Maxdalury

Early life and education

Sud was raised in Morristown, NJ where he attended Newark Academy. He excelled in both academics and athletics, and was recruited to play squash at Amherst College.

He was a 4-year varsity letter winner on the intercollegiate squash team, while earning a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in both mathematics and economics.

Post-collegiate career

Sud began his post-collegiate career as a data scientist at Autotegrity (acquired by ADP) in Boston where he assisted in day-to-day data analysis and projections. Amongst his projects with the company, Sud aided in developing a predictive script that used logistic regression to forecast the probability of a user purchasing a given vehicle, created a Google keyword bidding algorithm that increased a six-figure monthly portion of the business by approximately 50% over a three-month spam, and designed a data scraper that parsed both the ad listings and organic listings for 3000 keywords every hour.

Sud then went on to work with GFI Software as a consultant where he created tools that assisted in the analysis and automation of search engine marketing (SEM) before founding his own company and transitioning into a full-time DFS player.

DFS career

Sud began his DFS career circa 2011, placing smaller bets and slowly refining his methods as he met plenty of opposition from seasoned veterans. Undeterred by initial missteps, Sud focused on developing 'Core Tenets for DFS Success'. Mainly evaluating and prioritizing the influx of information it into a few key metrics that will best aid in upcoming match-ups, managing the risk-reward outcome for any given contest, focus on your personal methodology, approach, and process rather than the contest-to-contest results, and, finally, developing and maximizing time management skills by scaling your winning recipe.

DFS controversy

Following the Nevada Gaming Control Board's (NGCB) October 15, 2015, memorandum ordering the discontinuation of DFS services and operations within the state-deemed sports gambling under Nevada's definitions of a "gambling game" and a "sports pool"--until the acquisition of a sports pool license, New York Attorney General, Eric T. Schneiderman, issued a cease-and-desist order to DraftKings and FanDuel on November 10, 2015, after classifying their operations as illegal gambling under state law. It has been estimated that the state of New York makes up approximately 10% of the DFS fanbase and consumer market.

On November 13, 2015, DraftKings and FanDuel issued separate, decisive legal responses to Schneiderman's order. On that same day, there was extensive popular backlash as a protest rally gathered outside of Schneiderman's Manhattan office. There has also been a social media campaign on Twitter using the hashtag #fantasyforall to garner supporters across the country. While the legal battle rages on, the two major DFS providers continue to fight for their and their consumers', and 'live to fight another day'.

Immediately following Attorney General Schneiderman's demands, Mike Greenberg of ESPN's Mike & Mike contrasted the legality of horse racing at Yonkers Raceway with the newfound illegality of DraftKings and FanDuel's operations, claiming that DFS requires skill and is not a game of chance. Greenberg would also go onto say "there is no reason why these sites should be illegal," but that they absolutely should be regulated.

At a fan forum held in Minneapolis in late November 2015, NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, expressed his concerns on the ethical issues of DFS compared to season-long fantasy, citing the former's potential for damaging the integrity of the league:

It's not about making money, it's about the ability to engage and enjoy your team or the players that you pick and have that opportunity to do that... It really would be difficult to have that quote-end-quote influence that we are worried about with gambling in general. So I'm less troubled on that front. But I also want to make sure our consumers, our fans, if you play something, I want to make sure there are proper consumer protections. That's important for us and I think that's something that is missing from the current structure.

Following suit Illinois Attorney General, Lisa Madigan, concluded on December 23, 2015, that services and contests organized by DFS juggernauts FanDuel and DraftKings constitute illegal gambling under Illinois state laws and criminal codes. If Madigan's pending proposal passes legislation in Illinois--the home state to one of the greatest American sports cities that is Chicago--this domino could become yet another drastic blow to the embattled DFS companies and their market. It has been estimated that Illinois makes up nearly 5% of the paying DFS customers, the fourth-largest DFS market. In a slight twist to her argument against DFS, Madigan maintains that the athletes themselves are the contestants in the true game of skill and that DFS players are merely bettors, which thus cannot exempt them from the state code as gamblers because there is nothing physical as it were at stake. In the face of cheating allegations and the overall unfairness of DFS with its seemingly willy-nilly self-imposed regulations, maxdalury's response was two-fold. On the one hand, he became more transparent about his approach and methods. Addressing the overarching concerns of cheating and unfairness, Sud sought to set the record straight:

People say guys like me bastardized fantasy. I’m sure that people have said the same thing about the stock market when algorithmic trading came out. They’re cheating. I can understand where they are coming from, but any time there is money to be made, people are going to find the fastest and smartest ways to do it, whatever way that is.

In response to the rulings issued by the NGCB and Schneiderman declaring that DFS is gambling and therefore illegal, maxdalury has said: "You look at the track record of people who’ve succeeded. You look at the skills that I’ve developed, the things that I’ve looked at, and it’s clear to me that it’s a skill-based game. I mean, I’ll challenge anybody."

Sud has also founded a company, RotoQL, in an attempt to help bridge the gap between public perception and reality while leveling the playing field for all DFS players, particularly the Amateur, Intermediate, and Beginning players who, much like him at the start of his career, may be intimidated and leery given the established talent pool of players and recent legal uncertainties.

RotoQL

RotoQL is a suite of tools and analytics designed and founded by maxdalury for all DFS players. RotoQL is modeled after Sud’s core principles for success and includes features for each sport offered by the respective DFS websites and/or service providers. The web application, which automatically syncs with Google Chrome extension, comes equipped with a lineup builder, advanced analytics that pull, manipulate, and display desired data, and other features including real-time injury alerts, bankroll management, head-to-head player comparisons, and a projection builder.

A mobile version of the application is currently under development.