In this week's P.O. Box:

It’s wild how quickly the DFS ecosystem has evolved in the past year or so.

Salary Cap contests on DraftKings and FanDuel used to dominate all of the conversations at the DFS watercooler, but things have shifted of late.

The rise of draft games on Underdog coupled with the expansion of sim products in the salary cap sphere have, dare I say, flipped the DFS world on its head.

The difference in the landscape isn’t necessarily where people spend their money—I’ve personally been playing a similar amount in weekly entry fees on DraftKings this year as I did in previous years—but rather how people are spending their time.

I used to spend all week tinkering with my tournament teams—seeing what fits, swapping out stacks, saving lineup “shells” like a detective with a cork board.

But now I spend most of my time throughout the week drafting teams on Underdog. Drafting teams is simply more entertaining and fun than fiddling with a lineup that doesn’t have to be submitted until 1pm ET.

It’s also completely unnecessary. Optimizers and sim products (I use The Solver) have provided a shortcut to building +EV lineups. That doesn’t mean there isn't entertainment value in building lineups—it’s just that it doesn’t take as long anymore to “get a feel for the slate” or build a solid lineup when a powerful sim can do all the legwork for you.

DFS players can easily wait until after inactives are released, optimize some teams around favorite stacks or core plays, and then sim them to see which ones grade out the best.

For me, this is the best of both worlds. I love drafting and I love the salary cap DFS puzzle, but there’s only so much time in a given week and spending the majority of that time on drafting is way more enjoyable…and profitable.

Last week I spent my Sunday am pushing one of my favorite angles in Battle Royale Drafts—Jordan Love and Jayden Reed. I drafted 5 of those combos and two of them ended up finishing Top 10 overall in the nearly 68,000 entry contest for $8,750:

I’ll always have a soft spot for salary cap DFS—it’s a very fun, albeit an increasingly tough game to play—but I envision we’ll continue to see more and more people shifting their time and money to draft games.

The Deposit Kingdom Discord is filled with many such examples. Tonight on DFS After Dark I’ll be chatting with Jordan Chand from SaberSim, who is someone who straddles both of these DFS worlds.

The draft games are already getting tougher, but they aren’t anywhere as close to as tough as the games are on DraftKings where the simlords rule the land. Come join us in the BR streets while the gettin’s still good.

💎 Week 5 hidden gems (5 DFS sleepers & 3 draft angles). We got five DFS sleepers, a couple pick 'ems, and three angles to attack in Week 5 Battle Royale drafts. Check it out on the Deposit Kingdom channel.

🏆Fantasy Life roundup. Five newsletters and the Week 5 DFS awards, featuring two sets of teammates worth playing together and the Vomit Stack of the week.

🤯 Week 5 DFS Strategy & Top GPP Plays w/ JMToWin. This week’s building block? The Deebos.

⏰ Week 5 Battle Royale Strategy, Sleepers & Pick ‘Ems. The scroll down crew get you prepped for drafts.

💪The Swolecast: Week 5 DFS first look. For all the Dads, Brads, and Chads out there.

☣The Ex-Jags Employee Is Now Suing FanDuel. LOLz digs in to the latest in this bizarre case.

🚢 An Insane TNF Game ft. Pick 'Em Agony & Ecstasy. An absurd Bucky Irving sweat.

📈 Week 4 Usage Trends, Buy Lows, & Week 5 DFS Plays - Stat Chasing. This show shouldn’t be free.

🥶 Resurrection Draft Targets - ADP Chasing. Good stuff here if you are firing at in-season best ball contests.

☕ 2 Top 10 Battle Royale Teams (Week 4 DFS Recap). Big week on the dog app.

Here is a Pick ‘Em round up from shows yesterday:

Deposit Kingdom:

Off & On The Clock:

2 shows on tap this weekend, both available for Youtube members.

Need more newslettering? Check out the Fantasy Life newsletter I write five days a week: