Blog Posts

I was discussing fantasy ideas with someone over email, and the idea for an in-season tool came up.

I've built some in-season stuff over the years. Should I try it again?

I built a baseball simulation. Actually it's going to be a deckbuilder and an autobattler combined with a fantasy draft, all built on top of that simulation engine. With a prototype in hand, I need to decide if I want to be a game developer or not.

Let me guess: You've scoured the internet for salary cap draft strategy, only to find the same shallow advice everywhere. "Don't nominate players you want." Maybe a little about budgeting if you're lucky.

This guide is going to change all of that.

This is your complete playbook for dominating fantasy salary cap drafts.

From building bulletproof dollar values to reading tells like a poker pro, from nomination strategy to endgame execution—every tactic that separates championship rosters from also-ran teams. Whether you're dominating football, baseball, or basketball leagues, these principles will transform how you draft. When I've got sport-specific advice, I'll use 🏈 ⚾ and 🏀 emojis to keep things clear.

The DraftKick Live Chrome extension lets you view DraftKick directly in your draft room and watch it update in real-time. Here's what you need to do to make it happen:

DraftKick can sync with Yahoo, ESPN, CBS, and Sleeper draft rooms. Where does it stand among fantasy football draft assistants?

I've got sync working for Yahoo and ESPN (and Sleeper). What have I learned so far?

It's been three years, and it's time for a DraftKick reboot.

Vibe coding is a phrase going around software development right now. It's AI-assistant programming where you don't sweat the details, knowing that additional prompting can patch over any shortcomings in the codebase.

I think there's a fantasy analogy. Vibe drafting.

So, you've signed up for a Yahoo fantasy baseball draft. They may not be the pinnacle of fantasy competition, but they can still be fun.

Here's my approach the standard Yahoo formats.

So, you've signed up for an ESPN fantasy baseball draft. They may not be the pinnacle of fantasy competition, but they can still be fun.

Here's my approach the standard ESPN formats.

For a new project, I've been studying the UI of every current fantasy platform (web and mobile app). Thanks to the Internet Archive, I can also study the UIs of what has come before.

Confession time.

I've built a proof of concept for an in-draft-room version of DraftKick. I think this tool could be very valuable.

But: If I have two different DraftKicks, how do I talk about them?

Welcome to 2024's State of Fantasy Baseball!

In April 2024, I ran a short survey to collect data about how and where people are playing fantasy baseball. My goal is to help fantasy content creators produce more helpful information for their audiences, and to identify changes in how the game is played.

Lately, I've noticed a confusion over what kind of draft software DraftKick is supposed to be.

There is draft software that helps one manager track the draft in order to build the strongest possible team. It is opinionated and competitive. I call it a draft assistant, although some people associate that term specifically with software that automatically syncs with your league draft room.

There is also draft software that hosts your league's draft, either for an in-person draft or because you want more control than your league site's draft room. This draft software is neutral, benefitting everyone equally. I talk about it as a draft board.

DraftKick falls into the first group. As I said, however, sometimes people think it's the second.

One of my favorite delay tactics to starting a new project is overthinking which web framework to choose.

So, today, instead of dorky fantasy baseball content, I'm delivering some dorky content about programming languages.

This is a working document where I'm trying to design what data tables would be needed for a hypothetical fantasy league site.

I'd love any feedback or opinions you might have (especially if they are technically informed!).

In the weeks between DraftKick Basketball and DraftKick Baseball, I've been publicly musing about a couple of project ideas (see: So, You Want to Build a Baseball Sim and So, You Want to Build a Fantasy League Site).

I am inching closer toward the idea of building a site that could host fantasy leagues. And I need you to stop me if this is a terrible idea.

A couple of days ago, I tried to think through the pros and cons of building a baseball simulation game.

Today, I'm working through another entry on my Big List of Baseball Project Ideas: Fantasy sports league software.

I started writing about the possibility of developing a fantasy league site. Somehow, I ended up mapping out the entire history of internet fantasy sports.

I've talked before about building a baseball simulation game. It's even on my Big List of Baseball Project Ideas.

I recently did some research on the state of baseball simulation, spending way too much time digging through the Internet Archive of the various simulation websites.

I came up with some potential positives and negatives of attempting to build a baseball sim.

I've got a lot of projects going on. It's time to retire some, and refocus some others.

How was football?

It wasn't as good as I hoped, or as bad as I feared.

About a month before the start of this year's baseball season, I had made 50 sales of DraftKick Baseball.

I thought I had found a pretty good playbook: monitor Reddit, post on Twitter, and run some Google Ads. Plus, I'd be building off of an existing customer base from baseball purchasers. I figured if I ran the same strategy for the much bigger football market, I might be able to double my baseball sales.

Instead, I'm sitting at 6 sales for DraftKick Football. And I'm starting to get really worried.

One of my weird interests is the business of fantasy. I think about it quite a bit but don't really have anyone to share it with. Except with you, perhaps?

Lately, I've been on a bit of a deep dive on the Sleeper fantasy platform. New fantasy sites don't come around very often. What does it take to find adoption for a new fantasy league site?

I haven't plugged it much, but I switched DraftKick from baseball to football near the end of last week. What's new this year?

