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FanDuel UK Daily Fantasy Football

FanDuel is the big new player on the UK fantasy football market, with a full launch having now taken place following some beta testing during Euro 2016.

We’ve gone behind the curtain to check out the game and see what it’s like – here are some initial thoughts on the daily fantasy football offering from FanDuel.

The lobby

Log in to FanDuel and you will be greeted with the lobby page, just as you would on the majority of other fantasy football sites.

There is a clean white and blue look in the FanDuel lobby and the list of contests that are available to join are easy to understand immediately.

Users can elect to see only recommended FanDuel contests, or all of the tournaments that are scheduled, or just those where the top half of the competitors will win prize money.

Clicking on a tournament brings up more details about the prize pool and a list of the games that are taking place over the course of the contest, as well as its rules.

Team selection

There are no subs or captains in fantasy football games on FanDuel UK, so you simply need to pick 11 players to make up your team, with a range of formations on offer to use.

The player list, on the left of the screen, automatically shows the most expensive players at the top, but this can be changed so that the order is instead ranked in terms of points per game.

Players who are unfit or suspended are also flagged up by a small icon on the player list so you can stay fully informed while picking your squad.

Clicking on a player’s name brings up information about their recent fantasy football points scores, as well as any relevant news articles about that particular footballer.

The FanDuel UK budget is set at £100 million, so you have around £9 million to spend on each player, although it is of course completely up to you how you decide to splash the cash – if you go for an expensive option such as Sergio Agüero you will need to find some cheap bargains elsewhere to stay under budget.

Once you have finished picking your team – with the squad selection screen a joy to use due to its clear simplicity – you can check your line-ups on the Upcoming page.

Rules and scoring

At first glance, FanDuel UK seems to work in much the same way as its daily fantasy football rivals, although of course there are subtle differences in the scoring system.

Players score 15 points for a goal – no matter if they are a defender or a striker – while 7 are up for grabs for an assist and 5 are scored for a shot on target. Players get points for tackles and interceptions too, which brings combative types, that are often over-looked by most scoring formats, into the equation, while a yellow drops 1 point and a red card loses 5 points, as does an own goal.

Goalkeepers receive 10 points for a clean sheet, 6 for saving a penalty and 3 for each save they make, but for each goal they concede they will be deduced 1 point.

Data for live scoring comes from stats provider Opta, as with many other fantasy games, and FanDuel UK players can follow their team’s progress in real-time too.

The verdict

It is obviously early days for FanDuel in the UK, but as one of the major players in the United States it is likely they will find a way to make their offering work.

The game is clearly laid out and very easy to understand, but as with the majority of fantasy football games that are out there on the market, FanDuel is likely to live or die on the size of its prize pools and the range of contests that are available to join.

Fanduel looks like it’s one to watch and is a welcome addition to the fantasy football industry in the UK.

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