FantasyGo - Not too bad for a start . . .

[Disclaimer: This is a LONG and DETAILED Review of the Sports Fantasy Site in question. It will take you longer to read than the average "hellopeter" review.]

If there is one thing that I am an EXPERT in in my 62-year-old life, to date (March 2024) it is knowing what constitutes a GOOD Fantasy Sports Website and what doesn't. The INTERNATIONAL Fantasy Sports Site that I have not either played Fantasy Sport on or have not been involved with, in some capacity or another, over a period of well over three decades of my life, does not exist. The following are just some of the things I have learned about said Sites, in general, i.e. . . .

Re the Site's INTERFACE - In my humble opinion, if this is "CLUTTERED" (i.e. contains just too much information in a given amount of space, no matter how critical said information may be with regard to what the next Fantasy Contestant must know about how the Site operates, it is a proper DEATH BLOW to the potential success of the Fantasy Enterprise in question. All Fantasy Sports Sites MUST contain such Critical Information, but the latter should be, PROMINENTLY, DISPLAYED under Clearly Visible Menu Tabs like "HOME", "RULES", "ABOUT", "AVAILABLE CONTESTS", "YOUR CONTESTS" "ACC. SETTINGS" (with "PROFILE", "FIN. INFO.", etc. as possible Sub Menu Tabs of the latter) on the Home Page of the Site.

All the information under "RULES" should be written, in PROPER English, in a way that even a twelve-year-old youngster can understand it. The latter is Very Important, because HUGE numbers of Potential, Eligible, Fantasy Contestants come from Asian Countries where their exposure to English is limited, at best. There is much more I can say under this category, but, perhaps, I can leave that for a follow-up review. In my opinion FantasyGo scores Full Marks (five stars) in this, specific, regard, with a Site that has a CLEAN, UNCOMPLICATED and USER-FRIENDLY Interface.

As far as I am concerned, all too many, Truly Excellent, in all other regards, Fantasy Sports Enterprises (Like India's "DREAM 11, for example) FAIL in that ONLY Fantasy Contestants who live within the geographical borders of the country in which the creators and owners of the specific Site live, are eligible to play in their Sites' Paid Contests (In our modern world there is little or no point in playing Fantasy Sport when one cannot win CASH or other prizes on said Sites). Unfortunately, this is no different in the case of FantasyGo, on which Site only South Africans can participate, at all, never mind in Paid Contests. Hopefully FantasyGo's owners will be able to address this, significant LACK in the near future. Until then, I cannot award them more than one star, only, in this regard.

If there is now one thing that, just about, immediately, DISQUALIFY any Business Enterprise (And Fantasy Sport is a BUSINESS for those who own and run these Sites), never mind a Fantasy Sports Site, in my eyes, it is when a potential new Fantasy Contestant try to get hold of "so called" Customer Support, and the latter is nowhere to be found at a time when they, clearly, SHOULD be available. The excuse of "There was Load Shedding at that time" (a typical South African issue) in order to justify unavailability in this regard, just doesn't cut it with me, because those who run businesses like these, SHOULD have structures in place that can negate, even significant, irritations like these. In this sphere I am happy to report that with regard to a fairly speedy response to enquiries that are made to them by E-mail this new South African Fantasy Site does not disappoint. The couple of E-mails I wrote to them, were all answered, well within, what could be considered "a reasonable time", and they were not even of a critical nature.

The fact that the FantasyGo Site does not yet offer their customers "Live Support" does not overly concern me, because, in my experience, if people answer their E-mails, they will, as a rule, also be available on "Live Support" at a time they should be available, once the latter is added to the Sites' features. So, for FantasyGo's fairly speedy response to E-mails sent to them, I, once again, award them five stars.

Something that is Extremely Important for Fantasy Sports Sites is that there are sufficient options available through which potential new customers can deposit funds to their new accounts. I am pleased to report that FantasyGo has FOUR such options available, Visa, Capitec Pay, Instant EFT and 1 Voucher. At the time I added R140 to my FantasyGo Acc. Balance, with my Capitec Master Card (I believe it was by making use of the second option listed above) the process was seamless and the money in question was added to my Acc. in less than thirty odd seconds. This is how things SHOULD work in this regard, but, believe me, when I tell you that this very feature is critically lacking in some International Fantasy Sport Sites. FantasyGo has enough Deposit Options, for now, and my own experience in depositing funds with them was, truly effortless, so, in this regard, I award them five stars, as well.

Re Withdrawal of Accumulated Winnings - Just about nothing on earth spreads faster throughout communities where peoples' entire existence revolves around competing in Fantasy Sport Contests (India is, by far, the best example, in our current world, where the entire country is a Fantasy Sport Community. Not a few lessons in the Fantasy Sport World Industry can be learned by looking into what works for Fantasy Sport Sites in THIS Country and what doesn't!) than, even, a rumour (never mind an actual incident) that the next Fantasy Site has any, unreasonable, issue in releasing the funds that Fantasy Players have earned on it by competing in its Fantasy Contests.

