NFL DFS Tournament Strategy: GPPs Explained and How to Attack Them
In this NFL DFS strategy guide, we break down the basics of NFL DFS tournaments, also known as GPPs. Additionally, we’ll show you resources and tools, like our NFL optimizer, that will help you craft a winning strategy for the biggest tournaments this season.
NFL DFS Tournament Basics
In daily fantasy sports, a GPP is a guaranteed prize pool contest. In other words, these contests are guaranteed to pay winners a predetermined amount regardless of the number of entries. For these contests, winners are paid out based on finishing position with higher finishes yielding larger portions of the guaranteed prize pools.
NF DFS contest types are broken into two main categories – the aforementioned GPP contests and contests that are informally dubbed cash games. Cash games in daily fantasy sports are contests where players who win are paid the same prize if they reach a certain percentage of the field.
Typically, the top half of the field will win roughly double the buy-in amount for cash game contests. These contests range in size with players able to register for head-to-head contests up to contests with thousands of entries. Some contests – called multipliers – will pay winners more than twice their entry fee. For example, DraftKings runs NFL contests called triple-ups that pay roughly one-third of the field triple their buy-in amount.
Since cash games pay everyone the same prize, players must use a more conservative approach for lineup construction emphasizing player projections and salary value. Since the first place is paid the same as anyone else, taking unnecessary risks is not very sensible.
For NFL DFS GPP contests, however, a higher finish pays more money. Players might focus less on value for these contests and more on game theory, differentiation, and upside.
NFL DFS GPP Strategy Overview
Different strategies are used for different types of guaranteed prize pool contests. DraftKings, for example, offers large GPP contests like the Millionaire Maker each week that feature thousands and thousands of entries all hoping to turn $25 into $1,000,000. Also, NFL DFS sites feature large-field contests with entry restrictions (3-max or single entry). Finally, the site often features large-field contests with smaller entry price points and smaller-field contests with larger buy-in amounts.
NFL DFS Tournament Sizes
Let’s review some of DraftKings’ offerings for each week of the NFL season.
MME
Mass multi-entry contests – also known as MME contests – allow players to enter multiple entries into the same contests. MME contests – like the Millionaire Maker – allow players up to 150 entries. Players can then create however many different lineups they would like up to the max to cover as many permutations as they can given their favorite players or teams.
MME contests allow players to build several variations of lineup combinations they might like for the given week in the NFL. For example, a DraftKings customer might want to create lineups for the Chiefs versus the Chargers. With 150 entries, the player could build several lineups with Patrick Mahomes and one or more Chiefs’ receivers. With those sets of lineups, the player might also want to use only one Charger on the other side.
With so many possible entries available, players can cover a variety of lineup permutations for a given NFL daily fantasy slate.
20-Max
Unlike MME contests, 20-max GPP contests restrict players to a maximum of 20 lineups. Twenty lineups still offer plenty of optionality but force players to be more precise with their player pool for the NFL slate.
20-max contests often feature smaller prize pools than MME contests but offer better payout structures. The Millionaire Maker contest pays out a bulk of the prize pool to the winner – 1 entry out of thousands. The dropoff in payment from first place to just tenth place is marked. 20-max contests normally offer smoother payout structures with smaller gaps between places.
Like MME contests, 20-max contests allow players multiple permutations of the same lineup build. Using our earlier example, I might love the Chiefs-Chargers game environment. With only 20 lineups, though, I might need to cut back on the Chargers I want to use as bring-back options for my Patrick Mahomes’ stacks.
3-Max
DraftKings also offers GPP contests that restrict players to three entries. DraftKings offers 3-max GPP contests at various price points for NFL slates.
With 3-max contests, players must be very particular with their lineup choices. Players could build three completely different lineups with three separate quarterback-wide receiver combinations. Some players might want to focus all three lineups on the same team stack. For example, I might love the Chiefs’ offense this week and want to build three lineups with Patrick Mahomes stacked with Travis Kelce, Rashee Rice, and Marquise Brown.
