Using Late Swap on DraftKings

One of the cool aspects of playing on DraftKings is the late swap feature, which gives you the ability to remove anyone from your lineup whose game has not yet started, replacing him with any other eligible player who also hasn’t started playing. You can remove a player in the Sunday night football game just before kickoff, for example, and replace him with any other player from that game or the Monday night game (assuming it’s in the same position and doesn’t cause you to exceed the salary cap).

I believe the late swap feature is one of the most underappreciated components of DraftKings game strategy. Overall, it’s used on just over five percent of all NFL lineups.

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The primary purpose of late swap is of course to remove players who are late scratches or otherwise not playing. That’s a really nice feature that allows you to field the best possible lineup without worrying about questionable players not suiting up.

In addition to the obvious late swap uses, here are a few other aspects of how it can and should affect your strategy on DraftKings.

Be Aggressive on Thursdays

First of all, you can be really aggressive when filling out your Thursday night lineups. Since lineups don’t lock until each player’s respective game kicks off, you can put a questionable player into your lineup without worrying about whether or not he’ll play. Simply play the best possible options and then use late swap to make adjustments as the Sunday games begin.

Use Late Swap to Increase Upside or Decrease Risk

While late swap is intended for removing players who aren’t going to play anymore, you can also take out players who you originally selected who are no longer the best options. As more of your players participate in games, you gain more and more information about how your lineup is going to stack up against others. With any new information, you should adjust your strategy accordingly.

Let me give you an example. Assume you’re in a head-to-head matchup and you’re performing poorly. You don’t have a great shot to win, but you can increase your chances with a few high-variance players who could really go off; since you’re down, you almost want to treat your current situation as if you’re entering a tournament and want upside.

The problem is that you have a low-upside wide receiver in Kendall Wright in your lineup. You chose him because he’s safe, but since you no longer want safety, he’s not the best option. You notice that “(player-popup)Vincent Jackson”:/players/vincent-jackson-12271—a player with three-touchdown upside in any game—is the same price (or cheaper). The decision to switch to Jackson should be a no-brainer—an opportunity to use the late-swap option to increase upside when you need it.

You can do the opposite if you’re kicking ass in a larger league, too. If you’re crushing it in a tournament or 10-man league, for example, and want to reduce variance, you could switch from a player like Jackson to one like Wright simply for the safety.
Always give your lineups a look before the 4pm games begin to see how you can improve them by late-swapping to different player types.

Hedge

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Another underrated aspect of the late swap feature is using it to hedge. Let’s say you’re entering the Sunday night contest as a favorite in a number of leagues. You still need a good performance out of Brandon Marshall, though, who you have in almost every lineup; if Marshall does poorly, you’ll have a decent week, but if he has a big game, you’ll crush it.

This is a situation in which you can reduce the variance of your return (if wanted) by diversifying your lineups a bit. If you want to trade in a little upside for a higher probability of really good profits, you could swap out Marshall for, say, teammate Alshon Jeffery in some of your lineups. If you used a 75/25 split of Marshall and Jeffery, for example, you’d give yourself a higher chance of a really nice cash by using Jeffery as a hedge.

Give Yourself Late-Swap Options

In the Marshall example, you can give yourself even more options if he is in the flex. If you didn’t like Jeffery’s outlook that night, you could potentially swap to Matt Forte (dependent on price), or whoever else has yet to play, assuming Marshall was placed in the flex.

For that reason, you should always try to use a late-game player in the flex. That doesn’t mean you should force a Sunday night player into the flex just to have it, but after you fill out your lineup, move any eligible player whose game starts after 1pm EST into the flex spot.

Once you have more information regarding how your early-game players performed, you’ll be able to make changes to your lineup if necessary, and having a late-game player in the flex allows you to swap to any position. Being a quality daily fantasy player is very much about giving yourself as many options as possible, and shrewd use of the late-swap feature allows for that.

About the Author

JonBales
Jon Bales (JonBales)

Jonathan Bales is the founder of RotoAcademy and author of the Fantasy Sports for Smart People book series.