DFS Strategy: The Basics to 50/50s

Whether you are familiar with Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) or not, the concept of 50/50 or Head-to-Head (H2H) games should be easy to figure out. Enter one of these contests and you will have have a 50% chance of winning. In a traditional 50/50 game, there may be anywhere from 10-500 players. For example, if you are in a 100 player contest for $5 and finish among the top 50, you will win $9. The bottom 50 will forfeit their $5 entry fee. The extra dollar goes to the site that runs the game, this is how they make their money. The key takeaway is that no matter where you finish in the top 50, whether it’s 1st or 50th, you win the same amount. You don’t have to have a magnificent week to win, just good enough to finish in the top half.

50/50 Strategy

When you play in 50/50 games, your lineup should be vastly different compared to who you start in a Guaranteed Prize Pool (GPP) tournament. The GPP tournaments offer the biggest prizes, but the worst odds. In those games, you have to get more creative and that’s not what you look for in a 50/50. In 50/50, H2H, and double-up style contests, play it close to the vest and keep things simple. This is where being conservative pays off. Let the other managers take chances with their rosters while you pick the steady, more guaranteed names. It’s about finishing in the money, not being #1 overall.

Don’t go after that rookie that is starting because the player in front of him is missing the game due to an injury. That rookie doesn’t have the track record to make him a smart choice. The smart choice is to stick with guys that get consistent work, no matter what the situation. Remember, you only have to beat half of the other teams, not 80% of them. As a good rule of thumb, your team should be built on a solid foundation of projected points. Don’t be discouraged after the games start and your players are owned by a lot of other participants. That’s a good thing. If one of those players in your lineup were to get hurt, he would be hurt for a large number of teams, therefore minimizing the damage.

Once you get used to playing in these 50/50 and H2H games, you can build your bankroll up to take chances on the large GPP tournaments. Don’t be foolish and spend your entire budget on the large tournaments. If you do well in your 50/50 games, you will be able to play the GPP’s with your winnings. It’s a smart idea to play enough 50/50 games to off-set any GPP entries you have going in a given week. Say for instance you want to enter a $20 GPP tournament, you should be playing, at the minimum, two $10 50/50 games. If you lose the large tournament and are out that $20 entry but still win your 50/50 contest, you will end the week even.

You should enter 50/50 contests with larger fields. I only like to enter contests with 50+ participants. The more the merrier I say, as long as each participant is only allowed to enter one lineup. The larger fields offer greater variance and also give you better odds that it fills up with less experienced DFS players.

My last suggestion should go without saying, but check the status of players before the slate locks. I can’t stress this enough. Not checking the active/inactives can be the difference between winning and losing. Weird things happen sometimes and you will want to give yourself the extra opportunity to switch out a player before the start of the first games.

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