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How does a fantasy basketball league work
How does a fantasy basketball league work
ESPN Fantasy Basketball 101 - How to play
Sep 26, 2022
You love basketball. You follow the NBA, root for your favorite team and watched in amazement as Stephen Curry led the Golden State Warriors to another championship.
And you still haven't played fantasy basketball?!
If that sounds a lot like you, this is the perfect season to give it a try -- there is just so much exciting stuff happening around the league. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic can do everything on the court. Luka Doncic and Trae Young have moved into the MVP discussion. Zion Williamson is coming back from a missed season. And superstars LeBron James and Kevin Durant continue to put their teams on their backs like they did 10 years ago.![]()
There has never been a better time to jump right into the fantasy game.
Create or join an ESPN Fantasy Basketball league today and draft your league any time before the first game tips off every Monday. Your league starts fresh with 0-0 records for the new matchup period.
Sign up for free!
Imagine having Curry on your team when he gets on a roll from 3-point land and carries you to victory. Or what it feels like to have LaMelo Ball on your squad when he stuffs the stat sheet in his third NBA season.
These are the moments you remember as a fantasy manager!
In fact, many of those who've played fantasy basketball over the years can recall specific games that certain players had for them. An epic scoring night by James Harden or Damian Lillard, or maybe a timely triple-double by Russell Westbrook.
So fun. So, so fun!
If you're not an expert, don't worry -- we have everything you need to know about how to enter a league and draft a winning team.
Even if you're a total beginner, you will still have the tools to experience the joy of fantasy basketball like millions do every year.
Make the league your own
Every fantasy basketball league is different. While there are basic rules and settings that apply across the board (you will learn about those below), each league takes on its own identity based on settings like roster size, injury spots, stat categories and other specifics.
We encourage you to join or start a league that fits what you're looking for. If you want to be more casual and set your lineups once a week, find a league that uses weekly lineup changes. If you're a little bit more diehard with all this and want to be able to add and drop players and craft new lineups on a daily basis, that's the type of league you should enter.
The bottom line is to do what's fun for you. Find a league that keeps you tuning in to watch your players every night.
With that in mind, we've put together ESPN Fantasy Basketball 101 to give you an overview of how to get started, how to prepare for your draft and how to play during the season.
Now it's time for you to sign up and join the fun!
Getting startedESPN Fantasy Basketball FAQ
Click here for a quick reference for basic game-related questions.
How to sign up on the ESPN Fantasy app
Were you invited to an ESPN Fantasy Basketball league? Do you want to create your own as a League Manager? We have complete instructions for you right here.
How to sign up online
Whether you were invited to join an already-existing league or want to create your own as a League Manager, you'll find everything you need to do so right here.
League settings
If you created your own league, you'll need to make sure all of your league's rules and settings -- including roster size, scoring, regular-season schedules and playoff schedules -- are to your liking. We have all of the details of how to do that right here. Note: This season
You've signed up, now what?
Check out your league and team pages
It's time to learn more about your league and team pages, so you know where everything is.
We've got you covered with a detailed tour right here.
Know your rules
This might seem incredibly basic, but even veteran fantasy basketball players often assume they know their league rules even when they don't. The result of overlooking a rule can be costly, so be sure you know the rules before your draft.
Go to your fantasy basketball league page, click on League, then Settings. Here, you'll be able to find all the rules that are in place for your league this season. This includes roster construction, scoring, schedule, playoff structure and more.
Take the time to carefully go over every section. To make sure you understand the thinking behind each rule, check out our League Settings overview.
Draft prep
A good draft will put you in position to have a successful season, and taking time to prepare beforehand is key. That includes formulating strategies and printing out rankings that reflect your league's scoring format.
Don't worry, we have you covered with customized expert rankings and draft strategies in the ESPN Fantasy Basketball draft kit.
Autodraft prep
If you don't plan to take part in a live draft, that's OK. Our system will automatically draft for you.
Still, you have the option of guiding how our system will draft your team. Go to your Team page and click "Edit Autopick Strategy." Here, you can decide which player positions you'd like to pick in which parts of the draft and how many players at each position you want to select overall.
