Fantasy Football league hosting sites (1 Viewer)

[Team Smokin']

Prolly a topic on this already several times over... Which is the best site in your opinion? I've played NFL.com and Yahoo in leagues. Now it looks like I may end up being a commissioner. Sooo... I am open to suggestions and scoring suggestions. Looking a performance scoring and yet giving the TE 1 ppr to keep him in the game. 

Btw... I have played fantasy football even before the internet. First league outside a local league was USA Today - won a t-shirt. 

 

[Pigskin Fanatic]

if a straight forward league, then really no bad choice if u stick to mainstream sites. even the free versions really give u most of what u need. like yahoo. I personally don't like ESPN's layouts and interfaces. Much prefer Yahoo over ESPN for simplicity. Haven't been on a ESPN league for two years though, so I'm sure they changed some since I used it.

as a commissioner, if u have owners who need a lot of hand holding AND $$$ isn't a concern, then CBS by far. "sharks" tend to scoff at CBS because "standard" is a four letter to them and need some crazy scoring, roster, or draft flexibility that only a spreadsheet can give u. hence the hate. CBS is not cheap and it's not flexible, though it's come a long way since inception and has a ton of scoring and roster options you may never need.

 

[Riddick02]

if a straight forward league, then really no bad choice if u stick to mainstream sites. even the free versions really give u most of what u need. like yahoo. I personally don't like ESPN's layouts and interfaces. Much prefer Yahoo over ESPN for simplicity. Haven't been on a ESPN league for two years though, so I'm sure they changed some since I used it.

as a commissioner, if u have owners who need a lot of hand holding AND $$$ isn't a concern, then CBS by far. "sharks" tend to scoff at CBS because "standard" is a four letter to them and need some crazy scoring, roster, or draft flexibility that only a spreadsheet can give u. hence the hate. CBS is not cheap and it's not flexible, though it's come a long way since inception and has a ton of scoring and roster options you may never need.

I think more people scoff at CBS because the pricing is absolutely ridiculous for very little if any actual benefits over what you can already get for free. 

 

[Pigskin Fanatic]

I think more people scoff at CBS because the pricing is absolutely ridiculous for very little if any actual benefits over what you can already get for free. 

yes, heard them all. and early in CBS's life i was one of the people who scoffed at them. but i disagree with any notion that u don't get ur money's worth because it depends on ur league. as a commissioner of a league that has dedicated owners who want a one stop shop ff site, it's well worth the ~$10 per owner per year. u can argue over the quality of the content all u want (not "you" specifically, but the people who wanna argue over things like this) but can't beat the simplicity of the site and the ease of use for owners like mine who spend no more than 10-20 minutes on this a week. Certainly no one on this board first that bill, so totally understand the hate here.

 

[Team Smokin']

Looking for ease of use, draft, setting lineups, waiver wire, and custom scoring. I follow footballguys scoring some, but modify it some too. 

I appreciate the responses.

 

[Zyphros]

These are all the ones I've used even in a minor way:

ESPN - it's just not a simplistic interface that you can easily manage.  I use to have a league or 2 on there and left purely for that reason.  They try to make it way more complicated than it needs to be IMO.  Never got use to it so I stopped trying and kept most of my leagues on Yahoo for it's simplicity.  

Yahoo - easiest by far.  Tools, Scoring, ease of access, stattracking all are aces.  The only thing is if you want it to be a keeper league then those settings are hard (at least to me) to figure out.

MFL - if you're doing dynasty this is your best bet probably but it costs money.  It's straight forward in its format, but it's a little hard to find the information you want to actually find.  It takes some digging.  Not the easiest to maneuver but all the features are there.

Bonus sites:

Sleeperbot - I just opened a league on here and it seems like it's amazing at first glance.  The setup was extremely easy.  Scoring is straight forward, with plenty of options to customize.  Ease of use for us young folks is amazing (app and mobile site), plus it has almost a built in message board you can participate it with news updates easy to find.  That's as far as I've gotten in terms of use, but I have a rookie draft on there this week so I'll report back.

FleaFlicker - Is this site still around?  I tried to migrate one of my Yahoo leagues over to this but the owners in my league were hesitant.  Understandable.  But the features on here seem like the best.  TONS of customization options if you have a very unique league.  

