David Dodds
Administrator
Mike Hall, Owner of MyFantasyLeague.com joins us today for a candid chat about his company.
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums
This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Interview with Mike Hall (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter David Dodds
- Start date
David Dodds
Administrator
Outstanding. Yes those shirts are becoming collector items.
Let's get to some questions:
Q1. How did you get in the business? What did you do before this?
Let's get to some questions:
Q1. How did you get in the business? What did you do before this?
I got into it the same way most everybody else probably did... Some guys at work asked me to be in a league! I believe it was back in 1988. At the time, I hadn't even heard of Fantasy Football, but the idea intrigued me, so I joined the league and was immediately hooked. If I remember right, we only had 7 fantasy teams in the league that first year, so everybody had a pretty good starting lineup.
I was working at an insurance company at the time in the IT department. By our 2nd or 3rd year of that league, we had grown to 12 teams, and we were taking turns calculating all of the scores by hand every Tuesday from box scores in the USA Today. That quickly became a royal pain... Being a programmer by trade, I figured there had to be a better way, so I started writing a program to do all of the calculations and generate all of the reports. That program eventually morphed into FFLM, and I started selling that as a shareware program in 1993. I think I had 10 or 11 paying customers that year, and I was ecstatic!
David Dodds
Administrator
Q2. Explain a little about what is required to run a company such as My Fantasy League? ie number of servers, special equipment, hours, etc?
It's a pretty standard setup as far as web applications go. We have a couple of database servers, and quite a few web servers to host the leagues and serve up the information. They all sit behind a hardware firewall. There isn't really any special equipment required, but it is a relatively complex system by the time all is said and done. And it pretty much has to be up and running all day every day throughout the year, so we have to be available and on call throughout the year as well, 24 hours a day in case anything requires attention. So while it started out as a hobby, it has definitely turned into a full time job! Like any other self run business, it can be a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of hard work and dedication. And we have to be well versed in all aspects of the business, from marketing to programming to customer support to technical details of the hardware involved, etc. Probably eerily similar to running a company like FBG, actually!
David Dodds
Administrator
Q3. Tell us about the new features that have been added to the product this year. Can you give us some insight as to features that are high on your to do list (for next year and beyond)?
Perhaps the biggest change we've made involves the Live Draft. We've rewritten the Live Draft Room from scratch to give it a more modern look and feel. All of the information on the screen is updated on an as needed basis and arranged better, so you'll have a much better overall experience with your live draft. We've also integrated it with our existing league chat feature, so you can have real-time chats during the draft as well.In the meantime, we've also made a lot of other enhancements since last season, including improvements to blind bidding, auto drafting, league polls, and much more. Rather than try to remember them all, I can point you to our What's New Page for a summary of what we've been up to lately. And for all the gory details, you can also check out our Site Announcements message board. That one is updated pretty regularly as we add new features throughout the season.
As for what's in store for the future, we'll continue to focus on improving some of the "big ticket" features such as the live scoring, live draft, and waiver options while also making sure things are easier to use for commissioners and owners. We try to strike a good balance between the big, planned projects and the smaller customer submitted ideas.
David Dodds
Administrator
As old-timers in this business, you and I have seen lots of changes the past few years.
Q4. Where do you see the fantasy football business in 5 years?
Q4. Where do you see the fantasy football business in 5 years?
Old timers? Oh, that hurts. But you're probably right... LOL.I'm guessing Fantasy Football in general will still be a huge hobby and continue to steadily grow in popularity over the next few years. More and more technology will come into play as fantasy football enthusiasts want their fantasy "fix" no matter where they are. You're seeing this already with cell phone access to stats and scores. That will continue, but with more and more personalization, so you'll be able to see your particular fantasy team's scores and stats along with video highlights of your own players right on your cell phone or your TV on an as requested basis. Then you'll be able to call up content from FBG on your TV or phone as well to make decisions about your starting lineup just before kickoff. And then when you find out you made the right decision and you are crushing your opponent, you can send your opponent a text message and have that message appear right on your league home page at MyFantasyLeague.com so you can gloat to everybody else in your league. How's that for a vision? So basically, I just see a lot more focus on interaction and video on various platforms other than the PC and the web as things move forward. Hopefully FBG and MFL will be an integral part of all of that, of course. I really do think the small to medium size businesses like yours and ours will continue to strive for the next few years, right alongside the big names like Sportsline and Yahoo and ESPN. There's room for a lot of companies to provide leagues and participants with what they want, and with an estimated 15 million people actively involved in fantasy football every year, I don't see it fading away anytime soon. At least let's hope not!
