2022 FanDuel WFBC Pre-Event Interview Series: Kristi Metzger
This September, some of the best MLB DFS players will gather in Chicago to battle it out for their share of $2,000,000 in the 2022 edition of the FanDuel World Fantasy Baseball Championship.
The events take place September 8-11. Image credit: FanDuel
Ahead of what could be a life-changing day, we caught up with the three RotoGrinders analysts that have managed to qualify for the live final.
Next up? Kristi Metzger.
Congrats on qualifying! For those that aren’t familiar with you, introduce yourself. Where are you from? Do you have a job outside of DFS?
My name is Kristi Metzger and I go by the name of Krayton in the DFS world of FanDuel and DraftKings. I live in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and grew up on a farm in the small town of Hills, Minnesota. I have been in the Wealth Management business for over 20 years and I currently am the Regional Wealth Manager for First Interstate Bank where I manage the upper and lower Midwest.
Outline what a typical day looks like for you.
I have a very demanding full-time job, so I get up quite early and spend time listening to our own RotoGrinder’s Morning Grind Podcast and I start by looking at all of the projections for the day. Then it’s off to work for a very full day of meeting with clients and internal bank colleagues. If I don’t have lunch appointments, I usually spend lunch reviewing articles, projections, etc. to get a feel for the slate and it’s usually then that I construct my single entry lineup. Some days are busier than others closer to lock, so I usually gauge what my day looks like before I decide what I’m going to do for the day. At the very end of the day, I like looking at the Vegas odds for the next day and I will almost always construct a dummy lineup to see how it measures up the next day. I still am able to find time after work to spend time with family, golf, go on bike rides, or just hang out with friends/family.
What first drew you to daily fantasy sports?
I am a self-described fantasy sports nerd and always have been. I grew up with three brothers and they were interested in sports therefore I was interested in sports and loved them just as much as they did. I remember in the summer as a kid, my brother Matt and I would listen to the radio as the Minnesota Twins game was being broadcasted and we would keep stats in our baseball books. After college, I got involved in a handful of fantasy football leagues and loved it. It was absolutely crazy how many times I would win my league. We started one at the bank I still work at back in 2008 and in 2014, one of the guys in our Finance and Accounting Department told me about FanDuel and DraftKings and introduced me to daily fantasy sports. He told me about RotoGrinders and that they had the best tools and research around. I immediately started playing around with it during football season, mostly playing cash and head-to-head games. I had a ton of success and it only grew from there. A few years later I added MLB and NBA in the mix and I haven’t looked back!
Kristi at a previous FanDuel live final in San Diego, California
When and how did you first start experiencing success in DFS?
I almost immediately had success as I started playing cash and head-to-head games during football season. I slowly started getting smarter and added single entry and 3 entry max to my routine and remember winning $10K on DK within a couple of months and I also won the $25 single entry a handful of times very early on with FanDuel.
How would you describe your approach to building lineups? Are you a single, multi or max entry player? Why?
I am mostly a single or 3 entry max type of player. I almost always end up constructing a lineup that I absolutely love and believe is pretty optimal. On some of the bigger slates, I will add a couple more, especially if there are a few games that I really find attractive. For the first time this year during MLB, I have played around with MME on FanDuel and I ended up winning the rally a month or so back. I honestly don’t have that much time to do much of the MME, but if the slate is right, I will certainly consider it. One of the reasons why I would do it is if I really like a pitcher for MLB or if I want to go overweight the field on a particular team, I like being able to lock in a pitcher and from there I usually pick a few teams I want to be overweight on and will try to capture all of the different combinations that I like. There are also some slates that I think it’s important to build 4/4 or 5/3 stacks and sometimes I like a stack so much that I will build a 4-man stack around a team I really like and then let the opto fill in the rest.
Go into more detail about your general DFS process. Do you rely on any content and/or tools?
I have to say that our tools at RotoGrinders are hands down the absolute best in the business and I am so honored to be part of this great team. For MLB, Derek Carty’s BAT projections are phenomenal and I use those quite a bit. I think an underutilized tool is our PlateIQ tool as well. I also read all of the articles that are put out and usually have a great idea of what the field will be doing each day. I also run the opto to get an idea of where the chalk will be. I am someone who isn’t afraid of playing chalk as I always seem to find a way to get different with 1-2 lower-owned players. For instance, if the Dodgers are projected to be the chalk, I will add guys like Cody Bellinger or Gavin Lux to my stack as they are always under-owned because they bat at the bottom of the order. I also like using FanGraphs to get almost any stat you can think of when it comes to baseball. This probably sounds crazy, but I heavily rely on my gut instincts a lot and I would have to say they rarely let me down. I try to surround myself with the most information possible and then start to construct my lineup each day.
Kristi enjoying the pre-contest festivities at the FanDuel WFBC
Qualifying for a live final is on the bucket list for many DFS players. Just how amazing are these events?
