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Regardless of how the old guard may feel, fantasy football is now a huge aspect of NFL football. Fantasy has altered the way fans watch and digest games, and even how the media covers the league.
While fantasy leagues have been around in some shape or form since before the internet, daily fantasy games are a relatively new aspect of the industry.
Rather than season-long rosters in 10- to 14-team leagues with friends, players draft short-term lineups and compete against hundreds of thousands of other players at a time.
Daily fantasy sports is expected to become a billion-dollar industry by 2024, and FanDuel is one of the leaders in the space. FanDuel is currently matching the first $20 deposited by new players - here's how you can sign up and start playing.
After a long summer, football is finally back. Millions of fans across the world will tune in September 5 as the NFL kicks off the 2019/2020 season. But fans are no longer watching solely for the love of the game. Due to the rise in popularity of fantasy football, the average NFL fan is now more likely to be financially, rather than emotionally, invested in the game.
One relatively new form of fantasy sports are daily games. Rather than competing against a league of friends or office colleagues and drafting a roster that you manage all season, daily fantasy players draft one-week lineups that are entered into pools of hundreds of thousands of players.
These daily fantasy games vary in size, rules, entry fees, and payouts, but ultimately they all follow the same basic gameplay. Each user is given a "budget" that they can use to draft a lineup from a pool of players. These players are assigned a cash value based on their projected performance, and players compete to put together the lineup that scores the most points. How the scoring works differs based on whatever game or site you play on, but ultimately players earn points based on the number of passing, rushing, and receiving yards, plus the touchdowns they compile.
One of the leaders in the daily fantasy space is FanDuel, which currently has over six million registered players competing in games on their site. While daily fantasy is now offered in virtually all major sports, the main foundation of the game is football.
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Currently, FanDuel is matching the first $20 new users deposit into their account, via $5 payments over four weeks, which can then be used to enter into games on the site. FanDuel has both paid and free entries available, but you need to deposit at least $20 into your account to access the $20 bonus.
If you are interested in playing daily fantasy football on FanDuel, here is how you can create an account and start building lineups.
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FanDuel is matching $20 for new users who deposit $20 into their account. To access this deal, simply navigate to Fanduel's website and click "Play Now."
Add an email, username, and password
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.
Start building out your profile
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.
Enter a free contest
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.
Add in your financial information
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."
Confirm you started receiving your sign-up bonus and start playing
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.
Explore the lobby
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.
