Welcome back to The Daily Grind, the place where I will be discussing all the happenings in Daily Fantasy Sports on a weekly basis. The Daily Grind will be my voice to help you through the constantly changing DFS landscape as I highlight important news, free articles, resources, potential overlay situations, great contests to play and more every week. The emphasis here will be first to cover the four sites that we partnered with this year (FanDuel, DraftKings, FantasyAces and FantasyScore), but I will still discuss major news and contests beyond those sites when applicable.
Last week I got you caught up on the whirlwind of activity in DFS that has happened since February, but the news cycle never ends. It seems now to change almost daily, just like the contest lineups we see. Let’s do a quick recap on the week that was and then look ahead to what lies ahead in Week 2.
NFL Week 1
The word that was used the most around DFS circles to describe NFL Week 1 was “Overlay”, as many contests were looking like they would not fill as of Sunday kickoff. The two biggest contests – the $5 Sunday Million FanDuel contest and the $10 Million Millionaire Maker on DraftKings – were the two contests everyone was highlighting and watching to gauge just how big NFL DFS was getting, and they both told an interesting story. DraftKings was nearly able to fill a contest that had over 570,000 entries for $20 an entry, a remarkable feat. Over 520,000 teams were sold before the contest closed, which worked out to be a mark of 91% full, which I am sure pleased DraftKings with their concerns for overlays both this week and in years prior. That is not to say that other contests on DraftKings were undersold, which did happen, but for the marquee contest to be nearly sold out is a big feather in their cap. The other giant in the DFS industry, FanDuel, had less success in getting their $5 Million filled for Week 1, but did manage to fill many of their other contests including The $1 Sunday Squib which had nearly 115,000 unique user entries - a very positive sign for the DFS community as a whole. FanDuel's largest contest in Week 1, the Sunday $5 Million contest only had just over 168,000 teams despite room for almost 230,000, which left the contest almost 25% empty. Both FanDuel and DraftKings regard these overlay situations as marketing tools to draw in new users, which is certainly the top goal for each company as both try and gain as much market share as possible in the booming DFS market.
Other sites had even bigger struggles in the first week, as practically every site in DFS had overlay for Week 1, whether it was in a GPP or even a large 50/50 contest. Some sites tried to minimize the damage with advertising as much as they could or capping their big contests for Week 1, but the rules are that once a GPP contest is announced it cannot be scaled back in size, so sites must do everything that they can to fill it, else they will lose money when payouts are due. Usually a contest must reach at least 85%, preferably 90%, to break even and have enough entry fees to cover the prize pool. That was certainly not the case for Week 1, and with less than seven days to fill the Week 2 contests (and all the NFL contests the rest of this season), both FanDuel and DraftKings will be pushing hard to get people into their top games. That means more and more advertising from both sites, which hardly seems possible. In case you happened to be living in a cave or under a rock (which would make it hard to read The Daily Grind, so nice WiFi coverage if you are), FanDuel and DraftKings have spent an immense amount of money on ads lately. If you think that they are both in the Top 10 advertisers, you would be correct. DraftKings actually spent over $24 Million in the first week of September to get more people in the contests, which apparently worked as I mentioned earlier with over 90% in their $10M Millionaire Maker contest. The big question is, is this sustainable? Can both FanDuel and DraftKings continue to shell out big dollars for ads to get more and more new players into the DFS fold and play? Apparently so, as neither company is looking to slow down on their advertising spend, or their big contest announcements. Speaking of which….
EVEN BIGGER CONTESTS ANNOUNCED
Just when you thought that these contests could not possibly get any larger, they do – and in a big way. First we had the $5M Sunday Million from FanDuel, then the $10M Millionaire Maker from DraftKings. Now we have two even bigger contests announced from each site. First, FanDuel has announced the $12 Million World Fantasy Football Championship, where first place will win $3 Million. Did you ever think that one player in fantasy football would win three million dollars in a single contest? Me either. But then DraftKings upped the ante again, announcing a $15M contest called the Fantasy Football World Championship. In this contest, qualifiers not only get a trip to Las Vegas, but the Top 10 finishers there move on to another round that will be in Los Angeles in January and televised live on ESPN. First place in this event walks away with a $5 Million first place price. Yes, you read that right. Five million dollars. Unbelievable.
