The Fantasy Cruncher Story
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David Stetler
I am the developer & original founder of FantasyCruncher.com. When I started FC I had very little daily fantasy experience but I had some ideas about what was needed to be able to beat the game. Coming from a poker background where I was a daily grinder here in Las Vegas, I knew daily sports shared a lot of parallels to poker and was also a beatable game. After thinking and researching about what other winning players were doing I learned that most top players were using Excel and Excel solver to create optimized lineups. This seemed like a painful way to do things and a lot of leg work each day so I decided to use my web development background to create a rough beta of fantasy cruncher.
I posted the orginal beta on reddit in reddit.com/r/dfsports to gather some feedback and see if anyone else thought this was a better way of creating lineups. I was really excited that other people started using the tool I had created, even though it was really rough at the time, and that pushed me to keep improving. Becoming part of the dfsports community also played a key role in the development of Fantasy Cruncher with the valuable feedback I received from the subs members and it also led me to meeting Jeff G. aka OREO and Bryan McCaffrey.
Fantasy Cruncher has come a long way in a short period of time and I plan on pushing this software even further with the help of the team we have put together and the feedback from all of FC users. Thanks for checking FC out and if you have any questions for me you can find me in the FC forums or email me directly david@fantasycruncher.com.
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Patrick Flynn
Hell0, W0rld! I'm Patrick Flynn! I officially joined Fantasy Cruncher as a software developer in the summer of 2021 but have been part of the FC Family since the very beginning (I was the third user to join Fantasy Cruncher!). I was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada and prior to being part of Team FC, my career focused heavily on programming, IT automation, and data science/analytics. While I am a newcomer to the DFS world, I hope to bring a unique perspective and data-focused approach to the team!
I believe in a growth-mindset and working every day to become a better version of myself. As my DFS journey progresses, I will use this mindset and my background to help Fantasy Cruncher continue to be the best DFS optimizer in the industry and continue to deliver a product our users love using!
While not in the FC code-zone, I enjoy spending time with my wife and daughter. Being Vegas-born means of course I'm a Vegas Golden Knights hockey fan! I love trips to San Diego and try to squeeze in as many Padres games as possible while there! I am a complete nerd and love geeking out over Marvel, Star Wars, and all things video games. Since leaving my previous career, I have taken to leveling-up my beard game and growing an awesome wizard-level beard. I can be found on Twitter at @Patsflynn or Patrick@FantasyCruncher.com
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Zach Qualtieri
I was born in Florida but bounced around due to my dad being in the Navy. My family settled in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia after my dad’s retirement. I excelled in academics and sports in High School and after I joined the Marines as a reserve while attending college.
Before joining FantasyCruncher I worked in retail management for a variety of companies. Since joining FantasyCruncher five years ago, I’ve worked in several roles and am currently the Operations Manager. When not at work, I enjoy spending time with my kids and reliving my glory days at the local pickup games. I also loves to collect sports cards and I am always looking for the next hottest thing in the collecting industry.
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James Smizek
Ever since my introduction to Daily Fantasy Sports sometime in 2012 I knew it was going to be a big part of my livelihood. As a sports fanatic and already season long fantasy sports player, I knew the transition to taking Daily Fantasy Sports seriously was something I was going to dedicate my time to. Aside from my love of DFS was my love of writing, data, and analytics. Through networking I was able to land some writing gigs to get my name into the DFS space. From there I wrote some of the blogs on DraftStreet.com (acquired by DraftKings in 2014) for mere contest tickets. I took my love for fantasy sports so far that I hosted a weekly fantasy sports radio program at a college that I didn't even attend. I am a firm believer that hard work pays off and it landed me here at FantasyCruncher. You can find my DFS articles for a wide range of sports, including NFL, MLB, NBA, Tennis, Nascar, Esports, and my personal specialty of College Football. I qualified for the College Football World Championship in 2018 and I have taken down multiple large field tournaments. I hope that my free content on FantasyCruncher can help you take down the next one or push you in the right direction.
When I am not spending my time on DFS you can find me spending time with my wife and our three cats and Corgi. I am a huge Wisconsin Sports fan and a Brewers baseball fanatic, as well as a sports trading card collector. Feel free to reach out to me at @iKezims on Twitter if you have any questions or email me directly at James@FantasyCruncher.com
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Dustin Shook
I first started playing daily fantasy sports as a hobby in 2014, at that point in my life, I was a no more than a casual sports fan who enjoyed watching the games. It did not take long for that hobby to turn into an obsession. After studying the successful players in the space, it was apparent that I was ill-equipped to compete. I had little experience using excel or programming languages and no idea how to build a statistical model. Little by little, I started to chip away at the daunting task of learning new things. From mastering excel spread sheets, to teaching myself multiple programing languages along the way, DFS has been a great excuse and motivation to never stop learning and improving. Fast forward to the present, I am a software developer at fantasycruncher.com and I spend my days not only learning and improving, but also contributing to make this software the best it can possibly be for the user. If you have any questions for me, don’t hesitate to reach out in the Discord, or by emailing me directly at dustin@fantasycruncher.com.
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Lucas Yanetsko
I discovered DFS in the summer of 2018 when instead of paying attention in my economics summer class at Chapel Hill I was perusing the DraftKings lobby deciding which WNBA contests I wanted to enter. From there I was hooked. I had bet on sports virtually my whole life and instantly fell in love with DFS and the intriguing game theory and statistical components that intersect with sports to form this beautiful game.
Before joining the FC team I worked in the hospitality industry and more recently in the IT space. When I’m not playing DFS or watching sports I’m spending time with my wife and 2 young daughters. I’m a diehard Cincinnati Bengals and Liverpool FC fan and when covid changed our world a couple years ago I really got into UFC.
At FC I really enjoy leveraging all the tools we provide our users but especially Lineup Study, where I attempt to examine how players are taking down tournaments and what you the player can start doing to put yourself into a position to take down a major tournament on DraftKings or FanDuel. You can find my review articles and other content across MLB, NFL, NBA, MMA, and Soccer.
If you have any feedback or questions about our product, content, etc. feel free to reach out to me @LucasSamuelDFS on Twitter or you can email me directly at lucas@fantasycruncher.com