FanDuel was back at it again with their massive Week 8 Sunday Million contest, requiring a $25 entry fee with 17,830 people getting paid out at least $40. This massive $1,500,000 million GPP tournament had 70,588 entries and filled up until 67,111 entries creating overlay of 3,477 spots and $86,925. For the fourth time this season as the first 4 weeks there was some good amounts of overlay. While the overlay has been great for the consumer it probably hasn't been the best for FanDuel itself and every week there is overlay this particular contest seems to get smaller and smaller. Each 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 $200,000.
Here's how Week 8 of the Sunday Million shook out.
|
DFS Screen Name | Points | Prize Money |
1st | albyb777 | 183.52 | $300,000 |
2nd | bigguy38 | 183.12 | $100,000 |
3rd | pennylovesfootball | 182.12 | $50,000 |
4th | flavorflav | 180.72 | $30,000 |
5th | thefront9 | 179.42 | $20,000 |
The winner of FanDuel's Week 8 Sunday Million was albyb777 who scored 183.52 points and held off bigguy38 by 0.40 points to win the $300,000 top prize. Both albyb777 and bigguy38 have the "Experienced" tag but will now be bumped up to "Highly Experienced" level with their big wins. Albyb777's team was a well constructed team and in a week where the chalk was looking great on paper heading into the games it took a turn and didn't hit at all. His team was not chalky at all as he only had two players that were over 11.5% owned in the Denver Broncos defense at 21.9% and running back Devonta Freeman at 20.8%. His team also left $700 of the salary cap on the table which made his team even more unique in a very chalky week and the big surprise was that he rostered Michael Crabtree over Amari Cooper and still came out a winner.
He did have the QB/WR stack of Derek Carr and Michael Crabtree with Carr's ownership at only 5.0% and Crabtree at 8.8% as both combined for 50.62 points. This was surprising as Amari Cooper was higher owned at 13.4% and put up 29.3 points but he wasn't needed on this team to take home the first place prize. The other two wide receivers were Jordy Nelson at 10.0% and Dez Bryant at 0.8% with Nelson putting up 17.4 points and Bryant 19.3 points. Nelson was a smart play as a lot of people might have been scared off by his lack of production over the past few weeks but he still gets plenty of looks in the redzone and it paid off this week with a touchdown. Dez Bryant at only 0.8% was a real difference maker as he has been off and on injured most of season and was questionable all week long but taking a chance on him in a contest like this gives you a star WR at extremely low ownership and helps you move up the leaderboard while everyone else is standing still if he hits.
In a week where the running back position looked like a lock with players such as Spencer Ware in a good spot at only $7,400 and an ownership of 38.4% it was smart to pivot to others at similar prices and that is exactly what albyb777 did. He went with Matt Forte at $7,300 and a 11.5% ownership and Devonta Freeman at $6,900 and a 20.8% ownership. Both backs found the endzone twice each and combined for 42.6 points in a week where there was no clear cut RB1. He also avoided the chalk at the tight end position and went with Travis Kelce at $5,700 who was also a nice pivot off of Spencer Ware and Kelce came through with 19.6 points at only 10.0% ownership. At kicker it was Dan Bailey in the Sunday Night game who gave him 12.0 points and anytime you can get double digit points out of your kicker you have to be happy. At defense it was the Denver Broncos who scored 22.0 points and were clearly the best defense on the board heading into the week and didn't disappoint for owners that paid up for them.
Position | Player | Salary | FanDuel Points | % Owned |
QB | Derek Carr | $7,800 | 35.82 | 5.0% |
RB | Matt Forte | $7,300 | 22.80 | 11.5% |
RB | Devonta Freeman | $6,900 | 19.80 | 20.8% |
WR | Jordy Nelson | $7,500 | 17.40 | 10.0% |
WR | Dez Bryant | $7,300 | 19.30 | 0.8% |
WR | Michael Crabtree | $7,100 | 14.80 | 8.8% |
TE | Travis Kelce | $5,700 | 19.60 | 10.0% |
K | Dan Bailey | $4,700 | 12.00 | 8.6% |
D | Denver Broncos | $5,000 | 22.00 | 21.9% |
$59,300 | 183.52 |
WHAT WORKED?
