Daily Fantasy Football – Interview with €30,000 winner – Fantasy Football Tips

The winner of this year´s World Championship of Fantasy Football on Fanteam is from Scotland. User ‘fscottl’ won the first prize of €30,000 by entering one of our €2 Euro qualifiers and playing his way to the top! The father of 4 boys works offshore on an oil rig and watches Premier League matches on the sea at night with his colleagues. Read our interview with the fresh crowned World Champion of Fantasy Football as he tells us how he approached his way to the top, how he built his winning squad and what he is going to do with all that money!

As fscottl answers the phone, he is in a very cheerful state. We notice that he is genuinely happy about his triumph and seems very thankful throughout the entire interview.

Hi fscottl! Thanks for doing the interview with us! First things first: Congratulations on your big win!

Hi there! Thanks for the holiday!

Haha! How did you learn about Fanteam?

I used to play a fantasy game on another platform. It was a weekly game. I was doing ok on it, but it was slowly dying, there weren´t many people entering and the prizemoney was going down. So, I started looking around for another game and I stumbled across your site. I enjoyed the format and just took it from there.

How DFS helps fscottl against his boredom at the oil rig and connects him closer to his son

This means, you had some experience in playing DFS?

Yes, I found Daily contests a few years ago and I also tried DraftKings. I didn’t enjoy the format at all. The other one was slowly going down, so I was looking for some other platforms. As I work on an oil rig my nights can be a bit boring, so football is a very big thing out here. It´s important that on a Monday night when Watford plays Sheffield Utd, or something similar, that you have an interest in the game. And that was basically half the reason why I was interested in Fantasy Football as it helps me to have fun at night and not to spend huge amounts of money at Bookmakers.

This is definitely a great way to spend the nights on an oil rig!

Apart from that, in the early days Fantasy Football was a really good way to have an in-depth discussion with my oldest son. He had just become a teenager – teenagers are not the most communicative people at that age so it was great to have conversations where we were interested in each other’s opinion, not just me sounding like a parent and telling him what to do.

I believe that! Is he still into Fantasy Sports?

Yes, he still plays! I have four sons, Michael and Sean play Fantasy Football, Matthew and Garry prefer to have a real life!

Fscottl, it sounds like you enjoy the format that is offered on Fanteam. Is there anything that you would optimize?

I didn’t quite understand what the impact points were for at first, but the point system is simple and great. If you look for example at DraftKings, the scoring System is way too confusing. It is too difficult to work out what people are getting points for while you are watching the game, and don’t know what the results are until way after the end of the games. With Fanteam on the other hand, you know exactly what´s going to happen to your fantasy points when something happens in the game which makes watching the games a lot more exciting. It´s also great that you update your site very quickly. A really big plus is that after 60 minutes, the clean sheet points are shown, so you know, if your team keeps the clean sheet, you´ll stay up there. Other sites show the clean sheets only at the end and you can find yourself thinking you are going to win, but actually dropping from the top of the leader board , out of the money all together because a few players had stacked their defence with the team who got a clean sheet.

Oh yes, I think you had a lot of situations on your way to the €30,000 where you were either hoping for a clean sheet to hold or where you were hoping for a goal to be scored to destroy other guys clean sheets right?

Yes right, I don´t really remember all the details but the one I do remember was that I needed Leicester to score and I think Pereira got the assist, you also pointed that out in your blog.

The insane run of coincidences that lead to fscottl´s victory in detail

Right, that was a last-minute deciding moment. Did you watch the final game of WCOFF, Liverpool vs. Sheffield?

Yes! I started watching it by myself and after three minutes when Salah scored, I wanted to stop watching. I had checked the teams behind me and knew a lot of guys had Salah as their captain, so I knew if Salah scored two or three goals, I wouldn´t have won any money. So, what I actually did was, before the game I put a 20 pounds bet on Salah to score a Hattrick just to cover myself. It would have given me 600 pounds, so after Salah scored the first goal and I was watching it by myself, I was just about to turn the game off and walk away and not check it until it ended. But then I thought I wouldn’t be able to suffer doing that, so I went to the communal TV room and started watching it with some workmates, but I didn´t tell them that it was important to me. Obviously when Mané scored my reaction was a bit surprising to them. They all knew that I wasn’t a Liverpool supporter, so they were kind of confused. I then did tell them that I was playing a Fantasy Football Game but I didn´t tell them what kind of stakes were involved.

Yes, I remember Mané scoring the goal and then he had a huge chance again around the 65th minute?

