Fresh out of college, I landed my first job working as an analyst at a large firm that handled actuarial services for a number of defined benefit plans.
I know, real riveting stuff. But I loved it.
Nothing but numbers and spreadsheets and building Excel calculators all day. It was preparing me for DFS before I even knew what DFS was. But I soon realized why the firm’s demographics were skewed very young – if I had to guess, over 90% of the employees working there were in their early to mid-twenties.
They had – in their own opinion at least – figured out the perfect formula for success: hire fresh-faced colleges kids eager to make it in the “real world,” work them as many hours as is possible, and then let them walk.
Rinse and repeat.
Now, it wasn’t as if we were digging ditches or performing manual labor all day long, but burnout was a real issue and a common occurrence at this firm. And particularly for those that had a spouse and/or kids at home. The balancing act was just too much for the majority and many would be gone before ever seeing their second anniversary.
Not long after I hit my first anniversary with the company, I felt it happening.
I was hitting a wall. And hard.
Those free dinners provided at the office as an incentive for us to work late no longer seemed as appealing when they meant missing out on time with my fiance. And while I still loved the actual work, I was struggling with finding a balance between having any semblance of a life outside the office and maintaining the quality of work I wanted to be known for.
Lucky for me, one of the more senior members at the firm took notice of my mounting frustrations and pulled me aside one day. His advice was simple – find the laziest person in the office that is still managing to produce quality work, and study them.
The idea seemed so profound at the moment, that it stuck. Had I been a bit older and slightly more cynical, I would have realized that the advice was an incredibly common adage and something he obviously ripped off from someone else, but hey, in the moment, the guy really seemed to know what he was talking about.
And it wasn’t tough to pinpoint the person to which the senior associate was likely alluding.
John had been at the firm for almost a decade, yet had never really climbed the corporate ladder. That wasn’t to say that he wasn’t good at his job, but he had no real interest in managing other people or taking on added responsibilities.
He was efficient with his work and managed to get more done in an eight hour day than many of us were doing in 10-11 hours. He had a family and was bound and determined to be home for dinner every night. Maybe not something that everyone in that corporate climate understood or cared for, but looking back, it’s something I can certainly admire and strive for myself these days.
What I learned from working with John over time was that he was he wasn’t actually lazy. People perceived him as being lazy because he took an actual lunch break and left on time every evening. But in reality, he was just so well organized and better at his job than those around him, that he made things look easy.
Watching him work was a thing of wonder for a twenty-something like myself that assumed he could conquer the world one pivot table at a time. The idea that someone other than a member of the IT staff could (gasp!) actually code and build out processes was a revelation to me.
He had more scheduled queries and processes running on auto-pilot than I could ever imagine. If there was a way for him to automate something, he did it. If there was any portion of a process that wasn’t as efficient as it could be, he took swift action in correcting it. Essentially, by creating efficiencies and optimizing the technology available to him, he could not only work faster than those around him, but he was also putting out higher quality work. The time savings he had afforded himself by automating processes had allowed him to add an additional layer of review to every piece of work he put out.
In essence, John had identified the individual aspects of his life that he deemed important – his job, being home for dinner each night, and spending time with his family – and structured the way that he functioned around them. His ability to be organized and attentive allowed him the opportunity to succeed in multiple areas of life, all while having the added bonus of not being stressed out at all times (to the point that people actually assumed him to be lazy!).
The lessons I learned from him have certainly helped shape much of what I do not only at work, but in how I manage my life. Creating effective processes and efficiencies are musts for me and also things I believe are requirements for any DFS player attempting to play multiple sports concurrently.
With that said, let’s take a look at what we need to do to succeed while taking on NBA and MLB DFS at the same time.
The Checklist
Before MLB DFS gets going, there are a few things every DFS player contemplating playing both NBA and MLB together should consider.
Schedule: You need to be real with yourself on this point. How much time do you have to devote to DFS as a whole and how much time do you want to allocate to each individual sport. Do you want to spend an equal amount of time on each sport every day? Will you devote certain days to one sport or the other?
