Season-Long vs DFS Fantasy Football: What's the Difference?

DFS Army’s Gthom goes over the main differences between two popular fantasy football formats: season-long vs daily fantasy sports (DFS). Follow Gthom on the cesspool they call twitter, @GarettThomas.

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Jan 30, 2022; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon (28) celebrates after a play against the Kansas City Chiefs during the AFC Championship game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Player Price Becomes The Separator For DFS

Normal season-long players are used to auto starting certain players. That mindset can burn a hole in your pocket in DFS.

First let’s understand that DFS roster construction works within a salary cap. On DraftKings the salary cap for all your players is $50,000; for FanDuel it is $60,000. This makes your fantasy analysis much more important to get right.

If two players score 12-FP but one is $6000 while the other is $8000, then the $6000-player was the correct play. That would have freed up an extra $2000 which could’ve upgraded two other player selections.

Which brings us to an extremely valuable term: Fantasy Points Per Dollar (Fpts/$). You can calculate this with the formula below.

Fpts/$ = (Fantasy Projection / Salary) x 1000

This metric simply breaks down how many fantasy points a player is projected to score based on their salary for that contest. Expensive players will likely have lower Fpts/$ and cheaper players who project to do well will have higher ratios. It is not the main determining factor of playing one player over another, but it’s a great place to start.

Player Selection Is Key & There’s Little Room For Error

The beauty of season-long leagues is that your roster construction is mostly set, outside of trades and waiver claims. For DFS there are endless possibilities and player selection becomes much more important.

If you want to win big-money then you will need to be unique. That is why it is paramount to understand the chalky players (players that a large percent of entries will utilize) for your slate and the players the field is fading (low utilization of a player or a player you’re avoiding).

Let’s look at an example:

Christian McCaffrey is the chalky play for $9500 and 35% of the field is projected to utilize him. You decide to fade the CMC chalk and utilize Derrick Henry for $9700 instead. Henry is projected to have 8% ownership, which would make your lineup more unique.

At the end of the day Henry scored 25-FP and CMC scored 1.3-FP. By choosing Henry you leveraged yourself over 35% of all lineups because they all chose wrong with McCaffrey.

This example can also work against your lineup if CMC were to score 25-FP and Henry finished with 1.3-FP.

Remember…You only have to find the best lineup within your contest, not the perfect lineup.

Lineup Construction Is Based On Contest Selection

At this point you understand what the terms “chalk” and “fade” mean. The next element to understand is that your lineup construction changes by contest selection.

If I were to play a head-to-head contest, a 50/50 contest, or a double-up contest, there’s a 50% chance I will win money. These type of contests are where we hammer the chalk players. You do not want to be unique in these contests, you want to copy the field for the most part. Duplicate lineups are never a bad thing in these contests.

For 20-entry contests and up, you will likely have to fade some chalk to win outright (notice how “some” is the term used). The larger the contest the more unique you will need to be in order to take it down. And to be unique, you must utilize one-or-several players that the field is fading to gain leverage.

One last point of clarity, just because a player is chalky it does not automatically make him a good player to fade. Chalky players who go off are crucial to get right, otherwise a large percent of the field is leveraging themselves over YOUR lineup.

In season-long leagues you really don’t need to worry about contest selection because you are facing a single opponent that changes each week.

Matchups Must Be Examined

Does your first-round redraft pick have a bad match up this week? No problem, start him because his volume should be enough to get your season-long team enough value. However, this is not viable in DFS if you want to be a profitable player.

In DFS there are rare moments of an “autostart” player, but it’s not normally something you get to do. You have to go deeper into the matchups your players will be in. Especially in scenarios where a WR plays against the best defense vs receivers, or a WR has to go up against an elite shadow cornerback.

Matchups are important and it should be apart of your lineup building process. Don’t make it the main determining factor but don’t overlook it entirely.

Stacking & Correlation Happen Often In DFS

I rarely try to “stack” in season-long leagues. Stacking is having two-or-more players from the same NFL team, usually a QB and one of their pass catchers. For season-long leagues it can make your team extremely volatile. When playing DFS in larger contests we love volatility and stacking is crucial. It can even take out some of your guess work.

With stacking comes correlation: a QB going off likely means one-or-more pass catchers scored a lot of fantasy points too; if a RB goes off, sometimes that correlates to his defense playing elite as well. Both of these examples are instances of correlation and it is powerful when executed correctly because it can eliminate your decision making.

Stacking eliminates decision making because you start your lineup with deciding on a quarterback. From there, you stack one-or-more of his receivers because if the QB goes off, then so should his pass catchers. At this point you have a QB and 2-WR’s stacked in your lineup, now you only have to guess right on the six roster spots remaining.

Of course this over simplifies the process a bit, but that is the gist of stacking for correlation in DFS. The less decisions you make, the better chances you have of winning your contest.

Premium DFS Tools are key

Whether your goal is to be a profitable DFS player or a large-field tournament winner, both are nearly impossible to do without premium tools. That is the beauty of DFS Army, we make complex content into easy-to-digest tools.

If you are a beginner, that is no problem. We have coaches to teach IN-DEPTH knowledge about DFS, in all sports as well. As a premium member you get access to these coaches and can ask them questions about DFS game theory. The coaching cannot be understated, it easily pays for your membership if you utilize it correctly.
We discussed why it is important to understand who the chalk is and when to eat the chalk or fade it. DFS Army premium members have access to elite ownership projections we call the “Chalk Board.” This tool quickly shows you the top 8-to-12 chalky players for a slate, in each of their respective positions. This is crucial for 50/50-like contests. The example below is what we had for the Super Bowl Showdown slate. Full slates will be more populated.

We are most famous for our in-depth cheat sheets. These cheat sheets discuss core players, all the players our coaches are on for the week, plus the coaches’ notes for each player too. Every player on the cheat sheet comes with a 1-to-5 star rating so you can quickly see the confidence level. These cheat sheets are put out before every NFL slate: full slates and showdowns. This tool is great for quick roster construction, guidance on player selection, and making DFS simple to play. Here was a cheat sheet from the preseason.

You also know that Fpts/$ is an important metric to understand. We automatically calculate that for you in our Domination Station. The Domination Station is a lineup optimizer that can construct up to 300-unique lineups at one-time. It quickly shows you ownership projections, Fpts/$, and DFS Army’s matchup rating. The beauty of this tool is that it is as simple or complex as you want to make it.
We also have the NFL Pivot Tool, awesome for large tournaments. This tool will quickly show you the main five-or-so chalk players of the slate on the left side. And on the right side is a shortlist of alternative players to pivot to if you want to fade a chalky player. The example below is what we had for the Super Bowl Showdown slate. Full slates will be more populated on the right side.

There are so many other great tools that I could mention: our huge research station, our easy-to-read matchup sheet, the WR vs CB sheet, full slate breakdowns in article-format, and so much more!

If you are looking to optimize your ROI and go from being a novice player to a DFS pro, then join our community today!