OT: Any luck with DraftKings?

Submitted by BlueTuesday on

I just thought I'd put it to the board and see if any Mgobloggers have won any real money on Draftkings.

I haven't been playing very long but so far my only miss came last Sunday playing NASCAR and even then I was in the money until Clint Bowyer crashed at MIS. I've only been playing the $1 and $3 50/50 and multiplier games so far but based on my point totals it looks like I would do pretty well in $10 and $20 games. To me it's all about reducing variables to minimize risk.

So I was wondering...

Has anyone on the board been able to win consistently? In which sports? How many $$$? How long you been playing? Any hints, thoughts, strategies?

 

Quick facts for anyone reading this that haven't played on DraftKings:

1. Yes, it's 100% legal.

2. Though considered a game of skill, It's still a little like gambling. (IMO)

3. No, the games aren't rigged.

3a. Yes, they'll pay you if you win.

EDIT: Took the link out because I'm not trying to make any $$$, just looking for thoughtful discussion.

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Papa Perk

August 18th, 2015 at 1:31 PM ^

I've done ok in the baseball and golf games. If you just want the rush of winning money, I'd recommend doing the $2 and $3 games where you're facing off against the more casual players. A little research there goes a long way. I think to be successful in the bigger money games you need to both be really into it and get lucky.

Joined: 05/31/2015

MGoPoints: 150

schreibee

August 18th, 2015 at 2:21 PM ^

Holy Crap, Blue96! Yesterday a guy got like 150 upvotes to 0 down - I'm hoping you can crush that!!!

You made my day... for those who saw this topic but not the one he references, check out "Shopping" for private schools in SE MI - THEN come back here and upvote Blue96 again!

Joined: 11/02/2009

MGoPoints: 21143

Tonga

August 18th, 2015 at 1:35 PM ^

How miserable and bored do you have to be with life to start using one of these sites?!?

This is an obvious advertisement that the OP is trying to slide by the mods so he can get a few more fake bux into his account. Please ban him and eliminate the post.

Joined: 08/17/2015

MGoPoints: 29

schreibee

August 18th, 2015 at 2:45 PM ^

I believe "snark" is the operative word we're going with on this blog...

But to answer your & OP's question:

I've been doing Draft Kings since it was called Draft Street, also Fan Duel and now Yahoo daily. I has opinions:

I'm doing best right now on Yahoo daily, I'm winning at baseball almost every day, at least a few bucks. I just won a bit on the PGA (that was tough - I took Jordan & Day ;)  I'm guessing because it's so new some of the better players from the other sites haven't jumped on yet? I also like they give you much more relevant stats on the site (as it links to regular Yahoo fantay.)

Between Fan Duel & Draft Kings to me it's no contest - DK is head & shoulders above FD. Why? Well, as mentioned re: Yahoo, they provide stats on the site to compare players recent trends, whereas FD is very stingy with that. I actually provided backgrond feedback just such as this for a Bloomberg news report on these sites. The anchor asked his FD officer guest why his site included less relevant info for players than DK. i was smiling!

Now - trying to make "serious" money - are you a "serious" player? How much per contest are you buying in? When you get up above $20 games the competition gets pretty fierce. I've never yet joined a game that cost more than that. I can only guess what type of players get into triple and quadruple digit buy-in games? People with more time on their hands than I've got! And more money to lose...

Joined: 11/02/2009

MGoPoints: 21143

BlueTuesday

August 18th, 2015 at 3:02 PM ^

If I ever play for any huge money it'll be a year from now at least.

I think it's important to compare your point totals to the point totals of other higher dollar games, that way you can judge your performance. There's no question that the average point totals increase (sometimes drasticaly) in the higher dollar games.

So far I've only had one week where I would have cleaned house had I played the $300/$500 games.

Joined: 04/18/2011

MGoPoints: 6956

Rafi

August 18th, 2015 at 1:39 PM ^

I have good experience with draftkings and fanduel.  

Draftkings has better variety in terms of sports you can 'fantasy' on.  Fanduel has a much better layout.  

Joined: 04/15/2015

MGoPoints: 2140

Yeoman

August 18th, 2015 at 2:21 PM ^

I've only played baseball.

(1) I've had better luck at Yahoo than at draftkings. I think the competition's significantly weaker because it's a new platform and it has a ready audience of casual/unsophisticated players. There are also some small scoring differences that maybe some of the older players have been slow to adjust to, or that are keeping some of them away.

(2) Your strategy of minimizing variance is sound in 50/50 games; I've had some success so far with the opposite strategy in standard leagues where the payout is topheavy, trying to maximize variance by piling into correlated players to the extent the rules allow. At Yahoo, anyway, where the competition is weaker.

(3) The dollar games are fine but I think the rake's too big for me to ever be willing to play with real money. There's a point where the competition's too strong and you can't keep consistently pulling in the 10% you need just to break even, and I suspect that point would hit me sooner than I'm willing to admit. (In fact, I got my start at draftkings by winning a ticket in one of those newbie freerolls they occasionally run that are only open to accounts before you've played in a cash game, so it's been house money since day 1.)

