Daily Fantasy Strategy Vault

by RotoGrinders Last Updated 2018-01-04 19:54:04

Last Updated: January 2018

The RotoGrinders Strategy Vault consolidates the best daily fantasy strategy articles posted on RotoGrinders (since we went live in July, 2010) into one convenient location.

Strategy Topics

(Click on a link below to jump to that section.)

The Basics

Are you new to Daily Fantasy Sports? Here are some basics of how to play, tips for new players, and how to best get started.

Beginner Guides

5 Secrets of All Daily Fantasy Sports – 5 introductory concepts for long term success (Ethan).

10 Tips To A Grinder Newbie From A 4 Month Vet – 10 smart tips for new players, by a new player (chenmen4ev).

Top 10 Tips for New Players: DFS Beginners’ Guide – 10 tips on how to get started in DFS (TwoGun).

Glossary

Daily Fantasy Sports Glossary – Confused with all the DFS terminology? Here’s a quick rundown of some of the most common terms you’ll see used in the forums and articles (Cameron).

Projections

Creating a Projection System for Beginners – How to create your own customizable projections to build lineups (sethayates).

How to Accurately Project Player Fantasy Scores – 3 main aspects that go into projecting a fantasy player’s score (Blinders).

Game Selection

Selecting the right game that fits your personality is an important first step. These articles will outline the various types of games available to help you determine which ones best fit your style of play, as well as what factors to consider when deciding.

Cash Games

Playing NFL Cash Games on DraftKings – What types of players you should target when building cash game lineups on DraftKings (JonBales).

Uneven Money: Exploring 50/50s – An analysis of why 50/50s might not be as good of a value-move as they appear (JackandSoda).

Guaranteed Prize Pools (GPPs)

Entering the Same Team Multiple Times: Is it a Good Play? – Why playing the same team more than once in a GPP is -EV over time (jshilling09).

Is GPP Success All About Seeking Upside? – Should every pick you make in a tournament lineup be a high-upside, boom-or-bust option? This article discusses the balance between upside and value for tournament play (JonBales).

Strategy

Back to Basics: Understanding Break Even Percentage – How to focus on the rake and break even percentages to better build your bankroll (anonymoose).

Do You Spend More Time Picking Your Team or Your Opponent? – Why it’s important to also look at who you play, not just what you play (dawg).

Long-term vs. Lifetime Profitability in Large Field Daily Fantasy Leagues – Tips to become a long-term profitable grinder (Blinders).

Multi-Site Play – How to play on multiple sites and who you should be targeting (rotokevin).

The Numbers Game: Analyzing Daily Fantasy MLB Data – Analysis if the score needed to win is correlated with buy-in level (nohitter48).

Bankroll Management

Variance is a big part of Daily Fantasy Sports and an important reason why you should stick to a bankroll management plan. These articles outline techniques and share personal stories to help you properly manage your bankroll over the long haul.

Bankroll Management Best Practices

Bankroll Management Discussion – The RotoGrinders community discusses key aspects to properly managing your bankroll in this Strategy Thread of the Week.

Bankroll Tips for GPP Players – How to handle bankroll management while playing primarily GPP contests (TwoGun).

Daily Fantasy Bankroll Management: An Overview – How to develop a formula to determine how much to play daily (jshilling09).

DFBC Math for the Rake-Conscious Player – How to calculate the value of your entry into a satellite event (Cal).

Setting Your Bankroll Parameters – Questions to ask yourself when establishing your bankroll (stlcardinals84)

Bankroll Stories

Don’t Learn Bankroll Management the Hard Way – A story of going from broke to $62,000 in profits over the course of two seasons (billsfan777).

NBA $1 to $100 Challenge: Analysis + Announcement – A journey of turning $1 into $100 (jimfred82).

NBA $5 to $500 Challenge: Data Analysis – A journey of turning $5 into $500 (jimfred82).

