Popular fantasy football platform FanDuel is offering $20 to new users who sign up in September - here's how to sign up and get started

New users can build a FanDuel profile in two ways. The easiest way is to simply connect it with your existing Facebook account. This automatically links the login information you use with you Facebook to your Fanduel account.

If you're hesitant to offer Facebook access to a website that requires you to add financial information, you can create a separate account by adding your email, and creating a username and password. Once you've clicked "Play Now" after filling out the form, you officially have a FanDuel account, but there are few more steps you need to complete in order to get your $20 sign-up bonus.

The next step after creating your profile credentials is choosing your favorite sport. This is a pretty inconsequential step in creating your account. You can still enter contests in whatever sport you like regardless of what you choose here. Just pick whichever sport you like so you can move on and start collecting your free $20.

To get you started and show you how to build a lineup, FanDuel lets you enter a game for free. The actual game will differ depending on when you sign up, but this free entry is a good way to get the hang of daily fantasy before you start putting money down on the table.

In the specific free game I entered, the players all have the same value so there is not as much strategy involved as most other pools.

Normally the key to a great lineup is finding the right combination of players that best optimizes your budget. This means finding the cheaper players that you expect to have a great week, and not picking the same players you expect the rest of the pool to choose.

You add players to your lineup by clicking the "+" symbol at the end of the row for each player you want to select. Once you have finished creating your lineup, click save and you will be officially entered in that pool. If you are entering a paid pool, this is when the money will be taken out of your Fanduel funds. You are allowed to edit your lineup until the game starts — at which point it will be locked.

While you don't need money to have a FanDuel account or enter the free games, you need to deposit at least $20 into your account to get the $20 match from Fanduel. There are three different payment methods that you can use to do this.

You can add in your credit card or online banking information, or link your Fanduel account with your existing Paypal account. If you are worried about entering your financial information, FanDuel says that they have "payment security partners in place that safely store your card information in a digital vault. Your card information never touches FanDuel servers, and it's not stored by us at any point."

Once you have added $20 into your account, you should receive a notification that FanDuel has added the first of four $5 deposits into your account.

Now that your account is all set and you have added funds, you can explore the FanDuel lobby and start entering games and building lineups. If this is your first time, I recommend starting small and entering the beginner leagues, or even trying out only free leagues to start.

There is obviously a smaller reward compared to high-entry fee games for these beginner pools, but these games allow you to try it a few times and get the hang of building a winning lineup before putting real money on the line.

Like any other form of gambling, it's important that you play the games responsibly. Remember that if you are in paid leagues, you are playing with real money. These games can add up fast, so you don't want to go overboard by entering a bunch of pools all at once. In the large pools with hundreds of thousands or even millions of entries, it is very unlikely that you'll make a significant profit.

However, once you get the hang of the unique strategy of daily fantasy, you can enter high-entry games and hopefully start winning bigger rewards.