4 ms·

Show HN: Fantasy Sports Solved through Dynamic Programming

19 points by bjpless 13y ago

hoopism 13y ago
Nice work. My brother has been doing this manually for sometime... useful tool.
- bjpless 13y ago
  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.
kylebrown 13y ago
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.
kohanz 13y ago
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.
- bjpless 13y ago
  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.
triplenineteen 13y ago
This looks really nice. I wrote something similar for personal use during the NFL season. Selfishly, I hope no one finds out about this.
- bjpless 13y ago
  Ha, that's awesome to hear. That last sentence is gold.
  - triplenineteen 13y ago
    Also is there a reason you aren't including referral codes in the links to the Fantasy sites?
    - bjpless 13y ago
      Just wanted to release it as quickly as possible. Referral codes coming soon.
acconrad 13y ago
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?
wtpiu 13y ago
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?
- bjpless 13y ago
  Point of this tool is that you plug in your own projection values and it computes the best possible lineup.
  - wtpiu 13y ago
    ah makes sense...so that mean you are projecting danilo to get 27 tonight?
    - bjpless 13y ago
      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.

19 points by bjpless 13y ago

hoopism 13y ago

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

bjpless 13y ago
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.

kylebrown 13y ago

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.

kohanz 13y ago

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.

bjpless 13y ago
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.

triplenineteen 13y ago

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

bjpless 13y ago
Ha, that's awesome to hear. That last sentence is gold.
- triplenineteen 13y ago
  Also is there a reason you aren't including referral codes in the links to the Fantasy sites?
  - bjpless 13y ago
    Just wanted to release it as quickly as possible. Referral codes coming soon.

acconrad 13y ago

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?

wtpiu 13y ago

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?

bjpless 13y ago
Point of this tool is that you plug in your own projection values and it computes the best possible lineup.
- wtpiu 13y ago
  ah makes sense...so that mean you are projecting danilo to get 27 tonight?
  - bjpless 13y ago
    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.