Welcome to 2023's State of Fantasy Baseball!

In April 2023, I ran a short survey to collect data about how and where people are playing fantasy baseball. My goal is to help fantasy content creators produce more helpful information for their audiences, and to identify changes in how the game is played.

I've got a chance at $4,000 in DraftKick sales. Can I make it in the next week and a half?

Draft season probably peaks in late March. But will DraftKick sales peak before that?

With 20 purchases over the past two weeks, DraftKick sales have doubled the previous total, raising the total revenue from almost $600 to close to $1200.

Draft sync is the killer feature that everyone wants. The tools that can sync with your draft room (and not much else) get a lot of attention. And none of the full-featured tools can do it. I'd love to have the first draft tool that is both full-featured and can sync with your draft room.

With the Super Bowl finished, football is now completely behind us. Fantasy baseball action is coming faster, which also might mean more frequent status updates here on the blog.

For a brief while (2014-2015), fantasy legend Ron Shandler attempted a new fantasy baseball format: monthly fantasy leagues. They didn't take off, but what would it take to make them work?

A lucky break comes from the absence of a much-loved draft tool. And I feel the stress of paying users suffering from product bugs.

With the turning of the calendar (and the end of the fantasy football season), I can feel the fantasy baseball momentum growing.

Standings Impact is like an expert drafter sitting beside you during a draft, considering all of your needs for categories and positions and giving you helpful recommendations. Here's how it works.

One of the most exciting aspects of drafting is seeing how long you can wait for players you want. Projected availability is a good way to figure that out.

I built basic auction handling into the 2022 DraftKick Football app. The next step is to identify and implement the features to make DraftKick the best tool for auctions.

With football in the rearview mirrow, I'm looking ahead to baseball, which is DraftKick's real place to shine. Here are a few updates about where my projects stand.

I have lots of baseball ideas. More than I could possibly work on, and I work on too many already.

Maybe you would be interesting in working with me on one of these ideas? Let me know.

Lots of people want to start a fantasy business. Because fantasy is fun, and making money doing something you enjoy is the dream for lots of people.

So, what do successful fantasy businesses do? I don’t have any inside information, but I’ve been trying to pay attention to the paths of other people. Especially those who have grown something that produces value that people are willing to pay for.

In my last status update, I was hinting about trying to make a run at DraftKick Football.

As I thought about it more, the thing I was really itching to do was to try out DraftKick in a real draft situation. That wasn't going to happen for a long time with baseball, but football...

I need to let people know that I have a working app. How do I do that?

I've been signing people up on an email list for early access. They are a pretty dedicated crew, but...it's only eight people. That's not going to work.

Similarly, I've still got a small Twitter following. Also not going to make a splash.

It's the middle of July. I've got other work going on besides building fantasy baseball tools, but I'm happy with how much progress I've made in the three weeks since I decided to start this. I'm definitely going to have a product ready for the earliest November drafts.

Since my last update outlining what was needed in an initial release, I've finished several key features:

In my research of fantasy baseball draft tools, RotoLab is perhaps the most consistent recommendation. Despite a steep price tag of $69, it has a devoted following from over a decade of development.

Here's my review of RotoLab, as I build my own fantasy draft tool (DraftKick).

Note from the future: DraftKick today is a web-based application and does not require any installation or downloads. Although I originally considered building a standalone offline version, I decided to focus all development on the web app for the best possible experience and easiest updates.

The Early Days: Offline Apps

The early draft software -- what I've labeled as "Traditional Desktop GUIs" -- were offline. You weren't guaranteed to have wifi at many draft locations, so this made sense. They were designed to work offline. Maybe they can call home for projection updates, but that's it.

Obviously, the world has changed since then. Most places where you might have a live draft offer wifi. And online drafts are more common, so you obviously have an internet connection available for that.

I could work on adding software features forever. There are always more fun and useful things to add.

However, I need to balance that with getting something shipped. I want to get people using something so that I can get feedback on what comes next.

How much should I charge for DraftKick, the fantasy draft software I'm building? It's a tricky question.

Everyone approaches fantasy drafts in a different way. Even so, when you start trying out various draft apps, you see the same patterns cropping up over and over. The trick is finding the tool that matches your style, or else the tool that is customizable enough to handle your style.

As I build DraftKick, I need to decide which of these patterns are worth including, and which ones add little value (but additional clutter).

So let's dig in to the tools that are out there to see what they can do. I primarily focused on these six tools:

If I'm going to make new fantasy draft software, I need to figure out why people should use my product instead of one of the existing products.

So I'm building my own fantasy draft software, called DraftKick. One of my first tasks is researching what else is out there. (Believe it or not, the idea for software that helps you draft is not an original idea.)

After lots of internet seaching, I see three main categories for existing draft software.

I launched my latest project, Projectile (https://projectile.pro), in July of 2021. The response was minimal, but, hey, it was the middle of the season. Really, it was about being ready for the 2022 pre-season.

I pushed hard on it through the pre-season. The result, in fantasy terms, was crickets. A few fans who have followed my work for a long time gave it a shot. A few stumbled across it from Twitter or elsewhere. But it was a lot of work for a user count in the low double digits.