NFL Fantasy Sports Betting Guide
Drafting teams for NFL football games on fantasy sports betting sites can be hugely rewarding if you get your strategy right. As tempting as it might be to fill your squad with all your favorite players, you need to a be a little more analytical when it comes to that perfect draft. Here is a guide to playing fantasy NFL.
Earning Points
Your players will earn or lose you points, depending on how well they perform in the real-life games scheduled throughout a contest. For example, at DraftHero, offensive players are awarded with six points for a kickoff return touchdown and 0.1 for every rushing yard made, but they are penalised by a point for an interception.
FanDuel penalizes players twice as much as DraftKings does for a fumble, docking two points rather than one. Therefore, a notoriously clumsy player might be worth a risk for their other qualities when entering contests on DraftKings, but you should think twice about picking them on FanDuel, where they could wipe out your hard work with a couple of costly fumbles.
The scoring systems vary according to which site you choose to play at, but it is worth researching as it could help you decide which positions are best to invest in.
Choose Your Team
You will usually have a salary cap or player budget to work within when picking your perfect fantasy NFL team. This means you won’t just be able to draft all the star names, so it is worth making sure your big money players are worthy of the cash you are spending. A decent quarterback could provide a healthy return on investment, but make sure you leave enough in the pot to give you strength across the field.
To complete your team you will have to draft players across the different positions in a team. For example, you may have to play a quarterback, a tight end, a kicker, a defense, two wide receivers and two running backs, but this lineup will differ between sites. FanDuel requires you to choose a kicker, but DraftKings allows you to pick a flex player, which could come from one of a number of positions and therefore offers a real point of difference between each competitor’s roster. You need to think long and hard about who will offer the most value to you in this wild card position.
Spread Your Players
Football is different to baseball and hockey in that if one or two players are doing well, it could be to the detriment of their real-life teammates when it comes to scoring fantasy points. This would mean that, if you had a large number of players from one team in your squad, they could effectively be working against each other.
For instance, if a quarterback throws to a receiver to score a touchdown, they will both be awarded fantasy points. However, that also means that the running back and place kicker are not scoring anything. If you want to win the big prizes, you need players in each position to be the standout performers for their teams during that round of games. A quarterback having the game of his life will leave you with a number of redundant players if you have drafted a swathe of them from the same real-life squad.
Of course, if you know a wide receiver and a quarterback have a great relationship on the field, you could pick them both, but it is worth looking elsewhere for the best players in other positions rather than “stacking”.
Don’t Set Your Defense Against Your Offense
If you endeavor to pick up big points all around your squad, and you will need to to win the big amounts in the guaranteed prize pool contests, it would be bizarre to pick defensive players who are taking on your attacking players in real life. You have drafted your offense to score highly, which should then follow that you think their real-life opposition will leak fantasy sports betting points. It is common sense to leave them well alone, as there is no room for hedging your bets in the world of fantasy sports.
Keep an Eye on the Match-Ups
Even the best players have off-days, but they have to end at some point and you can take advantage. Following a bad run of form, many competitors will ignore even star players, burnt by the points they missed out on in recent weeks.
In this case, take a look at which team this misfiring player is facing next. If it seems like a favourable match-up, it is worth drafting them, knowing they will regain that mojo soon and you might be one of the few competitors to have picked them and benefited.
Beware of Injured Picks
It is tempting to throw caution to the wind and pick a star player who might be missing through injury. The benefits are that, if he plays, few other people will have him in their team and he has the ability to score a huge amount of points. However, if he doesn’t play, you have wasted a pick and will struggle in the team standings. Even if he does make it, he might underperform because of his ailment or even have to withdraw early on, barely scoring you anything.
Enjoy!
Don’t forget that, in all the talk of analysis and research, fantasy sports betting is meant to be fun! Once the squads are locked down, there is nothing else you can do other than sit back, open a bag of chips and cheer your guys on from the comfort of your sofa.