In 2013, Travis "Tspiedo" Spieth came out of nowhere to win the FanDuel Fantasy Football Championship (FFFC) and bank the industry’s first $1 million top prize. Spieth, a sales manager for a South Dakota news publication, had played in fantasy leagues for years, but had only signed up to play online just a few days earlier. Key to his win was running back Montee Ball, who scored a late in the game touchdown to propel Spieth to first place and make him the first DFS seven-figure prize winner.
Known as “rickmilitar” online, this media shy daily fantasy player had already built a reputation as an elite DFS competitor before raking in a cool $1 million in DraftStreet’s 2013 Daily Fantasy Football Championship (DFFC). While others contestants were enjoying an all expensed paid trip to Las Vegas, Siegel decided to stay home and focus his full attention on the game. Chiefs’ running back Jamaal Charles would score five touchdowns during the contest, giving Siegel’s line up the boost it needed to take first place along with the million dollar payout.
One of the DFS industry’s brightest stars, Peter Jensen once made history by winning $150k in the 2012 FFFC in 2012, the biggest single prize payout in fantasy sports history at the time. While he wasn’t the first to hit the seven-figure mark, the former stockbroker quickly caught up, besting 50 players to win the 2014 DFBC championship for a cool $1 million. Jensen took the lead from the start, benefiting from a first-inning homerun by Dustin Pedroia, along with homers from Mike Napoli, Alan Craig and José Bautista.
Professional poker player Matt "SamENole" Smith has been crushing online poker since the industry’s early days. Now, he’s leveraged the analytical skills which serve him in the poker world to become a force in the daily fantasy sports industry as well. Smith took first place in the inaugural DraftKings Millionaire Maker contest with a buy-in of just $27. Solid performances by Peyton Manning, Antonio Gates and Demaryius Thomas were enough to earn the poker pro 235.26 points and the $1 million first-place prize.
Jason "Jquave76" Quave’s induction into the DFS Millionaire's Club came after besting the field in DraftKings Week 6 Millionaire Maker contest. Instead of shelling out for top players like the previous week’s winner, Quave sought out potentially undervalued players like Mohammed Sanu, who filled in for AJ Green, and running back Brandon Oliver, who would start for the first time on the Chargers’ roster. The gamble paid off, and Quave would take home the second $1 million prize awarded in the seven-figure tournament.
Ray Coburn and Cory Albertson, the stats gurus behind the DraftKings account “rayofhope,” once again proved the effectiveness of their algorithm by putting up a massive 241.62 points to win the site’s Week 7 Millionaire Maker. The two former poker pros were neck and neck with user “osubase34” going into the Monday night game between the Steelers and Texans. In the end, it all came down to Le’Veon Bell, who needed to score more than 18 points to give rayofhope the win. Bell came through with plenty of time to spare, making Coburn and Albertson $1 million richer.
Going into Monday Night Football, Boston's Mike Leavitt led the pack in the Week 8 Millionaire Maker with a 24 fantasy point lead on his closest competitor, “1979Steelers.” To topple Leavitt, his oppenent would need Dez Bryant to bridge the 24-point gap with a big performance. In the second quarter, Leavitt saw his seven-figure payday slipping away as Bryant had made up half the points 1979Steelers needed for the win. But when the Redskins scored first in overtime and the Cowboys came up short, Leavitt took home the $1 million payday.
The unnamed player known only as “Hardfour” went into the DraftKings Week 9 Millionaire Maker with eight entries at his disposal. After the Sunday night games, one of those entries led the pack with 249.42 points. With no players in the Monday night games, Hardfour was forced to watch as his closest competitors were given at least one more chance at the top prize that night. “steelernation40” came closest to overtaking Hardfour but when all was said and done, his opponent’s remaining players were unable to pick up the necessary points, giving Hardfour the victory along with a hefty oversized $1 million check.
Going into the Sunday night games with five players left to go, no one would have guessed that Anthony "mcnizzi" Taronto would take home the seven-figure Week 10 Millionaire Maker prize. Taronto went with popular pick Mark Sanchez but paired him with Jordan Matthews, an inspired choice considering just 3.8% of the field had thrown in their lot with the Eagles wide receiver. That decision was key to Taronto’s victory and helped propel him from 118.68 points on Sunday to 258.68 points and a $1 million payday.
