The 2023 season was exciting from a DFS perspective. I committed to becoming a more “serious player” and being seven points away from a 15k prize on DK during week 13 was one of the top highlights. Consistently winning in DFS and fantasy sports in general requires continuous improvement.
Without further ado, here are my takeaways from the 2023 season:
- Contest selection is crucial. Be sure to read up on this topic before next season if you aren’t winning as much as you’d like.
- Rigidity will hurt you – I used to force certain strategies, such as always having a bringback for a stack, even if the bringback wasn’t ideal. I used to also force picking home-field running backs. Guidelines for success are just that – they are not rules that must be adhered to in order to win. If it makes sense, play the QB naked, don’t force stacks, and play the road RB!
- The size of your player pool will vary week-to-week depending on the slate.
- Success starts with picking games over players – if you really like certain game environments, be sure to get exposure to multiple players from those games.
- Don’t play cash games and GPP’s too conservatively: I routinely made this mistake in 2023 and fared much better in 20+ entry GPPs than in any other format because of this.
- Take caution when analyzing how offenses fare vs man/zone coverage: remember, coaches make gameplans based on this data.
- This is anecdotal, but I find the predictive nature of advanced stats to be much more reliable for baseball as opposed to football. This topic could become an entire article, so I’ll leave it at that.
- Don’t be a contrarian just for the sake of being a contrarian – sometimes chalky lineups win big. Pick your battles wisely.
- Don’t panic over weather forecasts, unless it’s REALLY bad
I upped my game in 2023 and hope to use this foundation for greater success in 2024. Thanks for reading!