchain and will use its own ERC20 compliant token as the currency on the platform. This will eliminate the potential legal issues and extended withdraw periods that you have when dealing in fiat currencies. This also allows players from all of the world to get in on the action thanks to the MyDFS token. The blockchain provides a secure, transparent, and fair way of processing drafts, rankings, and payouts to winners.
In addition to the added quality from blockchain, MyDFS will include a brokerage system. Players that are unsuccessful or inexperienced can join in on the fun by staking professional players. If the professional wins, the player who invested in the pro will win as well. The professional gets a portion of the winnings as well, so it is a win-win.
The rake or fees on MyDFS will be 10%. This is lower than the industry standard as mentioned above. The players will get to keep more of their winnings than they would on other platforms.
MyDFS will be available on web browsers, iOS and Android. The platform is scheduled to be ready in June 2018.
The MyDFS team has previous experience creating and operating fantasy sports applications such as uTrener and KHL Fantasy. They have also added blockchain experts to make sure the inclusion of blockchain into the platform is smooth. More information about the team and the roadmap can be found in their white paper.
How Can you get involved with MyDFS?
MyDFS will be having a token sale to distribute MyDFS tokens prior to the platform going live. The presale starts on April 16th and runs through May 7th. Following the presale, the main sale will take place between May 21th and June 12th. Prices vary based on when you buy. Quotes can be requested on the MyDFS website.
If buying MyDFS tokens is not in the cards for you, there are ways to earn tokens through the BitcoinTalk bounty program and potentially airdrops. You can also earn MyDFS tokens by referring others to the Telegram group. Please consider using my referral link: t.me/mydfsbot?start=ref191736
If you are interested, more information can be found on the following social media locations:
BitcoinTalk Announcement thread