Daily Fantasy, Daily Life: Volume VI
Here’s a question we all should probably ask ourselves: What exactly do we want from daily fantasy sports?
After all, if you’re anything like me – and if you’re reading this, I’m guessing you probably are – you spend a lot of time in this DFS sandbox. One of these weeks – I’ll probably wait until next football season, especially the few weeks where it butts up against baseball and the beginning of the NBA season – I’m going to keep track of all the time I spend with DFS. I’m prepared to be gobsmacked by the answer.
Keep in mind I have a full-time job, a few side gigs, a wife, three kids, and a dog. All of that takes up most of my time. I’m reasonably certain DFS takes up a good chunk of the rest.
So yes: If I’m spending so much time listening to podcasts about DFS, reading articles about DFS, thinking about DFS, building DFS lineups, and even occasionally watching the games (something I almost never do, column for another day) it’s probably a +EV move to, at the very least, put pen to paper here to try and figure out just what, exactly, I’m hoping to find with this hobby/addiction.
And that’s probably as good a place as any to start: Am I looking for a hobby, or looking for an addiction?
Hobby: Well, it’s a hobby, right? It’s something I do in my spare time that gives me pleasure. Before I discovered DFS, my hobby was collecting sports cards. I did that from 2007-2014, but once I discovered DFS, I pretty much stopped collecting. Previous to that … not sure I really had any hobbies as an adult. I would read a lot.
But yes. This is a hobby, this DFS stuff. I have found the purpose of my DFS play! Except …
Addiction: So I’m reasonably certain I have an addictive personality. When I collected baseball cards, I’d hit every Target, Walmart, and Kmart in a 30-mile radius, plus daily checks of the prices on the online shops. I’d scour eBay. I’d hit garage sales and flea markets every weekend. It became a thing. And when I used to read a lot – I need to read more – I’d have like four books going at once on my nightstand. Going back to my childhood, I used to love to play Strat-O-Matic baseball. I played every day, hours at a clip.
And let’s not even talk about some of my more … less pretty addictions throughout my life. Cigarettes come to mind. Then there was the decade of the 1990s, which was my marijuana decade. I was high every day, all day, pretty much throughout.
If moderation is the key, my fob needs a new battery.
Today, I enjoy a drink or three now and again (and again), and there is plenty of regimented behavior built into that.
As for DFS? Uh, yeah, you might say I’m addicted. There are plenty of days I honestly don’t feel like doing the research or building any lineups, and yet … I haven’t skipped a day since I started.
So yes. I like the pull of an addiction. I like the routines it forces me into. So there it is. That’s my purpose for playing DFS. Except …
Money: Well wait a second: There are real dollars at stake here. I’m trying to win money, although I think of it as “making” money. And while I know everyone has the same story, I am up a relatively – for me – significant amount of cash since I started doing this. Now, when you break it down yearly, it’s not so significant, but still: I am profitable at this. While this hobby/addiction of mine doesn’t put food on the table, it certainly has put snacks in the cabinet. So yes. I do it for the money. Except …
Pride: While it’s great to pocket cash, I almost think the knowledge I beat you in our H2H, or I won this 100-person tournament, or I came dangerously close to taking down that 40,000 person tournament, or I made it to a best ball final … I like that feeling. I like knowing I’m good at this, at least some of the time. I like knowing the skills I bring to the table are translating to success. So yeah. Pride is huge here. Except …
Community: We live in a fractured society. Interpersonal relationships have suffered in the age of social media. Neighbors don’t know each other, and heaven forbid one of them puts up a political sign that doesn’t align with your views. It’s hard to make lasting relationships these days.
So when I message someone, or you message me, and we share a laugh over Joel Embiid being ruled out post-lock, there’s that sense of community that we kinda-sorta lost over the last few decades. It’s nice to find like-minded people out there, even if it’s in the ether. So there’s that. But there’s also one more thing …
Math: DFS tickles that part of my brain that rarely gets tickled. There is nothing I enjoy more than the process of hand-building lineups, which is every lineup I build. I do my research, I look at the numbers, I listen to the analysts, and then I get to put it all together. I’m not the first to liken it to a daily puzzle, but that’s really what it is. And the puzzle can be completed in a near-infinite number of ways. It’s so, so, so much fun.
All right! Let’s add it up.
I play DFS because I like math puzzles that involve community, but I want to beat you and take your money, all the while enjoying my leisure time by triggering the addictive part of my brain.
Seems healthy enough. Anyone want to go grab a drink?