DraftKings Fantasy Basketball World Championship Recap

11:35 PM ET (Final update)

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The final results are in! The fantasy MVP tonight was Denzel Valentine, who totaled 57.75 DK points for a salary of $5,200. LeBron James posted a triple double and ended up as the highest-scorer on the slate with 75.75 fantasy points. Both players were in the lineups of the top 3 finishers. Congratulations to Dmoney361 for winning the 2018 FBWC and $500,000! cheddabisque snagged the second place prize of $350,000 by using players from only two different games in his best lineup tonight, with the one-percent-owned Cristiano Felicio returning great value on his $3,400 salary. rikkidee got the most out of his three entries, finishing in third, fourth, and 32nd places for total winnings of $475,000! Notorious finished in a tie for 14th place to lead the RotoGrinders contingent. Congratulations to all of the finalists!

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10:25 PM ET

The Cavaliers/Bulls game has gone final. Dmoney361 is the current leader as we wait for the Nuggets and Grizzlies to finish up.

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9:55 PM ET

The Mavericks/Nets and Hornets/Knicks games have now gone final. Some of the finalists, 16% to be exact, were hurt by Dennis Smith Jr ‘s ankle injury. He still managed to put up 38 DK points in just 23 minutes, but oh, what could have been! No one ahead of EmpireMaker2 has Denzel Valentine or Will Barton.

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9:30 PM ET

With the first two games of the slate now complete, mrgoodseats and donkosaurus are narrowly holding down the top two spots. The games in Memphis and Chicago are nearing the middle of the third quarter. James Harden ($11,200) easily outscored the more-popular Anthony Davis ($11,500) tonight, but LeBron James ($11,900) has a chance to surpass both of them.

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8:55 PM ET

Let’s take a look at the teams that killab2482, Notorious, stlcardinals84, and GrindersCal built. You may notice something new called “Upside%” displayed. That’s a new feature for the browser extensions that’s being developed. It’s a better estimator of the remaining DFS points, or upside, left in a lineup because it accounts not just for Player Minutes Remaining but for the salary of each individual player that has minutes remaining. The upside percentage will give us a good idea of which lineups have the best likelihood to move up the standings as the slate nears its end.

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8:40 PM ET

Here are the updated standings. Laptop46 has two entries in the FBWC; mrgoodseats has five.

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8:20 PM ET

Cleveland teammates LeBron James and Jeff Green check in as the highest-owned players on the slates, at 67.2%. Here’s the complete list of ownership percentages for the Cavaliers vs. Bulls and Nuggets vs. Grizzlies games.

Jeff Green – 67.2%
LeBron James – 67.2%
Cameron Payne – 59.2%
Will Barton – 32.0%
Antonio Blakeney – 21.6%
Denzel Valentine – 16.0%
George Hill – 15.2%
Tyreke Evans – 12.8%
Ante Zizic – 11.2%
Jamal Murray – 9.6%
Paul Millsap – 8.0%
J.R. Smith – 5.6%
Bobby Portis – 5.6%
Nikola Jokic – 4.0%
Justin Holiday – 4.0%
Jordan Clarkson – 3.2%
Paul Zipser – 2.4%
David Nwaba – 1.6%
Cristiano Felicio – 1.6%
Marc Gasol – 1.6%
Noah Vonleh – 1.6%
Jerian Grant – 1.6%
Wilson Chandler – 0.8%
Jose Calderon – 0.8%
JaMychal Green – 0.8%

8:05 PM ET

A little over one hour in, all of the players are now shown on DK and the first two games are at halftime. Here’s a look at the top 10 and the lineup of the current leader, dcole57

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7:50 PM ET

The World Championship hardware:


7:35 PM ET

Here are the ownership percentages for the Mavericks vs. Nets and Hornets vs. Knicks games.

Dwight Powell – 56.0%
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson – 34.4%
Joe Harris – 28.0%
Yogi Ferrell – 26.4%
Tim Hardaway Jr – 19.2%
Dennis Smith Jr – 16.0%
DeMarre Carroll – 12.8%
Doug McDermott – 7.2%
Maxi Kleber – 4.0%
Caris LeVert – 4.0%
Kyle Collinsworth – 4.0%
Michael Beasley – 3.2%
Kemba Walker – 3.2%
Kyle O’Quinn – 1.6%
Dwight Howard – 0.8%
Jameel Warney – 0.8%
Dirk Nowitzki – 0.8%
Nerlens Noel – 0.8%

7:15 PM ET

Welcome to the DraftKings live final, where Al Jefferson is 51% owned! Please note that this contest was shortened to a six-game slate, with the first two games starting now, two more starting in approximately 30 minutes and the last two starting about an hour from now. Here are the ownership percentages for the Pacers vs. Wizards and Rockets vs. Pelicans players.

Al Jefferson – 51.2%
Anthony Davis – 41.6%
Jrue Holiday – 35.2%
Chris Paul – 30.4%
James Harden – 12.0%
Ian Clark – 11.2%
Victor Oladipo – 8.8%
Trevor Booker – 6.4%
E’Twaun Moore – 5.6%
Darren Collison – 4.0%
Nikola Mirotic – 3.2%
Clint Capela – 3.2%
Eric Gordon – 2.4%
Markieff Morris – 1.6%
Bojan Bogdanovic – 1.6%
Otto Porter – 0.8%
Darius Miller – 0.8%
Ian Mahinmi – 0.8%
Bradley Beal – 0.8%

7 PM ET

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone! Today 125 finalists are vying for the pot o’ gold that DraftKings is handing out to the winner of the 2018 Fantasy Basketball World Championship. Okay, okay, it isn’t really a pot of gold, but that would be pretty sweet if it were. $4 million is up for grabs.

Here are the actual prizes being awarded in Los Angeles, California at the FBWC:

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Follow along with RotoGrinders as we provide live updates of this contest throughout the evening. For a complete list of the finalists, click here.

RotoGrinders is well-represented at the FWBC, with Notorious, stlcardinals84, killab2482, and GrindersCal all securing a spot in the final. RotoGrinders CEO and co-founder, Cal Spears, is aiming to follow up his Week 5 victory in the DraftKings NFL Millionaire Maker last season by winning half a million dollars in NBA tonight. Most of you have seen Derek Farnsworth, Justin Van Zuiden and Brett Hartfiel on GrindersLive and read their content here on RG. All three of them are ranked in the top 100 for NBA DFS.

The top five DFS players in the RotoGrinders overall rankings will also be competing in the FBWC. Top-ranked Awesemo has four entries in the final. The number two overall, and top-ranked NBA player, youdacao has three lineups in the championship. The 2017 Tournament Player of the Year, ranked third overall in 2018, ChipotleAddict, also qualified, as did papagates and moklovin, who currently stand fourth and fifth, respectively, in the overall rankings. This field is packed with many of the top names in the DFS industry. Now let’s sit back, drink a green beer, and see how it all plays out at the 2018 DraftKings FBWC.

Please leave a comment below and let us know who you’re rooting for tonight!

About the Author

nvalencia30
Nicole Valencia (nvalencia30)

Nicole Valencia found DFS at the beginning of the 2012 NFL season and has been steadily losing interest in her favorite teams’ win-loss records ever since. She idolizes college basketball coaches who don’t automatically bench their star players for picking up two fouls in the first half. Nicole is a software engineer who lives in Colorado with her husband and two kids.