Repost – DFS Rookie Playbook
DFS Rookie Playbook
Am I doing this right..? DFS Basics Explained
Chances are you probably have seen a FanDuel commercial or heard about the DraftKings $1 billion contest and wondered what it was and how it’s different from when all your friends get together and have a draft. Look no further. Here at DK Legends, we want everyone to flourish so for the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing the insights on playing Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) in the Rookie Playbook.
What is DFS, you ask? The concept of DFS is that rather than a fantasy team owner being a General Manager that’s beholden to the same roster week after week, the team owner can choose different players each week, based on the perceived likelihood of them performing well statistically.
The two DFS sites are FanDuel and DraftKings
They both have the same concept with slightly different rules. They begin with a lobby of contests to join. There are different types of contests to choose from: tournaments, multipliers, standard groups, head to head and 50/50s. Here’s what all that means:
Classic Groups
The majority of the contests are classic. These competitions have a maximum for how many people can participate and the rules and prizes specifically state which ranks get payouts and how much. Some have low caps, in the tens, and others have thousands.
Tournament
These contests have high participation totals and big payouts. Usually with hundreds of thousands of entrants, tournaments pay out roughly the top 8% of participating lineups.
Multipliers
These contests are usually a couple hundred participants but can be much larger and the rules state that the top 10% or so will all multiply the entrance fee. For example, if you enter a “Triple Up” contest for $5 and get in the top 10%, you would have $15 added to your account balance. The highest multiplier I’ve seen is “Quintuple Up” and those rooms fill up quickly.
Head to Head
This is pretty much what it sounds like: You and another person join a contest together and the player with the best lineup doubles up. I wouldn’t recommend this one to a beginner unless you know the other person as at your same skill level.
50/50
In 50/50 contests the top half of participating lineups receive a payout. The prizes are usually lower, slightly above the entry fee, but these can be good for gaining confidence and easing into the DFS arena.
Once you’ve chosen a contest to enter, you’ll create your lineup next. You start with $50,000 on DraftKings and $60,000 on FanDuel. This is our salary cap. Every player is listed with a dollar value next to them. This is how much of our salary cap will be used to add that player to your lineup. The better players are obviously more expensive.
You’ll add 2 RBs, 3 WRs and one each of QBs, TEs, Ks and a defense but you must stay under the salary cap. It’s okay if you have funds remaining but you cannot enter the contest with a negative salary cap.
Once comfortable with your lineup, submit it. If you decide to make changes to your lineup, you’ll have until kickoff of the first game to change it.
On game day, keep an eye on the ticker or setup alerts to be notified when your DFS players do well. Once the contests have begun, you’ll see a percentage next to his name. This represents the percentage of people in that contest that also have that same player. The goal is for as many players with low usage percentages to perform well as possible; this ensures that your team accrues points when most others you’re competing against aren’t.
And that’s the gist of it. There’s levels and nuance but this should get you started. In the next edition of the DK Legends Rookie Playbook, I’ll show you how to make sure you build a lineup that you’re happy with. Please see a related article.
For more updates, follow me online @kyle_battle.
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