It’s time to put our money where our mouth is! DFSArmy claims to turn Average Joe’s into DFS Pros, but can they turn me, hockey loving, basketball hating joe, into a DFS NBA Pro?

My name is Josh Thomas, and I am a PGA Coach here at DFS Army as well as an NFL Contributor. I write the Chalk Donkey NFL and PGA articles weekly for our VIPs looking at who the chalk plays are and where we can pivot/leverage them. I also cover all the showdown/single game slates for our VIPs!

Check out my TNF Showdown Article for the Cardinals/Broncos game here! —–> TNF Showdown Smackdown

I hate basketball. Like I really do. Its boring. You can barely touch anyone without getting a foul. I’ve heard horror stories about guys losing thousands because of late scratches. Each team gets 45 time outs and the last two minutes of a game take longer to finish than it does to run a marathon. I also literally couldn’t name 10 players in the NBA right now. So I feel like I’m the perfect test subject to tryout all the DFSArmy tools and resources and see if I can go from a DFS NBA Joe to a DFS NBA Pro. DFSArmy’s motto is turning DFS Joes to Pros, so can they do that with me?

So here’s the challenge in the most basic form. I’m going to start the season with $100 on Fanduel and see what I can turn it into this NBA Season using all of the tools that DFS Army provides, from the NBA Research Station to the Domination Station to the Daily NBA Strategy Articles and coaching channels. The expectation is I crush with the tools and resources we have here at DFS Army, but as with any sport there is variance, so I’ll be documenting how my journey is going weekly in this article and highlighting some of the great tools and resources we have at DFS Army to help you go from an DFS NBA Joe to Pro too.

At DFSArmy we have some of the best coaches in the business from @mrbearhere to @dfsloosmeister to @boomersdfsdaddy and they are all helping me crush NBA DFS (this was me before the season started) so why not let them help you too!

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Rules:

As with any challenge/competition there has to be some rules right?

I start with $100 on Fanduel and I do not redeposit once. (I’m using Fanduel because of the change to their format this year, that way I can highlight how we are attacking it)
I can only play 10% of my bankroll each slate
I only play slates that are four games or more.
I don’t have to play every single slate. Just like any Joe sometimes life gets in the way.
I have to document and share the lineups/contests I play to provide transparency.
Utilize the DFS Army Ladder System as often as possible to practice smart bankroll management.

We’re two weeks into the season and already crushing NBA. What are you waiting for? Join here! Use code UPNORTH for 10% off for life!

Join the DFS Army Today and gain access to the best content/tools/projections/coaching in the industry!

Goals:

Alright so what am I trying to accomplish here?

Reach $1000 by the end of the NBA Season
Win a GPP
Have a 60% cash or better rate in Double Ups
Become a better overall DFS player through the process
Help you become a better DFS Player by showing you what we offer at DFSArmy

First Night:

Man. I wanted to play on opening night, but rules are rules, a two game slate is not a viable one to play if you are focusing on bankroll management/growing a bankroll.

For the majority of this challenge, I’ll be utilizing the DFS Army Ladder System. The Ladder System is a proven strategy that focuses on playing around 80% of your money in what we consider ‘Cash Games’ and 20% in GPP’s.

I’ll be honest in that I haven’t use the ladder system a ton for PGA/NFL and I’m excited to use it for NBA. I’m not always the best with good bankroll management practices so this entire practice will be good for me too!

So for my first night that means that I’m going to be running the follow tournaments.

The $5 double up is the core of my build, if I hit that it covers the rest of my ladder so anything else is profit. Ideally you would sweep your ladders but in DFS sometimes you just want to ‘live to fight another day’ so the goal is to hit that double up as often as you can.

The Triple and Quintuple Up contests are two of my favorite style of contests. They typically pay out a higher percentage of players than a GPP and are better than Min Cash in a GPP. Often in GPPs we see min cash from 1.5x-2x your entry fee and only 20% of the people get paid out. In a triple up, almost 36% of the field gets paid out and you get 3x your money. In a quint just under 18% of the field gets paid out (which is very close to a GPP) and you 5x your entry fee.

The ceiling of running a ladder is somewhat restricted by the pay out structures of those contests, but you do still get 1 or two shots at a GPP as well with the same lineup. So if your lineup really goes off you can have a big night regardless. But what happens to you and I most nights is we have a lineup that is OK but not the nuts. So it likely just min cashes. Well if that lineup was in a double, triple and quint. You would have a great return.