 

[joey]

Looking for ease of use, draft, setting lineups, waiver wire, and custom scoring. I follow footballguys scoring some, but modify it some too. 

I appreciate the responses.

if it's redraft, for me it would be yahoo and I wouldn't think twice. Free and easy, and the live draft app works as well as anyone elses (ie. it's not that it has never crashed on me, but it rarely has, and it's been amazingly stable the times I've used it).

I guess it just depends how fancy your custom scoring would be and if yahoo had all the knobs and levers to achieve that scoring.

 

[candian fantasy guy]

These are all the ones I've used even in a minor way:

ESPN - it's just not a simplistic interface that you can easily manage.  I use to have a league or 2 on there and left purely for that reason.  They try to make it way more complicated than it needs to be IMO.  Never got use to it so I stopped trying and kept most of my leagues on Yahoo for it's simplicity.  

Yahoo - easiest by far.  Tools, Scoring, ease of access, stattracking all are aces.  The only thing is if you want it to be a keeper league then those settings are hard (at least to me) to figure out.

MFL - if you're doing dynasty this is your best bet probably but it costs money.  It's straight forward in its format, but it's a little hard to find the information you want to actually find.  It takes some digging.  Not the easiest to maneuver but all the features are there.

Bonus sites:

Sleeperbot - I just opened a league on here and it seems like it's amazing at first glance.  The setup was extremely easy.  Scoring is straight forward, with plenty of options to customize.  Ease of use for us young folks is amazing (app and mobile site), plus it has almost a built in message board you can participate it with news updates easy to find.  That's as far as I've gotten in terms of use, but I have a rookie draft on there this week so I'll report back.

FleaFlicker - Is this site still around?  I tried to migrate one of my Yahoo leagues over to this but the owners in my league were hesitant.  Understandable.  But the features on here seem like the best.  TONS of customization options if you have a very unique league.  

We just took the dive this year coming from RTsports, they were great as we have lots of diff scoring considering we start 6 defenders as IDP(2Dline, 2LB, 2 Secondary), TE premium, etc.. But we were paying 140$ a year for fees. It is only 10$ and change each, but we also just added 140$ into our prize pool this year and that was the selling point that made the move easy. 

Fleaflicker.com has been able to accommodate our league thus far going into preseason. Biggest hiccup I have found is that they don't offer auction rooms for  draft, other than that, the rules change ability is great and fairly easy to figure out. 

 

[bagger]

Prolly a topic on this already several times over... Which is the best site in your opinion? I've played NFL.com and Yahoo in leagues. Now it looks like I may end up being a commissioner. Sooo... I am open to suggestions and scoring suggestions. Looking a performance scoring and yet giving the TE 1 ppr to keep him in the game. 

Btw... I have played fantasy football even before the internet. First league outside a local league was USA Today - won a t-shirt. 

Can not recommend MFL enough.

 

[joey]

Can not recommend MFL enough.

I have 2 dynasty leagues in MFL, so I appreciate the power and flexibility it offers. But if you're looking for something "simple", and it’s redraft, and the scoring or other rules aren't too esoteric, I think yahoo is a slam dunk winner. For example, just getting MFL waivers to act like yahoo's out of the box settings (which seems like a pretty standard waiver setup to me, ie. Players lock at kick off of their game, waivers run on Tuesday night, and every night after that til next kickoff, dropped players lock for 2 days then become free agents), that requires something like 3 or 4 calendar events to try to get that to work. Maybe I’m dense and am missing something obvious, but after almost 10 years using that site, I still don’t think we’ve figured out how to get it to work like the default yahoo dumb guy settings

so, I say only use MFL is you feel you absolutely need some features that only they provide. 

 

[Team Smokin']

Looking at a hybrid form of standard performance scoring with .5 ppr and wish to customize a few scoring options, as well as, allow trading and a FAAB waiver wire budget. Do all sites allow FAAB budgets and waiver wire?

Gosh, I really appreciate hearing from you all. Plus, I think others follow along too. 

 

[Mr.Pack]

I think more people scoff at CBS because the pricing is absolutely ridiculous for very little if any actual benefits over what you can already get for free. 

By far and away this. Why should my league shell out a $100 more that could go to prize money over a site like MFL?

 

[Riddick02]

Looking at a hybrid form of standard performance scoring with .5 ppr and wish to customize a few scoring options, as well as, allow trading and a FAAB waiver wire budget. Do all sites allow FAAB budgets and waiver wire?

