So I was in the locker room at my gym and two guys were talking about fantasy football and one asked the other if he was playing “that new daily thing?” “Yeah”, he replied, “but I suck at it. You playing?” His buddy said, “I did that millionaire thing last weekend but that’s about it.”

They continued to chat, mostly about their traditional fantasy league when one asked the other if he used another site than Yahoo to get his information. The guy sort of shrugged and said he pokes around but uses mainly Yahoo. It was apparent that’s the host of their league.

This is not intended as a slight to Yahoo – some of my favorite analysts in the industry work there. But I saw an opening and had to introduce myself.

“Hi, I’m Todd Zola, have you guys ever heard of Fantasy Alarm?”

Let’s fast forward a bit. They hadn’t heard of the site so I told them about it, especially all the stuff about DFS. Turns out one of the guys has been playing since Week 1 while the other only played last weekend. The guy playing all season said he was just about out of money in his account and if he didn’t win this weekend, he was done – he wasn’t having any fun and he wasn’t winning.

We chatted some more, I offered some tips to the bored guy to perhaps spice things up as well as some newbie advice to his pal. My guess is we’re at the point of the season where others may have similar feelings, perhaps not having much luck with DFS and on the verge of giving it up. As such, I thought I’d share some of the advice I gave to my new gym buddies.

MIX THINGS UP, TRY NEW GAMES, TRY NEW SITES

Each DFS site has unique roster requirements, scoring and pricing. It’s not unusual to discover that you have more success with a particular format. Maybe it’s one or two quarterbacks. Maybe it’s with or without a flex. It’s not a one-size-fits-all scenario. Your skills and interests may sync up better with one site more than the others.

VARY THE TIME FRAME

Given that most of the big-money tourneys start with kickoff Sunday and use all the games through Monday night, playing some contests that are early Sunday, late Sunday or prime-time only can help alleviate the issue of sorting through so many choices or having to guess on the status of a questionable player in one of the later starts.

WIN TICKETS TO THE BIG MONEY TOURNEYS

Most of the six and seven digit first place winnings come from a tourney with a fairly hefty buy-in fee. Your $100 deposit to Draft Kings can disappear quickly if you primarily enter the Millionaire Money-Maker contests. There are often satellite tourneys that have a nominal fee where the prize is a ticket to the big-entry tourney. While this is purely anecdotal, the quality of those joining these satellites isn’t as strong as some of the other contests. You can even enter a satellite in something other than the NFL (gold, soccer, hockey, college football and soon basketball) with the prize being a ticket to the big-money tourney.

CHALLENGE FRIENDS

I’ll spare the “50/50 and double-up” rhetoric as that is espoused ad nauseum. However, I’d like to circle back to part of the conversation I had in the locker room as a means to sell the idea of playing friends one-on-one.

One of the comments was DFS wasn’t fun. After sharing the above 50/50 and double-up rhetoric, I then suggested an alternative means to liven things up that the guys play each other head-to-head but with a catch. Instead of playing for money, choose the $1 entry fee game and come up with a side-bet. Perhaps one carries the other’s gym bag for the following week or the loser has to wear a t-shirt of the winner’s choosing during a workout.

At this point, the guy that only played once had a smirk on his face. His friend asked why and let’s just put it this way. The guy said his wife has been bugging him about her wanting to play “that football thing” but he really didn’t want her in his league. He also said there’s been something missing from their relationship since their nuptials. The implication was he’d challenge her and if he didn’t blow it and did a good job picking his team, the ending of the week would be happy.

His pal laughed and asked what he would have to do if he lost. The guy cunningly orated he has something in mind but was pretty sure it wouldn’t come to that. But just in case, he would go down…fighting.