Competitor Analysis: Fantasy Football(FF) analytic tools

In this article, I analyzed a few of the most popular analytic products available in the market for consumers. Please note that the mainstream sports news sites(ESPN, Yahoo, CBSSports and etc.) are not included because those sites focus on news and stats with few to no advanced metrics. (Yahoo does have a research tool for Fantasy Football however it is largely analyzing fantasy data rather than NFL player data. ESPN Analytics page takes you a little beyond box score data but no advanced analytics is available to the public.) I will be updating this article as I discover more analytic products in the market.

In the meantime, here’s the list of five websites that I analyzed:

1. FantasyPros
2. Pro Football Focus
3. Next Gen Stats
4. RotoViz
5. 4 for 4

Things to note before we start

FantasyPro and RotoViz have data and content for other sports as well but, for the sake of this market analysis, we will base everything off the NFL sections on both website. Although ProFootball Focus’s primary focus isn’t Fantasy, it still has a section dedicated to Fantasy Football. Its grading system is also one of the most frequently quoted stats in the Fantasy industry. NextGen Stats is also not Fantasy centric and rarely have any fantasy related content. However, it does have some innovative metrics and charts that are widely used by Fantasy analysts and players. We will look at NextGen Stats through a slightly different lens and focus on its metrics, data visualization, and information architecture.

Target Audience

Fantasy Pros: FF players, FF analysts, Sports gamblers

Pro Football Focus: Dedicated NFL fans, FF players, FF analysts

Next Gen Stats: Dedicated NFL fans, FF players, FF analysts

RotoViz: FF players, FF analysts

4 for 4: FF players, FF analysts

All 5 websites have content for average NFL fans but, for the purpose of this article,

Navigation and Information Architecture

All 5 websites follow two main types of navigation system: 1. Curated 2. Semi-exploratory.

The first system consists of curated expert articles and analysis on certain fantasy topics, for example: projection, ranking, breakout candidates, sleepers, league format, draft strategy and etc. These sites usually don’t have a discrete information departments and articles can be found under different categories. The navigation system is really flat.

The second system is more hierarchical and give users more freedom to explore data. These websites gives users access to NFL data as well as fantasy data. Users can slice and dice structured player data through various filters. Some websites also make their own advanced metrics available in addition to the traditional NFL box score stats. However, compare to other data-centric analytics sites, fantasy football sites tend to provide more out-of-box metrics and reports instead of giving user full control to manipulate and interpret data.

Curated: RotoViz, 4on4

Exploratory: Fantasy Pros, PFF, NextGen Stats

In the next section, we will dive deeper into the experience side of these two navigation styles, the user needs they satisfy respectively. If we look at these sites’ information structure through a different lens, we can roughly put their content into 6 big buckets: Analysis/Charts, Stats/Reports, Rankings/Projections, In-season Tools, News/Articles and Draft. (Figure 1–1) Analysis and charts explain the advanced metrics and insights which are usually created by expert analysts. Stats and reports are data tables with filters. Rankings and projections are experts’ player performance rankings and predictions for different league formats. In-season tools allow users to import their league information to the website. By integrating the data, this will empower users to analyze their own league and team situation in order to make a sound decision around trades, sit or start a player and etc. News and articles cover all NFL news and articles that are not data related. Draft is a dedicated place for fantasy draft topics.

Figure 1–1

Now that we have a basic understanding of how these websites organize their information and different entry points for the user. We can have a comparison on the two main types of experience: guided or exploratory.

Experience type: Exploratory or Explanatory

It doesn’t come as a surprise that many of the fantasy football sites, especially the ones targeting casual players, are focusing on providing ready-to-eat content. These content are carefully calculated by analysts and packaged into a digestible format in the interest of fans with zero data science knowledge. Basically, analysts are explaining the findings and insights they extracted from data in plain language. As a user, you can enjoy the benefit of consuming experts’ hard work but you won’t be able to validate the metrics nor the conclusions with no access to data. This might be a favorable experience for average NFL fans who plays fantasy football casually. However, the amount of time or resources you can capture from this group of target users is also limited.

On the other hand, sites like FantasyPros took a different approach. These sites enable users to explore data to some extent. ProFootballFocus, for example, features their robust player rating system and pair it with in-depth analysis and charts from expert analysts. FantasyPros, however, appears to be leading the herd in both breadth and depth of the analysis. It also allows users to fully integrate their leagues to the site and release the full potential of the in-season tools. These tools are developed to help fantasy players make critical decisions during the season. Whether it’s a weekly start or sit question, or evaluating a trade sent by another manager, you can quickly find a the right tool to help you make a decision or at least give you a second opinion. FantasyPros also has a news section that covers the entire NFL which is updated daily. Each news will be analyzed by an analyst through the lens of fantasy football. For more savvy fantasy players, these sites might be more appealing. It also provide the possibility of fostering power users.

Advanced analytics: Data Integration

PFF stands out from this group for its unique data set. In 2019, PFF has integrated their NFL data to fantasy projections and rankings. It has also allowed users to import their own teams from other major FF hosting websites such as Yahoo, ESPN, Fanduel, Draft.com and etc. NextGenStats unquestionably has the most comprehensive data set from all aspects of the game. Backed up by NFL, NextGenStats(NGS) has access to all the data points that are collected by NFL. In spite of that, it has not fully lived up to its potential. There are a few unique metrics that are only available on NGS but users have no visibility on the underlying data behind them. Therefore, users are not able to evaluate, modify or study the correlation between the metrics. FantasyPros only provides basic player box score data and fantasy points in the main points systems. None of the sites allow users to generate new metrics. (On RotoViz and 4on4, users don’t have visibility on the data that analysts use to come up with their analysis.)

Customization: Dashboards & Tools

Once the season starts, users will be able to access a dashboard view that consolidates all their league information. FantasyPros, PFF and 4for4 support external league integration. Depending on the company policy, some open-source data are also shared between the the league hosting sites and fantasy analytic sites. The common in-season tools include: stat/sit, waiver targets, trade analyzer and streaming options.

Takeaways

1. Most sites target casual FF players as their main customers. These audience may have rich football knowledge but limited data analysis skill. They tend to rely heavily on content curated by professional analysts.
2. Limited data exploration abilities. User can only manipulate data through a limited number of filter options. These are very basic classifications including player positions, scoring formats and league types.
3. Advanced FF metrics presented in silos. It’s not fully integrated with the broader functions across the website, nor is it easily accessed by users.
4. These sites have a flat navigation system. Users are often presented with options that are out-of-context. Information is not prioritized and filtered according to user needs at different points of experience.
5. FF hosting websites have very limited open source data that can be integrated and analyzed. By observation, team players, waiver players, team matchups, average draft position are the only available data.