Complete List of the Best DFS Sites

The best DFS sites are among the most sought after betting platforms in recent years due to the increasing popularity of daily fantasy sports. This relatively new type of betting allows players to create their own teams in a league or a tournament and earn points based on the performances of the selected players in a certain match week. You can play it against your friends or other people around the world. If you find it interesting, read on! 

Before we dive into the details of DFS, we’d like to draw a general picture of the game and why we think it is a fun game to play. First of all, it is totally different from traditional betting. You don’t bet on a game or series of games. You rather bet on players. Think about manager games which have been out there for many years. You could form a team, make transfers and try to win trophies. The logic is very similar to that. You earn points based on the real-life performance of the players that you pick. The more points you have the higher you get on the leaderboard. Ohh before we forget we should tell you that you have a tight budget and limited number of free transfers. This is the challenge that makes the game fun. This is DFS in a nutshell. Now we can dig deeper. 

What are Daily Fantasy Sports?

Daily Fantasy Sports, a.k.a DFS, are a type of betting where players compete against each other forming teams with a limited budget. Players have pseudo values that are calculated based on their potential and performance over the game weeks. So, you can’t choose the best players and keep beating the opponents each game week. You rather need to build a squad which you think would bring the top points at the end of the game week of a tournament. 

There is a Difference between DFS and Traditional Fantasy Sports

In traditional fantasy sports, you build your squad and compete for the top of the table throughout a season or a tournament. You can make transfers and activate bonus features along the way to beat your opponents in this rather long journey. However, in DFS players compete in shorter tournaments. Instead of joining a league, you can join tournaments which last a few days or weeks. So, you can get the result of your wager within a much shorter time. 

How Daily Fantasy Sports Work

The essence of daily fantasy sports is forming a team with real-life players who are likely to perform at a higher level in the long run if the tournament that you join lasts for a few game weeks. You should also take the home/away performances into consideration. If a player performs better at home and the team has 2 home games in a row, then you can rely on that player a bit more. You should also check the opponents for the given game week. Players might perform better against easier opponents. The better they perform the more points you get. Now it is time to create an account at one of the best DFS sites and start building your team. 

Creating Account at the Best DFS Sites

Creating an account at a DFS site is as simple as signing up for an online bookmaker. You simply need to fill a form to become part of this excitement at the best DFS sites. Once you have a verified account, you need to top up your account using one of the best payment methods for online betting. Now you can enter any DFS tournament offered by the DFS site that you’ve chosen. But before that, you need to build your team.

How to Build a DFS Lineup

Building your DFS lineup requires certain information about the recent forms and potentials of the players and the teams. Having insight into such matters as the recent forms of the players, whether they are out of an injury or going through some issues which are known publicly and their relationship with the opposition is quite important. 

There are many factors that can affect a player’s performance, hence your score

Following the top players is advantageous when it comes to building a perfect DFS lineup. However, knowing about the teams is vital. Even if a player is in good shape, he cannot perform well when the team doesn’t function well as a whole. Therefore, you should check the recent form of the team, the morale and the chance of the team against the opposition while choosing your players. 

Golden Rule of DFS: Use Your Budget Wisely

Once you have knowledge about the teams and the players, you’ll have a clear idea about how to shape your lineup. However, you need to keep in mind that you’ll have a strict budget. You can either get the best players for certain areas and go with the low-profile ones in the others or choose mid-tier ones for every position. We recommend you to check the points table of the last weeks or years to see what are the positions that generate the most points. For example, in soccer it is the strikers and the midfields. Therefore, it makes sense to fill these positions with high-profile and expensive players. You can pick mid-tier players for defense and even lower calibre players as the goalkeepers. You can choose the cheapest available player as the substitute keeper as the main goalies don’t usually get injured and play as starters regularly.

Keep an Eye on Transfer limit

If you are playing in a long term tournament, then you’ll need to keep the transfer limit in mind while forming your squad. The best DFS sites implement a transfer limit for each game week. Therefore, you can’t simply replace the poorly performing players with the players on form. They usually give 1 or 2 free transfers for each game week. Afterwards, each transfer costs extra points. Thus, try to form a reliable squad at the very beginning. 