Overlay

Calculating Overlay Value in GPPs – From time to time entries in large tournaments come up short of what the site was expecting, and provide extra value called an overlay. This article shows you how to spot overlay and capitalize on the opportunity (Blinders).

The Effect of Overlay on Bankroll Management – A look at how much of an edge you can gain when entering contests that have yet to fill (JonBales).

The Value of Overlay in Daily Fantasy – How to understand the concept of overlay in DFS (Riley).

Tracking Results

RotoGrinders DFS Analyzer Tool – How to use the RotoGrinders DFS analyzer to understand your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to contest selection.

Tracking Your Results on DraftKings – How to track your wins and losses on DraftKings so you can learn from your mistakes and improve as a player (JonBales).

Variance

Daily Fantasy Tournament Variance – Estimating variance in DFS tournaments and calculating how many games you have to play to be able to indicate your ability (bripc23).

Daily Fantasy 50/50 Variance – Estimating variance in 50/50 cash games and calculating how many games you have to play to be able to indicate your ability (bripc23).

How to Benefit From Randomness – Why seeking out randomness and exploiting it can be our edge as daily fantasy players (JonBales).

Sport-Specific Strategy

Each sport involves different pools of players, has its own research methods, possesses different game theory, and requires a good understanding of the actual sport. Use this collection of articles to help get a leg-up on the competition when branching out into new sports.

NFL

Bucking the Trend: When It’s OK To Break Common NFL DFS Rules – When and how to break the “rules” of daily fantasy NFL (ezellmt).

Consistency in DraftKings Cash Games – How to minimize risk and build smarter NFL lineups (JonBales).

Fade the Thursday Night Game – Is fading Thursday Night Football a worthwhile strategy? (csuram88).

How to Increase Upside on DraftKings – How do you find those huge scores every week and take home big contests on DraftKings? This article discusses finding upside players in DFS football (JonBales).

How To Win at FanDuel Football – How to get started on the right foot in FanDuel’s football contests (JonBales).

Late Swap Video Tutorial – A video tutorial of the late swap feature (JonBales).

Pairing a QB with his receiver – Reviewing the merits of stacking a quarterback and a receiver together in daily fantasy football (JonBales).

Rookie Handbook – Basics to keep in mind when starting out in daily fantasy football (Jackandsoda).

The Art of the Fade in NFL – Sometimes that top play everyone is talking about is just too good to be true. This article discusses when and how to fade in DFS NFL (JonBales).

Using Late Swap on DraftKings – How to take advantage of DraftKings’ late swap feature (JonBales).

Using Offensive Line and Defensive Line Metrics to Determine Run Matchups – This article focuses on metrics that we can look to leverage when making our DFS lineups with regards to offensive and defensive lines (thehazyone).

Winning Strategies for Daily Fantasy Football: Head-to-Head & 50/50 vs. GPP’s – Ways to approach 50/50s and GPPs for NFL (pepsi7).

MLB

An MLB DFS Strategy Guide for the Beginner Player – MLB Basics for beginners (JoshKayNHL).

Beginner’s Hand Book Part 1: Six Easy Steps to Increase Your Game – Tips to help build a better MLB lineup (Jackandsoda).

BvP: The Numbers Do Not Lie…..At least, Not Intentionally – A defense of the oft-criticized statistic of Batter Vs. Pitcher (BvP) and why it can be a valuable tool (Jackandsoda).

Changing an Approach To Daily Fantasy Baseball: Offense – A look at wRC+, Batted Ball Profile and more in this high-quality analysis dissecting MLB offense (MTro86).

Getting Familiar with Sabermetrics – A guide through the world of advanced statistics in baseball (jmbwngfn).

MLB: Where Do Home Runs Come From? – How to better predict home runs in baseball and unlock the upside of the sport’s most exciting play (CheeseIsGood).

MLB: Why Hitting The Ball Is Good – Why putting the ball in play is an important aspect to consider when building DFS MLB lineups (CheeseIsGood).

