Anyone who has watched NFL games on TV this year has likely noticed a barrage of ads for daily fantasy sports websites.
The reality of fantasy sports is big money for the two sites–DraftKings and FanDuel–that dominate the industry. During the first week of the NFL season the two sites combined to spend $31 million in advertising to attract new players.
It seems to have worked. In the first two weeks of the NFL season $110 million was bet on fantasy sites compared to $90 million spent in Nevada on traditional wagers based on point spreads.
Traditional sports betting has you pick who will win a given game. Daily fantasy has you pick players who then earn points by what they do in a given game.
The distinction is important to the NFL. While pro leagues have never endorsed gambling on games, none of them have a problem with daily fantasy. In fact many have invested in one of the two sites.
But winning money in daily fantasy is not as easy as the commercials make it seem. You play against other players, not the house, and some of those players are practically professionals at it.
“It’s the 80-20 rule where 20 per cent of the people are making 80 per cent of the money and vice-versa,” said gaming consultant Scott Wilson.
The key to winning big is to pick the players who will have a better game than most thought they would. The pros get those wins by doing serious homework and often by putting in a lot of different combinations of players.
In other words, they spend a lot of money to make more money.
“The guys that are really at the top are computer savvy,” said Wilson. “They’ve written what may or may not be a winning program.
“Day traders, that went on. Then there’s online poker players. This is the next iteration of that type of mentality.”
-With files from Squire Barnes
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