Yahoo Bankroll Challenge, Week 18: I Love MLB

For more information on the Yahoo Bankroll Challenge and to read the recap from each week, click here.

It’s been a couple of weeks since the last Bankroll Challenge update, as there was little to report in Weeks 15-16 and Week 17 was a bit hectic in “other DFS” news as I was competing for the DraftKings Fantasy Hockey World Championship and DraftKings UFC Knockout King finals. 

Not that I needed the extra time to prepare for those finals, apparently, as I’ll probably make more money on Yahoo this month than I did in my abysmal showings in those DK contests. We move on.

Now in Week 18, I’ve crossed my next bankroll tier -- above $50 -- and my Yahoo balance now sits at the highest it’s ever been: $67.05. We still have a long way to go to hit the $10K goal, but taking a step back, it is seriously impressive to go from $0 to $67 in any time frame, let alone four months. 

As discussed in previous recaps, MLB is one of my highest ROI sports, and I knew I could really get things going on Yahoo once Opening Day rolled around. Well, I was right, and my edge is apparent so far -- I’ve exclusively played 3-max 100 player leagues where 20 percent of the field cashes and I’ve finished in the money on a whopping 39 percent of my entries through the first month of the MLB season. 

Here’s where we sit after 18 weeks:

Week 14 starting $ balance: $35.85
Week 18 ending $ balance: $67.05
Week 14 starting YSRP balance: 177
Week 18 ending YSRP balance: 284

Here are some of the strategies I used this week with advice on how to implement them on other DFS sites:

Strategy #1: Playing multiple slates to maximize an edge

It quickly became apparent that I had a huge edge in the “No Veterans” MLB contests on Yahoo after the first week or two. I wasn’t going to increase my play yet because any natural variance could still bankrupt me, but I began plotting my next moves for when my bankroll crossed the $50 threshold. 

There were a couple contest options to add onto my wildly profitable No Veterans $1 3-max 100 player league: 1) Add entries to the $2 3-max 100 player league (open to ALL players, not just No Veterans), 2) Add one $5 single-entry 23-man No Veterans contest, or 3) Play the No Veterans $1 3-max 100 player league for other slates. 

On Yahoo, you’re allowed to play No Veterans contests until you reach 1,000 total contests played, which I’m still not close to hitting. Given the experience gap, I have to continue hammering them, and playing any regular contests is unnecessarily giving away an easy edge in the first half of this challenge. So Option 1 was off the table. 

Option 2 gave me an added No Veterans contest, but it was far too costly. With a bankroll of $50, risking 10% of my roll on a single lineup every night was out of the question, especially since my success mostly comes from playing three lineups with the idea of one popping off. Picking a single lineup for a large fraction of my bankroll certainly wasn’t ideal.

This left me with Option 3, which is what I’ve chosen after entering the $50 bankroll tier. In order to maximize my edge in No Veterans contests -- and 3-max contests -- I’ve begun adding non-main slates to my allocation. So I’ve continued to play the 3-max 100-player on the main slate while also adding the 3-max 100-player on any subset slates (Late, Early, etc.). This way, I’m able to compound my ROI much more quickly without taking on much more risk since each slate is slightly different, even if it’s on the same day. 

How to implement this on FanDuel or DraftKings: If you find a sport/contest type where you’re profitable, look for ways to maximize that edge. Often, this means adding non-main slates to your allocation (Sunday afternoon NFL showdowns, MLB late slates, etc.), but there are certainly other creative ways to increase the frequency of your proven edge.

Week 18’s Pivotal Moment

On both May 3 and May 5, I won the 100-player league (while also cashing a second lineup) for $20 total profit. I legit doubled my bankroll in roughly three weeks. 

Next Steps

When can I get to triple digits? There’s no doubt that I will spend a loooooong time in the two, three, and four figure bankroll range, as it takes discipline to grind up a bankroll. We’re still not at my $100 goal during MLB season, but we’re close. After that hits, the next goal will be $1K for the start of the NFL season, where I have confidence I can 10X my roll to complete the challenge by the end of the calendar year. Until then, I’ll continue monitoring and maximizing my edges to accelerate the process.

For any questions about the bankroll challenge, hit up Brian on Twitter. For more information on bankroll management, contest selection, and long-term DFS strategy, read our flagship e-book, The Ultimate Guide.