If you haven’t started playing Draftster, it’s about time you start. They are a relatively new site that we’ve partnered with because we believe in their model and vision. But the partnership isn’t the reason I’m necessarily writing this piece. While we do appreciate their support, this piece is more about the actual advantages of playing there.
I’ve been able to take a very small deposit and run it up to over $1,000 without the huge, multi-entry big payout tournaments available on other sites. The largest single tournament prize they have (that I’ve won) was $150 in the $10 NBA 3-Pointer which I’ve won twice. Outside of that, my success on Draftster has been grinding out cash games and taking advantage of some of aspects of their model which I will outline below.
When Draftster first contacted us about working together, they were nice enough to deposit $20 into our account. We wanted to be sure we believed in the product before we went about promoting it. Because money is a relative thing, it doesn’t make sense to determine if this is the optimal number to begin with. For some $20 is a ton. For others, it’s nothing. I did not initially deposit on Draftster, but they do offer a deal which you should (and I have since) take advantage: $200 bonus up to $200. In any deposit situation you must do what makes you feel comfortable, but depositing the most you can is ideal. The reason for this is obvious: you want the site to give you back as much as possible. There is a bank roll management piece that means you should constantly monitor your daily buy-in and exposure so you stand the best chance to see that deposit bonus all the way out. Draftster releases on a 4% of contest buy-in schedule. Meaning you will see back $4 for every $100 you put into play.
Again, this was not something I took advantage of at first because of Draftster’s generosity, but I have since re-deposited simply to take advantage and so I have more money to put into play on a given night. Deposit bonuses are key in any DFS situation.
Draftster’s player pricing is different than some of the other major sites in a few key areas. It allows you to create lineups different than what you might be playing at some of the other big boys. This is a phenomenal nightly hedge in that you can have exposure to a slightly different group of players in a +EV situation. Their model works to your advantage on both ends of the salary range. For starters, no player on Draftster is ever priced more than $9,900. Where some sites will trend superstar prices upward to the breaking point after particularly hot stretches, Draftster maxes out at 10K. This is not to say you should always play Lebron or Anthony Davis every time out, but you will be playing those guys more than normal because when they get into weaker defensive matchups, their points/$ expectation is almost too good to pass up even at the max.
Additionally, Draftster prices change much, much quicker than the other traditional sites. After an off night or two, expect to see a guy like Davis drop into the $8,800 range. This modest 10% decrease (from what was already a low relative price) makes him an almost must play independent of matchup. This happens up and down the superstar tier.
On the other end of things, Draftster will almost always have rock bottom punt plays you can get into lineups very safely. Because their model has a wide price range (much like DraftKings) you can often find newly minted starters at the minimums. Without having intimate knowledge of how their sausage is made, it seems to me that Draftster is quick to correct downward, while taking a while for players to trend upward in price.
Additionally, Draftster price corrects for injury. On many other sites, when a player is injured the price will lock in or creep down very, very slowly. Not on Draftster. When a dude doesn’t play, his price drops. When he doesn’t play for a while, it bottoms out. When Boogie Cousins sat out a while with meningitis he came back as a $3K punt play his first time out. And he wasn’t much higher the next few games. If you didn’t play Boogie in this couple of game stretch (and some people didn’t) you were basically dead money right at tip off. The same happened with Lebron after his absence. It’s something to take note of. Of course it helps to have a system like ours to quickly parse out these guys. But scouring salaries is crucial. Punts are prevalent on Draftster and you need to find them. I am almost always taking a stars and punts strategy here and getting the money in very, very good.
Draftster is one of the few sites continuing to offer this component of lineup construction, and you need to take advantage. This is, what I would consider, my major reason for success. It can sometimes take a few extra moments to build lineups with this multi-position piece in mind, but it’s worth it. There are many a night, and I’m sure you’ve experienced this, where there exist value clusters at a certain position while another position is a total wasteland. I’ll often think to myself, if only I could start three centers tonight and no small forwards on FanDuel and I’d be all set. Draftster offers this opportunity.
The key area I focus here is in the shooting guard position. Not all, but many point guards also qualify for shooting guard. Because point guards are very much in control of their own fate (or as much as anyone can be on a basketball court) getting to start three or even four of them instead of your standard shooting guard who can succumb to the whims of his court general or a bad shooting night is an insane advantage. Unless we are talking a James Harden (or to a lesser extent Eric Bledsoe or Klay Thompson) many times shooting guards are dudes with high standard deviations because they are scoring dependent. Their ceilings are nice, but their floors can be really low. Getting to play point guards in all four slots is something I believe you must try hard to do. Not to say I will do this come hell or highwater, but if I have a point guard and shooting guard coming in around the same points/$ expectation I will almost always default to the guy dribbling the ball up the court. Some examples of these guys are Kyrie Irving, Steph Curry, Mo Williams (a personal Draftster favorite of mine), Dante Exum and Goran Dragic. There are many, many others. Keep an eye out for cheaper point guards you can play in those shooting guard slots.
Of course this same multi-positional piece works up and down the lineup. I seem to utilize this as much with centers and power forwards as well. As they cross-qualify I find getting in money in good at center is much easier than in traditional sites.
This one kind of goes without saying, but it’s worth mentioning anyway. Sites with late swap mean you will rarely get stuck rostering a DNP. Never taking a zero in your lineup is amazing as long as you are able to monitor news throughout the night. As a general rule, I will never play a DFS slate unless I know I am going to be available throughout the night to monitor news. If you view DFS as a money-making investment in both time and resources, then you should treat it as such. Draftster isn’t a “set it and forget it” site. Don’t get into leagues unless you know you will be around to make the required switches when Dwight Howard is a late scratch or Jeremy Lin is drawing a surprise start. There will be those in your leagues who miss this news and don’t swap players out. Don’t be that guy/girl. Take full advantage of late-breaking news and adjust accordingly because every time you catch something and your opponents don’t you have an extreme advantage.
The final key to my early success was/is taking advantage of overlay situations on the site. Because Draftster is new (though growing at what appears to be a nice clip) there are often opportunities to take advantage of overlay. For the uninitiated overlay is a situation in which the site has covered the whole cost of the contest prize pool regardless of how many people enter. There were a few times early on in which I was the only person in a guaranteed contest. I could have started nine injured players and still cashed. This extreme opportunity no longer exists, but overlay is still very much in play. On Sunday I noticed the $11 forty person 50/50 was only half full with about ten minutes before lock. I automatically put in the max number of entries thinking that A: I was getting money in good no matter what because my lineup appeared strong and B: there was a chance I would only need to beat out 1 player in order to cash a forty man field. Others had the same idea as the contest got to 75% full when all was said and done. But this still meant I was playing this contest rake free plus some. Overlay doesn’t always happen, but it pays to be diligent.
The Daily Fantasy world is growing by leaps and bounds each day. It pays to have money in different areas to take advantage of site-specific intricacies. It also pays to have a system to determine value. Be sure to try a free 3-day trial to our NBA service which includes daily projections for Draftster.
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Please send me a copy of the NBA e-book. I've requested a copy several times but it never shows up. Great site by the way, your advice has helped me learn how to build line-ups and I'm starting to have some success!