Once a specific Fantasy Sports Site is, in any way, linked to such rumours, it will spell its end, in no time, and it will be, just about impossible, for it to recover from this point. I have not had the opportunity to test this, specific, feature on FantasyGo, because I have not been able to win significant cash prizes in order to make a withdrawal, so I cannot as yet, comment on it. I will try to do so in a follow up review once I have experienced the withdrawel process on FantasyGo for myself.

O.k., so at this stage I will dive straight into an issue that is, right now, and will, always, DESTROY the entire PURPOSE behind competing in Modern Fantasy Sports Competitions (in my opinion, of course), which is that of the NUMBER OF TEAMS a particular Fantasy Site allows its contestants to enter into ANY ONE Fantasy Contest. Let me, immediately, address what SHOULD BE the OBVIOUS reason WHY I am making this statement. As ONE Fantasy Player I enter ONE Fantasy Team into a contest, but the next player, who can afford it, enters, say, eight Fantasy Teams into that very same Contest. This, immediately, gives the latter Fantasy Player, and others like him, at least, a 50% better chance to win the top prizes associated with said contest, because with Eight Teams in the contest they have the ability to cover for many scenarios (choosing players X, Y and Z in this Team and players D, E, F in another Team, making players Z and X "C" (Captain) and "VC" (Vice Captain), respectively, in their Team A and players E and F "C" and "VC" in their Team B etc.

With the opportunity to enter so many different Teams in a contest they can, literally, cover for hundreds of scenarios which will give them a SIGNIFICANT advantage over their fellow Fantasy Players who can only afford to enter ONE Team. This is an Elementary Mathematical FACT that does, exactly, what I stated in the first couple of lines of this paragraph. Allow me to state it, bluntly, please . . . The entire PURPOSE of Fantasy Sport USED TO BE, and SHOULD BE, to have or to acquire the ability to select that combination of players who will, actually, play (NEVER to guess who will play in a specific match! - See my next point!) in a specific contest, that will earn one more Fantasy Points than one's fellow Fantasy Players.

The majority of MAJOR Fantasy Sports Sites in our world recognizes the above fact and STRICTLY ENFORCES it. Just about the very first thing they mention under the "RULES" Tab of their Fantasy Sites reads something like < Each Fantasy Contestant may enter ONLY ONE Team per Fantasy Contest. Players who are found to have registered Accounts with us under more than one E-mail Address for purposes such as entering more than ONE Fantasy Team per Contest will, immediately, be suspended from our Site > which, in my opinion, is a good thing for the obvious reason stated above.

Some of the new entrants into the Fantasy Sport Arena, like South Africa's FantasyGo under review, here, sadly, fall prey to the significantly higher amounts of money on offer, to them, for relaxing the restriction in question, on their Sites, or, God Forbid, for removing it completely. To some degree I can understand them making this decision, because the lure of significantly more money for them, when they do this, is no small temptation for them to overcome, even more so in circumstances where money is tight. Nevertheless, in my book, this will, always, remain a pretty bad decision for the owners and/or developers of Fantasy Sports Sites to make.

I can think of only ONE compromise, in this regard, that might work for me, which is charging the set entry fee for the 1st Team entered, but tripling said fee for the 2nd Team, and doubling it for every subsequent Team entered, up to a maximum of only Five Teams, e.g. R20 (the default Entrance Fee) for the 1st Team, R60 for the 2nd Team, R120 for the 3rd Team, R240 for the 4th Team and R480 for the fifth and last Team. In this way a Fantasy Sports Site will send a CLEAR MESSAGE to Fantasy Players who insist upon having this kind of advantage over their fellow competitors, i.e. < Fine, we will allow you said advantage, but you will, certainly pay for it! >

The unfortunate reality is that FantasyGo has now, also, sadly, joined a still, fairly limited list (thank God!) of Fantasy Sport Sites that have relaxed the number of Fantasy Teams Fantasy Players, on their Sites, can enter into any ONE of the contests on offer to them. Currently any ONE Fantasy Player can enter up to TEN Teams in any ONE Fantasy Contest on the FantasyGo Site. This practice will always go against my stated opinion pertaining to the Entire Purpose of/behind Fantasy Sports Contests (See above), and as such I cannot award FantasyGo any stars for this poor decision of theirs.

What I am reviewing next is another HUGE Issue in the Fantasy Sport genre, i.e. the fact that a growing number of Fantasy Sport Sites are making the decision to move the Cut-off Times for Fantasy Players to edit their Team (or Teams), significantly forward, to a time slot that won't allow them to do the latter, at all. What this boils down to, in practice, is that Fantasy Contestants must, literally, GUESS which players will play in the matches happening "on the ground", rather than knowing, for a fact, who will play, for the simple reason that final playing squads will not have been announced to the Media at the "moved forward" Cut-off Times imposed by said Fantasy Sites.

