When looking to improve your daily fantasy sports game, solid assessment is just as important as the lineup building process and research.  It is easy to use the terms blasted off, or stinks, to describe how a lineup performed,  but the key is understanding why.  My goal when building a lineup is to have a valid explanation on how it was constructed, and how it will win.  I continue to urge everyone that if unsure about why you see or not see a player recommended, that you ask why.  After the slate is completed, it is always best to go back and re-assess how it performed. This strategy works for not just your lineups, but others as well.  Below is a look at the NFL week one paylines for some top contests.

FanDuel

NFL Sunday Big Double Up:  $2 entry fee, top 20,000 win 

https://www.fanduel.com/games/20431/contests/20431-210593642/entries/1259490434/scoring?entry=1259916412

The winning lineup scored 156.94 points, with the pay line at 104.56.  

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 112.06 points.  

News and Notes:  David Johnson and Le'Veon Bell dominated the ownership, with DJ at 65.8%, and Bell at 72.8%.  The winning lineup went with the popular second option combo of Todd Gurley and LeSean McCoy.  Gurley was 18.8%, with McCoy at 17.8% owned.  That combo outscored the top two RB’s by a 36.5-16.3 point total.

Although this contest paid out the top 20,000 entries, the cash line sat at 17,380th place.  Those 3,349 entries that used the exact same lineup finished with $3.13 over the $4.00 payout.

Looking at a higher buy-in level, the $25 double up only had 5,962 entries, with the top 3,000 being paid.  That same 104.56 lineup did not set the pay line, as it dropped slightly 101 points.  This could be due to only 100 plus of that 104.56 lineup, over the 3,000 plus entries in the $2 double up, as well as the contest not filling.

$4 million dollar NFL Sunday Million:  560,253 entries

https://www.fanduel.com/games/20431/contests/20431-210593591/scoring

The winning lineup scored 173.18 points, with the pay line at 106.22.

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 108.62 points.

News and Notes:  Johnson and Bell were less owned in the large gpp, sitting at 26.4% for Johnson, and 30.2% for Bell.  The winning lineup of course used the McCoy and Gurley combo, with both being owned at a higher level than in the double ups.  Gurley was at 22.4%, and McCoy at 19.1%.  

A smaller gpp contest, the $100,000 NFL Spike, was a single entry, $5 buy in contest with 23,529 entries.  The top score was 164.98 points, with the cash line at 110.04.

DraftKings

NFL Sunday Massive Double Up:  $5 entry fee.  52,667 entries, top 25,000 win.

https://www.draftkings.com/contest/gamecenter//43233741

The winning lineup scored 182.98 points, with the pay line at 126.48.

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 97.96 points. 

News and Notes:  Zach Ertz was the highest owned player at 80.3%, with Kendall Wright coming in next at 59.54%.  The max entry for this contest was 150 entries, and 91 users entered the max 150 entries.  Those 91 users accounted for 25.9% of all entries in this contest.  The players that were 7th-10th in ownership may surprise some.  The Rams were on 46.30% of lineups, with Carlos Hyde on 41.23%.  Rounding out the top ten were Carson Wentz and Brandon Marshall at 33.91 and 27.57%.

Looking at the $5, 20 entry max double up, the pay line was very similar at 126.02 points.  313 users entered the max 20 lineups, resulting in 30.95% of the 20,255 entries.  

Jobbers  Even with plenty of notice, and it highlighted all over the place, there were 29 lineups that used Jay Ajayi, and seven with Doug Martin.  By comparison, Tarik Cohen was in only five lineups.  

NFL $5.5MM Fantasy Football Millionaire Maker:  273,413 entries.

https://www.draftkings.com/contest/gamecenter//43229171

The winning lineup scored 198.88, with the pay line at 126.14.

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 136.42 points.

News and Notes:  Ertz lead the field for ownership again in this contest, but at only 41.01%.  Gurley, Johnson, Bell, and Baldwin round out the top five.  The surprise was Christian McCaffrey, who cracked the top ten at 19.16%, on just 30 lineups less than McCoy.    The winning user had Tarik Cohen, who was only on 413 lineups.  Overall he entered 22 lineups, cashing in six of them.  19,466th was his second best placing though.  

A total of 237 users went with the max 150 lineups for this contest.  If fully buying in at the $20 entry fee, those users spent $3,750 each.  Three of those users each finished with one entry in the top 50, with 26th place paying out $3,500.  Users that finished in 2nd, 4th, and 6th entered a combined four entries.

The large $3 buy in contest had 738,261 entries, with a similar pay line at 126.12.  The winning score topped 200 points to finish at 202.88.  That was the highest winning score for any contest outside of the quarter arcade.  How many lineups did the winning user enter?  One!  Only three of the top 25 finishers entered the max 20 lineups for this contest.

Jobbers: For the $3 buy in contest, 1,669 and 1,650 users thought that Evans and Landry still had a shot to score some fantasy points. 2,010 went Ajayi.   By comparison, 1,163 went with Cohen, just 253 more users than those Bears fans thinking Cam Meredith would be in the game.

FantasyDraft

FantasyDraft took a massive hit in their quest to provide users with an alternative to the top two sites this season.  The rolled out a $250,000 prize pool at a $25 buy in came up 2,953 entries short of filling.  That equalled a $73,825 overlay loss. Their Carolina Million qualifier took a $42,680 overlay hit as well.  The week two qualifier jumps up to a $111 buy in, and the run & gun drops to still a large $200,000 prize pool.

Yahoo

Yahoo came up shorter than FantasyDraft in their attempt for market share.  They offered at $300,000 gpp at a $10 buy in level, and filled 15,515 out of a potential 34,091 entries.  Yahoo took a $185,760 loss.  They adjusted this week’s gpp to $150,000 guaranteed.