Rise & Grind: Wednesday, November 4th
Welcome to the RotoGrinders cup o’morning joe. Start your day off right here, as we sort through yesterday’s happenings and take a peek at the upcoming DFS day.
In Case You Missed It
No Brow November – As someone who wears a goatee year round, I’ve never understood the allure of “No Shave November.” People like Crazy Gabey haven’t shaved in years. I personally only shave about once per week. Even worse, No Shave November is sexist. How are women supposed to participate? Whoa, whoa, whoa, I’m going to have to stop you here. Please don’t go down and comment with ways that women could participate. I realize that women could technically participate, but that’s just gross. Instead, I’d like to propose a more enjoyable tradition for everyone. Let’s call it “No Brow November.” For the entire month of November we will avoid rostering Anthony Davis aka “The Brow.” Some of you are probably on the fence here, so let me convince you with some stats. Here are the FanDuel points of three hypothetical players in their first four games:
Player A: 47.7, 27.3, 28, 31.2
Player B: 29.2, 43, 51, 36.3
Player C: 35.6, 34.1, 50.3, 25.6
Without cheating, which one of those is Anthony Davis? The other two are C.J. McCollum and Kevin Love. I rest my case! Join me in No Brow November, your bankroll will thank you.
SportsTradex Merges With DraftDay – If you are a fan of Pick’ Em games, your options just became a bit more limited. SportsTradex reached an agreement with DraftDay to transfer their customers to the DraftDay platform. The positive news in this deal is that anyone who transfers their SportsTradex balance to DraftDay is eligible for a 100% bonus (up to $500). Congratulations are in order for DraftDay and condolences go out to the guys at SportsTradex. If you loved SportsTradex, feel free to drop them a note in the forum thread linked above.
RotoAcademy NBA – RotoGrinders is proud to announce that NBA RotoAcademy is now live. RotoAcademy offers premium courses written by Notorious, Jonathan Bales, Bryan Mears and more. If you are interested in taking your game to the next level check out the course offerings here. The free courses formerly known as GrindersU are also available.
Big Winners – Here at the Rise and Grind, we love celebrating big wins, especially when multiple people get in on the action. A huge shout out goes out to everyone who stacked Colorado’s first line, Edmonton’s second line, and used Lundquist in Goal on FD last night. There were 14 teams who used this approach in the FD Blue Line, at least 10 in the Breakaway, and four in the FD Goal. You can view the results in the Daily Tournament Links thread. Nice work guys!
Meanwhile in NBA, people who started “No Brow November” early were rewarded handsomely. Cuddy120 won the NBA qualifier to the NFL WFFC, zizzi14 won the Shot, bglezerman won the Slam, and biggieaims won the Monster. Over on DraftKings, dlions22 won the Sharpshooter, while hockey8812 won the 3-Ball, Crossover, and Zone. In DraftKings NHL, oskibob2 won the Tuesday Special, and metalhound won the Sniper.
Nigel Eccles Interview in Bloomberg Business – With the recent turmoil in DFS, both Jason Robbins of DraftKings and Nigel Eccles of FanDuel have been making appearances on the interview circuit. Nigel sat down with the guys at Bloomberg to discuss FanDuel’s future, as well as the past. This is going to shock you, but Nigel admitted they may have shown too many commercials. Quite frankly, I’m shocked by this admission. How could people not love Bradley C, Erik Hafner, and Beermakersfan? It’s just such a shame that people can’t appreciate a good marketing blitz these days. Nigel also said not to expect a FD/DK merger or even an Initial Public Offering (IPO). The full interview is here.
NFL Quarterback Changes – The San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns have both announced quarterback changes for the upcoming week. This means two things. 1.) Johnny Manziel 100% ownership in THU-MON leagues and 2.) Blaine Gabbert 100% ownership 2.) Atlanta Falcons Defense 100% ownership. I could be wrong on those percentages, but they should be close. I’d recommend tuning in to GrindersLive tonight starting at 8:00 ET just to make sure the experts are on board with those plays. EMac, 3rdDFS, and boggslite will be on at 8:00 ET, followed by Dan Back and the folks at Football Guys at 9:30 ET. As always, someone will be paying off a dub smash bet on the 9:30 ET show. You don’t want to miss it.
On the Menu
NBA GPPs – If you are new to DFS, I’d like to point out that you are spoiled. Tonight FanDuel and DraftKings are each running a $1M NBA GPP with $100K to first. Back when I started DFS, we were ecstatic to get a $300K GPP once per month. Now here we are, one week into the season, playing a $1M GPP. Back in the day, we also walked 5 miles to school in the snow and it was uphill both ways. Don’t call me a liar on that either. It is possible. There was a valley in the middle. Each direction we walked down the hill then up the other side. Like I said, uphill both ways!
NBA Tonight – If you are planning to take down a six figure pay day tonight, you better bring your “A Game”. You might as well start your research off with the NBA First Look. Notorious takes a quick look at the Vegas odds, team rankings, pace, and DVP for each team. Later today, you can expect the NBA Grind Down as well as Expert Picks for incentives members. After you are finished reading all those articles, let’s meet up on GrindersLive starting at 3:30 ET for three hours of live NBA advice.
NHL Tonight – Winning $100K in NBA sounds fun, but it also sounds pretty difficult. Last night, multiple people found the optimal NHL lineup on FanDuel. If you’d like to try out NHL and possibly catch Tampa Bay Lightning in a bottle, I’d recommend giving the NHL Grind Down a read. The Lightning don’t play tonight, but jmbwngfn does have thoughts on all the teams that are playing. There is also nearly $150K in Guaranteed contests between FD and DK. I’d say it’s worth your time to take a quick look.
Soccer Today – Have you tried DraftKings Soccer lately? Last week, DraftKings changed the format by adding additional players. The details are in this forum thread. Today’s eight-game slate is the perfect opportunity to try it out if you haven’t. Contests lock at 2:45 ET. Hambazaza will have his top plays posted shortly. The real reason you want to play though is because of #NarrativeStreet. Yesterday, France forward Karim Benzema was arrested for trying to extort a fellow soccer player. Benzema may or may not have been involved in trying to blackmail Mathieu Valbuena over a sex tape. Valbuena is on today’s slate and he should play well knowing that his sex tape won’t be released. That should take a huge weight off his shoulders. Fire him up in all formats.
PGA Tonight – A true DFS Grinder never misses an opportunity to invest some money right? Today we have the opportunity to play Soccer, NHL, NBA and even PGA. DraftKings is running a $50K 3-Wood, $150K Birdie, and $80K Fairway tonight for the WGC-HSBC. If you need help setting your lineups, FutureofFantasy offers assistance Searching for a Specialist and Notorious and Gibbathy have their expert picks available for incentives members.
With that, I’m out of here. Good luck in your contests today. The New Orleans Pelicans aren’t playing, so we don’t even have to consider Anthony Davis. We can still use this opportunity to work on our No Brow November strategy. This is going to greatly reduce our blood pressure while increasing our bankrolls.