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 and NFL Coach here at DFS Army. 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 Panthers/Steelers game here! —–>TNF Showdown Smackdown
I hate basketball. Like I really do. It’s 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 timeouts 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 try out 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 a DFS NBA Joe to Pro too.
At DFSArmy we have some of the best coaches in the business and they are all helping me crush NBA DFS (this was me before the season started) so why not let them help you too!
Wanna get a taste of what these guys offer? Follow them on Twitter!
@mrbearhere @boomersdfsdaddy @dfsloosmeister @realdanryan
@dailyrotosharks @keg4550 @dfsblande @dfsndonuts
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Best in the Biz:
One thing that I wanted to highlight before we get started here is that DFS Army is currently ranked #2 among Daily Fantasy Sports Advice providers by the website DailyOverlay.com
What this site does is: 
The Daily Overlay team keeps track of top NBA expert predictions. We then grade this information each week and share it with our visitors and top performing experts. Our goal is to see who is great, who is really good, and who is not so hot, so you will know who to trust. If you think your predictions could make it to the top of the list let us know in the comments below and we may add you to the grading. Also, check out our Grading Process.
Note: We weight A+ selections very high because the payout is much higher. Our grading consists of the selections each site has up. If the site is late getting picks available, they may not be included. We grade each NBA player against overall scoring, rank of scoring, scoring value(score/salary). They then receive an average grade from those 3 scales.
Pretty impressive, especially since we are going against the other top dogs in the industry. DFSArmy isn’t just a small site that thinks we’re better than the big dogs, we are actively showing that we ARE better than the big dogs! Check out where we rank for NFL too (hint: it rhymes with umber son) DailyOverlay NFL Expert Rankings
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 building management.
We’re one month into the season and already crushing NBA. What are you waiting for? Join here! Use code UPNORTH for 10% off for life!
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
Playing NBA DFS tonight? Check out CeeGee’s Free Squares Article!
>>>>> CeeGee’s NBA Free Squares <<<<<
Fanduel DFS NBA Joe to Pro Week 3-4:
Oofta. Its been a wild few weeks! I got so caught up in PGA and NFL that I ended up not playing much of any NBA over the last two weeks. Between the 24th of October and the 6th of November, I only played 5 slates. I also spent 3 days in the middle of nowhere with no cell service or internet too, which played a factor. That turned out to be a huge positive for me as I missed the “Tyus Jones Halloween Disaster of 2018” as well as the “D Rose drops 50 and then gets scratched after lock fiasco” a few days later. As of this writing, I haven’t been dinged by a late scratch yet, but I’m sure its coming. At least with Fanduel’s new low score drop format, you can still survive it if it’s a cheaper player.
Longtime DFSArmy VIP Uly E crushed it earlier this week for just under 15K!
Check out some of the other big wins on our WALL OF WINS!
Lucky for me, since I missed those disaster nights its been a pretty good run for me, I’ll get to what my total is later, but I’m up over 1.5x this year playing 12 NBA slates since the start of the season! Pretty good ROI if you ask me! And of those, I’ve never done anything but min cash GPP’s. Pretty good start to the season! And of the reason’s it has been such a good start is our And1 rating system for players.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=a3UeYWdLVoo
Here’s a video of BenJammin breaking down the entire research station! If you want the part where he talks about what goes into his AND1 rating system go to 4:30 in the video!
My boy @xBenJamminx has developed this system over the past few years and I’ve been utilizing it heavily in my roster construction nightly. Basically what it does is puts all the key stats that we want to look (minutes, usage, projections, opponent, game pace, vegas total, etc) and puts them into one rating. It’s literally just NBA DFS for dummies. Play the guys with good AND1 numbers and you basically print money. That’s not even an exaggeration. Obviously, with any sport, there is some variance but this thing has been knocking it out of the park!
Not only does it take into account your basic statistics, but it also includes how a player has done in the past against an opponent, whether they have hit value recently, if they are on a ‘hot streak’ for the past 3-5 games, and it even weights statistics differently for each position. So a Center has blocks and rebounds weighted heavier than a point guard does.
As an NBA Joe, I was a bit scared of the NBA Research station at first because:
A: I had no idea what to look for.
B: Its allooooottt of numbers and I felt like I was getting overwhelmed when I looked at.
