Welcome to The NFBKC Basketball Challenge Forums

[Greg Ambrosius]

We are excited to welcome a new addition to the NFBKC high-stakes family of games. Let’s give it up for the NFBKC Basketball Challenge!!

We are happy to welcome the industry’s premiere salary cap game to our suite of high-stakes games. We all know that the CDM Diamond Challenge in baseball has been around for almost 30 years and has paid tens of millions of dollars in prizes during that time. It was one of the first salary cap pay-to-play games in the industry and it once gave the industry’s largest grand prize ($50,000) when it was aligned as the USA Today Diamond Challenge. The Basketball Challenge was formed shortly after the Diamond Challenge and has also awarded millions of dollars in prizes to hoops enthusiasts through the years. We're glad to add this game to our NFBKC draft games.

This year for hoops, we are changing the game model slightly to fit more of the NFBKC model, allowing players to win more money and to compete in smaller league sizes. One of the biggest changes we have made is that there is now one set price at the beginning of the year with no transaction fees after that and guaranteed prizes that pay over 80 percent for each contest.

We are confident that the changes we are making to the Basketball Challenge this year will grow this game. Today’s market is more familiar with salary cap games than ever before thanks to the rise and growth of Daily Fantasy Sports, so we know the salary cap market is there. Now we just need to align the price points and the payouts with other industry season-long games like the NFBKC to allow it to be a big hit again.

Here are some of the changes you will see with the NFBKC Basketball Challenge:

League Size: Each league will now consist of 15 teams, down from 20 in past years.

Costs: The Basketball Challenge Roto will have an entry fee of $350 with no transaction fees. Owners can make player switches during the season, just like in the NFBKC, at no cost. Free Agent pickups are also available at no cost, but they are limited to 14 for the season like they were in previous years. On average last year, CDM owners paid close to $350 for Transaction Packages and transaction fees, so the price point is in line with past years of the Diamond Challenge.

Payouts: We are now paying the Top 3 teams in each 15-team league, with first place earning $1,500. Second place in each league is $700 and third place is $350. We are also guaranteeing a $10,000 grand prize, while paying the Top 10 overall. That new grand prize is up from $7,500 in recent years. We are also shooting for 14 leagues this year, 210 teams. We believe it’s time to grow this salary cap format and more aggressive payouts will do that.

In-Season Roster Moves: We will allow Friday lineup moves in the Basketball Challenge, just like we do in our NFBKC contests. This will give a little more roster management for owners throughout the season. New for this year in the Basketball Challenge, your players won't lock at the beginning of each period until tipoff of each players' game for that period.

One Landing Spot: The Basketball Challenge will now appear on the NFBKC site and the contests will appear within our NFBKC lobby. We will have a separate contest link for those games, and we’ll interact with promotions and Q&A on the NFBKC Live Chat just like we do for all of our NFBKC games. The stand-alone CDM site has disappeared as all former CDM games will be mingled into the NFBC, NFFC, NFBKC and NFHC web sites, creating more uniformity between those gaming audiences.

Special Packages: We also will take $50 off for a 3-Pack of Basketball Challenge games as we know some of our veteran players will be back for multiple teams. The 3-Pack will now be available for $1,000.

The old BBS is no longer active as honestly it became a headache to monitor separately from our various NFC Message Boards. We invite everyone to join this Message Board and to interact here. To join these Message Boards, you need to create an account as the boards use separate software from our in-game software. Click on Sign Up in the upper right of these boards and register an account.

Once you have created an account, contact Tom Kessenich at [email protected] and he will activate your account. Then you can post here, create new threads and interact here like you did on the BBS. Invite your friends to create accounts here as well and we'll talk sports (but not politics) right here. You can always interact with us on the Live Chat in the Contest Lobby as well (click on Contests above, Contest Lobby).

Thanks all and welcome aboard. Now let's have a fun, fun hoops season.