LIVIN’ THE DREAM
This man ditched his job to earn $100K in a year playing fantasy sports
For Daniel Barbarisi, fantasy is reality. In December 2015, he quit his job as the Yankees beat reporter for the Wall Street Journal to play fantasy sports full time. In 2016, he earned $100,000 —$30,000 more than he made at his writing job.
“People now think my decision to do it is the greatest thing ever,” said the 37-yearold, who lives in Boston. “At the beginning, though? They thought I was insane.”
He’s written a book, “Dueling With Kings: High Stakes, Killer Sharks and the Get-Rich Promise of Daily Fantasy Sports” (Touchstone), out Tuesday, about how he did it.
Like many other baseball writers, Barbarisi discretely gambled on fantasy sports. But even with their expert knowledge of baseball, many failed miserably. Barbarisi himself lost more than $1,000 over the course of a few months.
“It made me crazy,” he told The Post. “I tried keeping [the losses] from my wife. But I kept thinking I was just a little bit away from getting good.”
The fantasy-sports industry generated around $3 billion in tournament fees in 2015, and boasts some 57.4 million participants in the US and Canada. Players assemble hypothetical teams; points are accumulated based on how their chosen athletes fare during real-life games. The player whose roster accumulates the most points wins money at the end of the tournament, which can last a day or a season.
In the book, Barbarisi explores why the same small pool of people seem to continually win: A McKinsey & Co. study shows that 1 percent of fantasy players rake in 91 percent of prize money. Losing players tend to see the game as entertainment and revel in their limited successes. Consistent winners closely analyze statistics, sometimes use computer models and have no team or athlete loyalties.
Barbarisi began the crossover from chump to champ after meeting fantasy pro Jay Raynor, who plays as BeepImaJeep and specializes in hockey, at a party for DraftKings, one of the top fantasy sites. Raynor took him under his wing.
Barbarisi forsook baseball for hockey because “competition was soft.” Following Raynor’s lead, he focused on players who correlated well — when one scored, others on the roster were likely to get assists, thus creating complementary actions that increase the likelihood of piling on fantasy points. He perused Las Vegas betting lines to gauge scoring probabilities and scrutinized Web sites offering data on esoteric situations such as an athlete’s “behind the net shot assists per 60 minutes.”
Even though he already had a book deal, Barbarisi’s Journal colleagues figured he was nuts for leaving his gig. At first, it looked like they might be right: He racked up $6,500 in losses between May 2015 and January 2016.
“I feared that I had given up my job to be a loser gambler,” he recalled. At the time, he was betting between $500 and $1,000 per day, seven days a week. But his mentor, Raynor, disagreed.
“He recognized that my lineups were strong,” Barbarisi said, “and that things would turn around.”
And they did, big time. Last March, he found himself $60,000 in the black, through a combination of player picks and increasing daily bets to as much as $5,000. In the process, he won three entries into Draft Kings’ hockey final. Much to his own shock, Barbarisi aced the tournament, taking home $100,000 (minus payments of $35,000 to a few friends who had invested in him).
“It was total brotopia: slapping backs, fist pumping,” he recalled. “I felt like I was a winner in an actual [hockey] game.”
His one big splurge was purchasing a St. Louis Blues jersey signed by then-defender Kevin Shattenkirk. He is currently juggling a freelance writing career and his “job” as a fantasy player. The goal, he said, is to win $5,000 per month while he writes his next book.
But things don’t always go as hoped. Last summer, he tried his hand at baseball and lost $10,000. As for the current hockey season, he’s up $25,000.
“If I can keep winning at that pace, I will be happy,” said Barbarisi. But he’ll always have a fallback, such as his freelance work.
“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.”
I feared that I had given up my job to be a loser gambler. — Former Wall Street Journal writer Daniel Barbarisi