RG Exclusive Interview with Top DS Player TomG (g123)

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Cool, calm and collected would be three words to describe new daily fantasy superstar TomG. Tom goes by the name g123 on DraftStreet and if you’ve played on DS for fantasy baseball this season I am positive you have seen his name often. He only began playing daily fantasy in the past few months and has already stacked up $424,184 in winnings on DraftStreet alone. In fact, he had never even played a seasonal fantasy league before this year. He’s the 40th ranked Grinder and has been in the top 10 for July and currently in August. In the interview Tom discusses his entry into the daily fantasy world, some strategic tips for daily fantasy baseball, bankroll management, the DSBC and more! But the topic that got g123 most excited was the prospects for the daily fantasy industry. If there is one part of this interview that is a must-read, it is his thoughts on how the daily fantasy industry can successfully tap the massive market of fantasy players not involved with daily.

Whether you are an aspiring player looking to turn your profit margins or a veteran of the game, there is a lot to be learned from a guy who has averaged $100K+ in winnings and just under 1,000 cashes per month in the four short months he has been in the industry. Before we get to our interview with Tom, let’s take a look at some of his figures.

The Facts About TomG in Daily Fantasy

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The Full Interview with Tom

RG: Alright Tom, let’s start off with some questions about how you came into DFS. In your RG profile it says that you started playing daily fantasy only in April of 2012. How were you able to pick up the flow of daily fantasy immediately and become the highest money winner on DraftStreet in 2 short months?

Tom: Before I started on DraftStreet, I bet sports, particularly baseball, for many years. This is my first season of daily fantasy sports. It’s actually my first time playing fantasy sports ever—I never before played any kind of a fantasy league until I began on DraftStreet in April. I became frustrated with the difficulties of sending and receiving money to offshore betting sites, so I decided to give daily fantasy sports a try as a (legal) substitute for sports betting.

I started out “paying my dues” to the best players on DraftStreet. It was very frustrating and that motivated me to work harder and make adjustments. I wanted to learn how some players were able to beat me on a regular basis. So I started studying their rosters. Who were they picking and why? If I happened to disagree with a certain pick, I’d keep digging until I could see some logic in the pick.

RG: Are you a daily fantasy baseball player only or do you plan to play NFL daily fantasy when it starts in under a month? If you plan to play NFL, how do you think the overall mindset of approaching daily fantasy games from baseball to football changes? What becomes more or less important between the two?

Tom: Like I said, I’m new to fantasy sports and baseball is the only sport I’ve ever played. I am not sure how I’ll adjust to football. I think the basic strategy between the different sports is the same—making adjustments for favorable/unfavorable player matchups. But how those adjustments are handled would be totally different for each sport.

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RG: You are very well known on DraftStreet for your incredible success, tell us a little bit about why you like to play over at DS and what features you enjoy from them.

Tom: There are several good daily fantasy sites out there, but DraftStreet is my overall favorite. For baseball in particular, DraftStreet’s scoring, roster requirements, salary cap, salaries, lobby interface, rake structure, and game options are all very well done. Other fantasy sites do a good job on a few of those areas, but none are as all around solid as DraftStreet.

For example, many fantasy sites don’t offer separate utility player roster slots. Now I understand the desire to simplify things for more casual players, but in my opinion utility spots require a lot of skill and are a large part of the game’s strategy.

RG: What is the single most important factor you look at when selecting a Starting Pitcher on DraftStreet? How about your hitters?

Tom: For pitchers I’d say strikeout ability is the single most important factor. For example, a guy like Kevin Correia for the Pirates is a decent enough pitcher, but he just doesn’t strike out enough batters to rack up the points.

For hitters, with a home-run being worth at least 7 points on DraftStreet, the ability to hit HRs is the single most important factor.

RG: How much time do you spend every day working on your MLB lineups?

Tom: If you want to win, be willing to put in a lot of time and work.

RG: To stack or not to stack? When do you think an MLB stack is prudent and when might it be unnecessary?