Sports betting is legal in the US! It’s been a long time coming, but we’re so pumped for it that we created our own division here at DFSArmy called ‘Beat the Bookie’. These guys are crushing it on the daily and you’re gonna want in! Tell em’ UPNORTH sent ya and you’ll get 10% off for life!

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Roster Construction:

Where the heck do I begin? I started scrolling the Fanduel app and looking for names I knew…if I recognize their name then they are probably a good play right? OK.. The TWolves are playing! I know them! (I’m from Minnesota)But wait, theres tons of drama with Jimmy Butler, I want to stay far away from there. Cedi Osman.. is he Donny Osmond’s kid? (wait spelled differently never mind) Holy, this is going to be way harder than I thought.

So where do I start. Lets check out some articles. My boy dfsloosmeister has one that has core cash plays in it! Loos’ Core Plays Boom, thats what I’m looking for.

Favorite stud on the slate? Sign me up.

High usage rate…thats good right? And he seems cheap/underpriced. Yep lets get him in there.

Dang, there’s that Cedi Osman guy again. As disappointing as it is that he’s not Donny Osmond’s son, I guess I can roster him if Loos’ thinks he’s a good value.

Ok, so this roster is starting to come together, I have a bunch of guys who I have no idea who they are and now I’m going to go try to find some others that I’ve never heard of.

Next step….NBA Research Station!

I may be a basketball dummy but I know numbers, so lets see if I can figure out this Research Station.

So the first thing I did was sort the RS by Fantasy Points/Min. Guys who lots of fantasy point/minute should be pretty good right? Alright so it looks like the my guy Anthony Davis is way up there so thats nice to see. Lets see if I can pair him with someone a little cheaper. Nikola Jokic is the cheapest guy at the top in a high total game, so I’m going to lock him in even though the floor is alittle lower than I would like.

The next thing I did was sort by value. We want lots of value in cash games right? If i can pay down and get a player who is projected to be a great value, thats going to allow me to pay for more studs. Win/Win. I was all in on Ntilikina until lifelong die hard Knicks fan @dabbingpuggle shared in his coaching channel that he didn’t think Frank the Tank would get the run that others around the industry were projecting..and boy was he right! I jumped on the Montrezl Harrell value and he made a nice pair with Jokic. Ceegee also talked him up in his NBA Free Squares Article

From here, I listened to the NBA Slate Breakdown podcast with MrBearHear and BoomersDaddy and picked up a few more pieces and from there worked in our coaching channels to build the rest of my roster.

DFSArmy VIP Members Nargz11 and Yungk1234 both used the Domination Station to help takedown the showdown contest on Fanduel on opening night!

Check out some of the other big wins on our WALL OF WINS!

Final Roster/Results

Oh my gosh was that an awful sweat. I play a pretty decent amount of volume in PGA/NFL each week and ten dollars isn’t considered a lot for me, but knowing I had this article coming out..oh boy was I sweating.

Here’s what I ended up with:

I didn’t realize how much information changes right before lock, and the value that opens up can free you up to load up on some studs. I’ve basically come to the conclusion that I need a scheduled #2 break every night I play at 5:45 PM CST so I can adjust my rosters before lock. Do you think my wife will think its weird if I bring my computer with me?

I swapped to Rodney McGruder who was in the starting lineup on a banged up Heat team and that allowed me to get up to Jeff Teague and off of Ntilikina which really helped me to get across the cash line. I wouldn’t have had a clue to do this if not from being in the coaching channel’s and getting the updates from our fantastic NBA Staff.

So how did I do?

SWEEEEEPP. What a way to start this thing off, while my lineups looked just ok when I went to bed, I had covered myself by getting across the cash line in the double with a few guys left to play, I ended up hitting the cash line in everything! (there is an extra dollar in there because I cashed in a free contest, but I’m not counting that towards my total)

Beginning Total: $100

End Total: $128

Maybe this was just beginners luck and we will see what happens over the course of the next week, but I really think it comes down to the tools and resources we offer here at DFSArmy. I couldn’t pick any of these guys out of a crowd, unless it was a crowd of very short people, but I was still able to build a roster, by myself, using the tools and resources we provide. DFSArmy doesn’t just give you a lineup, they teach you to build a lineup and I can tell you that that you feel a heck of a lot more pride doing that!

What are you waiting for?!

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Make sure to check back next week to see if that total climbs or falls! I’m excited to not only be on this journey for myself, but also to show you all the tools and resources that we have at DFS Army to help you go from DFS Joe to DFS Pro.

Hit me up on on twitter @dfsupnorth as I’ll be posting updates there as well showing the progress I’m making!

Don’t forget to check out all of our NBA and NFL Content while you are at it!