Draft Dashboard Review – Is this DFS Research Tool Worth it? (Player’s Guide)

Draft Dashboard emerged onto the scene in 2015. With statistics galore and a gorgeous, aesthetically pleasing interface, this product is among the best that I have seen.

Wondering if Draft Dashboard is the right DFS research tool for you? This Draft Dashboard review takes a deep dive into the software and discusses its strengths, weaknesses, and what you need to think about before investing your hard-earned money. 

An Overview of Draft Dashboard

Key specifications:

• Price plan: $39.95 per month with trial for $1
• Game coverage: NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and LOL 
• Tools Suite: Top DFS plays, Sleepers and Studs, Watched Players Lineup, Optimizer Position, Optimizer Browse Teams

Competing in DFS contests is exciting, exhilarating, and potentially profitable. However, as a long-time DFS player, the research involved in generating competitive lineups can be tedious and downright boring. 

To ease the substantial time investments, multiple companies have created DFS research tools and lineup optimizers that generate equally viable lineups in ten minutes as opposed to 3 hours. Draft Dashboard is one of those companies, and today I will review their product.

At present, you can sign up for one month of access to Draft Dashboard for just $1, with each additional month billed at $39.95. There are no sport-specific packages, as it is more like an all-or-nothing deal. $39.95 supplies access to all features for NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and LOL.

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Who Should be Buying a DFS Research Suite?

DFS research suites organize all the information needed for users to generate prosperous, profitable lineups, and assemble it in a single place. In combination with the included lineup optimizer, these tools significantly reduce the time investment required to produce competitive entries. 

All DFS players of all skill levels who want to create improved lineups in less time would benefit from a DFS research suite. Any DFS player who wants to become more profitable should consider Draft Dashboard or other comparable products.

Those players who might want to seek an alternative product would be those who find the $39.95/month an unwelcome financial hardship. In this case, I would suggest, at least for NFL DFS, the Football Fantasy Nerd product for $19.99/year. That product is briefly reviewed later in the article.  

Features and Benefits

DashRank™

Draft Dashboard uses a proprietary algorithm known as DashRank™ to determine who are the best players of the slate. The software analyzes vital DFS statistics and upcoming matchups. It assigns each player a DashRank, ranging from 0 to 100, with 0 being the worst and 100 the best. 

The DashRank™ represents the player’s potential to score fantasy points in their upcoming game. Over time, the players with higher DashRanks tend to score more than the players with lower DashRanks.

One of three colors, red, yellow, or green, envelop each DashRank. A green score indicates a great play, while a yellow score suggests caution. Lastly, red scores indicate the poorest plays and should be avoided.^[1] 

Lineup Optimizer

Draft Dashboard’s signature feature is its Lineup Optimizer, and it possesses some transcendent features that are both unique and of meaningful use. Upon initiating the optimizer, it presents you with a complete roster, the salaries of the rostered players, and their DashRanks. At this point, you can save the roster, create a new one, or improve upon it. 

Given the above roster, your best move is to improve upon it before saving it for entry into a contest. Luckily, Draft Dashboard’s Lineup optimizer provides all the necessary tools and data to efficiently upgrade your entry without leaving the interface – a great convenience and time-saving measure.

An upgrade to address Cole Beasley’s DashRank of 49 is required. By hovering the mouse pointer over the 49, you can access the metrics that are responsible for that low DashRank.

Without leaving the interface, I can see that there are whopping 25 players to whom I could upgrade.

Upon clicking on the dropdown menu, I can scroll through all 25 upgrades and select a replacement. Please note that the players whose salaries are in red are not affordable. However, there are many upgrades whose salaries are in green that I can afford.

I just select the desired upgrade, and that player will replace Beasly in my new lineup. This lineup is optimized, ready to be saved, and eventually uploaded to either FanDuel or DraftKings for competition.

I have used many lineup optimizers throughout my DFS career; however, none have performed as seamlessly.^[2] 

Player Watchlist

The aforementioned method of using the lineup optimizer is not the only possibility. Rather than having the optimizer generate lineups from the entire pool of players, users may create a limited pool of players from which the optimizer can select. This method ensures only the players with whom I am comfortable ever make it into my lineups.

