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what is #FFbookie?
I almost always have ongoing e-mail chains, text, and tweets with various personal friends of mine. We mainly discuss sports, particularly fantasy sports and gambling. One week, I was playing against one of my best friends, Russ. It was a Sunday night, and we each had a few players left. We were trash-talking via text message about who would ultimately win. I installed myself as a -130 favorite. Russ, however, went on to win. Naturally, I woke up to a Tuesday morning text saying, "-130? I wish I could have bet on the other side of that prop bet."
From there on out, Russ continued texting me on Sunday and/or Monday nights with his various "situations." I'm down 14 with Arian Foster and Michael Crabtree against Vernon Davis. It was at that point that I realized I might have something fun for my twitter followers.
One of our FBG head hanchos, Mr. Sigmund Bloom, enjoyed the angle and would encourage his 34,000+ followers to ask me to set their lines. With his reach and encouragement, a good idea became a really good idea that more people knew about. And now, it will become a weekly feature here on the site.
By the way, please use the button at the bottom to follow me on Twitter. By the end of this season, I want to look back at the 826 followers I have now and laugh at how small that number is.
That's how #FFBookie was born, but how does it work? Each Sunday after the last slate of afternoon games is complete, I'll ask twitter for some live updates on their fantasy games. This will include current lead/deficit, players left for and against, and scoring system. Upon crunching the numbers in my very comprehensive number-crunching software*, I'll provide you with your odds to win in the form of a Vegas Money Line.
*My "comprehensive number-crunching software" is just my brain. Sometimes, I'll use our site's masterful projections to aid me in my odds-making. Other nights, I'll be eating dinner between the afternoon slate and Sunday Night Football and just firing off responses. You didn't think that was as complex an operation as an actual sports book, did you?
I promise this the last time you'll see this big, long intro prior to diving into this column. From here on out, I'll have actual material to use and will simply link this post for those who are catching up. Here's what future installments will look like:
the format
I plan to break down the column into three sections:
- Primetime Recap
- Reviewing Last Week
- Looking Ahead
The Primetime Recap will be exactly as it sounds. We'll briefly discuss what happened in the SNF and MNF games and which players likely swung the most fantasy matchups. The other two sections will be as follows:
reviewing last week
After receiving those tweets, I'll then use what I deem to be the best, the most unique, the funniest, etc. in the following week's recap. I'll try to incorporate the ones that provided the biggest upsets, the person that clinched his win first on Monday Night, etc. Here's an example from last year where I gave an owner odds and then he came to me just minutes after clinching his win to let me know that he won.
A +150 dog comes in! #FFBookie RT @BeanThePharmer: Re: Down 22.6. He’s done, I have Forte. NonPPR. >>> We did it! pic.twitter.com/P5EpXzRmbH
— Ryan Hester (@RyanHester13) December 10, 2013
If you have any ideas about which specific "theme" of tweets I should use, please feel free to leave them in the comments below or tweet them at me.
As a Footballguys Insider PRO, you obviously come here not just for the what but more for the why. In that light, I'll provide my analysis as to what we can take away from certain unexpected things that helped owners overcome some of the longer odds I gave.
looking ahead
In this section, I'll highlight players I think will swing your fantasy matchups. In what I'll be calling The Jordy Nelson Memorial "You Don't Want to Play Against This Guy" Section, I'll detail guys who I expect will perform above expectations in primetime. This section is named for Mr. Nelson due to performances like this one at Minnesota on Sunday Night Football last season and this one at Houston on Sunday Night Football in 2012.
I'll also include the A.J. Green Memorial "Stud Who May Not Be a Stud Under the Lights" Section, which will discuss players who may not perform up to the level their owners are expecting them to. Admittedly, a name for this section didn't hit me as quickly as Nelson's name did for the good section, but A.J. Green's last two Monday Night Football performances (this one vs. Pittsburgh last year, and this one at Baltimore to open the 2012 season) haven't been what we've come to expect from him.
In my final call-to-action to you, dear readers, I am also soliciting names for this section. If you can think of a normally reliable fantasy player who disappoints during primetime efforts, please send his name my way.
Questions, comments, suggestions, and other feedback on this piece are always welcome via e-mail hester@footballguys.com
