Betting roundup: DraftKings tweaks MLB rules

With Opening Day just a month away, DraftKings unveiled changes to its Major League Baseball contest rules Thursday, tightening the limitations on “stacking” and adding a utility position, among others.

Rosters will still be made up of 10 players, including two pitchers and eight hitters, but one roster spot has been changed from a dedicated outfield position to a utility hitter, which can be chosen from any position.

Users will also be limited to five hitters from a single MLB team, one less than previous restrictions, and rosters must include players from two different MLB games. The prior rule stipulated that rosters must include players from three separate MLB teams. The caught-stealing point deduction has also been eliminated.

DraftKings hasn’t commented since the rules were modified Thursday morning, but the changes were a response to player requests, according to a site representative.

Under the new rules, DraftKings MLB contests will more closely resemble those at industry co-leader FanDuel in some ways, but significant differences remain.

Stacking: DraftKings will allow five hitters from a single team; The FanDuel limit is four players (including a pitcher) from a single team.

Roster construction: DraftKings now requires players from two separate MLB games, while FanDuel requires players from three different MLB teams. FanDuel maintains a roster with one starting pitcher slot and eight traditional positions, while DraftKings has two pitcher spots, C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, UT.

The sites also diverge quite a bit in scoring.

Scoring at DraftKings:

  • Hitters will accumulate points as follows:
    • Single = +3 PTs
    • Double = +5 PTs
    • Triple = +8 PTs
    • Home Run = +10 PTs
    • Run Batted In = +2 PTs
    • Run = +2 PTs
    • Base on Balls = +2 PTs
    • Hit By Pitch = +2 PTs
    • Stolen Base = +5 PTs
  • Pitchers will accumulate points as follows:
    • Inning Pitched = +2.25 PTs
    • Strike Out = +2 PTs
    • Win = +4 PTs
    • Earned Run Allowed = -2 PTs
    • Hit Against = -0.6 PTs
    • Base on Balls Against = -0.6 PTs
    • Hit Batsman = -0.6 PTs
    • Complete Game = +2.5 PTs
    • Complete Game Shut Out = +2.5 PTs
    • No Hitter = +5 PTs

Scoring at FanDuel:

Hitters Pitchers
1B = 1pt W = 4pts
2B = 2pts ER = -1pt
3B = 3pts SO = 1pt
HR = 4pts IP = 1pt*
RBI = 1pt
R = 1pt
BB = 1pt
SB = 2pts
HBP = 1pt
Out (calculated as at bats – hits) = -.25pt

* * *

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ODDS & ENDS

10 major differences between playing Daily Fantasy Baseball and Football

While you’ve been diligently playing Daily Fantasy Baseball over the past few months, you’re about to enter a completely different world with football season roughly a month away.

It might seem the same—with the same scoring engine, lineup building ability and live scoring—but there are plenty of major differences between Daily Fantasy Baseball and Daily Fantasy Football.

Let’s take a closer look at what they are:

1. Five Days of Inactivity

There are usually only two contest time slots on football Sundays. The net result is fewer chances to win compared to Daily Fantasy Baseball, where there are numerous different starting times every day throughout the week.

The trade-off is that you have more time to research lineups and optimize your chances of winning. Also, the best way to combat the fewer days to play is by ramping up how many different lineups you use each week.

You don’t ever want to use players that don’t present value, but in doing your research, you should explore several different combinations to try. For example, you might find two stud wide receivers to build lineups around. You can then build a lineup around a great running back and tight end. Or you can go with the best QB value and the best WR value that week.

2. Many More Players and Contests In One Day

Though Daily Fantasy Football is constricted (mostly) to weekends, there’s an estimated four times as many people competing compared to baseball. That means there’s more contests to compete in, and more players to compete against, leaving you with thousands of possible options at sites like FanDuel or DraftKings.

3. No Dominant Salaried Position Like Starting Pitchers

Since starting pitchers score the most points each night on average, and you only get one pitcher per lineup, they dominate the salary scene. Even a mid-tier pitcher is going to cost well above the best hitter of the day.

In Daily Fantasy Football, though, quarterbacks are generally the most expensive, with running backs and wide receivers right behind, followed by tight ends, and then kickers and defenses pulling up the rear. This makes for more variance across the board, as there aren’t as many lineups with two or three superstar players and a bunch of fill-in cheapies.