FanDuel also announced, rather quietly, that they are giving away a few cars as well. That’s right, just a few cars. All you have to do is play in September and you get a shot at a car. Miss a week? Miss two? That’s okay as well, as there are “consolation rounds” where you get a shot at a different car. Are you starting to get the idea that FanDuel (and everyone else) wants you to sign up and play? You would be right if you said yes.
DFS INDUSTRY NEWS
As I mentioned earlier, there was a lot of overlay in Week 1, and it is quite possible that it happens again in Week 2. Yahoo was reasonably successful in filling their $1M Contest in Week 1, and they are offering that same contest this week. The entry fee of only $10 is certainly attractive (if you think about it, where else can you play a game of skill for $10 and win a share of $1 Million?), and Yahoo! has a ton of people who visit their site each week for both fantasy football and in general, so this should not be too surprising.
Some other sites struggled more last week, especially StarsDraft, the former Victiv site that was acquired by Amaya. Their interface was unable to keep up with demand Sunday morning, a big problem for DFS players that impacted several contests and sites last season. This issue is the worst scenario for a site as DFS players that want to enter more teams cannot do in the final hours before kickoff, and this creates frustration with that site and could negatively impact their bottom line not just in that week but in the future. Fortunately StarsDraft handled this well and made improvements for Week 2 to help prevent this from happening again, and they also made offers towards frustrated players from Week 1 to keep everyone happy. This short term pain for a site should pay off bigger later on down the line, so it was good to see StarsDraft respond so well from the Week 1 hiccup.
Not all of the news was particular to any site. DFS is in the spotlight everywhere, and with so much money on the table and at stake, it is not that surprising that some legal challenges are popping up once again. Two recent concerns bubbled up in both New Jersey and Massachusetts, where legislators are questioning both DFS in general, and in the particular example in Massacusetts, challenging DraftKings in particular. Now, before anyone gets too excited, know this. According to the law as of today, under the UIGEA, DFS contests are 100% legal. Nearly every U.S. state has approved these contests (some remain in opposition of the UIGEA stance), so DFS sites have a very good footing under the law. But with any emerging market where there is a ton of money on the table and lots of people are winning big prizes, governmental intervention and legal challenges are bound to happen. What will be the ultimate outcome of all of these? It is unclear right now, but until we know more, play on and enjoy the DFS climate as it stands. We’ll keep you covered and as we know more, so will you thanks to The Daily Grind.
FOOTBALLGUYS DFS CONTESTS
Footballguys wants all of their readers to get in on the fun. With the help of both FanDuel and DraftKings, several contests are now available for Week 2. Let’s start by talking about a contest with a built-in overlay of $40,000. The Footballguys Football Championship, presented by FanDuel, offers contestants with a shot at not just a double-up opportunity on their $10 entry, but also a chance at one of the final prizes. All you have to do is beat Sigmund Bloom, David Dodds and Joe Bryant’s scores in a given week and you get a ticket for the Week 11 final contest, where first place will win $5,000. That’s a pretty sweet deal on top of a normal double-up contest. This one should fill up quickly.
DraftKings fans are not left out of the loop either. Footballguys is giving away $1,000 in a Freeroll this week on DraftKings, where not only does the first place finisher walk away with a free thousand dollars, but the Top 200 finishers also win a year’s subscription to Footballguys. You can’t beat that deal for a freeroll.
So, that about does it for what happened since just before Week 1 kicked off. Pretty quiet week, don’t you think?
Now let’s talk about Footballguys’ DFS coverage and even more contests from our top four sites for Week 2:
FOOTBALLGUYS AND DFS COVERAGE FOR 2015
Footballguys also did not stand still this offseason. I personally cannot believe how far we have come in such a short time, but it speaks volumes about the staff that Footballguys is so fortunate to have at its disposal. Since the Super Bowl, we decided to dedicate a large amount of effort and resources towards covering DFS fantasy football, because that’s what we are all about. We created not just one but two e-books to cover FanDuel (“Cracking FanDuel”) and DraftKings (“Cracking DraftKings”), and we could not be happier with how they turned out. As fellow Footballguy John Lee likes to point out, no matter what skill level you are at, every DFS player can get something from these two books. The basics of DFS NFL contests all the way up to advanced strategies are extensively covered like no one else can so everyone can hit the ground running this season.
