Daily Fantasy Strategy Vault

The RotoGrinders Strategy Vault consolidates the best daily fantasy strategy articles, discussions, and management tips posted on RotoGrinders into one convenient location. Basically, it’s the best of the best for articles, discussions, interviews and other content that has been posted on RotoGrinders since we went live in July of 2010. Just click on a link below to jump to that strategy section!

Strategy Topics

• Bankroll Management
• The Basics
• Sport-Specific Strategy
  • NFL
  • MLB
  • NBA
  • NHL
• Specific Game Format Strategy
  • GPP/Large-Field
  • 50-50s/Double-Ups
  • Super Joust
• General Strategy
• Lifestyle
• Legality

Bankroll Management

Building the perfect lineup is only half the battle if you want to be a long-term profitable Grinder. You could spend months building up your bankroll in daily fantasy and, if you’re not careful, blow through it all in one night. The big stakes are tempting, but don’t move too quickly, too fast. These articles should help guide you through some techniques to help you properly manage your bankroll.

• What Does the Stakes Say About Your Opponent? – Blinders analyzes data from previous leagues entered to show you how higher-stakes means your team needs to score more points to win.

• Long-Term Profitability vs. Lifetime Profitability in Large-Field Leagues – Blinders discusses the small sample sized involved in playing Large-Field contests, and gives you tips to become a long-term profitable Grinder.

• Back to Basics: Breakeven Percentage – Moose discusses how to focus on the rake and breakeven percentages involved in Daily Fantasy games, in order to better build your bankroll.

• Bankroll Tales: $3 to $158 in 81 Contests – Cameron shares his micro-stakes bankroll growth, while utilizing proper bankroll management on FSL.

• Player Profitability on FanDuel – FROM THE FORUMS – FanDuel’s WaiverWire gives us a glimpse at profitable players on FanDuel, and Blinders discusses long-term profitability.

• NEW – Bankroll Management Discussion – FROM THE FORUMS – The RG community discusses key aspects to properly managing your bankroll in this Strategy Thread of the Week created by Sprom.

The Basics

Are you new to Daily Fantasy Sports? It’s not an exact replica of your run-of-the mill work fantasy league. There’s multiple sites, multiple scoring systems, and a lot of other nuances to be aware of. Here are some basic overviews of what Daily Fantasy is and the best ways to get started!

• New to Daily Fantasy? – New to the industry or transferring over from season-long leagues? Start here to get a rundown of what to expect, and how to dive into this amazing new concept.

• Daily Fantasy Glossary – Confused with all the terminology? Here’s a glossary RotoGrinders put together, which contains all the terms you need to know in Daily Fantasy and is updated regularly.

• All About the Daily Fantasy Research Console – Cal gives you a walkthrough one of the most prominent and simple tools to use when working on your Daily Fantasy Lineup.

Sports-Specific Strategy

Becoming a long-term winner in daily fantasy presents different obstacles depending on the sport. Just because you’ve mastered Daily Fantasy Baseball doesn’t mean you’ll be an overnight expert in Daily Fantasy Basketball. Each sport involves different pools of players, has its own research methods, possesses different roster dynamics, and of course, it requires a good understanding of the actual sport. Use the collection of articles below, sorted by sport, to help get a leg-up on the competition when branching out into new sports.

NFL Strategy

Projecting Players

• NFL Advanced Metrics – Blinders delves into the factors that construct a players score in the NFL, and discusses how to project each of them.

• Defensive Strategies: Part 1 – Part 2 – Have trouble deciding which Defense to choose? This two-part series covers the dynamics that go into each site’s D/ST scoring and helps you project them.

• How to Project RBs: Part 1 – Part 2 – This two-part article covers the aspects that go into projecting for Running Backs in the NFL, while focusing on players’ ceilings and floors.

MLB Strategy

The Basics

• Step-by-Step Guide to Putting Together a Winning MLB Lineup:- Part 1 Pitching – Part 2 Hitting – Notorious provides you with a step-by-step breakdown on how to construct both the Pitching and Hitting aspects of your Daily Fantasy MLB Lineups.

• Taking Advantage of Site-Specific Scoring – WaiverWire gives you a look into what to watch for when playing MLB across multiple sites and scoring systems.