Unlike previous Millionaire Maker winners, Dave “DavetheChamp” Gomez and his brother Rob didn’t rely on complex statistical models to draft their winning lineup, they simply went with their gut. On that Monday night, the brothers were locked in a tight race for first with another user who was racking up points with in Steelers’ Le’Veon Bell. But the brothers’ decision to roster Jonas Gray would pay dividends when the running back scored four touchdowns, adding 46.9 fantasy points to DavetheChamp’s total score. During an interview after the win, Rob revealed that he had once applied for a job at DraftKings – but was turned down.
A player known only by the screen name “sradss1” would best a field of over 70,000 opponents to lock up the $1 million prize in Week 12 of the DraftKings Millionaire Maker contest. Going into the Sunday night game, sradss1 had posted just 101.9 points, but still had five players set to take the field that night, four of which would rack up some solid numbers. sradss1 hit pay dirt with Robert Woods, who was chosen by only a small fraction of players, yet scored 29.8 points.
In Week 13 of the DraftKings Millionaire Maker, player JGENNARO2 not only defeated a field of 71,000, but did so to the tune of almost seven points for an astounding total score of 303.02. Key to JGENNARO2’s success was Ryan Fitzpatrick, who appeared in only 1.5% of total lineups yet finished the day with 358 yards and six scores for 42.32 fantasy points.
Ayton Jankowitz and Aaron Merchak put together the winning roster at the DraftKings inaugural King of the Beach contest, earning them the $1 million top prize. In a postgame interview, Jankowitz revealed that he didn’t think his and Merchak’s lineup had much of a chance to bank the seven-figure payday, and thought they might end the day with at least a high finish. But a last-minute touchdown from Russell Wilson to Doug Baldwin was enough to propel the pair into the top spot, edging out Ben "Comox_Warrior" Burns who would finish second for $350k.
While FanDuel was the first daily fantasy site to offer a $1 million top prize, DraftKings’ Millionaire Maker contests were soon awarding seven figures nearly every week. But FanDuel raised the bar again during its 2014 Fantasy Football Championship by putting a whopping $2 million up for grabs. Scott Hansen would end up pocketing the massive sum, but endured a bumpy road to the winners circle. Hansen shot to the top early, then fell behind, and later worked his way up back to second place. A Demaryius Thomas touchdown gave Hansen the 2.3 points he needed to secure first-place and the $2 million prize.
Just one day after FanDuel’s Fantasy Football Championship, DraftKings was back, offering another $1 million in its Millionaire Maker Championship. The winner was none other than DraftKings Pro team member Drew Dinkmeyer, who sweated it out through a series of nerve-racking games where first place was taken then lost a number of times. At the end of the day, Dinkmeyer’s bet on Eli Manning, Jeremy Hill, Odell Beckham Junior and Dez Bryant would boost him to the top of the list, while a solid performance by Marquess Wilson locked in the win.
Christmas came a few days early for Bill "gunz4hire" Gunlogson, who pocketed $1 million in the DraftKings World Championship Main Event. Going into Monday Night Football, player “PrimeTime420” lead the pack and could have held his position with a low-scoring Monday night game. But that wasn’t in the cards, and gunz4hire would go on to benefit from a solid performance by CJ Anderson. Gunz4hire also made some unconventional picks, including Odell Beckham, Terry Bridgewater, Jarius Wright and Jermaine Gresham, each of whom was rostered by only a tiny percentage of the competition. At the end of the day, gunz4hire would secure the top spot and become the newest DFS millionaire.
The DraftKings PGA $3M Millionaire Maker tournament ended not with one millionaire, but in a tie between “Jrazair” and “Dr_cash007”, who split first and second prize for a total of $600K each. The astounding thing, however, is that while each player was allowed up to 500 entries into the event, Jrazair and Dr_cash007 had only three between themselves.
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"cylusballin" lives every DFS players dream by taking first place in his very first contest.
"Jeremiah1974db" lived out every DFS player's dream by winning the Sunday Million on his first ever attempt at daily fantasy.
Patrick “TheDuganBrothers” Dugan’s choice to draft Travis Benjamin, owned by less than 1% of teams, was the key to the $2 million win.
Brettrau24 didn’t search for sleepers. He built his lineup on players with great matchups and solid statistical profiles.
ChipotleAddict’s lineup finished with a total of 200.02 points to earn him first place and a $1.2 million payday.
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