You can make money online at DraftKings, even if you aren’t a sports fan. DraftKings is a sports betting website that allows users to put money on their favorite teams. You do NOT have to wager any cash, however, to play their free games and win money, prizes, and DraftKings Dollars. Free games are just like their betting games, but they are FREE.
What’s the catch? DraftKings wants you to play the free games, so that you’ll be interested in betting on another game. Most free games have a sponsor that wants you to buy their product; these games provide a soft-sell for them. Some sponsors will ask for your email. Those are the catches, along with the ones in the real sports games.
How do you as a (non)-sports fan make money? Let’s break it down.
Daily Fantasy Sports Vs. Sportsbook
DraftKings offers two ways to play, and the betting portions may or may not be available depending on your state’s laws. Daily Fantasy Sports, or DFS, is what a lot of people play. It’s been described as Dungeons and Dragons for jocks. You pick a set of players from different teams in an attempt to get the highest score for the game. Your score is based on the statistics (stats) your players accumulate during a live game. If you have more points than the other players playing the same game, you win. Some games pay out to the top 50% players. Some pay out only to the top 10. It just depends on the rules set forth by the sponsor. Do not be intimidated. Think of it like the lottery. You’re picking numbers and hoping they’ll come up.
Every game where you select players will have the player’s position, name, average fantasy output, and cost. You have a budget that you cannot exceed when choosing your team. Your job, in the beginning and absent of any analysis, is to choose players who have the highest average output for the least amount of money. Depending on the contest, you may need to have a certain number of players who qualify for certain positions. You won’t have to know what the positions are or what the abbreviations stand for. You just need to choose a team.
With Sportsbook Pools, you pick a set of teams to win their games (or cover the spread), or answer a series of questions about who you think will do what. Some of these Pools aren’t even sports related. They’ve had pools about TV shows, the weather, and other random fun topics of popularity.
Don’t worry about the jargon if you’re new to sports or betting. For your first pick ‘em games, you’ll just want to pick who you think will win. Since these are free, you won’t even have to worry about winning or losing. It’s all about crossing your fingers and hoping those metaphorical ping pong balls come up the right way.
DK Dollars and Crowns
While DraftKings does offer free games that provide real dollars, they also offer DK Dollars and Crowns. These you can only use on the site. Crowns you can convert into betting capital, and DK Dollars are equivalent to real dollars. This is what is known as house money. You can use it for any games you’re eligible to play as long as there is no restriction on the game you choose. You don’t have to use them, but if you don’t they will sometimes disappear because they have an expiration date.
Increase Your Chances
If you don’t want to just plug in random players, you can study the game to increase your figurative chances of winning. You will have to learn the game you’re interested in, like football or basketball. At least, you’ll need to learn the jargon used for the sports.
Once you know some of the jargon, you can click on the research tab at DraftKings and find out what the experts are saying about who to choose. For the NFL, you’ll need to know what week they are currently in. For the NBA and MLB, you’ll need to know what day it is that your games take place. Then you can try to use the experts’ opinions to create a roster.
You can even look at YouTube to find some people talking about the picks and why they choose them. Of course, even the experts get the picks wrong. Sometimes, injuries will knock your players out of the games. That’s all part of DFS sports.
The Spread
When people talk about “the spread” in betting, they are referring to the number of points a team needs in order for a win to count as a win. Winning outright isn’t enough. Teams need to win by a certain number of points. For example, the Bills are seven-point favorites against the Jaguars. If you bet the spread and say the Bills are going to win, the Bills would need to score seven or more points than the Jaguars. If the Bills win the game by three points, you lose the bet. By the same token, if you take the Jaguars to win, and they lose by three, you still win the bet because they lost by fewer than seven points. When looking at the spread, a minus sign before the number indicates that the team is favored to win by that many points. (It’s confusing until you get used to it. Apparently, the guy, Charles McNeil credited with inventing the spread was a mathematician.)
With the free pick ‘em games, I don’t worry about the spread too much. I just try to guess the winner and hope they cover the spread (win by enough points for the bet to payout).
How to Find Free Games
When you log on to DraftKings Daily Fantasy, you’ll need to make sure you’re in the Lobby. A list of upcoming games will load, and you can click on “entry fee.” It should sort out from low (free) to high. If it’s free, click on the enter button and try choosing.
When logging on to DraftKings Sportsbooks, find the “Pools” tab and click on it. There will be a list of pools you may enter in.
Why Play DFS?
Sports is a huge part of American life. It’s a light topic that most people won’t get too upset about, and if it can help you connect with someone else, you might want to learn about it. I learned to love basketball my freshman year in college, so I could live in harmony with my roommate. I didn’t realize how important it would be as I went through life meeting other sports fans. Daily Fantasy Sports offers a way into the sport of your choice while giving you something else to think about and learn.
This article contains my referral links. If you decide to play for real money (of at least $20) on DraftKings, we both will get a betting allowance of DK Dollars. Really, I’d rather hear that you won a free contest than have a DraftKings allowance for games. There are other Daily Fantasy Sports sites. FanDuel and Yahoo! are a couple of others that I will likely explore in the near future.
I wrote this article because the following articles got a lot of response. They were liked, viewed, and some people subscribed to my blog because of them. Apparently, everyone wants to know how to make money online. I want to share the… cents… wealth is taking it too far at this point.
Penguinate! Positive Creativity 