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Fantasy
Sports and Daily Fantasy Sports, where participants build their own teams for
major sporting events around the world and compete with other players has been
a popular hobby for many years now. It has grown rapidly in just the last few
years with the rise of mobile devices with fast internet access.
In 2005
there were 18 million players in the USA and Canada, a figure which rose to
41.5 million in 2014. The world of Fantasy Sports became big business in North
America with people paying money too enter the contests creating pools of money
that are distributed back to the top performing teams. The are small contests,
head-to-head contests and huge tournaments with more than 100,000 teams
participating. The operator of course takes a cut of the pool which is earnings
driver.
The year 2015 saw the first shock to the world of Fantasy Sports
and Daily Fantasy Sports when many states in the USA declared this type of pool
betting illegal. Now (2016) however many states have passed bills that make FS
and DFS legal and the big players in the field are moving overseas, to the UK
and Europe, and they hope to expand further.
Eighty percent of players
are male with an average age of 34. Some players play as a full time job which
in the USA of course means paying tax on your winnings. Not so the UK of
course. The secret of hitting the big time is perseverance. Players who are
dedicated will develop spreadsheets and databases with ratings and stats and
study all news outlets for information that could lead to an edge. But the
casual player is the most common user of these sites.
Playing is easy
once you've tried it and for very small entry fees a bit of self testing will
get you in the swing of things quickly.
Football
(Soccer)
The aim is to assemble an eight player team made of Goal
Keeper, 2 Defenders, 2 Midfield Players, 2 Forwards and one Utility Player,
which will be identified as GK, D, D, M, M, F, F Util. You have $50,000 to
spend and each player has a cost so the skill is picking the value players, a
judgement you make.
A set of matches will have been chosen for each
tournament and points are scored by each player for various performance
indicators like scoring a goal, assisting a goal, shot on goal, winning a
tackle and so on. Detailed scoring rules will be found on each site and are
easy to follow.
A typical $1/£1 event may have 2352 teams with a
total prize fund of $2000/£2000. The payout would be something like 10%
to the winner and double your money for 450th place. There are many types of
events and also entry fees so you can play for as little as 25 cents or as much
as £1000 per team.
Most tournaments will include multiple Premier
League matches played over a weekend, some events are season-long and so there
is something for all tastes.
Golf
Team
selection here is for 6 players and again it is spending $50,000 for value
players that make up your team. All players are alike so its pick 6 from the
150 or players in one of the professional tour events. Top players might be
$11,000 and there will be others at the other end of the spectrum for
$4,500.
Scoring gets more involved with golf with many facets to
consider. However a player who does well is going to score well but also
players that finish further down the field can pick up bonuses for birdies,
eagles, bogey free rounds, Aces and birdie streaks. All these different scoring
abilities make watching the live scoring on the final day very
addictive.
For instance is you had picked Jim Furyk in the Travellers
Championship on 7th August 2016 going into the final round he was a not very
promising 70th place at 1 over par. Shooting the record 58 brought him 10
birdies, an eagle, a 3-birdie streak and a bogey free round scoring 47.5 points
for that day alone. The winner of the tournament scored 124 points for all 4
rounds.
Cash Games vs. Tournaments
In daily
fantasy sports, we separate the game types into two main categories: cash games
(head-to-heads and 50/50s) and tournaments (aka Guaranteed Prize Pools or
GPPs.) Each game type has its own unique nuances in terms of the overall goal,
as well as the payout structure. Your lineup building strategy should vary
based upon which game type you are playing.
The majority of cash games
consist of 50/50’s and head-to-head leagues. In a 50/50 contest, you only
have to beat out half of your competition as the top half of the field wins
double their entry fee while the bottom half of the field loses their entire
entry fee. Likewise, in a head-to-head league, you only need to beat one
opponent. In both of these league types, 50% of the field wins. You want to
construct a “safe” lineup that is well balanced and has a great
chance of putting up a solid score. Cash games are not the place to target
players that are “boom or bust” players because you don’t need
to beat the entire field. You only need to beat 50% of the field in order to
cash.
GPPs are a completely different animal than cash games and your
strategy should be the exact opposite in these leagues: you want to construct a
team with the highest possible ceiling rather than the highest floor possible.
The reasoning for this is that GPPs only pay out the very elite teams in the
field. While a cash game pays out the top 50% of entrants, GPPs typically pay
out to less than 20% of the field. Knowing that you need a great score to cash
in GPPs, you want to target upside over players with a high floor.
A
GPP strategy that is often employed by the top daily fantasy players is to
target players that will have a low percentage of ownership. These are referred
to as “contrarian” plays or plays that go against the grain. The
reasoning for this is fairly simple: it’s easier to separate yourself from
the pack when your team is constructed of players that aren’t highly
owned.
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| Latest News |
| 05/03/17 |
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Fantasfida announced its launch into the UK market. |
| 05/12/16 |
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Yahoo
granted UK licence to offer DFS contests |
| 01/12/16 |
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Mondogoal closed on 1st Decemeber 2016. Cash returned to
customers. |
| 21/11/16 |
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Draftkings and Fanduel agree to merger |
| 20/08/16 |
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Daily Fantasy Sports building a new world of
betting |
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| DFS Operators Licensed in the UK |
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DraftKings
Muliple sports options including Premier
League, NFL, MLB (Baseball), Golf, CFL (Canadian Football League), NAS
(Nascar), MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) and eSports (currently LoL). Also NHL (Ice
Hockey) in season.
FanDuel
Football only for UK so
far.
fantasfida
Football only for UK so
far.
Mondogoal
Closed on 1st Decemeber
2016.
Oulala
Football only. Live coaching
function.
PlayON
Football, Cricket
and Golf. PlayON is the official Fantasy Partner for the European
Tour.
Oulala
Football only. Live coaching
function.
Yahoo
Football, NFL, NBA, NHL and
MLB.
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Daily
Fantasy Sports (DFS) Betting Glossary
Muliple sports options including
Premier League, NFL, MLB (Baseball), Golf, CFL (Canadian Football League), NAS
(Nascar), MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) and eSports (currently LoL). Also NHL (Ice
Hockey) in season.
Cash Game
Any league that pays out at least
one-third of entrants
Chalk
The favourites and top players at
a particular price range.
Contrarian
Choosing players who have
low ownership in the tournament to make your line-up different from all
others.
Core Players
The players you construct the majority of
your teams around when entering multiple lineups.
Exposure
If
you have a lot of exposure to a player it means you have a relatively high
percentage of ownership in your teams.
Fade
Avoid a player
completely.
GPP – Guaranteed Prize Pool
Prizes guaranteed
regardless of how many players enter.
Soft
Pricing
Under-priced salaries that allows most of the top players to be
selected.
Stars and Scrubs
Also known as "Studs and Duds",
when you select multiple elite high-salary players and balance your teams with
low salary players.
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