It's Survey Season at MyFantasyLeague... (1 Viewer)

[steveski]

I feel like MFL has the business plan of "Let's ride it out until someone beats us"

This is definitely true. Finding a cash cow is the ultimate business accomplishment and they've done it. Keep the price at half of CBS', put no money into development, watch as no competitors threaten you, and profit

It's truly amazing to me that no one has been able to unseat MFL as the go to dynasty engine. Yahoo has to make enough cash from their other fantasy games to devote a few resources to a year-round dynasty engine. Create an import feature to boot and they'd sink MFL in a heartbeat.

Yahoo is incompetent in all sectors of their business.

But you'd think ESPN could do better.

I agree. Yahoo really is incompetent from a business stand point. It's too bad because I think their product for your run of the mill redraft leagues is the best. I like their mobile app the best. They have the best live stat tracker on the computer and it's the easiest layout to find all the information you need to manage your team weekly.

 

[Tackling Dummies]

I feel like MFL has the business plan of "Let's ride it out until someone beats us"

This is definitely true. Finding a cash cow is the ultimate business accomplishment and they've done it. Keep the price at half of CBS', put no money into development, watch as no competitors threaten you, and profit

It's truly amazing to me that no one has been able to unseat MFL as the go to dynasty engine. Yahoo has to make enough cash from their other fantasy games to devote a few resources to a year-round dynasty engine. Create an import feature to boot and they'd sink MFL in a heartbeat.

My is that NFL.com is moving into the path to be a bigger player in the league hosting game.

 

[steveski]

I feel like MFL has the business plan of "Let's ride it out until someone beats us"

This is definitely true. Finding a cash cow is the ultimate business accomplishment and they've done it. Keep the price at half of CBS', put no money into development, watch as no competitors threaten you, and profit

It's truly amazing to me that no one has been able to unseat MFL as the go to dynasty engine. Yahoo has to make enough cash from their other fantasy games to devote a few resources to a year-round dynasty engine. Create an import feature to boot and they'd sink MFL in a heartbeat.

My is that NFL.com is moving into the path to be a bigger player in the league hosting game.

Would make sense. They have the capital to back it up. Seems like a market that is surprisingly still wide open for the taking. Usually after anything gets this popular, there is a clear "best" product. Obviously there will still be competitors that offer certain things that people prefer more, but the fact that I'm in about 8 leagues currently and they are on Yahoo, ESPN, MFL and Fleaflicker is kind of ridiculous.

I still think Yahoo has the best product so far, but they still lack in off season/dynasty support as well as scoring customization. I feel like they are the closest to being the best and it would require the least effort to be the best, but again, we're dealing with Yahoo here. There's a reason they are Yahoo and not Google.

 

[valhallan]

I feel like MFL has the business plan of "Let's ride it out until someone beats us"

This is definitely true. Finding a cash cow is the ultimate business accomplishment and they've done it. Keep the price at half of CBS', put no money into development, watch as no competitors threaten you, and profit

It's truly amazing to me that no one has been able to unseat MFL as the go to dynasty engine. Yahoo has to make enough cash from their other fantasy games to devote a few resources to a year-round dynasty engine. Create an import feature to boot and they'd sink MFL in a heartbeat.

Yahoo is incompetent in all sectors of their business.

But you'd think ESPN could do better.

I agree. Yahoo really is incompetent from a business stand point. It's too bad because I think their product for your run of the mill redraft leagues is the best. I like their mobile app the best. They have the best live stat tracker on the computer and it's the easiest layout to find all the information you need to manage your team weekly.

This is why I pointed out Yahoo. They have many faults, but user interface, mobile app, and ubiquity in the fantasy space position them well to overtake MFL if they tried. All of us MFL dynasty nerds probably have a Yahoo account already.

 

[ItsOnlytheRiver]

I hate moving cuz then we lose all our history/records

Yep, if Flea Flicker or someone else wants to unseat them they better figure out a transfer system.

