Uriah Wesson 
Introduction into NFL DFS contest selection:
As a newer DFS player most of us started off the same way. We were either watching television or listening on SiriusXM and we heard a commercial that went along the lines of “Do you think you know NFL? Do you play seasonal fantasy sports? Do you want to win money instantly? Have a chance to be like (insert name here), he/she won a million dollars playing daily fantasy sports on (insert website). Well sign up today and start winning”. In 2013 that was me, the site was Fanduel, and the player was Chris Prince. I proceeded to enter my money, and I was immediately hooked. Unfortunately, I also was not aware of sites like Win Daily Sports for a couple of years and I was doing like most new players and did nothing but chase the bright shiny Millionaire Maker contests. It took me a long time to realize what full time players already understood, the Milli Maker contests are a waste of money for the average player and that I needed to focus on single entry tournaments and 50/50’s. Not just that when you dig into it because not all single entry contests are created equal. With Win Daily Sports NFL Contest Selection week 10 we will tackle individual contests selection and why It is important.
Subscriber Questions: I will try to address any questions from our Win Daily Sports family that you may have that I haven’t already covered below.
What is the Difference in build structure between Cash and GPP contests? Your build structure will be vastly different between these types of contests. When building cash lineups the two biggest differences are that first, you don’t fade the highest ownership players like you would consider doing in GPP’s. High ownership is irrelevant because you aren’t worried about finding sneaky low owned players to separate yourself from the rest of the field to get to the top of the leaderboard, you just need to get above the cash line. You don’t get style points for finishing first. Second, you do not want to stack games like you would in GPP’s i.e. Playing a QB and 1-2 pass catchers from one team and running it back with a player from the opposing team. The reason for that is your goal is to minimize your risk and consistently score enough points to simply beat half of the field. If you have your players spread across multiple games and one guy gets hurt or has a bad game it won’t hurt any corresponding players on your team and you can still cash, whereas if your QB has a bad game and you stacked two of his receivers with him you’re now down 3 players and likely dead in the water. At most in cash games I may pair a QB with ONE receiver on RARE occasions and I will use a running back paired with a defense if the matchup is extremely good. One other key difference between the two is that you should largely avoid things like bad matchups in cash (such as a good running back in a bad matchup or a QB in a game with windy conditions), but you will take risks on those plays in GPP’s in an attempt to get a huge performance at low ownership. I hope all of that makes sense to everyone.
I’m going to just put this in here because no matter how many ways I say it people seem to not hear me. If you are playing with a limited bankroll as a new player or simply want the easiest path to make steady winnings DO NOT PLAY SHOWDOWNS. Your chances to win a showdown slate is worse than any other type of contest and if you are relying on it to make up for a bad main slate or think you can predict it accurately enough to be profitable over the long term you are doing it wrong. You’ll be broke and out of the DFS community before we ever get a chance to help you. Ok you’ve been warned. It’s just for fun and maybe you’ll get lucky, that’s it.
Win Daily NFL Contest Selection Week 10: Daily Fantasy Jargon and Definitions:
One thing that I feel is tremendously important is understanding the vocabulary within DFS. New players can sometimes be overwhelmed and a little embarrassed to ask what in the world we are talking about in our articles and in discord. First thing, don’t be. There is not a single content creator that will give you a hard time for not knowing what something means. We have a lingo all our own and it can take a little time to get up to speed and experienced players can sometimes get into the weeds when having nuanced conversations and inadvertently leave newer players not having any idea what we are saying.
GPP or Guaranteed Prize Pool/Tournament:
These are tournaments where the pay structure is pre-defined prior to the start of the contest and the pay structure increases the higher you finish in the final standings. They can either be single entry or multi entry. The Millionaire Maker is the most notable example.
Cash Contests/Double-Ups/50-50’s:
These are contests where if you finish above a certain point in the field you are payed a pre-determined amount that does not change based on final standings. Finishing in the top 50 percent (50-50’s) on FanDuel or roughly top 40 percent (double ups) on DraftKings will result in a positive outcome. These are the easiest contests to cash and the best place for new players to focus on while building bankroll.
