Dueling With Kings: High Stakes, Killer Sharks, And The Get-rich Promise Of Daily Fantasy Sports

  • Author: Daniel Barbarisi
  • Narrator: Jonathan Todd Ross
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster
  • Duration: 13:08:26
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Synopsis

In the spirit of Bringing Down the House and The Wolf of Wall Street, “an engrossing and often hilarious behind-the-scenes look at the characters, compulsions, and chaos inside the fantasy sports gold rush. It’s the perfect meld of a sports and business book, engagingly written like a fun, page-turning novel” (The Wall Street Journal).

Daniel Barbarisi quit his job as a New York Yankees beat writer and began a quest to join the top one percent of Daily Fantasy Sports (“DFS”) players, the so-called “sharks,” in hopes to discover the secrets behind this phenomenon—and potentially make some money along the way.

DFS is fantasy sports on steroids. It’s the domain of bitter rivals FanDuel and DraftKings, online juggernauts who turned a legal loophole into a billion-dollar industry by allowing sports fans to bet piles of cash constructing fantasy teams.

Yet as Barbarisi quickly realizes, what should have been a fun companion to casual sports viewing was instead a ferocious environment infested with sharks, a top tier of pros wielding complex algorithms, drafting hundreds of lineups, and wagering six figures daily as they bludgeon unsuspecting amateur “fish.” Barbarisi embeds himself inside the world of DFS, befriending and joining its rogue’s gallery as he tries to beat them at their own game.

In a work equal parts adventure and rigorously reported investigation, Barbarisi wades into this chaotic industry at the very moment its existence is threatened by lawmakers sick of its Wild West atmosphere and pushy advertising. All their money made FanDuel and DraftKings seem invincible; but, as Barbarisi reports, they made plenty of dubious—perhaps even scandalous—moves as they vied for market supremacy.

In Dueling with Kings, Barbarisi uncovers the tumultuous inside story of DFS, all while capturing its peculiar cast of characters, from wide-eyed newly minted millionaires, to sun-starved math geeks, to bros living an endless frat party of keggers and Playboy Bunnies. Can he outwit them all and make it to the top?

Chapters

  • Dueling With Kings 01 open

    Duration: 30s
  • Dueling With Kings 02 Intro

    Duration: 10min
  • Dueling With Kings 03 Ch1

    Duration: 43min
  • Dueling With Kings 04 Ch2

    Duration: 59min
  • Dueling With Kings 05 Ch3

    Duration: 58min
  • Dueling With Kings 06 Ch4

    Duration: 01h08min
  • Dueling With Kings 07 Ch5

    Duration: 01h01min
  • Dueling With Kings 08 Ch6A

    Duration: 35min
  • Dueling With Kings 09 Ch6B

    Duration: 57min
  • Dueling With Kings 10 Ch7

    Duration: 45min
  • Dueling With Kings 11 Ch8A

    Duration: 54min
  • Dueling With Kings 12 Ch8B

    Duration: 26min
  • Dueling With Kings 13 Ch9

    Duration: 31min
  • Dueling With Kings 14 Ch10

    Duration: 57min
  • Dueling With Kings 15 Ch11

    Duration: 28min
  • Dueling With Kings 16 Ch12A

    Duration: 41min
  • Dueling With Kings 17 Ch12B

    Duration: 42min
  • Dueling With Kings 18 Ch13

    Duration: 54min
  • Dueling With Kings 19 Epilogue

    Duration: 09min
  • Dueling With Kings 20 close

    Duration: 36s