This article is part of our FanDuel Fantasy Football series.
There is nothing sweeter in the world than free money. For daily fantasy players, taking advantage of overlay is just like getting free money. For those unfamiliar with the term "overlay", it refers to guaranteed tournaments that do not completely fill. FanDuel guarantees certain payouts for tournaments (those with a blue "G" to the right of the tournament name). If it is a 50-person tournament and only 10 people enter, it will still pay out as if there were 50 people entered. To calculate overlay, multiply the number of entries by the entry fee, subtract that from the total prizes. If the number is negative you have overlay.
Formula - (Current Entries x Entry Fee) – Prizes = Overlay (if negative)
For Example – This tournament started with 700 Entries (out of a possible 919) at a $25 Entry Fee = $17,500. The total winnings paid out (Prizes) is $20,000, so the overlay for this tournament would be $2,500 ($17,500 - $20,000).
Week 1 saw a decent amount of overlay on FanDuel. Personally, I monitored one specific tournament and took advantage of the overlay. Below, I will walk you through my process, so you can take advantage of overlay in the future. The best time to take advantage of overlay is Week 1 and tournaments that start at random times (think preseason and Thursday night games). FanDuel will often advertise tournaments in the lobby that may not be filled, so look for that. Also, they will send emails about possible overlay, so make sure you let FanDuel send you emails. In your FanDuel settings, select "Change email notifications". Take advantage of overlay, when possible.
81 Minutes Before Kickoff
We were 81 minutes from kickoff, and I had found my overlay candidate. The $1.2M Sunday NFL Monster was less than half full and we were getting close to kickoff. I already had a couple rosters ready to go. Make sure that you are ready with a roster, do not try to select your team with a minute left or you will make mistakes. This was a $200 tournament, so it wasn't going to fill quickly. The $20k Sunday NFL Bomb #2 was only 10 percent filled, but it was a $25 entry, so I was pretty confident it would fill in rather quickly.
22 Minutes Before Kickoff
Just 22 minutes from kickoff, and we were looking great for overlay. I waited 10 more minutes to see if the overlay held.
13 Minutes Before Kickoff
At 13 minutes from kickoff, it was still far from a full tournament. I had made my decision, I would enteri the Sunday Monster. I was still deciding if it would be one, two or three entries. I had the rosters ready, so time to make some tough decisions.
Kickoff
I ended up only getting one entry in. I was on the verge of adding a second, but got a little trigger shy in the last moments because I was concerned about blowing my bankroll, if I struck out on both entries. I already had a lot in play for Week 1. At kickoff, there ended up being 4489 out of a possible 6665 entries. How much extra value is that? The total prizes paid out for this was $1,200,000 and the amount of money entered was $897,800 ($200 x 4489). That means that there was an extra $302,200 in the pot. That is free money. I know my high school Economics teacher is cringing as I type that, after constantly telling us that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Looking back, I wish I did take more advantage of the overlay.
The Result
I ended up with a solid entry including Matt Ryan and Julius Thomas and finished 152nd out of 4489 for a win of $800 ($600 profit). I do still wonder what might have been, if I added one, maybe two more entries into a tournament with $302,200 in overlay. But hey, there is always next week when you are playing daily fantasy.
