There is absolutely no question that the biggest area of growth right now in fantasy football is with the explosion of Daily Fantasy Contests. With several top sites out there already and more entering this space each day, Footballguys is expanding the coverage in this arena to give Footballguys Insiders exclusive coverage of the latest news and information of Daily Fantasy Football.
Over the course of this football season, we will talk about numerous aspects of Daily Fantasy Football. From articles on these sites, strategies to win daily contests, bankroll (money management) strategy, different league and game types, signup and reload bonuses, players to target each week and even contests that look to be undersubscribed ("overlays"), we will cover it all. Welcome to the one-stop shop for Daily coverage.
Please note that even though the NFL has weekly Thursday games and DFS sites have contests that start on Thursdays, in general we will be looking at the majority of the contests and DFS games that do not begin until Sunday. Our weekly coverage does include Thursday DFS information if you are looking to get a jump on the DFS action for the week with the first game on Thursday.
INDUSTRY NEWS
In case you missed it this week, there was another "merger" of sorts in the DFS space. Members of FantasyThrowDown received this message in the past week:
Important News Regarding Your FanTD Account
You are receiving this email because MGT Sports has added FanTD to the DraftDay player pool. Since you have both a FanTD and DraftDay account, all of your FanTD funds have been added to your DD account balances, including bonus funds. Any Tournament Dollars you had on FanTD have been converted to real cash.
If you have any questions about this process, please contact DraftDay customer support at support@draftday.com.
Now, this isn't a big surprise as MGT Sports owned both sites, but it does highlight that mergers and consolidation is the name of the game right now with Daily Fantasy Sports sites. Stay tuned for more news as it happens.
DFS Glossary
If you are new to Daily Fantasy Sports, I recommend that you take a look at this general list of common terms for DFS games. Consider it a "DFS Glossary" for future reference.
- 50/50 Contest – A contest in which the prize pool is split evenly among the top 50% of the entrants. For example, a game with 50 entrants would have 25 winners. The amount of cash won by each person is slightly lower than double the entry free (e.g. $50 entry fee = $90 cash prize).
- Auction draft – A draft system in which team managers bid for players. Each manager is give a specific allotment of cash and must build his lineup without exceeding his budget. Players are put on the auction block via rounds.
- DFS – Stands for "daily fantasy sports".
- DPP – Stands for the "dollars per point" for a given player (or team defense). This allows you to compare similar players in a value scale. For example, if one running back costs $10,000 in salary and projected to score 20 points, he is $500 per point. In general, cheaper is better, as you would rather get a running back that should score 20 points for $8,000 ($400 per point) than $10,000 in the previous example. This is the opposite of points per dollar (PPD).
- Entrant – Any person who enters a daily fantasy sports contest.
- Entry fee – Sometimes called the “buy in,” this is the amount of money you must pay in order to enter a contest. This fee includes the rake (see “rake” below) collected by the daily fantasy sports site.
- FDPs – Stands for "FanDuel Points". FanDuel awards you with FDPs each time you enter a real cash contest. You can use the points to enter future contests and avoid the entry fees. If you accrue enough FDPs, Fan Duel will also allow you to enter monthly freerolls (see “freeroll” below).
- FPPG – Stands for the average number of “fantasy points per game” scored by each player. When you draft a lineup, you can rank players by their FPPG scores. Doing so will help you to identify those who may be on streaks.
- FPPs – Stands for "Frequent Player Points" at DraftKings. Similar to FanDuel and its FDPs, DraftKings awards you with FPPs each time you enter a cash contest. The number of points you earn is based on the amount of each contest’s entry fee (the higher the fee, the more points you’re awarded). The deposit bonus you receive after making your first deposit is released incrementally as you accrue FPPs ($1 is released for each 100 FPPs earned).
- Freeroll – A contest that does not require an entry fee to participate. Some freerolls offer real money prizes to the winners, some provide free entry into contests with relatively high buy-ins, and some are just for fun.
- Game variants – Types of contests offered by daily fantasy sports sites. They include H2Hs, 50/50s, qualifiers, multipliers, and guaranteed prize pool (GPP) contests. (See each of these variants in the glossary for more details.)
- GPP – Stands for "Guaranteed Prize Pool". It is a type of tournament for which the daily fantasy sports site promises a specific prize pool amount that is to be divided among the winners. The prize pool is usually large (e.g. $1,000,000) as is the number of entrants allowed to join. Prize structures can vary widely, but the Top 10-20% usually win something.
- H2H – Stands for "Head-To-Head", a type of contest in which there are only two entrants. The winner takes the prize pool, less the rake (see “rake” below).
- Large-field contest – A contest that involves a high number of entrants. The number of entrants allowed to join is often unlimited. In most cases, a large number of winners earn a portion of the prize pool.
- Multiplier – A league in which you can multiply your entry fee by a certain factor based on the payouts; in a 5x multiplier, for example, the winners get paid out five times their entry fee. The higher the multiplier, the more high-risk/high-reward the league.
- Overlay – Many daily fantasy sports sites – e.g. FanDuel, DraftKings, and DraftDay, among others– host guaranteed prize pool tournaments in which a specified amount of prize money is made available to the winners. The site hopes that the entry fees from the participants will cover the prize pool. If there are too few entrants, the DFS site must contribute its own cash to cover the deficit. The deficit is known as the overlay. Overlays are highly desirable events and DFS players should target these value plays.
