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 two paylines for some top contests.

FanDuel:

NFL Sunday Big Double Up:  $5 entry fee, top 10,000 win

https://www.fanduel.com/games/20918/contests/20918-211130074/scoring

The winning lineup scored 170.98 points, with the pay line at 121.78.  

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 142.48 points.  

News and Notes:  All scoring numbers were up this week from week one Bell and Johnson struggles across all formats.  The winning lineup did have Ezekiel Elliott, who was only 3.5% owned, but made up for it in plenty of other spots.  The cash line score had four players with ownership above the 60% mark, and seven of their nine roster spots at over 40% owned.  Ty Montgomery led the way at 74.9%, with Julio Jones right up there at 73.9%.  Melvin Gordon completed the RB combo pairing at a 67.2% ownership.  While Zeke only hurt 3.5% of entries, Larry Fitzgerald’s 3.6 points was a dagger on 61.3% of lineups.

Although this contest paid out the top 10,000 entries, 664 entries tied for the last winning spot, providing them $4.77 instead of the $10 payout.

$3 million dollar NFL Sunday Million:  447,610 entries

https://www.fanduel.com/games/20918/contests/20918-211129994/entries/1265988411/scoring?entry=1265988411

The winning lineup scored 192.18 points, with the pay line at 120.12.

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 110.76 points.

News and Notes:  The winning lineup went with a Tom Brady, Chris Hogan, and Rob Gronkowski combo, while adding 49 points with a Sunday night Devonta Freeman and Ty Montgomery RB pairing.  The Ravens defense joined Montgomery as the popular options in this large field, with the Ravens at 28.2%, and Montgomery at 28.7%.  

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 177.72 points, with the cash line at 121.88.  Julio Jones joined Ty and Baltimore at over 30% owned in this tourney.  

DraftKings:  

NFL Sunday Massive Double Up:  $5 entry fee.  34,482 entries, top 15,000 win.

https://www.draftkings.com/contest/gamecenter/44375178

The winning lineup scored 215.08 points, with the pay line at 153.18

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 163.08 points.

News and Notes:  With the sites not pricing all players at the same value, different ownership levels will occur between the sites.  The exception in week two may have been Ty Montgomery.  He made 74.82% of lineups in this contest.  The tight end position came down to Coby Fleener, who was the second highest overall player rostered in this contest at 64.04%.  Charles Clay was the second highest tight end taken, far behind at 12.09%.  Tarki Cohen jumped from five lineups in this larger week one field, to 5,984 lineups this week.  The only other two players at over 50% ownership was the Chargers combo of Melvin Gordon and Keenan Allen, who checked in at 59.41% and 57.90%.

Looking at the $5, 20 entry max double up, the pay line was slightly lower at 147.78points.  

Jobbers  Three users this week took David Johnson with Willie Snead and Allen Robinson checking in on two lineups.  It was a nail biter, but they tied with Josh Gordon, Doug Martin, and Jimmy Garoppolo, who each found themselves on one lineup.
 

NFL $5 MM Fantasy Football Millionaire Maker:  275,753 entries.

https://www.draftkings.com/contest/gamecenter/44339626

The winning lineup scored 229.08, with the pay line at 145.02.

The FantasyAlarm Optimal Lineup scored 141.18 points.

News and Notes: A single bullet entry came in both first and second in this contest!

This contest featured a smaller prize pool than week one, but had more entries with less overlay this week.   

For those that have been in the industry for a while, CONDIA finished right behind the two single entries in third place.  He had 150 lineups, and 38 was the most exposure he had to any one player.  

The winning lineup used the most popular player in the field, Ty Montgomery (37.35%), but made their move with CJ Anderson’s 33.4 and Jermaine Kearse’s 22.4 fantasy point totals.  They checked in at 4.5% and 1.1% owned. Similar to FD, the Brady, Gronk, and Hogan combo was on the second place finisher’s team.  Coby Fleener sat at 20.85%, meaning this is where many gpp players faded away from the popular cash option.  They instead loved the Patriots, as they had four players in the top 14 owned in this field.  

The large $3 buy in contest had 627,450  entries, with a similar pay line at 139.38.  The winning score was also slightly lower at  224.18.  

Should CONDIA be upset at his third place finish in the millionaire maker?  I highly doubt it.  He killed it on DK this past Sunday.  He won six of their nine championship qualifiers, while also winning ten other gpp’s, ranging in entry fee from $1 to $5,300.  

FantasyDraft:

FantasyDraft took their Run & Gun down from $250K to a $200K prize pool.  They improved from last week, but it still came up at roughly 84% filled.    Their Carolina Million qualifier jumped to a $111 entry fee cost, and filled only 621 of their 968 spots.  The week three qualifier jumps to a $222 entry fee.