I am about to unravel my dark side to you guys. The little angel on one side of my shoulder normally dictates most of my life. That is until NFL season comes around. Then the little red devil on my other side of my shoulder takes over and I lose all control. Haha, okay it’s actually not that dramatic but I do have a weird obsession with fantasy football.
You see I have been doing fantasy football for 15 years now. It’s hard to imagine that fantasy football was even around that long ago but it was. And I was doing it with my buddies. There hasn’t been one year that I have not done it and I truly enjoy participating. I love watching football, I love reading NFL statistics, I love talking smack about teams and players with my buddies and I love betting!! Fantasy football is basically in my opinion legal betting. You put money in, you win or lose and can win big at times. Ever since I was young I enjoyed betting. When I was 16 years old I remember being the dealer always when my friends wanted to play black jack. The first time I went to Atlantic City, I won $800 the first night. I was hooked! Since then, I have been to Vegas 4 different times and every time I love it. Of course I always lose but it’s just so darn fun and I do have control with the amount of money I am willing to lose. I no longer go to the casino’s and the only fix I can get now is from playing fantasy football.
Which leads me to Draft Kings (DK)! I only just discovered DK late last season and I was immediately hooked. I love it so much that for the first time in 15 years, I am no longer doing regular season long fantasy football. I will be concentrating all my efforts and money that I normally use in my leagues to DK. DK is a daily fantasy sports provider that you can enter daily/weekly for most sports and compete against other players. It is set up so that you can do leagues with just one other person (one on one) or you can enter into huge tournaments with 500k people. These tourneys have HUGE payouts. First place can win up to $1 Million dollars depending on which contests you join. There are even contests you can do for just .25 cents. Yes a quarter is all you need and you can play. You see, Draft Kings is my kryptonite, my weakness! Everyone has a weakness righ? Superman has kryptonite and although I’m no superman, i’d like to think that I have superman like tendencies. 😉
It doesn’t matter to me that this is risky, that I will probably lose every last cent I put into it and that it just is not a smart financial decision to make. I know this, and I don’t care. I will enjoy every second of it. I will however be methodical about playing DK and have devised a game plan. A strategy if you will.
The Strategy:
This will be my first full season using DK and I plan on keeping track of how much money I lose/win each week on a spreadsheet. I will treat this as a business and have very strict rules about how much money I put into it. I am willing to spend $30 per week. There are 16 weeks in the season which means that worst case scenario if I lost every penny, (which I don’t think I will by the way) I would lose a total of $480 for the whole NFL season. Not too bad considering it will keep me very entertained all season long. I have a feeling though I am going to hit big this season and actually make money this NFL season. I like to dream and have high hopes if you haven’t already noticed. 😉
My plan for now is to only enter the $3 entry contests which have a first place payout of $100k. So for $3, I have the potential of hitting big and winning 100k. This particular contest has a max entry of what appears to be 383.3K people. My odds of hitting first place are 1/383,300. It’s really not so bad odds for winning that kind of money. It is way better than the lottery. Like I said above, I will have $30 going in each week and all of it will be put into this one contest.
This means I will have 10 different lineups all going every week on this one contest. I only need one of them to hit it big or even just in the top ten. My odds of hitting 100k just went up to 10/383,300. I like those odds better plus I like to think that I have even better odds than that because I think I know my football pretty well. It’s not like you can just set any lineup and hope you hit. There is a method to the madness of selecting lineups. I may in the future post a few more articles about this explaining my madness so keep an eye out if you are interested.
Refer-A-Friend:
One of the cool things about DraftKings is that they are still in promotional mode and are still trying to build a bigger customer base. They constantly have promotions and offer this cool deal right now to all users who use DK. If you refer a friend, you and the referred friend both get a free $20 entry into the NFL Week 1 Millionaire contest. It’s basically a free $20 and a free entry into possibly hitting the million dollar jackpot. If you are thinking about getting into DK this season, it would be a benefit to you and me to use my referral link. Any of the DraftKings links you see on this page are my referral link so feel free to check them out. Maybe you or I can win big! I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
I am crazy right?
I know this goes against my philosophies, it goes against the premise of my own blog. Cash Flow Diaries is getting tainted now because of my fantasy football habit. Ha! But I tell you what, I am going to be a happy camper if I win some money and you will be the first to know all about it. Win or lose actually! If I do happen to hit big, that money is going straight into a new rental property! 😉
What is your weakness? What is the one thing you know you shouldn’t be doing but just do it anyways?
