Guy's Actual Job: Playing Fantasy Football

Drew Dinkmeyer likens game to day-trading
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 26, 2013 11:27 AM CDT
Guy's Actual Job: Playing Fantasy Football
Drew Dinkmeyer quit his job to focus on fantasy football.   (Shutterstock)

His job is literally a fantasy: Drew Dinkmeyer makes his money by betting on fantasy games, and he's not exactly struggling. The 31-year-old quit his work as an investment analyst in June so he could concentrate on fantasy sports, and he's making comparable money. "After a few years of playing, I started to have income levels that were commensurate with what I was making in the financial world," he tells NPR. But Dinkmeyer may not be playing what you're playing: He plays "daily fantasy sports," where instead of being stuck with a team for a season, the action is compressed into a single night. So instead of laying down one bet per season, he makes daily bets. (The Wall Street Journal has a good rundown on how it works, and how "advanced statistics" play a part.)

Being a "daily fantasy" player is like day-trading, Dinkmeyer says. "What you're doing is you're trying to find a company that is trading for less than it's really worth." Fantasy players get a football-player price list, for instance, "and they have to figure out which ones are worth more than those actual prices to compile the best team that can put together the most points." The Journal reports that of the 30 million fantasy players in America, experts believe no more than 100 earned at least $40,000 last year. NPR notes that Dinkmeyer pads his income by writing about fantasy sports online and hosting a satellite radio show, and has a wife who "does very well in the financial industry." (More fantasy football stories.)

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