Website Review: 365FantasySports.com (10/15/09)
Oct 15, 2009 Daily Games
Today I’m continuing my series of reviews for the daily fantasy sports contest sites by taking a look at 365FantasySports.com. As with the others, we will examine payouts, registration, funding, cashouts, software, game selection, game types, player base, draft options, free games, bonuses and features.
As with the other sites we have reviewed, the most important factor is payouts. 365FantasySports.com provides a bet 11 to win 9 proposition for all bets over $10.00. To clarify, in a typical Head to Head contest each participant would post $22 to win a $40 pot, or $11 to win a $20 pot. The win rate required to break even at the site is 55.0%. The payout rate and win rate match the best in the industry.
Signing up for the site was quick and easy and once you are registered an email will be sent for verification. Simply click the email link to verify your account and you are ready to go. Funding is done with your checking account and all major credit cards including American Express, Visa, Mastercard, Discover through Paypal. I funded my account with Paypal and the money showed in the account immediately.
Customer support is very quick and friendly on the site. I emailed support to get the settings for basketball season and was promptly contacted with a return email. I have also had the opportunity to speak with management on the telephone and they were nice enough to answer every question I had about the site. After talking with them, it is clear that they are willing to do whatever it takes to make their players happy.
The software is simple and the draft procedure is pretty straightforward. One quirk about the site though is that it works better in Firefox than it does in Internet Explorer. In fact, if you notice on the homepage, you will see that the site was developed for Firefox. It still runs fine on Internet Explorer though, so don’t worry if you only have IE.
The best feature of the site, and the feature that really distinguishes 365 from other daily sites is their huge variety of contests. There is pretty much any type of game you would want, and if there isn’t, they will accommodate any reasonable request! I haven’t completely explored all the various football games, but there is something for everyone. You will find football contests like “Run, Forrest, Run!”, The Quarterback Challenge, All Pro Challenge, Threesome, and more. Many of these are no cap contests but they also have salary cap games as well. The other sports also offer a wide variety of contests. I’d recommend trying several to find the ones that you enjoy the most.
They offer H2H games, three team, four team and 6 team games. The buy-ins on the posted games range from $6.00 to $110.00, however management will offer a larger game if you request it.
365FantasySports.com covers NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and NASCAR. They are also the only site that I have seen that offers weekly fantasy NCAA Football games. There are even games that focus on your favorite college football BCS conference. NCAA Basketball games will be offered when the season begins.
Once you make the tough decision of what game you want to play, simply sign up and go to the draft room. The draft is a little different than the first two sites I reviewed. The draft options are a little more limited, but they are large enough to provide a challenge. At each position, you are offered a choice from a preset group. Sometimes you may not find your favorite player available in that group. For example, when selecting your quarterback, you could be presented with only 20 choices rather than unlimited choice like some other sites. It still requires a good bit of skill to choose the best player out of each group. The draft software is easy to use and you can quickly draft your team in a couple of minutes. As with some of the other sites, don’t try to draft right at the deadline because sometimes the server may slow due to heavy traffic. If you want to try out the drafting software before risking real money, they have play money games that work just like the real money games.
One of the cool features of the site allows website owners to structure personal games for their own sites. Simply contact management and they will open a private game for you and issue you a password which you in turn give to your readers so they can sign up. It is an awesome advertising tool for websites. I plan on doing a private tournament for Fantasy Basketball Daily once basketball gets going.
365FantasySports.com has a great rewards program. Each time you register for a real money game your account is awarded points. Points are also awarded when you sign up and when you make your deposit. Referral of other players to the site is another method that players can use to earn points. The points can be used to enter any of their free contests. When you win a free contest you win “tokens” which you will be able to use to get gifts from their store (still being developed). It is a nice touch to give something back to the players.
Because of its wide variety of contests, ease of use and great customer service, 365FantasySports.com is definitely going to be one of my favorite daily game sites and I look forward to playing with and against you guys on the site. If you have any questions about the site, please feel free to email me.