Fantasy Football Guru a Real Playmaker

Winning a million bucks and doing what you love for a living might sound like a fantasy. But not for Travis Spieth.

The winner of the 2013 FanDuel Fantasy Football Championship — and its $1 million purse — Spieth is now CEO of Rogers-based Fantasy Picks LLC. The consultancy offers up expert personnel recommendations for fantasy sports enthusiasts who don’t have time to dig through a trove of Byzantine statistics to assemble a decent team.

The research has already been done by Spieth and his cadre of 10 fantasy hotshots. All a subscriber has to do is go to the website www.fantasypicks.com, peruse the recommendations and build a team that, in this day in age, could win its general manager a lot of money.

Though Spieth learned fantasy football competing in traditional annual leagues, he’s staking his business model on the fastest growing segment of the fantasy universe: daily gaming.

An affiliate of FanDuel, the industry leader in daily play, Spieth is trying to establish Fantasy Picks in the greater gaming world that, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, has over 41 million players in the United States and Canada, and who spend more than $3.3 billion annually.

While the competition is fierce, Spieth has the distinction of being the first person to win FanDuel’s million-dollar tournament. On Dec. 8 in Las Vegas, Spieth rode to victory in dramatic fashion, and did so on the shoulder pads of an unlikely threesome of heroes: workmanlike quarterback Andy Dalton of the Cincinnati Bengals, rookie running back Montee Ball of the Denver Broncos and kicker Nick Novak of the San Diego Chargers.

After he had his prize money, Spieth moved to Rogers from South Dakota to be close to his three-year-old son, Fischer, bought a house, acquired the Fantasy Picks URL and went into business as an undisputed fantasy guru with a big title under his belt.

From his leather swivel chair in his home office, he observes the sports world on two oversized computer monitors and two flat-panel TVs. Running a business in an emerging, competitive field like daily fantasy has its fair share of stress, Spieth said, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I wake up in the morning and study football and run this company,” he said. “I get to do it for a living.”

 

A Real Geek

If notoriety is a measuring stick, then Spieth is off to a good start. Thanks to his victory in Las Vegas, he has been featured by a number of media outlets, including Bloomberg, and appears weekly on the SiriusXM Fantasy Sports channel.

Based on industry statistics, it appears people just can’t get enough of building nine-man teams composed of a quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, a tight end, a kicker and a defensive unit, and entering that team into competition. According to the FSTA, the average age of the 41 million fantasy players is 34, 80 percent are men, nearly 80 percent are college educated and players spend nearly nine hours per week consuming fantasy-related information.

Unlike annual leagues that conclude when the season ends, daily play is based on picking a new team each week. Players must consider matchups, weather, injuries and suspensions, trades, historical data and situational statistics. Figuring all that out is time-consuming — unless, as Spieth explained, you use his Fantasy Picks website.

“If you’ve got 10 minutes a week, and I know you do, let me help you,” he said.

For those who heed his call, the rate structure is clear cut: $10 per month, $24.99 for three months and $79.99 for a year. Spieth would not say how many subscribers he has, but did confirm he has mounted several national advertising campaigns and that his site is gaining traction.

A Kansas native, Spieth was working as the general sales manager for a CBS television affiliate in South Dakota when he won the FanDuel tournament. Before his post in South Dakota, Spieth had worked as a sales manager at NBC affiliate KNWA-TV in Rogers.

His experience with sales and his 20 years as a self-described fantasy football “geek” prepared him for what he’s doing now.

“It’s translated into this very well,” he said of his past experiences.

 

Legitimate Fantasy

Spieth’s entry into the market comes as the two giants of daily gaming, FanDuel and DraftKings, vie for dominance over the industry. 

FanDuel recently announced a fundraising campaign that brought in an eye-popping $70 million. Among the investors were blue-chip private equity firms Shamrock Capital Advisors and KKR & Co. L.P., and NBC Sports Ventures.

The FanDuel announcement came just a week after its competitor, DraftKings, announced it had raised $41 million from top-tier investment firms including The Raine Group, Redpoint Ventures, GGV Capital and Atlas Venture.

The enormous infusion of cash will allow both companies to invest in personnel, improve delivery platforms and to advertise and promote their brands.

Darren Heitner, a Miami-based sports and entertainment lawyer who covers the daily fantasy industry for Forbes, said the political, institutional and practical ramifications of the recent fundraisers are huge, as the money came from established power brokers such as NBC Sports, Shamrock and Raine.

“This adds legitimacy [to the daily fantasy industry],” he said. “These are the types of players you put your trust in. They aren’t mom-and-pop angel investors.”

If there were any doubts over daily fantasy’s staying power, those doubts should be put to rest. And the sheer size of the investments sends a strong message — daily fantasy is ready to go mainstream, Heitner said.

But perhaps not all of the funding will be used for infrastructure and promotions, Heitner added.

FanDuel and DraftKings might mount some kind of lobbying campaign to keep the wheels greased on Capitol Hill. Under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, fantasy sports, despite their payouts, are exempted because they’re considered games of skill, not of chance. The industry is also unregulated.

But as fantasy sports companies continue to trumpet their payouts — FanDuel touts $10 million in prize money issued each week — the industry might attract renewed attention from lawmakers, said Heitner. If that were the case, having a nest egg for lobbying purposes might come in handy.

Meanwhile, guys like Spieth, empowered by cash, expertise and a love of the game, have their boots on the ground in places like Rogers. And for a company such as FanDuel, which gave Spieth his big break, that’s worth its weight in gold.

“It’s a success story they can cite,” Heitner said.

 

Fun and Money

In the world of fantasy sports, football dominates. Sprinkled with superstars like Peyton Manning, Larry Fitzgerald and Drew Brees, football has the name recognition to attract even the casual fan.

But FanDuel also offers leagues based on professional baseball, basketball and hockey, and on college football and basketball. DraftKings offers all of those leagues plus one based on professional golf.

Though the explosive growth in the population of fantasy sports players is expected to eventually taper, all indications are that the overall industry will continue to expand, albeit in a more methodical fashion.

“It physically can’t stay at this pace for long, but we don’t see a scenario where it levels off,” said Paul Charchian, president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.

Charchian said his organization’s research shows that up to 80 percent of those who play fantasy sports today will play for the rest of their life. The secret to the success of fantasy sports, and its apparent longevity, is simple.

“First and foremost, it’s a lot of fun and it’s an enjoyable pastime,” Charchian said. “That’s a big part of it.”

Typically played in groups of 10 or 12, fantasy sports provides a platform for camaraderie and good-hearted smack talk. In the process of keeping up with the fantasy league, emails are sent, text messages are exchanged and groups gather for the Sunday extravaganza.

“This is one of the ways you keep up with your friends,” Charcian said.

In addition to the social aspect of the industry, the financial element can’t be ignored — people, like Spieth, can land a life-altering payday playing fantasy sports.

FanDuel expects to pay out as much as $10 million in prizes each week, and DraftKings estimates that it will hand out as much as $200 million this year, giving daily fantasy the adrenaline rush of gambling without all the legal issues. 

As only about 3 percent of the fantasy population currently plays daily tournaments, the number of people switching over from annual leagues is expected to soar in the foreseeable future. And when they do, veteran gamers like Spieth will be more than willing to impart their knowledge and enthusiasm to hopeful subscribers.

“I would love one of my members to win a million dollars,” Spieth said. “Wouldn’t that be great?”