I can´t remember that one but the amount of luck that I had to actually win it was just unbelievable. Even in that one particular game there were three or four strange incidents that happened that would have turned the game. And of course, the many chances for Salah! The one that hit the post and then went along the Goal line and the keeper grabbed it – I couldn´t believe that. Even afterwards for the first ten seconds I wasn´t sure that it hadn´t crossed the line and was just waiting for VAR to ruin everything. It was just crazy. When Mané got substituted I thought it was all over. I thought I might end up in the top 5. The strange thing was, and I haven´t really worked it out yet, when Mané went off I wasn´t sure if I wanted Sheffield Utd to score or not because the teams beside me had two Liverpool defenders and I just had one Liverpool defender so they would lose eight points and I would lose four points but I couldn’t work out at the time whether the people below me might over take me. So, for the last ten minutes of the game I didn´t know who to shout for apart from Salah not to score.

Did you know that if Salah gets subbed off you will make first place?

No! I knew that people around me had Salah as a captain, so I knew that they would get 2 points if he played 90 minutes as it´s one point for playing the whole match and it doubles for a captain. For me it was important that he either got booked or subbed off, but I didn´t think it would put me in first place, I thought maybe in second or third. Then, when he did get subbed off and I eventually looked at the leader board I couldn´t believe I was in first place! And what your site is very good at is that the scores are updated quickly and accurately so the live points are usually the final points. I knew I had 146 points and two other teams had 146 points and you had me in first place. At that time, I didn´t know what the deciding factor was. I thought maybe it was because I was top of the leader board after the first week. But I had no idea that it was about budget in the end.

Yes that´s always the first tiebreaker! You just spent around 0.2m less than the other guys.

Well that´s crazy because I might have bought Andy Carroll instead of Shelvey if I had known that so that would have given me another million, but as I got no points for Shelvey anyway, and as Carroll didn´t play, it actually wouldn´t had made any difference. But these small decisions can make the difference of thousands of Euros.

That´s right! So how did you approach Fanteam? Were you only eyeing WCOFF and try to win the qualifiers or did you play other contests as well?

Originally, I was playing the first game with the West Ham and Newcastle players, I think. I put in a team to win money that day and then on your site there is a window that pops up and asks you if you want to enter any of these other competitions and I saw the one with a ticket and I had some experience of other Games that had tickets to win a ticket to win a ticket. So I didn´t intend to play it until it popped up and it was just two Euros and I thought oh “ok I´m just going to do that as well” so that was the moment when I decided to enter the qualifier, when your pop up came on to my screen and showed the other contests I could join with the same team I just created. Thank you for that! Then I won the first ticket, or I think I actually won two tickets for the step two tournament. I actually emailed your support team to ask them “I have these tickets, what can I use them for?” and they explained the tournament page to me and showed me the step two tournament. Then I found the contest, entered two teams, I think those two teams were almost identical with Vardy as a captain in one and Tielemans as captain in the other. With the last-minute goal with a Pereira assist I won the ticket to WCOFF. I appreciate that I was so lucky winning the big ticket with only a few entries. Honestly, the first time I entered the qualifier, I had no idea what I was entering.

The decisive selection of Mane over Salah and fscottl´s drafting process

I think it has not only been luck. Your entire drafting process is really really good.

Thank you, I think there are some players which are standard options and after that its looking for players you think are, in your opinion good value. Fanteam do a really good job when they re-price the players each week as I rarely find someone that I consider a real bargain, but I have never had such a run of luck. Of all the decisions I made, apart from my Newcastle players, almost all came good. It was the most incredible lucky streak. The reason I had Jahanbahksh from Brighton in game 1, was because I bought him at the last minute as he was starting the first game that day and the money, I had left meant there was no other realistic choice I could afford. But I also knew he was at Brighton for 18 months and had never scored although he had a great record in Holland. It was the first time I had even considered him. There was so much luck involved. In the first round, Shar was a budget choice as well. I thought it possible he might be on penalties as he used to be for Switzerland or get on the end of a Shelvey set piece as he is a central back, but he actually scored from a Carroll knock down. I did not expect that. I think he had scored 1 goal this season for Newcastle.

Another question is why you chose Mane and not Salah. I mean everybody chose Salah over Mane in the final.

Normally it is a coin toss between which one to choose, but I like your games with the safety net. For this game if I had Salah and he didn’t play I would have ended up with someone like Lallana or Ox, however as Mane was more expensive, if he didn’t play, I would get Salah. With all the games at Xmas and New Year the coaches rotate, so it was difficult to predict who would play for sure and who would be rested.

Alright that´s a good strategy to go there. That´s what safety net is for. And in general, before you draft your team. What kind of research do you do?

Not a huge amount. I check the injuries and likely line-ups, predict what the scores are going to be and decide which teams are more likely to score most or keep a clean sheet and then I stick with that. I don’t do a lot of research. I do watch a lot of football when I’m at work and I enjoy it more because of fantasy football, but my research is not as much as some of your guys, for example gaffel .

