Fantasy Sports with James Gettinger

Welcome to “From High Stakes Poker To …”! In this brand-new podcast, we interview former high-stakes poker players who have transitioned into other careers. If you’re ready to learn how the raw intelligence of poker players can function to create (rather than extract) value, or to make that transition, this is the place for you!

Today’s guest is James Gettinger, a former high stakes poker player who is now a professional fantasy sports player mostly on DraftKings and FanDuel. He started playing poker in late 2012, and realized he could turn it into his primary income source. In 2014, he transitioned into fantasy sports, and has been doing that ever since.

If you don’t know anything about sports, this might sound intimidating or even impossible. Believe it or not, James didn’t know anything about sports either when he got started. As he explains today, knowing about sports is an advantage, but it also comes with biases that might do more harm than good.

James and I then transition into talking about the correlation between fantasy sports and real sports, with James sharing his thoughts on whether he would be good at betting on real sports thanks to his fantasy sports experiences. The process is very similar to fantasy sports, James explains, but it comes with an issue: you get banned very quickly if you’re winning, so it’s potentially profitable but hard to scale.

We’ll dig into various other topics including whether fantasy sports or poker is more complex, which has the higher financial ceiling, what James learned from poker that applies to fantasy sports, the pressures and stresses of high-stakes poker, what he would do if he left fantasy sports, and how he defines success. Don’t miss this first episode of the podcast, and don’t forget to subscribe so you’ll hear about every future episode!

Learn More About Today’s Guest:

James Gettinger on Twitter
James Gettinger on Instagram

[00:12] - James gives listeners some background information into who he is, his history as a poker player, and what he does now. [02:12] - We hear a bit about how the fantasy sports world has changed since James got into it in 2014. [02:49] - Has James always been into sports and known a lot about them? [04:08] - James talks about how he uses the information he gleans while watching the NBA to fit into his data. [06:26] - How much of James’ success in fantasy sports is from his computer software, and how much comes from his personal judgment? [06:49] - James digs into determining which variables are noise, and which are signal, when he’s dealing with so much information. [07:41] - Does James think fantasy sports is more complex than poker, or vice versa? [08:46] - James and Wayne talk about the financial ceiling in fantasy sports as opposed to poker. [10:52] - Would James be a good sports better thanks to his experience in fantasy sports? [12:18] - We learn about what James’ typical day looks like. [13:48] - What does James think he should be studying more? [14:45] - We hear about what skills James learned from poker that have helped him in fantasy sports. [18:15] - Has Wayne had similar experiences with playing poker? [21:09] - James talks about whether it’s easier to have a losing month or year in poker or fantasy sports. [24:19] - We learn about open sitting in fantasy sports, and how much the rake is on fantasy sports sites. [27:34] - If James weren’t playing fantasy sports anymore, he would go into financial markets instead, he explains. [29:13] - When James thinks about being successful, what is the first thing that comes to mind, and why? [29:45] - What is James’ favorite life hack? [32:12] - What are some of the most common misconceptions that people have about fantasy sports? And how do people react when they learn that James plays fantasy sports professionally? [35:20] - What is one thing that James believes that many people might consider to be insane? James answers, then flips the question around on Wayne. [37:55] - Where can listeners learn more about James?

Links and Resources:

James Gettinger on Twitter James Gettinger on Instagram DraftKings FanDuel Elliot Roe