You think you’ve got everything to know about winning in daily fantasy football? Well, think again. Here are more essential tips to help you be on top of your daily fantasy football league.

• Don’t draft a backup tight end

The more tight ends are glorified as wide receivers, the more the remaining tight ends on the waiver list are easily put into your starting lineup during a bye or after an injury. This is also why I think we might start seeing more two tight end leagues in the future.

• Always fill an RB/WR/TE spot with a running back

There will be times during the season that you’ll have to throw a receiver or a tight end in there, but don’t draft them and set them as your goal. A running back that has made 15 touches will often have more points than that of a receiver with 5-10 targets. And if you follow the backup RB suggestion, you should have a decent back to fill that spot even on bye weeks.

• Don’t draft according to bye weeks

Byes are always the easiest thing to forget while you are in the middle of the draft and that’s not the end of the world. Football hasn’t quite caught up with baseball, so we are stuck with head to head leagues so you do need to win as many weeks as possible, but if the value is there, draft the best guys and sort the rest out later.

• Know ADP

I’m talking about Average Draft Position. You may have the inside scoop that Maurice Jones-Drew‘s knee is actually now the consistency of oatmeal mush and you are going to jump on Rashad Jennings, but when? Make sure you check out the ADP, and especially the ADP from the site you are using if that’s possible.

• Use a cheat sheet

This can be one you can make or one from a site or expert you like, but whatever the source is, be prepared. There’s nothing worse than having that draft clock ticking down and you have absolutely no idea who to pick. I made up this tier sheet that I use for myself and keep updated. Be a boy scout and be prepared, but don’t be the last boy scout, that movie was just so-so.

• Don’t draft a D or K until the last 2 rounds

But you can draft a dork. This is really a no brainer, but there are always those managers who reach for defense and sometimes even kickers. Fantasy defenses and kickers change so much from year to year that wasting a pick, even a round or two earlier is a for real waste! I sometimes don’t even take a kicker and sometimes even a defense, especially if the draft is before or during preseason games. If you can take a late round flier on a player that could win a position battle and be worth more than someone you picked earlier, you can be ahead of your league mates. Streaming kickers and defenses is entirely feasible.

• Mock draft as much as you can

Many of your run of the mill fantasy leagues have very few bench spots because people have to mow their lawn or take the dog out to poop, and it is often difficult to make up for bad draft picks with late upside bench players. So you need to feel comfortable drafting from different positions. There are tons of places to find mock drafts, but don’t waste your time on these mocks that don’t fill with real people. We play fake football, but not with fake people.

• Don’t buy a fantasy football magazine

Yes, they have glossy pictures and your plane was delayed and you don’t want to read about the debt ceiling, but really, fantasy football magazines are out of date before they are printed. The Internet is instantaneous.

• And one more time; be flexible

If you have done enough research in daily fantasy football in general, you should have a good idea of the players you want, so don’t be too rigid and don’t follow some dumb rules that some idiot puts on the Internet! I mean really. The more you know, the easier it is to be flexible, so check out our articles here and just soak in as much as you can.

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I’m going to throw a very helpful idea for spreading your bets around and reducing variance in your bankroll: Playing on multiple sites as a daily fantasy strategy .

Everyone who chooses to play daily fantasy contests should have at least two different sites where they feel comfortable playing. It is sometimes preferred play at sites with a similarity in stats and rosters, but you guys may find other sites better suited to your tastes. Go ahead and split your bankroll in half between two sites. This accomplishes two things with your daily fantasy strategy: 1) it allows you to play different opponents which spreads risk and 2) if the two sites are structured just a little differently, it will allow you to select different fantasy players and create different rosters on each site. If you choose to only play on a single site, there’s usually a clear single best roster for that site’s game structure. However, if you spread your bets across multiple sites, the correct roster on one site may be different from another site. Spread the risk to reduce the bankroll variance.

