Using Steem as a fantasy sports platform
Steem can be used to fund fantasy leagues
I have been trying to get a fantasy hockey league started over the past couple days. I'm pretty confident that we'll end up with a good group, though we still need people. Send me an email to play, either in the comments here or on RocketChat.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2016/02/16/02/01/hockey-1202470_640.jpg)
For reference, see my prior posts:
Let's Play Fantasy Hockey!
Space Still Available For Steemit Fantasy Hockey
Fantasy sports are a lot more enjoyable when you have something at stake. It's a lot of fun to play for PRIZES! It gives everybody a reason to keep up with it. But, of course, buying in is a barrier to entry. It may be determining factor in whether there is enough support to form a league.
I think Steem is a natural solution to the problem. Interacting with Steemit over the course of the season can generate significant prize pools.
Update posts were my first instinct... Weekly reports showing how each team did, highlighting the best results, and looking forward to the coming weeks. Through the upvotes they would receive, we could steadily build the pot over the course of the season. Even the modest growth from relatively low earning posts would add up over time.
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2015/11/22/17/30/piggy-bank-1056615_640.jpg)
But mixing in some other approaches might be even more effective.
I've been incredibly inspired by @steemsports and their innovative use of the platform as a predictions market. Once the season gets going, I plan on presenting some NHL games with them. The presenter's share of the proceeds could be allocated to the league prize pool. I spoke to @thecryptodrive about the possibility, and he thinks it's a great idea!
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2016/02/16/00/37/man-1202404_640.jpg)
We could even bet on the outcomes of league matches, in order to generate liquid rewards while steadily building the end of season awards. Using a model similar to the one that @steemsports has implemented would allow for the participation of users who were not managing teams themselves.
Initially, I had intended to award only the top 3 finishers with a Steem based prize. And I still think there should be big prizes for the top 3. But I think we can do better. I think we can and should reward everyone involved in the league for their participation.
It's the Steem way!
There are so many possibilities with this platform. We know that "blogging" will not be the final use case for Steem. It will unfold in a variety of directions, providing value for whatever activity we decide is worth our time and attention.
I feel so lucky to be in the position to watch this all unfold and flourish. This is truly an amazing phenomenon!
Awesome idea here bacchist. I wonder if we could build a site dedicated strictly to fantasy sports steem posts? That would be bad ass.
There's a lot of potential here; a lot of directions we could take it. Steem is an excellent foundation to reward interaction and engagement. The possibilities are endless.
This has monumental potential and can't wait to see what is going to explode out of this idea and the connections made through this! May the force be with you and us all. Namaste :)
A similar idea actually grazed my mind a couple of months back, although for fantasy basketball. I agree that it has huge potential, especially without costing players any real-life money but get back tangible STEEM rewards. I've tried coding a prototype before but it proved to tedious for me to do alone. I hope someone with more skill gets wind of this idea.
One idea if you want to reward more than the top 3 places is to have really tiny rewards for every weekly game that's won. And maybe a payout spot for best regular season record. So it could be something like:
Championship 45%
2nd place 20%
3rd place 10%
Regular season 10%
And then the remaining 15% divided out for every weekly matchup that's won.
(And btw I think the way it works on Yahoo is you get a point for every category. So like if I play you and you win 6-5 that's kind of similar to losing 5-6. It isn't THAT big of a deal whether it's an L or W. But doing the little payout for a weekly win means that there's a little something riding on actually winning the matchup, which would be cool.)
Yes, definitely. And if you haven't checked out @steemsports you should look into it. Using a similar approach, we could post about the upcoming week and allow users to vote on comments representing various outcomes. It can present some opportunities to win a little bit as the season unfolds.
Ya, clicked over to @steemsports and trying to wrap my head around it as we speak :)
I love the idea of predicting league outcomes similar to @steemsports. Maybe you'd even want to create a separate account, in case it became a lot of noise and you don't want all of it on your main feed? (Just thinking out loud.)
Any plans what we will do if nobody else signs up?
We could open it up to the Yahoo hooligan public, and then tell them what the deal is and they have to go check out Steem to be involved in the rewards lol. But, that seems like more of a possibility to fill the last spot or few spots. Would be much better to just have actual Steemers involved in the league.
I could probably recruit a person or two (who isn't on Steemit yet), but again would be better to have Steemers.
I had considered making an account to use for the league, but that would basically lock up the SP rewards. I want to distribute all that Steem as prizes. I can power down as needed to make the SP liquid, but a fresh account wouldn't be able to.
I was hoping that we could fill the league with existing Steemit users. But at this point, it's looking like we will have to open it up and invite people to join the platform and play.
Anybody you can recruit would be more than welcome. For obvious reasons, it would be better to invite people we know. Random players can really be hit or miss, on a few different levels.
At this point I'm concerned that we might have to postpone the draft. It might give us a bit more breathing room to draft some time next week. We just don't have the players at this point, and time's running out unless we push it back.
There's always the option of going ahead with a small league... But I'd much rather have as many teams as we can muster.
Ya, agreed, bigger league is better, and setting a new draft time seems like it might be best at this point.
I'll try to recruit a player or two when we know the draft time, if it seems like there is still room.
I think a fantasy sports league is a positive and worthwhile use for the steem block chain.
Thanks. You should play! We need players. :-D
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