Daily Fantasy Sports Betting Guide: How to Get Started

What are daily fantasy sports? This article provides a simple explanation of all the major factors you should consider if thinking about trying DFS. It is incredibly popular in the UK, due to the fact it’s highly strategical, exciting and entertaining. Would you like to try out a more active type of sports betting? Or looking for an alternative? Find all you need to learn about this kind of sports betting from your Daily Fantasy sports betting guide.

What are fantasy sports?

Daily fantasy sports betting became incredibly popular in the UK around 2015. For newcomers, however, it might be a bit confusing what this type of sports betting actually means. Daily fantasy sports or DFS are essentially a subset of fantasy sports games. So, let us make sure you are familiar with fantasy sports in general before we proceed. Fantasy sports are types of internet-based plays.

Participants assemble imaginary or virtual teams composed of proxies of real players of a professional sport. These teams compete based on the statistical performance of those players in actual games. This performance is converted into points that are compiled and totalled according to a roster selected by each fantasy team’s manager. These point systems can be simple enough to be manually calculated by a “league commissioner” who coordinates and manages the overall league, or points can be compiled and calculated using computers tracking actual results of the professional sport. In fantasy sports, team owners draft, trade and cut (drop) players, analogously to real sports (source: Wikipedia). 

What makes it daily? 

The important difference between fantasy sports and daily fantasy sports is that the latter does not last over an entire season. The idea, however, remains the same. If one is familiar with fantasy sports, it is very easy to get into DFS as well. The fundamental idea is as follows: create a fantasy team by picking from a selection of real-life players. The fantasy team you create earns points based on the performance of the actual real-life players. While regular fantasy sports usually last an entire season, with DFS, it could be a single round of events. 

How daily fantasy sports betting works

Pretty simple. Much like any other type of betting on sportsbook, fantasy sports and daily fantasy sports are available for everyone. Anyone can join a site, although it is a good idea to choose well when you are a beginner. You often encounter online sportsbook promotions in the UK on sites like  FanTeam Sportsbook, which is in fact, great for DFS. You pay money to enter a contest you would like to participate in. All the entry fees that players pay to take part in the contest go into the prize pool. Once the specific game ends, the prize pool goes to the winner of course. 

How betting works with daily fantasy sports

As step one, you need to sign up to online sportsbook sites in the UK which offer DSF, and specifically, the sport you would like to play with. There are several sports available depending on the site, but you are likely to encounter football, basketball, baseball or hockey. On FanTeam Sportsbook, DFS football is one of the major categories, features all the big leagues. Once registered, you need to make a deposit. At this point, if you are a new customer there are various sign-up bonuses and promotions available, so make sure you use that. The next step is, to enter a contest. How much do you have to pay for that? it really depends, but luckily there are options from $1 to even thousands. Needless to say, the best way to try your luck is with as little contribution as possible. 

The next step is for you to put your team together. If you have already signed up for a contest, you will be able to see a listing of all the available players you can “use”. At this point, you can draft (or roster) your dream team together. Usually, you can select by position or cost. There are certain positions that each team has to fill, therefore it is important to pay attention to costs as well. For example, in daily fantasy football, you have to pick two running backs, a quarterback etc. 

You have to draft the defence as well, so in conclusion, you must know your selected game really well and also the real-life players’ strengths when you select their virtual counterparts! Obviously, putting together the team costs money. If your entry fee was $1, you need to make sure to make the most of that, when putting the team together. Luckily, there are strategies available on how to draft your DFS team in the most cost-effective way.

Where to bet? 

As we have mentioned, trying out FanTeam Sportsbook as a new DFS player is a great way to get started. They offer Fantasy Games for the top football leagues as well as NBA, NHL, MLB, UFC and much more. FanTeam is Europe’s largest Daily Fantasy platform with football, basketball, CS:GO, MMA, hockey, baseball, DOTA 2, and many other sports and esports on offer. When playing DFS on a Fan team, you get a salary budget that you spend to compose a team of players. Saturday NBA games, for example, or the full week of the English Premier League that usually spans across 3-4 days from Friday to Monday. On Fan Team, there are extra DFS features available. For example, there are fantasy duels and fantasy match-ups as well. 

Reasons to play DFS

Gambling is a great form of entertainment. And so is DFS. It is not only a more video-game-like play, you can also win real money. Moreover, it is also a good way to practice your sports betting skills with daily fantasy. It is highly strategic and very good in terms of managing your bankroll. Since you are given a budget, you will learn to make the most out of even a dollar. Therefore, when you want to enter contests with big bucks, or real-life sporting events, you can do that with bigger confidence. Creating your own team is for you if you are looking for a more active type of entertainment. Since DFS requires strategy, thinking, and research, there is a community too. You can strategize with other sports bettors, especially when doing a whole-season fantasy bet. Good luck and enjoy!

Click here to visit the FanTeam Sportsbook