DraftKings Drops Late Swap for NBA

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The DFS community is still reverberating from a major rules change for one of the industry’s leading operators.

In an email sent out to registered users, DraftKings dropped the surprising announcement that it was eliminating late swap for NBA contests this season. Initial feedback shows it to be a divisive decision among DK users.

The email also announced that the site is bringing back multi-position eligibility for NBA players, but while that alteration can also have far-reaching effects in the lineup-building process, it’s taken a backseat to the blowback regarding the removal of late swap.

Late swap has long been one of DraftKings’ primary differentiators from FanDuel and other competitors, which lock lineups when the first game on a slate begins. Conversely, late swap allows contestants to make changes to their lineup long after a slate has started in games that have not yet begun.

Though it can be used effectively in a variety of ways, this feature was viewed by many as vitally important in NBA contests, where the status of injured players is often unknown until minutes before tip-off. And with so many highly valued fantasy contributors playing on the West Coast during the NBA season, it benefits players who remain engaged until the final game has started.

If Stephen Curry is questionable, for example, the DFS contestant who follows the news up until tip-off gains an edge if Curry is benched and the much-cheaper Shaun Livingston draws a start.

The flip side of that coin is that more casual players, who set a lineup and then go about their evening, are often at a disadvantage, whether they played Curry in the preceding example or missed out on a value opportunity with Livingston.

The rule change was widely viewed as a concession to those casual players, and DraftKings confirmed as much in an email to RotoGrinders.

“As we continue to evolve our products and features, we are focused on finding ways that ensure all players can have the best experience with our product in a fun, safe and transparent environment,” a DraftKings representative said in the email. “For NBA specifically, it has become clear that the amount of extra time and energy required to compete as a result of late-swap functionality is taking too much away from the enjoyment of the game. While late-swap can help prevent the poor experience of getting a zero in your lineup, there are other uses for the feature which ultimately require users to monitor news and scramble to make last-minute adjustments to their lineups up until tip-off of the last game of the night.”

Some of those uses referenced can be highly beneficial to advanced DFS users who monitor games throughout the night and make adjustments to their lineup based on how players are performing in early games. As an elementary example, if a tournament lineup is under-performing relative to expectations, a DFS contestant could opt to substitute a “safe” play in the late games for a player with a wider projected range of possible outcomes, including a higher ceiling.

A quick sampling of feedback around the Internet shows that the DFS community is split in its opinion regarding the change. A RotoGrinders Twitter poll found that 64 percent of more than 1,800 respondents did not like the change, and the debate is raging in a 27-page thread (as of early Friday afternoon) on the RotoGrinders forum.

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A DraftKings representative weighed in on the thread, offering the following insight:

“We know that there will be customers that are not happy with this decision. However, we have increasingly received feedback from players who have decreased their play or even stopped playing completely because they want to “actually enjoy watching the NBA.” We do see the value of late-swap and there are no plans of removing it for other sports…”

DraftKings reiterated in its email to RotoGrinders that the removal of late swap will apply only to the NBA.

The consensus opinion among most in the industry is that the change will benefit casual users, but not all share that point of view. RotoGrinders contributor Christopher Kaltenbach (better known as TheSeige) has been perhaps the most vocal critic, pointing out that DFS users who utilize a high volume of entries are better positioned to take advantage of game-time decisions by diversifying their lineups to include both players whose status is in question and their potential replacements.

One aspect of Thursday’s news that was met with nearly universal acclaim, however, is the return of multi-positional eligibility, which gives users the opportunity to roster some NBA players at a variety of positions. That ability creates more flexibility in the lineup-building process and increases the variety of lineup possibilities, thereby decreasing lineup overlap and split winnings.

About the Author

bholloway
Brent Holloway (bholloway)

Brent Holloway is a freelance writer based in Georgia who got into his only live final with a press credential instead of a qualifying spot. He’s been covering everything from from youth sports to the NFL for the last 10 years, with recent stops at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and DailyFantasyTalk.com. Contact him at brent@rotogrinders.com or @thebholloway on Twitter.