Interview with wining247: FanDuel Mega Slam Winner
Even if you’ve been grinding away at daily fantasy sports, you remember your first big win. Just a month or so into my time with daily fantasy sports, I took down a small NHL GPP on FanDuel, and was blown away at the idea of winning 75 dollars on a one dollar entry.
The DFS industry has grown quite a bit since many of us started playing in these one-day contests, and now first-time users have a chance to six-digit payouts thanks to some of the bigger GPP offerings that have come about with the rise in popularity of daily fantasy gaming. And on Wednesday night, a first timer on FanDuel took down the site’s massive NBA Mega Slam, along with a qualifier to their World Fantasy Basketball Championships in Miami.
Who is wining247?
Jack Hendrixson is a 22-year-old from Illinois who loves basketball and had been playing in GPP contests on DraftKings this NBA season, and through RotoGrinders he found out about FanDuel, and decided to give it a shot. Wednesday was his first night on the site, and he arrived in spectacular fashion.
“I only play GPPs. This is my first year doing one-day fantasy lineups, and I instantly got hooked,” Hendrixson told me in an interview. Jack goes by “wining247” on FanDuel, and if that name sounds familiar, it’s because it was atop the leaderboard for both the aforementioned Mega Slam and WFBBC qualifier. (You can find my analysis of his lineups and what we can learn from them moving forward by clicking here.)
So what were Jack’s first impressions of FanDuel? “I was very impressed,” he said. He told me that he wasn’t a fan of the utility spot on DraftKings, and liked the way the lineups are set up on FanDuel. The plethora of options provided by the flexible guard and utility spots really do make DraftKings a different game than FanDuel for NBA, and Jack obviously picked up on this new format quickly.
How The Lineups Were Made
“When I pick a GPP lineup, I always try to find value players that no expert is talking about, and try to take advantage,” Jack told me. “With big fields, you have to have some difference in your lineups, and that’s the strategy I use.” He certainly did that on Wednesday night, picking out three players with relatively low ownership, including Jonas Valanciunas, who was under one percent owned in the huge tournament field.
Jack said that the decision to roll with Jonas at the center position was based on a combination of his unheralded status and a good opportunity to be heavily involved in the Raptors’ gameplan. “Valanciunas was a player I used in over 50% of my lineups that night, and he was in both of my winning lineups. Due to his price, and the fact that he would see a ton of run to try to slow down the Chicago bigs, I actually expected a better game from him.” Hendrixson would go on to tell me he thinks the Toronto center flies under the radar a bit too often, and looking through his game log, he may have a point.
Obviously, the decision to roll with Valanciunas didn’t automatically win the tournament for Jack. He had to nail all the other picks as well, and that included picking two teammates, Trevor Ariza and James Harden. Jack said that his Rockets stack was designed to attack the New Orleans wing defense, and to capitalize on the absence of Patrick Beverley. Harden and Ariza were bound to pick up more responsibilities with the starting point guard out, and they responded with nice scores to help bolster his lineup.
The latest qualifier to the WFBBC also told me he felt like Houston players may be under-owned on the evening with everyone focusing on the return of Dwight Howard and how that would impact the team.
Jack also made the right call by picking Trey Burke over Zach LaVine at the point guard spot, as both players came in at the same dollar amount, but Burke picked up a better score. Going with LaVine would have cost Jack $70,000 in winnings in the Mega Slam. “Trey Burke is a phenomenal basketball player, and I liked him better with all of the injuries (for Utah),” he told me. Burke certainly stepped up as a playmaker for both the Jazz and Jack’s FanDuel lineups.
The Reality of Winning
So, did Jack dive in head first on his first day on FanDuel? The first-timer told me that he played 13 total lineups on Wednesday night, with three in the qualifier and ten in the Mega Slam. He admitted that he forgot about entering the WFBBC at some point during the night, and was surprised to check in later to see that he had won that in addition to the Mega Slam.
“I was in shock and so thankful to be in the running for first, let alone win it all. I found out about the seat in the championship a couple of hours later, right after I finally laid down, and thought it was too good to be true.” Winning one big tournament on your first day on a new DFS site is certainly quite the accomplishment, but imagine the feeling of taking down two huge contests at once! It’s understandable that Jack was a bit overwhelmed by it all.
Moving forward, Hendrixson is already looking forward to the WFBBC final in Miami. “I’m already looking at matchups for the WFBBC, and it’s anybody’s game but I like my chances to win it all, especially against such a small field.” If he’s able to nail low-ownership picks like Ariza and Valanciunas again in Miami next month, I’d say he’s got a very good chance at doing just that.
“I’m just thankful for the opportunity (to go to the live final). I also want to thank FanDuel.” Jack also wanted to give a shoutout to the RotoGrinders daily podcast, and he said “they do a very good job breaking down the matchups.”
So does Jack have any purchases lined up for his big paycheck yet? “No plans yet,” he said. The first order of business will be to make his first withdrawal from FanDuel, and I’ll venture to guess that it’s the biggest first-week withdrawal the site has ever seen.
Congratulations once again to Jack for his huge night, and many thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. You can read my breakdown of his Slam-winning lineup by clicking here.