Portfolio Diversifier
Overview
The Portfolio Diversifier optimizes how your lineups are distributed across a DFS portfolio.
Older methods like Min Uniques forced lineups to be different for the sake of variety, but didn’t account for how lineups actually win.
The Diversifier takes a smarter approach by building you a portfolio of lineups that intentionally balances risk and upside by covering multiple paths to profitability.
This means your entries aren’t just superficially unique, they’re strategically diverse. Some lineups may hinge on a contrarian stack, others on chalk players, others on mid-range leverage. The Diversifier ensures that when these different game scripts play out, you have exposure to them throughout your portfolio.
The result is a set of lineups that reduces risk while still leaving plenty of room for the high-upside outcomes that drive big wins. By treating your portfolio as a single interconnected bet, the Diversifier protects against overexposure to fragile assumptions about how the slate could play out and distributes your entries across multiple realistic paths to first place.
DFS is inherently volatile, so even strong lineups can fail if they all depend on the same slate outcomes panning out. With Portfolio Diversification you consistently give yourself chances to win by building your portfolio on a wide range of different ways slates can unfold.
Under the Hood
At its core, the Diversifier is about identifying and balancing different paths to profitability.
Some lineups need a low-owned stack to win.
Others rely on expensive aces.
Others lean on leverage plays in the mid-range.
By mixing these paths together, the Diversifier reduces downside without sacrificing upside.
Beyond Min Uniques
Min Uniques only enforced numerical differentiation—lineups looked different, but they often depended on the same game scripts. The Diversifier instead builds portfolios with strategic variety, ensuring lineups win in different ways.
Unlike rules-based diversification, the Diversifier “solves” your portfolio holistically. It looks across your entire set of entries and assembles the group of lineups that work best together—not just individually. This is why it consistently outperforms blunt tools like min uniques, global max exposures, or randomization.
Contest-Aware Valuation
The Diversifier is also contest-aware. It weighs lineups by contest type, entry fee, and payout structure:
A $100 single-entry lineup carries more impact than a $1 minimax entry.
A top-heavy GPP portfolio needs more contrarian paths to first, while flatter structures can tolerate chalkier builds.
By factoring in both the size and structure of each contest, the Diversifier diversifies intelligently where it matters most. This ensures your bankroll isn’t over-leveraged on fragile assumptions in the wrong contests.
Portfolio Plus, available on the Ultimate plan, goes even further by running full Contest Sims for each contest. This incorporates realistic opponent fields and payout structures into the diversification process, making the final portfolio even closer to reality.
Holistic Optimization
Instead of sequentially picking lineups one at a time (which often leaves later contests with scraps), the Diversifier solves for the entire portfolio at once.
It optimizes across all entries simultaneously.
It reduces fragility by avoiding over-concentration on one path.
It balances ROI upside with volatility, maximizing your chance of hitting big scores while reducing the risk of ruin.
This mirrors a core truth from the manifesto: you aren’t betting on one lineup—you’re betting on a portfolio.
Using the Portfolio Diversifier
1. Upload Your Entries File
Upload your contest entries so SaberSim knows where to allocate your portfolio.
2. Build Your Lineup Pool
Generate a large lineup pool. The Diversifier draws from this pool to create your final portfolio.
3. Diversifier Runs Automatically
Once entries are uploaded and contest sims (if applicable) are finished, SaberSim automatically diversifies your portfolio.
4. Review Your Diversified Portfolio
See your contests filled with lineups that are strategically balanced across different outcomes.
5. Iterate and Refine
Adjust exposures as needed. Each time you update settings, the Diversifier re-optimizes your portfolio around those rules.
Key Settings
Exposure Controls (Min/Max): The Portfolio Diversifier works with minimum and maximum exposure settings. If you decide you don't want too much exposure to certain players, you can set a maximum exposure (e.g., 30%) to them. When you apply these changes, the diversifier will rerun, attempting to meet these exposure thresholds.
Avoid Duplicates Across Groups: Toggled on by default. When activated, it prevents the same lineup from being used across different lineup groups. If the toggle is off, Sabersim is given permission to use the same lineup in various lineup groups if it determines that to be the most optimal portfolio.
Order of Lineup Group Optimization: By default, lineup groups are sorted by the dollar amount per entry, meaning individual lineups with higher entry fees essentially get the "first right" to any lineups in your pool. The diversifier optimizes lineups for later groups with the context of what lineups were already selected for previous, higher-priority groups. You can change this order by dragging and dropping or clicking a column header to sort by that column (ex: entry fee).
Auto Apply Exposures: If this toggle is turned on, the diversifier will rerun every single time you make an exposure change. Toggle on if you want to see the impact of an adjustment immediately. Toggle off if you are batching multiple changes.
Conclusion
Success in DFS doesn’t come from finding the “best” lineup, but from building the best portfolio.The Portfolio Diversifier treats your portfolio as a single interconnected bet, making sure your lineups work together by balancing upside and risk across contests and entry fees. Doing so reduces fragility, expands your coverage of realistic game scripts, and increases your consistency in capturing slate-winning outcomes.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the SaberSim Portfolio Diversifier?
DFS isn’t about building the “best” lineup—it’s about building the best portfolio. The Portfolio Diversifier builds your entire portfolio of lineups as one interconnected bet. Its goal is to balance upside with risk, recognizing that DFS is a long-term game where most nights are losing nights.
Unlike tools like Min Uniques or global exposure caps, the Diversifier creates a complimentary set of lineups that cover multiple profitable game scripts. The result is more shots on goal, strategically positioned to maximize profit while limiting risk of ruin.
How does the Portfolio Diversifier work?
