Advice for Getting Started With Daily Fantasy Hockey

Fantasy football and baseball are hugely popular, but fantasy
hockey is gaining steam. One great way to play is to participate
in daily fantasy hockey leagues online.

The daily version of the hobby has multiple advantages over
the season long version. The most important advantage is the
rapidity with which you get your results and your winnings.
You’d be hard-pressed to make a living playing season-long
fantasy hockey, but the daily version of the sport offers a real
chance at winning plenty of money over time.

Does that sound intriguing?

If so, read on, as the rest of this page provides specific
advice for getting started.

Scoring in Daily Fantasy Hockey

In all fantasy sports, including hockey, you recruit a lineup
of your favorite players. Their results in the day’s games
determine your score. Your opponents do the same. The rules for
scoring vary from league to league and from site to site, but
they’re essentially the same in the daily version of the game as
they are in the season-long variety.

Let’s take a look at how the scoring works at one of the most
popular sites for daily fantasy hockey. Their scoring rules are
both simple and illustrative of how it all works.

Outfield Players

You get points when any of your forwards or defensemen
accomplish any of the following during their game.

• Goals are worth 3 points.
• Assists are worth 2 points.
• Plus/Minus is worth 1 point.
• Penalty Minutes are worth 0.25 points.
• Powerplay Points are scored at 0.5 points.
• Shots on goal are worth 0.4 points.

Goaltenders

Goalies have a more limited number of ways to score points,
but they’re important.

• A win is worth 3 points.
• Goals against are worth -1 point each.
• Saves are worth 0.2 points.
• Shutouts are worth 2 points.

Some of the other big sites in this niche use scoring systems
that are almost exactly the same as this, while others use
different systems. When you get started at a site, the first
thing to do is review the scoring system for that site
carefully. You can’t win a game of any kind if you don’t know
how to keep score. Daily fantasy hockey is no exception.

Setting Your Lineup

Different sites also have different rules for how many
players and in what positions you can have for a lineup. For
example, the roster positions at one popular site are as
follows.

• 3 x Wings
• 2 x Centers
• 2 x Defensemen
• 1 x Utility
• 1 x Goaltender

Here you can use right wings or left wings to fill the wing
spots. The utility spot can be filled with any skater, although
you cannot use a goalie.

Another site uses the following positions for lineups.

• 2 x Left Wings
• 2 x Right Wings
• 2 x Centers
• 2 x Defensemen
• 1 x Goaltender

The differences in the positions you have to fill at a site
will have some impact on how you go about selecting your team,
so it’s important to be aware of them.

It’s also worth noting a major difference between the season
long version of fantasy hockey and the daily version is how the
draft is handled. In a season-long draft, league managers choose
players one at a time. Once a player is chosen by someone, he is
no longer available to the other players.

In a daily fantasy league, it’s possible to not only have the
same player as your opponent, it’s possible to have the same
lineup. You won’t see your opponent’s lineup until the game
starts, but it’s important to realize there might be overlap
between your team and your opponent’s team.

Salary Caps & The Concept of Value

One might think that everyone would just choose all the best
players for their lineup, and everyone would have the same
lineup, and it would be a big waste of time. But to make up for
being able to draft the same players as your opponent, the sites
have instituted a salary cap structure.

A salary cap works as follows.

• You’re given a budget of in-game funds to use to recruit players.
• It’s an arbitrary amount; it might be $50,000 on one site and $35,000 at another.
• You always have the same amount of draft dollars as your opponent.
• The buy-in for the contest is irrelevant to the salary cap.

Think of draft dollars as being the equivalent of the money
in the game Monopoly. It has no real-world-value, but you can’t
play or win the game without it.

The sites also set a salary value for each player. This
amount is determined by an algorithm known only to the site, but
it takes into account each player’s previous performances as
well as his projected performance.

Determining a player’s actual value is a simple equation. You
just divide the amount of money spent on the player by the
number of points he earns. Then you have a dollar amount that
you’ve spent per point.

Here’s an example:

• You recruit a player for $10,000. That player scores ten points. Each point
  cost $1,000.
• You recruit another player for $5,000. He also scores ten points. Each point
  cost $500.

You can and should also look at your entire lineup’s value.
If a team as a whole scored 100 points, and you spent $50,000 on
the entire team, then you spent $500 per point. If your
opponent’s team scored 200 points, then he only spent $250 per
point.

Projecting points versus cost is the heart of your strategic
consideration. In board games, this is called resource
management. It’s an interesting wrinkle, and it’s what makes
playing daily fantasy hockey so much fun.

Our recommendation is to start with affordable contests and
track your results per player and overall. Set a goal of
lowering the amount of draft dollars you spend per point on a
per player basis and on an overall basis. When and if you can
consistently achieve better results week after week, you’ll be
well on your way to being a winning player.

Free Contests To Get Started With

All of the major sites offer free fantasy hockey contests at
least once a week—sometimes more. These are contests with cash
prizes that require no entry fee. We always recommend taking
advantage of these free contests. For one thing, they’re a
positive expectation bet. For another, you can learn how to play
and possibly win real cash without having to risk any money.

You’ll also find contests with low buy-ins. Most sites have
contests starting at just a dollar. We don’t know of any
opportunity in a season-long league to get into action for just
a buck.

If you’re nervous about how much it’s going to cost to
participate in this hobby, stick with the freerolls and the low
buy-in contests until you’re confident that you can win a
reasonable amount of the time. Your break-even percentage will
vary based on what kinds of contests you want to participate in.

Fantasy Hockey Contest Types

You can broadly divide daily fantasy hockey contests into two
larger segments:

• Cash games
• Tournaments

Daily Fantasy Cash Games

Cash games are games where you can almost double your money
if you win, and there’s a roughly 50% chance of winning. There
are two main categories of cash games; head to head contests and
50/50 contests.

