What I've Learned Since Last October

I've played daily fantasy contests for 12 months. I signed up on FSL and GDD last October when hockey season started. In those 12 months since, I've racked up the following stats:

1400 for 2560 (54.69%), ROI +6.49%. I had 10 winning months and 2 losing months.

Nothing to write home about, except that I play fantasy a lot. But a deeper analysis reveals some gems:

-My biggest winning week was playing baseball contests.
-My biggest losing days/weeks were playing baseball contests.
-Remove baseball contests and I have ZERO losing months.

While baseball earned me a lot of wins, it was (and is) -EV for me to play. I would be further ahead in the bankroll department without it.

Fantasy baseball is a high variance game and I need to develop a new strategy for it. Otherwise, I must quit you.

Now, it's nice to be #2 (with a bullet!) on the FSL leaderboard. But the board is not representative of being a smart/winning fantasy player.

I give Kaiseroll13 his due, he is a worthy opponent. But he did have about 530 wins on the board when I signed up. So since my signup, I've had more wins.

But it doesn't amount to anything. You can play more contests to rack up more wins, while you are not maximizing your profits. More wins often mean less profits (which also means more rake for FSL).

I will admit I got caught up a little bit in catching Kaiser this summer. I think I got to within 250 at one point. But it was stupid of me to play that much -EV baseball and it crippled my roll.

So baseball is probably out for next year, unless they change the rules a bit or I find a superior strategy.

I think basketball is also a -EV scenario. Mostly beacuse there are only 7 roster spots. My opponents often have similar rosters to my choices, meaning only 1 or 2 players decide the whole contest.

All of the other fantasy sports have 9 roster spots, I don't see why basketball should be different. Most NBA teams go at least 10 deep in their rotation.

In summary:

-Baseball was a roller coaster ride that ended up costing me money.
-FSL leaderboard is nothing but a marketing gimmick.
-Basketball is -EV too.

Notice I didn't say much about hockey. I can't give away the milk for free, now can I?