David Dodds
Administrator
Q5. Why should someone buy MFL over the other products out there? Give us your best sales pitch? In your opinion, where do the competing products miss?
In a nutshell, we feel we have the best league management system for the money. It's powerful, extremely customizable, and yet still easy to use and very reasonably priced! (and of course, as a FBG subscriber, you can save $10!)For the casual leagues, it just takes a minute to setup your league and get started, so it is quick and easy to use. And with just a couple of clicks, you can "skin" your league to make it look unique and attractive, while still being user friendly.
For the hard core leagues, we support almost every imaginable feature, and we allow you to make the league look just about any way you want to by customizing your home page appearance with your own custom code. We have strong support for dynasty and keeper leagues that are active with trades and transactions all year round.
For all leagues, if you want accurate and reliable stats along with totally flexible rules and appearance, you can't go wrong with MyFantasyLeague.com. We've got your league covered with basic features such as Live Scores and flexible waivers and lineups, plus support for more complicated features such as Auctions, Salaries and Contracts, IDP support, etc. To help keep your team owners active and interested, we have all sorts of interactive features such as an integrated Live Chat, Message Boards, League Polls, League Articles, Survivor Pools, etc. And we offer all of this without any pesky pop-up or banner ads on any of our pages.
Another big differentiator for us is our active customer base. We have some very dedicated and passionate commissioners using our products, and they keep us busy with ideas and suggestions and other feedback on our public message board. A lot of times our own customers will help answer questions from other commissioners even before we do. So there's a lot of sharing of ideas going on, and it's a great resource for new commissioners to learn from more experienced ones.
As for the competition, some compete mainly on price, and others focus on one or two particular features that they do well. Compared to MyFantasyLeague.com, I think some of the them, especially the big name free sites, fall short on some pretty basic features like the amount of reports and stats available, as well as flexibility in rosters and waivers and scoring options.
Last edited by a moderator:
David Dodds
Administrator
Q6. Tell us a little about FFLM? Who does this product cater to?
FFLM is a PC based league management program where everything is stored in a file on the commissioner's PC, and the commissioner does all of the data input (draft, rosters, weekly lineups, etc) for the league. To be honest, while FFLM is still a great product for a dedicated commissioner that loves to do everything himself, it's definitely not the best way to run a league anymore. We're finding that most of our FFLM customers have already switched or plan to switch to MyFantasyLeague.com in the near future. Running your league on-line is a lot less work for the commissioner, and a lot more interactive and up-to-date for the owners. But FFLM still serves a purpose, and we're gradually integrating it into an enhancement/add-on for MyFantasyLeague.com. Some functions, most notably doing a live draft where everybody is in the same locaiton, are better served by a PC program like FFLM. You can make all of the picks as they happen right on the PC without needing an Internet connection. Then when the draft is done, you can transfer the draft results over to your league on MyFantasyLeague.com. So for that type of thing, as well as generating extremely customizable fantasy reports, it is still a fun little program.
David Dodds
Administrator
Q7. Sideline Software/FLM purchased MFL from Kevin Austin at a very risky time of the Internet and for MFL in particular. Ad revenues were drying up, CBS Sportsline was pushing their commissioner product for free and not many businesses could very easily charge for services they provided online.
Can you refresh us a little on the chain of events leading up to and through the purchase of MFL? How did you come to the decision this was going to be a solid investment given the state of the Internet for small business? What key events/milestones helped lead to the success of MFL?
Can you refresh us a little on the chain of events leading up to and through the purchase of MFL? How did you come to the decision this was going to be a solid investment given the state of the Internet for small business? What key events/milestones helped lead to the success of MFL?
Last edited by a moderator:
Kevin started up with MFL as an on-line option just a few years after I started up with FFLM as a PC based option. Both products took amazingly similar approaches, starting small and simple and quickly growing into very customizable league management options based on feedback from dedicated customers. Then we met each other at a fantasy football conference in the late 1990's, and both realized we could make use of each other's knowledge and features to create an even better product offering. A year or two later we effectively "merged" our companies into one, and it has been a great partnership ever since. The timing was ironic, because both of our "niche" products at the time took a bit of a hit when Sportsline went free. It's definitely tough to complete with "free" sometimes...
