Everybody has seen ads and commercials regarding daily fantasy sports (DFS), and everybody is aware that FanDuel and DraftKings churn out more millionaires every week than the state lottery games. Over 5% of US residents are active daily fantasy sports players.
It is possible to earn one’s living as a DFS player, and the following five players have proved that it is indeed possible to become professional DFS players.
Travis Pettey ‘petteytheft89’
Travis Pettey is literally a grinder who started with a tiny bankroll, which now has thousands and thousands of dollars in it. He says that practice and hard work are the ingredients of success. He is definitely an example to those who want to become successful DFS players while handing a nine-to-five job.
The 25-year-old daily fantasy sports player is a resident of Chicago having moved there in pursuit of a job. He was born and brought up in San Diego. He was a professional poker player who had to quit playing poker post Black Friday. He also learned computer gaming during his high school and college days. Today, he plays at both FanDuel and DraftKings.
He says that poker and computer gaming helped him a great deal to take up DFS as his profession. According to him, poker gives a player the ability to remain optimistic even in the face of downswings and computer gaming makes him creative and helps him view things from several angles. He says that his “style of lineup creation is a solid amount of trial and error.”
He said that he started tasting success when he quit relying on the results of research done by fantasy sports websites. For a long time, he won only small amounts of money, but when he started winning big amounts, he did not stop.
Saahil Sud ‘maxdalury’
Saahil Sud is believed to be the man who plays under the moniker maxdalury. His spectacular DFS success has attracted the undivided attention of the industry. He plays high-stakes head-to-head contests and wins prizes in six figures at DraftKings. Regular DFS players are used to seeing the name of maxdalury right at the top of leader boards.
Not much is known about maxdalury. Some people surmise that he is Saahil Sud, whose LinkedIn profile shows that he is founder of Mdalury LLC. He attended Amherst College and worked for several companies including Autotegrity ADP, GFI Software, and Renatus Capital.
During the NBA’s 2014 – 15 season, he was continuously seen playing high-stakes contests with CONDIA at DraftKings. He defeated CONDIA, who was not seen at DraftKings during the latter half of that NBA season. He finished 10th and won $20,000 in the $2 Million Dollar Fantasy Basketball World Championship at DraftKings, but this is just one of his greatest achievements. Last NBA season, he won $100,000 playing the $20 Micro Millions NBA Main Event. Next night, he won another $8,000 playing the $10 Second Chance Main Event.
Maxdalury has been successful playing MLB contests as well. In May 2015, he won $100,000 playing the $27 $1 Million Mega Payoff Pitch at DraftKings.
Peter Jennings ‘CSURAM88’
Peter Jennings, who plays under the moniker CSURAM88, has been a successful DFS player for a long time. Now 26 years old, the DraftKings Pro has been a grinder at DFS contests for nearly four years, during which he earned more than $3.5 million. He plays at FanDuel too and has attracted attention for winning 100,000 times. His total DFS winnings have moved over the $10 million mark, and this makes him one of the most famous DFS players in the world.
Jennings, a resident of Denver in Colorado, owes his success to the several hours of research he puts in.
He believes in making full use of Las Vegas lines and odds to select players and games. His peers respect him for his ability to research games in depth. Early this year, he collaborated with Jonathan Bales, another member of DraftKings Pro, who is widely acclaimed for his success in NFL and MLB contests. Jennings has contributed a lot of content to strategy books authored by Bales.
Jennings enjoys playing high-stakes, head-to-head games at both DraftKings and FanDuel. He says that his favorite is college football. In spite of his success in GPPs, he prefers playing cash games.
Tommy G ‘TommyG1979’
TommyG1979 is not only a fantasy MLB player, but also a trading mentor and trader.
Although he earns in six figures, he wants to give it all up to become a professional DFS player.
In spite of his success playing daily fantasy sports, Tommy doesn’t just want to remain as a player.
He says that he will continue playing DFS, but would like to “take over the industry from the broadcasting perspective.”
Ryan Daut ‘Daut44’
Ryan Daut is one of the several professional poker players who later became professional DFS players. Daut has earned more than $2 million playing poker tournaments and wants to win the same way at FanDuel and DraftKings.
It definitely looks as though Daut is on his way to becoming a DFS millionaire. He played several NBA contests and is now focusing on MLB. Recently, he won $12,000 playing a $28 $130k Payoff Pitch.
Daut plays under the moniker Daut44 in the DFS as well as poker communities.
He began playing professional poker in 2006, focusing equally on tournaments as well as ring games. Six months back, he started playing DFS games. He began dabbling in DFS during the NFL season of 2013, but wasn’t very successful. He says that he began succeeding at DFS only after treating it as he did poker. He began playing low-stakes contests, managed his bankroll well, and invested several hours in research. Although the skills required for playing poker and DFS are not exactly the same, he began improving.
Daut’s favorite sport is basketball for DFS although he loves MMA more in real life.