MME/Multi Entry/Mega Multi Entry:
Contests where you are allowed to enter more than lineup in a given contest. These contests can range from 3-entries up to 150 entries per contest. These are the most difficult kinds of contests for people to win and with the exception of the 3 entry max should be avoided by most players who do not have an already established bankroll.
Single Entry Contests:
Contests that only allow you to enter a single lineup in a given contest. All new players and even established players should focus the majority of their bankroll on this style of contest. The potential winnings are not nearly as attractive to new players as the giant MME contests but they are by far the best choice for sustained growth. There are both GPP and Cash versions of single entry contests.
Rake:
Rake is the percentage of the overall prize pool that a given site will remove as profit from what is payed out in the player prize pool. Typically, MME GPP’s and smaller entry fee contests have the highest rake sometimes reaching 16% of entry fees removed while higher entry fee contests can see as low as 8% rake. That 8% will directly affect where the pay line sits as well as payout structure i.e. Top 24% of players will cash as opposed to top 18% or top 5 players winning $10K, $8K, $6K, $4K, $3K as opposed to top 5 players winning $10K, $5K, $2K, $1K, $750. These percentages change every given week and will give us the basis for many of our plays on a given week.
Overlay:
You don’t see this one all that often in NFL contests but overlay does still happen. Overlay happens when GPP’s do not fill up and it provides an additional advantage in your overall chances to win. As an example if a contest that has 10,000 maximum entries and only pays the top 2,000 players that means 20% percent of people will win. If only 8,000 people enter that contest they will still pay the top 2,000 people and you now have a 25% chance to win. That 5% improvement in your odds is huge over the long term for your success. It’s harder to predict but if you have a lineup that you feel very confident in and you watch the contest lobby you can give yourself an edge that not everyone will be looking for.
Win Daily NFL Contest Selection Week 10: Cash Contests
It’s less about rake or percentages here so this will be the same every week. When it comes to cash contests stick to single only and play in events with between 100-1000 total entries. This range eliminates the random variance that comes with smaller contests and the slightly higher scores that inevitably come from contests with the multi-thousands of entries of games. We’ll get more into that in the coming weeks as we gather data. If you are just starting out a minimum of 70% of your weekly bankroll needs to go towards these types of contests.
Win Daily NFL Contest Selection Week 10 DraftKings:
Win Daily NFL Contest Selection Week 10: $1-$25 Range
Win Daily NFL Contest Selection Week 10: $25-$100 Range
Win Daily NFL Contest Selection Week 10: $100-$500 Range
Win Daily NFL Contest Selection Week 10 FanDuel:
I will say that while the sponsored single entry contests all seem to do a pretty decent job with a flatter pay structure FanDuel makes sure to always increase the rake on them and reduce the min cash to 2x or below (1.83x min cash on the $33) on all three contests so unless you are just dead set on it I would avoid for better options. Unlike DraftKings you can usually find GPP’s with at least 2x min cash but they are by no means perfect as you will see below.
Win Daily NFL Contest Selection Week 10: $1-$25 Range
FanDuel unfortunately is really limited on “good” contests in the less expensive single entry contests. I’ve asked them to fix it, they never will. The smaller contests i.e. Small Sweep ($25), Small Scramble ($10), Small Spike ($5), and Small Squib ($1) are better with rake, payout structure, cash line, and min cash. So instead of writing them all up I’ll just say fade the bigger contests and go for the smaller ones to build bankroll. It will pay off in the long run, I promise.
Win Daily NFL Contest Selection Week 10: $25-$100 Range
Win Daily NFL Contest Selection Week 10: $100-$500 Range
FanDuel if you are reading this (which I highly doubt) you need to do better, your higher dollar single entry contests are embarrasing in terms of rake, payout structrure, cash line, and min cash. I couldn’t recommend a single one. DraftKings beats you in every way. The only reason I could even put anything in here is because of a 2 max and 3 max entry contest.
Thanks for taking the time to look through my Win Daily Sports NFL Contest Selection Week 10 . Looking forward to seeing some green screens this week. If you have any questions about the breakdown, I will be available all day in the WinDaily Discord chat. Don’t forget to subscribe to the WinDaily Youtube channel and follow @WinDailySports on Twitter to stay current and up to date on all of our fresh new content!