Gosh, I really appreciate hearing from you all. Plus, I think others follow along too. 

When we last used CBS in 2016, they did not allow a blend of FAAB and waivers.  Not sure if that has changed or not.  Provided your customized scoring is not crazy, I don't see why you wouldn't use ESPN or Yahoo for any redraft/basic keeper league.  MFL has been the best for dynasty, contract, deluxe (multiple player pools), and salary cap leagues lately.  Checked out Fantrax last year to see if there was an alternative to MFL and seemed it was coming along, but was still redesigning for improved mobile use and didn't have an app.  Didn't look into them this year and don't know where they're at now with it all.

 

[Pigskin Fanatic]

CBS has FAAB waiver. Basically a blind bid with priority rankings u can set. You allocate $x to all owners and they can buy players with that. I use this and like it for the most part--our league sets the winning bid as the player's salary and counts against a hard cap for the team, which CBS handles on its own. But it's not perfect like everything else about the site. It still allow teams to go over the cap and then counts the cap overage as an illegal lineup, i.e. team gets 0 points if not rectified. would love CBS to not allow the transaction that takes a team over cap.

Curious, how does salary and FAAB waiver work on MFL? I tried moving there once, but like someone said above site was way too complicated for my league. it seem to have all the functions u can imagine, though.

 

[NYRAGE]

I really like RT Sports. I've been using them for a long time. Good functionality and looks good. No complaints for me. I like how it archives past leagues.

I really hate MFL. Great functionality, but looks like crap. You can do just about anything on MFL which is the biggest selling point. It just looks like 1980s software. Apparently there is a commissioner function (Commissioner Lockout) that prevents Commissioners to look at blind bids. It can be turned off, but I was playing in several high stakes leagues where the Commissioner and his Co-Comissioners decided not to utilize the Commissioner Lockout because they operated on an "honor system". 

I haven't done a CBS Sportsline league in a long time because it was expensive and they were having reliability issues. I hear that the issues are gone, but it's still expensive.

Yahoo is free, but offers the least functionality. I think you can pay for a league and it offers more functionality and flexibility. Yahoo is pretty good, but probably has the worst waiver wire process. RT Sports has the best one I've seen because it allows for much more flexibility on who you drop and multiple bid situations. 

 

[efactor]

I think more people scoff at CBS because the pricing is absolutely ridiculous for very little if any actual benefits over what you can already get for free. 

CBS will negotiate.  Told them I was switching over to MFL if they didn't lower the cost, and they knocked it down to $99.  This is the 3rd year they have done it.

Just a heads up for those that like CBS

 

[Fool-on-Stoopid]

redraft yahoo looks sharp easy to use live scoring is excellent FAAB (zero bids is only option) ,waiver if game time tueday works for you youre set, a continuous waiver results in no sunday morning pick ups. You wont be able to make it TE premium if you change scoring for receptions it affects all positions. If someone misses the draft kicker (should be eliminated from fantasy) and def will be selected in the ~8th/9th round  Their chat is basically non functional, Message board is bare bones

Flea flicker more customizable for scoring but doesn't look all that great

Espn NO

If youre going to pay I like RTS used CBS for a decade (it was free when I started at cbs haha)b4 switching no problems looked great worked the price increases weren't tooannoying but I had enough

 

[Riddick02]

CBS has FAAB waiver. Basically a blind bid with priority rankings u can set. You allocate $x to all owners and they can buy players with that. I use this and like it for the most part--our league sets the winning bid as the player's salary and counts against a hard cap for the team, which CBS handles on its own. But it's not perfect like everything else about the site. It still allow teams to go over the cap and then counts the cap overage as an illegal lineup, i.e. team gets 0 points if not rectified. would love CBS to not allow the transaction that takes a team over cap.

Curious, how does salary and FAAB waiver work on MFL? I tried moving there once, but like someone said above site was way too complicated for my league. it seem to have all the functions u can imagine, though.

Just for reference it wouldn't let us do FAAB runs on Weds & Thursday and then FCFS (First Come First Serve) waivers after the last FAAB run.  Since the FAAB is harder to manage, that portion was used and any transactions after Thursday had to be posted on message boards in order to have a GM handle em manually.  Again back in 2016, but just to clarify my post on what I meant by blend of waivers.    

