Are Daily Fantasy Sports A Scam?

You've seen the commercials. Holy moly have you seen the commercials; it's impossible to watch television for more than five minutes without some focus group-approved interpretation of a Cool Guy--you know he's a cool guy because his apartment has exposed brick and he has framed jerseys on the wall and sweet facial hair--telling you about what a chump you are for not playing FanDuel or DraftKings or Foosball Wonder or Johnny T. PickEm's or whatever other company comes out this week. Maybe it's a bunch of average Joes on the subway losing their minds because they just won a bajillion dollars with almost no effort expended.

What's the big deal and what are daily fantasy sports anyway? Well, if you're familiar with fantasy sports, you know it involves being in a league with several other people and you all pick your teams draft-style. So, if you pick San Francisco 49ers kicker Phil Dawson with your first round pick, he's off the board and I can't take him.

Also, if you take San Francisco 49ers kicker Phil Dawson with your first round pick, I would like to cordially invite you to join my fantasy football league next year because that would make you a crazy person and the worst fantasy football player ever, but I digress.

Once everyone in the league has their teams assembled, your success is dependent solely on how well those players perform in real life.

Daily fantasy sports is like that except instead of picking your teams and sticking with them throughout the entirety of that sport's season, you change your lineup every day. You have a budget to work within, so if you want Aaron Rodgers and Jamaal Charles, you're going to have to be deficient in another element of your team. So the best players of daily fantasy are people who are able to spot the players who give you the most productivity for the least cost. It's a matter of efficiency.

So who can make the most efficient decisions? Those with the most information. That's why there's a DraftKings employee who just won $350,000 from FanDuel. That's why the guys who make tons of money are those who basically run computers to do their bidding for them, sending in as many as 1,000 entries every Sunday.

But how is this okay, when sports gambling by-and-large is illegal in the United States? Put simply, it's exempted as being seen as a "game of skill." Per the Huffington Post:

The courts make a distinction between games of skill and games of chance. Under the courts and the law, games of skill are legal. Games of chance are deemed illegal. So courts have argued that fantasy leagues are games of skill -- that it requires some kind of skill, some kind of knowledge base to put these teams together and go about playing in fantasy leagues -- whereas with traditional sports betting, the courts have argued those are more games of chance that don't require any skill or knowledge base.

It doesn't even matter that as many as 75% of television viewers absolutely hate the nonstop deluge of commercials from the two companies--as long as the money keeps rolling in, and yes, there is a ton of money, you'll keep being sold the dollar-and-a-dream story from focus group-approved Cool Guy in relentless amounts of commercials.

Can you win a ton of money playing daily fantasy sports? Absolutely. But if you're the guy on his couch putting down $10--or even a few hundred dollars--there's a good chance it won't be you. Do it for fun, but don't quit your day job in anticipation of that sweet, sweet fantasy sports cash.

Have fun, play if you'd like, but for the love of all things sacred please make those commercials go away.