How to Play NFL DFS and Basic Tips to Win (FFC Class #1)

Source: Fantasy Football Consultants (YouTube)

Transcript

Eric Lee: If you’re relatively new to Daily Fantasy Football, this is the show for you! We’re gonna go over the rules, contest options, and 10 tips for success on FanDuel and DraftKings, all coming up next!

Eric Lee: Hello, everyone! I’m Eric Lee.

Gary Kurtzman: And I’m Gary Kurtzman and we are the Fantasy Football Consultants. And let’s give you a little bit of background about Fantasy Football Consultants. We started this channel a year ago, and Eric and I have nearly 50 years combined fantasy football experience. Eric, I hope it doesn’t look like that to the viewers on the screen! And more than that we also have vast years of experience in Fortune 50 companies either heading up or working in analytical modeling functions. So we can bring all of that analytical modeling and statistical rigor to you, the viewer.

Eric Lee: In other words:

Sound clip: “Respect my authority!”

Eric Lee: Now we don’t… we don’t… we don’t… we don’t say that…

Gary Kurtzman: He killed Kenny!

Eric Lee: We don’t say that to brag; the reason that we say it is we want to make sure you know that what we’re saying on the show it didn’t just come from a hunch or just a wild guess. It comes from a statistical background and when we took a break, Gary, and during the offseason we spent months going through data, analyzing it, in order to come with our conclusions.

Gary Kurtzman: And that Eric, all culminated in the 9 show NFL DFS master’s class series, of which this show, the beginner show, leads off the series to show number one.

Eric Lee: If you’re an intermediate or an advanced player- warning that this is going to have some basic tips, so you might want to go to the description section of this video and click on the second class which is picking your contests. All the classes from 2 to 9 are advanced strategies for success that everyone who plays Daily Fantasy Football would benefit from. After the second class, we move on to the position selection strategies where we do a deep dive analysis for quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, tight ends, and defense for what are the factors you should consider in filling out both your cash and GPP lineups. And we wrap out the nine course master class series in GPP and cash game strategies. So with all of that you can do us a big favor, it only takes a couple of seconds, smash that like button and hit the red subscriber button, if you haven’t yet.

Gary Kurtzman: And Eric, just to start off, to paint a picture of the industry for a couple seconds there are two major players in daily fantasy sports. There’s DraftKings and FanDuel and together they have over 90% market share, at least as of 2019. Our analysis and strategies are geared towards DraftKings and FanDuel since they have the dominant market share. Okay, so you pay an entry fee and once you pay your entry fee, you create a lineup, we’ll talk about that in a minute, and that lineup is based on real NFL players that are playing that Sunday or Monday. And their performance in that week will translate into fantasy points, and if you garner enough fantasy points, more than your opponents, you win real money.

Eric Lee: Yeah, I’ve seen some people think that “oh I’m competing against FanDuel or DraftKings.”

Sound clip: “No, no, no, no, no!”

Eric Lee: No, you’re actually competing against other players. FanDuel and DraftKings just is going to take their take so they always win. So, as a new player when you go onto FanDuel or DraftKings on their platform and you look at the contest out there you may want to run…

Gary Kurtzman: It’s overwhelming, it really is overwhelming!

Eric Lee: There’s just so many. It can range from a free contest all the way up to over a thousand dollars. So, if you want to limit all the different choices, one of the things I suggest you do as a beginner is go ahead and set the filter to say- hey, I only want to look at contests that are, you know, five dollars or less if you’re a low roller let’s talk about the actual scoring system. Gary, when we’re talking about that main game style which is a classic or full roster how do you score points?

Gary Kurtzman: First of all, you got to pick a lineup. Your lineup is going to consist of one quarterback, you also have to pick two running backs, three wide receivers, and something called a flex position. You can fill that flex spot, roster spot, with either another running back, another wide receiver, or another tight end. Okay so that’s the flex position. And speaking of tight ends you also get a separate tight end position, and then you get a defense. So, that’s nine players total that constitute your NFL line-up for the week.

Eric Lee: And each player is assigned a salary at the beginning of the week by DraftKings or FanDuel. And you can’t go over the team salary cap of $60,000 on FanDuel and $50,000 on DraftKings and if you’re new, you don’t know it, if you gotta fill each spot, you can’t go- You know what? I don’t want to spend any money on defense, so let’s just not spend anything! – They won’t submit… they won’t allow you to submit a lineup unless each spot is filled.