While Sportsline was offering free leagues for 2 years, my impression is that they really struggled to keep up with demand and customer support and adding new features. In the meantime, we kept addding features and improving our products, even though sales were down. But we weathered the storm along with some of the other smaller sites, although it defintely did drive some companies out of business if my memory serves me correctly. Eventually, though, the dot com bubble burst, and after a couple of seasons Sportsline started charging again (even quite a bit more than they had charged before going free), so we started getting a lot of our customers back after that, because suddenly we were the cheaper alternative! And we had a much improved product to boot. So it all worked out okay, but it was definitely was a tough and nerve-wracking time for us. In the meantime, since then, several of the other "big" sites, such as AOL and Fox and ESPN have made attempts to capture the market with free offerings, but they tend to have a lot of problems and issues in the preseason with live drafts and during the season with scores and waiver issues, mostly becuase of the sheer volume of leagues that flock to free sites on short notice. I think it really shows that you get what you pay for when it comes to the "free" sites. It's tough for them to plan ahead, so they can often be overwhelmed by volume at crucial times. They're fine for basic leagues, but if you want accurate and reliable service, you're better off using a site that charges a fee. And the fact that we continue to grow and have loyal customers and lots of good competition from other "small" sites like ours, such as RTSports and XpertSports and others, shows that there's a lot of demand for league management companies like ours.
David Dodds
Administrator
We have a lot of people on our site that are huge fans of your product. Here are some of their questions.
Q8. Is it possible for the MFL software to accept a file that is exported from The Draft Dominator software at the completion of a draft? Or possibly an excel or csv input file?
Q8. Is it possible for the MFL software to accept a file that is exported from The Draft Dominator software at the completion of a draft? Or possibly an excel or csv input file?
No, not currently. But we're making changes and additions all the time, so consider it added to our wish list for a future enhancement! Also, for those that want to cut and paste rosters from other programs or web pages, you can use the "Load Rosters" option on the For Commissioners Setup page. That's one way you can quickly import data from another source, in case that helps at all.
David Dodds
Administrator
Q9. Are there plans to add Open (Ebay style) bidding or a +1 Proxy bidding system on free agents?
Well, we don't pre-announce any features, for various reasons. But we have a very active support message board and feature request board, and these ideas have definitely been brought up and suggested by our customers in the past, so they are on our radar as possible future enhancements.
David Dodds
Administrator
Q10. What is your company's policy regarding use of e-mail addresses obtained during the course of people using your software?
We never sell or use the e-mail addresses for any outside business, so your personal information is safe with us. We just send out a couple of email messages each year to remind our current customers about the new season and the early bird discounts that we offer.
David Dodds
Administrator
Last question here, Mike.
Q11. Take us behind the scenes of your business. What is a typical day like for you in the preseason? How about during the season?
Q11. Take us behind the scenes of your business. What is a typical day like for you in the preseason? How about during the season?
We pretty much just sit around and drink beer all day!
Oh wait, that was my business plan back in college, but it didn't pan out that way... 
Back to reality...In the off-season, kind of between the Superbowl and the NFL Draft is when it's most like a "normal" job. We're able to have meetings and plan for future enhancements and implement new features. Then during the preseason, which for us starts right after the NFL Draft at the end of April, we start fielding a lot of questions from current customers and potential customers. We pride ourselves on offering good customer support and personal service, so we answer all email as quickly as possible and continue making enhancements and changes to the site based on customer feedback throughout the year. So a typical day involves a lot of interaction with our customers via email or our message boards, and a fair bit of programming and other work to implement new ideas and keep the site up and running efficiently. Then during the season, especially in the first month or two, it gets really crazy keeping up with customer questions and requests. We have a lot of passionate commissioners that love to tweak their leagues all season long and take advantage of all of our customization options, so we keep busy helping them utilize all of our features and they keep us busy requesting new ones!
David Dodds
Administrator
Mike, Thanks so much for your time. For those that don't know Mike, he truly is one of those people that has no enemies. His business, MyFantasyLeague.com continues to thrive in this marketplace because of his attention to detail.
FBG Subscribers can save $10 on a MyFantasyLeague purchase from our subscriber page.
Any last thoughts for everyone? How can people contact you?
FBG Subscribers can save $10 on a MyFantasyLeague purchase from our subscriber page.
Any last thoughts for everyone? How can people contact you?
Last edited by a moderator:
No problem. Thanks for the opportunity! I appreciate it. People can contact me directly at sales@myfantasyleague.com, or they can use the "Help" menu from their league home page to contact our tech support team with questions. And you can setup a free trial league at anytime to give our system a try to see what you think! http://www.myfantasyleague.com
Last edited by a moderator:
Kleck
Footballguy
Hey Mike,I checked out the load rosters page this year. The player search line will help a ton in making it much quicker this year. Thanks for adding that. That said, Having some sort of file format that would take all the rosters from a league would be awesome.
Last edited by a moderator:
Dr. Pepper
Footballguy
best product on the market....
thanks for the interview...
thanks for the interview...