So, how does this daily fantasy strategy work? Through the pricing system of the players which are a little different on each site. Some sites use an average season fantasy score, while others use a weighted dollar salary amount. The two different player pricing methods often make a fantasy player a good choice on one site, but not such a good choice on the other site. Many times you will have different rosters on each fantasy site, but both will be the optimum roster for that particular site’s pricing mechanism. So, if Kobe Bryant pulls up with a tweaked hamstring in the first three minutes of the game, you might get killed on one site, but your games on the other site will still be in good shape because you decided Kevin Durant was a better SF choice under that site’s particular pricing system.

While this won’t always save your day, it does help reduce risk and control huge swings in your bankroll. Good luck.

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Simply put: Collective intelligence. In collecting information on daily fantasy rankings, one should take the "wisdom of the crowd" to a new level by aggregating the daily fantasy rankings of the best fantasy football sites on the planet to analyze the rankings given to each player to produce a consensus ranking.


There is existing technology created to bring the wisdom of the crowd into a manageable environment. That’s what makes it so unique. Anyone can aggregate daily fantasy rankings and projections and then average them out. This is a results-oriented process for normalizing the rankings and projections. Weighing the rankings based upon past accurate information can give you an edge that your competition doesn't have.

There are sit/start rankings that provide a cumulative rank from expert projections around the Internet. If you've got a tough sit/start decision, check out the different sites’ daily fantasy rankings to see what the experts think.

The innovative draft rankings system provides a consensus ranking for overall draft rankings, as well as positional rankings. In theory, having 20 heads is better than 1. It's useful for seeing what the experts from the major fantasy websites are thinking and projecting. Your one ultimate source brings that collective intelligence into one location.

You should know how to compare rankings from sites such as NFL.com, ESPN.com, CBS Sportsline, FOX Sports, Fantasy Football Calculator, Bruno Boys, Fantasy Football Toolbox, Fantasy Sharks, and more to produce the Internet's best fantasy football rankings system.

We like to think that your collective knowledge does for fantasy football what automobiles with GPS can do for travel, but that's just our opinion. If you find this useful, help us spread the word to the fantasy sports world.

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First off, as with all kinds of fantasy sports, daily fantasy hockey requires a pretty good knowledge of the sport and the match-ups for the day. Just like any other sport, you should be drafting players that are facing weak competition or weak defenses. You also want to draft players that are "hot" and have been putting up solid numbers over the past few games.

Daily fantasy hockey gets unique in some of its scoring rules. The two most important are:

1. A Goalie Scores 20 for a Win

While hockey goalies do not usually score much more points than top skaters, they do get 20 huge fantasy bonus points for a win. Therefore, it’s rather important to have a goalie in your team that can get a win. This is like fantasy baseball wherein the pitcher also gets a bonus when he wins it for his team. However, with daily fantasy hockey, it is not always obvious who the starter for the game will be. So the key strategy is to have a goalie that is likely to get the win, and even more important, one who is very likely to start. For the likely winner, you can check online sportsbooks to find which teams are heavily favored. For the likely starter, this is a bit tougher. Obviously, teams who rarely rotate goalies are safer than teams with two strong goalies. Sometimes you will just need to do some research and find out who the planned starter is for the day. The bottom line is the 20 points are going to be important to your fantasy team’s success, so choose your goalie wisely, and don't be afraid to spend a few bucks here.

2. +/- Statistics Count as 5 Points

This is a very unique scoring rule for daily fantasy hockey. If your player is on the ice when their team scores, you get 5 points, and if they are on the ice when their opponent scores, you lose 5 points. So, you obviously would want players who do well in +/- situations. Many players do well on +/- situations in general, but that is reflected on their cap value. What you really want to know is how well they’ll do in the next game. Here is where you will want to have players from the day's winning teams. Since the winning team has scored more goals than the losing team, the winning team will have more "plus" stats than "minus" stats in general. You can again consult an online sportsbook to see who the most heavily favored teams are. And in general, draft players from those teams and not from teams expected to lose. Don't make the mistake of drafting a good fantasy hockey skater who is facing a tough match-up and whose team will likely lose. Their personal stats may not be able to overcome the minus stats that may come.

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