2017 NFBC Winnings To Be Deposited This Week

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Greg Ambrosius
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2017 NFBC Winnings To Be Deposited This Week

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Mon Oct 16, 2017 8:25 am

Okay, 2017 NFBC winnings will be deposited into your new Player Accounts on the new SportsHub platform this week and we will get checks out next Monday and Tuesday to everyone who claims their prizes. We expect a quick turnaround next week once we have everyone entered into the new SportsHub platform. Here's the details:

** Don't look at your Player Accounts on the nfbc.stats.com site because we are completely done there. Your past teams remain there for now, but basically that site is done. We have officially left the STATS platform for baseball.

** We will be moving to the playnfbc.com platform shortly and that's where your new Player Accounts will be. All of your 2017 NFBC winnings will be deposited there.

** We have a very easy setup for claiming your prizes. We have created a one-page setup that we will direct everyone to via email, the NFBC newsletter, on the Message Boards, on your team pages, etc. Here's the process:

1. By Friday, you will be prompted to go to playnfbc.sportshubtech.com (it's not live yet).

2. There will be a button on that page that says CLAIM PRIZES. Click on that.

3. You will be asked to enter your email address and password.

4. You will then be asked to specify how you want your payment. You can have all, part or none of your winnings in a check payment. If you won $10,000 and you want $5,000 in a check payment and $5,000 to remain on your Player Account, you can do that. Just specify the amount for each field and we'll send the payment out first thing next week.

5. Anything you leave on Account can be used for future NFBC, NFFC, NFBKC, CDM or Fanball offerings.

6. We will send anything $10,000 or higher in Priority Mail. In future years we believe we can do Direct Deposits again, but not this year.

7. We will also have an address prompt that tells you where we are sending the check to. You will have the chance to edit that if you want the winnings to go to a different address or if you moved recently. Please double check this address before submitting your total for payment. Thanks.

8. All winnings will be reported to the IRS, even if you leave some on account. Sorry, but that's what the tax rules state we must do and unlike other fantasy sports sites we aren't messing with the IRS.

This easy setup will allow us to deposit winnings 7-10 days after the season concludes in every sport every year going forward. Plus this new setup also allows you the freedom to manage your winnings the way you want. In the past, we always did all money in and all money out for accounting purposes, but we know Player Accounts is the way to go. Enjoy.

The reason for the slight delay with this year's payments is because we are trying to get everyone set up on the new SportsHub Technologies site. The new DFS laws don't allow multiple accounts for players on one site and unfortunately many of our NFBC owners have multiple accounts. Why is that? Because in the past some owners forgot their logins from year to year and just signed up for new accounts rather than ask for their passwords. So some owners may have 6 or more different accounts.

We are now combining all of those accounts and preparing for the 2018 NFBC season. Nobody will have more than one account on the new site and we'll make sure you have the right password and email address to receive your winnings. As I stated above, we are also asking for verification of the correct address that the check will be sent to.

We have all of the winnings verified from STATS and we are ready to go. First we just have to finalize your NFBC accounts and make sure we are depositing the winnings in your one account on SportsHub's new site. Those owners who are playing in the NFFC right now already have that one account, but those owners who didn't play in the NFFC need to be set up by us. We have more than 1,000 players to work on and we'll have that done in a couple of days. We're on it.

You won't have any problem claiming your NFBC prizes, but as the NFFC owners will tell you there is a new process for signing up for new contests in 2018. The new DFS laws have forced us to put age verification software and location verification software in place to make sure that no principle owner is younger than 18 and that no principle owner lives in an exempt fantasy sports state (Arizona, Iowa, Montana, Louisiana or Washington). This has been installed and it checks you the first time you sign up. It matches your address with the address you filed on your last taxes, so sometimes that doesn't match up. If you have any trouble signing up in 2018, let us know and we'll help, but once you are verified you won't have to go through that again.

Anyway, we'll worry about that later. Look for more updates this week, but expect to see this finalized this week and payments out next week. We have more than $3.1 million to hand out and we can't wait to give it to all of you. Congrats to all of the 2017 winners and get ready for 2018 -- our 15th season together. I promise that it's going to be the best season ever. Thanks all.
Greg Ambrosius
Founder, National Fantasy Baseball Championship
General Manager, Consumer Fantasy Games at SportsHub Technologies
Twitter - @GregAmbrosius

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Doctor Who
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Re: 2017 NFBC Winnings To Be Deposited This Week

Post by Doctor Who » Fri Oct 20, 2017 4:57 am

PUMPED to see the new site today!!!!

