Flopsports.com is looking to turn that notion around. The site provides users with a new way to play fantasy sports in that the "bad" stats in games translate to "good" stats in fantasy sports. The website was founded by Zachary Garber and Ezequiel Baril, two students from one of the top MBA programs at Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania.
Best Worst Player
"FlopSports is aimed at providing an all-encompassing experience for sports fans looking to root against players making critical mistakes. It is a fun, new way for sports fans to make money on their sports knowledge and to follow the game from an entirely different perspective," says Garber.The website provides a daily game format that allows users to compete in basketball. Users sign up and then compete with other players to identify the best worst player. "Users of FlopSports receive positive points when players miss shots, commit fouls, and have turnovers. Conversely, users lose points for every point each NBA
player makes. The goal is to select players with significant playing time that have low shooting percentages and commit a high number of fouls and turnovers," explained Baril. He also added that that would currently make Michael Carter-Williams the highest scoring player.
Currently the site allows players to play for free while offering cash prizes for winners while the site grows it user base. The current game provided is basketball and there are plans to expand the sports offering to include football and baseball as well as offering a mobile application.
Game Play
The game play of FlopSports is similar to picking a lineup for any daily fantasy game. Drafts are not needed and the player selection is based on a salary cap model for a number of player positions such as Point Guard, Shooting Guard, etc.
FlopSports fee based revenue model would make it a competitor to the growing daily fantasy market. However, the game play of FlopSports would be unique on how owners research and pick their players than on any other daily fantasy sites. There are what we call "Fumble Leagues" that rewards players for what were generally categorized as negative stats. What FlopSports looks to do is to establish that concept in a revenue generating model.As fantasy sports owners, we have abandoned our allegiance to our home teams and favorite players in our own quest to be fantasy league champions. It is common for fantasy owners to have to lend their support and cheer for players that they may not have wanted to. "As an avid Ravens fan, it killed me to root for Hines Ward when he was on my fantasy football team," added Garber. FlopSports brings some satisfaction to fantasy owners to root against players.
Summary
The market and supply for daily games is rapidly growing in the fantasy sports market. With the additional catalyst of mobile to fuel this market, there will be a need for game providers to either compete on payout rates or by offering a differentiated user and game play experience. FlopSports looks to capitalize on a different game experience in order to attract that fantasy sports user base. Furthermore, by offering an experience based on negative points, FlopSports can promote content of players in the form of updates that would be unique to FlopSports because all of the other fantasy content providers are providing news and analysis on positive stats. The challenge that awaits FlopSports is determining if negative point scoring is a novelty or if this new type of game play can draw into a sustainable user base.
