Hello all, Pickwatch Shaun here to tell you about our new development work for the 2020 NFL season.
We know this year has been... 'different', but that hasn't stopped us here at Pickwatch. We have 3 major new features and a host of small tweaks and changes to the site to improve how you get the most out of our data.
We also have an amazing new prize contest and format that we think you'll love too.
So here we go...!
Pickwatch v9.0
Pickwatch Private Pick'em Pools
Pickwatch Coins
KC Joyner, The Football Scientist
New Stats section
Pickwatch + Draftkings
Pickwatch Private Pick'em Pools
We know tens of thousands of you play pick'em on Pickwatch in our big fan table. That's cool, but we also know many of you host pick'em leagues between you and friends, family and colleagues elsewhere.
We also know that in many cases, you're paying for the privilege!
Not any more. From today, you can create or join Pick'em leagues on Pickwatch and invite anyone you like to your own customized contest, with your rules!
Features:
Give your league a custom name (more customization options coming later such as Avatars, league colors etc)
Select straight up, ATS and/or confidence games (you can run all three in the same league!)
Set league as private (invite only) or public (any Pickwatch user can join)
Set maximum number of players in a league
Set maximum amount that can be staked using Pickwatch Coins on each game (see below for more info about Pickwatch Coins)
Get a copy and paste invite link that allows anyone who has it to join
Picks are hidden until kickoff, to avoid people copying your picks (addresses issue with old pick'em contest where users could match people's picks to guarantee they stayed ahead of them)
All spreads and odds are from Draftkings with live updating. You get the spread when you pick, if the spread updates, you can change your pick to the new spread or keep your old one.
The new pick sheet to the right of the table allows you to pick all games from one place, S/U, ATS and confidence.
Change the odds format (default is American, can be changed to decimal or fractional odds)
Coin balance updates in real time (see more below)
Leaderboard keeps track of weekly results, top players and worst pickers for each week of the season.
New podium for the top 3 players in each league.
There is a lot more to come with Private Leagues. We have one feature we are racing to get out before the season begins that will allow you to add experts as 'ghost' players in your league. In theory, your private league can be as simple as you and 9 or 90 experts who you want to play against! type: entry-hyperlink id: 4KO62Ok13S6OVL1a28jGow
Pickwatch Coins
We have wanted to implement a virtual currency or 'play money' to Pickwatch for years now, so we're super-excited to do it this season.
Last year we used 'units' to measure your confidence in a pick, but this is a very limited concept and ultimately, most people simply stuck 5 units on everything (we see you!)
So we wanted to replicate the reality of picking NFL games. You have a limited amount of coins to play with each week, so you can't simply load up on every game.
Pickwatch Coins are your virtual money that you can 'bet' with on Pickwatch. While they're not real dollars, they're a great way of playing without any risk and getting to grips with your performance and that of others in a way you can easily keep track of.
Most importantly, Pickwatch Coins are the way you can win our $10,000 in our Supercontest! The winners this year will be decided by how many coins they win, as opposed to simply the games they win. This will also help you understand who is really hot and has won the Coins to prove it, as opposed to a blanket approach.
Features:
Get 400 free Pickwatch Coins for the new season as a registered player
Wager those coins any way you choose, on straight up or ATS games
Check your balance in your wallet (click your coin balance and select 'my wallet')
Get more coins for joining private leagues
Get LIVE odds from Draftkings and simulate real bets
Track your coins in the top right of the screen, or under the league banner in a private league
Balance updates in real time as you stake
If you remove a stake, the coins are credited back to your account and can be staked on another game
For each game (up to 16) that you stake on each week, you will receive a further 10 Pickwatch Coins to bet with the following week (so even if you lose them all, there's always next week!)
Profit and Loss columns added to tables - Coins added as a 'top up' each week do not count towards your contest score. It's all about what you do with them!
Maximum bet on any single game is 50 coins (subject to adjustment during the season as the game evolves)
In private leagues, every player starts with 400 coins in the league. They cannot be used in other leagues or on the main pages, just in that league.
Your wallet shows a breakdown of how you're performing across every league you're in, as well as your total across all leagues!
We have a number of additions planned with coins in future, particularly allowing you to earn coins in ways other than picking games, such as interacting with features on the site and your fellow players. Keep an eye on that over the coming months!
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KC Joyner
KC Joyner is one of our favorite experts and the 2nd most accurate human (behind Jamey Eisenberg) to have picked every game over the last 6 years.
It's an impressive resume when it comes to picks, but not as impressive as KC's background in analytics and the NFL, which makes me extremely happy that he's joined Pickwatch for 2020.
Not only will KC be providing an exclusive picks column each week on our pages, with explanations and logic behind his picks, but he'll also be hosting the new Pickwatch podcast every week.
All this is very exciting for us here, so make sure you extend a warm welcome to KC on twitter.
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Pickwatch x Draftkings
We provide a lot of information to improve your picking game, but this year we have also partnered with Draftkings to bring you two main things:
1) Live odds and spreads that power our pick'em games and 2) Exclusive offers and freebies.
The first is pretty self-explanatory: All of the odds you see on the site for the NFL are powered directly via Draftkings. They provide us with up to the minute odds and spreads that reflect exactly what you get from their site. This is incredibly useful for those of you who use Pickwatch to track your mock betting performance each season. It also means we can offer real moneyline odds, so you can get a big payout of Pickwatch Coins for getting the underdogs right...
The second part is something that is being opened up more all of the time. If you live in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Indiana, Colorado, Illinois, West Virginia and soon, Michigan, you'll receive information about the best free bets and offers that Draftkings have available.
They're often very time limited - like this week's insane KC +101 offer that is essentially a license to print $45 for yourself, so get on it while they're available, it all helps you and us become bigger and better.
Stats, Stats and more Stats...
Many of you will know that I have a personal ambition and interest in changing how NFL stats work. This year, my own new column, Best Bets will cover the statistical picks generated by the Pickwatch Computer.
Don't worry, Upset Watch isn't going anywhere, but we have an algorithmic approach to picking games, and it is time to make that public.
Alongside the columns, the raw stats are there for you to explore. We have a new team stats section, player stats and news, game stats and dedicated pages for each team with depth charts, rosters and injuries.
and Finally...
As always, we have the best expert picks, we're tracking every expert again for our 9th year. We're the best at this, because we know how important it is that you get this information quickly and accurately. We also work with experts to get their voice out there, meaning we often get data that is unseen anywhere else.
We have big plans to expand not only our core NFL product (more on that in coming weeks) but also now is certainly the time for us to move further afield. We will be making an announcement during the season about more sports being incorporated into the Pickwatch banner in 2020 and 2021.
As always, it's great to have you with us. Let's go!