Jiggyonthehut
Footballguy
Good to see the Live Draft is going to get an overhaul. Easily the best software out there and if its going to get better, Im in for the long haul.
bonscott
Footballguy
FYI that the Live Draft already got it's overhaul the past couple months and you can use it now.
Chitown Mole
Footballguy
I've used your product for years. I run multiple leagues and I participate in many more each season. Thanks for your lightning quick support and your reasonable cost.
Vinny
Administrator
Houstontexans.com message board
Vinny
Administrator
Houstontexans.com message board
DonnyT33
Footballguy
Mike and Kevin are two of the best guys in this business. I have been with them since day one, well with Kevin anyways in the old days of his MFL.com. I have loved there service since first using it and have brought many many customers to them with the advice of just do it and you won't believe how easy it is to run your FF league! I don't think one person I have ever turned on to MFL.com has ever had anything but praise for them and all are still with them to this day. After your first year there all you have to do is click the update to new year button and you have all your leagues info perfectly ready to go again for the following year. The league history is an option that goes unnoticed until you want to check back on the early years of your league for a laugh or two. Every year of your league is right there to see and look at anytime one of your league mates might want to, nothing is ever lost! As I am sure Mike knows now their are so many features like the league history option that he could never explain them all to us in one short interview. Only way to find out how great a site MFL.com is, is to run your leagues there and then like I told all my boys who I have sent there "you will never look back or change your league host site again and you will thank me later". They have all thanked me many times since. Keep up the great work Mike, oh ya one more thing, the customer support at MFL.com is second to none out here and is so good that sometimes if you are stuck they will just go and do things for you themselves!
Trust me guys I am only a paying customer of there but I enjoy the service so much that I can't say it enough or let enough Commissioners know about MFL.com. I am just a FF die hard junkie and if there were a better place to host your leagues I would be there and letting you all know about it. For $6 or $7 bucks a person a year you can have your league just about run itself after just a few short minutes setting it up and I mean forever guys, not just one year! I am in three very high stakes leagues that all use MFL.com and we never even discuss our host site anymore. The trust factor with all there great time stamping makes it now just second nature to pay up for another great year at MFL.com. As of last year all returning and early paying customers get a discount for paying in full before July 15th (please don't quote me on this date)?. I am not the commish of our leagues this year but do still think this is the policy at MFL.com?
As you might be able to tell I just can't say enough about what MFL.com has done for me and my fantasy Football leagues. All I can tell you that if you don't use them you are really missing out on a first class league management system. Just do it, go to MFL.com and just try it for a year..you'll never look for another league host site again and that I can guarantee you. Like i said i could go on and on about MFL.com and why its so good and all about there many many features but I would be here till next month but I have to go there and make my draft picks, right now!
Donny
Trust me guys I am only a paying customer of there but I enjoy the service so much that I can't say it enough or let enough Commissioners know about MFL.com. I am just a FF die hard junkie and if there were a better place to host your leagues I would be there and letting you all know about it. For $6 or $7 bucks a person a year you can have your league just about run itself after just a few short minutes setting it up and I mean forever guys, not just one year! I am in three very high stakes leagues that all use MFL.com and we never even discuss our host site anymore. The trust factor with all there great time stamping makes it now just second nature to pay up for another great year at MFL.com. As of last year all returning and early paying customers get a discount for paying in full before July 15th (please don't quote me on this date)?. I am not the commish of our leagues this year but do still think this is the policy at MFL.com?
As you might be able to tell I just can't say enough about what MFL.com has done for me and my fantasy Football leagues. All I can tell you that if you don't use them you are really missing out on a first class league management system. Just do it, go to MFL.com and just try it for a year..you'll never look for another league host site again and that I can guarantee you. Like i said i could go on and on about MFL.com and why its so good and all about there many many features but I would be here till next month but I have to go there and make my draft picks, right now!
Donny
Last edited by a moderator:
Is that $10 discount still available? I looked high and low for it on the subscriber page and I didn't find it. Then I felt silly looking that hard for a $10 discount.Either way, MFL.com rocks.
Last edited by a moderator:
Pigskin75
Footballguy
Well, if you can run Excel, the import feature is already there.Dump your draft results to a csv fileImport the csv to ExcelSort by Fantesy teamsGo to the Load rosters page at MFLCopy the players names in the players cloumnUse the text box at the bottom of the Load Rosters page to import the teamsIt took me about 30 minutes to import all 14 of our teams. MFL didn't recognize a few names due to duplicates or spelling but otherwise it went smooth.Here is a little request for Mike and David
