How Does Fantasy Sports Work
Most people have heard of fantasy sports, and millions play it. But let's be honest: Odds are someone in the room with you right now has no idea what it really is or how it works.
Something about putting together virtual teams based on real players -- and then judging the performance of those fantasy teams based on how the real athletes do on the field?
Fantasy Sports Basics. If you are not sure how fantasy sports in general work then you should probably go ahead and study up a little on that first. You can go through these sport-by-sport guides (football. Fantasy football lets you try your skills as a fantasy owner. After you join a league, you scout for and draft players, compete against other fantasy owners, and use all your skills to win the championship. Fantasy football is a game that casts you in the role of a Fantasy Manager, given the task to pick a squad of real-life players who score points for your team based on their real-life performances in their matches.
Exactly.
A fantasy football league normally consists of 12 teams (some are less or more). Before the NFL season starts, fantasy teams draft their own team, consisting of NFL players. A draft order is set by the league. What is NFL fantasy football? Fantasy football is an interactive multiplayer fantasy sport where.
It began as a fun game played among friends. But today it's a multi-billion dollar business that has a tremendous influence on real, live sports. Many of the same corporate interests involved in pro-sports have gotten on the fantasy bandwagon (Time Warner, which owns CNN, has invested in FanDuel one of the biggest fantasy sports companies).
Here's a breakdown for the uninitiated.
How does fantasy sports work?
Fans choose from real players in an online selection process, or a draft, to assemble a fantasy team. The players' real-game statistics are compiled and compared to see whose fantasy team has done the best.
Players track how their fantasy team is doing using various web sites or mobile apps. Some players join leagues with friends and compete against only people they know. Others join public leagues hosted by web sites and compete against strangers.
Who plays?
Some 56 million people play fantasy sports in North America. About 10 million of those players are teenagers. About 19% of adult men play fantasy sports, compared to 9% of of women, according to estimates STATS Inc.
And wealthier fans are more likely to play: 16% of people with incomes of $50,000 or more play fantasy sports, while only 10% of people who earn less than $50,000 participate.
A total of $18 billion is spent on fantasy sports annually. By comparison, $140 billion is wagered on real sports and $70 billion is spent in lotteries.
Is fantasy sports legal?
Yes. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which Congress passed in 2006, specifically says fantasy sports are allowed under federal law because they are classified as a game of skill rather than a game of chance. The only caveat is that players may not bet on the outcome of a single game or the performance of a single player.
But fantasy sports are banned in five states -- Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana and Washington. The Fantasy Sports Trade Association is lobbying to change the laws in those states.
Are there regulations?
Right now there really is no government authority that oversees fantasy sports, the way gambling regulators oversee sports betting in Nevada.
The recent scandal involving DraftKings and FanDuel could bring calls for greater government oversight of the industry, if not calls for an outright ban.
How big a business is fantasy sports?
Big. Overall, the industry brings in about $1.5 billion a year in revenue. Most of that money comes from advertising on the sites. Sites such as DraftKings and FanDuel pay out more than 90% of the fees they collect as prize money in order to attract players to the game.
Many of the major media and Internet companies such as Disney's(DIS) ESPN unit, Yahoo(YHOO) and CBS(CBS) have become major players in the business.
DraftKings and FanDuel have each raised about $300 million from investors and have valuations in the billions. Their investors include sports leagues such as Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League, as well as owners of several NFL and NBA teams.
What is the fastest growing part of fantasy sports?
DraftKings and FanDuel have grown rapidly by offering so-called daily games, where players pick a team for only one day, or in the case of football, one week.
Traditionally, fantasy sports leagues competed over the same period of time as the real sports league that they tracked. But these leagues can be time consuming to play.
The General Rules – The Basic Things To Know
The difference between Daily Fantasy Sports and regular fantasy sports?
Daily style fantasy sports are similar to regular fantasy sports with the main exception that the entire contest starts and ends in a much shorter time frame. Contests last a single day for some sports like baseball and basketball while NFL football DFS players will get two or three days to get the Monday night games in.
You’ll pick a team full of players based on salary cap and those players earn points by doing well on the field.
Don’t think you can find this one at the stores, but we got you!
A Quick “How It Works” – Or, “The Things All Players Should Know”
- You legally risk and win real money
- Instead of an entire season it takes just 1 day from start to completion. *Football and golf last a weekend.
- The draft is done via a salary cap. Most of the time
- Your draft has nothing to do with anyone else.
- By that same token. you could potentially draft the exact same team as someone else.
- No season long waits to get paid. You’ll get paid that night.
- Again, the main difference between season long fantasy is the obviously shortened time of the contest.
The sport you are playing will determine exactly how you build your team and how they score points. The general rule of thumb is that the better your players do on the field, the more points your team scores on the leaderboards.
