Welcome to The Fake Sharp newsletter- a newsletter about sports betting, DFS, and Best Ball where we don’t pretend to be something we’re not.

Here is what we’re serving up today:

• DFS secrets from Youdacao

• MLB Future Bets to Consider

• Plays + Fades

DFS Secrets from Youdacao

Key Takeaways:

• Youdacao has a background in finance and analytics. Found DFS in 2014/2015 through Basketball Monster looking to gain an edge in his season long leagues.

• Started with NBA and NFL contests and learned more about MLB over time. He considers MLB is best sport, along with NFL. He finds that he has an edge in MLB projections as most people are focusing on the wrong data points like lefty/righty splits and run totals.

• Volume. He had a team in the past to help him but mainly operates solo now. He can get down a minimum of $500,000 and up to seven figures on an NFL Sunday.

• Realistic ROI for DFS players. Anything over 5% is strong. If you can consistently get to a 10% ROI-you’re crushing it.

• Process. Assume a lot of people use ETR projections. Youdacao does rely on ETR for NFL intel. He does not believe there is a huge edge in NBA projections. However, he does not think a player can be profitable over time without using projections or an optimizer. His system does not use sims and believes the average DFS player underestimates the outlier outcomes.

• Typical Week. For NFL he doesn’t look at any information until Friday. He then does projections all day Saturday and builds lineups early Sunday morning. Youdacao watches a good amount of ETR content. He watches the shows to get a solid understanding of the slate and player ownership.

• If he was starting over, he would start with lower stakes contests.

• Youdacao watches the games. He thinks it can be advantageous to pick up subtle details from the games to make future decisions.

• Sustainability. He credits his longevity to being able to change. Most of the research is done for you nowadays, so learning leverage and other game theory components become of the utmost importance.

• Thoughts on sports betting. Sports betting is an account management game as many sharps get limited. DFS is already a mature market.

• Thoughts on making DFS contests better. Levitan suggests having no late swaps. Youdacao does not have a sophisticated late swap system. It remains an under utilized tool to gain an edge over your opponents.

• Running bad. If you’re going through a tough stretch where you are never live to win anything-that’s a time to start looking at things to tweak in your process. The difference between getting first and second can make or break a season.

• Best Ball. Youdacao has never played Best Ball. He would rather enjoy his summers 😄 . Levitan believes there is a pretty good edge to be had. It also helps Levitan evaluate how the market views certain players before the season starts.

• How to build your lineups. Gear your lineups in large field GPPs to take 1st place. With top heavy prizes you want to be building for first.

• Best DFS players by sport. NFL - Rikkidee. NBA - Kobe4mvp, cheddabisque, and pettytheft. MLB - lovesbases. Also mentions ChipotleAddict.

MLB Futures To Consider

The Best Place to Find Sports Betting Jobs

BettingRoles.com is the industry’s largest job board and includes some of the best companies like Underdog Fantasy, Fanduel, and Draftkings.

They have plenty of tools to help you get your search started. Some cool features include:

• New Job Alerts

• Apply Directly

• Easy-to-access list of favorite jobs

That’s a wrap for today. If you enjoyed today’s newsletter be sure to share it and follow us on our socials for more info.