Have you ever heard of Daily Fantasy Sports or DFS as it is known? It is one of the fastest-growing markets in the United States. Even if you have never heard of it, you can start playing today. We are here to help you get started; whether you are a fan of football, basketball, baseball, or a fan of another sport, there is a game/contest for you.

What is Daily Fantasy Sports?

Daily Fantasy was founded on the notion that fantasy sports no longer need to be played over an entire season. Daily Fantasy is precisely what its title entails; it can be played every day. For example, to use football, it is Thanksgiving day; you can choose a lineup from players playing in the three different games that day. It is based upon each player having a value set by the DFS site. The user has a budget, and you try to set your best lineup. Each time a player is put in your lineup, whatever the player’s value is deducted from your budget. With that said, the higher the predicted scoring total of a player, the higher the player’s cost. For an NBA lineup, you cannot choose the NBA All-Star starting five for your lineup. Meaning there has to be an average of high-budget and low-budget players in your lineup.

There can be a lot of strategies that go into DFS; many users follow tip blogs, look at player rankings, use analytics, and much more. In contrast, others pick their favorite players or use their gut to make lineup decisions. Regardless of how users try to make their lineup, they are trying to optimize and evaluate their best lineup to win.

The Users of DFS

Not to be oversimplified, but except for a few states where it is not yet legal, anyone can play DFS. If you are an NFL fan, NBA fan, MLB fan, NHL fan, or even fans of sports like NASCAR, PGA Golf, and Tennis you can play. It is simple to get started, and Bonuses are typically offered to new users.

Yet even if you are not a sports fan, DFS can be a way for you to get into sports; having just a $1 lineup in place makes sports more interesting to watch. If your boyfriend or girlfriend is a sports junkie and is always watching, you should try daily Fantasy to help make it a little more interesting for you. People who are not the biggest sports fans often do well in DFS because they can be unbiased in making a lineup.

Sports That You Can Play

Almost every mainstream sport has a daily fantasy offering from major platforms like FanDuel, DraftKings, Yahoo Sports, and more. Each of them offers different style games depending on the type of sport. Here is a highlight of some of the mainstream sports offered.

NFL DFS
DFS NFL is very comparable to season-long fantasy football. Set a lineup and try to beat someone in a head-to-head matchup. As previously mentioned, all that has to be done when setting a lineup is to stay within your budget. NFL DFS compares similarly to other team sports that use multiple players on the field or court simultaneously, like MLB, NHL, NBA, and soccer. You can catch more NFL DFS information right here.
NBA DFS

Another lineup sport and another incredibly popular DFS option for anyone. One of the great things about NBA daily Fantasy is that compared to sports like the NFL, NASCAR, or golf. It is truly a daily offering; as the above sports mentioned, even in mid-season, there is no daily availability. Whereas the NBA once in mid-season pretty much has several games every single day. Similar to sports like the NFL, NHL, soccer, and other sports that have lineups, NBA DFS is based on setting a lineup based on staying under your budget. The NBA-specific page covers NBA DFS in detail.

NHL DFS

Like the NBA, the NHL is fun to play because of its daily nature. It is similar to lineup sports in the way that you play by setting a lineup staying under a budget with each chosen player set at a specific value. The NHL-specific page covers NHL DFS in detail.

MLB DFS

MLB has become one of the most popular Daily Fantasy Sports games in that at the time it is played; it is the only daily ticket in town. Sure, in the summer, there is sometimes international soccer, Golf, NASCAR, and Tennis. Yet MLB is the only sport going on with the ability to play every single day. The MLB-specific page covers MLB DFS in detail.

Soccer DFS

Soccer is one of the coolest DFS options available simply because of the variety of leagues. Sports like basketball, hockey, and baseball only have one league for which you can set DFS lineups. Soccer has several leagues and international games that you can use players from. This sets up a wide variety of available games to play in DFS. The soccer-specific page covers soccer DFS in detail.

College Football DFS

College football has so many numerous lineup options because of the 100’s of teams in college football. Compared to the NFL, which has 32 teams, college football has a superior number of possible lineup combinations—if you are an avid follower of college football, sometimes choosing a player from that bad power five team but putting up huge stats can pay off in your lineup. The college football page covers DFS in detail.

Golf DFS

Golf is an entirely different animal in Daily Fantasy Sports because it is based on a different scoring system. While you do set a lineup, golf is not a team sport. The scoring is not based on a player’s overall scorecard but rather how many birdies, bogies, pars, and other hole finishes they get. It is much closer to how tennis and Nascar are played. A player can finish 10th in a tournament but be the highest scoring fantasy, golfer. The Golf-specific page covers Golf DFS in detail.

Tennis DFS

Tennis is another highly unique daily fantasy offering in a sport based on individuals, not teams. Like Golf and NASCAR, you can have a player in your lineup that doesn’t necessarily win the tournament but could still be the high scorer. The Tennis-specific page covers tennis DFS in detail.

NASCAR DFS

Nascar may be one of the most unique. There are different games to be played, but typically points are earned based on where a driver starts and finishes. It has a lot of similar properties to DFS Golf and tennis. The NASCAR-specific page covers NASCAR  DFS in detail.

How To Play Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS)?