The live finals are absolutely amazing. The first one I went to was in San Diego in 2019 and I was fortunate enough to finish 8th out of 125. We had a private concert from Tyler Farr, we went to Petco to see the Red Sox play the Padres and had our own space in center field, and then the day of the contest, we had an amazing room filled with TV screens, food, drinks, comfortable chairs and games to play. The experience is top notch and it’s great to be surrounded by people that have the same interests as you do!
Who are you taking with you to Chicago? Any special plans?
I am taking my brother Matt with me. He is actually a huge Chicago Bears fan and it sounds like we will get to meet a couple of former Bears players. It will be great to get to go take batting practice at Guaranteed Rate Field and I will also have the opportunity to meet several RG colleagues that I haven’t been able to meet in person yet. I am really looking forward to that as well!
How does your strategy change, if at all, in a live final?
My strategy really won’t change. I am used to competing against 125 people almost every night in single-entry contests for baseball. I am not going to get cute, I am going to stick with the strategy that has made me successful and that has gotten me here. In a smaller field, I don’t think you have to get crazy. I am sure there are others that would disagree, but for me, I want to be able to feel great about my lineup when lock comes around.
Are you able to actually enjoy the events or do nerves take over at all?
I would say the first time I was there, I certainly was a little nervous, but mostly because there are so many things happening and it was my first time being at a live final. I definitely will enjoy all of the events and then on the day of the event, I will make sure I am fully prepared.
What is the first thing you’d spend money on if you won the live final?
That’s a great question! I am such an investor at heart, that if I win, the bulk of it would be invested. That’s what I do for a living and I’m such a big believer in having a solid investment plan for myself. This might seem crazy, but I would actually love to do something for my brothers and their families if I won, as I feel very blessed and love being able to share with others. I would definitely take a portion and share it with them.
The Metzger family: parents, 3 brothers and sister in laws, and 12 nieces and nephews
What advice would you give to someone hoping to qualify one day?
I am a huge goal-oriented person and I start out each year identifying and writing down my goals. It sounds so cheesy, but there’s something about writing it down and holding yourself accountable. I did that back in 2019 and I decided going to a live final was something I was going to be focused on. Secondly, I would get to know how to use all of the tools that we have at RG. Get involved on Crunch Time and ask questions in Discord. And finally, study the lineups of players that are successful. I do this in life with everything I do – I follow successful people and see what their habits are that make them successful.
What accomplishments are you most proud of within the DFS space?
I feel like everyone knows this part of my story, but I was proud of the fact that I won second place in the 2018 FanDuel Fan Championship for $400,000. I thought I had won first for $1.0 Million, but a stat correction took me into second. The following year I took 8th place in the FD Baseball Live Final and I have now qualified for 12 live finals seats since 2019. I have had a very successful baseball season so far as I had back-to-back nights in July where I won $32K.
The biggest accomplishment of Kristi’s DFS career thus far
What do you love most about DFS?
I love sports, I love numbers and stats, and I love the relationships that I have met by being in this industry. I feel fortunate to absolutely love what I do every single day.
How do you handle the downswings and overall mental aspects of DFS?
This is a great question as I feel like unless you are playing DFS, you have no idea the mental toll it can take on a person. We all go through downswings, but I believe having a strong network of people you can talk to is huge. I have a couple of close friends and family that also play and we help pick each other up and also help each other talk through things. Everyone needs to have people in their life that they can talk to about this, otherwise, it can be really tough mentally.
What in particular do you enjoy about being an analyst?
I love being able to share with our RG members how I process each slate and also share with them what has made me successful. I absolutely love the interaction with all of the different people I have met through RG as I love relationships and helping people be successful.
Is there anything specifically you think could be done by operators to improve the overall DFS experience?
There are always things that evolve and change in the industry, but I do think it would be helpful to have the major sites look to some of the players that play quite a bit to get feedback on the overall experience. For those of us that play quite a bit, I think we can provide some insight to continue to make the experience better and to make sure it doesn’t stay stagnant.
Kristi’s newest nephew (and future RG member): Case
How do you see the DFS ecosystem changing with the continued expansion of legalized sports betting?
With sports betting becoming more and more popular now that it continues to expand into different states, it does seem like it is becoming a much bigger focus for sites and players. I am hopeful there is still a great niche in the DFS space for a number of us players that still love playing DFS just as much as we did 5-7 years ago. Even though things change, DFS is still just as much fun for me as it was years ago.
What future goals do you have in DFS? Is there a specific target you haven’t fulfilled yet?
I have two goals out there that are still very much on my radar. Some will call them a long shot, but I plan on making it a reality. I either want to officially win $1 million dollars in a contest (second doesn’t count for me!) or I want to win a live final and I am hoping to make that a reality this year.
The floor is yours. Any last tips, thank yous, or shoutouts?
I would like to thank RotoGrinders for asking me to be part of their team back in 2020. They are made up of some of the best people I know and I can’t tell you how many friendships I have made over the last couple of years because of them. I also would love to give a big shoutout to my brother Tyson. He and I have loved sports since we were little kids and he is such a positive/optimistic person like I am. He’s always there for me and it’s something we have always loved doing together.
Thanks to Kristi for taking the time to answer some questions. Best of luck in Chicago!
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