Then the guys turned me on to this AND1 rating system that we had developed and it was a game changer. Lets take a look and see how I used it yesterday.
Overall, not a bad day for me. I have been able to up my amount in play nightly because of how much I’ve won so far which helps. Last night was a bit weird in that I was able to hit the cash line in Single Entry GPP’s (you can’t see it but I min-cashed a $5 SE GPP for $10), but I didn’t hit the cash line in triple ups or quintuple ups. Usually its the exact opposite of that.
Let’s look at my lineup though and how they stacked up with AND1 ratings.
This shows the top 16 players and as you can see I have highlighted the players I used from the list. I had some concerns about Kawhi Leonard and Anthony Davis coming off injuries and while one was warranted, (Kawhi) the other smashed (Davis). Typically what I do when looking at the AND1 ratings is if a player is under 6k and in the top 20 or so of this list I’m starting my cash lineup with them. They don’t always stay there, based on some of my other research during the day, but typically they do and typically I’m wishing I had more of the “AND1 Guys” a the end of the night. The other’s I utilize the rest of the resources we have here at DFSArmy and compare it to this ranking system to make my plays.
Paul George, Dennis Schroder, and Steven Adams were locks for me with Russell Westbrook out. Only George made the top 20 on this list and he was a bit underwhelming but Adams and Schroder crushed.
Taj Gibson was a great play and he absolutely smashed at his price for 8x value. had I just trusted the ranking system I probably would have got Kyle Lowry and Andrew Wiggins in there as well and they were both great plays. Gibson is a prime of example of a player that I identified early in my process using the AND1 rankings and stuck in my lineup.
One way to backtest this is to look at the Results tab in our Research Station each day to see how the AND1 rankings performed. If we look back at yesterday here were the results.
Overall, a pretty good day, but not the best I’ve seen thus far. 50% of the players in the top 16 hit 5x value which is great for cash. It was able to identify some of the best value plays on the slate like Taj Gibson and Serge Ibaka as well as some of the studs who went off like Anthony Davis. What I’ve found in my time using this is that it does a good job of identifying the studs in the best spots, but it does an EXCELLENT job of finding the value guys that you need to lock into your roster.
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Fanduel Results:
As I alluded to above, it has been a pretty solid couple weeks for me here and I’ve been able to find some consistency in my game!
Beginning Week Total: $157
End Week Total: $252
YEAAAAA BOY look at that profit! I love the ladder system. Seriously. You don’t need to win every night, but if you stick with the process you will continue to build that bankroll. I’m up over 1.5x on the year only playing 10% of my bankroll a night. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you can’t make money playing 10-20 dollars a night!
Check out the DFS Army ‘Ladder System’ that is revolutionizing the way I play DFS here!
Let’s take a look at my results though and see where I’m doing well. Year to date, I’m clearly making the most money on double ups. That makes sense though right? Pays out around 45% of the player pool and is a double of your cash. I’m currently hitting those at a 66% clip which is great and is one of my goals.
I’ve been a little less successful at Triple Ups and Quintuple Ups, hitting triples at 41% and quints at 33%. Those are both well within the range of being profitable, but it makes me think that I need to change how I build lineups to hit them at a more consistent rate. As I start to build my BR here and can play a little more I have some leeway to build a little bit more of a ‘hybrid’ lineup where I take a little more chance with my lineups.
Interestingly, I have been hitting single entry gpp’s at a higher rate than the Triple/Quintuple ups. I’ve continued to play my same lineup in those contests and the cash lines are usually pretty close to the triple/quints but there have been a few nights like last night where it’s been lower. As I continue to build the BR here I’m looking forward to changing that strategy a bit and possibly MME some of these contests a few nights a week.
Also as I build my bankroll it’s important to start thinking about building multiple ladders. Right now 10% of my BR is 25$ a night. I could start to play 2 12 dollar ladders a night or one $25 ladder and as we move on here I’ll be experimenting with which one works better for me.
Be on the lookout for a video from me this week where I go through how I go about picking my contests/building my rosters too!
What are you waiting for?!
Seriously, give us a shot you won’t regret. We’re one of the fastest growing DFS communities in the industry and there is a reason for them, because we teach them how to win!
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Make sure to check back next week to see if I can keep this winning streak going! 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 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!