Super Stacking -- The super stack was back at it this week as we had four teams in the top ten that had the Derek Carr, Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree stack. The QB/WR/WR trio went off for 79.92 points and was the base of a having a very productive week on FanDuel if you could build around them. The nice thing about them was that they weren't super high owned so that also gave you an advantage over the competition who may have went with higher priced WR's such as Julio Jones and Mike Evans who didn't live up to their high priced salaries.
Picking the right TE's -- It was Rob Gronkowski and Travis Kelce week as each was featured 5 times in the top 10 of the Sunday Million this week. You could either pay down for Kelce at $5,700 or pay up for Gronkowski at $8,100 but it didn't matter as Kelce had 19.6 points and Gronkowski had 19.4 points. In a week where a lot of other went with the likes of Gary Barnidge or chased last week's Jack Doyle's points it was a smart move to get off those two and get to Gronkowski or Kelce as Gronkowski was owned at 14.5% and Kelce at 10.0%.
Fading the Chalk -- Let me just list some names that were highly touted heading into the weekend and seemed like slam dunks for some big fantasy points; Andrew Luck, Spencer Ware, Julio Jones, Mike Evans, Brandon Marshall, Gary Barnidge and Jack Doyle. Those were all names that had great matchups and were priced right so you could get them in your lineup if you wanted without much effort but the end result if you had one or two of these guys on your team was that you were not going to cash in the GPPs this week.
WHAT FAILED?
Paying up at WR -- If you paid over $7,800 for a WR this week in the likes of Julio Jones T.Y. Hilton or Mike Evans you likely had a frustrating fantasy weekend as all three players had dream matchups on paper and were seeing enormous amounts of targets but couldn't put it together on the field. You are always going to have these types of weeks in fantasy and that is what makes DFS so much fun as you can come back the very next week and totally forget what happened the week prior and start fresh.
Getting cute with selecting a defense -- It was the Broncos and only the Broncos defense that you wanted to roster this week as they scored 22.0 points and were the defense on 9 out of 10 of the top teams in the Sunday Million. You could lock them in for $5,000 and were owned at 21.9% but they had the most likely chance of getting you a touchdown and didn't disappoint. The kicker and defense spots are ones that you can pay up on a weekly basis that won't kill you with your salary allocation as they can't be priced so high like the other positions.
Finish | Score | QB | RB1 | RB2 | WR1 | WR2 | WR3 | TE | K | DEF |
1 | 183.52 | Carr | Forte | Freeman | Nelson | Crabtree | Bryant | Kelce | Bailey | DEN |
2 | 183.12 | Carr | Forte | Freeman | Cooper | Crabtree | Evans | Kelce | Bryant | DEN |
3 | 182.12 | Carr | Forte | Freeman | Cooper | Crabtree | Evans | Kelce | McManus | DEN |
4 | 180.72 | Carr | Forte | Freeman | Cooper | Fitzgerald | Evans | Kelce | Bryant | DEN |
5 | 179.42 | Carr | Stewart | Freeman | Cooper | Marshall | Sanders | Gronkowski | Santos | DEN |
6 | 178.14 | Rodgers | Booker | Riddick | Cooper | Adams | Evans | Gronkowski | Santos | DEN |
7 | 178.02 | Carr | Booker | Freeman | Cooper | Crabtree | Evans | Gronkowski | Lutz | CAR |
8 | 177.92 | Carr | Booker | Rodgers | Cooper | Crabtree | Nelson | Gronkowski | Bryant | DEN |
9 | 177.54 | Rodgers | Booker | Elliott | Cooper | Nelson | Edelman | Kelce | Bailey | DEN |
10 | 177.52 | Carr | Booker | Elliott | Cooper | Adams | J.Brown | Gronkowski | Santos | DEN |
***FanDuel's Week 9 Sunday Million will drop down to $1,250,000 from Week 8 which was $1,500,000 in the total prize pool. The payouts at the top will be first place taking home $200,000 and second place $100,000 with 13,538 out of the total 58,823 entries winning at least $40. So far the eight seven weeks of the Sunday Million have been about half the size of last years contest and if you are looking to crack the top 10 your odds are much better this year.
Head over to FanDuel now and catch the action for Week 9.