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Show HN: Fantasy Sports Solved through Dynamic Programming

rotoraider.com

19 pointsbjpless14 comments

I made a python tool for doing this a couple of weeks ago. It solves the "knapsack problem with multiple constraints", using the OpenOpt knapsack module. Find the maximum sum of FPPG (fantasy points per game), with the constraints of $60k (fantasy) salary sum, and player positions.

It didn't work very well though, my generated NBA picks finished in the bottom 50% on FanDuel. For the next iteration, I'm going to try optimizing for MPG (minutes per game).

Fantasy betting has the benefit of a legal loophole, so it's growing much quicker than traditional sportsbook line betting.

Ha, I used to work at StarStreet - Rotogrinders has a similar tool, and you can bet people have intense spreadsheets to help them make their decisions; how has this tool been performing in the NBA season?

Congrats on launching! Nice looking site, too. Was this a scratch-your-own-itch type of project? Did you do it on the side? I'd be interested to hear where it came from and where it's headed.

It's a side project for now. But, in theory, I'd like to continue building cool utilities for daily fantasy sports betting leagues. That market is growing quite quickly and the tech is pretty poor.

This looks really nice. I wrote something similar for personal use during the NFL season. Selfishly, I hope no one finds out about this.

Ha, that's awesome to hear. That last sentence is gold.

Also is there a reason you aren't including referral codes in the links to the Fantasy sites?

Just wanted to release it as quickly as possible. Referral codes coming soon.

your optimal lineup for today has danilo as a SF, projected to get 27+ points, but he hasn't played a game all season, and is out tonight... which makes me wonder...

what data are you using to project averages? 2012-2013 season?

Point of this tool is that you plug in your own projection values and it computes the best possible lineup.

ah makes sense...so that mean you are projecting danilo to get 27 tonight?

I'm just using (bad) third-party projections for now with the assumption that people who want to use my tool will be bringing their own projections to the table.

I also feel for Danilo...so many surgeries.

Nice work. My brother has been doing this manually for sometime... useful tool.

Yeah, it's something that can consume a ton of hours manually -- and, at the end of the day, there's no way to be certain that you've actually optimized given your budget constraints.

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