4. Many More Ways to Score

In Daily Fantasy Baseball, you have two ways to score—by pitching or by hitting. Sure, there are multiple scoring categories, like innings pitched, stolen bases and home runs, but for the most part, it’s a pitcher throwing the ball, a hitter swinging at the ball or a base runner on the basepaths that gets you points.

In Daily Fantasy Football, you have regular skill position scoring (yards, touchdowns, catches, turnovers), but you also have special teams scoring (returns, field goals) and defensive scoring (sacks, turnovers, safeties, points allowed) and many more. Because of all these ways for Fantasy teams to score, it creates even more variation.

5. Stacking Lineups Works Much Differently

When you stack lineups in Daily Fantasy Baseball, players are sequenced together in a lineup so that each hitter that gets on base will benefit from the production of ensuing hitters, which allows you to earn double and triple points in the matter of a few swings.

In Daily Fantasy Football, just one player is crossing that goal line, but if it’s a catch, then the quarterback and the pass catcher are both scoring Fantasy points on one play, not to mention the kicker and his extra point. You’ll also stack unnatural items, like a running back and a defense in a game in which you expect a low-scoring game. You want the running back to chew up time and you want the defense to benefit from that.

6. Bye-Week Adjustments

Once the middle of the NFL season arrives, you’ll have fewer and fewer choices at each position, which lessens variance. It’s kind of like Mondays and Thursdays in Daily Fantasy Baseball, which are usually travel days for a few baseball teams each week, which means fewer games those days.

7. Effects of Weather on the Games

Weather has a huge effect on Daily Fantasy Baseball because games can not only be delayed, but also postponed—which means if you used any players from that game, you’re out of luck. And since starting pitchers cost so much, a delay can force a pitcher out of a game. That kills his innings, strikeouts and chances for a win. (And obviously, if it’s a light rain, the ball is going to travel shorter distances when hit and die in the wet grass.)

For football, we’re looking at rain—and snow. Those two factors could have a big effect on an offense in two very big ways. It’s much tougher for a passing game to get on track in snowy, icy conditions, and rain obviously makes the ball slippery.

Running backs, on the other hand, are at an advantage over a defense when they’re running in the rain and snow.

8. MLB Park Factors Compared to NFL Stadium Factors

Daily Fantasy Baseball players research outfield fences and distances, foul territory space in various stadiums and also air density numbers.

But in Daily Fantasy Football, all fields are 100 yards from end zone to end zone. So owners are mostly looking at turf versus grass and whether there’s a dome protecting their players from the elements. Specifically, kickers, running backs and fast wide receivers benefit the most on turf.

9. Fewer Choices at Specific Positions

In Daily Fantasy Baseball, you have 30 starting pitchers to choose from, but you’ll have 50-plus players each at 1B/2B/3B/SS, and then you’ll have over 100 outfielders to choose from. In Daily Fantasy Football, you’ll have about 32 choices for quarterback, kicker and defense, with about 50 choices at tight end, and 100 or so for running back and another 100 or so for wide receiver.

Choosing the right running backs and wide receivers will make the biggest difference in your DFS lineups, especially if you choose less-owned players at those positions.

10. Getting DFS Help From Non-DFS Positions

In Daily Fantasy Baseball, a pitcher will get help from his bullpen and closers, but they’re only helping him earn wins. He still has to pitch a bunch of innings and strike out batters.

Similarly, offensive lines are the backbone for a lot of scoring in Daily Fantasy Football because they help give a quarterback time to find receivers, they open holes for their running backs, and the offense keeps the ball longer—allowing for more plays.

Move over, baseball: Changing your DFS schedule to accommodate fantasy football

For the past four months, Daily Fantasy Baseball has almost exclusively occupied your time.

The everyday process has become routine and redundant: Read articles, sort through player values, check lineups, watch live scores, evaluate results, wake up, and do it again.

It’s an easy schedule and very sustainable, and now that you’ve finally got it down, it’s time to change everything to accommodate football season, which is just around the corner.

Your New DFS Schedule For Daily Fantasy Football

Things are going to change in early September once you’re forced to divide your time between baseball and football while filling out lineups for both sports.

