Editors note – The following is a post by our new contributor, James A Gagnon. James will be recapping each week of the NFL season with a focus on who won at DraftKings and FanDuel. We will recap each week and covering the winners and trying to gain insight into how to win the big fantasy football GPP’s at DraftKings and FanDuel.
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$3 Entry and $20 Entry Respectively
So you didn’t win the million dollar prizes from DraftKings or FanDuel this week. Well, I didn’t either. Because if I did I’d be on my way to collect my over-sized check instead of writing this. It’s fine that we didn’t win. Let’s regroup for this week. There are actually 16 more weeks, so yay!
Now is time for reflection and to learn from our loss, but most importantly, analyze how the winners won. Nothing can be more costly than “Fantasy Tunnel Vision”. You’re so concentrated on your team, you forget to look at other teams. You’re so content with a team that you don’t even bother checking the waiver wire. The worst thing you can do is to not always have the best team available, and to do that you have to pay attention to what everyone else is doing.
Knowing who won and how is more important than understanding why you placed where you did. There are players who make a living playing daily fantasy sports. By becoming familiar with some of their names and paying attention to their strategies, it can only make you better.
For instance, Jeepers77 finished 2nd and 3rd in the FanDuel NFL Sunday Million for $350K and $150K, and a total of 6 times in the top-150.
In DraftKing’s $10M Millionaire Maker, there are quite a few players who entered the maximum amount of entries, 500.
DraftKings does great weekly article, NFL Perfect Lineup that includes tidbits of info and some very valuable information and charts listing highest owned players, top scorers, value plays, busts, and more. FanDuel also provides helpful articles on their FanDuel Insider page, which is free content. The sites do have some basic differences, but when it boils down to it, it’s all football.
Back to the matter at hand, the winners and how they managed to hit it big.
Week 1 Big DraftKings and FanDuel Winners
“BALLAH” Wins $2 million week 1.
DraftKings winner of the $2 million top prize is “BALLAH,” who won by .38 points by gaining .50 points on Carlos Hyde’s last run of the night. A .38 point win for $2 million on his RB’s last run of the night!!!
Congrats jeremybronson! Millionaire at FanDuel
In FanDuel, “JeremyBronson” won his million dollars by 12.22 points over Jeepers77 with 201.32. Not to say it wasn’t just as nerve-wracking for him as it was for “BALLAH,” as he had 125.52 points going into Monday night with Carlos Hyde, Julio Jones, and San Fran D left to play.
When looking at the top-10 places paid in each league, the first thing that jumps out is that all 20 owners decided to avoid top-tier QB’s to save money for elsewhere.
QB’s Owned Among the 20 Teams
S Bradford – 4
T Romo – 4
M Ryan – 3
P Rivers – 3
T Taylor – 2
A. Smith – 1
C Palmer – 1
Tannehill – 1
M Mariota – 1
Not a Rodgers or Luck to be found.
The next obvious thing to look for are the players that were owned by many of the top-10 finishers.
Top Players Owned Among the 20 Teams
J Jones – 17
T Eifert – 13
C Hyde – 11
C Ivory – 8
J Landry – 8
K Allen – 7
D Hopkins – 6
J Matthews – 6
Julio Jones was the 4th highest owned player in all of DraftKings, with WR’s taking 7 of the top-20 highest owned spots. While big name receivers such as Calvin Johnson, AJ Green, ODB Jr, and others disappointed, you almost had to have Julio to place. And that’s saying a lot as he was also the most expensive WR.
The fact of the matter is that the NFL has become more of a passing league than ever, and the gap between the top WR and bottom WR is much larger than top QB to bottom QB. Especially when you have to roster 3WR’s in both sites, and have a Flex in DraftKings. You can take a chance on a QB, but you must hit on your WR’s.
Also, the two most common RB’s, Carlos Hyde and Chris Ivory weren’t from what you would call high-powered offenses. They were from teams with above-average defenses, who like to control the clock on offense.
I’m not telling you anything new here about the state of the RB in the NFL; they’ve become more similar to relief pitchers in baseball than ever. A clear cut starting RB can still be vultured by “3rd down backs” or “goal-line specialists.”
Carlos Hyde no doubt benefited from the injury to Reggie Bush and those last 5 yards won someone a cool two million dollars.
My basic advice for the upcoming weeks are 3 easy things.
- 1 – Save on QB when possible. Rodgers and Luck will win you games. But at what cost to your budget? Make sure they’re worth it!!!
- 2 – Hit on WR’s and TE’s. The best indicator here is targets. When you’re reliant on a quarterback getting the ball to you, all you can ask it that he likes throwing it to you… a lot! But also do your best to be cognizant of team situations and health concerns.
- 3 – Find RB’s from “ground and pound” teams when the matchups suit them. In DraftKings, think about using extremely cheap specialists as punt opportunities to allow you more money on the studs with higher chances of success.
Be diligent; do your research, and always double check your lineups and Sunday morning news. But most of all, win!!!
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