Well, now that we have some hard data under our belts, I thought I’d revisit some fundamental tips with you. I used to play a lot of golf at a fairly high level. Solid fundamental techniques are absolutely key to building a sound golf game. When I played day after day for weeks on end, I inevitably got a little out of sync. I could feel a specific swing flaw and I’d work on fixing it. I’d feel another and I’d work on fixing it. Before I knew it, I was all out of whack. I was focusing on advanced techniques and losing my fundamentals.
DFS is much the same. It’s easy to get caught up in the sexy terms like “low ownership,” “stacking,” and “contrarian.” These are NOT cash game terms. In fact, they aren’t terms you should be worrying about 95% of the time. These are advanced strategies designed to help experienced players win very large GPPs. I compare them, in golf terms, to going for the par 5 in two. Or, trying to cure your slice by breaking your right wrist before your hips come through. If that left you in the dark a little, it should have. You can’t worry about those things if you’ve only played golf for a year or two. You can’t worry about the former terms if this is your first DFS season, either.
When I was too focused on specifics and lost my fundamentals, my golf game went to hell. I needed to step back and get back to basics. My game always responded. At this point in the football season, you may be finding yourself focusing on advanced techniques because they are fun and new. I’m here to get you back on track and focused on the simple beginnings that win our cash games and even smaller tournaments.
I will jump right to the Top 5 tips. If you want explanation on the difference between cash games and tournaments, click our article DFS Training Camp – Contest Types.
Fundamental 1 – Price is your primary concern, not your tiebreaker.
Price is king. Winning lineups are crafted around their value first. Focus on points/$1000 spent. On FanDuel you want 2pts/1000; on DK you want 3pts/1000. Another way to look at price is taking projected total points and dividing by salary already divided by 1000. This method is simpler than it sounds. For example, a quarterback is projected at 20 points. He costs $10000. Divide the $10000 by 1000 and get 10. 20 divided by 10 is 2. This player should bring “2X value.” No matter which way you look at pricing and value, you are striving for players getting you a multiplier of 2+ on FanDuel and 3+ on DraftKings for cash games. If you are not confident your player can get you that kind of value, avoid him in cash games.
Fundamental 2 – Balanced is better than studs and scrubs.
Try to avoid spending top dollar for anyone. Top dollar forces you to go ultra cheap somewhere else. Players are ultra cheap for a reason….they are unpredictable. When a player gets ultra pricey, it makes it very hard for him to hit his full value with a less than perfect performance…..also unpredictable. For FD, this number seems to be about $8000. For DK, it’s about $7500. If you see a player above these numbers, you need a very convincing reason to draft them….or you need a very cheap player that the site has obviously missed in regards to pricing. A fundamental lineup is usually a balanced lineup.
Balanced building also avoids the buzz word “stacking.” Stacking a QB and WR is a nice way to grab efficient points because when a QB does well, one or more of his receivers are usually having great days along side him. However, the more you condense your players to the same team, the more dependent you become on that team doing what it is predicted to do. Football is a fickle game at times and this strategy is quite risky and rather unbalanced. The better rule of thumb is to avoid taking more than 2 players from the same game, let alone the same team. Sometimes games scheduled to score 45 points only score 20. If you are caught in that game with several players, your entire lineup suffers. Spread your risk out and save the risk taking for tournaments.
For more fundamentals on construction methodologies, we also have a detailed article – DFS Training Camp – Construction.
Fundamental 3 – Start your building with more consistent positions.
Your consistent positions are those that touch the ball most often. Quarterbacks touch the ball on every play. As a result, they tend to be very consistent performers. You have a lot of options from week to week here if focused on the 2X and 3X numbers we just detailed. Often times, you can identify 5 or 6 QBs in great spots to hit their value numbers each week. If they vary in pricing, you can save them for later in your construction and build the tougher spots first and come back to them. But, most weeks, starting with a QB that has a high floor and finds himself in a great matchup is not a terrible way to build a cash lineup.
Running backs touch the ball the second most often. The traditional bellcow back may be going the way of the dinosaur, but there are still a few around the league. The bellcows are usually so predictable and consistent you can start building cash lineups around them and just lock in those points. Perhaps the most valuable running back is the backup suddenly thrust into the starting role due to an injury to the franchise back. This player is nearly always cheap, and is often the first player you pencil in when the situation presents itself. Pass catching running backs are also important fundamental addition where possible. Even on sites giving only half points for receptions, any receptions by a running back give him more consistent production week to week.