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Re: 2017 NFBC Winnings To Be Deposited This Week

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Fri Oct 20, 2017 7:47 am

Okay, the good news today is that we finally have everyone's NFBC accounts transferred to the new SportsHub Technologies platform and anyone who had multiple accounts now has just one account. When you click on the Claim Prizes button, you will be asked to enter your email address associated with your NFBC team and the password. When confirmed, that will take you to your Player Account page where your 2017 NFBC total winnings will be showing. From there you decide what you want to do with your money and we'll process a check for whatever amount you want from that total.

The good news today also is that all of the money -- about $3.14 million in prizes -- is being deposited into all of those accounts today. That will be done this morning.

Now we are finalizing the Claim Winnings landing page today and clearing up a bug that seemed to be present on some browsers. We want to do everything we can to make sure nobody has any issues the first time they come to the new site, so give us a little extra time to make sure everything is set. We want to make sure this is an easy process for everyone without a single hiccup. We're confident it will be seamless and that you'll have your money shortly. After we get through this first time, we are confident that going forward that money will be deposited into your Player Accounts within 7-10 days. It's just this first time of a new process and combining all of these accounts from STATS to SportsHub that is taking a little extra time.

With all of that being said, we are going to launch the Claim Prizes page on Monday just to be safe. We could definitely rush it out today, but let us fully test this through today and have a full IT team on staff on Monday when we launch this. Launching on a Monday is safer than launching over the weekend. The money is on your accounts, but let's make sure the process to claim those prizes is seamless. We will email everyone exact directions and the right URL to go to on Monday and we'll batch up the first group as soon as we can and get out checks early next week. I don't have any problem with the extra testing and I know that on Monday we'll be good to go. Claim your prizes as soon as you can and we'll get out all requested checks as soon as possible.

These checks will come from our St. Louis office and will be from SportsHub Technologies. Don't be surprised when you see the check that way. Just a reminder that when you click the Claim Prizes link that this is just taking you to your Player Account page. The entire NFBC web site won't be launched until mid-November at the earliest. We are still working on that and changing all of the text for the Contest pages. We're getting closer to completion on all of that.

Sorry for the slight delay, but everything is on pace to get out checks first thing next week as originally planned. Thanks all and CONGRATS.
Greg Ambrosius
Founder, National Fantasy Baseball Championship
General Manager, Consumer Fantasy Games at SportsHub Technologies
Twitter - @GregAmbrosius

benjamincarm
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Re: 2017 NFBC Winnings To Be Deposited This Week

Post by benjamincarm » Fri Oct 20, 2017 8:30 am

You gonna start paying interest on our winnings? 8-)

I'm a little confused by the previous posts, so the new website is or isn't available right now? I am getting an error, but figured I'd ask.

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Re: 2017 NFBC Winnings To Be Deposited This Week

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Fri Oct 20, 2017 8:39 am

benjamincarm wrote:You gonna start paying interest on our winnings? 8-)

I'm a little confused by the previous posts, so the new website is or isn't available right now? I am getting an error, but figured I'd ask.
playnfbc.com is not available at this point. Your Player Account on that site will be available on Monday.
Greg Ambrosius
Founder, National Fantasy Baseball Championship
General Manager, Consumer Fantasy Games at SportsHub Technologies
Twitter - @GregAmbrosius

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Doctor Who
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Re: 2017 NFBC Winnings To Be Deposited This Week

Post by Doctor Who » Fri Oct 20, 2017 10:06 am

Greg,

Since checks were going to go out Monday with the original plan, when do you expect checks to go out if requested on Monday of next week?

LTDave
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Re: 2017 NFBC Winnings To Be Deposited This Week

Post by LTDave » Fri Oct 20, 2017 10:07 am

Ok Greg sorry i must have missed... where do we see our player accounts with the prize money? Is it on the nfbc site somewhere or on some other site? I know we can't request the prizes until Monday though

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Re: 2017 NFBC Winnings To Be Deposited This Week

Post by CALI CARTEL » Fri Oct 20, 2017 10:36 am

LTDave wrote:Ok Greg sorry i must have missed... where do we see our player accounts with the prize money? Is it on the nfbc site somewhere or on some other site? I know we can't request the prizes until Monday though
He said they were delaying it until Monday because there is a bug they are still working on. The site to see your account is not up yet.