Even with fewer entries, 3-max contests are still GPP contests that pay significantly more to the top of the leaderboard. Instead of selecting the most obvious players to fill out lineups, players might make decisions centered on differentiating their three lineups from the field. Perhaps, a specific running back is going overlooked because of a tough matchup. A quarterback with high projected ownership could be paired with a lesser-owned receiver. Or, a player can stack the other side of a popular game with the lesser-owned offense.
Single Entry
Finally, the last main GPP contest type is a single-entry contest. In single-entry contests, players may only submit one lineup. DraftKings features large prize pools for single-entry contests at various price points. Single-entry contests simplify the lineup-building process but the strategy involved in these contests is still very complex.
Single-entry contests will often see far more congested ownership of players because each player can only enter one lineup. Therefore, a player projected for high ownership in MME contests will likely carry even greater ownership in single-entry contests.
These contests often require more differentiation or at least more nuanced differentiation than MME contests. In the NFL, players with greater value because of role changes or injuries are difficult to avoid. Therefore, one might need to find other ways to differentiate their single lineup to leap past the voluminous combinations featuring the value play.
NFL DFS Tournament (GPP) Strategy
Among NFL DFS GPP contests on DraftKings exist specific contests that require their unique strategy. We’ve alluded to one throughout this article. Let’s break down a few of types of NFL DFS tournaments that DraftKings will offer this football season.
DraftKings NFL Millionaire Maker
The NFL Millionaire Maker garners the most attention from the daily fantasy football industryand why not? Doesn’t everyone dream of turning $25 into $1,000,000? DraftKings and other fantasy sports sites feature countless anecdotes about a recreational player turning a single lineup into $1,000,000.
The Millionaire Maker features the most top-heavy payout structure on DraftKings. Normally, with a prize pool of just over $2,000,000, just under half of the prize pool is paid out to one entry — ONE ENTRY. One entry in a sea of thousands and thousands of NFL fantasy lineups.
Due to the top-heavy nature of the payout structure, NFL DFS players must be far more contrarian in their tournament strategy when creating lineups for the week. Duplicating lineups in the contest or portions of lineups means you are contending with more people to fight for the top prize.
Instead, if you choose a low-owned game to build your lineup, like a game with weather risk or a low implied game total, you avoid a large concentration of lineups featuring the same idea.
Since coming in tenth place pays so little relative to the million-dollar first-place prize, you should create lineups that embrace volatility and higher upside.
Live Qualifiers & Satellites
DraftKings presents live finals each year during the NFL season where a small number of entrants travel to a predetermined location to compete for a large prize. Throughout the NFL season, DraftKings offers live qualifier satellites that pay out seats to the live final as prizes.
Live qualifiers, depending on the buy-in amount, feature smaller or larger field sizes. In large-field qualifiers, players must be more contrarian and take on more volatility since the only prize is a seat in the contest. A few additional places are paid a smaller cash prize. However, the purpose of the contest is to win one seat.
Entering high-stakes, smaller-field contests allows players to lean more on projections and higher-owned players since there are fewer players to beat to win the seat. However, even in smaller-field contests, players must take chances on lower-owned players to win the only prize at the top.
Live qualifier satellites are a quick way to drain your daily fantasy bankroll. Players must be sure to exercise careful bankroll management before overextending their funds on satellites.
Low Stakes vs. High Stakes
Low-stakes GPP contests will often feature significantly larger fields. Since the fields are much larger, players must take more chances with players and lineup construction. When payout structures are top-heavy, building more contrarian lineups is more profitable because more money is paid out to only a few places.
In high-stakes contests, the price point normally keeps the field far smaller. With fewer players to defeat for prizes, GPP players can be more conservative with their lineup decisions. A high-owned running back that will see twenty-plus touches because of an injury might be worth the 40% ownership when the rest of your lineup can be used for differentiation. With fewer competitors, there are fewer permutations to defeat to win a large prize.
NFL Lineup Construction for DFS Tournaments
Now that we covered some of the contest options, let’s talk about different ways to build lineups for GPP contests.
Ownership
Projected player ownership is discussed ad nauseam throughout every NFL week. As injury reports are crystallized, daily fantasy sites like RotoGrinders work tirelessly to project who the most popular players will be that week in the NFL.
