FantasyPros has put together a glossary of Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) terms for readers to reference. More and more players are taking part in DFS contests. We’re providing the glossary so that you can easily reference terms and strategies as you get started playing DFS. Below we’ll take a look at 50/50 Games.

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A 50/50 game in daily fantasy is different than the more highly promoted games. The pool of contestants is often smaller, along with the payouts to each winner. The tradeoff is that you are trying to double your entry fee rather than triple, quadruple or win the lottery based on the amount of money it costs to play the game. My favorite strategy in 50/50 games revolves around picking a large number of “high floor” players who can give me points at every position. Finishing first isn’t the goal, finishing in the top half of the contestant pool is, so getting points from every position on my roster is my goal.

Strategies for these types of games vary from one you would use in a GPP tournament where EVERY player you choose has to produce high point totals for you to place in the money. In a 50/50 game, the payout is the same for the top 50-60 percent of the pool (depending on the game/service). So if you play in a 50/50 game with 100 other contestants, your lineup only needs to finish around the top 50 for you to win. Example: 100 people enter a $20 50/50 game. The top 50 (or so) finishers will win $40, the rest will win $0.

There are different types of 50/50 games, but the biggest difference I’ve noticed is multi-entry versus single-entry games. In a multi-entry game, you are allowed to enter as many lineups you want into the contest whereas a single-entry game allows you to enter one lineup only one time.

A common strategy used in GPP tournaments by experienced players centers around entering a large number of lineups into one game, with the hope that one of those lineups wins the lottery for that night. Many of these games are populated by “sharks” or people with a large bankroll and the time/ability to enter the same GPP game hundreds of times. A large number of 50/50 games allow for only one entry, which reduces the amount of multi-entry “sharks” filling up the contestant pool. There are some DFS sites that offer “massive” 50/50 contests with the ability to enter multiple lineups, and the sharks in that format will often enter the same lineup multiple times

Like most DFS games, pitchers will often earn you the most points on a given night. While you can still finish in the top 50 percent even if your pitcher falters, it is still one of the most important picks you will make for every game. Pitchers are the highest priced players in daily fantasy because their points ceiling is always higher than an offensive player’s. Sure, a 5-for-5 night with three home runs from Bryce Harper will yield more points than a quality start from Jordan Zimmermann. However, Zimmerman will toss 20 quality starts a year, and Harper will probably have monster nights like that once or maybe twice over the entire season. Ace pitchers have a very high floor in 50/50 games (and other DFS games) so the pitcher should often be your first pick, and you shouldn’t shy away from any option no matter the price.

Filling out the rest of your 50/50 roster is similar to other types of DFS games. You want as many solid players as possible with good match-ups and a high spot in the batting order to maximize opportunity. If you chose a top priced pitcher, sacrifices would have to be made as you’re filling out the rest of your roster, so studying daily lineups is absolutely necessary.

Every day there will be some opportunities to use lower-priced players based on their match-up and placement in the lineup. Finding these players is essential in 50/50 games, as it allows you to use a high-opportunity player at a low price, which gives you the chance to spend on high cost/high floor players. Normally, I use this ranking system when it comes to how I want to spend on my daily rosters:

• Pitcher
• First Base
• Third Base
• Outfielder No. 1
• Second Base
• Outfielder No. 2
• Catcher
• Shortstop
• Outfielder No. 3

Outfield is the most interesting position in that you start three of them, so sacrifices can be made depending on how your roster fills out. There will be days where finding an OF1 over a corner infielder, or spending on that third outfielder before you find a cheap catcher and shortstop, makes sense. This ranking system is fluid and changes every day, but it’s a good starting point for 50/50 lineup construction.

JP Gale is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from JP, check out his archive and follow him @gojpg.