Yea, fantasy football has been around a long time. I remember the first year I joined with a bunch of friends and won (I drafted Trent Green who got injured so I picked up his backup Kurt Warner!) Anyways, I used to be really into fantasy football (as well other sports, though football was of course the best)…I’ve spent much less time on it nowadays. That happens when you get old(er) and have a toddler too. =) I’m sure I would have joined DK back in the day, but I’m only in one fantasy league and it’s mainly so I can chat with my co-workers about it since I don’t even check on it 24/7 like I used to.
That is awesome. I do remember back when Kurt Warner was dominating the fantasy numbers. Those were good days! I can imagine how eventually the love for fantasy dissipates especially once you start having children so I don’t blame you one second. Im glad you at least still have one league going though. Gives you a little more excitement come game day!
I used to spend money on fantasy football, once won my league one year and won close to $2k, but gave up spending money part and now just play for fun.
Wow! 2k is a big pay out. Must have been nice. Playing for fun is great too though and once I’m done spending all my money on it, I will join you on that.
Thanks for stopping by Brian!
I used to love gambling (especially cards but even sports) back in high school and college. But I havent done much of it over the past couple years. I’ve heard some really good things about DK but I doubt I jump in to that ring again.
As you said, many finance bloggers probably dont agree with gamblign but I have no problem with it. It’s similar to going to a restuarant – it’s entertainment. You can be responsible and still gamble (if you do it responsibly).
Hey Luke! Ha yeah I know what you mean man. We are in the same boat when it comes to gambling. DK is super addicting but if you have self control it can be a ton of fun. What I like about it they have super cheap contest so even if you do it, you don’t have to spend a lot of money. They have quarter contests, $2 contests and the $3 ones which are the ones I like for this season.
I totally agree with you about it just being entertainment. I would spend way more then $30 at a restaurant in just one visit. So I dont see it as being too bad dropping $30 a week on DK.
Thanks for commenting!
I love fantasy football and have been in 2 leagues now for about 7 years. I didn’t think I’d like it so much but it’s fun keeping up with stats, player matchups, and those under the radar fliers. Each year I have the most add/drops in my leagues averaging about 30 or so, yeah I add and drop almost 2 people a week. It’s awesome!
I have been wanting to try Draft kings and didn’t realize you could get into it so cheaply per week. Like you I think I could support a nominal weekly fee ($20) towards it and see if I like it. Timely post, I like it!
I think 2 leagues is just the right amount. At one point, i had 4 leagues going and it was just too much. I eventually brought it down to 3 and I even thought that was too much. Now that I found DK though, i only use that site so my life got a lot easier as far as maintaining and keeping up with all the leagues. I agree its super fun keeping up with stats and matchups and all that.
I was just like you with the add/drops. Every year there are sleepers off the waivers that come in and blow up the fantasy stats. Its great and you have to be on top of the waiver wire every day to make sure you land those guys. They can make the different for winning the whole thing!
Ha, yeah man. $20 a week is not bad at all and they have $2 contests with first place paying $10k. That might be a good one for you. If you sign up, please use my refer link so we can get in on that million dollar contest for free! Thanks for stopping by!
Speaking of NFL, I discovered a cool way to get all games of my favorite team (Cowboys) without having the NFL Sunday ticket or DirectTV. It is with NFL Gamepass. This is designed for people that are out of the country, it allows you to watch your favorite team while outside the country. It won’t officially work if you are in the USA, so there is a way around that.
You purchase UnoTelly (https://www2.unotelly.com), cost is about $4.95 a month. This uses a VPN to make Gamepass think you are in another country (like Belgium). Then you purchase Gamepass for your team ($99 per year) and get all the games for your favorite team.
It’s a lot better than buying DirectTV and paying $329 per year!
NFL Sunday ticket is so much freaking money!! I had to drop that years ago so now im forced to going to my friends houses who have NFL sunday ticket. Its kind of like having friends with a boat. You want it, but you are glad that they have it instead of you. Haha.
Great tip on the site for people out of the country. Good find! Wish it was here though in the US, i would jump on that if its only $5 a month.
I remember the days when I was keen on fantasy football. One of the best games I have ever played. Anyway, good luck with your strategy!
Ha! Yeah its a ton of fun and its even more fun having the chance to win every week. Unfortunately based on all the press I have been seeing lately, this may be the last season doing daily fantasy. Its a shame!