The only real difference between these types of cash games is
the number of players. A head to head (H2H) contest only has two
players. The winner of such a contest wins the whole prize pool.
A 50/50 contest, on the other hand, might have 20 or 100 or some
other even number of entrants. The players with scores landing
in the top 50% of the field win, regardless of their exact
place. The rest of the players lose, regardless of their exact
place.

All daily fantasy sites keep a commission in exchange for
hosting these contests. This reduces the amount of money
available in the prize pool.

Here’s an example of how that works:

• You enter a H2H contest with a $1 entry fee.
• Your opponent also paid a $1 entry fee.
• The total of entry fees is $2.
• The site takes a 10% commission of $.20.
• The prize for the winner is $1.80.

Here’s another example:

• You enter a 50/50 contest with 100 participants.
• Everyone paid $1 to play.
• There’s $100 in entry fees.
• The site takes a 10% commission of $10.
• That leaves $90 in the prize pool.
• The top 50 each win the same amount, $1.80.

This commission has a dramatic effect on what percentage of
contests you have to win in order to break even. In cash games,
the break-even percentage is 55.56%. Win less often, and you’ll
be a net loser in the long run. On the other hand, win more
often, and you’ll be a net winner in the long run.

Daily Fantasy Tournaments

By contrast, tournaments offer you the opportunity to win a
large return on your initial investment, but you also face a
greater risk. The site keeps a commission, but the prize pool is
usually divided between the top 20% or so of the field. And
tournaments, of course, always have more than two
players—usually a lot more.

Here’s an example of how a tournament might work:

• You pay $100 to play in a tournament with 2777 players.
• The prize pool for this contest is $250,000.
• The site collects $277,700 in entry fees, and keeps
  $27,700 in commission.
• Anyone who places in the top 500 of this contest wins
  something.
• The amount won is determined by how you place:
• 1st place – $30,000
• 2nd place – $20,000
• 3rd place – $15,000
• 4th place – $10,000
• 5th place – $7,500
• 6th place – $5,000
• 7th & 8th place – $4,000
• 9th – 11th place – $3,000
• 12th – 15th place – $2,000
• 16th – 21st place – $1,500
• 22nd – 27th place – $1,000
• 28th – 35th place – $750
• 36th – 50th place – $500
• 51st – 80th place – $400
• 81st – 150th place – $300
• 151st  270th place – $250
• 271st – 500th place – $200

As you can see, your potential return on investment in this
sort of contest is dramatically higher. Win first place, and you
earn $30,000 on a $100 buy-in, which is a profit of $29,900.

Many tournaments at daily fantasy hockey sites offer a
guaranteed prize pool. In this case, the site pays the agreed
upon prize structure even if the contest doesn’t fill. In the
above example, if it were a GPP (guaranteed prize pool)
tournament, you’d have the same payouts even if only 2,000 or
1,000 players entered.

The extra money paid out would come from the site itself.
This situation is called an overlay, and it’s something you
should take advantage of every chance you get. The extra money
that the site contributes is dead money, and it increases the
expected return on the contest.

Most players participate in both cash games and in
tournaments. The cash games provide a steady return, but the
potentially large return for the tournaments is something most
players can’t walk away from.

Think of the two contest types as being different investment
types. Most financial advisors suggest keeping a percentage of
your savings in bonds, which are a safe investment with a low
return, and a percentage in stocks, which are riskier but
provide a potentially higher return. That way you preserve your
capital while also achieving better than average returns.

Bankroll Management

If you’re a losing player over the long run, you’ll
eventually go broke no matter how well you manage your bankroll.
There’s nothing wrong with being a hobbyist who loses over the
long run, by the way. But if that’s you, your goal when managing
your bankroll is to have as much fun as possible.

On the other hand, if you’re a winning player, avoid putting
so much money into action that you run the risk of going broke
before your long term edge over the other players kicks in.

For example, let’s say you have a bankroll of $1,000. You
enter a heads-up contest with a $1,000 buy-in. Your opponent
isn’t as good as you, but you still estimate that you have a 40%
chance of losing. If you win, you’re up to $1,800, which is
great. But if you lose, you’re out of action until you put
together a new bankroll.

On the other hand, if you took that $1,000 and played in a
hundred contests with a $10 buy-in, you’ll be unlikely to have
$1,800 afterward, but you’ll be dramatically less likely to go
broke, too.

Assuming again that you can win 60% of these contests, you’ll
wind up with $1,080 when it’s all said and done. That’s not as
exciting as the $1,800, but you don’t have to worry about
whether or not you can play tomorrow.

And if you can achieve that kind of return every day, your
bankroll will grow larger more rapidly than you think. That’s
because you can reinvest your winnings into more contests.

Here’s how that looks.

• Day 2 – Take the $1,080 and enter 108 contests. Win 60%
  of those. The bankroll is now $1,166.40.
• Day 3 – Enter 116 contests. Win 60% of those and wind up
  with $1,252.80.
• Day 4 –Enter 125 contests. Wind up with about $1,350.
• Day 5 – Enter 135 contests. Wind up with about $1,458.
• Day 6 – 145 contests. Ending bankroll = $1,566.
• Day 7 – 156 contests. Ending bankroll = $1,684.

So yeah, winning $80 on a $1,000 investment doesn’t seem like
a big deal, but keep reinvesting those returns in additional
contests. Maintain your winning percentage, and compound
interest takes over, and soon you’re winning $684 a week.

The trick is to only risk between 1% and 2.5% of your
bankroll on buy-ins each week. Even if you have bad luck one
week, over time, you’ll be less likely to go broke, and your
odds of going broke are almost none.