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Welcome to StatHero: A New Kind of DFS Experience

Welcome to StatHero: A New Kind of DFS Experience

Has this ever happened to you? You nail a perfect DFS lineup, but when you check the rankings, it’s the same old sharks in the top spots. Investing time in the DFS lottery, with nothing to show for it, has gotten mundane. The hunger for something new has never been higher…

The DFS market has exploded in recent years, and now players have plenty of new options at their fingertips. Users crave value. More importantly, users want to have a realistic shot at winning. Players are risking less and less and most of them can’t compete with the experts and thousands of other lineups. A relatively new site, StatHero, has upended the traditional weekly structure in a creative way. StatHero offers fantasy survivor pools across all sports. The great thing about the survivor pool format is all contests are multiple weeks of action (and payouts) for only one entry fee.

As in traditional survivor leagues, the action continues until one player is left. That said, it’s not a “winner-take-all” system, as users will receive a weekly payout just for surviving.

So how do you survive? At StatHero, you select an NFL team of your choice and construct a traditional DFS lineup around only players from their roster. That eliminates the need to do hours of digging for value picks and chalk; your quarterback is predetermined, and you won’t want to go too far down your team’s depth chart to find starters. You’ll survive to the next week if your team outscores the house’s team, which you’ll know going into the matchup.

In short — all you must do to start winning back your buy-in at StatHero is beat the house! That’s much easier to accomplish than finishing in the top 1% of a DFS pool.  As you keep beating StatHero, you keep winning money, and advancing to the next round, until there’s one remaining. StatHero is available on all mobile devices at play.stathero.com.

Check out StatHero’s Survivor Pool Contests partner-arrow

Part I. Review

But before I break down how the site works any further, I had the chance to play StatHero last weekend (Week 5), and I had a blast! The user interface is accessible, the site is easy to navigate, and the rules and scoring are articulated clearly.

Importantly, while I only paid for one entry, I’m still competing this weekend. My lineup (I took the Panthers) outscored StatHero’s lineup (they got stuck with the Giants after positive COVID-19 tests derailed the Titans’ game), and as a result, I’ve already won back a portion of my buy-in and can play again in Week 6.

If you’re still not sold, check out the rest of the information below on scoring and strategy. You’ll already have a leg up on your opponents once you’ve given it a read!

Part II. Entering a Tournament

NFL Survivor pools are offered weekly. Like a traditional survivor pool, as you advance, you will have to choose new teams and lineups every week, until only one player remains. To enter a tournament, select the contest of your choice. You’ll then see StatHero’s designated team and lineup for the week (this will always be announced ahead of time), and you must then pick one team from which to build a lineup for that week. If your lineup outscored StatHero’s lineup, then congratulations! You’re onto the next week. If not, well, you can enter next week’s contest and start anew.

Part III. Tournament Scoring 

StatHero lineups consist of 5 to 6 players:

  • MVP (Double Points)
  • QB
  • 3 Flex Players
  • 1 Kicker (Only in the 1st Round)

How does StatHero’s scoring work? It’s a bit different from traditional DFS sites. It encourages more scoring opportunities to keep players in the game. You can read more about their rules here.

Passing

  • Passing Yards: 1 pt for every 20, not the typical 25
  • Passing TD: 4 pts
  • Int for TD: -4 pt
  • Distance TD: 2pt (10-39yds), 4pt (40+)

Rushing and Receiving

  • PPR Format (TE 1.5)
  • RB/WR Yards: .1 pt
  • Rushing/ Receiving TD: 6 pt
  • Distance TD: 3 pt (10-39yds), 6pt (40+)

Part IV. Lineup Construction

StatHero is very easy to play. You are able to build a roster in minutes because you are only choosing from your chosen team. No more huge time investment. It’s two easy steps…

Step 1. Picking a Team

The strategy with StatHero is to correctly identify players in high-scoring games. The more points and yards that your chosen team puts up, the more points your lineup is likely to accrue, and the more likely you are to progress onward to the next week. As in a traditional survivor pool, you can only pick each team once, so be careful!

Vegas’ projected point totals are a great tool to help us identify high-scoring games. You should check out BettingPros’ consensus over/under odds tool to help you identify a suitable target — point totals above 54 mean that each team should average 27 points, and games at that total or above make great picks.

Next, make sure your chosen team is projected to do most of the scoring. You can check out BettingPros’ against the spread tool to help you with this, and once you’ve found your team, you should divide their games’ total projected points and factor in the spread. Congratulations, you’ve now found your teams’ projected points! You should target squads expected to score 26 points and above.

Just to recap, here’s a formula for projected points that you can use in Excel:

=(PT/2) + (S/-2)

PT = Projected point total.
S = The spread — since negative spreads mean that a team is favored, we have to flip its sign and divide by -2.

Step 2. Choosing the Right Players

Well, now we’re back to standard DFS calculations. You’ll first need to identify the player whose score you’d most likely multiplied by two. How should you pick? That’s easy — choose the player who sees the most volume.

That said, you should emphasize red-zone volume. Since touchdowns are worth six points, an MVP will earn 12 points when they reach paydirt, and that can have matchup-altering consequences.

If you want to dig into player volume, check out our target and snap count reports. For red-zone stats, check out ProFootballReference’s rushing and receiving reports.

Once you’ve found your MVP, fill out the rest of your roster with players you expect to do well. It’s worth noting that you’ll want to target teams that are thin, but not too thin, on offense. For example, a team like the Colts will spread the ball around to lots of mediocre playmakers, hurting each player’s upside, while a team like the Jets or Lions will narrowly focus on a star player at other players’ expense. A team like the Chiefs, so a team with a few talented players, but not a ton, presents the most value.

Part V. Making a Profit

Now we get to the important part — turning all of this information into money in our pockets. 

Like any survivor league, those eliminated in the 1st round are out, and those players won’t make any money. But unlike a standard survivor league, players win money as they survive each round of the contest. You don’t have to be the only one left to get a payout. Players who survive at least one week will start to recoup their entry fee quickly, and they’ll have a chance at the grand prize.  

Here’s how StatHero’s unique payout structure works:

The more players eliminated in each round, the more money in your pocket! Each eliminated player’s funds go into a prize pool that is split by the winners EVERY ROUND. The contest continues until there is 1 remaining or remaining players choose to split the grand prize (an option in the final 10%) For more detailed info on their payout structure, check out the infographic below.

StatHero is available on iOS and you can play on ANY desktop on stathero.com. Use Promo Code ‘FANTASYPROS’ for a 30% Match on any deposit. Good luck, and happy betting!  


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Beyond our daily fantasy football content, be sure to check out our Daily Fantasy Football Tools. From our Value Plays – which allows you to identify players who are projected to outperform their salaries – to our DFS Cheat Sheets – that helps you get a quick read on the day’s players – we’ve got you covered this fantasy football season.

Isaiah Sirois is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Isaiah, check out his archive and follow him @is_sirois.

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