But we did not stop there. The Daily Crusher App was invented and released this year by Footballguys so that DFS players can create lineups for cash games and tournaments and also get deep analysis on their rosters, likelihood of winning and exposure to various players. It can also help you to build, manage and customize lineups across several sites plus check news and articles for DFS. Once you start using this, it will be hard to imagine how you ever lived without it. I'm still learning all the different ways to use this great tool both by experimenting with it and with the help of our Daily Crusher Manual and I can already see its immense value to me as both a cash game and GPP player.
There's a ton more coverage we have this season for DFS, too much to outline in this opening of The Daily Grind, but we have a large section dedicated to each of our sponsor sites listed below.
DraftKings Coverage for Week 2
FantasyAces Coverage for Week 2
FantasyScore Coverage for Week 2
Let's also not forget about the Footballguys' blogs for both FanDuel and DraftKings. Watch for new content every day over there.
We even added new video content for 2015. In a partnership with Rotogrinders, you can now see both John Lee and Austin Lee with Dan Back on The Footballguys Rotogrinders Hour. It is a great show with lots of insight. Check it out!
DFS PARTNERSHIPS WITH FOOTBALLGUYS
So before I get into all the Week 2 contests and how Footballguys can help you succeed and win more than your fair share this week, let’s talk quickly as to why Footballguys partnered with these four sites in particular. FanDuel and DraftKings were easy decisions as they are clearly the top two places to play DFS contests right now. FantasyAces represents the next best site for two reasons – first, they have several live final events, a rare but highly coveted experience for DFS players. They also offer a unique starting lineup for football that requires both two starting quarterbacks and two flex positions, so this variation also sets them apart. Last but not least is FantasyScore, which offers a weekly draft format either in the form of a scheduled draft or a quick “Draft-and-Go” structure where players can hop in right away and start drafting. All four sites offer unique experiences and a large sampling of what the DFS space has to offer football players.
As stated earlier, I will focus predominantly on these four sites here in The Daily Grind, but I also want to make sure that you as the DFS player does not miss out on large opportunities to earn life-changing money. So whenever a new contest that has a big payout or a large overlay possible each week, I will try and make sure you know it when I know it and can take your shot at winning that big prize, regardless of the site hosting the contest.
DFS SITE BREAKDOWNS
I created a brief comparison chart of several DFS sites to cover the roster differences, salary cap budgets and different scoring formats so you can have a quick reference guide and choose which sites you want to play on for DFS fantasy football. Check it out and let me know what changes or additions you would like to see.
Next, our friends over at LegalSportsReport added a great summary of frequently asked questions regarding DFS. From the basics of how and where to play to how much you can win, many of your most common questions and answers are summarized in a brief article. Also included are topics like how much you can win, money considerations (bonuses, deposits, withdrawals) and, of course, the legality of the DFS contests. Be sure to check it out.
BIG CONTESTS FOR WEEK 2
FANDUEL
Whenever you start to talk about major DFS sites and contests, FanDuel has to be mentioned. From the Week 2 $5 Million Contest where someone will win a million bucks from a $25 entry all the way down to the NFL Sunday Rush, where someone will turn five bucks into $100,000. That's some amazing possibilities right there, but of course FanDuel keeps on adding to the chances at life-changing money. First, FanDuel partnered with Footballguys to create an exclusive Footballguys-FanDuel Championship with over $40,000 in free prizes where you can turn a double-up entry into a ticket for a Week 11 final where if you can beat Joe Bryant, David Dodds and Sigmund Bloom in the week you can add up to $5,000 to that $20 you won in the $10 double-up. That's pretty sweet right there. And of course you have to take note of the Playboy College Football Championship, where you can earn one of 70 exclusive entries to the PCFC event at the Playboy Mansion on November 21st. Qualifiers will be running all season long at FanDuel, so take some shots at these great tournaments with extra incentives and prizes. Let's also not forget about the biggest one of them all, the $12M Fantasy Football World Championship that was announced last week. Find a qualifier you like and take a shot and winning millions of dollars. The hard part is not deciding if to play, but which contests to target and try and take down.
