How Should Ownership Affect Decision-Making in Daily Fantasy Football?

It was April 15th, 2014. My roommates and I were locked in a heated battle of Mario Kart. Sweat was flying, eyes were bulging, and limbs were flailing. You could not break our concentration.

We were racing on Cloudtop Cruise, one of the only places where I was sometimes able to accidentally hold my own, mostly because they had vines on the side of the road to prevent me from falling off the track every five feet.

Entering the final turn, Torin, Larry, and I were all within a couple tri-speeders of each other. Basically, it was going to come down to who could navigate that final stretch better to see who would win.

Then everything changed.

Suddenly, Larry decided he needed to make a move in order to give himself a shot. He hopped onto a leaf off to the side of the road, closed his eyes, and took a leap of faith.

My mouth dropped as I saw his vehicle soaring through the air. There was no way he could do a move like that at this time. If he fell, he'd lose the whole pot, leaving just Torin and I to duke it out for the win. Then, as I sat there, mouth agape, Torin and I got popped with a blue shell. Larry was able to coast to the finish line, securing himself another win.

I was numb. Heartbroken. Distraught. How had the safer option failed me?

The reason Larry was able to claim the victory was that he differentiated himself from the pack. If he had taken the same path as Torin and I, he also would have fallen victim to the blue shell, and we all would have been sunk together. Sure, his differentiation was a risk, but the upside it provided was too big to pass up.

This is why ownership is important in daily fantasy football. When we go with the consensus, there's no way to differentiate ourselves to take down a big tournament. Although your star wide receiver may not get hit with a blue shell, he sometimes will fail to meet expectations. When that happens, it will be those who chose not to use him who benefit most.

Let's go through some ways you should consider ownership when filling out your daily fantasy football rosters. As a note, this discussion will only be focusing on how ownership works with relation to tournaments. Its role in cash games is a totally different discussion that will be held at a different time. For now, though, let's focus on those big-money tourneys.

Using Ownership to Your Advantage