MLB Tool Analysis: Ballpark Factors – A review of tools available on RotoGrinders to help you build a better lineup (Socky21).

MLB Tool Analysis: Daily Batter Hub Part 1 – A review of tools available on RotoGrinders to help you build a better lineup (Socky21).

MLB Tool Analysis: Daily Batter Hub Part 2 – A review of tools available on RotoGrinders to help you build a better lineup (Socky21).

MLB Tool Analysis: Daily Pitcher Hub – A review of tools available on RotoGrinders to help you build a better lineup (Socky21).

MLB Tool Analysis: Advanced Stats and Sabermetrics – A review of tools available on RotoGrinders to help you build a better lineup (Socky21).

The Best Friends: How To Play MLB DFS – Dave Potts, Eric Crain and Tony Niehaus, affectionately known as the Best Friends, guide you through some MLB DFS strategy.

The Transition: Season-Long to DFS MLB – Tips on how to move from the yearly game to the daily game (CheeseIsGood).

NBA

Being Contrarian Without Being Stupid – Methods in building lineups with contrarian plays to differentiate yourself from the field (TwoGun).

Daily Fantasy Basketball 101: Tips and Strategies – Everything you need to know to dive into the exciting world of DFS NBA (Notorious).

Daily Fantasy NBA Cash Game Strategy – An in-depth look at factors such as role, injury news, coaches, and value when playing cash games (rotomonkey83).

Daily Fantasy NBA Tournament Strategy – An in-depth look at factors such as role, injury news, coaches, and value when playing tournaments (rotomonkey83).

How Good Are We At Predicting Blowouts? – A review of Vegas spreads and predicting blowouts in NBA games (fathalpert).

NBA Tool Analysis: DvP – A guide of tools available on RotoGrinders to help you build a better lineup (Socky21).

NBA Tool Analysis: Offense versus Defense – A guide of tools available on RotoGrinders to help you build a better lineup (Socky21).

NBA Tool Analysis: Team Stats – A guide of tools available on RotoGrinders to help you build a better lineup (Socky21).

NBA Tool Analysis: Vegas Odds – A guide of tools available on RotoGrinders to help you build a better lineup (Socky21).

Over/Under Lines in NBA Daily Fantasy Part 1 – How to use Over/Under lines when building your Daily Fantasy NBA squad, with a focus on positive scoring and not negative scoring (missed FG or FT and TO) (barro).

Over/Under Lines in NBA Daily Fantasy Part 2 – How to use Over/Under lines when building your Daily Fantasy NBA squad, with a focus on positive scoring and not negative scoring (missed FG or FT and TO) (barro).

Predicting Big Games Using NBA Vegas Lines – Vegas Lines are one of many ways to help predict daily fantasy value, but the interpretations of spreads and Over/Unders can be a challenge (Ethan).

Reverse Engineering Volume 1 – A review of successful NBA lineups and learning from victorious lineups (CruzinToVictory).

Reverse Engineering Volume 2 – A review of successful NBA lineups and learning from victorious lineups (CruzinToVictory).

The Notorious Way to Make an NBA Lineup – Top-ranked Grinder, Notorious, gives you an inside look at how he constructs his NBA Lineups (Notorious).

NHL

An Introduction To Daily Fantasy Hockey – Learn the basics and strategy before diving into DFS hockey (TheTonyM).

The Goaltender Dilemma: How Much to Invest and How to Estimate Value – Learn the basics of selecting a goalie for Daily Fantasy NHL by focusing on four main statistics (Ethan).

The NHL DFS Guide for the NBA Lover – Are you an experienced DFS player looking to add some more games to your winter schedule? This article shows you how to transition to NHL DFS (ezellmt).

PGA

Daily Fantasy Golf 101: Strategy Guide – An introduction to this exciting daily fantasy sport. Find out how to build the best PGA lineups from one of the top grinders in the business (Notorious).