 

[fridayfrenzy]

I feel like MFL has the business plan of "Let's ride it out until someone beats us"

This is definitely true. Finding a cash cow is the ultimate business accomplishment and they've done it. Keep the price at half of CBS', put no money into development, watch as no competitors threaten you, and profit

It's truly amazing to me that no one has been able to unseat MFL as the go to dynasty engine. Yahoo has to make enough cash from their other fantasy games to devote a few resources to a year-round dynasty engine. Create an import feature to boot and they'd sink MFL in a heartbeat.

My is that NFL.com is moving into the path to be a bigger player in the league hosting game.

The NFL.com website is a burning dumpster fire. It may be one of the worst websites I have seen in a long time. If they keep with the same website model and management who is making their website decisions, NFL.com league hosting will not make it.

 

[Flying Elvis]

Just bumping this as i am thinking about leaving CBS. MFL seems to have alot of the features we want but it looks outdated and not very user friendly. Thoughts?

My bet is your owners will hate it. It will feel like you have jumped into a hot tub time machine and have gone back to the infancy of the internet and are now stuck in the terribly executed platform created by Bill Gates' mentally handicapped little brother.

The only reason to move to MFL is the need for a highly customized scoring system and/or some of the more intricate mechanics of dynasty, keeper, and contract based leagues. Controlling content location and skins doesn't make up for the severely lacking interface that is redundant in stupid ways; labeled terribly if your league does anything in a way other than how MFL "has always done it"; and rife with poor functionality/navigation in almost all aspects. This is coming from a guy that likes MFL for the leagues I have there but it's not for the casual owner, and I am slowly learning that most people are casual owners.

After typing it, I think the phrase "That's the way we've always done it!" is a perfect summation of the MFL product. It's the battle cry of a myopic mind that is unable to recognize the need for change, and usually unaware of the impending collapse.

As for NFL - they have a hot mess that is hell bent on strapping video streams into everything b/c they have convinced themselves that their copyrighted video content is the competitive advantage. Until they realize that's stupid and make it a nice "also have" feature, they won't have the best host site. Yahoo really is the best of the bunch but they couldn't cut their way out of a wet paper bag and make an effort to satisfy the (small) market of die-hards that want their league site available year round.

 

[PinkydaPimp]

I hate moving cuz then we lose all our history/records

This is my big thing. But it seems only mfl can import history.

 

[nirad3]

Just bumping this as i am thinking about leaving CBS. MFL seems to have alot of the features we want but it looks outdated and not very user friendly. Thoughts?

My bet is your owners will hate it. It will feel like you have jumped into a hot tub time machine and have gone back to the infancy of the internet and are now stuck in the terribly executed platform created by Bill Gates' mentally handicapped little brother.

The only reason to move to MFL is the need for a highly customized scoring system and/or some of the more intricate mechanics of dynasty, keeper, and contract based leagues. Controlling content location and skins doesn't make up for the severely lacking interface that is redundant in stupid ways; labeled terribly if your league does anything in a way other than how MFL "has always done it"; and rife with poor functionality/navigation in almost all aspects. This is coming from a guy that likes MFL for the leagues I have there but it's not for the casual owner, and I am slowly learning that most people are casual owners.

After typing it, I think the phrase "That's the way we've always done it!" is a perfect summation of the MFL product. It's the battle cry of a myopic mind that is unable to recognize the need for change, and usually unaware of the impending collapse.

As for NFL - they have a hot mess that is hell bent on strapping video streams into everything b/c they have convinced themselves that their copyrighted video content is the competitive advantage. Until they realize that's stupid and make it a nice "also have" feature, they won't have the best host site. Yahoo really is the best of the bunch but they couldn't cut their way out of a wet paper bag and make an effort to satisfy the (small) market of die-hards that want their league site available year round.

Agree on all accounts. I am in 4 dynasty leagues, all hosted on MFL just because 1) MFL does make it easier to customize and handle those kinds of leagues and 2) "that's the way we've always done it".