There’s no correct answer to how you want to allocate your time, but also be sure to factor in the variables in life you can’t control. What is your work schedule like? If you have family commitments that make it tough to be around a computer during NBA lineup lock on certain days, maybe you’d be better off focusing on MLB on those days, etc.
Figure out a method that works for you. And remember, be realistic.
Bankroll: One of the problems with focusing on multiple sports concurrently is that if we run bad in one sport for a stretch, we may be more apt to try to make up for it in the other. Do your best to not let your emotions get involved in your bankroll management. Decide early on how you want to allocate things now that you’ll be focusing on two sports.
Some questions to ask yourself: Will you increase your overall daily spending allocation? Or will you divide the allocation you’ve been using for NBA between the two sports? If so, how will you determine this split?
Game Selection: While your game selection for each sport should be independent of each other, it could affect your bankroll management strategy. If you are primarily a cash game player for NBA DFS, but play mostly GPPs for MLB, you need to prepare for potential swings you may not have been experiencing throughout the NBA season. If you hit a cold streak in MLB, will you alter the amount you are playing in NBA? Or will you keep separate budgets for each sport?
If you’re a newer player in general or just new to MLB, you may not be sure of your answer to these questions yet, but start to give them some thought.
The Tools
If you’re reading this, I assume you are a believer in the amazing tools we have to offer at FantasyLabs (and if not, now’s the perfect time to try! Just follow this link). Obviously I’m a bit biased, but I don’t think there’s a better collection of tools out there right now that will not only help you find success playing DFS, but also help save you time.
Trends tool: Our Trends tool is available for both NBA Trends and MLB Trends (among others). Setting up Trends is a great way to save large chunks of time that otherwise would have been devoted to research.
Want to see how point guards who are priced above $9,000 on Draftkings have performed when their team is a double-digit favorite? Here you go: 
Took about 10 seconds. Maybe 15 seconds, tops.
In advance of the season (or right now for NBA if you haven’t already done so) you should attempt to build successful trends that you can reference when performing your research. They will prove to be a huge time saver while you’re constructing lineups later on.
Player Models: Home to not only all of our projections, you’ll also find a lineup optimizer and one of our newest features, the Multiple Lineup Generator (we’ll get to that in a second). Once again, we have an NBA Player Models page and MLB Player Models page.
We have a multitude of pre-built models available to our subscribers, but also offer the ability to custom build your own model and backtest it (this is important).
Having backtested, reliable models will make the optimizer your best friend.
You’ll retain the freedom to lock in your must-have players and allow the optimizer to assist in finding that optimal lineup for the current slate of games. Here’s a short video tutorial for those that haven’t had a chance to visit the Player Models page yet.
Want to set up to 100 GPP lineups, but don’t have the time to sit down and work out each lineup while manually tracking your exposures? The Multiple Lineup Generator (told you I’d get back to it) has you covered. Not only will it allow you to select a number of different parameters, but you have the ability to set your desired exposure for every player. And with the export options available for both DraftKings and FanDuel, you’re not going to find a more efficient way to enter multiple lineups into a GPP.
Putting it All Together
Unless you’re a full-time DFS grinder, it’s likely you have to report to a boss occasionally. And it’s possible that you also have a family that’ll require your attention as well. Time is probably at a premium, so make sure you’re optimizing all of your resources.
Because MLB and NBA are true daily sports — meaning they actually have games every day — it can be tough enough to find consistent success in just one of these sports if you have time constraints that will affect your ability to research and prepare. But if you can successfully set up effective processes and outline a plan for success, it’s certainly possible to take on both concurrently.
Take some time over the next couple of weeks to lay out what your plan is and how you can effectively utilize your time and the tools at your disposal to help you maximize your time each day.
And be sure to check back for Part Two of this series, where I’ll dive into the similarities and differences between NBA and MLB DFS!
