Taking what you know from Daily Fantasy Sports and applying it to betting sports elsewhere

I’m a sports betting guy. Have been for a long time now. Now that daily fantasy sports is exploding and become so huge I can’t help but feel like a bit of a dinosaur. DFS offers big money, big excitement, and a whole new language and way of looking at NBA games and how teams matchup daily. Instead of running away and hiding, though, I have come to realize that there is no reason why the two worlds — DFS and sports betting — can’t mutually co-exist. In fact, strong daily fantasy sports players can look to sports betting, in some cases, to add to their bottom lines. Here are three scenarios where that can be the case:

Bandwagon teams: The betting public isn’t often very smart, but they are thankfully predictable. When a team or a player is making a lot of headlines, you can be fairly sure that the public will be paying a lot of attention — and reacting with their wallets. Right now, for example, Russell Westbrook is getting so much attention as he almost singlehandedly leads his Thunder into the playoffs by impersonating a different superhero every night. The media is covering the heck out of the story, and the public is noticing — and betting heavily on Oklahoma City whenever they can. That means that betting prices are often inflated for Oklahoma City and deflated for their opponent as a result. In these situations, bettors need to be able to assess how strong the teams are so they know if there is value on the less-popular team at their lower-than-otherwise-expected price or if the public favorite is still worth a bet despite the inflated price.

DFS players can rely on their rankings and player evaluations (or DFSR's projection system) to get good insight here. In this example, DFS players will have a better sense than the average bettor of how Westbrook is performing from game to game and what can be expected from him next time out. They’ll also know what to expect from other key players on both teams. That can give them a strong sense of expected team performances — and give them a big edge in figuring out whether it is worth jumping on the bandwagon or throwing your money at the other side.

Injury replacements: A game can change entirely just because of the injury of one player if that player is particularly impactful and if his replacement brings different things to the table. Public bettors tend to have a consistent reaction to all high-profile injuries right after they happen — they panic. DFS players are well-equipped to evaluate the replacement player — what he is capable of, what he can be expected to contribute, how he matches up, and so on. Because you can evaluate players well, you are able to draw a strong conclusion about how significant the injury is really going to be in the short term. If your evaluation differs significantly from the panicked public opinion then you could have a juicy betting opportunity.

Hidden mismatches: Most public bettors, when evaluating a game and how the teams match up, don’t look very deep. They’ll consider the biggest-name players on both sides, and that’s about it. DFS players have the ability to effectively evaluate much deeper. Who is likely to come off the bench, and what will they add? What hidden strengths does a team have beyond the big names? Does the opponent have an effective counterpunch for those strengths? By looking at player rankings and their expectations for a given game you could, in some situations, be positioned to spot a mismatch that most bettors won’t see. If you spot it then you have a chance to exploit it - or you can let DFSR spot it with their projection system - which works for MLB, NBA, and NFL!