Jay Caspian Kang of the New York Times Magazine has written a great piece on the Sharks vs. Fish phenomenon in Daily Fantasy Sports, better described as “Those in The Know vs. Suckers”.
Admitting to be a Daily Fantasy Sports player himself, Kang writes:
“I have traveled to D.F.S. events, spent dozens of hours playing on DraftKings and FanDuel and talked to players and industry media figures. I initially intended to write an article about the bro culture that had sprouted up around D.F.S., which, from a distance, reminded me of the sweaty, sardonic camaraderie you typically see at high-stakes poker events. At the time, the crusade against D.F.S. felt a few degrees too hot — DraftKings and FanDuel struck me as obviously gambling sites, but the game itself felt sort of like homework. You research players. You build a spreadsheet. You project data and enter a team. You watch the team either fulfill or fall short of your projections. The next day, you start over again. The ruinous thrill of other forms of gambling — sports betting, blackjack, poker — just wasn’t there.
“Instead, I came across a different sort of problem: a rapacious ecosystem in which high-volume gamblers, often aided by computer scripts and optimization software that allow players to submit hundreds or even thousands of lineups at a time, repeatedly take advantage of new players, who, after watching an ad, deposit some money on DraftKings and FanDuel and start betting. Both companies mostly looked the other way.” Read More Here