By VINNIE RULLO
Contributing Writer
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Draftkings.com offers an unique way for people to play fantasy football. Are you tired of losing in your fantasy football league each week? Try Drafking’s format, which is quickly becoming popular, and compete against thousands of people throughout the world.
The unique thing about Draftkings, as compared to normal fantasy football leagues, is that you only draft your team for that particular week of football games. There is no long term commitments of having to submit a lineup every week, or to use the same group of players you originally drafted as with standard leagues. Ultimately, you decide if you want to play Draftkings each week or not.
In order to play you have to deposit some form of money to compete in these weekly leagues. They have leagues as cheap as $1 to $5 per entry to upwards $10,000 a buy in. Draftkings allows you to pick players and build your team, although you cannot stack your team with all superstar players, you have to create a balance using the salary format. After you make an actual deposit of money, you are given $50,000 of salary money to build your team. Each player that is able to be chosen for your team is provided with a salary based number.
An example from last week’s games would be New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, whose value was $9,300. His value was so high because he was facing a weaker Dallas Cowboys pass defense. Another example of a value pick would be Blake Bortles, quarterback for the Jacksonville Jaguars, whose value was $5,800. The difference is Brees is more likely to put up huge numbers for the given week because he is a more proven player compared to Bortles, who is a rookie.
The goal of Draftkings is simple; to try to build the most balanced team possible of stars, semi-stars, and a few mediocre players for that particular week to give you a good chance to compete against other people’s teams that they also have to build. You are required to pick 9 players any time you compete; 1 quarterback, 2 running backs, 3 wide-receivers, 1 tight end, 1 flex, and a defense. The flex spot allows you to pick another running back, wide-receiver, or tight end. You have the choice to pick which player best suits your team.
The choice how you pick your players is all up to you. A good strategy when choosing players for your team is to find value picks with low salary amounts, stars that you think will have big games, and players that are consistent putting up stats each week. The key is making sure you utilize all of your $50,000 player salary properly when building your team. You do not want to have any money left over. If you happen to be over the salary when building your team then you will not be allowed to submit your lineup and will have to re-arranged a few players on your team with different salary values.
The scoring system on Draftkings is very similar to normal fantasy football leagues, but how you play is extremely different. Each week, if you chose to make your lineup, you are not competing against one person head-to-head most points scored, but rather against the number of people in your league lobby.
There are lobbies with anywhere from hundreds to thousands of people in them. The people you play against throughout the world could actually have the same players you picked for your team. The better all of your players do for the week, the better the chance you have at winning more money.
A great value pick for a lot of people in Week 3 was Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins, who threw for over 427 passing yards and totaled 3 touchdown passes. Cousins was valued at $5,800 player salary that week, meaning the people that used him earned nearly 35 fantasy points for their team. Those who risked taking a less popular quarterback were also rewarded because having extra team salary money allowed them to have a stronger player at a different position.
Your success ultimately comes down to how your players perform for the week. If you happen to pick 7 or 8 players that do very well for you, there is a chance you could win big depending on the amount you bought in for. I would recommend starting out small and giving Draftskings a try. It is really fun to follow your team and see how they do against everyone else for the week.
The future of fantasy football, in my opinion, are these types of leagues like Draftkings and the already prominent, yet similar website called Fanduel. These websites continues to grow weekly and overall they are becoming more popular. Fantasy football experts on Twitter are often using the hashtag #DFS which stands for Daily Fantasy Leagues. Experts often recommend players that have good DFS value that you should use in formats such as Draftkings to help you win for that week.
I think more people will learn and enjoy to play this format of fantasy football in the future. The advertising of daily leagues is often showcased on commercials shown on ESPN and on other prominent sports radio stations explaining to listeners how easy it is to play each week. Draftkings allows people who are interested in fantasy football to play in an innovative and strategic way, and it is quickly becoming a new trend.