Best Daily Fantasy Sites

What to Consider When Choosing a Daily Fantasy Site

Daily Fantasy has taken the sports world by storm as it becomes the premier form of fantasy sports. Most players familiar with Daily Fantasy recognize the two major operators, FanDuel and Draft Kings. Yahoo is looking to also break into the growing and lucrative field with the launch of their own Daily Fantasy site.

When considering which site to play with, one must look beyond name recognition and concentrate on what features matter the most to them, such as the type of contest offered or the markets available to play in. Gambling.com has put together information on important aspects of Daily Fantasy sites worth considering when choosing an operator.

Contest Types

Each Daily Fantasy site offers a few options in terms of the type of contest you can play. Understanding the contest types offered is important to players interested in either playing a large field or leaning more towards head-to-head matchups commonly found in other fantasy sports.

• Head-to-Head | This contest features you against one other opponent; your lineup is assembled and played against a single lineup, similar to the familiar fantasy sports layout.
• 50/50 or Double Up Games | Those interested in favorable odds will enjoy this contest featuring your lineup played against a large group of opponents with the objective to finish in the top half of the group. These contests can also feature double-ups, triple-ups, etc., meaning you win a certain amount based on the percentile of the group you fall in.
• Guaranteed Prize Pools (GPP) | Like 50/50 games, GPPs feature anywhere from 10 to thousands per contest but instead of offering payouts for the top half of the field, GPPs’ payouts heavily lean towards the top percentage of the field featuring larger payouts if you can reach the top ten.
• Beginner Games | With Daily Fantasy being a relatively new addition to fantasy sports and having a plethora of beginners, most sites offer Beginner Games. These contests typically feature a higher salary cap for everyone involved to build more favorable teams and only include newcomers to the site. The payouts are lower but can be a valuable way to learn the game with little risk.

Contest Styles

Daily Fantasy sites offer different styles for each type of contest. The most common style is salary cap games but other formats are offered with some familiar formats to other fantasy sports.

• Salary Cap | The most common style of Daily Fantasy is salary cap games. Each competitor can select their players of choice based on value set for each player. This means your draft is completely independent of your competitors. Your only restriction is the salary cap.
• Snake Drafts | More similar to season-long fantasy sports drafts, competitors select players in a turn-by-turn draft that reverses every round. Each player can only be selected once. These drafts take more time as you wait on other competitors to choose.
• Pick Em' | Instead of choosing from all players in a sport and using a value system, Pick Em’ games feature a small selection of players for each position. Competitors must pick the best player in the group offered for each position. In the case of baseball, a small group of pitchers are offered and you must select one from the group then move onto catchers and so on until you have a team of what you consider to be the best players available at each position.

Markets

Most bookmakers cover a massive selection of markets to play in but Daily Fantasy has been slow to expand into broader markets. Most competitors look to concentrate their efforts on a familiar sport, so knowing the markets offered is vital when selecting a site. Here is a list of the most common markets offered with only a few featured on most sites:

• Football
• Baseball
• Basketball
• Hockey
• Golf
• NASCAR
• MMA
• American Football

Bonuses and Rewards

Sites offer unique bonuses and rewards for returning players, similar to casinos. Most Daily Fantasy sites offer a loyalty point system and special free game offers. Sites offer a loyalty point system like FanDuel Points (FDP) for returning players who frequently engage in competition.

The points can be used to play games, at the site’s shop, or to reduce game fees. Free Games can also be accumulated to earn winnings without using your own cash.

Formats

Like most fantasy sports formats, Daily Fantasy sites understand the importance of instant and convenient access due to constant changes in athletics. Whether it is injury updates or lineup changes, players need access to their lineups all the time to ensure they are putting forth the best team available.

So Daily Fantasy sites have embraced the world of mobile apps. Almost all sites offer a smartphone app alongside their desktop versions. For those not interested in mobile access, desktop versions still offer a more robust and in-depth version of each site.

What is Rake?

How do Daily Fantasy sites make money you may ask? Well, sites accumulate fees for hosting the contest called "the rake." Each entry fee is pushed into a pool for the winners but a small portion is taken out as profit for the site.

Players looking to choose a Daily Fantasy site should pay attention to the site's rake. Some sites offer rake-back deals to return a portion of the rake to the winners but this isn’t a prominent practice among the major operators.