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Email Drafts at DataForce Fantasy Football

What is an Email Draft?

An email draft just means you're notified of picks from other owners in your league by email. It doesn't mean the draft takes place entirely by email. You will make your picks using our on-line software just as you would in a live draft.

You purchase a team in a 10-, 12- or 14-team season-long league, and take turns picking players with the other owners in the league. These are serpentine drafts, often called snake drafts, because the order of picks is determined randomly and then switches with every odd round. In other words, if you pick first in round one, you'll pick last in round two. Then first in round three, last in round four, until the draft is complete.

Email drafts are paced, often called slow drafts, with up to eight hours allowed for each pick, and with the timer turned off for several hours during the night. Most picks are made much faster than that, with the typical draft lasting about ten days, but the slower pace means you can fit the draft into even the busiest schedule. Many owners prefer this format because they can research picks extensively and make their selections on their own schedule.

It works like this: When one owner selects a player, all other owners are notified of the selection by email and/or by text message, and the next player is on the clock to make a pick. Owners are able to optionally queue up one or more desired players in advance on a pre-draft list, so that when their turn comes the player on the top of the list is automatically drafted, keeping the draft moving swiftly.

Fantasy Football Email Auctions, Too!

Want more control over the players you draft? Maybe auctions are for you. In this format, each team begins with $200 to spend and may bid on any players they like.

Email auctions may present the greatest draft challenge of all. This is because in order for the auction to finish in a timely manner, it must be possible to bid on several players simultaneously. This is accomplished by one of two methods:

1. Auctions Hosted On DataForce: If your auction is hosted at DataForce Fantasy Football, what will happen is that each owner nominates exactly one player per day at staggered times. The first player is nominated by 11 a.m. Eastern time; the second by 12 noon; the third by 1 p.m., and so on.

   Each player auction ends at precisely 24 hours after the nomination deadline ... in other words, at the same time the next day. Owners are able to place sealed maximum bids on players throughout the day, and adjust their bids up or down as desired until the final hour.

   The fun begins in the final hour of bidding. At this point, your sealed bid is revealed and the computer will use these sealed bids to place proxy bids for you, like an ebay auction. At this point, the player auction finishes up much like a live auction.

   
   
2. Auctions Hosted On MyFantasyLeague: Some of our customers like to play at MyFantasyLeague.com and some prefer to have their game hosted at DataForce. We work with MyFantasyLeague to offer both options, creating and filling leagues on both software platforms, but email auctions at MyFantasyLeague are very different than they are on DataForce software.

   You still have $200 to spend, and it's still proxy bidding, meaning that you set your maximum allowable price for each player and the computer bids for you. But that's where the similarity ends.

   You must nominate exactly two players per day on a MyFantasyLeague auction, and auctions can last much longer than 24 hours. This is because each time a new high bid is placed, the 24-hour clock begins over again. The result is that dozens of players can be on the auction block simultaneously.

   These auctions require very careful planning, because the computer will not allow you to overspend your $200 budget. That means you cannot place bids if it is possible that those bids will exceed $200. You should bid only on the players you most want, because if you don't, you may tie up your money for 24 hours on someone you don't really want, and find yourself unable to bid on a player you do want.