Live Draft Party
Yahoo does not have enough options to accommodate live drafts. Did a live draft this year and it worked out great but I had to use Clickydraft instead of yahoo. The options that made us choose Clickydraft are:
Read only URL of live draftboard. This allows anybody to stream the draftboard where they have a web browser. We were able to put the draftboard up on a 70in tv for everyone to see at draft party.
Extend draft pick timer and pause timer. While hosting a live draft party with 10 close friends and a lot of drinking, it would be nice to have the ability to adjust the pick timer (even mid-draft) and allow the commissioner to pause draft for when there are significant interruptions and shenanigans happening.
Allow for managers to either pick from their own devices or the commissioner can make their picks for them. This allows for if one or more people can't make it, to be able to combine the live draft and online draft.
I don't have any affiliation with Clickydraft but you should check them out for how to run a draft. This would greatly improve the whole draft process and make Yahoo unique.

30 comments
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John Sofillas commented
Couldn't agree with this concept any more. Our league has been using Clickydraft.com for a couple years now because they allow all these custom formatting. Then I have to transfer the picks into Yahoo. Very annoying. This needs to happen. PLEASE YAHOO! MAKE THIS CHANGE!!!!
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Phillip Heffner commented
We were wanting to be able to project the live draft onto a separate screen. Whether that be from a "Guest" owner or something. We just want to be able to show the draft progress without showing someones player rankings
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Evan Cole commented
What's missing is the ability to have some people draft online and others offline. Seems like it would be a very frequent occurrence for a league to be going, then one team moves away and would still like to be in the league. Currently there is no way to accommodate this.
With your draft board idea, you could have some people (out of the area friends) draft on their computer, see the draft happening from the offline group sitting together in a room and see the picks appear as they are entered.
It is important to allow the commissioner to enter picks so you don't need a laptop for every team. If you're out of town and want to make your own selections, just choose an option not allowing commissioner to make your picks. Or team that will be at the offline draft can allow the commissioner to make their picks.
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Lucas Corbin commented
Yeah, there should be a way to do a offline and online draft at the same time. We have a a big party for two separate drafts on the same day but everyone can't make it all the time. And it's stupid to have 10 people on their phones or computers because 2 people live far away. It would be great if there was a TV app that acted like a draft board that the commish was in charge of so everyone could see it. But at least be on the computer that the commish could run it.
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john gilleland commented
I submitted a few of these ideas in 2013 and every comment was YAHOO DO THIS NOW. here we are 4 years later and they still haven't accommodated. I hear CBS has some nice options around this but Im not moving the league. HURRY UP YAHOO!
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Anonymous commented
This is all a definite need for Live Drafts, we do one every year. Another note, my league is a Keeper/Dynasty league, so I am very interested in this guy's #2 point. We need the Live Draft Time extended beyond 2 minutes, what is the reasoning behind limiting your commissioners to 2 minutes per round? Please allow up to at least 5 minutes for Live Drafts...Keeper/Dynasty leagues need this time for Live Draft trading, not possible with only 2minutes on the clock. Thankyou and good points all around on the suggestion, let's keep pushing for this guys, get everyone you know to vote so we can get this changed
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Tom commented
This thread has turned into a gathering spot for drafting enhancements. There are some good ideas here! Yahoo, send this thread onto your developers so they can give it a look see!
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Jim commented
For our league, it would be useful to have a live draft board. I realize that when you are doing a live draft from your computer, you are able to view everyone's team individually, but its useful to be able to see every drafted player on every single team at once. In our league, we do our draft live, but have been searching for an opportunity to project a draft board, updated in real time onto a large screen TV. This is helpful because instead of shuffling through each individual team, you can see at a glance which team go which player. It also creates a better drafting atmosphere, as it unites the advantages of online drafts with offline drafts.
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Anonymous commented
The commissioner should have more control during the draft. Pause feature should be unlimited and without hindrance. Correcting draft picks, adding players for teams if technically issues arise should be a must.
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Mark Cosgrove commented
I had the same issue, this would be a great fix!
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Robert Cochran commented
I would like a draft option that would allow a League to do the draft from one computer. The "Draft Computer" or DC (as I will call it) could then be attached to a large HDTV. If your League drafts at a home, office or bar this option would allow for the interaction of an offline draft without the hassle of marking a board and tracking players drafted. It could work with the app as well allowing each person logged in to see live, players drafted and who is left. The DC would need to be the only place a person could make their draft selection. This would help with the problems with your favorite bar having terrible internet connection. If the connection is lost the draft would merely pause till connection is reestablished. I have done to many online drafts at bars because I don't want to hassle with a marker boards and watched managers loose a pick because they lost a connection and could not reestablish it before the time expired. I believe this would be a new and fun option that I would like to see.
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Sean Santiago commented
Just to be clear. ONE Computer for 12 Teams (24 League Members). They yell out their pick, I click the button. Otherwise the router has to accommodate 12 computers instead of just 1.
Get it?!??
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Sean Santiago commented
We like to have a live draft. We HATE importing all the teams in manually afterwards. If we could use ONE Computer to select the player, but follow all the other rules of an ONLINE draft that would be AMAZEBALLS.
And yes, the Yahoo people were the pioneers of the online Fantasy, but BOY have you guys declined...DO SOME WORK!!
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JJ King commented
I agree with a simple draft interface that allows you to see ADP and board during your draft. Something you can have up during your offline draft on your TV and also something your buddies out of town can get involved with by signing in. Then import all of your selections.
I'm having to find another separate draft option for my party to include my out of town buddies. -
David Jayanathan commented
Even something as simple as having an "observer" feature for the commish to show the draft board on a secondary screen would be ideal. Right now when I draft I'm unable to leverage things like pre-draft rankings/values or watch list. Very cumbersome!
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Dcat commented
FantasyFootballCalculator.com has the best draftinterface I've ever seen. This abomination forced down our throats by yahoo is a cluttered, inefficient mess. To only be able to see other teams one a t a time is just fking stupid.
Please Yahoo..... do what FantasyFootballCalculator.com does. Your draft interface sucks. You suck.
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Anonymous commented
excellent idea this way you can see available list on your app and see the draft results wiout having to toggle. the scrolling list in the bottom corner is worthless.
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Anonymous commented
The many tabs take to long to load and are sometime confusing. Allow draft results to be projected on a draft board.
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Schuyler Collier commented
THIS SHOULD BE IN THE APP! My draft would be much better if we had a big board and could log in via laptop or tablet.
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Yahoo = Brainless commented
the draft interface is f'king horrible. Whoever designed it should be tarred and feathered. IT IS ***THAT*** BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!