When I sometimes hear casual DFS players complaining about an inability to win the Draftkings NFL Milly Maker I can’t help but wonder if these individuals understand basic DFS strategy. In my opinion, casual DFS players that make these types of comments are not recognizing that contest selection is vital to overall long-term financial success on Draftkings or any DFS platform for that matter.

After all, winning the Milly Maker is very hard to do. Wouldn’t it make more sense for a casual DFS player to compete in a contest that has more of a chance at a return on your investment?

Contests like the Milly Maker are for the sharpest players in the world so let’s take a look at Draftkings contests that I believe are better suited for a casual DFS player.  

In my opinion, the two best contests for casual players to play on Draftkings are the Quarter Jukebox (20 entry max) and the Dime Package (20 entry max). Why? Well, the answer is simple. The casual DFS player will have a much better chance to profit in these contests than they would playing the Milly Maker. The reason for that is the prize pools are smaller which keeps the sharpest DFS players in the world away. In summary, I think all casual DFS players should stick to small stakes contests if they want to succeed.

Now that we have a basic understanding of the importance of DFS contest selection, let's shift our focus to lineup construction for a specific Draftkings NFL Showdown (single game) contest using the ASL optimizer.

Let's review the rules for the Draftkings Showdown (single game) contest, which are rather simple. You have $50,000 to utilize on five players from either team. However, one of those players will be designated as your team captain. The captain accumulates 1.5 times the standard fantasy points value. The captain also costs 1.5 times the cost of that player at the flex position. The remaining four players in your lineup will receive the standard Draftkings points value.

The importance of captain selection cannot be overstated.

Now that we have reviewed the rules for the Draftkings NFL Showdown (single game) contest let's evaluate a specific Draftkings NFL Showdown contest featuring the Los Angeles Rams and the New Orleans Saints. In the image below you will see the main screen of the ASL optimizer.

The first step in my process will be identifying potential captain candidates.

The New Orleans Saints enter this contest with the Los Angeles Rams on the heels of two consecutive wins. However, those wins were against the two teams in the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers that are trending in the wrong direction. Frankly, the Giants and Panthers are two of worst offensive teams in the NFL.

This week, the Saints will be facing a Los Angeles Rams team that is far more efficient on offense than the lowly Saints and Panthers. Having stated that, my focus at captain for this single game slate will be Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford. I like his chances of success as this Saints team has not faced an offense of this caliber this season.

For this week, I utilized the Set Pro Tabs tool on the ASL optimizer in a way that exposed my lineups to at least 40% of Matthew Stafford at captain. I also used the tool to ensure I had appropriate exposure to other relevant Los Angeles Rams skill players (WR, TE, RB).

Lastly, now that I have entered the data, I request the optimizer to provide 10 lineups. The ASL optimizer allows you to enter a large number of lineups (up to 150) at one time with ease via a CSV.

For clarity, the contest I selected was a 20 entry maximum Draftkings 5K Dime Package contest. First prize was $100. In total, I spent only $1.00 to enter and won a total of $3.00 back. The image below shows the Draftkings scattergram of my results:

As shown below, my best lineup finished 183rd out of a whopping 59,453 entries.

My pregame view of the game script was rather sharp. Matthew Stafford torched the Saints secondary as I anticipated. The ASL optimizer assisted me in constructing a lineup that almost took down this very large GPP (guaranteed prize pool) contest.

In conclusion, always remember that you don’t need to play contests like the Milly Maker to have fun playing DFS. I highly recommend that all DFS players keep an eye on contest structures, etc. before entering any Draftkings contest. I think doing so will lead to a much better overall experience. Until next time, continued good luck!