I would prefer the redraft leagues I'm in go away from MFL, but I'm in one that does have a "rich" history and it would be a shame to lose all of that. I participate in the FSWA "Experts" league, which is run through RTSports and find that it's pretty easy to use.

NFL.com - among other sports-related sites - is becoming more and more geared towards tablet interface experience. Not ideal for fantasy league hosting... not at this point.

 

[ItsOnlytheRiver]

Does Yahoo having a bidding system for waivers? I've only been in a couple redraft leagues there that weren't very serious and I always hated the waiver system. If you can't bid for waiver picks then MFL is more than just "for serious dynasty leagues with crazy scoring systems."

 

[Adam Harstad]

Does Yahoo having a bidding system for waivers? I've only been in a couple redraft leagues there that weren't very serious and I always hated the waiver system. If you can't bid for waiver picks then MFL is more than just "for serious dynasty leagues with crazy scoring systems."

Dunno about Yahoo, but Fleaflicker allows waiver bids.

 

[GregR]

Does anyone have any current info on market share? I'm of the impression that in terms of volume that MFL is probably just a niche player in the market, though I can't say for sure.

A very important niche to obsessed hardcore people like us who want salary cap, auction leagues with contract tracking and all the bells and whistles. But to someone like Yahoo, I'm not sure there is much financial incentive to try to move into MFL's space. They are trying to get people to their site in general, and I don't know that the volume is there for them to care much.

I think everyone will gradually build up their functionality to stay competitive, adding auctions for example. But unless I'm way off on how little market share MFL has, I think it'll be another niche player like Fleaflicker that will set their eyes on MFL's space.

 

[GregR]

Ok, after having googled trying to find actual market share info last night before posting today, I finished the post and then thought maybe MFL has their own stats available somewhere, so searched their site.

Their FAQ mentions 2013 was their 19th year. There's another spot that says they've hosted "tens of thousands" of leagues in their 14 years, so I'm guessing they missed updating that part.

So anyway, even accounting for growth, even optimistically we're probably talking low hundreds of thousands of leagues over their entire existence. I imagine Yahoo probably has 10x as many leagues in a single year as MFL has had in their 20ish year history.

 

[valhallan]

Ok, after having googled trying to find actual market share info last night before posting today, I finished the post and then thought maybe MFL has their own stats available somewhere, so searched their site.

Their FAQ mentions 2013 was their 19th year. There's another spot that says they've hosted "tens of thousands" of leagues in their 14 years, so I'm guessing they missed updating that part.

So anyway, even accounting for growth, even optimistically we're probably talking low hundreds of thousands of leagues over their entire existence. I imagine Yahoo probably has 10x as many leagues in a single year as MFL has had in their 20ish year history.

I have no doubt MFL's market share is low, considering they charge $70-90 a year. I don't think anyone would expect Yahoo to pour resources into beefing up a free dynasty solution when the market has proven it will pay for such services.

 

[Flying Elvis]

Does Yahoo having a bidding system for waivers? I've only been in a couple redraft leagues there that weren't very serious and I always hated the waiver system. If you can't bid for waiver picks then MFL is more than just "for serious dynasty leagues with crazy scoring systems."

Yes. Yahoo has cleaned up a few sticking points over the last few years. The have FAAB and now allow zero bids (don't think they did a few years ago). Their auction platform is very good, though I only have MFL to compare to, and MFL's auction platform is a total disaster and the biggest reason my auction league is leaving there after one year. Yahoo also cleared up some issues they were having a few years ago with the Thursday night players as FAs. Though I suspect all host sites had to deal with snags in that area when the NFL moved to full time TNF. They allow a fair bit of scoring customization, too, just not as much as MFL or CBS. Keepers are handled well. Auction and FAAB budgets can be manipulated on a per team basis. Top it off with the ability to have 100% payouts and it's really not too shabby.

