Wednesday, May 11, 2011

World Championship of Fantasy Football (WCOFF) sold?

The World Championship of Fantasy Football (WCOFF) recently announced a pending "transaction to transfer ownership". The announcement is printed below:

Announcements from WCOFF
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It's with great excitement that I announce the beginning of a new chapter for the World Championship of Fantasy Sports (WCOFS). Over the next 30 to 45 days, I, along with my partners in GridIron Fantasy Sports LLC, will be working through a transaction to transfer ownership of the WCOFS. During this period of time, day to day activity at the WCOFS will continue, specifically the contest administration of the World Championship of Fantasy Baseball (WCOFB) and preparation for the 10th annual World Championship of Fantasy Football (WCOFF).

Since 2002, the WCOFF has awarded over $14M in cash awards and provided a playing field for fantasy sports players willing to embrace the challenge of competing against the best of the best. It's been our pleasure at GridIron Fantasy Sports LLC to have participated in the growth and evolution of the premier fantasy sports contest in the world since 2007 and look forward to what's next for everyone associated with the WCOFF and WCOFB.

So what does this mean for players who have made a prize claim and are awaiting their award distribution? During this period of finalizing a transition of ownership, we will not be releasing checks. As soon as this process is complete, we will resume the awards distribution process. We will go above and beyond to make it up to those of you who were delayed in receiving your award distribution as a result of this transition.
What does this mean for the 2011 WCOFF? The 2011 and 10th Annual World Championship of Fantasy Football will continue as planned with live drafts in Las Vegas, Chicago, Atlantic City and S. Florida - September 8th - 12th. The MGM Grand will host the Las Vegas festivities and the Sheraton Hotel will again host the live events in Atlantic City. Venues for Chicago and S. Florida are still being finalized.

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WCOFF followed this announcement with the following:

On behalf of the Partnersof GridIron Fantasy Sports LLC we want to again apologize for the delay you have experienced in receiving your award distribution. We never anticipated it would take us this long to correct our error and we're committed to making it right with you in consideration for this mistake.

You most likely received the announcement this morning regarding a new direction for the World Championship of Fantasy Sports. If you missed this announcement, you can view it HERE. While we reference a period of 30 to 45 days as our anticipated timeframe to finish a transaction, we are hopeful this process will be accelerated and allow us to resume the awards distribution process as quickly as possible. When the awards distribution process does resume, Dustin and Jill will have the full compliment of checks to be printed, signed and mailed. We know this excites Dustin and Jill as much as it does I'm sure you, as there won't be a guessing game as to when your award will be distributed once the process does resume.

Thank you again for your patience and understanding and for the many kind messages and phone calls the WCOFF player community has shared with the staff. While at times our critics have been outspoken and understandably upset, we're fortunate to have had as many, if not more, WCOFF players reach out with support and encouragement.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact the office at 636-728-1118 and speak to Dustin. While he will be somewhat restricted on what he can comment to regarding the transaction being finalized, he welcomes the opportunity to answer your questions. If your question can't be answered today, he will be revisiting questions he can't address at the present time as soon as he is able to.

GridIron Fantasy Sports LLC Partners

GridIron Fantasy Sports LLC
623 Timber Creek Trail
O'Fallon, MO 63368

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So what does this mean? Your guess is as good as mine. I have recommended the WCOFF in previous books and played in the WCOFF in previous years.

As mentioned in a previous post, players need to examine the potential of any contest to pay their winners.

As of today, the WCOFF has not paid all of its winners for 2011 and the announcement that those payments have stopped until the 30-45 day transaction period (roughly June 15th) is complete, raises more questions. As I understand it the WCOFS is still taking money from 2011 entrants while stopping (the already significantly late) payments to their 2010 winners. In my opinion, a contest should pay their winners when they promised to do so. Not doing this is a major error.

I hope the "new direction" the WCOFF is taking proves to be a good one. However, I will take a "wait and see" approach for 2011. I am waiting to see them pay all of their 2010 winners, waiting to see if they pay their 2011 winners on time and then and only then deciding on whether to recommned them again only after these bench marks are met.

I wish them well, but in the words of Ronnie Reagan "Trust but verify".

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