Gary Kurtzman: Like Eric said, you can’t just pick all your favorite players either and get all the stars out there because you do have that 50,000 or 60,000 dollar salary cap.

Eric Lee: Let’s talk about the scoring. How do you score points? And those who’ve played season-long fantasy, a lot of this will seem familiar. Let’s first talk about how FanDuel and DraftKings are similar. A quarterback, they throw a TD, that’s four points. If you catch or run in a touchdown, that is six points. You do get points for yardage, you get for passing, one point for every 25 yards, for rushing and receiving, one point for every ten yards. But here’s how DraftKings and FanDuel are a little bit different,  so you got to know the rules of the platform you’re playing on. First of all, DraftKings does milestone scoring; they give you three points if your quarterback throws for over 300 yards. They give you also three points to the extent that your player receives or rushes for over a hundred yards. The other thing that’s different is receptions. DraftKings is a full PPR and FanDuel is a half a point of PPR. So, if your wide receiver catches ten passes, purely just catches ten passes, forget the yards for a minute, you get ten points on DraftKings and only five on FanDuel.

Gary Kurtzman: Yeah so, definitely differs is the scoring that you need to know. There’s also, by the way, scoring on defense. Eric talked about the offensive players, well you’re picking a defense too, and that one is a little more complicated. But just to boil it down, if your defense gets a sack, so they sack the quarterback, that’s one point for every sack. If they get a turnover, it’s a fumble recovery or an interception, you get two points per turnover. Now, let’s say your defense scores a touchdown- that could be a lot of different ways to do that- you could be pick six, take it to the house, you can be fumble recovery for a touchdown, by the way, defense also includes special teams. So, if your team has a punt return or a kickoff return for a touchdown that also counts and all of that, as you might expect, is worth six points per touchdown. Now, defense also has yardage scoring. Eric, why don’t you tell them a little bit about how that works?

Eric Lee: Well, specifically points. So, your defense gets you FanDuel and DraftKings points to the extent that they hold the other teams offense to a certain number of points. So, you get a lot of points for a shutout-ten. And from one to six points is seven. But look it’s very rare in an NFL game that you’re gonna hold a team by less than a touchdown so you’re usually going to be scoring between 4 and negative 4 on your defense. Now, one thing to note, just as a side note, you do not… points that are scored when your defense is not on the field do not count against you so if you have the… let’s say the Seattle Seahawks defense, and Russell Wilson throws a pick 6 the other way, that… those points don’t count against you. Sadly, Gary, if he throws an interception and they run it back to the 1 and then your defense has to get on the field and they run in one yard, that does count against you. And you know, you got screwed, what can I say? I want to pause a minute, if you’ve gotten this far please do us a favor- smash that like button, it only takes three seconds, and if you haven’t yet, hit the red subscriber button. So Gary, what are these 10 tips that we want to talk about? The first of which, it sounds obvious, but I can tell you as a new player, so many people are not using it. Take advantage of a sign-in bonus! Okay, if you’d like to help us out, we have links which we include in the description. If you use that link it not only helps us, but you get 20 DraftKings dollars automatically put into your account. If you use our FanDuel link, FanDuel would give you $15. Not a bad deal to get you started.

Gary Kurtzman: Hey, free money doesn’t exist very many places in the world, so take advantage of that free money DraftKings and FanDuel is offering you! So, the second tip of the ten tips is simply know the different kind of contests, know the different scoring, and know the different strategies.

Eric Lee: There are different rules for a cash lineup and a GPP lineup, where GPP… Gary, what are you looking for?

Gary Kurtzman: Yeah, well you’re looking for high volatility GPP. You want to line up to, just… you want every player to blow up because you have a small chance of getting in big money. So, then you need high volatility and you’re stacking.

Eric Lee: And how about a cash lineup?

Gary Kurtzman: No, a cash lineup, you want consistency it’s all about making sure that you got high fours everywhere.

Eric Lee: Alright, so the third tip is: you gotta… this is gambling, so let’s admit it… this is gambling and you’ve got to gamble responsibly. You have to come in with a sound bankroll strategy, okay?  I call it the 10-80-20 rule. Gary, it’s pretty simple. Figure out what is the total amount that you’re willing to gamble for the entire season. You know it is totally okay, different people have different amounts, that’s fine. Let’s suppose you chose, for example, a hundred dollars, where’s the first ten come in to play? You should only bet ten percent, no more than ten percent of your total bankroll for the entire year so you’re bet… you’re… you’re betting $10. Now where should you bet that $10?  80-20, 80% on cash games and 20% on GPP. So $8 can go to cash games for that particular week, and $2.00 to GPP.