To build lineups in this manner, Draft Dashboard recommends that you begin your session with the Top Players Today tool. This interface lists the top players based on their DashRank.

You can also begin your session from the Position Optimizer tool, which lists all players by position.

Regardless of the interface used, as you peruse through the players, you click the Watch button in the rightmost column for each player that you want added to your player pool. When the Watch button turns red, that player is now a member of your player pool.

The players in your player pool are known as Watched Players and are located in your Player Watchlist.

At this point, you have created your player Watchlist. You are ready to generate high-quality lineups using Draft Dashboard’s lineup optimizer. Upon using the lineup optimizer now, it will only insert watched players, or those in the Player Watchlist, into your lineup.

The Players Watchlist is another brilliant tool for generating lineups that only contain those players that I have a good feeling about.^[3]

Sleepers and Studs

Studs

The Studs tool lists players who have scored the most fantasy points per game over the last week. These are minimal risk proven players who consistently score the most fantasy points. Ideally, every lineup should include at least a couple of studs. This tool serves as a great reminder of players who have been playing very well over the last week and certainly belong in my lineups.^[4]

Sleepers

Sleepers are low-cost players who are outperforming their salary. The best use of this tool is when your lineup is missing one player and you do not have much salary left to spend. In the below example, I am missing one player and only have $3,300 in salary remaining.

Rather than waste my salary on an unproductive player, this tool allows me to find solid performers who I can still afford with limited salary.

The Sleepers tool is yet another feature that I have not encountered in other tool suites, but found extremely useful.^[5]

Statistics

Draft Dashboard provides users with every statistic that would be of any utility in generating lineups. Additionally, every statistic is color-coded in the green, yellow, and red scheme to stand out to the user. The visuals are some of the most attractive that I have seen among DFS software.

Cheat Sheets

For each sport and slate, there is a cheat sheet indicating the best plays within a given price range. While these cheat sheets do not appeal to me, I can certainly see their utility for those casual players seeking quick advice to create competitive lineups.

Instructional Videos

There are a litany of short instructional videos that describe most features of the site. I found these to be extremely helpful and informative. The features covered include:

• Lineup Optimizer
• Position Optimizer
• Watched and Locked Players
• Find Sleepers
• Find Studs
• Browse Teams

Browse Teams

The Browse Teams feature enables you to view team-specific information for all teams playing on a given slate.^[6] This includes:

• Game Conditions
• Over/Under
• Point Spread
• Depth Chart
• Player Health
• Player Salary
• Player DraftDash Score
• Player Location in Batting Order
• Starting Lineups

Knowing how many points that Vegas expects a team to score is often a starting point for my research. Ideally, you want to target players from teams who are expected to score many points.

Additionally, the spread is also a particularly crucial factor. For example, if an NFL team is expected to score a large number of points, but the spread is greater than ten points, I will avoid that team. The rationale is that in a lopsided game, the starters will be on the bench in the fourth quarter, unable to generate fantasy points.

Fantasy Success: Reviewing Results and Refining Process

All created lineups on Draft Dashboard are saved, along with their actual results. This practice allows you to go back and look at your lineups and see what you could have done better to create a more successful lineup.

Building profitable lineups is all about the process. I found this to be a fantastic DFS tool for reviewing past results and refining my processes accordingly.

What are People Saying About Draft Dashboard?

I scoured the internet and found some reviews that seemed somewhat positive about the product. Two of the reviews praised the product, while one of those two did mention that the software was pricey. The third review says nothing about the product. Still, it indicates dissatisfaction with the advertised “free” one-month trial that, in actuality, costs $1.

I signed up for the “free” trial myself, and was rather stunned when I had to provide my credit card for a $1 charge.^[7] 

Alternatives to Draft Dashboard

Let’s see how three similar alternatives compare to Draft Dashboard: Fantasy Pros, Daily Fantasy Nerd, and Fantasy Football Nerd.

FantasyPros

While FantasyPros does provide some excellent tools, it is more appropriate for season-long fantasy leagues, as two of its three main functions, Draft Wizard and My Playbook, are only applicable to such contests. 

They do provide limited DFS support, with a lineup optimizer, and the ability to review your past DFS results; however, these features are only available at the most expensive HOF level of membership.

Yearly membership for FantasyPros HOF package costs around $95; however, if you are solely a DFS player, I would certainly stick to Draft Dashboard.

