Fantasy Football and Sports Betting National Championship: DraftKings NFL DFS Results, Preview, SBNC

Each week, we’ll be recapping the decisions of the masses and discerning the takeaways that can be applied to future contests, focusing on topics like game theory and lineup-building strategies, with the hope of giving everyone the tools to become better DraftKings NFL DFS players. In addition to the recap, this article will also function as a “first look” at the next NFL main slate, giving some initial thoughts on the teams and prices.

The DraftKings Championship Series is the king of competitions, minting 100 millionaires in the 2021-22 season. For more info on the series and all of the events, visit our DraftKings Championship Series Information page.

Set your DraftKings fantasy football lineups here: NFL $3.5M Fantasy Football Millionaire [$1M to 1st + ToC Entry]

$20 Millionaire Winner

Many of the recent NFL DFS slates have had winning combinations that were fairly contrarian, but Week 8 was the first one in a while where most of the most popular players actually came through. The top-drafted player on the slate, Michael Pittman Jr. (26.5%), scored two touchdowns on the first two drives of the game and wound up posting 30.6 DKFP at just a $5.3K salary. Much of the field paired him with the top receiver on the other side of the game — A.J. Brown (14.5%) — who had an even bigger game with 34.5 DKFP. D’Andre Swift and Emmanuel Sanders were huge letdowns, but other popular picks, like Chris Godwin, Darrell Henderson Jr. and Joe Mixon, all did just fine for the large percentage of lineups that rostered them.

This particular winning lineup managed to avoid all of the grenades in Week 8, while also hitting on a few lower-rostered players who dramatically exceeded expectations. The most notable on this front was clearly Jets running back Michael Carter, who went off for 32.2 DKFP with just a $4.9K price tag. Carter was the highest scoring running back on the entire slate and was only drafted in 6.0% of lineups, and this wound up being enough to set PiReZ’s lineup apart from the rest of the Carson Wentz/Pittman Jr./Brown combinations. PiReZ will be entered into the DraftKings Championship Series Tournament of Champions, in addition to the $1M top prize.

First Look at Week 9

Week 9 quarterback pricing looks fairly solid, with no one really jumping out as of the beginning of the week. Patrick Mahomes ($7,800) and Aaron Rodgers ($7,500) are likely going to draw plenty of attention for their head-to-head matchup, though they only come at slight discounts off of Josh Allen ($8,200) and Kyler Murray ($7,900).

Some of the top-end running backs appear to be priced down for Week 9, with Christian McCaffrey ($8,000) looking pretty appealing if he can return vs. the Patriots. Alvin Kamara ($8,200) and Dalvin Cook ($7,700) are both a bit cheaper than they’ve been recently, as well. Further down the list, Josh Jacobs ($6,200) could be a popular target if he’s healthy enough to play vs. the Giants, though there isn’t anyone that looks especially underpriced at this position either.

At wide receiver, Keenan Allen ($6,700) is likely the best value at the high end, as many of the other top-tier wide receivers have been priced up around him. Amari Cooper ($5,700) is seemingly pretty underpriced, as well, especially if he can get Dak Prescott ($6,900) back at quarterback for this week’s game. Cooper had a huge game on Sunday, even with Cooper Rush ($5,200) playing quarterback, so he’s an early candidate for Week 9’s most popular receiver if Prescott winds up playing.

Sports Betting National Championship

The 2021 Sports Betting National Championship is just a few days away, beginning Nov. 5 and running through Nov. 7. The contest has $2 million in guaranteed prizes and a top prize of $1 million set to go to the winner, and many of the competitors will be competing live from the Envue Hotel in Weehawken, NJ. Check out the overview of the contest here: https://dknation.draftkings.com/playbook/2021/10/21/22738608/draftkings-sportsbook-sports-betting-national-championship-overview

The full breakdown and rules of the contest can be found at the official landing page here: https://www.draftkings.com/sports-betting-national-championship

Set your DraftKings fantasy football lineups here: NFL $3.5M Fantasy Football Millionaire [$1M to 1st + ToC Entry]

Put your knowledge to the test. Sign up for DraftKings and experience the game inside the game.

All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests.

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL).

Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-888-532-3500 (VA), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org/chat. (CT).

21+ (18+ NH/WY). AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/MI/NH/NJ/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for full terms and conditions.