Fundamental 4 – Use Las Vegas as your guide.
Sharp players look to Vegas first and foremost to get a sense of how the week’s games will be played. Analyzing Vegas lines is perhaps the primary fundamental in beginning your weekly research. Cash game players value safety and consistency over high risk and volatility. As a result, cash builders focus on the higher scoring games based on Vegas game totals. They will look for heavy home favorites for defenses and running backs.
Vegas lines often indicates which committee running backs will be used. A bigger favorite will likely use their heavy “ground and pound” type back to run out the clock late in the game. A team playing from behind will likely use their “scat back” to catch those checkdowns and dumpoffs in the flats. You can even use Vegas as a guide on FanDuel for picking a kicker. High scoring games will obviously involve kickers more than low scoring games. Favorites tend to kick field goals and play safe with leads. Underdogs tend to go for late touchdowns and abandon the kicking game.
PVAaron breaks kickers down for you weekly with Kicker’s Corner (Week 5). He does this weekly. If you follow the link, you’ll find the others, too.
Fundamental 5 – Pay down for volatile positions and pay up for consistency.
Wide receivers and tight ends are fundamentally volatile roster positions in DFS. As a result, we don’t want to lock up a large portion of our salaries here. Quarterbacks and running backs are considered more consistent. However, most people overlook the fact defenses and even kickers can be rather consistent as well. Most articles would consider this blasphemy, but paying up for more consistency and reliability in defenses makes some degree of sense.
Our best plays are heavy home favorites. Statistics have proven heavy favorites score more DFS points. The higher priced defenses are the more consistent, too, for obvious reasons. Furthermore, paying up for a top flight defense is NOT nearly as costly as doing so for wide receiver. The price spread of DST on DraftKings ranges from around $2500 to $4000 while on FanDuel the range typically falls within $4500 and $5200. Compare the bottom priced defense to the top and look at receivers where, on DraftKings alone, that range runs from $3000 to $9000. Quite the discrepancy.
Bonus Fundamental – Join a community of players all talking DFS daily.
DFS ARMY VIP MEMBERSHIP
Focus on your first fundamental and join our DFS Army VIP program at the perfect time! We just launched the Domination Station and it’s already spitting out winning lineups for our members. Our best in breed NFL cheat sheet includes custom DFS Army projections, Values, DVP, Targets, Workloads, Trenches Breakdowns, too much to list. The idea is to give our members the tools they need to compete with the big boys. The last, and possibly best part of our membership, is our DFS Army Team Slack Forums.
All of our pros are fixtures in there answering questions and talking strategy. We all help each other and root one another on during big sweats. We’ve built a great community and the method works. If you want to check out DFS Army VIP Membership FREE it’s simple. Register for one of the DFS Sites below with a new depositing account. I’ll hook you up with a free month of DFS Army VIP membership as well as the links to download our DFS Strategy eBooks.
As a 2nd bonus, I can reward you for reading this far by discounting your membership to the Army. Use coupon code CHOP and receive 20% off your membership for life! Even if our membership goes up in the future, you remain grandfathered at this price point. Don’t miss out! Lock in now and invest in your DFS career. You won’t find a better value anywhere. I’m not just saying that “because I work here.” I chose to become a member here before I ever started contributing to the website. I saw the value 2 years ago.
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Boom Fantasy – Boom has a completely new take on DFS. Instead of a salary cap, to build a team. They have contests where they throw questions at you during the games. Who will score the next TD? What team? Which QB will throw for the most yards? They issue different point totals based on which player or answer you chose. Casual players are finding game-play very favorable. In my case, as a Jets fan, it matched me up with an opponent based in Pittsburgh and asked questions based on the Jets/Steelers game. I tried it out and it was easy to play. We set up a deal with them where new users via our link, that deposit $20 or more, get a deposit match as well as $10 in Boom Cash which can be used immediately to enter paid contests.
Remember to email me at [email protected] to get your eBooks and slack invite after using the code that best fits your needs.