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
Another Major Live Event - Fantasy Aces
Another major event in the DFS space is highlighted here with the FAFC (Fantasy Aces Football Championship) Live Event, which will take place on November 23rd. This is a remarkable event with a big prize pool, and all of it is available at the $109 entry fee. All 13 Fantasy Aces members who qualify will win the trip and a cash prize of at least $1,500, with a shot at the top cash prize of $40,000. Here are the details:
- 13 Fantasy Aces members will be flown out to Southern California for an all expense 2-night stay and compete in the $100,000 Aces Daily Fantasy Football Championship on November 23rd.
- 2 Night Stay at the beautiful Balboa Bay Resort in Newport Beach, CA (November 22nd - 23rd)
- Saturday Night Pre-Game Kickoff Yacht Cocktail Party on the Mojo (100ft Yacht)
- The Main Event - $100,000 Championship Party at American Junkie in Newport Beach, CA
- Include a plus 1 (pay for the cost of the flight and we will reimburse the costs via site credit)
Read all of the details and join here:
DFS LESSON OF THE WEEK - Opponent selection for Head-to-Head matchups
There are lots of ways to play Daily Fantasy Sports. You can enter big tournaments with big potential payouts, 50/50 contests where half o the league gets prizes, or you can play in smaller formats where you face a few other DFS players in leagues for a smaller matchup. On many sites you can also square off against only one other competitor in a head-to-head matchup, with the winner taking (almost) all of the entry fee. That is the type of league I want to discuss now.
On a site such as FanDuel, you have the ability to actually see who you are about to face in a potential head-to-head league. If you look at competitors who have set up a league and are just awaiting someone to square off against. That affords you the opportunity to choose not just your format and entry fee but also your opponent, and that can be a very valuable piece of information if you know how to screen for what could be a relatively new DFS player.
Let’s take two FanDuel players and look at what a newer player and a seasoned veteran player profile looks like. If you have been playing DFS for a while, you have probably heard about the player who goes by the name of “Condia”. He frequents a number of sites and plays a large amount of DFS contests every week. Clicking on his name at FanDuel you can get a glimpse of all his play history, which immediately shows you that he is very much an experienced DFS competitor. Here is what his profile currently looks like at FanDuel:
As you can see, Condia has been a member of FanDuel since November of 2010 and has won nearly 200,000 DFS contests. Now keep in mind – this is just his volume of wins across the various sports, not just the number of times he has played a DFS contest. Regardless, over 69,000 NFL wins should be enough to tell you that you should be avoiding this guy in a random head-to-head matchup if you want a higher likelihood of success.
So who should you be looking for? Well, imagine the exact opposite of Condia’s profile. You want someone who does not have a ton of DFS experience and certainly under 500 NFL wins on their record. Not to single anyone out in particular, but I found a FanDuel user that only has seven NFL wins to illustrate my point:
Now it should be very clear how much of a potential advantage a matchup against a newer player like this can be. While there is no guarantee of success against any player, someone who is just starting to play Daily Fantasy Sports is someone that you could target and expect a higher rate of success than usual, and certainly higher than against a seasoned DFS player.
Not every site affords you this type of information, but it should also be noted that players often use the same names on more than one site. The more sites you frequent, the more names you will start to recognize in the DFS world, especially amongst the top players. Now, there is nothing wrong in challenging yourself to play a seasoned DFS player, but if you are looking to only play a little and just getting started, having this type of information can really help you out.
ON THE DAILY AND INTERACTIVE VALUE CHARTS
Footballguys' own Maurile Tremblay does not just do projections for Footballguys - oh no, far from it. One of the best innovations that he has provided since last year is his "On the Daily" column, where he takes his projections, David Dodds' projections, and Sigmund Bloom's projections and provides recommended optimal lineups for five major DFS sites (FanDuel, DraftKings, DraftDay, FantasyAces, FantasyFeud) based on those projections. How cool is that?
But what if you want to play at other sites or build your own lineup (or multiple lineups)? Once again, Maurile has you covered. He has provided interactive value chart pages where you can click on each player, sort by position, salary and value (points per $10K) to craft your own custom team. All of the links for these are provided below in our Daily Content on Footballguys table plus they appear weekly on Footballguys' weekly home page.
But wait - there's more! Maurile went even further by adding the ability to partially fill out a lineup and have the tool fill in the rest of your roster. From Maurile himself:
How cool is that?
DAILY CONTENT AROUND FOOTBALLGUYS.COM
NFL WEEK 6
Two weeks down for the NFL season, and we have had some big, big contests in DFS so far - and the fun continues. 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 6 BIG CONTESTS
All of these contests can be found in the lobby at FanDuel.
FanDuel Presents the Playboy Championship
This year our friends at FanDuel are offering you the chance to go on the trip of a lifetime to the world famous Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles! You and 75 finalists will compete for $1,000,000 in prizes, including a $150,000 first place prize as you sit poolside with Hef at this year’s hottest fantasy football event.
Not only that, they’ll be running contests for 25 additional trip-only packages to maximize your chances of getting in on this exclusive party. That’s 100 chances to win!
Qualifiers start at only $5 to enter, seats to this epic event will be going fast, so enter one of the qualifiers and punch your ticket now!
Click to enter PFC $5 Qualifier
Click to enter PFC $50 Qualifier
Click to enter PFC $535 Qualifier
With $10 Million in prizes, the FanDuel Fantasy Football Championship is the single largest fantasy sports event in history. 100 finalist will be going on a luxury trip to the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, including 3 nights of parties and your chance to compete for the $2 Million first place prize, a private jet ride home, and fantasy football immortality!...and that’s just the top of our massive payout structure for this contest that includes a $1,000,000 prize to SECOND place. Yes, that means you’ll have 2 chances of becoming a millionaire, all in one contest! Qualifiers are open now with entry for as little as $5. Punch your ticket to this epic event and get in today!Learn all about this year’s WFFC including the massive payout structure of our FFFC HERE
DRAFTKINGS - WEEK 6 BIG CONTESTS
Are you interested in winning $1 Million Dollars in a single week? DraftKings hopes that you are.
NFL $2.2M Millionaire Maker - $1,000,000 to First Place. Welcome to the second edition of the $2,200,000 guaranteed Millionaire Maker, where you can turn $27 into $1 Million! Week 5's Millionaire Maker paid out $1 Million to first place, and DraftKings is doing it again this week. First place will become an instant millionaire, and over 15,000 spots are paid out in total. Multiple lineups per player are permitted. Will you be this season's first millionaire? Enter now!
World's Biggest $20 50/50 - This 5,556-player contest boasts a $100,008.00 prize pool and pays out the top 2,778 finishing positions. All winners earn $36.00. Good luck!
World's Biggest $10 50/50 - This 11,112-player contest boasts a $100,008.00 prize pool and pays out the top 5,556 finishing positions. All winners earn $18.00. Good luck!
Note from Jeff Pasquino: As of Thursday afternoon, both of these contests were less than 50% full. Keep in mind that this is a guaranteed prize, so there is definitely an opportunity here for a large overlay situation. Watch these closely, all the way to Sunday morning.
NFL Sunday 400 Grand. $400,000 in total prizes. $200 to enter. Up to 2,222 entries with the top 445 getting a payout. $50,000 to first.
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!).
Questions, suggestions and comments are always welcome to pasquino@footballguys.com.