 

[Tackling Dummies]

I feel like MFL has the business plan of "Let's ride it out until someone beats us"

This is definitely true. Finding a cash cow is the ultimate business accomplishment and they've done it. Keep the price at half of CBS', put no money into development, watch as no competitors threaten you, and profit

It's truly amazing to me that no one has been able to unseat MFL as the go to dynasty engine. Yahoo has to make enough cash from their other fantasy games to devote a few resources to a year-round dynasty engine. Create an import feature to boot and they'd sink MFL in a heartbeat.

My is that NFL.com is moving into the path to be a bigger player in the league hosting game.

The NFL.com website is a burning dumpster fire. It may be one of the worst websites I have seen in a long time. If they keep with the same website model and management who is making their website decisions, NFL.com league hosting will not make it.

I'm not making excuses for NFL's FF site, just that there are factors lined up in their favor. They're late to the FF hosting party, but they are backed with massive reserves to get it right one way or the other. Next, they have no (initial) need to charge fees, just attract leagues.

 

[ItsOnlytheRiver]

This can not be reiterated enough:

They are a website that appeals to the hard core fantasy player and yet they still don't have a central account to log into all your leagues. This is especially annoying when every few days in July/August they decide to stick a spam message on the top of every league page.

Stop spamming me, and if you insist on continuing to spam me then do it once. Not every damn league I'm in.

 

[Chapelboy]

I've always been a big supporter of MFL, especially for dynasty, but today I got a little peeved with them. I asked back in June about adding more roster options other than Taxi Squad, such as the Reserve/Retired list, Non Football Injury list, etc. Since I hadn't seen anything other than spam and ads for other mediocre services I followed up today with 'how about just the PUP list option since that is a critical part of an NFL team's plans' and Kevin quickly replied it was 'definitely not an option for this year'. I mean, c'mon, I'm no programmer or anything, but can anyone with that experience tell me how difficult it is to add that in?

I'm starting to agree with a lot of posters here that MFL has lost their 'true north' of what they were when they first started in the biz.

Follow up question: does anyone use the developer's program they offer and if so would I be able to add additional roster options?

 

[Mister CIA]

This can not be reiterated enough:

They are a website that appeals to the hard core fantasy player and yet they still don't have a central account to log into all your leagues. This is especially annoying when every few days in July/August they decide to stick a spam message on the top of every league page.

Stop spamming me, and if you insist on continuing to spam me then do it once. Not every damn league I'm in.

Addressing this would be a good start, but it won't happen.

 

[flapgreen]

Awful

 

[Mister CIA]

One of my leagues has test spam message posted tonight. "Testing a message"

Wish they were testing turn of the century technology.

 

[ItsOnlytheRiver]

One of my leagues has test spam message posted tonight. "Testing a message"

Wish they were testing turn of the century technology.

Ha!

I know I've seen them post here. They're watching. It's a shame they haven't stepped foot in this thread. Really says a lot.

 

[Breed]

We use MFL, primarily for the fact that you can run a dual-league, where an NFL player can be owned by two teams at the same time. It enables us to have a twenty-team league with an effective depth of a ten-team league. We have a big league and no other site cn accomodate. Although if anyone knows of one, we'd at least consider it.

Their draft applet needs an overhaul, as it was a glitchy nightmare that resulted in the draft taking at least an extra hour. Full disclosure though, we've had collossally botched drafts on ESPN and CBS as well.

Next year, we're planning on running our draft via Google Docs.

 

[GregR]

We had one issue during our vet auction early on where everyone locked up and couldn't bid until we each refreshed our browser. After that it worked as in the past.

Still would like a scroll bar on the chat part. It's a pain, especially as commish, trying to keep up with my own team's bids and also catch everything being said in chat.

Also wish the nomination pain point was fixed. Basically if you are going to be up next to nominate, you might go highlight the player you intend to nominate so you are ready to go. But when the current bidding finishes, the list of players who can be nominated refreshes and it defaults the selection back to the top player in the list rather than leaving selected the player you chose. So if you don't pay attention and just hit Nominate, you don't get the player you had highlighted in advance.

I warned my league several times, but we still had 1 person hit it. Better than the 4 or 5 times we have hit it in past seasons before we realized what was happening.