Unfortunately, you’ll need more than the 45- to 60-minute time period you’ve set aside for your baseball lineups. You can either make more time, shortcut your time doing research, or you can drop playing Daily Fantasy Baseball altogether.

Remember, the baseball/football crossover only lasts a month (then hockey and basketball begin), so this is a temporary stretch of double-researching.

But it’s also a chance for you to win more money for two reasons:

  1. Some Daily Fantasy Baseball players will figure they’re good enough to ignore or reduce their daily research, and you’ll beat them.
  2. There will be new Daily Fantasy Football players (this year more than ever), so you can take advantage of what should be plenty of “dead money.”

Tuesdays

We’re going to start on Tuesday because it’s the first day of the football week.

You’ll do your Daily Fantasy Baseball research as usual, but maybe you only work on 50/50 lineups, or maybe you only do some tournament lineups. In other words, you might consider dialing back the number of games you play, as well as the amount of money you play each day—especially if your return on investment is relatively low to begin with. (You could find yourself better served by spending that money/time on football.)

For Daily Fantasy Football, read Monday’s recap (even though you likely watched the game) and think about both teams’ upcoming games. Are there injured offensive players you might want to avoid? Are there injuries to key defenders that might make opposing players better in the following week?

Enter your DFS results into a spreadsheet broken down by sport and game type (50/50s, GPP, H2H, etc.), and review where you saw success and failure last week and overall.

Wednesdays

Today’s your first day of checking out what other people are writing about the upcoming week in Daily Fantasy Football. Compare their tips with the players you made notes about on Sunday and Monday. Are there some players they suggest you might not have thought about?

Look at the Vegas matchups to see which games are expected to be the highest scoring of the week. Consider some stacks to play for tournaments. Also, check the biggest underdogs in the lowest-scoring games to figure out some teams/players you might want to fade this week. Make notes!

Thursdays

In Daily Fantasy Baseball, Thursday is “Get-Away Day,” which means there aren’t as many MLB games going on because teams are traveling from one series to the next. It also means there are a lot of day games. So you’ll have to get your DFS lineups in early if you’re wanting to play the entire slate of MLB games.

With Thursday Night Football, traditional league players are accustomed to setting their lineups. But for Daily players, TNF is a different animal altogether. Interestingly, you want to be in at least one low-priced FanDuel game that includes the Thursday night game, because this will show you the ownership percentages for players in Sunday’s games, too.

But in 50/50 games, you’re better off avoiding players involved in Thursday’s games. Being able to see the results of your opponents’ selections, good or bad, will provide you with a strategic advantage and allows you to adjust your strategy as necessary.

Fridays

Here’s a day you can pretty much fully dive into for Daily Fantasy Baseball. All 30 MLB teams are playing, and they’re usually all involved in night games. (From Sept. 4 to Oct. 2, there are only two Friday afternoon games.)

Saturdays

For Daily Fantasy Baseball, it’s business as usual.

Consider this your big day for Daily Fantasy Football. You did the research all week, took notes on who to play, who to avoid and who to fade, and now it’s time to put it all in action.

Fill out lineups in multiple cheap 50/50s rather than just one expensive game. Track down beatable opponents for small-stakes H2H games. Decide which players are better for cash games or tournaments.

Also, make note of major injuries that are going to be gametime decisions and figure out ahead of time how you’ll respond to the news. If they do play injured, are their teammates affected? If they don’t play, does their absence make the opposing defense a much more attractive option?

Sundays

Consider making this day entirely football. Baseball lineups need to be submitted at roughly the same time as football lineups, which is too much to juggle for the typical player.

Turn on your favorite NFL pregame show, open Twitter and begin the process of finalizing your lineups.

Once the games start, get a notepad or open a Word doc and start taking notes, breaking it down by each upcoming game. When you see something interesting during Sunday’s games, write it down in the upcoming games area.

  • Did the WR for one team blow up because the other team’s cornerback was injured in the first quarter?
  • Was weather a big factor, which is why there wasn’t as much passing in a particular game?

Mondays

For Daily Fantasy Baseball, it’s business as usual.

