Fantasy Feud is launching a $500,000 MLB Championship that will take place in September, one of the biggest daily fantasy sports contests ever held outside of FanDuel or DraftKings.
The nitty gritty
The news came shortly after the announcement of Fantasy Feud’s acquisition by a new company called Gaming Nation, which has raised over $50 million for its network of sites. Some of that money has been earmarked for increasing guaranteed prize pools at FF.
The contest will be a two-day online final, taking place September 8th and 9th. Players will enter lineups on both nights, with the winner having the highest cumulative score after both days of competition.
Some of the other details:
- Direct entry will not be available; players can only win their way into the contest via a qualifier. There will be a total of 40 qualifiers.
- First place will receive $150,000; second place gets $75K, while third will receive $50K.
- Everyone in the contest will receive a prize; last place receives $2,000.
Full details at FantasyFeud.
Qualifiers begin Wednesday, June 24th, and continue up until the final, starting at a $22 entry fee; satellites to the qualifiers will also be available for as little as $1.
“We’ll have a multitude of different qualifiers that will be available at about seven different price points, just to give everyone a chance to be a part of it, regardless of if they’re a high volume, high stakes player, or if they’re somebody who wants to invest a smaller amount,” said Fantasy Feud VP of Marketing Justin Lalonde.
Read the terms and schedule here.
The big time
Obviously, a $500,000 contest is not amazing in the grand scheme of the DFS industry — DraftKings and FanDuel routinely feature prize pools over a million dollars. But it’s a huge contest for the tier of DFS sites behind the two industry giants.
Fantasy Feud’s biggest contest before this was a $100,000 NFL event.
Some of the other largest contests that have been staged:
- DraftStreet — before it was taken over by DraftKings — hosted a $2.5 million live fantasy football final in Las Vegas in 2013, with $1 million going to the winner.
- Last year, FanThrowdown (now a part of DraftDay) held a $500K event.
- FantasyDraft opened with a $400K contest last year.
- Victiv held a $300,000 football contest in December.
- Fantasy Aces is hosting a $250,000 MLB live final this year.
- DraftDay held a $200K event last NFL season.
It’s also safe to assume this is a sign of things to come for Fantasy Feud.
The event takes place right before the start of the NFL season, and it would be shocking if Fantasy Feud doesn’t hold a contest on the opening weekend that eclipses the MLB contest. A seven-figure prize pool might even be on the horizon.