 

[Team Smokin']

There is no reason not to use MFL.  It's the most customizable and it isn't even close.

Is there any cost involved? Easy log in and setting lineups for the Team Managers? 

I also want to be able to navigate and set basic custom scoring and .5 ppr with FAAB and free FA pickups after FAAB is over.

 

[Cowboysfan8]

Is there any cost involved? Easy log in and setting lineups for the Team Managers? 

I also want to be able to navigate and set basic custom scoring and .5 ppr with FAAB and free FA pickups after FAAB is over.

I believe it is around $60 a season

I've used mfl, Yahoo, ESPN and CBS over the yrs

MFL is the least user friendly of the bunch easily imo for the owners

ETA: I hate it

 

[Mr.Pack]

There is no reason not to use MFL.  It's the most customizable and it isn't even close.

Not really. They have overhauled their waiver system and have made it very difficult to set up, not to mention you can't customize it at all. You get  a couple options.

Every year i say I'm done, but every year I go back.

So effing aggravating

 

[Mr.Pack]

I believe it is around $60 a season

I've used mfl, Yahoo, ESPN and CBS over the yrs

MFL is the least user friendly of the bunch easily imo for the owners

ETA: I hate it

What do you use?

Thinking about asking for a refund and going away from them after 10 years

 

[Cowboysfan8]

What do you use?

Thinking about asking for a refund and going away from them after 10 years

I only play redraft (well, one is a one man keeper drafted after Rd 3) , yahoo in all three leagues 

 

[Deamon]

I'm hooked on MFL for most leagues.  Once you're used to the site, it's the best out there and I've played them all. 

If going free is your major concern (in lower buy in leagues, say under $100) than Yahoo works good.  But I CAN'T get over not getting an email notification when a player is dropped.  So frustrating and when you're in a lot of leagues, getting this email is key.

So Yahoo if its a cheap buy in and you're only in 1 or 2 leagues.  Otherwise, MFL all day.

 

[Team Smokin']

In Yahoo league can you do a blind bid FAAB budget for two times a week? I'm on it now and it appears you can? Can I set the amount?

 

[Cowboysfan8]

Yes. 

Not sure if you can set the amount or not 

 

[Team Smokin']

Yes. 

Not sure if you can set the amount or not 

Yahoo only 1 point per every ten yards I see. Won't let you custom it to .1 point per yard...I don't think. 

 

[Cowboysfan8]

Yahoo only 1 point per every ten yards I see. Won't let you custom it to .01 point per yard...I don't think. 

I've never commished there so I can't help.you with the settings, but we use decimal scoring

 

[joey]

I've never commished there so I can't help.you with the settings, but we use decimal scoring

agreed. I haven't commished a yahoo league in a while, but setting it to 10 yards per point with decimal scoring on will give 0.7 points for 7 yards, for example.

 

[Team Smokin']

agreed. I haven't commished a yahoo league in a while, but setting it to 10 yards per point with decimal scoring on will give 0.7 points for 7 yards, for example.

I'm not seeing the decimal scoring option on scoring settings??? That would be great! Also, not seeing how to set the FAAB budget, etc. for Yahoo. Seems very user friendly.

 

[Cowboysfan8]

I'm not seeing the decimal scoring option on scoring settings??? That would be great! Also, not seeing how to set the FAAB budget, etc. for Yahoo. Seems very user friendly.

Again I'm not a commish, but when looking under league settings I see ..

'fractional points - yes'

'waiver type - FAAB with continual rolling list tiebreak'

...if that helps 

Edit: under scoring it says 10 yds per pt, but I guess with the "fractional points" setting on 'yes' it changes it to decimal scoring during the games

 

[dkp993]

MFL is great but the site feels dated. I loved the customizing ability but many in my league couldn’t get past the 1988 feel of the site.  I know it accepts the ability to import an outside design but that’s more work then I was willing to put in.  We switched over to Fantrax and love it. Super customizable but a bit less dated then MFL.  

 

[Fool-on-Stoopid]

I'm not seeing the decimal scoring option on scoring settings??? That would be great! Also, not seeing how to set the FAAB budget, etc. for Yahoo. Seems very user friendly.

