SECOND Update On Last Post. Important!

I know this is busch league here with the multiple updates on one post, but I must correct something I said about Fanatics in my 'Reviews, Tips and Tricks' post. It's a much bigger deal than the first update, the one about bet sizing with odd amounts. It's actually super embarrassing on my end, to be honest. Let me explain.

In my last post, I said this:

"Fanatics also offers a decent little loyalty program with 'Fancash' and different tiers. Very similar to DK, just called different names. You earn a little bit of 'Fancash' for every bet and just like DKs Crowns, you can think of it like cash. They have certain games with '2x Fancash rewards' every day."

And I have to say, when I wrote that 'like cash' sentence, it didn't quite feel exactly right. It just seemed a little too good to be true and guess what. It is. Let me tell you why and how I found out.

I'm going to tell you a fairly embarrassing story that happened to me yesterday. As embarrassing as it is, it would feel even worse to me if I didn't tell it here. Just remember that I didn't have to tell this, the promo game is still somewhat new to me and I have come to understand that this is the only way I really learn shit. Trial and error. 

Anyway, on to the story.

So yesterday I had a little bit of time to myself during the day so I had all my accounts open and was working through the rewards, taking my time to try to use them as perfectly as possible (this will be funny a minute). I see one I get often from DK: "20% odds boost on any bet but it has to be +300 or higher". For these, I generally look for anything that is as close to +300 as possible. I've been able to find arbs with Pinnacle with the promo. Usually I'll arb at least some of it, sometime the whole thing. If I can get the other side at a price better than Pinnacle or have it be a part of another promo or odds boost, I'll usually arb away. Anyway, yesterday I found a decent looking money-line on a Womans CBB game of +370. With the odds boost I could get it at +444. I had Fanatics open at the same time and saw they had the opponent at -425 which was better than Pinnacle. Not only that, but I had two $100 free bets available on DK as well. I always try to save them for an underdog bet I need anyway. So this was great, it was like 3 birds with one stone. I could use the 20% promo, I could use the two free bets optimally, I could use the $100 free bet promo on Fanatics if I wanted to, and, even better, I could make the -425 bet on Fanatics with my Fancash and turn it into dollars. This was a really good spot, honestly. A little too good in hindsight.

So I fire everything on Draft Kings and literally the second I hit confirm on my last DK bet, Fanatics goes from -425 to -500. Brutal. Bit of a bad omen, perhaps but this kind of thing happens sometimes. Whatever, I still have to close this arb and -500 was still better than Fanduel or Pinny. My position on DK was $100 to win $1084 (if you count the free bets as zero at risk which I do and I think is correct) so I could still easily arb out at -500.

So I make my first bet and risk all of my 'Fancash' to win something like $120. It was something like 575 in Fancash to win $120. Then I made another bet with regular cash, something like 500 to win another 100. I wanted to lock up money no matter what but I wanted the bigger payout if/when the huge favorite won.

So the game was last night and the big favorite won. However, I notice my Fanatic account has like $500 in cash plus Fancash less than it should. I instantly knew what happened, honestly, but I read the Fancash terms closely anyway. You see, they plaster everywhere 'bet with Fancash and win real cash!' What they don't tell you, however, is that you don't get the Fancash you put at stake back! So by making a bet with Fancash at -500, I essentially turned 575 bucks into 120. I used it in the worst possible way. 

To make it even worse, I was talking to their chatbot trying to get in touch with a human to ask about it, and I said I might close my account over it. And they fucking instantly closed my account, lol. I got it turned back on quickly so I actually do have to commend them for that I suppose, but man oh man, I have a much less warm and cozy feeling there now.

You see, yesterday was a Monday which means I was doing my weekly accounting for the prior week. This was the day I had to sort of officially decide what I was calling 'Fancash' for my official records. I had built up a decent amount and while you can't withdraw or convert it to cash, you can bet with it and receive cash winnings. I tend to think of anything that I can bet with as cash. In my mind, I could bet both sides of an event and move it to a different book, essentially turning it into cash for a fee. 

(Possible interesting/usable nugget here: You can also use the Fancash to get better odds on your normal bets. When you make a bet, they give you options to purchase odds boost in exchange for Fancash. When my account was brand new, I could get a 50% odds boost for 5 Fancash with a $25 max bet. I actually did the math on it and it's slightly -EV if you treat the Fancash as actual cash. A 50% boost on a $25 max bet is worth something like 4 bucks, if I remember correctly. I don't have it in front of me. I'm a bit retarded with this kind of stuff to be honest but I'm quite sure that's right. Anyway, I would use these boosts here and there, occasionally using like 5 or 6 of them in a row on one bet. I think somewhat intuitively I knew it was a good deal. And now I'm almost positive it was because A) those promo's have all become $10 max bets now and B) the Fancash has to be heavily discounted. If I had known what I know now, I would have unloaded as much as possible on those odds boosts bets. So to sum up this nugget: if you have Fancash, use it on odds boosts before they get reduced. I'm almost positive that that is the optimal way to use it).

So that's about it for that story. I grind out these promos every day, 10 bucks here, 20 here, and then in one play I manage to turn a 20% boost and two hundred dollar free bets into something like negative 300 bucks, plus get noticed in a truly awful way by Fanatics. Classic.

I suppose the lesson here is that while these newer, online, app only sports books do offer really good bonuses that are 100% worth taking advantage of, you still have to read the fine print. Maybe this Fancash 'you lose the staked amount' thing is standard and I'm a dope for not knowing that. That is a favorite, honestly. It really did seem way too good to be true now that I think about it. You could still pretty easily turn it into cash in a round about way but it'll cost you some juice and you've gotta be creative with it. One thing is for sure though, using Fancash to bet on a massive favorite is without a doubt the single worst possible way to use it. But hey, at least now I can say I'm pretty close to an expert in Fancash! 

That's it for today. I imagine I'll have more to say about this in the future. I have my next legal sports book in my cross hairs so I'll have updates on that soon too. Bye for now!