Ownership is important because it lets players see which players to include or avoid in lineups depending on the contests they are playing for that week. Players that focus on cash games will likely want to include a 55% owned running back because they just want to place in the top half of the field. GPP players might avoid that player to make a contrarian lineup for the Millionaire Maker.
Stacking
Stacking in NFL DFS has become a prerequisite to building successful lineups. Focusing on player correlation on NFL teams helps players maximize the fantasy points accrued when NFL offenses score big on Sunday.
Normally, stacking in DFS starts with a quarterback and one or more receiving options. If Patrick Mahomes is going to be the highest-scoring quarterback of the week, logic would suggest that one (or more) of his receivers will have a great week on the field. Beginning lineups with Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce will be successful if Travis Kelce catches ten passes for 100 yards and two touchdowns.
Let’s take it a step further. If the Chiefs are going to score fifty points, it stands to reason that the opposing offense is keeping up with the Chiefs for at least a portion of the game to keep Mahomes’ foot on the gas pedal. Returning to our earlier scenario, if Patrick Mahomes is going to score the most fantasy points of the week and Travis Kelce is going to be the highest-scoring tight end, Joshua Palmer from the Chargers might have to score a couple of touchdowns to make the game competitive.
Stacking in the NFL allows players to correlate players together when particular games go over their implied game total and produce tournament-winning fantasy statistics.
Salary Cap usage
DraftKings uses an algorithm to create player salaries each week in the NFL. Those salaries are based on performance, matchup, sports betting game totals, and other superstars at the position for a given slate.
Of course, DraftKings salary algorithm is normally good at spotting which players will score the most points for the given week. That said, building higher-scoring lineups normally means using as much salary as possible.
However, the salary cap offers another way to build contrarian lineups. Leaving a few hundred dollars of salary on the table often results in a different lineup construction. While only spending 75% of your salary might not be prudent, leaving some money on the table should lead to a unique lineup construction.
NFL DFS Tournament Tools
RotoGrinders offers content and DFS tools to build the best lineups for NFL GPP contests. Whether articles, shows, projected ownership or tools like LineupHQ and SimLabs, RotoGrinders does most of the grunt work so you can enjoy creating lineups for NFL daily fantasy contests.
LineupHQ
LineupHQ, our NFL DFS lineup optimizer, is your user-friendly headquarters for building one or hundreds of lineups for the various NFL slates on DraftKings. It’s the perfect tool for crafting your NFL DFS tournament lineups.
Our DFS optimizer features player projections, projected ownership, and a lineup generator that can create hundreds of DraftKings lineups with your customized settings.
LineupHQ allows players to create rules to generate lineups for DraftKings NFL contests. Players can detail player stacks for a pool of lineups as well as what percentage of the stacks should arise in a given lineup build. Further, players can assign rules that only pair certain quarterbacks with particular receivers or never pair certain players together in a particular lineup.
LineupHQ’s interface includes most of the research content offered on RotoGrinders on each week such as “NFL weather”: reports, consensus-value rankings, and betting information such as NFL odds and player prop lines.
SimLabs
Speaking of all-purpose and easy to use, SimLabs uses thousands and thousands of simulations to project the most optimal players and lineups for a given NFL slate. SimLabs allows players to specify how many lineups, what type of contest, and what type of stacks players want to use for a given slate.
SimLabs is customizable with several advanced settings to get as granular as daily fantasy players would like to get for a DraftKings slate. Based on simulations and then RotoGrinders projections, players can get a picture of the most optimal builds for GPP contests. Players can leverage the optimal builds for their contest selection for that week.
NFL DFS GPP Final Thoughts
Finally, DraftKings offers an array of options for daily fantasy players to add to their NFL experience each week. Whether cash games or GPP contests, players can create lineups at various price points with a variety of field sizes.
The NFL is the most popular daily fantasy sport and thus offers the highest volume of options for recreational daily fantasy players. Contest selection, lineup construction, and using content and tools offered by RotoGrinders can lead to a profitable and fun experience for daily fantasy players.
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