Fractional scoring is one of the last options on the scoring settings page

FAAB BUDGET default is 100 you can change it under "manage other teams"

If you use continuous waivers you will not be able to pick up players sunday morning 

continuous waivers is the only way to have multiple waiver process dates

setting up a league you should use a pc as some commish settings NOT available thru the app .. works fine after set up

yahoo help board for quick answers from community and mods

 https://forums.yahoo.net/t5/Help-with-Fantasy-Football/bd-p/fs-football

 

[joey]

Is anyone using yahoo for dynasty and does it let you trade next year's picks?

i love yahoo's simplicity for redraft, and my 2 dynasty leagues are only both straight forward 12 team, Keep 13, non-PPR, standard line up, rolling waivers. Nothing esoteric at all. If someone can convince me yahoo's dynasty setup can handle this, I’d love to try to switch over there since I’m so over MFL making simple things so complex. 

 

[Fool-on-Stoopid]

you can trade 1 year in advance thru the system

its major drawback is it shutsdown after your last week of the year and doesn't re open until the nfl draft

after it opens comish must manually process trades until the league draft is complete

if you use a slow draft you can just approve all keepers and youre good if its a live draft it can be a pain 

30 man roster limits

often behind on position changes for IDP

Its chat is useless

waivers are fine gametime Tuesday, works with FAAB

 

[BoltBacker]

MFL is great but the site feels dated. I loved the customizing ability but many in my league couldn’t get past the 1988 feel of the site.  I know it accepts the ability to import an outside design but that’s more work then I was willing to put in.  We switched over to Fantrax and love it. Super customizable but a bit less dated then MFL.  

I'm not saying that you are wrong, but are you only comparing the desktop versions or are you also comparing the mobile version of each site?

I feel like MFL site is fine(maybe dated) but the mobile experience is MUCH better than it used to be, and that's the part of the service I use the most by a wide margin. For mobile I just want clarity and scalability across many screen sizes because sometimes I use a phone and other times a tablet. Because it's a mobile site and not an app it doesn't have much overhead like an app would have and depending on the skin you use it doesn't use a great deal of data.

 

[joey]

you can trade 1 year in advance thru the system

its major drawback is it shutsdown after your last week of the year and doesn't re open until the nfl draft

after it opens comish must manually process trades until the league draft is complete

if you use a slow draft you can just approve all keepers and youre good if its a live draft it can be a pain 

30 man roster limits

often behind on position changes for IDP

Its chat is useless

waivers are fine gametime Tuesday, works with FAAB

Thanks. Yeah, some of the challenges around offseason management and  trade oddities are what I gathered from reading some info on yahoo after my post. Doesn’t sound like it’s ready for prime time so I guess I need to stick with MFL. 

 

[notoriousbill]

I have used MFL for the league I am commissioner since 2004.  I give the league the option of using Yahoo for free or paying for MFL, the league always votes to keep MFL.

My .02

 

[Riddick02]

MFL is great but the site feels dated. I loved the customizing ability but many in my league couldn’t get past the 1988 feel of the site.  I know it accepts the ability to import an outside design but that’s more work then I was willing to put in.  We switched over to Fantrax and love it. Super customizable but a bit less dated then MFL.  

Is Fantrax mobile friendly now and/or have an app?  Also are you using the pay service or the free?  

 

[Team Smokin']

Fractional scoring is one of the last options on the scoring settings page

FAAB BUDGET default is 100 you can change it under "manage other teams"

If you use continuous waivers you will not be able to pick up players sunday morning 

continuous waivers is the only way to have multiple waiver process dates

setting up a league you should use a pc as some commish settings NOT available thru the app .. works fine after set up

yahoo help board for quick answers from community and mods

 https://forums.yahoo.net/t5/Help-with-Fantasy-Football/bd-p/fs-football

This is all good, Fool-on-Stoopid! Much obliged!

Just wanna make sure the time zone thing will work and get off our draft. We are Michigan and EST so our draft is 7:00 p.m. our time. I signed up for 4:00 p.m. PDT so we can draft at 7. It clearly says - All draft times are shown in PDT. I think I did it correct. 

I like continuous waivers, but not being able to pick up players sunday morning? Still trying to figure out exactly what all these settings mean?

We want FAAB bidding twice a week (Tu and F), but open free FA pick ups once these dates open up again... make sense?

