The goal of this interview series is to learn more about some of the top FanDuel players and hopefully improve our own daily fantasy play in the process.
Background
Name: Justin MacMahan
FanDuel username: justinmacmahan
Birthplace: Charlotte, NC
College: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Occupation: Sophomore College Student
Interview
Let's start off with a few basic sports questions...
Do you have a favorite NFL team?
Washington.
How about any favorite NFL players?
Santana Moss.
What has been your most memorable sports moment to-date?
I used some of my fantasy winnings to take my dad to Game 5 of the NBA Finals for Father’s Day. I grew up near Davidson and my dad and I have really enjoyed watching Stephen Curry go from a kid too small to be recruited by top schools to becoming the MVP and winner of the NBA Finals.
How many years have you played fantasy football?
Ten years of season-long fantasy, but I started playing daily fantasy about four years ago on DraftStreet, which is now gone. Only the original daily fantasy players played there.
When did you sign up on FanDuel and how did you first hear about the site?
I signed up for FanDuel when DraftStreet closed. At that point all of their users had to try other sites and FanDuel was an easy choice as the industry leader.
Do you have any go-to sites for fantasy football information or advice?
I use Footballguys more than any other site, but I’d say reading articles from team beat writers about what they see in practices and hear from coaching staffs is a good indicator of who will be at full strength and be most incorporated into game plans.
If a friend wanted to start playing on FanDuel, what advice would you offer?
When friends ask me how to get started, I focus on which leagues they should join rather than how to pick teams because generally they will pick their own players until they lose a few times and realize that they should do more research. I advise against using multiple lineups because while it does minimize risk, it limits potential gains even more. When you use any lineup other than your optimal lineup, you should lose money over time. I view each team I make as a small piece to the pie, and I want to do everything I can to maximize results year over year, which requires a willingness to have more losing weeks by playing a single team.
Has playing FanDuel changed the way you follow sports?
Absolutely. I would say it affects baseball the most because I would rarely watch regular season games before I started playing daily fantasy.
If you don't mind, what was your biggest win on FanDuel?
I recently won a $300 MLB league that paid $100,000 to first place.
Would you describe the excitement of watching the games on the night you won $100,000?
I was planning to get some sleep before the second day of classes on a Tuesday morning, but instead I had about a dozen people in my room celebrating as I won. It was obviously as exciting a moment as anything I could imagine. Shoutout to Jung-ho Kang for getting -1 and still being on the winning team.
Would you take us through a normal Sunday morning routine during NFL?
I sleep until noon and then go to the dining hall where I have my computer and check for updates as I eat pancakes. I usually second guess all my picks during that hour but change nothing. I make my preliminary team on Wednesday and finish it up at some point on Friday or Saturday. The only way I make a change is if a star player is announced inactive on Sunday morning. I think people often overreact to the last-second injury updates so I try not to do that. Very often you see a situation on Sunday morning where an above average receiver is inactive and then everyone quickly throws in a different receiver on that team without considering that it might be a bad matchup and the defense’s best cornerback will now cover that guy.
After your lineups are set, where do you normally settle down and watch the NFL games each Sunday?
My friends and I usually watch the games in our suite in Chapel Hill unless I buy tickets to go see the Redskins play, which I’ll be doing as often as possible this year.
Before we wrap up, would you like to offer any unique / interesting facts about yourself?
Daily Fantasy Sports is my main source of income and will be paying for my education at UNC.
Lastly, where can people find you online?
I’m actually launching my own daily fantasy blog called The Daily Draft King with a team of writers from UNC Chapel Hill and a few other universities across the country. We should be live within the next week and are very excited to be helping daily fantasy sports users create lineups. I would also like to plug the twitter of one of my best friends @ChrisCotillo, as he is a baseball reporter for SB Nation and MLBDailyDish.com
