GPWA Times Magazine - Issue30 - October 2014

One of those players was Jonathan Tamayo, an Ivey Poker sponsored pro. Tamayo sold shares of his equity in the event on the Two Plus Two poker forum, much like many poker players do for pok- er tournaments. Brian Hastings, another professional poker player who dabbles in daily fantasy sports, bought a piece of Tamayo's action. He was also one of the initial investors in DraftDay. Famous for his multimillion- dollar winning sessions in the Full Tilt Poker high stakes cash games before Black Friday, Hastings sees the opportunity for poker players to successfully transition their skill-set to a new market. "A poker player from an online back- ground, with a good grasp of quantitative analysis, should be able to do well," Hast- ings says. A sports fan and athlete throughout his life, Hastings says it's also important for a daily fantasy sports player to be able to watch sports and have a grasp of qualitative analysis as well. Poring over spreadsheets and researching statistics are necessary for success — Hastings said he spends about an hour or two per day doing research during the baseball season — but a general capacity to understand sports is crucial, as well. The edge factor Hastings, a self-proclaimed "DFS addict," says he plays daily fantasy baseball just about every day throughout the season (except during the World Series of Poker) and plays other sports, too. But while he considers daily fantasy a "profitable hob- by" for himself, he doesn't quite see the same opportunity to make money as he does in poker. "It's just hard to get too big of an edge," Hastings says. "Investing a similar amount of capital in poker is going to have a better return." In poker, a skilled professional will al- ways crush an amateur, or "fish," in the long run. There's plenty of variance, sure, but in poker, a good player is able to spot an opponent's weaknesses and exploit them. You play the man, not the cards. But in daily fantasy sports, "(recreational) players aren't drawing dead as much," ac- cording to Hastings. The reason is pretty simple: Anyone who has a semblance of sports knowledge — which constitutes most sports fans — knows who the best players are and can assemble a roster that has a decent chance to compete. "It's hard to be a huge dog if you're put- ting in a minimum amount of effort," agrees Aguiar. "It lies somewhere in the continuum between sports betting and poker. It's just as hard to lose 45 percent as it is to win 55 percent." But the beauty of daily fantasy sports, unlike today's poker economy, is the fact that the industry is growing. With that growth come new players, who, despite not starting off as massive underdogs, still provide some "dead money" for the grind- ers out there. "Usually the beginning of a season, when there are lots of promotions and new play- ers are depositing, is when there's a lot more money to be made," Hastings says. The next boom? Chris Moneymaker immortalized the idea that any Average Joe could sit at a poker table with the best players in the world and take them down. But the poker fad has mostly faded. Dai- ly fantasy sports, on the other hand, is still new. And it offers the same idea to a consumer group ripe for another form of competition. "The beauty of DFS is that players can say, 'I am a (general manager), and I can be successful, and the win is a validation of those skills,'" Wasserman says. Like poker, however, most DFS players will not win in the long run. Skilled play- ers will always have an edge. For many poker players who have converted to or adopted the DFS grind, the potential to exploit weaker opponents and make a liv- ing is already a reality. But it's only just getting started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dan Podheiser is the associate editor of the GPWA Times Magazine . He has followed the online poker industry closely for the past 10 years, and played consistently on U.S.- friendly sites prior to Black Friday. 46 Daily fantasy sports is growing quickly — and online poker players love it