I am, for sure, NOT the only one who finds this growing modern trend in the Fantasy Sport World quite DISTURBING and just DOWNRIGHT RIDICULOUS; this I know for a fact. As if the latter is not enough to, once again, DISTORT the entire PURPOSE behind participation in Fantasy Sport (See my comment re this, above), the main reason WHY the administrators of these Sites say they are making said decision is just, simply, ABSURD (in my book, anyway), i.e. - Please listen to the following; this is what they say - < Many Fantasy Players have got day jobs that won't allow them to edit their Team (or Teams) during the time period before the actual matches begin, so, in order to give everyone a fairer chance at winning the higher prize money on offer, we have made the decision to take the default time Fantasy Players have available to edit their Team (or Teams) out of the equation. >

Hello!, why should any other Fantasy Player, WHO MAKE THE TIME AND EFFORT, to edit their teams with only those players who will play in the actual matches on the day, pay this kind of, absurd, price for Fantasy Players who are not able to do the same, because they are working at the time such editions to their Team (or Teams) should be made? This lack on the latter's part isn't anyone else's problem, save the latter's alone! It certainly isn’t the problem of those who run the particular Fantasy Site, in question, but the sheer speed at which said Fantasy Players are accommodated, in this same regard, by the administrators of Fantasy Sites like these would make any reasonable person believe that it, certainly, is.

What is so utterly paradoxical about this kind of statement is that the people who are using this issue of "FAIRNESS to all other Fantasy Players" as justification for making the decision in question, are, all too often, the very same people who are, up to their eye*****, involved in the decision to allow Fantasy Contestants on their Sites to enter Multiple Fantasy Teams into a singular Fantasy Contest. This is the ultimate PROOF (to me, anyway), that the craziness under discussion, here, has, on the earth, NOTHING to do with the issue of "FAIRNESS to all other Fantasy Players". There are other issues at play, here, which I cannot even begin to address in this review.

Unfortunately FantasyGo has, also, adopted this craziness of moving the Cut-off time for editing one's Fantasy Team (or Teams) forward to 1.5 hours before the start of the actual matches (in the case of Soccer, the only Fantasy Sport one can compete in on their Site, at present) which means that no Fantasy Player competing on the FantasyGo Site can edit players, who will not be playing in the actual matches, out of their Team (or Teams) in favour of those who will play. This is another bad decision of the administrators of this Site. It is one of those kinds of decisions that should earn the next Fantasy Site either naught or five stars. I am afraid that I am not able to do the latter, in this regard, which gives me no choice but to do the former.

Yet another BIG issue in the Fantasy Sport World is the Prize Money on offer for those Fantasy Players who win the Fantasy Contests. On the FantasyGo site the Prizes are not only Cash (which are, BY FAR, the best prizes to have on hand for those who win Fantasy Sport Contests), but the minimum amounts of Cash that are available to pay out as prizes for the winners of each Contest are SIGNIFICANT. Besides the latter, I really like the way that the FantasyGo administrators distribute said prizes, i.e. prizes for positions 1-10, and what prize money is left, after the latter, divided amongst the Fantasy Players who end up in the top 25% of positions. All three these FantasyGo decisions, pertaining to this important issue of Prize Money, "work for me", as Clint Eastwood used to say in all the many movies he played in. I am awarding FantasyGo five stars for this very important aspect of their new Fantasy Endeavour.

Then there is, of course, the issue of Entrance Fees. The latter should not be too high, otherwise it simply disqualifies financially poor, potential, Fantasy Contestants from participating in the Contests on offer. On the other hand, if said fees are too low, not enough money will be available for a Significant Prize Pool. The Average Fee for entering ONE Team on FantasyGo seems to be R20 with an Average Prize Pool of around R7,500 attached to it. As I can't imagine a better Fee/Reward Structure than this, I reward FantasyGo five hellopeter stars for this initiative of theirs.

Something that is HIGHLY FRUSTRATING to well over 90% of Fantasy Sport Contestants, including yours truly, is when they are looking/searching for a player in the Player List linked to a particular Contest of a Fantasy Sport Site, that SHOULD be found on there, but he is simply not listed in there. On one or two occasions (thankfully not more frequently!) this has also happened to me on the FantasyGo website, so I am afraid that I cannot award FantasyGo more than two stars in this regard.

Conclusion: Since FantasyGo is a BRAND NEW entrant in the Highly Competitive Global Fantasy Sport Arena I am not going to be too critical of its administrators for making TWO VERY POOR DECISIONS (in my opinion, of course), i.e. allowing ONE Fantasy Contestant to enter more than one Fantasy Team per Contest and moving the Cut-off Time for Team Editions forward to a time slot where the former can no longer be done. I am, however, also not going to let them get away with it, entirely, so for each of said poor decisions I am going to deduct one star from the perfect complement of five hellopeter stars, to give them an overall rating of 3/5 stars.

I believe they have earned their three stars for the things they have done well (once again, in my opinion), so for now, I am going to say - 3/5 (60%) isn't bad, for a beginning, even more so, in a highly competitive market place, but in the above mentioned two areas, especially, there is, certainly room for improvement - In this industry one should always strive to stay true to the Essential Purpose of Fantasy Sport Contest. The day one begins to make decisions contrary to said Purpose is the day one begins to offer something that is LESS than what the Classic Fantasy Sport Competition Experience SHOULD be like . . .