What Are the Best DFS Sites?

DraftKings and FanDuel dominate the US DFS market which is the biggest one in the world. Therefore, these daily fantasy sports platforms are the most well-known brands in the DFS world. However, their dominion has been shaken by a relatively new platform called Monkey Knife Fight. It entered the market in 2018 and began taking more and more shares from the pie. Currently Monkey Knife Fight is the 3rd most popular DFS site in the USA. 

In the global market, however, there are plenty of alternatives. Fanteam is one of the best DFS sites in the global market. The MGM and UKGC licensed brand is a great choice for players who fancy a platform which hosts both sportsbook and daily fantasy sports sections. There are plenty of tournaments with massive prizes organized regularly along with lucrative online betting bonuses. 

The popularity of a DFS site in a particular country is also based on the sports that they offer. For instance, in the UK fantasy Premier League is the most popular daily fantasy sports game while it is fantasy football (NFL) in the USA. Here are the best DFS sites for different sport types: 

• Best Fantasy Soccer Sites are FanTeam and Monkey Knife Fight.
• Best Fantasy Football Sites are DraftKings and FanDuel.
• Best Fantasy Basketball Sites are SuperDraft.
  
• Best Fantasy Formula 1 Sites are PlayOn.

Best Free Fantasy Sports Sites

If you are looking for a fantasy sports action without spending any money, it is also possible. There are some immensely popular dfs platforms that offer fantasy football, soccer, baseball and basketball free of charge. You can test your fantasy sports skills against millions of people all over the world. Here are the best free fantasy sports sites: 

The Best Free Fantasy Soccer Site

Fantasy Premier League is by far the most popular free daily fantasy soccer platform. You can create leagues, join leagues, play against your friends or play in the standard league against millions of players. You start the game without a limited budget and bonuses. The aim is finishing the standard league table on the top at the end of the Premier League season. 

A Premier League Fantasy player in action (Image source: Footy. com Images @Flickr)

The main difference of the Fantasy Premier League from the paid daily fantasy soccer is that you don’t get massive cash prizes and the tournament lasts as long as the whole Premier League season. If you are looking for big cash rewards and quick tournaments, then you should look for other options such as Fanteam. 

The Best Free Fantasy Football Site

The best free fantasy football site is Yahoo! Fantasy. You can either join the NFL fantasy tournaments for free to play it for fun or enter the paid tournaments to claim a share from the cash prizes up to $150,000. There are different tournaments offered at Yahoo! Fantasy in different times. If you fancy playing a real money tournament, then you can enter the tournaments with as little as $5. 

Are Daily Fantasy Sports a Game of Skill or Gambling?

This question has been asked by the US lawmakers in different states multiple times. By 2018, already 18 US states had ruled DFS as a game of skill. You might be asking why it matters that much? Because there are strict gambling laws in many US states. If DFS are ruled as gambling in a state, then DFS operators are required to follow the gambling laws of that state to operate or not operate in that state. Even if they could operate as gambling operators in a given state, they may not do so due to heavy taxation.

To avoid the complications experienced by the gambling operators that operate in the USA, the DFS operators like DraftKings and FanDuel started lobbying to rule DFS as a game of skill. They somehow succeeded as the laws concerning DFS are more lenient compared to the gambling laws in many states.

We have answered the question of “Are DFS a game of skill legally?‘ But political side of the issue aside, we believe that DFS can be considered both a game of skill and gambling at the same time. You need to analyze the sport, the league, and the players in order to succeed in DFS. Moreover, you need to have some sort of a talent in making correct assumptions. However, things can always go sideways. For instance, some of your key players might get injured or suspended, their team might underperform or weather conditions might ruin the game. So, the chance factor is also there which puts DFS into the gambling category as well.  

The US States Where You Can Play DFS Legally

Players can play DFS legally in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming. The DFS laws are pending approval in California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.