Nonetheless, if you participate in NBA, NFL, or MLB season-long competitions, I would definitely give FantasyPros a shot.

Daily Fantasy Nerd

Daily Fantasy Nerd, as you might have surmised from the name, is unequivocally built with the DFS user in mind. They have three levels of membership, after a 7-day free trial.

All plans enable access to their tools in the four major sports: NFL, MLB, NHL, and NBA. The veteran plan only allows support for ten lineup optimizations and just one DFS site. Upgrading up to the MVP plan provides a level of service most like that of Draft Dashboard.

Although twice the price, Daily Fantasy Nerd’s MVP plan supports four DFS sites: DraftKings, FanDuel, Yahoo, and FantasyDraft.

Daily Fantasy Nerd supplies free instructional videos on YouTube to acclimate inexperienced users to the platform. While both Draft Dashboard and Daily Fantasy Nerd offer enormous statistical information, the visual appeal and the aesthetics are lacking on Daily Fantasy Nerd (See above).

For some reason, DFN decided to use shades of orange and blue to highlight above-average and below-average statistics. I much prefer the red and green color scheme used by Draft Dashboard.

If you play on sites other than FanDuel or DraftKings, Daily Fantasy Nerd might be the answer you are looking for, and I encourage you to visit the website.

Read this article to know more about Daily Fantasy Nerd.

Fantasy Football Nerd

FFN primarily focuses on season-long fantasy leagues. However, they do provide a functional DFS optimizer that works with DraftKings, FanDuel, and Yahoo. While the in-season features are wholly inadequate, where this product can help you is with its draft-prep features for seasonal leagues.

For those desiring an extremely affordable DFS lineup optimizer, or fairly solid draft preparation for season-long football leagues, Fantasy Football Nerd might just be your inexpensive ticket to fantasy greatness.

Conclusion

DFS contests are exciting, enjoyable, and potentially profitable. However, as all DFS players know all too well, the arduous research process required to produce competitive lineups can be more work than it’s worth.

There once existed a time when in order to play DFS, you either had to devote three hours to daily preparation or skate with the development and hemorrhage money. Such is no longer the case, courtesy of products like Draft Dashboard.

Draft Dashboard’s price renders it a steal for all that it provides. Additionally, it has the most featured lineup optimizer that I have ever seen, enabling the production of GPP-winning entries in a matter of minutes. Lastly, for those who enjoy the grind of lineup construction, Draft Dashboard provides you with any research tool that would be of any utility and organizes them brilliantly all in a single location.

There is no valid reason not to give Draft Dashboard a chance, considering they provide a complete-access, one-month trial for a single dollar. Do yourself a favor, head on over to Draft Dashboard.

I seldom, if ever, hand out perfect ratings. Although I must admit that I was tempted to do so for this product. Ultimately, my overall rating is 4.5/5.

Resources:

[1] “Daily Fantasy Tools and DFS Lineup Optimizer! – YouTube.” 11 Nov. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_GKTYbIXY0. Accessed 5 Jun. 2020.
[2] “Daily Fantasy Tools and DFS Lineup Optimizer! – YouTube.” 11 Nov. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_GKTYbIXY0. Accessed 5 Jun. 2020.
[3] “Draft Dashboard Review – Wealthy Fantasy Football.” 10 Jul. 2017, https://wealthyfantasyfootball.com/draft-dashboard-review/. Accessed 5 Jun. 2020.
[4] “Daily Fantasy Tools and DFS Lineup Optimizer! – YouTube.” 11 Nov. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_GKTYbIXY0. Accessed 5 Jun. 2020.
[5] “Draft Dashboard Review – Wealthy Fantasy Football.” 10 Jul. 2017, https://wealthyfantasyfootball.com/draft-dashboard-review/. Accessed 5 Jun. 2020.
[6] “Draft Dashboard Review – Wealthy Fantasy Football.” 10 Jul. 2017, https://wealthyfantasyfootball.com/draft-dashboard-review/. Accessed 5 Jun. 2020.
[7] “Draft Dashboard? : dfsports – Reddit.” https://www.reddit.com/r/dfsports/comments/9px1wu/draft_dashboard/. Accessed 5 Jun. 2020.