To celebrate the restart of the NBA season, DraftKings held two Millionaire Maker events for the first two days of games. On the second day of these events, Marcum Stewart took home the top prize of $1 million dollars and a ticket into the Tournament of Champions event. Under the username ‘Sevensvox’, Stewart took down the $25 entry event with 389 DKFP, which was 2.25 more than a two-way tie for second place at 386.75. To talk about his massive payday, Stewart joined DraftKings host Adam Kaufman to discuss a number of topics while giving some useful advice to other Milly Maker hopefuls.
No matter your current level or knowledge of daily fantasy sports, we all start out somewhere. Stewart said he’s been playing for around five years but started to get serious about his play in 2018. In his three prior years, Stewart mentioned that he “couldn’t win a dime” as he struggled with lineup construction. However, in December of 2018, Stewart had a hell of a weekend, taking down his first event for $50K and then placed second and fifth in a $100K prize pool event, all of which came from NBA DFS, which he feels is his strongest sport.
With a rejuvenated perspective on playing daily fantasy, Stewart attributes sticking to his own process, which included using his own spreadsheets, methods and process to build his lineups. Little did he know, this thought process would lead to bigger and better results down the road.
A working man like many of us, Stewart says he likes to wake up early before heading to work to break down the upcoming slate. He claims the early morning data is often times the best information to work with, rather than waiting until later in the afternoon. Through his early morning research, he identified some of his favorite plays which included James Harden (85.25 DKFP), Lonnie Walker IV (25.25) and Jusuf Nurkic (50.75), all of whom ended up in his winning lineup. He went on to say he doesn’t give much thought to ownership and is ok with going chalky, as often times you still needs those players in your lineup. It’s more about finding those value plays that can differentiate your lineup. Nurkic was the guy for him in the winning Milly Maker lineup, carrying a 9.4% ownership.
Going off his thoughts about finding that value play, Stewart went on to say he’s a big backer in the “4x + 10 differential” process. This idea is that a particular play can produced 4x his salary along with an additional 10 DKFP. In the case of Nurkic, his 50.75 DKFP far exceed that notion, making him one of the better values when all was said and done. In fact, Nurkic ended up finishing seventh overall on the slate in fantasy scoring and was the only player amongst the top 10 with a sub-$7.5K salary. Stewart went on to say he looks at the players projections for this slate and the differential and then ranks them by their potential output. In the case of Nurkic, he ended up being one of the biggest difference makers on his way to a million dollar payday.
Not everyone can enter the Millionaire Maker events and the daily threshold is different for everyone. Thus, contest selections can be a more difficult decision than you’d expect. So what does Stewart think is a good way to build a bankroll?
He went on to tell Kaufman that he’s a big believer in the 20-max entry contests, which can range from a $1 to $4 per entry. This way, you’re spending between $20-$80 on a slate while giving yourself a range of outcomes and utilizing what you think are the best plays. He believes the 20 lineups is all you would need on a slate and is a good way to try and build up your bankroll. DraftKings also offers .10¢ and .25¢ contests, which can range from 20-150 lineups max.
Despite having a million dollars deposited into his DraftKings account by Saturday, Stewart was back on the grind building lineups over the weekend and even showed up to work the following Monday. His big plans for the money? Aside from making Warren Buffet proud, Stewart is planning on putting it in savings and investing some of it, as the humble Milly Maker winner is hoping this will serve as a good retirement option for him down the road.
As sports roll on DraftKings will continue to give you the chance to join Stewart and many other before him to become a millionaire. To find out when your next chance will be, you can continue to follow the DraftKings Championship Series page to see all the upcoming events.