Reverse Engineering: The Masters – BrettMarino won $1,000,000 playing daily fantasy golf on DraftKings. This article breaks down his winning lineup to see how we can learn from his success (LeoTPP).

NASCAR

Daily Fantasy NASCAR 101: Building A Routine – Learn about four important stats to pay attention to in order to become a successful NASCAR DFS player (stevietpfl).

Soccer

How to Play Daily Fantasy Soccer – Learn about lineup construction and basic processes to get started in DFS soccer (hambazaza).

DFS Footy Guide for Noobs! – A Soccer 101 guide that breaks down positions, popular formations, what to target from a DFS perspective and how to succeed at DFS soccer (sirrobert6).

ESPORTS

Introduction to Daily Fantasy League of Legends on DraftKings – Understand the fundamentals, strategy, and game theory of eSports (VinnyTheBeard).

Lineup Construction

Roster construction is key to winning in Daily Fantasy Sports. Learn from some of the best on when to be contrarian, when to play the value chalk, and when to stack multiple players from a select game or team.

A General Roster Construction Foundation – A look at safety, upside, price, and matchup when constructing rosters (JMToWin).

Daily Fantasy Sports Math: Value – How to calculate player value with simple math to stay ahead of the competition (Sprizouse).

Stacking Forum Discussion – RotoGrinders’ forum members discuss the pros and cons of ‘stacking’ in Daily Fantasy Sports.

The Value Proposition – Factors to consider when building lineups and calculating player value (eddbot).

Value vs. Against-the-Grain Strategies – How to be contrarian in building lineups by factoring in skill level and price sensitivity (JonBales).

Lifestyle

Daily Fantasy Sports is a lifestyle. This section contains articles revolving around the lifestyle of a Daily Fantasy player, including interviews with some of the top players in the industry and articles to help you maintain a healthy life-DFS balance.

AMA with DFS Pro and RotoGrinders Host Eric Crain – Eric Crain aka jakz101 offers advice in an AMA.

AMA with RG Host/Contributor stlcardinals84 – Justin Van Zuiden aka stlcardinals84 offers advice in an AMA.

AMA with RotoGrinders Host/Contributor theseige – C.J.Kaltenbach aka theseige offers advice in an AMA.

Condia Interview – An interview with the man, the myth, the legend: Condia (Cameron).

Getting Your Spouse/Significant Other to Accept the Daily Fantasy Lifestyle – stlcardinals84 leads a discussion to help DFS players find a balance in maintaining a relationship while grinding DFS.

Interview: RG’s Latest Millionaire, Josh Veurink – 2016 DraftKings Millionaire Maker Josh Veurink shares his story on taking down one of the industry’s biggest tournaments (thehazyone).

Interview with 2014 DFBC Champion Dave ‘CheeseIsGood’ Potts – The 2014 FanDuel DFBC champion shares how he got his username, how he builds his lineups, and how he approaches daily fantasy sports (LeoTPP).

Interview with 2014 FFFC Champ: escot4 – 2014 FanDuel FFFC winner Scott Hanson talks about his journey as a DFS player and taking down one of the biggest prizes in DFS history (srk8987).

Interview with wining247: FanDuel Mega Slam Winner – Learn how Wining247 barely played on FanDuel prior to taking down one of the biggest online tournaments in DFS NBA history and a seat in the site’s live final (LeoTPP).

“The Mothership Has Landed – RotoGrinders Member Wins $100K On Just $4.44” – RotoGrinders member Jeremy Smith, aka mothership, turned $4.44 into $100K (thehazyone).

Question for the High-Rollers – A forum thread discussing adaptations to make while in the middle of a losing streak.

Legality

Here is a breakdown of the current legislation involving Daily Fantasy Sports, and how to handle taxes related to winning and losing in DFS.

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

Official 2016 DFS Tax Thread – A forum thread dedicated to helping the RotoGrinders community regarding tax questions with CPA user PJGuin23.