Daniel has now earned $100,000 more than he had made at his writing job with The Wall Street Journal. Because of his success he decided to write a book called “Dueling With Kings: High Stakes, Killer Sharks and the Get-Rich Promise of Daily Fantasy Sports”. In his book he talks about how he was successful and what he saw.
He states, "Consistent winners closely analyze statistics, sometimes use computer models and have no team or athlete loyalties." But many of his fantasy sports gambles failed miserably. In fact, just last summer he lost $10,000 with his poor choices in his fantasy baseball league. Things don't always go as hoped. So what kept him going? What was his motivation? I believe Daniel went from being a "fan-first player" to a statistical enthusiast. His failures came because he was spending too much time trying to determine who he thought would be the best picks and not paying enough attention to who actually was the best picks based on statistical data. Once he learned from other people who do this for a living, his motivation changed and this is where I believe Daniel became a statistical enthusiast. He found he loved crunching numbers to uncover the degree to which having the first pick offers owners intrinsic advantages or disadvantages. He is a "stat geek", because he is more than willing to spend hours seeking out the data needed to play the games. He states he doesn't have team loyalties because those loyalties can ultimately ruin your chances of winning by affecting your ability in making logical decisions.
Fantasy sports gambling alters a person's attitude about winners and losers, it essentially creates a game within a game. Daniel states, "I am not looking to get rich at this. I don't want to weather the emotional ups and downs of playing for a living". He has already experienced the emotional ups and downs of sports gambling when he lost thousands of dollars and tried to hide it from his wife because he felt terrible and didn't want her to find out. He said, "I feared that I had given up my job to be a loser gambler". I don't think there is a time in gambling where you don't experience the emotional ups and downs. When you win, you crave to do it more, and when you lose, you feel horrible. I don't think Daniel realizes that these emotions come with the gambling territory no matter if you want them or not.
Fantasy sports and sports gambling is very addictive. It is a massive industry and is under reported and underestimated. Fantasy sports has a positive correlation with sports betting and goes hand in hand with each other. This is why Daniel's story is not a surprise. Typically those that get consumed in fantasy sports, find the sport gambling side of things hard to stay away from. When money is involved, it is hard to quit. Even though Daniel states he won't do this for a living, I believe he will. He has had too much success so far, and I think it will be hard for him to stay away.
Here is a clip of Daniel Barbarisi on the radio discussing his success:
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