Ed Miller, best known to most for his work as a poker strategist, has lately been peppering his Twitter feed with a variety of observations on the daily fantasy sports industry.
Earlier today, Miller crystallized his core criticisms of the current DFS model:
More I play #DFS, the more I realize how the game is gonna be a big fat miss unless the big players put a lot more effort into salary algo.
— Ed Miller (@EdMillerPoker) December 21, 2014
The #DFS game is totally broken right now. Each week only like 15% of the field is at a playable salary. But this isn’t obv to rec players.
— Ed Miller (@EdMillerPoker) December 21, 2014
Miller coupled the warning with some simple prescriptions for improving the situation:
They need to put more effort into making lines. Then early in week (for football at least) they should let the market hammer out salaries.
— Ed Miller (@EdMillerPoker) December 21, 2014
They should set salary lines on Monday night and let you bet o/u on an equiv number of points thru Wednesday night. Lock salaries on Thurs.
— Ed Miller (@EdMillerPoker) December 21, 2014
There’s still a problem that GPP and 50/50 salaries should be different, but at least it would be better.
— Ed Miller (@EdMillerPoker) December 21, 2014
There’s a lot of back-and-forth on the individual tweets that speaks to the potential complexity lurking behind Miller’s apparently straightforward solutions.
Miller’s comments are part of a growing chorus of concerns about the viability of the underlying structure of DFS and whether or not those structural issues are an existential threat currently papered over by rapid growth or simply bumps in the development path that competition will smooth out.