I’ve since heard he does some statistical modelling. I am sure he is doing an awful lot of research which is obviously paying off. I really think a large percentage of my win was due to luck.

I think obviously some guys are bringing in a lot of research, but I think that you also need a feeling for the sport and some expertise that you can bring in when you watch the games.

Yes, Part of the fun is watching a game and noticing a player who is getting forward or into good goal scoring position but hasn’t scored for a while. Then if he is a bargain, I will add him to my next fantasy team. That is probably what everyone does. To use this strategy, there is no substitute to watching lots of games.

From not telling his wife about playing to going on holiday and fixing the house

The rumours are his own wife did not even know about the WCOFF until he had won it. Let us find out more about that myth and what fscottl is planning on doing with the price money.

Another question is more away from fantasy football. But our users would like to know what you are doing with your winnings. Do you have a plan on spending the €30,000?

I did not tell my wife or family until everything was confirmed, but they soon had their own ideas how to spend it. My first thought was that we would use some of it for a holiday. But there are also some other things around the house that need money spent on them. We will probably get a newer car as my present one is getting old, but I will hold back some money for Fanteam and play larger stake games until it runs out – or I get lucky again!

We can hear by the voice that fscottl is very thank thankful for the price money.

That sounds awesome! Do you plan on playing more on Fanteam after this win?

Oh absolutely. This might also lead to my wife Julie playing more DFS. She knows quite a bit about football. I remember that she picked Cantwell at the start of the season and I knew nothing about him, and he has turned out to be some bargain.

Ha-ha great pick! Maybe she should try her luck in the next WCOFF!

It is really great to have a wife that understands fantasy football; it also means I can watch more football at home. During the last World Cup, she watched more games than I did!!!

Yeah, I imagine! Are you interested in other sports on Fanteam ?

Not really, football is what I know most about. I know the basic rules of American Football, Baseball and Basketball but wouldn’t play them. I do play other football leagues though like LaLiga and Serie A. For other sports, I doubt I have enough knowledge although I might have a go on tennis now, I have the funds. Maybe when Andy Murray gets back to his best.

I think your research process is really dependent on the sport that you like. I think you can make a lot of money with this in the future as well.

It’s great having a hobby that makes you money rather than spending it, but part of the reason of playing Fantasy Football is that it makes a football game more exciting at night when I am at work. I now want to watch a Monday night match like Sheffield United vs Watford thanks to fantasy sports which even makes that match something to look forward to. Even if I have no players from either team, I know that other players do, so I watch hoping for no clean sheets, bookings and sending offs for example, so it makes football much more interesting.

Yes, that is a main argument for Daily Fantasy. Many people say so.

I know a lot of people use bookmakers for the same reason, but fantasy football is better and cheaper than betting with a bookie. I know many people can lose large sums on games like Sheffield United vs Watford, just to make that game exciting. But with fantasy football you can spend 2€ and get much more excitement and make more money than with a bet. How many times have you heard of someone betting first goal scorer only to have that player score second? With Fantasy Football you get the same thrill from either and often have an interest right up until the final whistle.

I totally agree, good point. Thank you so much for now. Do you have anything to add?

Instead of gambling on a game with a Bookmaker, I suggest those people try fantasy sports. You have the chance to win a lot of money at a small cost while still experiencing the thrill.

I want to thank your company and your team very much for the product. You have done a great job and the game is not over complicated. DraftKings for example is way too difficult to play. With your product, you can select players from the teams you like and there is still a reasonable chance to win. The experience has been amazing, and the win has been huge for me. I told my wife and my kids I had won this competition when they were all together and they were so excited, so that was a very nice moment for me, but it has also made my entire family really happy.

Thanks for the nice last words fscottl! We are very happy to hear that.

Thank you for everything. For your team, for the amazing product, and for the customer service who explained what I had to do with my tickets. I can honestly say I have never dealt with any company in any industry who are so quick and helpful with their customer support. I have seen quite a few Daily Fantasy Sports come and go in my time and know how difficult it is to create such a great product and I think you have probably got the balance just right. That combined with the ease of use of the website and app makes this an amazing product – Easy to say from someone who is €30,000 richer because of it.

Rumours are that another, even bigger event is in the planning, so make sure to register on Fanteam and do not miss out to be the next big winner.

Fanteam is the biggest Daily Fantasy Sports platform in Europe. Weekly Premier League Tournaments with a guaranteed prize pool of €50,000 are topped by big events like the WCOFF. Watch out for even bigger contests in the future – Fanteam will provide life-changing prizes for the best DFS-players!