Daily Fantasy Focus Shifts to Basketball

For the last few months, fantasy players have been primarily focused on the National Football League. While that might be a breath of fresh air for some, who juggle grinding multiple sports, the fantasy options heading into this weekend’s NFL playoff games are certainly less than your normal Sunday.

The National Basketball Association is here to fill the void. While millions of dollars are up for grabs on one day of the week during NFL play, that shifts to a nightly basis with the NBA. So, what do you need to know to have a successful transition heading into the full-time NBA season?

Seven Days a Week

If you are strictly an NFL fantasy player, you can get away with keeping tabs on player news and trends during the week and then dive in head first at the start of the weekend. By Sunday morning, before the early slate kicks off, it’s all hands on deck but with basketball, it’s, literally 24/7. Breaking news happens daily, sometimes hourly, and with big prize pools up for grabs every night on DraftKings and FanDuel, players need to dedicate more time and effort than they would for successful NFL play.

Less Variance

Sure, there are going to be one-game anomalies, and Jeremy Lin-esque runs over the course of a season. But compared to NFL daily fantasy play, NBA scoring, and roster construction contains far less variance. Part of the reason being, there is a bigger sample size of statistics to draw from, giving you more information to work with. The other big name players are less likely to completely kill your lineup in basketball, opposed to the weekly goose egg that NFL players are sometimes guilty of.

Jacks of All Trades

It’s safe to say that when you plug any quarterback into your NFL lineup, you aren’t banking on many points from stats outside Passing TDs and Passing Yards. The same can be said for a lot of NFL players, as most positional distinctions subject players to only accumulating points for their given position. There are a few NFL unicorns but their much more available and necessary in NBA play. Each player should be able to dip into every stat category every night, with ‘one trick ponies’ having much less value.

All daily fantasy sports are not the created equally, so be sure to make sure you have the right strategy for the right sport to make sure you are successful this season.