Can you predict the best performing player for 10 nations at Euro 2016?

Euro 2016 finally gets underway on Friday and there are a number of daily fantasy football operators that have games running throughout the tournament. But there are also a number of new faces on the scene and as usual the team at Fantasy Football Portal will be following their progress.

One game that has been launched in time for the Euro 2016 competition is MatchBoss. The MatchBoss site comes from the guys behind the excellent Squawka website and there are three ways users can win, with the prize pool currently set at an impressive £30,000.

So what is MatchBoss – and how do you play?

How to play MatchBoss

The idea behind MatchBoss is a strikingly simple one, with the free contest running for the whole length of the European Championship.

Players simply have to guess who will be the ‘Best Performing Player’  for 10 of the nations taking part in Euro 2016 i.e. the player who attains the highest amount of performance points during the whole tournament, in terms of fantasy points .

The teams users have to pick the ‘Best Performing Player’ from are as follows: England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Portugal.

Progress can be tracked live, so players can follow their picks in real-time to see how many points they are scoring when compared to their rivals.

Leaderboards are also kept updated so users can see whether or not they are in the running to win MatchBoss cash prizes. Correctly guessing all 10 would put you in the frame for  the jackpot amount of £20,000, while the top 20 on the overall leaderboard will get a share of a £10,000 prize pool.

Spot prizes are also up for grabs too, with players getting the chance to win Premier League tickets, a signed England shirt, a Euro 2016 match ball, a £50 Nando’s voucher and Pro Evolution Soccer – UEFA EURO 2016 Edition.

Best of all – you do not have to pay anything to enter MatchBoss, but you only get one team.

Scoring system

The MatchBoss scoring system will be fairly familiar to anyone who has played daily fantasy football before. Goals are the joint-biggest point-scorers on the board, with 50 points, the same number of points that are awarded for goalkeepers who make a penalty save.

Clean sheets and assists are also highly valued in the MatchBoss scoring system, while key passes, completed passes and being fouled all get rewarded positively with points too.

However, as in most fantasy football games, your players can lose points as well as win them. Getting a red card will result in a 20-point deduction for your squad, while points are also given away for losing tackles and aerial duels.

Points continue to be awarded throughout extra-time, but not during penalty shoot-outs, while the player with the most points at the time their team is knocked out is declared their nation’s ‘Best Performing Player’.

In the event of a tie, the player with the most goals will be deemed the winner, with assists, saved penalties, shots on target and key passes then used if they still cannot be split players from the same nation. The full MatchBoss scoring matrix is available to view on the site, so check it out in full before you start making your picks.

Our picks

Entries can be made into the MatchBoss fantasy football game until 15 minutes before France get the finals underway against Romania on Friday night, so there is still plenty of time left to join.

Here are some of our suggestions for players to consider in your MatchBoss teams for the Euros. As with most fantasy football games of this type, you will want to balance out obvious selections such as big star names with more unheralded players to maximise your chances of winning.

Harry Kane is our selection for England, with the striker scoring 25 Premier League goals for Tottenham last season to lift the Golden Boot, while the 22-year-old has also been taking set-pieces throughout his country’s warm-up games for the tournament.

From France, Antoine Griezmann gets our pick after a breakout season with Atlético Madrid, while his knack of scoring in big games means we’re selecting Álvaro Morata from Spain, even though he might well start the competition on the bench.

The prolific attacker Thomas Müller is our Germany player, while Gareth Bale is an obvious pick for a Wales side that could well turn out to be a surprise package at the finals.

Kevin De Bruyne is a predictable selection from the Belgium squad and we’ve picked out Gianluigi Buffon from Italy, as well as Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal, who is likely to be one of the most popular players in the MatchBoss game.

Set-piece specialist Robbie Brady is our pick from Ireland’s workmanlike squad and the last player to get the nod from us is Northern Ireland’s captain and midfield lynchpin Steven Davis.

Best of luck with your MatchBoss teams – hopefully we’ll see you on the leaderboard!