Sport by Sport How To Play Guides – The Basics of Each DFS
Let’s take a look at the actual playing of a DFS contest based on which sport you are playing.
- Football 101 – check out my Fanduel Football 101 Guide
Make sure you check out any fine print on any site as they will all have their individual rules and scoring models. But basically, if your players do well, you’ll score points like traditional fantasy leagues.
**Some sites will have rotisserie style tourneys and ‘pick-em’ style contests, such as (DraftDay)
4 Steps For New Players – Follow Exactly To Join & Play Today!
- Join a Daily Fantasy Sports league website.
This is the hosting site that creates the contests and makes payouts. Create your account and make a deposit.
I recommend FanDuel and DraftKings.
The 2 of them have been the clear market leaders for quite a bit now and continue to march that way. Click on those names to read our full reviews. - Choose a fantasy contest
There will be dozens if not hundreds of contests listed in the lobby. You can start with a small buy-in or even a free one. - Draft your team
Put together a line-up of the best possible players you can get while staying under your salary cap. - Compete!
This part is hands free as the hosting site keeps track of the leaderboards and updates everything in real time or at least pretty damn close. Watch your team rise and fall on the leaderboards as the games progress!
It is fast, furious fun. I love it. Especially when you have a good “sweat” going where if a player does well you could hit a monster sized score.
Creating A Team – How To Pick Your Players
The building of a team is literally click of the button easy. Once you join a contest, you are prompted to draft your team.
- See a list of players and their price tags.
- Click on their names to see more or click on the ‘add/draft’ button to add them to your line up.
- Fill up your team completely, staying under the salary cap.
- Easily change, add, remove players until you are satisfied with your team.
- Save and submit your line-up.
- And that’s it! You are in the game.
Your team is all set, but you can still make changes up until the fantasy tournament locks. Depending on which site and which games you are in will determine when that is.
For example on DraftKings you can make late changes up until the point where your players game starts, where as on FanDuel the line-up’s lock at the point of the first days games begin. Even though your pitcher plays the late game on the west coast, line-ups are locked as soon as the 1st game of the day begins on the east coast.
You are now in and now playing daily fantasy sports!
The current landing page at FanDuels. Hey! A free $20!
Fantasy Sports Basics
If you are not sure how fantasy sports in general work then you should probably go ahead and study up a little on that first. You can go through these sport-by-sport guides (football, baseball, basketball, golf) and get a better idea.
After that, you may want to start out in the free-rolls or $1 big field tournaments. These are great for getting a feel for how it works before you go and risk a good amount of your real money.
Are Fantasy Sports Legal
Scoring points is also site dependent. Readthe scoring rules of each site or one of our comparison guides, like this fantasy baseball scoring chart I put together for the big 3 sites for MLB.
How Fantasy Sports Work
The short answer on how DFS work is that players score points in fantasy by doing well in their respective sport in the games. Football players score touchdowns, make positive yardage and baseball players get rbi’s, basketball players score points etc.
That is the basics of how you play fantasy, of course each sport has its unique ways to play fantasy style. We are creating new player guides for each sport, linked below.
The Different Types of Fantasy Leagues To Play
In addition to different sports, there are a variety of contests you can enter just about at any time. They include:
- Large Tournaments
- Double Up Games
- Triple / Quadruple / Quintuple Up’s
- Sit-N-Go’s
- Head 2 Head’s
- Beginners Only
Newer players are strongly encouraged to start small and play in the larger field tournaments at first. If you start out thinking head 2 head matches will be easier to win you are likely to be wrong.
Sharp and strong players play in the head 2 head matches by entering the same line-up in multiple contests. They do the research, build a few line-ups and then enter those line-ups against as much varied competition as they can. One way they do this is by requesting and accepting head 2 head matches. My tip – start out with the single entry, low buy-in games to start out!
How New Players Get Started Playing Daily Fantasy Sports
The first section you should read through is our top 10 daily fantasy sports websites list which links to reviews of the leading places to play. From there you can read through our constantly updated promos and news articles that will let you know the latest and greatest bonuses and freebies you can take advantage of.
Finally you can also read our tips and strategy articles. Free advice pieces to help you get an edge on your opponents.
Enjoy the site and good luck in your games! I’m Spry13 on DraftKings -and I hope to see you on the leaderboards!
So what now?
- Check out today’s games on DraftKings.com – get signed up and play in a freeroll tonight.
- Sign up for my email newsletter. It’s over there on the right hand side of the page.
- Read through a list of daily fantasy sports tips aimed at beginner and intermediate players
- Go all in and read the more in-depth dfs strategy articles
- Read reviews of FanDuel, DraftKings and Victiv