Most fantasy sports players don’t have the time to sit and research 50 different line-ups for DraftKings anymore. Most of us work day jobs, and adding the research needed for daily fantasy sports can take a lot of additional work, causing some to quit a fun hobby.
Line-up optimizers are perfect for solving this problem, but which line-up optimizer is the best for DraftKings?
There are three line-up optimizers for DraftKings that are recognized as the best. FantasyLabs gives the best consistent results, but it’s expensive. Fantasy Cruncher is a fan-favorite that offers excellent results at an affordable price. Daily Fantasy Nerd is the perfect option for beginner players.
The best DraftKings lineup optimizer depends on your needs and the sports you want to play. Ask a hundred DraftKings players the question, and you will get a hundred different DFS line-up optimizer recommendations.
But a few consistently come up that have been tested by players and found to be the best. Let’s compare the best DraftKings lineup optimizers based on popularity, tests, and price.
Best DraftKings Lineup Optimizer Based On Statistics
Reddit user DFSfantasyfactory did a 25-day test comparing the most popular line-up optimizers for DraftKings to evaluate their daily results and see which one came out on top.
The user posted the results in the form of videos on Reddit every day so fans could see what the results were, and there’s one that consistently came out on top with only a few exceptions: FantasyLabs.
One of the founders of FantasyLabs is Peter Jennings. He is a legend in DFS circles since he’s an ESPN Fantasy contributor and a professional DraftKings analyst.
Having someone with those credentials on the management team gives FantasyLabs a significant advantage (and reputation) as a DraftKings lineup optimizer.
DFSfantasyfactory’s test results are pretty eye-opening. In the daily comparisons of line-up results, FantasyLabs scored in first place most days.
On the few occasions it didn’t, it scored in second place and only a few points behind the first-place scorer. This proves statistically that FantasyLabs’ line-up optimizer has the highest chance of giving you winning line-ups.
FantasyLabs can generate between one and 200 line-ups for NBA, NFL, MBL, NHL, and PGA, making it perfect for the most popular DraftKings DFS sports.
There are two downsides to mention, though.
- FantasyLabs is not cheap, and in fact, it’s more expensive than most other line-up optimizers. Standard membership will cost you ±$70 per month, and even the trial will cost you around $16 for five days, while most others offer free 15-day or 30-day trials. The pricing is prohibitive for most DFS players, which is a pity.
- FantasyLabs is not for beginners. It needs quite a lot of input from the user to do its job correctly, so you either have to be an experienced DFS player or still do a bit of the research on your own, which is half of the fun for most players, to be honest, so this should not be a deal-breaker.
Fan Favorite Lineup Optimizer For DraftKings
One of the names consistently mentioned on most online forums as one of the best DraftKings lineup optimizers is Fantasy Cruncher. It’s a well-known and well-loved platform used (and recommended) by thousands of DraftKings players.
Fantasy Cruncher is a much more affordable option than FantasyLabs, starting at about $30 per month. This is for the Lite package, which will give you 20 line-ups at a time. It’s not quite as robust as FantasyLabs at this price, but other upgrade options will provide you full access to all the line-up optimizer (“cruncher”) functionality.
One reason it’s so popular is that a Reddit user built it for himself, then opened it up to the Reddit community to test and comment on. This means it was a community project, not just one person’s idea of what a good line-up optimizer should be. The result is practical, user-friendly, and powerful.
The interface is straightforward. All you do is set projections using a simple upvote and downvote system for players you like or don’t like. Fantasy Cruncher then calculates the best line-ups utilizing that information and feeds you the results.
Fantasy Cruncher was made for the mass-entry strategy; some users say that no other line-up optimizer does nearly as good a job for mass-entry players. You can quickly get 100 optimized line-ups with minimal effort.
On the downside, even though Fantasy Cruncher uses exceptional algorithms, any algorithm is only as valuable as the data entered into it, and Fantasy Cruncher uses the projections you enter. If you use sub-standard projections, you will get sub-standard results.
It also works best for high-volume players, so if you’re only just starting or you don’t play that often, even though it will help, Fantasy Cruncher probably won’t be worth the money for you.
The Best Line-up Optimizer For Beginner DraftKings Players
Daily Fantasy Nerd is an ideal DraftKings Lineup Optimizer for players just getting into the Daily Fantasy Sports arena. Someone who doesn’t yet know all of the variables that could affect the outcome and performance of a line-up should start with Daily Fantasy Nerd because it does most of that research for you.
The software compares player performance, projected weather for the game day, the Vegas line, and a variety of other factors in determining the line-ups that will likely perform best. It specializes in NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB games, so if that’s what you’re into, this line-up optimizer may be the best out there for simplicity.
Pricing starts at a very reasonable $25 per month. This gives you unlimited optimizations for one DFS platform with ten line-ups. An upgrade to the mid-level All-Star package will still cost you less than the entry-level packages of other options but give you 50 lineup optimizations and a host of additional features.
Apart from the excellent integrations with various data sources, saving you plenty of research, Daily Fantasy Nerd is ideal for beginners because you can start with the lowest (Veteran) plan and build up a considerable bankroll by playing five to ten contests per week. This will give you the knowledge you need to play on a higher level, by which time you can upgrade to the mid-range package.
The only real downside is that Daily Fantasy Nerd doesn’t instantly integrate significant player improvements, and it takes some time to filter that data through the integrations into its algorithm. But if you notice that the system doesn’t recognize a significant player improvement, you can easily tweak your lineups before playing.
Conclusion
Depending on your experience level in the Daily Fantasy Sports field, there are vast numbers of lineup optimizers you can use for DraftKings. They all have advantages and some disadvantages that will affect different players in different ways. But between Daily Fantasy Nerd, Fantasy Cruncher, and FantasyLabs, you should find one that caters perfectly to what you need in an optimizer.