For Daily Fantasy Football, you’re going to read the recaps from Sunday and take note of some players getting more offensive attention than they used to get.

Also, you can scan the DFS salaries for the upcoming week (they’ll be posted Sunday afternoon). Start making some notes on players/values you like!

2015 MLB All-Consistent Team for Daily Fantasy Cash Games

When playing 50/50’s, Double-Ups, or Head-to-Head games, you want to dial down variance by building a safe lineup with consistent hitters—those who produce points on a regular basis at the lowest possible price.

I went through hitter stats in the first half of the MLB season, looking for players that regularly scored points. On sites like FanDuel, where outs cost a batter minus 0.25 points, it makes a big difference if a player can be consistent in bringing his ‘A’ game every day out. [Click here for quick example].

So today, we’re giving you the high floor players. We’ll call this the MLB “All-Consistent” team.

2015 MLB All-Consistent Team for FanDuel Cash Games

These are the players that consistently get on base in the most games, despite being relatively cheaper in price than their PPG counterparts. They are better plays in 50/50 games than GPPs.

INFIELD

Yadier Molina, C, St. Louis: He’s getting a bad rap for not flashing much power this season (or last season), but he still posts a top-five batting average for catchers, and he has posted positive FanDuel points in 65 of 82 games this season. Only Buster Posey and Stephen Vogt have more positive point games this season among catchers.

Alternate: Francisco Cervelli, C. Pittsburgh

Adam Lind, 1B, Milwaukee: His salary started out low, with expectations that he’d miss hitter-friendly Rogers Centre in Toronto, American League pitching and the DH spot. But instead, he’s among the HR leaders at first base with 15, and his 71 positive FD games rank tied for fourth at the position.

Alternate: Kendrys Morales, 1B, Kansas City

Logan Forsythe, 2B, Tampa Bay: The Rays traded Alex Torres and Jesse Hahn to San Diego in January 2014 for a package that included Forsythe and Brad Boxberger. Forsythe was thought to be a handy utilityman, but now he has turned into one of their most important hitters, batting in the heart of their order. His low salary bumps him past Joe Panik for this spot.

Alternate: Joe Panik, 2B, San Francisco

Manny Machado, 3B, Baltimore: There are only a few third basemen with more home runs than Machado (19), only a few have a higher batting average (.298), and a handful have higher average salaries this season ($3,565). But no third baseman has more positive-points FanDuel games than Machado (75).

Alternate: Trevor Plouffe, 3B, Minnesota

Erick Aybar, SS, L.A. Angels: I was as surprised as you to see this name here! But Aybar has picked it up since a quiet April (.222 BA, 0 HR, 8 RBI, 4 Runs), and no shortstop has scored positive FanDuel points in more games this season (68). He’s also second at the position, behind Alcides Escobar, with 45 runs scored.

Alternate: Xander Bogaerts, SS, Boston

OUTFIELD

Among the outfielders, the only one to come close to Mike Trout and Bryce Harper is Jose Bautista, but we’re going to look a little farther down the list for cheaper plays for our All-Consistent Team!

J.D. Martinez, OF, Detroit: Batting in the heart of the Tigers’ lineup is a great place to be, and Martinez has posted 70 positive FanDuel games, with just 13 games with fewer than zero points.

Lorenzo Cain, OF, Kansas City: Another outfielder from the AL Central, Cain provides better speed than power numbers, but only six outfielders (including Martinez, Trout and Harper) have scored more runs (54). Amazingly, he has just 10 games (out of 76) in which he’s scored zero or fewer FanDuel points. Just five outfielders are averaging more FanDuel points (3.31), while 32 outfielders have higher average salaries.

Nick Markakis, OF, Atlanta: If it’s true that chicks dig the long ball, then they are definitely not fans of Markakis, who has zero homers this season. But DFS chicks dig winning, so they’re happy to know that Markakis has 71 games with positive FanDuel points, even thought he’s averaging just 1.97 FD points per game.

Alternates: Jay Bruce, OF, Cincinnati; Curtis Granderson, OF, N.Y. Mets; Kevin Pillar, OF, Toronto

PITCHERS

Pitchers, of course, are a much different story on FanDuel, as they don’t often post negative points–and if they do so regularly, you and their MLB team aren’t using them anyway. So I chose the following pitchers by looking closely at quality starts (minimum of 6 IP, no more than 3 ER), which comes out to 3.0 FanDuel points, not including points for strikeouts or wins.

