Seen At 11: Big Winner Shares His Fantasy Sports Secrets
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Millions of people play fantasy sports in the hopes of winning millions of dollars.
So, how do they do it?
Former accountant Nick Dunham, 30, makes big bucks playing NFL, MLB and NBA fantasy sports.
On Sundays, he enters up to five thousand contests, spending $30,000 to $50,000 a week on entry fees.
"It got me out of a cubicle, and working at home for myself, which was always one of my goals. I never thought it would be fantasy sports," Dunham said.
And sometimes, his success has paid off -- allowing him to make big bucks purchases, like his yellow Lamborghini. He said he gets a 150 to 200 percent return in the six-figure range.
To put his success in perspective, Dunham spends eight hours a day crunching player stats.
But can an average person beat Dunham?
"You don't have to do it full time to be successful at it. A lot of the people who win the Mili-Maker contests have been average Joes," Dunham said.
For big money games -- like those $1 million jackpots, Dunham says you need to pick a sleeper no one else is going to pick.
CBS2 compared stats with Nick Kostos of CBSSports.com.
"If you could find someone that's not going to be as owned by as many people, get him into your lineup," Kostos said. "If that guy goes off. now you've got a chance to really separate yourself from the pack and cash in on a good pay day."
Dunham, who makes the majority of his money on daily leagues said he also likes picking pairs -- like a quarterback and a wide receiver, or a quarterback and a tight end.
If those pairs connect on a touchdown, both players score big, Dunham said.
Kostos agreed that Dunham's strategy was great for a daily league, but not for a season-long fantasy league.
"The only time that I'm looking to stack in a season-long league is if it's an elite quarterback and it's an elite wide receiver or tight end," Kostos said. "I think you can certainly get away with stacking Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, but you might not want to stack Kirk Cousins and Desean Jackson for an entire season."
Kostos said you only need to set aside a couple of days for research, starting with Tuesday.
"That's the day before you put your waiver claims in and that usually will transfer Wednesday morning for season-long leagues," Kostos said.
Kostos also recommends looking at injury reports on Friday, and Sunday, when the inactives come out, so you can really get a sense of who is going to play.
Here's a final tip:
"It's always good to take a look at the Vegas lines the over-unders and see 'alright well this game's got a very high over under this team is favored in the game by X amount of points ergo mathematically. "I think the books think that this team gonna score alot then you can look at players from those teams."
Just this week, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman ordered DraftKings and FanDuel to stop taking bets in the state, saying it's illegal.
But the companies argue they are games of skill, not chance.
Fans hoping to keep the games alive plan to rally outside Schneiderman's office on Friday at 8 a.m.
