CBS vs ESPN vs Yahoo vs Fantrax & Others

[Shake]

I wanted to create a thread for everyone and anyone who wants to chime in on which fantasy provider is the best and most recommended. This thread is for all those owners out there trying to determine which league host site is the best for them and their league(s). Maybe some insight here in this thread and feedback from others will allow owners to become more educated on the various sites and will be able to make a better determination on which site is best for them. This season is winding down but a new season will be here soon enough. Hopefully some insight here will help others.

My personal opinion is Fantrax is the best site hands down. So much customization and settings for any league setup. It basically does everything for you including great setting for prospects. It's not the most attractive interface, but that will come in time. They also add more and more features all the time.

Customer Service IMO has been fantastic!!

The price is very reasonable.

I highly recommend Fantrax to everyone especially for dynasty leagues and salary cap leagues.

So why do you like / dislike your fantasy league host provider?

[Axeman33]

I can honestly say I have never done a fantasy hockey pool on CBS so I have no idea if its a good site or not. I have pretty much got away from Yahoo for fantasy hockey (Im still in one Yahoo keeper) but my primary fantasy hockey preference is easily Fantrax. All my leagues are keepers and with the exception of the league in my sig (we use pickuphockey.com for that one due to no minors) we use fantrax mainly due to the minor league feature. Fantrax is awesome for that.

If your league incorporates minor leaguers, fantrax is the bomb.

[LawMan]

I remember a similar post once before where members were asked to pick a provider and do a pro/con writeup of their provider. Almost no one has used all of the providers so it will be extremely difficult to rank them best to worst. I'd encourage people to list the pros/cons of the sites they have used and avoid generic statements like "Yahoo sucks" without explaining why.

I’ll get the ball rolling with ESPN. I’ve only ever really used ESPN.

Pros
1. All of the pages have a very clean look, they are visually appealing and easy to read.
2. ESPN box scores are bar none my favourite to read, easy to navigate and easy to read.
3. Compare a player allows adding select players and all those players stats for your league are show side-by-side.
4. ESPN allows you to customize your league into divisions (we go 3 of 4 teams) and have a custom schedule (we have an in-division heavy schedule).
5. We only run 1-year leagues but I believe that they have some keeper options.
6. Gives decent news information for all players that’s updated after most games.
7. The universe of players is quite large. For example Radulov and Kuznetsov were added before their respective comeback and entry was announced.
8. If you keep your league year-to-year you can go back and check previous years’ teams, scores, champs and rosters. Kinda cool to see who the 2008 team had on it.
9. ESPN hockey coverage has improved a lot in the last few years so linked articles are pretty good. If you’re in Canada you generally get directed to TSN hockey articles

Cons
1. Lots of multi-position eligible players. I am of the opinion that every player should have only 1 position for the entire season. ESPN started the season with no dual-eligible players but then caved and slower added more and more. Jeff Carter is LW/C/RW eligible. (I should note I’m not sure if ESPN is worse than any other teams).
2. I don’t believe there is a minors system on ESPN.
3. Logging on is a bit of a hassle if you don’t stay logged on. You have to go to the ESPN homepage and then find the fantasy login, there may be an easier way but I find it’s a hassle.
4. Within fantasy sports hockey is completely buried behind football, basketball and baseball.

[Shake]

CBS site looks " nice" and easy on the eyes but the nuts and bolts of their site is not good for the fantasy user. They do not have alot of prospects loaded into their system and they are bad at projections and player eligibility of positions.

I have found fantrax to have tons of low level prospects loaded into their system. It seems I get an email just about everyday of new players being added. They are growing as a site overall and add new features all the time. Lovin me some fantrax!

I can honestly say I have never done a fantasy hockey pool on CBS so I have no idea if its a good site or not. I have pretty much got away from Yahoo for fantasy hockey (Im still in one Yahoo keeper) but my primary fantasy hockey preference is easily Fantrax. All my leagues are keepers and with the exception of the league in my sig (we use pickuphockey.com for that one due to no minors) we use fantrax mainly due to the minor league feature. Fantrax is awesome for that.

If your league incorporates minor leaguers, fantrax is the bomb.

[ericdaoust]

For me functionality wins all the time. Appearance is a factor but when you have to go there every day you forget about the looks pretty quickly. People were bitching about Yahoo this year because shit didn't work.

Fantrax wins.

[plug]

I really like the ease of use with cbs. And I like the prospects not being loaded, it makes my research more valuable over people who do not.

[rainydrinkwater]

None are perfect. Each have negative or positive features that the others may or may not. In saying that I find fantrax to be the least imperfect by far.

Truth be told, I haven't used any of the others in a couple of years at least so I can't comment on any improvements being made or not.

[Shake]

I also like that Fantrax has a treasury option built in. Makes everything easy and all on one site.

For me functionality wins all the time. Appearance is a factor but when you have to go there every day you forget about the looks pretty quickly. People were bitching about Yahoo this year because shit didn't work.

Fantrax wins.

[Pengwin7]

I'm a Yahoo! guy.
My leagues are typically free, for "fun" only.
I've played multiple sports on Yahoo!, ESPN, and CBS... and I find Yahoo! has the easiest user-interface.

Everybody I know that does "money leagues" goes with Fantrax.
I gave it a test run in the off-season and didn't care for it... not pretty enough or fun to use!
Ha, that's my complaint! Not pretty & fun! (silly Pengwin - well, sort of silly... I do prefer my women "fun & pretty" and to hell with best function... I'll figure out how make the "function" part work!)

ps. I've also verified that Yahoo!s opening "ranks" are weighted properly, mathematically.
And like anything else, with a couple keepers on Yahoo!, they've got me by the short & curlies and I can't get free... ahhhhh....

[fungchen3]

I'm a CBS guy for most of my important leagues and the ones I commission. But CBS has its flaws...

Good: Easy to use. Looks great. Saves league history over the years. Nice customization. Trophies. Active customer service. Bells and whistles, etc.

Bad: Live scoring issues on some nights, especially when fantasy baseball starts. Expensive to use compared to others. Inaccurate live scoring at times but eventually fixes.

My problem with Yahoo, ESPN, etc. is I cannot do custom positions and scoring (like bonus points for D and appointing team Captains).