BANKROLL MANAGEMENT

Your bankroll is the amount of money you plan to use playing DFS. Every player decides how much money to commit. I invest thousands of dollars a week into DFS, although I was shocked when DraftKings emailed me, stating that I had reached the $1,000,000 entry fee marker last year. That means I invested one million through the DraftKings platform alone. The best advice I can give you is to never bet more than you can afford to lose because victory is never guaranteed. You can win an incredible amount of money in DFS competitions, but you can also lose it all in a second (remember Buster Posey?). So, never bet the rent or any money you’re going to need to pay your bills.

There are ways to be smart financially and still have a great time playing DFS. When you first sign up for a DFS site, you’ll likely get a bonus—possibly even matching your initial deposit. There’s no better feeling than putting $100 into your account and seeing it turn into $200 before you’ve created your first lineup. That said, stick to the limits you’ve decided and evenly ride the ups and downs as they come. If you let the outcome of a single day or a single week affect you too much, it can really screw with your head and lead you to make bad financial decisions. I talked about this in earlier chapters in relation to gambling and going on tilt. Losing a lot of money one day and overinvesting the next in an attempt to win it all back is the kind of mistake that can really hurt you in the long run. You need to remember that there will always be gains and losses. Don’t let it drive you crazy.

Remember, a good percentage of DFS players are just having fun and making a little extra cash. For at least the first couple of months, you should do your best to remain in the game and not let yourself get overly excited when you win or extremely angry or depressed when you lose. You don’t want to make rash decisions and wind up even deeper in the hole. Be patient and recognize that there will be bumps in the road. The trick to building a bankroll is to play small contests that you think you’ve got a good chance of winning. Grind it out, night after night, and don’t go into big-ticket competitions until you’ve built up enough money to cover it. Then you’re playing with house money, which means that you can take the hits and really enjoy the wins.

You should also be organized about keeping track of your wins and losses. It doesn’t matter if you write it down in a notebook or maintain an Excel spreadsheet, but make sure you know how much you’ve spent and how much you’ve won. If you can break it down by the types of competitions you’ve played in, or the number of opponents you’ve faced, that will help you plan your future strategy. Eventually, you’ll be able to calculate your return on investment—how much you’ve sunk into DFS versus how much you’ve won.

“Show me a guy who’s afraid to look bad, and I’ll show you a guy you can beat every time.” –Lou Brock