DRAFTKINGS
Last time I talked about DraftKings going over the top with a contest giving out $10 Million in prizes in a single tournament. I thought that DraftKings had really gone over the top with such a big contest, but I must have been underestimating them. Leave it to DraftKings to top that mark with a $15 Million contest announcement during Week 1 weekend. I think I need to stop saying that it couldn't get any bigger, because clearly it can and does, year after year.
As far as this week, there are plenty of tournaments at DraftKings to sink your teeth into, even after the Millionaire Maker. At a price point of just $3, the $1M Play-Action tournament is certainly appealing, and so is the $500K Slant for only $9 an entry. There' are also several giant 50/50 contests in the lobby as well, including a $25 entry with 10,000 winners about to get $50 Tuesday morning. Lots of contests and lots of money to be had in Week 2.
FANTASYACES
You have to check out what FantasyAces is offering this season. Not only are they going bigger and better for the NFL, but they are also going for a Live Final for College Football!
First, FantasyAces announced the $500,000 NFL Live Final for 2015, which will be in Las Vegas on December 13th. The live final will have 40 entrants competing for a $100,000 grand prize. Qualifiers will run all season long up until the live event, including satellites to get into qualifiers at a discount.
The other major event for FantasyAces is their other live final, the $100,000 College Football Live Final. The live event will take place in Newport Beach, CA on November 21st where 13 finalist will compete for the $100,000 prize pool. The only way to claim a seat to the live final is to win a FACFC qualifier contest, which will be held weekly beginning September 3.
FantasyAces also has an interesting format called SalaryPro, where you get bonus points for staying furhter and further under the salary cap. More and more are trying out this unique format, so be sure to check out the lobby over at FantasyAces for contests that use this rule.
FANTASYSCORE
FantasyScore is offering up a GPP with a twist this year. If you can finish in the Top 3 in their Fantasy Football Championship Satellite, you can grab an elusive golden ticket for an entry towards the Week 16 championship game where $25,000 will be awarded. Another way to get a ticket is to go after the $20 entry satellite that is giving away four tickets.
Footballguys has you covered here - both in major DFS announcements and the tools you need to build winning lineups.
As an example, here is a fantastic article byJames Brimacombe that breaks down Week 1's FanDuel Sunday Million contest.
FANDUEL'S SUNDAY MILLION WEEK 1 RECAP
by James Brimacombe
FanDuel just kicked off the 2015 NFL Season with a massive Week 1 Sunday Million contest, requiring a $25 entry fee with 46,000 people getting paid out. This massive $5 million GPP tournament had 229,885 entries available for buy ins and only ended up filling to 168,162 spots creating some great overlay for the customer. Every week FanDuel will be running a Sunday Million GPP Contest and we will break it down here at Footballguys.com and see what the keys were to having the top lineup on the week and taking home the top prize of $1 million.
Here's how Week 1 shook out.
|
|
DFS Screen Name | Points | Prize Money |
| 1st | jeremybronson | 201.32 | $1,000,000 |
| 2nd | jeepers77 | 189.10 | $350,000 |
| 3rd | jeepers77 | 187.60 | $150,000 |
| 4th | migthetig | 186.64 | $100,000 |
| 5th | redrocks | 186.54 | $75,000 |
With a contest that has 168,162 entries it is hard to believe that jeremybronson's team could win by 12.22 points over 2nd place jeepers77. That is a very impressive feat in such a big entry GPP. To do that jeremybronson had to really have a unique lineup with some highly under owned players in it. Let's take a look at his lineup and what percentage made up his team.