 

[dkp993]

Is Fantrax mobile friendly now and/or have an app?  Also are you using the pay service or the free?  

It is mobile friendly but I primarily use the desktop on my iPad.  I have played with both the free and pay.  Not a huge difference.  I only sure the free as my league is a dynasty type league and it saves the values from year to yr.  If not for that we’d have no need to pay.  

 

[dkp993]

I'm not saying that you are wrong, but are you only comparing the desktop versions or are you also comparing the mobile version of each site?

I feel like MFL site is fine(maybe dated) but the mobile experience is MUCH better than it used to be, and that's the part of the service I use the most by a wide margin. For mobile I just want clarity and scalability across many screen sizes because sometimes I use a phone and other times a tablet. Because it's a mobile site and not an app it doesn't have much overhead like an app would have and depending on the skin you use it doesn't use a great deal of data.

Very true, I’m not addressing the mobile aspect. Also it’s been about four years since we used MFL so updates have likely happened. Alnd to be clear like I said it was others in my league that had issues with it, I didn’t.  The positives out weighted any negatives for me. 

 

[Fool-on-Stoopid]

We want FAAB bidding twice a week (Tu and F), but open free FA pick ups once these dates open up again... make sense?

This ^ makes complete sense and is NOT an option for yahoo you can only have 1waiver day Tues or NO FAs at all with FAAB silly yes

TIME  not sure what youre reading or what you gave as info when you signed up this is what I get on NOTES at the side of the time selection page

"All draft times are shown in EDT.

The first day of regular season games is Thursday, Sep 6."

If you signed up to yahoo with PDT as default then youre correct CAN BE CHANGED under settings mail I think? you can check your setting on team page click gear top right

 

[Cowboysfan8]

This ^ makes complete sense and is NOT an option for yahoo you can only have 1waiver day Tues or NO FAs at all with FAAB silly yes

This is incorrect

Edit:

Whenever a player is dropped, they'll be temporarily frozen for a period of time. The default time period is 2 days, but the commish of a Private league can change this from 0-7 days. During this time, all managers can make a claim to add the player.

If no one claims the player, the player become a Free Agent, which means anyone can add them to their team almost immediately, without competition from other managers.

If a manager adds a Free Agent and then drops them in the same day, the player remains a Free Agent.

From Yahoo help page

 

[Fool-on-Stoopid]

Not sure what u think is wrong, Im sure the OP would love to know the setting youre using until then heres an old post from a yahoo admin answering a similar ?

"With Continuous Waivers, all unowned players are on waivers at all times. No Free Agents."

https://forums.yahoo.net/t5/Help-with-Fantasy-Football/Continuous-Waivers/m-p/36273

There is no setting other than "continuous" that allows for multiple process dates

 

[Fool-on-Stoopid]

This is incorrect

youre talking about a waiver like gametime -Tuesday with 1 processing date then players who are dropped can become FAs after "2 days", the OP wanted a waiver that could run 2x a week the only option to do this is "continuous" waivers which has no FA period

 

[Cowboysfan8]

youre talking about a waiver like gametime -Tuesday with 1 processing date then players who are dropped can become FAs after "2 days", the OP wanted a waiver that could run 2x a week the only option to do this is "continuous" waivers which has no FA period

My leagues run blind bid waivers Tues overnight into wed. After that run all players not owned are FA that are first come first served except the players that were dropped during the waiver run. Those players are on waivers to be bid on until Fri overnight into Saturday. If noone bids on them during that waiver run they are then FA.

Is that not what you're looking for?

 

[Fool-on-Stoopid]

s that not what you're looking for?

That is what are the settings you are using on yahoo

 

[Cowboysfan8]

youre talking about a waiver like gametime -Tuesday with 1 processing date then players who are dropped can become FAs after "2 days", the OP wanted a waiver that could run 2x a week the only option to do this is "continuous" waivers which has no FA period

https://help.yahoo.com/kb/SLN6811.html

Click on :

"Use standard waivers and free agents"

2nd link from the top of the page

 

[Fool-on-Stoopid]

No I mis read your post 

he wants waivers run Tuesday then Thursday then FAs Sunday

all players not just the ones who were dropped tueday to be put on waivers for a second round of bidding thursday

then a FA period sunday (at least that was my take)

youre describing the GTT waiver and only the players who were dropped get bid on while all others are FAs