When FLW Outdoors designated Player’s Advantage as its premium membership service for FLW Fantasy Fishing, the hope, of course, was that it would at least live up to its name. The numbers are now in, and it’s clear that Player’s Advantage was on the money.
In 2008, multitudes participated worldwide in the inaugural season of FLW Fantasy Fishing, which is free to play. However, the percentage of those players who paid for exclusive insider information through Player’s Advantage won prizes at a rate nearly four times greater than nonmembers.
In fact, Player’s Advantage members statistically outperformed nonmembers at each of the Walmart FLW Tour’s seven events throughout the season, all of them corresponding with a round of FLW Fantasy Fishing. On average, Player’s Advantage gamers’ earned scores were more than 10 percent higher than other players.
A 10-percent advantage can make you rich in Las Vegas, giving you back the house’s edge. And while 10 percent may not seem like a big leg up, the significance of that margin is spelled out in the success stories: Player’s Advantage members were almost four times as likely to win an FLW Fantasy Fishing prize as nonmembers.
When you’re talking about a potential $7.3 million in fantasy payouts over the course of the season – and a guaranteed $2.4 million worth of cash and prizes – tipping the scales in your favor through Player’s Advantage not only make sense, it’s lucrative. Add to that a dramatic reduction in price to $10 for a season membership in 2009 – plus three free issues of FLW Outdoors Magazine for those who sign up before Dec. 31 – and the stock on Player’s Advantage just keeps rising.
Big winners had the edge
Nobody won bigger in the inaugural season of FLW Fantasy Fishing than Michael Thompson, 34, of St. Michael, Minn. Not only did the stay-at-home dad, who is studying to become a law-enforcement officer, pocket the $1 million grand prize for amassing the most fantasy points over the course of the FLW Tour season, he made history as the recipient of the largest-ever fantasy sports payout to date.
An avid bass fisherman, Thompson heard about FLW Fantasy Fishing while watching the “FLW Outdoors” TV show on Fox Sports Net, and it didn’t take him long to decide to sign up for Player’s Advantage to get an edge in the game.
“I figured when it comes to winning something, I’ll take every advantage I can get,” he said. “There are a lot of pros out there and the prizes being offered were amazing. I figured if I won one prize, it would pay for itself and of course it did.”
Thompson used Player’s Advantage to help narrow the field of 200 professional bass anglers competing in each event down to his 10-member fantasy teams. Before winning his seven-figure check to close out the season, Thompson had already used the online tools at his disposal to more than pay for his Player’s Advantage membership by winning a $50 savings bond at one tournament and a $40 Walmart gift card at another.
“I definitely think it helped,” he said of the service. “The `Lake/Angler Matchups’ were huge – it was probably the tool I used the most. I also looked at the current FLW Tour standings. Those were important as were the past statistics for a given angler on a particular lake.
“I fish a lot myself, and I know that there are some lakes where some people just continually do well on. Likewise, if you’re on a hot streak, you can continue it from lake to lake. Overall, I guess I just really looked at the matchups, the standings and the past lake history.”
Tim Potoczny of Gurnee, Ill., is a walleye fisherman at heart, but with the help of Player’s Advantage, it didn’t take him long to familiarize himself with the bass pros of the FLW Tour. The 31-year-old used the online tool all season long to help him make his picks and ultimately win a $20,000 U.S. savings bond for placing sixth overall.
Potoczny got the year started off right by winning a $50 Walmart gift card at the first event. With his Player’s Advantage membership more than paid for, he continued to research an hour to an hour and a half before each event, picking up another prize package from Berkley near the end of the season before landing his big prize.
“The `Local Finder’ was big for me … it would give me an idea of whose home water it was when looking at an upcoming tournament,” he said. “Looking at the `Fantasy Trend,’ you’d get an idea of who other people were picking.”
And while browsing these Player’s Advantage tools, Potoczny said he liked surveying the various lists of pros and being able to “click on their names … you’d get all their former tourneys” and statistics for any given fishery on which they’d competed. He said he’d use a combination of the various tools to narrow down his picks, pulling a few from each method to essentially hedge his bets by not relying too heavily on any single tool.
When told about the bargain price of $10 for a Player’s Advantage membership for 2009, Potoczny didn’t hesitate recommending the service to potential players.
“For $10 – absolutely,” he said. “You should be able to get your money back at some point with some kind of prize or gift card … I mean, everybody shops at Walmart anyway.”
The 2009 FLW Fantasy Fishing season kicks off in February when the FLW Tour begins its seven-event season on Lake Guntersville in Alabama, but fantasy players can register to play now. For those who sign up for Player’s Advantage before Dec. 31, 2008, they will receive three free issues of FLW Outdoors Magazine.