Sleeper Pros and Cons
Welcome back truthers! So far we have covered both ESPN and Yahoo!’s fantasy football platforms.
Today we’re going to jump into one of my personal favorite platforms, Sleeper. Sleeper is a smaller fantasy football start up out of San Francisco and really started to emerge on the fantasy scene in 2019. After raising 7.3 million in venture capital, the small upstart is looking to continue to compete with the fantasy giants and disrupt the norm in the fantasy football world. Sleeper aims to be different than its competitors, let’s see how it stacks up.
The Pros:
Sleeper is my personal favorite, but it may not be for everyone. This platform is recommended for seasoned fantasy vets and dynasty nerds. Sleeper really pulls out all the stops. They have a smooth fresh look (Dark Mode), in game updates, and the ability to trash talk and taunt your opponent. Where Sleeper really sets itself apart is it’s drafting capabilities. For starters you have an actual draft board to view!. It’s not just your standard spreadsheet that adds a name every round. This also allows for draft day trades, which is a complete game changer. If you don’t want to pick at the end of a running back run, great, trade down, add picks, and pick the player you would have anyway. You can also execute trades with more than just one team at a time. Arguably the two most fun things in fantasy football are drafting and trading, Sleeper absolutely nails them both!
Sleeper also boasts a robust user interface that allows for league chat, poll creation, and the ability to pin an announcement at the top for the entire league to see. This allows maximum interaction with your entire league without having to utilize third party platforms like facebook.
The commissioner tools are second to none and allow you to not only customize standard rules and scoring settings, but allows you full blown capability to edit every little nook and cranny of your fantasy football league. You can even edit point bonuses by position, so if you want to score your half backs at 1.5 PPR, or give your quarterback an extra point for that TD run, you can! Few other platforms offer the overall player experience that Sleeper provides, and the commissioner experience is even better.
Cons:
As good as Sleeper is, it’s not without its flaws. For starters, their projections and rankings are complete dog shit, and don’t seem to follow any conventional wisdom whatsoever. This can be very confusing for newer players, but refreshing for experienced players who are often able to sit back and snipe talented players on draft day. The user interface can be a bit overwhelming and it’s fairly difficult to navigate, especially if you have multiple leagues. While the trade features are the best features on the platform, the screens can also be difficult to comprehend especially as you add in draft picks and additional teams. Also if you’re wanting to do an auction league format, Sleeper is a no go as they do not offer it on their platform. This is a huge miss in my opinion.
The gameday experience pales in comparison to ESPN, and is often laggy. The app itself is still light years behind ESPN as well. Cosmetically, it is just not as pleasing. There is also the entire concept of the mascot. While some may enjoy this feature, I find it hokey and annoying. If I wanted to trade imaginary cookies for imaginary creatures I’d fire up the old Game Boy.
Bottom line
Sleeper is one of the most advanced fantasy sites on the world wide web. I don't suggest Sleeper if you are a newer player. I love it, but try to get the feel for the game with a little bit of a simpler app like ESPN. When you’re ready to step up your game and play with the pros, I’ll have a Sleeper League ready for you.