I'm hoping competition will drive down the rake--actually, I thought Yahoo would open with a smaller rake to attract players from the other sites. Surely they've got the financial heft to pull it off. These sites don't really need the 10% to cover costs, do they?

Joined: 06/08/2011

MGoPoints: 21390

NRK

August 18th, 2015 at 2:33 PM ^

I mostly play Fanduel and mostly NFL football. I'm an avid fantasy football player so I like to play weekly match ups in addition to my year-long leagues. There's plenty of sites out there that offer good free advice (rotogrinders, footballguys podcast is good for DFS too, even ESPN daily content is decent, among others). I dabble in baseball but I'm not as knowledgeable so my success isn't that impressive there. I mostly play for fun, but I finished up a few hundred dollars last year.

 

Mostly play cash games (50/50s) to keep your bankroll and buy into some tournaments. The tournaments attract the most attention, but they're hard to win. Set lineups according to what game type you're playing. Keep a safe but productive lineup in 50/50 (good floor guys) and shoot for the moon in the tournaments. My goal going into a week is to improve my bankroll through cash games and expect to lose all the money I've put into tournaments. 

 

Deposit an amount of money you are comfortable losing, and start off small until you get the hang of it. I'm not a big time player so I mostly play $5 and $10 cash games and some $1-2 tournaments, with the ocassional $5 - $25 tournament.

Joined: 02/20/2009

MGoPoints: 6411

Yeoman

August 18th, 2015 at 3:42 PM ^

Simple and grossly oversimplified illustration:

Let's say you want to take two players from an offense; you've got your choice between QB+WR and QB+RB. (For simplicity we'll assume there's just one of each.)

If you choose the QB/WR pair, you'll miss out on each rushing TD but you'll double-score on a passing TD. If you choose the QB/RB pair you'll score either way, but only once.

One pair's correlated, the other's anticorrelated (in this respect only, of course--they're correlated to the extent that they're part of the same offense). In a top-heavy game you might lean towards QB/WR, in a 50/50 you might prefer the QB/RB combination. (Or, in the real world, you might want to avoid combining teammates at all.)

Joined: 06/08/2011

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NRK

August 18th, 2015 at 3:09 PM ^

It is a good idea for tournaments. Usually if they both blow up and other guys do okay you can get some sort of payment.

 

Unless both guys have very good floors, it's not as good for 50/50s or other cash games because a bad game could impact both and you'd miss a payout there.

Joined: 02/20/2009

MGoPoints: 6411

OhioBornMauiBlue

August 18th, 2015 at 3:31 PM ^

When I first joined I got a $27 ticket to play a NBA game and won $75 in it. Since then I haven't won much. I play the golf tournaments every week. A lot of quarter and $1 teams, a few $3 teams and a few $20 teams during the major millions. I play a few quarter baseball teams every day and win 50 cents or $1 occasionally. I normally just play the featured games even though they pay out less places. Makes my days interesting. I'm hoping to hit a big jackpot one of these days.

Joined: 04/26/2015

MGoPoints: 692

Jevy

August 18th, 2015 at 4:08 PM ^

I was using fanduel last year and I really enjoyed it. I only won like $50 last year. Playing the college football games on Friday and Saturdays made the game even more enjoyable. Can't wait for the games this year!

Joined: 03/21/2015

MGoPoints: 628

LV Sports Bettor

August 18th, 2015 at 4:33 PM ^

but the rake is so high makes it hard to stay profitable IMO. Be interesting to see if new sites emerge and challenge the top sites with lower rakes and if so how important this ends up being to the consumer. 

Joined: 12/06/2014

MGoPoints: 1301

GoBlueTom

August 18th, 2015 at 5:34 PM ^

I play small end but on Sunday played in a .25 for the prize pool of $2,000 walked away with $75 in a top five finish. I don't play everyday but when I do it's win some and lose some. Not gonna complain if I lose 25 cents, $1 or $2. I just let my winnings build

Joined: 09/02/2013

MGoPoints: 488

Ryanonymous

August 18th, 2015 at 5:41 PM ^

Deposited like $20 for the season last year and played the whole year, multiple $1-$5 contests per week and played all season. It was fun but ended up losing all $20 going all in at the end of season but mostly broke even up until that point.

Joined: 05/02/2011

MGoPoints: 1018

Woodson2daHouse

August 18th, 2015 at 9:50 PM ^

I won a $2 prime time contest last season. It came down to the final drive, I needed geno smith to not drive the length of the field with 2 minutes left. Luckily, he threw a pick on the 15 yard line. It was so tense. I won 500 bucks. You just have to get lucky with your sleepers. I had Kerley and some bum wr for bears that went off.

Joined: 12/21/2010

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