Gary Kurtzman: Yeah, this is also, you don’t run out of money and gamble all your money away before the NFL season ends. Tip number four: take the free money! What do I mean? Well, I’m not just talking about the links that Eric talked about a minute ago for DraftKings and FanDuel to set up an account. I’m talking about, there are times, not every week, but there are times DraftKings and FanDuel offer free plays. What does that mean? It literally means you can play a contest that has a relatively modest payout for free. Folks, take advantage of it, it’s that simple. There aren’t very many of them, but if you sort under the fees, if there are any games that where the fee is zero, and then there’s a payout, just do it! Just play because it’s a no-lose situation, folks.

Eric Lee: But Gary, DraftKings and FanDuel isn’t the only organization that offers free contests! Fantasy Football Consultants, a little bit, little shameless plug, but hey, it’s great because as a small channel we have less people participating, and we are going to give a total prize pool throughout the season, 360 dollars! All of the details will be described on our weekly DraftKings and FanDuel show, so go ahead and hit that red subscriber button so you’re notified when the season starts, when those videos come out. Well, number five on the list is a very simple one, but Gary, I’m shocked how many new players do not follow it: play only the beginner’s contest. Gary, I feel like a lifeguard and we’re watching on the pool and there’s some new player going over to the deep end! Let me blow the whistle! Get back over to the shallow end! It’s nothing to be ashamed of, in fact, if you follow our tips you are gonna be one of the best players in the beginning pool. So take advantage of that! So, how do you qualify to be a beginner in both DraftKings and FanDuel? As long as you have not played 50 contests and as long as you have not won a total of $2,500, you count as a beginner. So while you’re still in that beginner status, completely play the contest in that area.

Gary Kurtzman: Yeah, and the contests are labeled as beginner contests and it’s the only time that you’re ever guaranteed that you’re… the people… basically your competition, are gonna be beginners. So why wouldn’t you do that? Now, speaking of which, here’s tip number 6: play single entry contests! Okay we go into this detail a lot more in video number two of our DFS Masters Class series: Picking the Right Contest. So for here, I’ll just simply say, look, there are sharks out there, folks. Now the sharks by and large don’t exist in the beginner pool, but once you no longer qualify for a beginner, you have to remember play single entry contests only because it… otherwise, there are people out there that play multiple lineups, and by multiple I mean hundreds or sometimes over a thousand a week. Now, there’s a limit per contest you can’t play more than 150 no matter what the contest is, but you don’t want to be playing against people that have 150 lineups out there. They’re the pros, they’re the sharks, and your odds of winning will go way down. So the way to avoid all that, play single entry contests, that’s tip number six.

Eric Lee: Weren’t you guys listening to me in the previous tip? I told you to stay in the beginner bowl so you shouldn’t have to avoid sharks. However, while you’re playing the beginning contest why do you want to go up against someone who may have played 45 contests and this is your first contest if they’re able to enter in 40, 50 lineups in a particular contest? Alright, number seven, utilize two matrices by the Las Vegas oddsmakers: the over-and-under and the spread. So, hopefully you’re familiar with these two concepts. The over-and – under is telling them how much they think the total points will be scored in that game. And the spread tells you how much they think that the favorite will beat the underdog for that particular week. So real quick example, since this is a new… since you guys may be new to this concept, let’s assume that the over-under is 40 and it’s a 6 point spread. So, you take half the over/under total which the 40… which is 20 and then half the spread, which I said was 6, which is 3, and you add 3 to the 20, gives you what the implied total is of the favorite: 23. And the underdog would be 17. 20 minus 3. Now, obviously you want the implied total as high as possible. You might ask- Well what’s an acceptable number?- depends on whether it’s a cash game or GPP, but as a general rule of thumb, try not to go under 23. Try to go 23 or higher so therefore, I would try to stay away from that game, that fictional game I just gave you, if you were the underdog when I’m picking a quarterback, a running back… less important for a wide receiver but a tight end.

