Victiv - An interesting DFS option

After stating that I thought the House Share taken in a Daily Game at both FanDuel & DraftKings was too much, I went searching for a website that doesn't take a loan shark level cut from the game, and I stumbled across Victiv.  It's a newer site, so my hope was that it learned from the others and did things better.  I'm not sold, but I'm very intrigued.

First of all, they let you play 3 games for free against their computer program they call Victron, and if you win you get to enter a $5 game for free for each victory (that's right, you can sign up for 3 free games here).  So I did, and after playing one game, I'm 100% sure, I'm going to investigate it further.

Secondly, and very importantly, the site takes 40% less than FanDuel or DraftKings off the top with a much more reasonable 12% house share. This means if you win a $5 game you win $9.40 instead of $9, which cuts the break even percentage taken by the house nearly in half down to 52.6%.

It does use the same basic format as the other sites: A $50,000 roster cap, picking batters and hitters, but there's a few differences.

• You don't pick individual positions, you pick 4 IF and 3 OF.

They count C as an infield position, somewhat erroneously, but it's understandable.  The flexibility is a nice improvement.  Can't find a SS you like? then don't play one.  You really want to field Freddie Freeman and Paul Goldschmidt? you can do that to.  It takes a moment to comprehend, but this change is incredibly understandable from a player's perspective.

• You are allowed a "pinch hitter"

You actually get to designate 8 hitters instead of the 7 listed above.  The extra player only counts if he outscores one of your first seven.  He can be either an IF or OF.  Now it might take away from the sigh of relief you sometimes get when an opposing team's player takes a zero.  But the other side is this: If you can't set your lineup just before game time, like I did today, but you're pretty sure you want to play one of the Dodger's outfielder's like I wanted to play Andre Ethier.  And you don't know if he's going to start, like I didn't, you get to designate a backup player to play if he zeros out.  It's kind of nice not to see your money disappear because of a silly lineup swap you missed,

• Pitching Staffs are chosen, not individual pitchers

This one took the most effort to get my brain around.  From a Fantasy Purist standpoint, I don't like it.  It feels too much like Fantasy Football's half-assed Defensive/Special Teams Unit system.  However, most Daily Fantasy sites completely ignore the Bullpen's stats which are so crucial to real MLB and to year-long Fantasy Baseball.  It'll take some getting used to, but I understand the motivation here.  It tries to encompass the entirety of the game of baseball.

There are many other differences, but these are the ones that jump out at you.  It does have a very interesting game tracking format, which is by far the most interactive I've seen:

The graphic tracker of the game is far more compelling to look at that the simple tallyboard of the other sites.  There's a lot more to it than what these two pictures show, but I'd bet if you see it, you like it.

The scoring system is a little different too.  SB's are only a point when successful, and you lose a point if you get caught, which diminishes the value of the base stealer.  They give a .25 bump to basehits, walks, and HBP's, which is kind of nice since it's the most common ways batters reach base.  The Win bonus is gone as predicting Wins is probably the largest roll of the dice of the many rolls of the dice you take in DFS.  And Strikeouts are reduced to .4, which put them more closely in line with real baseball, as most teams really have little preference between a ground out and a strikeout in most cases. 

Anyway, Victiv's different, Victiv tries to improve the player experience, and Victiv cost nothing to give a shot (sign up link again).  I'm not saying I'm moving away from the other sites, but I am saying it's certainly piqued my interest and I'll be doing more with them in the future.