Zack Greinke, Pitcher, L.A. Dodgers: It’s Greinke on this list and not his counterpart Clayton Kershaw. His average salary on FanDuel ranks 10th, and his 13.46 FanDuel points per game ranks him 11th. But the National League starting pitcher in the All-Star Game is our starting pitcher, too, with just three games of more than two earned runs allowed (Scherzer had four).

Max Scherzer, Pitcher, Washington: There’s a reason Washington (and DFS players) paid big bucks for Scherzer. With eight games of nine or more strikeouts this season, Scherzer remains one of the most expensive pitchers you can choose. But you have to pay up for pitching on FanDuel.

Chris Sale, Pitcher, Chicago White Sox: Sale pitches in a hitter’s park, which is scary to many DFS players, but he has 10 games with at least 10 strikeouts this season. And only four regular starting pitchers have a higher percentage of quality starts this season than Sale (82%).

Alternates: A.J. Burnett, P, Pittsburgh; Gerrit Cole, P, Pittsburgh; Carlos Martinez, P, St. Louis

Yahoo’s DFS Baseball scoring rules similar to industry leaders DraftKings, FanDuel

Yahoo launched its Daily Fantasy Sports product Wednesday and apparently intends to offer just the four major sports—NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL—out of the chute. Since three of the four sports are out of season, that leaves baseball as the only DFS option until Sept. 10, the NFL’s opening night.

Interested in knowing the scoring rules? We’ve provided a table below comparing Yahoo’s MLB rules to those at FanDuel and DraftKings. Keep in mind, Yahoo’s roster consists of 10 lineup positions—including two starting pitcher spots—which is the same as DraftKings.

You can read Yahoo’s full scoring rules here.

SpreadFavoriteUnderdog
050.0%50.0%
0.550.0%50.0%
151.7%48.3%
1.553.5%46.5%
255.4%44.6%
2.557.4%42.6%
359.7%40.3%
3.562.1%38.0%
464.1%35.9%
4.566.2%33.8%
568.2%31.8%
5.570.2%29.8%
672.0%28.1%
6.573.7%26.3%
775.8%24.3%
7.577.8%22.2%
879.8%20.3%
8.581.7%18.3%
983.8%16.2%
9.585.9%14.1%
1088.1%11.9%
10.590.3%9.7%
1192.4%7.6%
11.594.5%5.5%
1296.7%3.3%
12.598.9%1.1%
13+100.0%0.0%

Note: DraftKings also has categories for Hits Against, BB against, Hit Batsmen, Complete Game, Complete Game Shut Out, and No Hitter. 

 

Daily Fantasy Baseball has been a success for most sites, but here’s what it’s missing

More than 17 percent of people that participate in Fantasy sports in the US and Canada play DFS exclusively. Yet, the Daily Fantasy Sports world still doesn’t reach a huge portion of sports fans.

Obviously, there will continue to be a rise in DFS popularity in the coming years, but it likely won’t overtake season-long Fantasy play anytime soon. DFS has something that season-long Fantasy can’t duplicate—a new game and a chance to win every day—but many long-time Fantasy players shake their heads at DFS baseball because they say it’s missing the heart of their game and panders to our instant gratification society.

In a way, they’re right, but I don’t think it’s something that can’t be overcome.

6 Things Daily Fantasy Baseball Needs

Some of these are games and some are just concepts, but I do think these are missing pieces of the game worth discussing.

A Way to Reward Relievers/Closers

For a while, there were Daily Fantasy sites such as DraftStreet that allowed the drafting of relievers, which essentially had you fill three pitcher spots. And you could either do three very cheap starters, or you could go two starters and a closer. The problem? Unlike all the other positions, you never knew if a closer was even going to enter the game that night.

My Fix: Use “Team Bullpen” as a roster slot in DFS lineups, and players could gain Fantasy points with innings, strikeouts, holds and saves for the bullpen they choose that day.

