Giving Yahoo DFS it's Due...

The biggest news in the world of DFS is Yahoo entering the marketplace.  I haven't heard enough opinion on it, which I believe is because most podcasts & websites, simply aren't allowed to talk about it.  Draft Kings & Fan Duel have strategic partnerships with virtually everybody.  And smart sponsors don't like you talking much, if at all about the competition.

I gave my initial impression on Yahoo DFS the day it rolled out.  I've got a few games under my belt both in Head to Head and Tournament Style.  It's hard to pass judgment before really getting to know the site.  But from what I seen so far, I like it.  My initial impression was a little negative, not because Yahoo DFS was poorly designed, but because I was expecting an awful lot from them, because their Fantasy products have been so good for so long.

Yahoo's Game Lobby

Honestly, Yahoo DFS is as good as anything out there.  Not better, certainly not worse, but as good. I heard someone on the Tony Cincotta podcast describe them as "Taking the best ideas from both Fan Duel and Draft Kings," which I think sums it up pretty well.  The Yahoo site basically takes the clean, almost oversimplified web presence of Fan Duel, which more people are familiar with; overlays it with a game that is more reminiscent of the better baseball experience one gets on Draft Kings, with a Game Selection Lobby that looks just like Victiv.  This being said, I can now revisit my opinion.

Things I knew I'd  Like

What A Yahoo Lineup card Looks like

• They use the much more playable two pitcher format.
• They allow interday player substitutions before the start of the actual baseball game.
• The interaction between my daily and season long play

Things that grew on me.

• The 8 points for a pitcher win.

At first it seemed like two much for such an unpredictable stat category, but in reality it normalize the over scored strikeout stat versus the good pitcher who gets a Win more often than a loss but doesn't have the K's.

• The $200 salary system.

I thought you wind up paying a larger percentage of your budget on Pitching. Take today's Max Scherzer, he's $62 on Yahoo (31% of budget), $14K on Draft Kings (28%), and $12K on Fan Duel (34%), certainly on par.  And the cheapest player on Yahoo is $7 (.035%), while FanDuel's $2200 (.063%) and Draft Kings $2K (.04%) are actually higher.  It just looks worse simply because it's different.

Things I hope will change for the better.

What a Yahoo head to head match looks like

• Site service fees are still high.

I hoped they're power in the industry could move the service fee to something more reasonable.  I would gladly trade the deposit bonus for better winnings, which brings with it a better chance of noticeable profitability.

• Lack of deposit bonuses.

I've been scared to deposit any money and have only played the very small amount I already had on credit with Yahoo (less than $7).  I fear that when they roll this out, it will be a first time depositor bonus, and I don't want to not be a first time depositor when that time comes. 

• Some innovation in the DFS game

I was hoping for something smart and new, and what they gave me was an amalgam of the best DFS offers so far.  I still think this is coming.  I see the mid-season baseball launch as a "soft" opening to get the bugs out before Football Season.

Objectively, speaking, I think the site is just as playable as Draft Kings, and jumps immediately into my number #2 spot for DFS baseball.  I hope that it enhances competition to birth innovation and drive down costs.  Yahoo, having the player retention part of the game already won, has the capacity to be everything we hoped.