NFL

The men who make 6 figures off fantasy football

When he woke up on the morning of Oct. 5 — a beautiful fall day when many New Yorkers started raking leaves — Mark Guindi never imagined he would rake in something else: a cool $12,000.

“It was the craziest thing,” says the handsome 24-year-old Brooklynite, who scored big in a fantasy football tourney called FanDuel NFL Sunday Million. “I wake up one day, put up a $25 entry fee, and I make 12,000 bucks.”

Guindi is now making a name for himself in the upper leagues of daily fantasy football, drafting a team of real-world athletes to pit against other players. In three weeks, he’ll be trading his winter jacket for suntan lotion as he hits Vegas for the ultracompetitive Fantasy Football Championship sponsored by daily fantasy sports league site FanDuel. There, he’ll be vying for a $2 million jackpot, against the country’s top 100 players.

He gets $15,000 just for showing up.

Mark Guindi at homeAnne Wermiel

“$15,000 is nice,” says Guindi, the oldest of five boys from a Syrian Orthodox family. But “$2 million is nicer.”

Not bad for a college dropout who works in his family’s wholesale supply company during the week. On the weekend, he dominates the fantasy football field, now his main source of income.

“I can definitely do this full time,” he says of his yearlong daily fantasy sports (DFS) career, from which he’s banked more than $50,000 so far. (Unlike traditional fantasy sports, where you’re stuck with a team for an entire season, DFS players can reap rewards in a single day.)

“I’m only getting better and better every week.”

The hunk admits he has certain traits that separate him from the pack.

“I’m young and not the worst-looking guy in the world,” says Guindi, who’s earned a fan base all his own from writing for the site Fantasy Insiders and making appearances on sports shows.

But Guindi is just one rising star in a constellation of fantasy players in the US and Canada — about 41 million, up 5 million in the last year alone. While only a small percentage is composed of money-hungry DFS players, their numbers are also on the rise.

FanDuel expects to pay out more than $500 million in prizes this year and more than $1 billion in 2015. Its active users will likely hit 1 million this year — more than quadruple the previous year.

“Money drives daily fantasy play,” says Paul Charchian, president of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. “People want to win money — but they can also play for fun.”

Also a boon: the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which protects fantasy sports, but outlaws activities including online poker.

“People say fantasy sports is gambling, but the Gambling Act cites a distinction that fantasy sports comprises a greater element of skill,” says Scott Swanay, founder of fantasyfootballsherpa.com.

“The line is a lot murkier now,” he adds, referring to DFS, “but you can’t put the genie back in the bottle — it’s not going away.”

The “skill” of the game works like this: DFS sites offer hundreds of contests that players can buy into. Using their statistical knowledge, players assemble a lineup of real footballers who are competing in actual matchups all over the country. The site awards athletes points based on their performance — and DFS entrants win cash depending on how well their lineup fares overall.

After crushing contest after contest, former mathematician Michael Leone left the stability of a full-time job as an energy analyst in upstate New York for the wild-card culture of DFS. He quit his job after bringing home a $75,000 check from a fantasy sports tournament held at LA’s Playboy Mansion in August 2013.

Michael Leone (above right), with pal Drew Dinkmeyer, quit his job as an energy analyst to play fantasy sports full time.Courtesy of Mike Leone

“This is my first year doing it full time, and I will surpass my income [as an energy analyst],” says Leone, who, at 27, admits his new job is extremely volatile. Still, in the past two years, he estimates he’s made in the low six figures, the lion’s share of which comes from football.

“Yes, there’s luck involved, but it’s skill in the long run. If someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing puts all their money into one thing on one night, that’s gambling. But [my partners and I] do all the proper research, put in proper money — that is skill-based.”

And as long as the spreadsheets don’t bring problems into the bedsheets, his math-teacher wife is onboard. “I had to convince my wife to let me set lineups,” Leone sheepishly admits, “on our honeymoon in the Finger Lakes.”

Even college students are looking to get in on the action. Inside the “war room” — a sports shrine with TV screens and laptops blasting every football game live — in his family’s New Jersey basement, Chayden Sovocool is wheeling and dealing like a seasoned pro, consulting clients on their lineups and taking a 5 percent commission from friends.

College student Chayden Sovocool in his fantasy “war room”imAlexM.com

The 19-year-old, who only discovered DFS during March Madness this year, admits he couldn’t resist the intoxicating world.

“You’re telling me I could do fantasy football and make actual money out of this? Sign me up!” the William Paterson University sophomore remembers thinking.

“I lost right away — it’s a lot harder than you think,” he recalls of his sluggish early start.

But having banked a couple thousand dollars since then has galvanized the newbie — who hopes to make enough from fantasy play to move out on his own.

High-stakes fantasy player Tommy Gelati compares DFS to stock trading. After all, he does both.

“There’s 100 percent truth that fantasy is the new day trading,” says Tommy G, as he’s known in the fantasy community. “Instead of day-trading companies, you’re day-trading athletes.”

The 35-year-old stock trader, who lives at the foot of the Giants’ MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, says he earns up to $400,000 annually in his day job. But every Saturday, he hunkers down for hours conducting fantasy research. (He is also an expert with paid subscribers on scoutfantasy. com.)

Tom Gelati poses in front of his Jaguar outside his East Rutherford residence.Anthony Causi

“I haven’t gone out on a Saturday night in a long time,” says Gelati, who estimates that he’s raked in $500,000 over the past two years from DFS, earning him the moniker “The Wolf of DFS.”

“That’s my brand,” he explains.

And the Wolf never misses an opportunity — even when he’s stuck in Jersey traffic. A few months ago, realizing the clock was ticking with a few minutes left to enter a DFS contest, Gelati pulled his $90,000 Jaguar XFR over at a gas station on Route 17, where he made an eleventh-hour lineup just under the wire.

He made $18,000 that day.

But for the Jersey boy who always dreamed of going pro, making money off the pros feels just as sweet. “It feels good to go into a store and ask for the most expensive model, spending my fantasy money,” he admits. “I created it out of thin air.”