Boris’ Daily Fantasy Preview – Le Début

Editor’s Note: We are lucky enough to have another of our readers, Borisnow, volunteer to write something for the site! Boris is not a Russian bot,  as far as I know,  and quite frankly if he brings Natasha with him, he can write anything he wants.  Here is his debut column!

Hello all and welcome to what I hope becomes a weekly installment of my DFS football musings. I dabble a little in NHL and PGA, but we all know this is the prime fantasy season. Before we get into it I just want to thank Sharkbait for introducing me to DFO and for Balls for the opportunity to write, something I’ve been wanting to do for some time now.

As Labor Day weekend wraps up, as well as the biggest fantasy football draft weekend of the year, I hope your drafts went well and you ended up with a roster that doesn’t make you sick to your stomach. I participated in three myself, and have a fourth coming on Wednesday. Anyway, right about now is when I switch my mind from seasonal fantasy prep to the daily game. Later this week I’ll post a writeup about what players I’m targeting and the situations I am looking to exploit (hello Dal Cook vs the Bengals), but figured I’d go through some nuts and bolts so that you know what to expect.

First off, I play on Draftkings and SuperDraft.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Draftkings is your traditional salary based site, and SuperDraft is a newer company that employs multipliers to each player’s fantasy output. For example, let’s say Derrick Henry has a 2x multiplier and runs for 100 yards and 2 TDs. His fantasy output of 22 points will be multiplied by 2 for 44 points. The good thing about SuperDraft is that you can literally roster anyone you want and are not constrained by a salary cap.

Both sites have two types of contests that I focus on: GPPs and cash games. GPPs, or guaranteed prize pools, are what contests like the Milly Maker are. There are specific payouts for finishing 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on. These contests are tempting, heck I even try once in a while, but you are not likely to win or make any kind of money. If anything, the best you can statistically hope for is a minimum cash which typically is 1.5x or 2x the entry fee, and in order to achieve that you likely have to finish in the top 20-25%. This brings me to cash games which are called Double Ups and 50/50s. All you have to do in these contests is finish in the top 45%-50% and you will double your money. It isn’t sexy, but your chances of cashing are much higher. Because of this, my main focus will be cash games.

Last thing about cash games: I would highly urge everyone to stick to single entry contests with at least 100 people. There are sites out there and groups of people who run something called lineup trains. Basically they affect contests by getting multiple users to run the same lineup. Sharing your exact lineup with lots of people is something that’s supposed to be illegal in the DFS community, but it’s been overlooked the last few years. I minimize this effect by playing in single entry contests that have a lot of people. For example, I already have spots reserved in DK’s MASSIVE and GIANT Double Ups for Sunday. Lastly, be careful with your money. I do this for fun, sometimes I make money, sometimes I don’t. I would not advise you to take my future picks and strategy and then put your child’s college fund at risk.

Should anyone have any questions, please put them in the comments and I can get back to you. I’ll talk to you all again later this week. Football is back!!!