The Same Trash-Talk Connections as Fantasy Leagues Have

When you play DFS, you’re not chatting with other players in the same contest. Anyone that plays in friends or family leagues knows that the trash talk is half the fun. Either running your mouth about beating your buddy—or watching the guy that ran his mouth lose his game—it’s fun all around!

My Fix: DFS sites should make stronger connections with major Fantasy sites, then work to convert those season-long leagues into becoming a Daily Fantasy “King of the Hill” league, where they battle against each other every week in daily play.

Ease of Play For Beginners

Beginners that try Daily Fantasy are often eaten alive within the first couple weeks of playing because they don’t quite understand the differences between seasonal Fantasy strategies compared to DFS play. Newbies will often burn through their initial deposit—including any bonus deposit cash they got—and they walk away with a genuine DFS spanking.

My Fix: DFS sites should have a minor leagues that does everything but force people to play a couple free games in each format (50/50s, Leagues, Triple-Up and Tournaments), allowing them a chance to see how different they each are. Maybe there’s even an automated email that comes to them that points out their foibles (you started six right-handed hitters against six right-handed pitchers; your catcher had the day off and you left him in; your pitcher was starting a game in Coors Field).

Three-Game Series

I think there’s a happy medium between Daily Fantasy Baseball and traditional season-long leagues. What if you got to draft a standard DFS team on Friday for the entire upcoming weekend’s games—except instead of a pitcher, you pick an entire pitching staff? Maybe you could even have one or two bench players that you start or sit, depending on the matchups and platoons.

My Fix: This becomes a game that CBS and FanDuel partner up together to create as a bridge for traditional players into DFS play. CBS has the league setup and FanDuel already has the DFS engine to run it.

Set-It-and-Forget-It Lineups

One of the great advantages that DFS sharks have is that they’re on top of their lineups all the way up until game time. For those that don’t play this game for a living, it’s sometimes difficult to get players in or out of your lineups at 6:55 p.m. ET. This is also one of the reasons why new players get scared away initially.

My Fix: I have a couple possible fixes for this one —

  • DFS sites should have optional early games that lock three hours before game time, so no one gets an advantage.
  • Bench players are optional (one hitter and one pitcher), but you can only choose a player with a minimum salary. This could also work for rainouts.

Draft Day Excitement

Traditional Fantasy Baseball has one day that stands above the rest, and I think the same “Draft Day” magic can be built into some of these Daily Fantasy Baseball sites. The excitement of knowing the top picks for the day and the build-up before the first pitch is lost in DFS play.

My Fix: What if, along with the previous suggestion about early lineups, we have starting pitchers lock three hours before game time? It’s pretty rare for a starting pitcher to get yanked more than three hours before first pitch, so it’s unlikely owners would get screwed over (outside of a rainout, which would screw them over anyway). I also think it would be cool if the DFS sites released the ownership percentages of starting pitchers at this time too.

Single entry rides Cueto’s complete-game shutout to $20,000 top prize on FanDuel

FanDuel user “aaronklaw” used a single entry to take down a stacked field and bring home $20,000 in last night’s MLB Monster tournament.

The $300, 555-entry contest was loaded with names familiar in the Daily Fantasy community, including some successful high-volume players, but only 3.2 percent benefited from Johnny Cueto’s 11-strikeout complete game shutout.

That 24-point performance gave Aaron a significant edge over the majority of the field, and his inclusion of little-used Mariners Robinson Cano (7 points, 4.1 percent owned) and Austin Jackson (10.25 points, 5.9 percent) elevated him to the top spot with 58.25 points.

It always requires at least a minor leap of faith to deploy a handful of Mariners in a single entry – especially in offense-sapping Safeco – but given the prices plus the matchup, the choice must have been made a little easier.

Tigers spot starter Kyle Ryan has been pretty awful this year, and after getting shelled for five runs through 2.2 innings Tuesday night, he’ll probably be highly targeted for opposition stacks – assuming he gets another start.

Combine Ryan’s track record (17:14 K:BB, failing to make it to the fifth inning in three straight starts) with bargain bin prices at the top of the Seattle order, and the winning thought process becomes apparent.

Austin Jackson strikes out too much and doesn’t walk enough, but he’s been pretty good against lefties this year (.368 wOBA, .851 OPS) and as long as he’s at the top of the lineup at the minimum price, he makes an intriguing tournament play. Ditto for Cano, who is showing signs of life lately, but who still isn’t back in the good graces of the fantasy community.