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Re: 2017 NFBC Winnings To Be Deposited This Week

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Fri Oct 20, 2017 10:43 am

Doctor Who wrote:Greg,

Since checks were going to go out Monday with the original plan, when do you expect checks to go out if requested on Monday of next week?
Hopefully in the next day or two. They are ready to turn these around quickly. Anything over $10,000 will come Priority Mail.
Greg Ambrosius
Founder, National Fantasy Baseball Championship
General Manager, Consumer Fantasy Games at SportsHub Technologies
Twitter - @GregAmbrosius

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Re: 2017 NFBC Winnings To Be Deposited This Week

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Fri Oct 20, 2017 10:44 am

LTDave wrote:Ok Greg sorry i must have missed... where do we see our player accounts with the prize money? Is it on the nfbc site somewhere or on some other site? I know we can't request the prizes until Monday though
Dave, read above. We are done with the STATS NFBC site. It will be on playnfbc.com on Monday. You will log in with your email address and password. I will post the official URL for this on Monday. Be ready to claim your prizes.
Greg Ambrosius
Founder, National Fantasy Baseball Championship
General Manager, Consumer Fantasy Games at SportsHub Technologies
Twitter - @GregAmbrosius

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Doctor Who
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Re: 2017 NFBC Winnings To Be Deposited This Week

Post by Doctor Who » Fri Oct 20, 2017 10:48 am

Greg Ambrosius wrote:
Doctor Who wrote:Greg,

Since checks were going to go out Monday with the original plan, when do you expect checks to go out if requested on Monday of next week?
Hopefully in the next day or two. They are ready to turn these around quickly. Anything over $10,000 will come Priority Mail.

Thanks for the info Greg.

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Re: 2017 NFBC Winnings To Be Deposited This Week

Post by Lunatic » Fri Oct 20, 2017 1:49 pm

So, isn't this the same company where I was able to claim my CDM winnings last week? It was very simple. Will the process be much different than what I had to do for CDM-Sportshub Technologies?
Your actions speak so loud, I can't hear a word you're saying...Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Re: 2017 NFBC Winnings To Be Deposited This Week

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Fri Oct 20, 2017 2:20 pm

Lunatic wrote:So, isn't this the same company where I was able to claim my CDM winnings last week? It was very simple. Will the process be much different than what I had to do for CDM-Sportshub Technologies?
It's exactly the same. Unfortunately we had to transfer and combine all of the accounts from STATS, but yes the Claim Prizes process will be exactly the same as it was on CDM.
Greg Ambrosius
Founder, National Fantasy Baseball Championship
General Manager, Consumer Fantasy Games at SportsHub Technologies
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Re: 2017 NFBC Winnings To Be Deposited This Week

Post by TParsons » Fri Oct 20, 2017 9:46 pm

Hi Greg.

Can you further explain the benefits of these new player accounts for those of us that don't want to keep money on account/don't play other sports?

The things I'm most interested in:

Direct deposit- This has been talked about on these boards as though it was going to happen ever since the last time that you offered it. I may be wrong, but now it sounds like that is no longer going to be an option.

Split payments- Will co-owners still have to send in a notarized form, or will we be able select percentages and e-sign from our player accounts?

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Re: 2017 NFBC Winnings To Be Deposited This Week

Post by Greg Ambrosius » Sat Oct 21, 2017 9:41 am

TParsons wrote:Hi Greg.

Can you further explain the benefits of these new player accounts for those of us that don't want to keep money on account/don't play other sports?

The things I'm most interested in:

Direct deposit- This has been talked about on these boards as though it was going to happen ever since the last time that you offered it. I may be wrong, but now it sounds like that is no longer going to be an option.

Split payments- Will co-owners still have to send in a notarized form, or will we be able select percentages and e-sign from our player accounts?
Ty, the benefit is that it gets deposited quicker going forward and you can pay for some of your 2018 NFBC contests with these winnings. If you want it all paid in full, just tell us that on Monday and we'll quickly get a check out to you.

We hope to offer Direct Deposits next year, but it's not available this year. This was offered by STATS a few years ago and then discontinued by STATS. We did not say this was coming this year. Again, we will work with our new Accounting Dept. to hopefully make this happen in the near future.

Yes, you will still need to have Split Prizes forms notarized in the future. I hope everyone realizes, this isn't a local league where we just split prizes between two friends. These are payments in the thousands of dollars and sometimes in the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Legally, we need documentation to prove that we were allowed to split the requested prize money by the owners and that we did it exactly as requested. We can't have owners coming back later saying they didn't want someone else receiving this prize money. So yes while it's an inconvenience, we HAVE to do it this way for legal reasons. I'm glad we are able to Split Prizes and hope you folks appreciate it too.

