How Contest Size Changes a DFS Lineup's Results

By Splash Play Staff · A guide to reading the tools

The same DFS lineup produces different results in different contests, because a finish depends on who you are playing against and how the contest pays. Before you read a simulated cash rate or return, check four things about the contest it assumes: how many entries, the entry fee, how the prizes are spread, and how many entries one person can make.

The contest fact sheet

Take these from the contest's own listing on DraftKings or FanDuel.

Size. The maximum number of entries. Note that a contest can run short of full.
Entry fee.
Payouts. How many places pay and how steeply the prizes fall.
Entry limit. One entry each, or up to 150 from the same person.

Why size changes the lineup you want

Two made-up contests, both paying the top 20% of entries:

	Entries	Places paid	Lineups to beat for first
Contest A	100	20	99
Contest B	10,000	2,000	9,999

Cashing asks the same of you in both: beat four lineups in five. Winning does not. To finish first outright in B you need to outscore 9,999 other entries, which takes a lineup built to be different as well as good. In A, a solid lineup with popular players can win outright.

Large fields also produce duplicates. The more entries, the more likely someone built your exact lineup, and identical lineups split what they win.

Payouts matter as much as size

Two contests of the same size can pay very differently. One pays half the field about double their money. Another pays the top fifth and puts most of the pool in the first few places. A lineup with a steady score suits the first. The second pays for a ceiling.

And a cash is not a profit. The lowest paid places often return little more than the entry fee, so read the whole payout table, not only the first prize.

In the tools

When you load your contest entries CSV on the Lineups tab, your contests carry into the Portfolio Builder, so the build knows which contests and how many entries it is filling. The NFL lineup export records the basis each result was computed on. Keep that with the file, and compare results only when they assume the same contest.

Change one thing at a time. If you compare two contests and also change the lineup, you are comparing two things at once.

What this is not

This is how to read a result. It is not advice on which contests to enter or how much to play. Check the contest's current rules on the site that runs it.

The Portfolio Builder is part of Apex, for NFL and MLB. Open the NFL tool for the current slate, read the field guide for the step-by-step workflow, or compare memberships.