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 bankroll management.
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In daily fantasy, there are many types of games. By far the most popular and advertised games are GPP tournaments. GPP stands for “guaranteed prize pool” which means that the prizes awarded and the payout structure are guaranteed no matter how many entrants there are when the game begins. If the cap for the tournament is set at 10,000 entrants and only 8,500 entries are submitted before the contest starts, the amount of prizes awarded and their value do not change.
In a 50/50 game, for the most part, the entry cap must be achieved in order for the game to be played. A common 50/50 style game has 100 entrants and the top 50% of finishers double their entry fee while the bottom 50% forfeit their fee. Payout structures for GPP games are different in that a much smaller percentage of the top finishers receive winnings and the payouts for top finishers are exponentially higher than the entry fee. GPP tournaments are popular because the prizes are often the most valuable and more enticing in relation to your entry fee. For $1, you can enter a GPP contest and win $1,000 if you finish in first place, a 1000% return on your investment.
There are two types of GPP games, single- and multi-entry. In a single-entry game you are allowed to enter only one lineup, and in multi-entry you can enter as many lineups as you can afford. Single-entry games are best for beginners in that you don’t have to deal with going up against “sharks” with a large bankroll and time to enter hundreds of low-cost lineups in a single contest. A contest with multiple entries and a low cost allows a player to follow a low-risk, high-volume approach that gives coverage to a larger pool of players. By entering multiple lineups, you increase your chances of winning, sort of like buying multiple tickets in a raffle.
Strategy for GPP games is different than 50/50 or head-to-head games in that you need to have the highest score in a large field of entries to win big or even place within the money. In 50/50, all you need to do is finish in the top 50% to win. With a GPP game, you need to finish around the top 10-20% to earn a return on your investment. This means that you need to build lineups that have a high ceiling rather than a high floor. Maximizing potential at every position in your lineup is much more important in these games. There are times where you can get away with a zero or negative points from one position in your 50/50 lineups and still win, but in a GPP game that one position in your lineup that scores zero can really hurt your chances of finishing in the money.
Using a “stack” is a common GPP strategy where you use a group of hitters from the same team with the hope that they will feed each other’s point totals. Say you choose to enter a Yankees’ stack. If Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury get on base and Alex Rodriguez drives them in with a home run, you earn all the points from that outcome. You can use the same concept in other daily fantasy sports, including football and basketball. Some sites will limit stacking possibilities by capping the number of players you can use from one team in a single lineup, so be aware of how you can stack players in your lineups.
Often the top lineups will include players used in a small percentage of the contest’s entries. While a star player like Mike Trout might have the potential to score a lot of points on a given night, there’s a good chance a large percentage of players in your tournament feel the same way and will use him as well. The goal in a GPP game is to finish towards the top of a very large field of players, so if Mike Trout is in 30% of lineups, 30% of the field will earn his points. This isn’t helpful when you’re trying to finish in the top 10-20%, although there are times when you will need to pace yourself with the rest of the field. Ideally, you want to have high-scoring, lesser-used players driving the majority of your point totals. Obviously you won’t be able to construct all of your lineups this way, but keep that in mind.
For beginners, I recommend playing in GPP games with single entries. This type of game gives you a chance to play for a substantial return against a field of players who can only enter one lineup and therefore can’t maximize their chances of winning by adding coverage to a larger group of players. Once you’ve got the hang of what it takes to finish in the money, playing in multi-entry games will be less intimidating. It’s also good to keep an eye on how the top finishers in the games you play build their lineups. Does a stack often win the game? Or do you see more balanced lineups finishing towards the top? Can a lineup with a player used in 30% of entries still finish towards the top? Every game is different and the outcomes will vary daily. The more you play and observe your competition, the more you will be able to refine your approach into a strategy that works for you.
I found this article in The New Yorker to be a fascinating read about the rise of daily fantasy. Check it out here.
JP Gale is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from JP, check out his archive and follow him @gojpg.