Daily Fantasy Sports:  The Sirens of DFS, Beware the Tournaments

Greek mythology warns of a beautiful creature that lured sailors and their ships with their scantily clad bodies and beautiful singing.  Sirens would lure the unsuspecting ships into a rocky shore and by the time the sailors realized what was happening it was too late.  Their ship was destroyed, and their crew was either killed or stranded on a deserted island never to be heard from again.

Daily fantasy sports have a Siren that lures players in with dreams of a high payout.  Tournaments or guaranteed prize pools (GPP’s) are a big money contest that can pay out as much as 1 million dollars to the winner.  Who wouldn’t be drawn in and attracted to a contest like this?  I sure was and entered many with dreams of riches but ended up losing all my money because I didn’t know what I was doing.

Before going into a tournament, there are some things I want you to know and pitfalls I want you to avoid.  The odds are stacked against the players, like me, who only play a couple line-ups per night in cash games and take a chance on 1 maybe 2 low dollar tournaments.  If you are not familiar with cash games, check out my article to get up to speed before proceeding.

So, let’s dig into tournaments and learn how they work, just who benefits the most and has the best chance of winning, and the top-heavy payout’s that make a GPP an all or nothing venture.

DFS Tournament 101:  Embrace Being a Loser

Tournaments are a big draw for me because you can win life changing money.  However, with any contest offering this kind of prize, your odds are extremely low that this will happen.  Due to the high number of entrants in the contest and the number of lineups a player can enter, the odds are stacked so much against you that you should never expect to win a GPP.  Now could you win? Absolutely!  But if you are a limited player like myself, you most likely won’t.  I have been playing for 4 years and I have never taken down a big money tournament.  I have embraced the fact that, in DFS tournaments, I am one pathetic loser.

The first thing to understand about tournaments is the professional players have the advantage.  In most high entry, high payout games, 150 lineups can be entered into the contest.  Basically, a shark can enter so many different types of line-up variations while you enter 1-2 lineups.  You have worked hard at analyzing data and putting what you think are the best players in your line-up.  The shark has a spreadsheet that they enter a couple core players with great match-ups, then they set up parameters in a table, and simply hit a button that generates 150 lineups.  All they need to do then is upload them to whatever site is hosting the tournament, and they are done.  How well are your 1-2 lineups going to do against hundreds of sharks that are entering 150?

If you are a player, like me, who has a small budget to play each night entering mass lineups simply isn’t an option.  For example, there is a tournament boasting a million dollars to the 1^st place winner.  The cost of entry into this tournament is $25.  A shark enters 150 times for a whopping $3,750 dollars!  You and I throw our $25-dollar dart blindfolded and hope for a bullseye.  Unfortunately, the DFS sites do not make known the 150-lineup rule to new players.  It is listed in the contest, but if you do not know what you are looking for you won’t understand.  Most new players have no clue how this works.  I have talked to many who were in the same boat as me, throwing money into these contests not realizing I had practically no shot at winning or even cashing.

Don’t despair, there are tournaments that the players like us can join and play on a level playing field.  Single entry tournaments are just as they state, 1 entry per person.  There are also 3 and 5 entry max that I like to play that I do well in from time to time.  The odds are better, though the prize winnings are top heavy which makes playing cash games a better overall venture.

Let’s move on to these top-heavy payouts so you can see what I’m talking about.

Tournament Top-Heavy Payouts:  The Leading Cause of Heart Attacks in DFS Players

I’m going to give you an example of a tournament going on today, so you can see the difference in money from finishing 1^st to 10^th.

We have a contest we can enter tonight for $9 per entry with a max of 150 entries.  Here are the payouts from the 1^st place finisher to the 10^th place finisher:

1^st: $50,000

2^nd: $15,000

3^rd: $8,000

4^th: $6,000

5^th: $4,000

6^th: $3,000

7^th: $2,000

8^th: $1,000

9^th-10^th: $700

Now to explain the heart attacks I referred to above.  The 1^st place finisher’s score down to the 10^th place score can be separated by less than a point and come down to a fluke play at the end of the last game of the slate.  The DFS term for having the chance to win a tournament is called a sweat.  I think a more proper term is a heartstopper.  I have had the privilege of being in contention and went from $35,000 down to $200 faster than I could blink.  It is extremely frustrating to finish in the top 20 out of 150,000 entries and only win $200.  But as they say, that’s DFS.

Just so I don’t sound high and mighty, a 10^th place finish in the above tournament would be a great addition to my bankroll.  But if your score is 310.1 and the winning score is 310.8, it can be hard to take.  I usually try and change my perspective, but there are still some tournaments that haunt me to this day.

Enjoy Tournaments with The Knowledge of What They Are and What They are Not

I hope I have helped shed some light on the dark side of tournaments that most new DFS players just don’t know about.  Tournaments are fun, and I play them nearly every day.  As I outlined in my DFS Bankroll article, with the right mix of cash games and tournaments, you can be profitable and take a chance on hitting the big money.  The higher you build your bankroll, the bigger chances you can take.  You need to have this attitude going in or you will lose your money fast and be frustrated with DFS.  If you’re like me, you will throw more money in thinking all you have to do is hit one and lose everything repeatedly.  Remember your bankroll management strategy young padawan.

My strategies are not the “end all/be all” by any stretch.  I am an evolving DFS player, but my core strategy of cash/tournament ratio remains relatively constant.  As you play and gain experience, you will figure out what kind of player you want to be.  I know guys who have more of an expendable income than I do that are tournament players only.  They enter max lineups to many different contests each night.  Sure, they lose more often than they win, but when they win it’s a huge amount of money.  One win can make them a profitable DFS player for the year.  Just keep in mind that this type of player is rare and often referred to as a shark in the industry.

Next time on our Road to DFS Glory

I think next time we will cover the different research methods, podcasts, and other resources available to help you build successful DFS lineups.  There are a lot of great tools you can utilize to improve as a DFS player.  There are also many absolute scams that claim they can provide winning line-ups and you don’t have to research just plug and play.  My goal is to help you avoid these charlatans as I have fallen into their web of deceit and lies.