Tom: I almost never stack except for very rare circumstances such as when I want to employ a high risk/reward strategy. In those situations, I think it can be a very viable and successful strategy such as in a large field tournament, assuming you are the only person doing it. If enough people stack the same team then it becomes a losing strategy.

RG: How would you advise new daily fantasy players to approach their own bankroll management?

Tom: Treat it just like any other form of gambling— play within your limits and have fun. Also, it doesn’t even need to be for real money. I used the free games as a way to test out new ideas to see how many points different rosters would score.

RG: How big do you see the daily fantasy sports industry growing? What do you think needs to be done to give it that boost to the next level, in terms of site improvements, etc.?

Tom: The typical industry boilerplate is that there is a vast untapped player pool composed of millions of fantasy season long players. Not to mention the tens of billions of dollars wagered on sporting events each year. Right now the industry is experiencing moderate to large growth and that’s great, but it really should be absolutely exploding and it’s not.

Honestly, I think the industry is failing to properly appeal to a wider variety of players. The current player base seems largely composed of people who eat, breath, and sleep sports 24/7. That’s a very limited player base. The industry really needs to do a better job attracting more casual fans.

For example, right now if someone wants to draft a team, they are faced with a wall of player names, stats, and salaries. It’s very intimidating. Baseball is even worse as they also need to check lineup cards (typically at another site) and weather (also at another site).

There needs to be a more beginner friendly interface to lower the learning curve and appeal to more casual fans. I’d suggest something radical as an initial option for new players. First remove the lobby altogether. Create an area on the site that is a public listing of user submitted or site generated rosters. Take steps to ensure they are valid rosters with all players starting. Let players browse those rosters and pick one that they like. The player then just selects the amount to risk on the roster and the desired number of opponents and clicks submit. That’s it. The site would then take care of matching that roster against a unique roster from the lobby.

I’d suggest taking it even further and having Kay Adams or Matthew Berry create and submit rosters for people to choose from. Promote those rosters as special star endorsed rosters. Make it easy and fun for new users, not overwhelming and intimidating!

RG: That is a really interesting idea and you seem passionate about DFS as a whole. Do you have a most memorable daily fantasy moment?

Nothing really stands out. I play just about every day and I like to play a lot of games. It adds up to thousands of games each month. I don’t get excited about for any one game or day.

RG: Well speaking of big moments, it was getting pretty late in the DSBC qualifiers round and you hadn’t earned a seat yet despite being the top player for all of June and July. You were able to earn the 31st seat available, with just 9 qualifiers remaining. What was your thought process the night you finally took home a seat?

I was actually really surprised to win a seat since I didn’t come very close in any of the other qualifiers. Also, my score wasn’t particularly impressive in the qualifier that I won (I won with a score of 73.3 which ranks near the bottom of the qualifier winners). I think I was fortunate to have a decent enough performance on a relatively low scoring day.

RG: OK, the DSBC starts next week and the qualifiers are over. How far do you think you go in the DSBC? What other players do you think could make a deep run and, if not yourself, who would you say the favorite to win is?

I’m not going to pick a favorite—that’s way too hard as there are a lot of very good players in the field. I just hope to make it past the initial round and into the brackets. As for strategy, the first day I’ll be rolling with my usual roster that I play in all my games. If I really suck the first day, then I’ll consider some kind of high risk/reward strategy such as stacking or semi-stacking for day two. Otherwise I’ll just stick to my usual lineup on day two and hope for the best.

Concluding Thoughts

As you can see, Tom is a guy with a ton of insight and passion for the daily fantasy industry. He has come in and taken DFS by storm with a quiet confidence that continues to win night in and night out. Many players say daily fantasy baseball is pure luck, but Tom’s success throughout the 2012 season thus far would prove otherwise. BIG THANKS go out to Tom for doing this interview with us and we hope that it gives fellow Grinders some insight on what it takes to become a huge success story!

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