Eight Detroit Lions Set to Hit the Fantasy Sports Stock Market
By Zac Snyder
Fantasy football’s meteoric rise in popularity has taken it from a fringe accessory to a focal point of the game. I was big into fantasy football and baseball until I discovered a different angle to fantasy sports: the fantasy sports stock market.
Athletexchange.com (also known as AX) is a fantasy sports stock market that offers prizes to successful traders while remaining completely free to play. Just like any fantasy sports experience, you will get out of it what you put into it.
Think about your typical fantasy football league. If you have a lousy draft and miss on a couple sleeper picks it can make for a long year, especially if you have to listen to your buddies talk about how great their teams are. Your arch-nemesis wound up picking up the next great undrafted sleeper? That means you’re out of luck. Not so on AthleteXchange. At AX you manage a portfolio rather than a roster. That means multiple traders can, and will, hold the same player at the same time. The earlier you get in on 2010’s breakout player the richer the reward in $AX profits. The market works just like the real stock market; buying pressure sends a stock’s price upward. AX also provides for shorting players that will fail to live up to their price due to injury or underperformance. Yes, you can even make $AX from a player’s misfortunes.
That brings me to the prices. AthleteXchange has their NFL IPO set for tonight at 9 p.m. EDT. The IPO prices are set by player stat projections and calculating a price based on AX’s scoring rules. Think of the scoring rules like the point values assigned to stat categories in traditional fantasy football. The full explanation of how AX scoring works is available on their website.
Matthew Stafford receives the highest IPO price of all the Lions players. Stafford will hit the market at $237.45 (remember this isn’t real money). To give some perspective on what this means, Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning will each be IPO’d at over $390. Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Tony Romo, Matt Shaub, Carson Palmer, Brett Favre, Donovan McNabb, Tom Brady, Eli Manning, Matt Ryan, Jay Cutler, Kevin Kolb, Joe Flacco, David Garrard, Vince Young, Alex Smith, Kyle Orton, Jason Campbell, and Matt Cassell will all be priced higher than Matthew Stafford. I’m thinking major earning potential here.
Jahvid Best has been pegged for an opening price of $188.36, a far cry from the $343.23 of Chris Johnson. Arian Foster and Shonn Greene are two other running backs that will have IPO prices just above Best’s. This will be one to watch as the Lions settle their workload.
Calvin Johnson will have an IPO price of $166.32. This price puts him squarely between Terrell Owens and Anquan Boldin, nice names but names that Calvin should be able to outpace with the Lions’ suddenly potent offense. Nate Burleson will also receive an IPO. His value is set between that of Jordy Nelson and Steve Breaston by his $120.09 price.
Four other Lions will be part of AX’s NFL IPO; Jason Hason at $81.60, Tony Scheffler at $67.39, Brandon Pettigrew at $65.21 and Kevin Smith at $64.43.