The Diversifier is contest- and entry-fee aware. It knows a $100 single-entry lineup carries more weight than a 50-cent minimax entry, and it accounts for payout structures and field tendencies when distributing lineups.
On the Ultimate plan, this is powered by Contest Sims, which recreate real contests with play-by-play game scripts and realistic opponent lineups. On the Starter plan, a faster simulation is used, but the philosophy is the same: every lineup is judged in the context of your full portfolio and the contests you’re actually playing.
In both cases, the Diversifier doesn’t just make lineups look different—it solves for the best possible mix of lineups given your actual slate, bankroll, and contests.
What problem does it solve compared to Min Uniques?
Traditional methods like Min Uniques only guaranteed lineups looked different—they didn’t ensure your portfolio covered diverse winning paths. The Diversifier has been backtested against ROI-only builds, ROI with Min Uniques, and global exposure caps, and it consistently produced stronger profitability with less downside risk.
The reason: DFS is not about betting on a single lineup—it’s about betting on a portfolio. Min Uniques forces numerical separation, but it doesn’t account for strategic separation. The Diversifier does, ensuring your entries cover multiple realistic ways a slate could play out.
When does the Diversifier run?
After your lineup pool is built.
On Ultimate, it runs once contest sims finish.
On Starter, it runs immediately after the build.
This way, the Diversifier is always using the most accurate data available at the time.
When does it rerun?
The Diversifier automatically reruns whenever inputs change: exposures, filters, lineup group order, or contest settings.
You can disable Auto Apply Exposures to batch edits together instead of rerunning after every small change. This makes workflows faster and ensures the Diversifier recalculates around the full set of updates at once.
Do I need to enable it?
No. The Diversifier is the default method when building lineups, as long as you’re using lineup group templates and have uploaded an entries file. The entries file tells SaberSim which contests you’re playing so it can account for entry fees and payout structures automatically.
Is it customizable?
You can’t rewrite its underlying calculation—it’s built from years of backtesting across sports and contest types—but you control the inputs and boundaries:
Narrow the lineup pool with filters.
Apply min/max exposures.
Adjust contest settings.
The Diversifier then re-optimizes the portfolio within those boundaries, ensuring balance without you needing to micromanage.
What specific settings can I control?
Lineup Filters & Thresholds. Require lineups to meet certain criteria (e.g., projection floors, ownership caps, or custom metrics).
Exposure Controls. Apply min/max limits on players. The Diversifier reruns to honor those rules while still maximizing balance.
Avoid Duplicates Across Groups. By default, lineups aren’t reused across contest groups. Toggle off to allow repeats—useful on small slates with large entry counts.
Order of Group Optimization. Groups are solved in order of dollar per entry (highest first). You can reorder groups manually, then trigger a rerun.
Auto Apply Exposures. When on, each edit triggers a rerun. When off, you can batch edits and update in one step.
These tools allow you to inject your preferences and research into the process while still letting the Diversifier optimize globally.
How do I use a custom metric?
Apply it as a lineup filter (e.g., only include lineups above a certain custom score). The Diversifier will then optimize your portfolio from that filtered set.
This lets you incorporate personal research or niche edges without disrupting the Diversifier’s balance logic.
How does it interact with Lineup Groups?
Lineup Groups define which contests are managed together. The Diversifier then optimizes across those groups, respecting group-specific settings and contest details.
For example, you might lock in single-entry lineups while continuing to adjust exposures in your multi-entry contests. The Diversifier handles this context automatically when building the final portfolio.
How does it build the portfolio from the lineup pool?
It evaluates the entire pool at once, then allocates lineups across contests to deliver balanced diversification for the full entry set—rather than picking lineups sequentially.
This holistic approach avoids “leftovers” being dumped into smaller contests and ensures every contest receives strategically selected lineups.
What does “solving the entire portfolio at once” achieve?
It avoids the fragility of sequential selection. Later lineups aren’t constrained by earlier choices, so the final portfolio achieves consistent, intentional diversification across all entries.
This is the difference between throwing darts one at a time versus drawing up an entire map of where each dart should land.
How does it account for ROI volatility and paths to first?
It mixes lineups that win in different ways—low-owned stacks, ace-heavy builds, mid-range leverage—so you’re protected from downside while still capturing upside.
This acknowledges a central truth of DFS: most nights are losing nights. By covering multiple profitable paths, the Diversifier increases the consistency of long-term results while still preserving the chance to hit a big score.
How does it account for entry fees and payout structures?
It weighs lineups based on contest type and stakes. A high-stakes single entry is valued differently than a low-stakes minimax, and payout structures are factored directly into portfolio construction.
Portfolio Plus (Ultimate) goes further by simulating the actual contests you’ve entered—field behavior, payout curves, and game outcomes included—so the diversification is rooted in reality, not just theory.
What if I want specific exposures or personal research reflected?
Set custom exposure rules or filters. The Diversifier will re-optimize around those constraints while still maintaining balance across the entire portfolio.
This allows you to incorporate personal conviction plays without skewing your entire portfolio toward fragility.
Can I iterate after seeing the first result?
Yes. You can continue refining exposures, filters, and group settings. Each time, the Diversifier re-diversifies your portfolio automatically.
Iteration is often the key to sharpening your strategy: start broad, review the results, and make targeted refinements.
Does it work during late swap?
Yes. The Diversifier reruns during late swap just as it does before lock.
As the slate progresses and fewer roster spots remain, your portfolio naturally has less room for variety. Lineups may converge more closely—but this reflects the actual reduced number of paths to upside later in the slate. The Diversifier adapts to that reality, giving you the best possible mix from the remaining options.