Park Factors

• Using Park Factors In Daily Fantasy Contests – Park factors are a more complicated subject than one would think. The general issue that you’re faced with is determining what is going to have better predictive value – an adjustment based on a very specific situation that has few historical instances, or an adjustment based on a more general situation with a larger sample size.

• Hitter/Pitcher Friendly Parks – FROM THE FORUMS – BobbyRogers46 shares his spreadsheet breakdown of hitter friendly parks for all to view and discuss.

Lineup Tips

• Waiting For the Starting Lineup – Why and how you should check for MLB Starting Lineups, and how it affects your fantasy lineups.

• Impact of Weather on Optimal Lineup Setting – WaiverWire breaks down all aspects of weather and its impact on Daily Fantasy Baseball.

• The Impact of Bullpens On Lineup Selection – Despite the fact that most daily fantasy formats don’t include relief pitchers, it still pays to pay attention to them. Teams’ bullpens impact daily fantasy baseball in two ways. They affect the probability of a starting pitcher winning their game, and they affect the expected performance of opposing hitters.

• How Hot and Cold Streaks Should Affect Your Daily Fantasy Contest Lineups – WaiverWire walks through how to look for good or bad performances that indicate a medium or long term change in a player’s actual ability to play baseball well.

• Projecting Players/Lineups for MLB – FROM THE FORUMS – A forum discussion on different methods and strategies involved in optimally creating a lineup for Daily Fantasy MLB.

Advanced Analysis of Statistics

• Using Advanced Metrics to Evaluate Pitching Quality: xFIP – You should be using xFIP to evaluate how well a pitcher has pitched, rather than using ERA. Another way to say that is that xFIP is a better predictor of future ERA than past ERA is. After reading this, you’ll be able to do so.

NBA Strategy

The Basics

• Choosing the Right Daily Fantasy Basketball Game – Tippy breaks down his six favorite NBA Game Types, and provides expert insight from his years of experience with Fantasy Basketball.

• Projecting NBA Players – Blinders goes into depth on how to project NBA Players, into some depth on how to determine the defensive match-up factor for fantasy basketball.

• NEW – Introduction to Draft Day NBA Scoring – Cameron walks you through DraftDay’s unique scoring system, providing comparisons to the scoring systems you know and tables showing how the different scoring affects certain players.

Weekly Contests

• Weekly NBA Drafts vs. Daily Strategy – Cameron compares the strategies used when adjusting to a Weekly NBA draft, as opposed to a daily contest.

NHL Strategy

The Basics

• DraftStreet NHL is Here! – Chewy (aka LandSharkHockey) gives you a rundown of the entire DraftStreet NHL system and some basic tips to get you started off on the right foot.

• Fantasy Hockey for Those with Puck Apathy – RotoKevin creates a good comparison article for those strong in MLB, and wanting to expand into playing NHL, by drawing comparisons between both sports in a Daily Fantasy setting.

Specific Game Format Strategies

As alluded to earlier, Daily Fantasy Sports requires a diverse body of knowledge and skill to master all aspects. Not only are there multiple popular sports, but you can play them on multiple sites, which use a variety of game formats, roster setups and scoring systems. To maximize your wins and profits, a true Grinder should be savvy in multiple sports, sites and scoring settings. This section contains articles which pertain to specific Daily Fantasy sites, specific game-types, or are focused on some other important nuance of the Daily Fantasy industry.

GPP and Large-Field Strategy

• A Closer Look at FanDuel Large-Field Contest Composition – Cal takes a look at the composition of a Wednesday Slam and Rebound contest on FanDuel, to display the difference between a Large-Field contest that allows for unlimited entries vs. one that allows for just one entry.

• Calculating Overlay in GPPs – From time to time entries in large field fantasy leagues come up short of what the site was expecting, and provide some extra value called an overlay. Blinders shows you how to spot these overlays, and capitalize on the opportunity.

• DFBC Math for the Rake Conscious Player – Cal breaks down the 2011 FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Championship, to show you how to calculate the value of your entry into a Satellite event such as the FFFC and the DFBC.

50-50s/Double-Ups

• 50/50 Double Up Leagues & Opponent Variance – ‘Moose breaks down 50/50 (aka Double-Up) contests, and tells you how they can be a benefit to your bankroll.