Gary Kurtzman:  Yeah, absolutely. And you now what? So that’s the perfect example of tip number eight which is: watch the rest of our DFS masters class series, please, before you start playing these contests. This is not a shameless plug for Fantasy Football Consultants! I say this because we have months of very rigorous statistical based analysis, that it’s not just about picking the right contest, the videos tell you how to pick for whether cash games or guaranteed pool point, we tell you how to pick each position. There’s a video on how to choose a quarterback, video on how to choose a running back, wide receiver, tight end. Why should you watch these?  Because in each of these videos we give you the guaranteed tips and strategies to put the best lineup out there no matter what kind of contest you’re playing. And Eric, just as proof to the viewers that this analysis works, we started this channel last year… each week we gave lineups for cash games, okay, and Eric how well did we do? Well throughout the season, we cashed in and made money for the viewers 80% of the time. Okay, in a cash game you only win either 50% of the time or 43% of the time, or some variant in between depending on the contest. We paid out 80% of the time based on our analysis which only goes to prove one thing: it works. It’s real and you can only benefit from it if you watch the videos so please, tip number eight: watch the rest of the DFS masters classes videos before you start playing contests. You will be in a much better position than any of the rest of the players who haven’t.

Eric Lee: Yeah, and that 80% amount was in the general pool so if you’re just using those picks in the beginner, you’re gonna be a… you’re gonna be a star, so you’re basically doing a disservice to yourself if you go- Oh, I found this video helpful. I’m ready to go now!-  you’re not. You are not. Watching this video just scratches the surface of what we’re trying to do in this video is give you some of the key terms so when we use them in the… in the future videos you’re not completely lost. Number 9, the tip number 9, is what Gary just talked about: watch our in-season shows. So, it’s great that you watch all our masterclass series but what we do in the end.. in the season shows, is we actually look at the DraftKings and FanDuel pricing for that specific week and we give you a cash line up and a GPP line up, but we don’t just tell you the players, we give you our reasoning and our logic behind it. And we invite you, that you know you might say- Hey, out of the nine players we pick for our lineup, you love the seven of them based on our logic and explanation, but hey, you didn’t think too much of the two of them. No worries, switch out those two with two that you like.

Gary Kurtzman: So number 10, finally the last tip, and that is: when you’re playing these contests, pay attention. What do I mean by pay attention? There’s always, always late-breaking news within the NFL. So, between the time that you choose the lineup and the times that the games start, please don’t take a holiday. Please try and pay some attention. Injury reports are the perfect example. Make sure your guys are actually playing, how you… you know or make sure injury reports can often point to opportunities for other players to do better because they can make up and they’re suddenly thrust into either a starting position or a bigger starting position. Just as one example, don’t just set it and forget it. Set a line up and pay attention right up until game time.

Eric Lee: It’s important to note both FanDuel and DraftKings actually sets their pricing Sunday night and they do not change it for the week no matter what happens. So, guess what? Monday Night Football happens and a quarterback is… is benched or gets seriously hurt or a running back or a wide receiver, now is… all of a sudden they’re back up with someone else their team is gonna have more opportunity, they’re mispriced. You now have more information than DraftKings and FanDuel had in setting the pricing. So maybe there’s opportunity and that opportunity could present itself on that Monday night or all the way up to game time.

Gary Kurtzman: And if that opportunity happens before… before our Wednesday filming of our show we will make sure and alert you during our in season shows about every pricing opportunity that presents itself.

Eric Lee: Yeah, so Gary, those are the 10… 10 tips that we think that really can make a difference for a beginner on the road to success.

Gary Kurtzman:  We started this channel last year so we’re still building up our football community, so if you liked what you see on this show please share it with your friends, share it with your league mates, and commissioner, and more importantly, share your comments with us! So, there’s a comment bar right underneath this video. We would love to hear from you, the viewer.

Eric Lee: I know that most of people watching this are beginners so if you just have further questions and you’re confused about something, go ahead and put it in. I would love it as a part of our community or more experienced players that they respond to the questions as well because that’s what we’re trying to create here, but if no one else does we will… we will definitely respond and answer your questions. So, both Gary and I are so appreciative of our YouTube community. I mean this is why we do it, otherwise we can just talk into a wall and say- oh that was fun, Gary, see you next week!- but we get joy out of being able to share these videos and be able to hear back and get feedback from you of what you… you guys are are are thinking after watching the show. So, this is just the first class of a nine class series. If you’re watching this your homework assignment is not over. You can now go ahead and graduate to the next class in our master series which is all about picking the right contest. Gary, so many people, you know, fail at FanDuel or DraftKings not because they are necessarily not picking good players but they’re not picking the right contest. And they’re not picking the right players for that contest. We go over all those intricacies right over there. If you feel like you already know that really well and you want to go straight to the selection strategy courses: quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, tight ends, and defense- how to pick the right guys at those position click right here and until our next video, we’ll see you next time.

Gary Kurtzman: See you next time.

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