What is a Fantasy Football Wildcard ?

Wildcard is one of the most important factors in seasonal fantasy football, but it is also a term that it being used by daily fantasy football players.

In seasonal fantasy football, players are usually given at least one wildcard that allows them to make changes to their team without having to pay a points penalty to do so.

When and how a wildcard is used has a major factor in how teams perform over the course of the season and there are many different competing theories about how wildcards should be utilised.

In daily fantasy football, however, a wildcard is not a bonus chip that can be used by players to complete a massive overhaul of their squad.

Instead, wildcard refers to a risky selection who not many other daily fantasy football users will make for their teams, providing an XI with a high level of variance and therefore boosting a player’s chances of finishing in the top places of a tournament.

Finding the right wildcard picks is one of the biggest challenges in daily fantasy football – if it was that easy then every player would have two or three amazing wildcard selections in their team!

Choosing a wildcard player fits in well with a contrarian strategy, as you are looking for a footballer who you believe to be undervalued as a result of their high level of upside and large potential to score a lot of points for your team.

Of course, a wildcard pick can sometimes fall flat and score hardly any points at all for your side, but that is the risk you take when you add one of these players into a daily fantasy football team.

Select your wildcard players carefully as they can either make or break your fantasy chances.