Josh Larky
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Josh Larky is the Director of Fantasy and Gambling at The 33rd Team. He joins us with a unique blend of educational and professional experience.
Josh studied economics at the University of Redlands, double minoring in Math and Psychology. Working on his honors thesis was the catalyst to realizing he exclusively wanted to pursue work in the sports industry. Focusing on the impact of the 2008 recession on Major League Baseball, Josh demonstrated MLB’s economic resilience through econometric research. Â
Post-college, Josh pursued a Masters in Business Analytics at the University of Texas at Austin to acquire the technical skills needed to land an analytics role with a professional sports team. While attending a sports analytics conference at MIT, Josh met Matt Kelley, the founder of PlayerProfiler, and began conducting fantasy football research for him while completing grad school. He worked with Southwest Airlines for his capstone project, analyzing their employee incentives and perks program to assess its effectiveness.Â
Year-long stints with the Detroit Tigers (baseball analytics) and San Diego Padres (business analytics) followed, and Larky continued his fantasy football research during this time. Despite 100 percent accuracy with his attendance projection while working for the Padres (Josh predicted zero fans in 2020 due to Covid), he was Covid-furloughed in May 2020. That summer, he started his own R coding business, ThatRCodingSite.com, where he teaches people analytics and coding using football datasets.
The 2020 NFL season was his first full-time season in the fantasy industry, as he led all DFS (daily fantasy sports) efforts for PlayerProfiler. After the season concluded, he was promoted and began leading all analytics projects for the site. Early in the 2022 NFL offseason, Josh joined FTN, another company in the fantasy and gambling space, to lead their analytics efforts. During his time in this industry, Josh has done everything from coding a DFS optimizer from scratch to creating viral TikTok videos, and he prides himself on his versatility.
When The 33rd Team reached out, Larky jumped at the opportunity to lead this new department. Josh has a general disdain for groupthink and the commonly traveled path and is confident the fantasy and gambling department’s content and tools will never read or operate like any other site’s.
Outside of work, Josh rock climbs, snowboards and eats burritos.
Josh'S CONTRIBUTIONS
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Fantasy Football Landing Spots: Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Ohio State receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba (scouting report) — also known as JSN — is one…
By Josh Larky & Ryan Reynolds
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2023 NFL Betting: Early DraftKings Win Total Bets to Make
DraftKings Sportsbook released its opening win total market on March 25. NFL rosters aren’t nearly…
By Ryan Reynolds & Josh Larky
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Fantasy Football NFL Free Agency Impact: Tight Ends
Free agent signings and a few high-impact trades have changed the landscape for a number…
By Josh Larky & Ryan Reynolds
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Fantasy Football NFL Free Agency Impact: Wide Receivers
Free agent signings and a few high-impact trades have changed the landscape for several NFL…
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Rookie Wide Receivers Are a Fantasy Cheat Code
Rookie wide receivers accumulate fantasy points differently than any other type of fantasy asset. Using…
By Josh Larky
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NFL Betting: Free Agency Impact on Super Bowl Bets
Free agency isn’t over, but most of the high-impact players who were available have been…
By Ryan Reynolds & Josh Larky
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Fantasy Football NFL Free Agency Impact: Running Backs
Free agent signings and a few high-impact trades have changed the landscape for several NFL…
By Ryan Reynolds & Josh Larky
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Fantasy Football NFL Free Agency Impact: Quarterbacks
Free agent signings and high-impact trades have changed the landscape for several NFL teams. What…
By Ryan Reynolds & Josh Larky
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Fantasy Football Reaction: Miles Sanders Signs With Panthers
Running back Miles Sanders joined the Carolina Panthers on a four-year contract, coming off a…
By Josh Larky
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Top 250 Underdog Best Ball Fantasy Football Rankings
Our top 250 Underdog best ball rankings have been meticulously compiled by Josh Larky and…
By Josh Larky & Ryan Reynolds