Top-ranked DFS player earns spots in DraftKings and FanDuel world championships

The summer’s marquee DFS baseball events got a little more competitive this weekend.

Maxdalury,” one of the top players in the industry, earned spots in DraftKings’ Fantasy Baseball World Championship and FanDuel’s World Fantasy Baseball Championship.

Each event features live finals in Las Vegas next month and $1 million top prizes.

Both of Sunday’s qualifying wins are the first for Max in these events, but he’s a mainstay in the money. Currently, he’s ranked No. 1 in the world on RotoGrinders.com’s overall rankings, Tournament Player of the Year rankings, MLB rankings and PGA rankings.

Leaning heavily on Angels and Lance Lynn on both sites, Max dominated the field Sunday and took three of the top four spots and four of the top six in the FanDuel qualifier. The qualifying wins were only part of Max’s big night; he also brought home $38,500 via three top-10 finishes in FanDuel’s Monster and DraftKings’ Perfect Game tournaments.

FanDuel winner started DFS ‘on a fluke,’ but 8,000-plus wins later cashes $100k jackpot

Since he began playing Daily Fantasy Sports at the beginning of the 2014 football season, Grant Neiffer has experienced the kind of success that elicits joy in DFS marketers and envy in most of the rest of us. But of his 8,000-plus wins since last September (on FanDuel alone), none matched the $100,000 jackpot he scored with a single entry in Wednesday’s FanDuel Super Slugger tournament.

“This was by far the single biggest day I’ve had,” said Neiffer, who won his $1,065 entry into the tournament with a qualifier win on Monday and said he swept contests on every site he played on Wednesday. “After I set my lineup, I went out with some buddies. When I checked my lineups at around eight o’clock, I was like … wow. Then I stayed up sweating it. It was a pretty stressful two hours.”

Not bad for a guy who had never played Daily Fantasy Baseball at this time last year.

“I literally started playing on a fluke,” Neiffer said. “A buddy of mine sent me an invite during football season and we had a little competition—the first person to get to $100 buys the other one lunch.

pirates

“It really escalated quickly from there.”

Though the 26-year-old accountant is good with numbers, Neiffer says his DFS success comes from his knack for lineup creation rather than a proprietary algorithm or hours spent with spreadsheets.

For Wednesday’s big winner, he went heavy on Pirates hitters and benefited from Neil Walker’s 17.5 points and Starling Marte’s 9.75. But it was his choice of Marlins that separated him from the field. He was the only lineup in the 400-team field to roster Justin Bour (8.5 points), and not many more were on Adeiny Hechavarria (2.5 points, 1-percent owned) or Christian Yelich (3.75 points, 1.2 percent).

“It was basically just finding what fit,” said Neiffer, who’s known as gneiffer07 on FanDuel. “I loved the Pirates’ lineup. I figured it wasn’t going to be as highly owned as some of the other ones, and there was a whole bunch of value at the top of the lineup.

“And then with Miami, after I set my (Pirates) stack, I just checked to see if there was another stack of guys with some value at low salaries at the top of their lineup, and it just happened to work out perfectly with Yelich, (Hechavarria), and Bour.”

Toss in a sterling performance from Carlos Carrasco, and what started out as a race to $100 just 10 months ago has now netted Neiffer $100,000-plus in a single night.

FanDuel announces bracket-style fantasy baseball tournament, which begins tonight

FanDuel on Tuesday announced a new baseball contest leading up to another live-event final in Las Vegas.

The FanDuel Fantasy Baseball Bracket Championship starts tonight with the first of 64 qualifying tournaments. Tuesday’s qualifiers start at $3 entry and run up to $300 with size of the fields contracting as the cost for an entry rises. Participants are allowed 25 entries in the $3 and $10 qualifiers; the $25, $100 and $300 contests will be single-entry only.

After the field of 64 is set, competitors will square off in bracket-style, head-to-head contests with the finalists advancing to the championship on Aug. 22 in Las Vegas, one day before the World Fantasy Baseball Championship.

First prize is $60,000 and all 64 qualifiers are guaranteed at least $1,500.