• NEW – Double Ups and Competition FROM THE FORUMS – In this thread, started by TheGame1020, RG Members analyze the effect your competition has when playing 50/50s

Super Joust

• NEW – Super Joust NBA 101: Strategies For Qualifying – Dan Back, winner of the first-ever Super Joust, walks you through the best strategies to qualify for the Super Joust events.

FantasySpotsLive

• Short Roster Play at FSL – Blinders walks through a unique roster allowance you can utilize when playing on Fantasy Sports Live.

• FSL Shares How Player Prices Are Calculated – Get a detailed breakdown of exactly how player prices are calculated on FSL, straight from the owner of the site.

General Strategy

There are a lot of factors that go into becoming a winning Daily Fantasy Grinder. The sections above cover the basics: Sites, Scoring, Formats, Players, etc. But there are also many general strategies that you can apply to help improve your win-rate. A lot of these come with time and experience of playing. This section contains General Strategy articles covering those specific concepts.

• Opponent Selection – Table Selection and Hourly Rates – Blinders discusses the importance of Opponent Selection in Daily Fantasy, and summarizes how it can effect your Hourly Rate.

• Forum Discussion Follow-Up – Blinders Table Selection Article Discussion – Tippy, GeneralV, Blinders, Bufall66 and some of the other big names in Daily Fantasy discuss Blinders Table Selection article and concepts.

• Multi Site Play – RotoKevin covers how to play on multiple sites, and why you should be ‘sniping noobs’.

• How to Accurately Project Player Fantasy Scores – Blinders covers the three main aspects that go into projection a fantasy player’s score.

• Thinking Outside the Cap – You’ve heard the term “thinking outside the box” before, right? Cameron covers how to ‘think outside the cap’, by highlighting an example lineup seen in use by one of the industry’s top players.

Lifestyle

Daily Fantasy Sports is a lifestyle. Sometimes it goes beyond just knowing how to build good teams and manage your bankroll. This section contains articles revolving around the lifestyle of a Daily Fantasy player, including interviews with some of the top players in the industry, coverage of some noteworthy challenges, and other articles that can help you improve your your aspects of life involving Daily Fantasy both at, and away from, the computer.

• Interview with Buffalo66 – The ‘Godfather’ of Daily Fantasy sits down with RotoGrinders and discusses the infamous ‘Buffalo Challenge.’

• Interview with GeneralV – Hear some candid thoughts from one of best NFL players to date. Joe Vance has been ranked as high as #3 overall and was the inaugural FFFC Champion in Vegas.

• Interview with HixvilleHunk – HixvilleHunk went on legendary run during the 2011 MLB Season, attempting to amass an unheard of $60,000 in profits. RotoGrinders sat down and talked with him during the peak of that run.

• PrimeTime420 – Longevity. Elite. Grinder. These are three words that describe top-ranked Grinder, PrimeTime420.

• Sprizouse Goes For 500 Wins in Month – Sprizouse attempted the feet of winning 500 games on DraftStreet in one month, which was unheard of at the time. Lucky for us, he documented it all. Here are his four blog entries throughout the Journey:

1) Sprizouse Goes for 500 Wins
2) 500 Win Challenge: Week 1 Update
3) 500 Win Challenge: Week 2 Update
4) September Recap

• NEW – Interview with 2011 FFFC Champion Beermakersfan – RotoGrinders sits down and talks with one of the best in the game, Beermakersfan, right after his 2011 FFFC Victory for $75,000!

Legality

With this much money moving around an online sports industry, one is sure to have concerns over the legality of the situation. Don’t worry though; RotoGrinders is here to look out for you. We will always keep you posted on the current legal state of Daily Fantasy Sports and update you on any changes to legislation that are applicable to Daily Fantasy Sports. As of right now though, except for a few situations unique to specific states, Daily Fantasy Sports is 100% legal and has a bright future. Here is a breakdown of the current legislation involving Daily Fantasy Sports. Also, look for topics like Accounting and Taxes to be posted in the near future.

• Legality of Daily Fantasy Sports – A summarization of the UIGEA bill which carved out the legal status for Daily Fantasy Sports.

• NEW – Daily Fantasy Sports and Taxes – RotoKevin breaks down the tax reporting policies for each site in the industry to help you with your filing.

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If you think we’re leaving any articles out from the list, you’d like to see a topic written on that isn’t currently covered, or you think that you, yourself have an entry worthy of being posted to the Strategy Archives, just post in the Comments below or shoot us an email and we’ll take a look!