bookie football

So it has come to this. It seems fantasy football, the great diversion for so many millions of us, has gotten so big that we can now take out health insurance for the players on our roster. No, really, there isn’t any punch line here. A season’s worth of financial protection for a team that only exists on paper, or as some skeptics would say, our imaginations.
Forget about health insurance for your loved ones to provide in case of an illness. We’re talking insurance for the knees and shoulders of Donovan McNabb and Tiki Barber, to protect an investment in your fantasy league. I guess there are fans out there who might consider Mc­Nabb and Barber loved ones, but that’s a story for another column.
The idea, at least to actually make a business out of it, can be traced to New York City, to a couple of 20-somethings, frustrated over losing their best players to season-ending injuries. Jack Shankman and Justin Felber began offering the insurance option to friends in their leagues three years ago. This summer, they decided to take it mainstream — via the Internet — at fantasyplayerprotection.com.
“We tackle the risk, so you don’t have to.” That’s the motto of the site. It’s all about limiting liability, they say, and protecting the effort and money you put into building a fantasy contender. You do the homework on the players and pony up the dough for an entry fee, so why shouldn’t you safeguard against disaster like you would in other walks of life?
“A lot of guys put up money to get in their leagues, and if you draft Peyton Manning and he gets hurt, you’re probably not going to have a chance to win (the title) anymore,” Shankman says. “Fantasy football is an amazing industry that is really growing. So this is just kind of a natural extension. You know, how good ideas inspire other good ideas.”
After deciding to turn an idea into an entrepreneurial reality, Felber came up with the business plan and hired a friend from MIT to crunch the numbers. They came up with a formula using statistics, combined with a player’s value, injury history, age and position, to determine the price of a protection package and corresponding reimbursement schedule should the player miss significant time.
For instance, let’s say you spend your first-round fantasy pick on Manning. Despite the fact he has never missed a game in his career, you may feel a lot better if you had some kind of compensation should he miss several games. So, through fantasyplayerprotection.com, you decide in August to purchase a protection plan, through Paypal, for Peyton Manning at a cost of $14.95 to protect against injury, benching, suspension or anything else that causes him to miss a game (like a death in the family).
Week 17 does not figure in to their coverage, so it comes down to a 15-game breakdown. If Manning misses 0-to-2 games, there is no reimbursement. If he misses 3-to-5 games, you get your $14.95 back. Shelved 6-8 weeks, you’ll receive $49.33, and if he’s out 9-11 weeks, you’ll be $74.75 richer. If Manning doesn’t see a weak-side blitz and is lost for the year to a dislocated shoulder within the first four games, you get $89.70 on your initial $15 investment.
Protection for less noteworthy players, such as Ravens TE Todd Heap, costs considerably less, at $4.95 for the year. If he misses less than three games, you get nothing. But if an injury lingers for significantly longer, say between 12-15 games, you can earn up to $27.23.
Sounds a bit out there, I realize, as a fair amount of the general population still rolls its eyes at the allure of fantasy. But I’m going to side with these guys for a moment, serve as their P.R. spokesman, or agent, if you will. Let’s say you spend $100 to get in your fantasy league, and boom, down goes one of your top wideouts, like Carolina’s Steve Smith in Week One last year or the Packers’ Javon Walker in Week One this season. You’re suddenly sent scrambling for shoddy replacements on the free-agent wire to help fill the unmistakable void in your lineup. But you could be sitting pretty, at least financially, had you taken out insurance on them.
A $9.95 protection plan for Walker, Brett Favre’s favorite target and a rising star in the league, would have paid out $85 because of when he went down. You’re allowed to take out up to five insurance plans on each player, meaning the total compensation could reach well into the hundreds of dollars.
“It’s a new concept, and the buzz is booming,” says Shankman, who dreams of having pop-up ads displayed during live online drafts.
The Web site has received, according to Shankman, as many as 20,000 hits per week of late. A lot of the notoriety can be attributed to recognition from ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons, as well as a mention on Maxim’s and Sports Illustrated’s Web sites.
There’s a figure out there that estimates office productivity around the country has gone down 30 percent because of fantasy football. It’s bigger than a fad or a common trend. But when does it go too far? Is insurance taking it to a level that indicates, well, a sickness? Naysayers abound, one would assume.
“Oh yeah, there are haters out there,” Shankman says. “One of my best friends tells me this idea stinks. I tell him, ‘Well, you like Dungeons & Dragons, and you go to tournaments for that. I think that’s taking it too far.’ So what’s taking it too far if people are passionate about it?
“It’s all opinion; some people are going to like it and some aren’t. If you encounter a hater, you just move on.”
Shankman is reluctant to divulge any sales numbers but admits he and Felber are ecstatic with the results thus far, suggesting that when people realize it’s a legitimate operation, business is sure to climb even further.
I envision these two on Sundays in the fall, looking every bit like your neighborhood bookie, ordering in, biting nails and pacing the carpet thin in front of the tube. But instead of worrying about the Chiefs covering the spread, they’re concerned with Priest Holmes making it through the game unscathed. You know, business as usual.
“We’re just trying to play our cards right and get this first year under our belt, you know, being on the Internet, and then come back even stronger next year,” Shankman adds, before returning to his 9-to-5 job.