If you’re at all familiar with the daily and weekly fantasy sites that are taking the internet by storm then you’ve surely heard the name Condia. And if you’re not? Well, time to get familiar.
Condia, or Charles as he’s known to his friends, is a high volume daily fantasy player who has cashed for more than $350,000 in prize money during the 2011-12 football season alone (wow). In fact Condia has made so much that he is now devoting himself to being a full time fantasy sports player.
That’s right. Apparently with the proliferation of all those real money fantasy sites it’s now possible to play fantasy sports for a living. Who knew?
We had the opportunity to chat with Condia on topics ranging from becoming a professional fantasy football player, to the strategy involved in selecting his lineup to the bankroll management skills one needs to be a pro. Check it out.
How did you end getting becoming a super high volume daily/weekly fantasy player?
A group of buddies and I have played fantasy football on Yahoo! since 2005. The time I spent researching seemed to be a bit excessive for a $100 season-long buy-in. I had won a couple seasons in a row, and I felt that I was better than most at fantasy football. Luckily, I found a link to Fanduel in a fantasy football blog, and I wanted to see if I really was that good or if my friends in the season-long league were just completely incompetent.
I had also pursued a career in online poker so the transition to daily fantasy made some sense to me. I had some success during the 2010 NFL season and my return on investment was amazing, so I decided to try to pursue playing daily fantasy sports as a career.
The leaderboard (which shows gross earnings) is pretty clear: you’re the top dog. But it also doesn’t account for your amount of buy-ins. How would you describe your 2011 campaign in broad terms? Good, not-so-good, break-even?
The NFL season was pretty good to me. There were a lot of ups and downs, and I considered quitting a couple times, but I guess that comes with the territory. Still, I had made enough of a profit by the end of the NFL season to validate my decision to pursue daily fantasy as a career.
What was the single most games you played in during one week of the NFL season?
I went all out in Weeks 1 and 2, before the “Condia Rule” was implemented on Draftstreet and Fanduel, and signed up for as many games as I could. I played several thousand games in those weeks. I did very well in Week 1, but Week 2 was terrible, and I am actually glad that the websites implemented the “Condia Rule” or else I may have gone broke in Week 3 because I had no sense of bankroll management at the time.
Can you explain what the so-called “Condia Rule”?
I was taking every single game that was posted whenever I got on the computer, leading up to Week 1, and I did well, causing many users to be very frustrated that I won almost every game they played. The websites decided it would be best for the long-term if they limited my play (limit of 20 contests per entry level under $50), so that newer users would not be intimidated to post games. Playing against one person in every game causes a lot of variance, and if I do well, then most of the other users lose their money, which could obviously be problematic for the websites. I realized that daily fantasy sports is still a growing industry and that we want new users to stay, so I understood why they decided to implement this new rule.
Playing the crazy volume that you do is it necessary to have a strict bankroll management strategy?
Definitely. I can’t believe I pretty much put my entire life savings on the line in Weeks 1 and 2. I felt very grateful to have had some money to play with in Week 3 because Week 2 could have gone much worse. I feel like you should never have more than 40% of your entire bankroll out there, otherwise a couple bad weeks could make you go broke.
Do you use multiple lineups to lower your variance? Do you think one lineup is optimal to maximize your profits?
I typically use just one lineup per website, but I try to vary the players on each site. So, for example, if Aaron Rodgers and Cam Newton were the same prices on all websites, and they were both very valuable picks, I would use Aaron Rodgers on one site and Cam on the other, making sure that the player I liked more would be used on the website where I had more money on the line.
I do think using one optimal lineup is more profitable in the long-run, but it makes for more variance as well, and unless you have very deep pockets, you will prevent a lot of grey hairs by varying your rosters. Of course, you do not want to downgrade a player too much just to lower your variance. I only do this if two players are essentially coin-tosses.
Now that the football season is drawing to a close, do you plan on branching out into other sports?
I will definitely try to learn to play the other fantasy sports, but after that chaotic, stressful NFL season, I need some time off. The last day of the regular season was the happiest day of my life.
Do you think there is more skill or luck involved in being a long term daily fantasy winner? If it’s more skill, how steep do you think the learning curve is?
In the short-term, it can be luck, but if you know what you are doing, you will be able to beat the rake and make a profit in the long-run. The learning curve really depends on how experienced you are in fantasy sports, although salary cap games are completely different from season-long. It just takes a lot of trial and error, lots of ups and downs, and good bankroll management. But even I am still learning new things every week, and I am excited to implement everything I have learned this past season, going into the 2012 season.
Any advice to players looking to get into daily fantasy money sites? What is the most important strategy element they need to be aware of?
For the smaller users, try to take advantage of deposit bonuses, referral bonuses, and freerolls. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different websites. If you’re only playing a couple games a week, you’re probably just playing for the added enjoyment in watching games, so you should find the site that provides the best experience.
For someone trying to make a living doing this, sound bankroll management and staying updated with injuries are very important. Reducing variance by playing on multiple websites is also helpful, although it can be frustrating and time-consuming because the user has to log into the different websites, learn the different salaries and rosters, and also get accustomed to the functionalities of each website.
For more info on Condia you can follow him on twitter @condiaFF