Jeremybronson's team was made up of six players that were less than 3.3% owned with quarterback Alex Smith 0.6%, running back Carlos Hyde 2.2%, wide receiver Percy Harvin 0.5%, wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins 3.3%, kicker Steven Hauschka 3.3%, and San Francisco 49ers 0.6%. Even after hitting on six of his nine roster spots with such low owned guys he also had Jamaal Charles at a 5.6% ownership rate and Tyler Eifert at 4.8% and the only guy he had over 6% owned wasJulio Jones who came in at 30.5%.
It was an interesting QB/RB stack that he rolled with pairing Alex Smith with Jamaal Charles -- knowing that Charles is a great receiver out of the backfield -- and it paid off, with Smith finding Charles for the passing touchdown. He had a great mix of guys in the Monday Night games as well with Carlos Hyde, Julio Jones, and the 49ers Defense to help him sweat out the $1,000,000 victory. This lineup overall was a perfect example of how to be contrarian without going too crazy off the board.
| Position | Player | Salary | FanDuel Points | % Owned |
| QB | Alex Smith | $6,600 | 23.22 | 0.6% |
| RB | Jamaal Charles | $8,900 | 18.80 | 5.6% |
| RB | Carlos Hyde | $7,300 | 31.20 | 2.2% |
| WR | Julio Jones | $9,000 | 30.60 | 30.5% |
| WR | Percy Harvin | $5,600 | 17.30 | 0.5% |
| WR | DeAndre Hopkins | $7,800 | 28.30 | 3.3% |
| TE | Tyler Eifert | $5,000 | 26.90 | 4.8% |
| K | Steven Hauschka | $5,100 | 11.00 | 3.3% |
| D | San Francisco 49ers | $4,600 | 14.00 | 0.6% |
| $59,900 | 201.32 |
Looking at the Top 10 teams in the Sunday Million and it is interesting to see the same group of core players rostered but also how Julio Jones was on every single team in the top 10. At QB there was a good mix of options that you could have put together for a solid team and no QB was selected more than twice (Taylor, Romo, Rivers, and Bradford). At running back it was Lacy rostered on 5 teams followed by Ivory on 4 teams. Charles, Hyde, and Hill were also on 3 of the top 10 teams. At receiver it was all about Julio Jones as he appeared on every single top 10 team followed by Hopkins (4), and Allen (4).
At ight end, it was Tyler Eifert that was on the top four teams and six of the top 10 overall. Kelce was the next with two teams, and Witten and Seferian-Jenkins were the other two. At kicker ,it was McManus at minimum price $4,500 who was on eight of the 10 rosters with Hauschka and Gano as the other two. The New York Jets were the most popular choice on defense being on 4 of 10 lineups.
| Finish | Score | QB | RB1 | RB2 | WR1 | WR2 | WR3 | TE | K | DEF |
| 1 | 201.32 | Smith | Charles | Hyde | Jones | Hopkins | Harvin | Eifert | Hauschka | 49ers |
| 2 | 189.10 | Taylor | Charles | Lacy | Jones | Hopkins | Landry | Eifert | McManus | NYJ |
| 3 | 187.60 | Taylor | Charles | Lacy | Jones | Hopkins | Matthews | Eifert | McManus | NYJ |
| 4 | 186.64 | Romo | Ivory | Lacy | Jones | Allen | Williams | Eifert | McManus | MIA |
| 5 | 186.54 | Romo | Ivory | Lacy | Jones | Landry | Matthews | Seferian-Jenkins | McManus | NYJ |
| 6 | 186.04 | Bradford | Ivory | Hyde | Jones | Allen | Matthews | Witten | Gano | MIA |
| 7 | 185.56 | Rivers | Ivory | Hill | Jones | Allen | Williams | Kelce | McManus | DEN |
| 8 | 185.02 | Ryan | Stewart | Hill | Jones | Hopkins | S.Johnson | Eifert | McManus | NYJ |
| 9 | 184.16 | Rivers | Ellington | Hill | Jones | Allen | S.Johnson | Eifert | McManus | STL |
| 10 | 183.34 | Bradford | Lacy | Hyde | Jones | Landry | Adams | Kelce | McManus | CAR |
The Sunday Million will be back next week with the exact same prize pool as last week with $5,000,000 in guaranteed prizes. Head over to FanDuel now and catch the action for Week 2.
Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com.
