Fantasy Pro Wins the Mystery Shirt
"Never count out Touchdown Tom" –Jon Bois
The game. We kicked off the college season last week. Next in MGoPools with our official fantasy partner, it's NFL time.
And that means I have to justify taking Tom. Wes Welker is gone (and suspended besides), and the last thing we remember from a Miami-New England duel is Tom getting outdueled by Ryan Tannehill. In such an environment they say Brady is no longer such a sure thing, or at least he ain't no Peyton, or Brees, or Stafford, or Luck, or Rodgers, or Kaepernick, or Foles.
I'm going in with the belief that Miami's new up-tempo offense is going to create more plays for both sides, and Tom's receiver depth chart is deep (Jeremy Gallon couldn't even keep a roster spot) and most of those guys are in a contract year. The spread may have finally gained a foothold in the NFL, but don't count out Touchdown Tom.
 |
| N.O. spent all preseason trying to pretend like Brandin Cooks ain't no big thing.. |
The prize. It's Mystery T-Shirt time. Okay so giving $5 off the store to everyone who beats me turned out to be not so good an idea because my team was terrible.* We're trying to track down who among the people in the pool used the MGoBlog link to send the code. So instead we're just gonna give a t-shirt to the top scorer from the site. Which shirt? It's a mystery. Mystery shirt.
Details on the Mystery MgoShirt NFL Pool:
- $100,000 prize pool.
- $2 entry fee. Entry is free with your first deposit.
- $10,000 1st Place prize.
- Top 11,500 are paid.
- Starts on Sunday, September, 7th at 1:00 EST.
- Salary Cap Style Drafting. $50,000 to select 9 spots. 8 players and 1 defense.
- Roster Format: 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex, 1 Defense.
- First time depositors at DraftKings receive a 100% bonus up to $600
Happy drafting.
------------------
* To people making fun of my fantasy ability on certain podcasts, 1) I won the thing last time, and 2) you ripped on me literally right before the segment about how Warren Herring was the difference between 24-7 Wisconsin and an LSU comeback.
------------------
Gratuitous TD Tom video because that Jon Bois is a genius:
September 4th, 2014 at 6:07 PM ^
First is this legal. Second how does it work and is it easy to claim your winnings. Third how does it work. Lastly, which site is the best to bet on because I have also heard of Fanduel.
September 4th, 2014 at 7:46 PM ^
September 5th, 2014 at 9:09 AM ^
It is legal, as it's judged to be a game of skill, not gambling. So sites like Draftkings and Fanduel are legit. I pulled out around $2k from fanduel last year. And oh, by the way, if you win $600 or more, you get a 1099 and are taxed on it as miscellaneous income. Which puts a bit of a damper on a big win.
I think Fanduel is better than Draftkings because there are more dummies on it. Draftkings is less heavily marketed, and so the people on there tend to be smarter at this stuff overall. Sometimes on fanduel it's clear you're playing against a really average fan, so making money on fanduel is much easier than on draftkings in my opinion.
The key to winning at these sites is doing a modest amount of homework. You make your bacon on backups that are suddenly starting, or lesser names that others haven't heard of or don't give enough credit to. For example, I have Ben Tate and Bernard Pierce at RB this week, which I expect will get as much production as Alfred Morris and DeMarco Murray, but far far cheaper. A couple of cheap options like that allow me to splurge on Dez Bryant & Marshawn Lynch. Julian Edelman last year was my MVP - cheap every week, but gold in the PPR formats.
September 5th, 2014 at 9:28 AM ^
Yeah Morris and Murray were actually the last two picks I made--I draft RBs last because I never seem to get value out of stars except when Adrian Peterson was in beast mode.
Ben Tate: $5,200, and is playing Pittsburgh who is Pittsburgh and thus would be keyed against the run even if the Browns had a quarterback.
Pierce is indeed cheap ($4200)--he's also coming off a concussion and first day back from head injuries tends to be rough.
Morris is $5800 and Murray is $6800. So I guess with the difference I could upgrade Brady to Brees. My line of thinking was I got to RB and still had a ton of cash to blow because I was happy with all my other picks. I think I got some steals with Cooks and Washington.
September 5th, 2014 at 9:50 AM ^
Yup - the key is finding a diamond or two in the rough. I have some projections of weekly points that I use from a good fantasy football service, and am always trying to get to about 2.5 points per $1,000 spent. I had 2.7 this week on each of the two lineups (one with the Thursday and one with the Sunday). Hitting the homerun with the cheap guy usually means a good week. Sanu was another gem at 3,200 - he's starting opposite Green and in a full PPR, is probably a shoo-in for 10-12 points.
The thing I've always disliked about Morris is he doesn't catch passes. Those RBs that catch 4-5 a game get an extra 8-10 points vs him. He always seems to underperform a bit on draftkings in my opinion. I always do RBs and WRs last too, and when looking at RBs look for guys who I think are likely to catch a few passes - it adds a surprising amount of points on draftkings. Woodhead, for example, was shockingly good last year on that site.
Edelman is still crazy cheap - guy is going to catch 100 passes this year again and is 5,300? He's a nice complement to Brady in a tournament format, since you're trying to win the thing - in tournaments i usually will go with a QB/WR from the same team, since you need to hit 2-3 homeruns in that format. in 50-50s and head to head I'm looking for more singles and doubles...
September 5th, 2014 at 9:10 AM ^
It is legal except in states that passed online poker laws--if you're from one of those states DK won't let you sign up. You're not playing against a "house"; you're in league pools.
Before we began advertising with Draft Street (who joined/were aquired by DK this year) I did some thorough research on the business and how they do things, because I feel culpable for your experiences with our partners, and the entirety of the value of this site is in how much faith the readership has in us.
I haven't checked played every competitor's games but I know there's a lot of them because they all contacted us a few years ago and despite our relationship with DK they continue to contact us, and I did try a few at that time to get a feel for the market. There were subtle differences between different things at the time (different draft types, how they valuated positions, etc.) that ultimately didn't change much about the games. The only thing that stuck out to me at all about DK was they seemed to value pitchers more. What stood out about DS's interface was the shit-talk feed.
Among all of these, what impressed me about Larry was the first phone call we had it wasn't about how much money they could spend with us; it was all about how the users' point of view: What games would your readers want? What assureties can we show them? Etc. I've made good and bad business deals, and it seems to me the good ones are usually those who had the most focus on the customer and the quality of the thing the customer gets. At the time I was like "this guy GETS it." Our experiences since then have only reinforced that.
September 5th, 2014 at 9:28 AM ^
I would add from a user perspective, I agree with Seth that draftkings (and fanduel) both provide very strong user experiences in my opinions. The other sites I've looked at seem to be very mediocre in terms of the user experience, so those two really stand out in my view if you're going to put real money into one of these sites.
They also offer a nice match for first time deposits, so you have an opportunity to make some money even if you're only about 50-50 on wins.
September 4th, 2014 at 6:28 PM ^
have to do with Brady?
September 5th, 2014 at 5:43 AM ^
Shouldn't this be OT? 2 days before Michigan vs. Notre Dame and this is the best topic you could post? Just asking.
September 5th, 2014 at 7:13 AM ^
I am pretty sure SPONSORSHIP is ALWAYS on topic. Given the choice between this and having to pay, I'll take this.
September 5th, 2014 at 7:44 AM ^
Your right. I was just hoping for free Michigan football content.
Comments