- Prize pool – The entire sum of money that is up for grabs in a daily fantasy sports contest. With the exception of GPP contests (see “GPP” above), the amount of the pool is usually equal to the sum of the entry fees collected from the participants less the DFS site’s rake.
- Qualifier – A contest in which the winners earn a seat at a future contest, typically one with a relatively high entry free.
- Rake – The money collected by the daily fantasy sports site and kept for profit. It is sometimes referred to as a percentage of the entry fee (i.e. “the site imposes a 10% rake.”). The percentage varies by site and contest size, so be sure to check each contest (and do a little math as well).
- Salary Cap – The total amount of money you have at your disposal to draft your lineup. Every team manager must stick to the same salary cap. The cap varies by site and sometimes by sport.
- Value pick – A player who is considered to be more valuable than his salary implies. Good values are often found among players coming off of a bad streak or a recent injury. In both cases, the players’ salaries are often lower than they should be given how productive they have been throughout their careers.
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NFL WEEK 2
Week 1 of the NFL season kicked off with some big, big contests. Week 2 may not have quite the same big prize pools, but there are still majore contests out there at several sites. Let's dig into some of the big contests out there. If there are any that I miss, please drop me an email (pasquino@footballguys.com) and I will update this article.
FANDUEL - WEEK 2 BIG CONTESTS
All of these contests can be found in the lobby at FanDuel.
$1.25M NFL Sunday Million: First Prize of $100,000 - $25 Entry
FanDuel upped the ante for Week 2 with a $1.25M contest. With over 54,000 seats for this contest, a $25 entry could give someone a $120,000 prize by next Tuesday morning! Almost 20% of all players will earn a prize, so this one-week contest is certainly worth a shot for serious DFS players.
The World Fantasy Football Championships: 1 Day, 4 Massive Contests, Over $10 Million in Prizes. Qualifying contests run from Week 1 to Week 13.
With a $2,000,000 1st place prize, $7,000,000 in finalist cash prizes, $3,000,000 in runner up prizes, a private jet ride home for the winner, and an unbelievable 3 day weekend in Vegas, this is the fantasy football event of the year. 100 finalists will win a luxurious trip to the December 14th finals at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, where they will be treated to 3 nights of parties, a Saturday surprise, and their chance at fantasy football immortality.
Multiple FFFC Qualifiers will run each week. Win a FFFC Qualifier, and you win one of 100 prize packages to Las Vegas for the FFFC final. We'll also be running qualifiers which award more than one prize package, and a last chance Super Qualifier in Week 13.
$100K Survivor - First Prize of $10,000 - $5 Entry - Starts Week 2 (9/14)
On September 14th, the rounds begin. Enter Round 1 for just $5 per entry. Multiple entries are allowed. Finish in the top 75% of Round 1, and you'll advance to Round 2. Keep advancing to the final round and you'll win a trip for two to Las Vegas! Rounds are run every NFL week.
Future Big Contests:
$200K Survivor - First Prize of $20,000 - $25 Entry - Starts Week 3 (9/21)
The rounds begins on September 21st. Finish in the top 75% of Round 1, and you'll advance to Round 2. Keep advancing to the final round and you'll win a trip for two to Las Vegas! Rounds are run once every week. You can enter directly for $25 per entry. Multiple entries are allowed.
$300K Survivor - First Prize of $40,000 - $200 Entry - Starts Week 4 (9/28)
The rounds begin on September 28th. Finish in the top 75% of Round 1, and you'll advance to Round 2. Keep advancing each round till you reach the final round and you'll win a trip for two to Las Vegas! Rounds are run once every NFL week. You can enter directly for $200 per entry. Multiple entries are allowed.
DRAFTKINGS - WEEK 2 BIG CONTESTS
Three big contests headline the action at DraftKings this week:
NFL Sunday Million. $1,000,000 in total prizes. $27 to enter. $100,000 to first.
https://www.draftkings.com/contest/draftteam/1234645
NFL Sunday 500 Grand. $500,000 in total prizes. $200 to enter. $100,000 to first.
https://www.draftkings.com/contest/draftteam/1234696
NFL Play Action. $100,000 in total prizes. $2 to enter, or FREE if you’re a new player. $10,000 to first.
https://www.draftkings.com/contest/draftteam/1231052
Future Big Contests:
"Four months, four millionaires": Four contests where the top winner will win at least $1 Million. Weeks 5, 11, 15 and 16 of the NFL season. Direct entry is $27, but you can earn your way in for as little as a quarter - yes, $0.25. (Odds are certainly much steeper at $0.25 vs. $27, but hard to get more action for a quarter!).
One other important piece of information for Daily Fantasy Football players:
The FanDuel iPhone App is here!
You asked for it and we delivered. Introducing the new FanDuel mobile app! Everyone already loves the excitement of playing weekly and daily fantasy sports on FanDuel, but you’ve never seen it like this. The same sleek design, and easy to use functionality you’re used to on FanDuel now in the palm of your hand!
You’ll have the same ease of entering the contests you want, the team building and editing abilities you need, and NOW with a completely new way to enjoy the live scoring you love! That’s right, a new live scoring page to enjoy the excitement of FanDuel anywhere. Check it out and get in on the action by downloading the FREE app today!
Be sure to use promo code FBG2014
Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com.