It is pretty simple, choose a site or mobile app that you would like to play on and register. It will require a financial deposit of some sort, and choose a sport to try. You set a lineup that can vary from sport to sport. Then choose a contest that can range from as low as $1 to $100s or even more. We recommend starting small to get your feet wet.

Top Daily Fantasy Sites

There are two sites or apps that dominate the marketplace when it comes to Daily Fantasy Sports. DraftKings and FanDuel, are the primary places in America. There are several other apps and websites to play such as, Monkey Knife Fight, Yahoo Sports, Prize Picks, Underdog Fantasy. Yet above the pack and for a good reason sit DraftKings and Fanduel. They are simply the most accessible sites/apps to use, have great promos, and have proven to be the most trustworthy.

DraftKings
King is fitting because they share the throne of DFS sites/apps when it comes to where users go. DraftKings is currently offering new users a sign-up promo where they will match your initial deposit up to $500.

FanDuel
The other giant in the marketplace is FanDuel, which has one of the best platforms in the industry. Fanduel currently offers all new users two free entries if they deposit $20 at sign-up.

As mentioned, there are several other daily fantasy sports providers, but no one offers better value, ease of use, available contests, and so much more than FanDuel and DraftKings.

Common Games and Contests

There is a wide variety of games/contests offered on daily fantasy sites. They can also vary from platform to platform. Here are some of the most common games:

H2H or Head-to-Head
Perhaps the most straightforward offering of any daily fantasy contest, a head-to-head matchup pits you one on one against a random user or play against a friend. The user that picks the lineup with the best score wins the matchup. H2H matchups are a great place to start for new users. H2H is offered in pretty much every sport, whether it is NBA, NHL, NASCAR, or another sport.
Double-Ups or 50/50s
Similar to head-to-head, yet instead of two users, it puts the user in a field with other entrants, and the top 50% of scorers win and double their money. This is another excellent contest, especially if you pick lineups pretty consistently. In H2H matchups, you may have scored in the top 10% but had someone picked a top 8% lineup; you would lose. This is another contest found in most sports, anything from NFL, soccer, tennis, or another sport.
Guaranteed Prize Pools
This is a contest where you enter a lineup; some allow multiple entries, and some only allow one entry. They have varying entry fees, but many have massive prize pools. Typically the top 10%-25% will win a prize, with the top overall scoring lineup taking home massive prizes. Many of these contests have a top prize of $1 million or more.

History of DFS

Daily Fantasy Sports hasn’t always been the sleek and intuitive design seen nowadays from likes Draftkings, Fanduel, and Yahoo Sports. Over thirty years ago, their games were not necessarily described as Daily Fantasy Sport in newspapers but operated very similarly. Those games came out in a few newspapers; one was called Dugout Derby, and another was called Pigskin Playoff. These two games were featured in several major newspapers like the Detroit Free Press, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Miami Herald.

These two early competitions were much more simplified than some of the games we have seen in today’s market. This is thought to be the first time a scoring system was used instead of a team ranking system. A patent was filed on this scoring system which was the first time one had ever been filed covering fantasy sports.

One of the first websites that had DFS contests was a site called Instant Fantasy Sports, which was established in 2007. The site’s founder Chris Fargas made the site in hopes of emulating online poker but in sports. Fargas said his goal was to “take the time frame of season-long fantasy sports leagues and shrink it.” The site, along with another site Rotoworld was acquired by NBC and was later shut down.

In 2009 Hubdub launched a spin-off which was the birth of FanDuel, marketing itself as a fun alternative to typical fantasy sports. In 2012 DraftKings launched as well, and by 2015 both DraftKings and FanDuel were valued at over $1 billion. In less than a decade, both had grown from a novelty to one of the fantasy sports industry’s top dogs.

Legality/Is DFS Legit?

Even with the explosion in popularity of DFS, it has not been without its battles along the way. When both FanDuel and DraftKings started, sports gambling was not legalized in the United States. Online gambling, including sports gambling, fell under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Yet fantasy sports were allowable under this law. However, the law did not state that fantasy sports played for money had to be season-long. With that said, DFS kind of fell inside a loophole to where it was allowed.

Even with that, DFS providers have had their fair share of legal trouble throughout their existence. Over the years, multiple class-action lawsuits have been filed claiming things like false advertising, fraud, negligence, racketeering, and employees using insider information to profit from the services.

Then when sports gambling became allowable nationwide in 2018, FanDuel and DraftKings both capitalized on the opportunity to expand their services to include both DFS and sports gambling platforms. Note sports gambling is allowed nationwide and is no longer illegal in federal law, but it is up to each state whether their state government has laws in place for it to be allowed.

As of January 2022, Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) is allowed in all but six states nationwide. Which is more than what is allowed sports gambling-wise as only 30 states have passed legislation allowing it.

Frequently Asked DFS NFL Questions

Daily Fantasy is legal in all but six states in America. More and more states came on board when they realized how much money in tax revenue could be made.

Go check out a site/app and see what may be a good fit for you, then sign up. Don’t forget those new user promos mentioned above and enter your first contest.

The amount of money you have to insert players in your lineup. Players are given value, and you have to get a combination of players that can fit your budget and combine for a high score. Basically, you are looking for the best value from players based on their cost versus how many points you think they will score.

There is a wide variety of games ranging from head-to-head, double-ups, prize pool contests, and more.

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