Congrats to all of the winners and let's have a busy Monday.
Greg Ambrosius
Founder, National Fantasy Baseball Championship
General Manager, Consumer Fantasy Games at SportsHub Technologies
Twitter - @GregAmbrosius

TParsons
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Re: 2017 NFBC Winnings To Be Deposited This Week

Post by TParsons » Sat Oct 21, 2017 4:20 pm

Greg Ambrosius wrote:
Ty, the benefit is that it gets deposited quicker going forward and you can pay for some of your 2018 NFBC contests with these winnings. If you want it all paid in full, just tell us that on Monday and we'll quickly get a check out to you.

We hope to offer Direct Deposits next year, but it's not available this year. This was offered by STATS a few years ago and then discontinued by STATS. We did not say this was coming this year. Again, we will work with our new Accounting Dept. to hopefully make this happen in the near future.

Yes, you will still need to have Split Prizes forms notarized in the future. I hope everyone realizes, this isn't a local league where we just split prizes between two friends. These are payments in the thousands of dollars and sometimes in the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Legally, we need documentation to prove that we were allowed to split the requested prize money by the owners and that we did it exactly as requested. We can't have owners coming back later saying they didn't want someone else receiving this prize money. So yes while it's an inconvenience, we HAVE to do it this way for legal reasons. I'm glad we are able to Split Prizes and hope you folks appreciate it too.

Congrats to all of the winners and let's have a busy Monday.
Thanks Greg.

I wasn't referring to this year on the direct deposits. I think it's been made pretty clear that payment will be made by check this year. I was/am, however, confused, as last year when payment were being discussed you said this:
"We won't be doing all payments just by check in the future. We are partnering with an existing industry company to make this happen. We'll give more details on that and 2017 news on Wednesday."

Then on your post from 10/10 about new player accounts, you said this:
"It's your money, so do what you want with us. Just let us know so that we then know what to do. And again, this will all be explained easily once we're done with that tutorial. Look for it and your prizes in the next week. Thanks all and this is how we'll do it for all sports going forward. Quick deposits and then quick check payments."

Perhaps you were only referring to this season's payouts when you said "going forward," but I felt like the two contradicted each other, so I was just looking for clarification. At what point will it be discussed for next season? It seems like we go through this most years and the answer is always, "hopefully next year." I understand you guys have had a lot of changes re ownership, etc, the past few years, so that is acceptable, but now that you seem to have found a new, hopefully more permanent home, will we know if direct deposit will be a payout option for 2018 before the season begins?

In regards to the split payment forms, I understand that you are paying out a lot of money and that it is a legal issue. That said, very few places still do it this way. There are a lot of places that pay out much more daily that have literally zero paper. Everything is done electronically. There are many alternatives that can be used to address the issue, rather than forcing us to have to go find a notary. Have you looked into e-signature, Docusign, etc? Multi-factor authentication? If you want a hard document that is notarized, why not have that document be an agreement stating that we agree to split our payments from our player accounts and waive all rights otherwise? Or if you MUST have the split payment forms notarized, why not start that process before the season, or before the season is over at least? Make the form available on the website somewhere that we can download it and send it in at any time.

I'm not sure what you mean by "it gets deposited quicker going forward." Are you referring to our winnings being deposited to the new player accounts?

The new player accounts seemed like a great idea, but I thought it was going to be a way for us to manage everything on the admin side from our money, forms, etc. Based on your response, it sounds like this is simply a way for people to roll their winnings over into other/future contests. For those of us that don't want to do a rollover, and would prefer to get paid as soon as possible, I'm failing to see a benefit. This is why I asked the question in my original post.

On Monday it will be 2 weeks since the split payment forms were due. In the past, that was the last step before a check was sent. Now the wait from submitting the form isn't to be paid, but to be deposited into an account, where we have to request to be paid (a step that was automatic before). From there we wait an additional X amount of time to receive our payment. Unless I'm missing something, without the added tax benefit that your competitor offers, and without the ability to use the new players accounts to electronically manage the administrative side, this really looks like added slack to an already inefficient payout process for those of us not wanting to roll our winnings over.

I hope that you will reconsider by looking into allowing us to FULLY (not just rollovers) manage our funds and accounts electronically from the new player accounts. If you don't, you're really missing an opportunity to maximize the customer experience through the new player account that is already established.

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