Ryan Henderson

I started playing Daily Fantasy Sports upon discovery in late 2014 for the NFL Playoffs and CFB Bowl Season. I started by scooping high-dollar h2hs against the likes of CSURAM88 and other sharks in the lobby; knowing nothing other than the fact that I was successful at Season-Long Fantasy Football, because I understood tiered draft strategy and grinded the waiver wire relentlessly. Later on, while googling information about DFS, I found a Business Insider article written by Jonathan Bales detailing how he and Peter Jennings aka CSURAM88 make millions grinding their edge; and I started down the rabbit hole.

Initially I was using a daily "picks" article I had found on RotoWorld written by Mike Petta, hoop2410. This led me to RotoGrinders where I started to learn about the game and it's players/personalites like CSURAM88, Al_Smizzle, Jonathan Bales, JMtoWin, Adam Levitan, and Jeff "El Jefe".

I would read articles such as the MLB/NFL Edge written by JM Tohline and Million Dollar Musings with CheeseIsGood, Dave Potts, while making my lineups. These were immensely helpful because instead of just giving out picks, they tought me how to think, and the content was evergreen, stacking on philosophies, players and concepts from previous days. GrindersLive with Al Smizzle became a staple and after years of not following sports, I had increased my knowledge base to that of an expert. I played NFL and PGA every week and MLB and NBA daily. As I learned more, I realized I would need a model, so I subscribed to my first optimizer, FantasyLabs and regularly hung out with Peter, Justin Phan, and Jay Persson ‘Inside the Lab’ three times a week for NBA.

Peter quickly became my go-to guy as he was very inviting and Justin helped me understand the betting market a lot more. Because I am extremely loyal, I followed the guys to The Action Network after Labs was bought out. I thought it would be a good idea for me to begin tracking all my wagers to show my proficiency for sports betting; hoping that in the future my comprehensive and verifiable track record could help with job opportunities in a bolstering new sports betting market as legislation began to legalize it in many states.

Over the years I continued to play, improve my skills, build my bankroll, delve into projections and gain an understanding for game theory, rake, and good action so that I could maximize my edge for profitability.

I quickly realized that swings can be rough, so since I was going to be playing full-time anyways, I started to build relationships in the industry in whatever way I could with the hope that I may be able to land a job in the future as a hedge to my play and an opportunity for career growth. Early on I reached out for job opportunities with Peter and Justin. I applied for an Editor position at DailyRoto/SportsGRID with Drewby before he left, and OneWeekSeason for an Editor position/sports-betting analyst before the start of this NFL season.

As a student of the game, I digested everything I came across, listening to and having continued to listen to almost every podcast that provided valuable information, insight about the industry; so that I always had my finger on the pulse. My journey began at the same time that Adam was sitting down at the NFL Roundtable/Squaretable with JM and Jeff on RotoGrinders every Friday night during the NFL season and the launch of DraftKings The Daily Fantasy EDGE podcast. I have watched and/or listened to every episode and they have always been a favorite of mine. Without having met the hosts, I spent so much time listening that I felt like I knew them, and understood them because they are very similar to myself in a lot of ways.

Pre-pandemic, my fiance and I stumbled across a tweet from Adam: "Looking for someone to live periscope Peter’s round with Tiger at Riviera Wednesday. The community needs to see this." I jumped on it and immediately let Adam know that we would drive up from San Diego to do so. It would allow me to meet Peter Jennings in person, also Justin Phan who was going to be there and a day later Al Zeidenfeld threw a party for his Twitch community that I also drove up to LA to attend. All of these were attempts to take advantage of opportunities to try to break into a field that is difficult when there isn't a lot of in-person connection and the skills typically associated with the job involve coder, stats guys or developer.

During the pandemic, while researching investing tips and tricks, I found a YouTube content creator MeetKevin, who was able to grow his YouTube following from the thousands to over 1 million and now close to 2. I followed him religiously to pick up on how he crafted his content to grow his channel, much in the same way Al, Joe Holka, and Pete Overzet have executed. I purchased and completed a course he made for creating YouTube content, with the intention of creating my own content if I couldn't break into the industry on an established site.

Over the years, I have followed Pat Mayo, Al_Smizzle, Joe Holka, Pete Overzet and MeetKevin to understand what makes a YouTube channel successful, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), how to grow your subscriber base, and pick up trends/best practices. I have been trying to figure out a way to branch out/network so that I could get my foot in the door of content creation and create more job security for myself and my family. My initial attempts were trying to network to get someone to see my tenacity and work ethic in hopes they would take me under their wing and teach me some higher level training that would help me move up in my career. It didn't work out the way that I planned, but now I have developed my own process in DFS/Sports Betting that is uniquely mine and I came to the conclusion that I needed to start to do things on my own.

I recently have started gearing up to do just that which makes this posting all the more exciting. I purchased a new desk, computer, chair, Logitech Brio camera, and an Audio-Technica AT2020USB for the purposes of being able to stream, podcast, create YouTube content, and edit.

Throughout high school and college I was doing a lot of graphic design for the purpose of building websites using Adobe Photoshop, so I am proficient and currently touching up my skills. My best friend graduated from the Brooks Institute of Film and Photography and he has been teaching me video editing as I grow in that field.

In seeing this posting I feel like this position is one where I would truly shine. I am excited by the prospective challenges the job would entail and it would allow me to grow in ways I've always wanted to. I am very analytical, great at conceptualizing, organizing with attention to detail, communicating, and creating; but the challenge I have always faced in breaking into the business side has been that I am not a modeler, spreadsheets guy, or statistician, although good in math. I have worked diligently to stay afloat all these years when times were tough and never gave up a day as staying on top of my game and learning was of the utmost importance.

I have full availability, will continue to learn, am very fluid in all fields of DFS/content creation and Sports Betting and would be honored to work with the likes of Adam, Andrew, Drew, Evan, Mike and all the others at Establish The Run to make this website the premier destination for Fantasy Football, NBA content and potentially other sports in the future. I am also willing to intern/work for free if it gives me the opportunity.

"I'm the type of person that if you ask me a question and I don't know the answer, I'm gonna tell you that I don't know. But I bet you what, I know how to find the answer and I will find the answer." - Chris Gardner during his job interview in the motion picture, The Pursuit of HappynessChris Gardner during his job interview in the motion picture, The Pursuit of Happyness