Mock drafts
Mock drafts are simply practice drafts that don't count for anything. It's a terrific way to get used to the ESPN draft software, make sure you know how everything works and test out different strategies. For example, that might mean drafting a point guard in the first round versus drafting a small forward in Round 1 and waiting on a point guard until the fourth round.
These practice drafts also let you see which players are going higher than expected and which are routinely slipping down a round or two (or more).
This is extremely useful knowledge that you can take with you in your real draft and use to your advantage, avoiding those "sliding" players until later rounds when you have a good idea that they will still be available.
For an overview of how everything in the ESPN draft room works, click on this link.
The draft
Draft day is the most exciting day of the season, because it's when your team goes from a plan to a reality. It's when you finally get the chance to assemble the group of players you get to root for all season. Of course, you can always add and drop players throughout the year, but the draft is still the most fundamental part of your roster and you want to make sure you don't miss on your top players.
If you have prepared for your draft by reading up on players and strategies, and by participating in several mock drafts, you're on the path to success. Believe in your hunches and don't look back.
To make everything go as smoothly as possible, be sure to follow these handy rules.
The season is starting, let the fun begin!
Trading
In most leagues, there are at least a few managers who enjoy the art of the deal. If you're one of those people, trading is going to be one of the most fun aspects of fantasy basketball. When done well, it's a great opportunity to improve your roster while unloading someone you perhaps no longer want or need.
There are several important factors to keep in mind. You must look at the roster of the team you're trading with and understand which, if any players, that manager might be willing to part with. For example, it'd be unwise to make a trade offer for a point guard on a team that is battling injuries and down to one healthy point guard. Also, while you may never want to send your best trade offer with your first proposal, be careful not to offer up too little. That can be offensive to the other manager and can lead to that person not only declining your offer but ending all future trade talks with you.
In-season strategies
Beyond trading, there are other factors to consider during the season like how to manage your games played in roto leagues, how to approach head-to-head playoffs, and how best to work the waiver wire. Check out the in-season strategies section of our draft kit.
Fantasy basketball etiquette
Every few years, no matter what type of league you're in, you'll run into someone who causes problems. Sometimes it name-calling on the message board and being a bully. Other times it is a constant stream of wild trade offers and questionable transactions. Whether you are in a hyper-competitive league or just trying to have some casual fun, you want to avoid being this way or having others in your league who conduct themselves like this.
Generally speaking, that just means following the golden rule: Treat others the way you'd want to be treated in your league.
Fantasy basketball -- ESPN Fantasy Basketball 101: Mock drafts
AP Photo/Chris O'Meara
Sep 16, 2021
Mock drafts are simply practice drafts that don't count for anything. They provide a terrific way to get used to the ESPN draft software, make sure you know how everything works, test out your draft strategies and get any mistakes out of the way before the real draft -- when it really counts!
We encourage you to see where your favorite draft targets are being selected, with a special eye toward which players are being selected higher than expected and which are slipping to later rounds. This is the type of knowledge you can gain only by participating in mock drafts.
Remember, practice makes perfect.
So after you've done some thinking about which strategies you may use in your draft, take your rankings cheat sheet and head to the ESPN Mock Draft Lobby. If you're on the ESPN Fantasy App, go to the football section and click "Mock Draft."
Look through the League Format column to find a league that matches your league's settings (auction or snake draft; category or roto scoring; 10-,12-,16- or 18-team league). Once you've found one, click the Room Name then click the blue "Join This League" button. Once the clock hits zero, your mock draft room is ready. All you have to do is click on the blue "Launch Draft" button.
From here, it's smart to take a look around the draft app and to test each button to see what it does. This is your chance to get used to the layout of the draft app.
Draft order: At the top, you'll see the draft order; the team on the left will draft first. The teams will cycle through as each pick is made, so whoever is drafting next will be shown on the top left, and the team on deck will be to the right of that team.
Take a look to see where you are drafting -- you are highlighted with a yellow square -- and begin preparing for who you think will be there for your first-round pick.
Players: You can sort them by position, NBA team, our projected stats and bye weeks. More importantly, you can use the search box to quickly find a specific player you want to draft -- even someone who may be way down in the default rankings and off the radar of most managers in your league.
Nomination Queue: Drag and drop players you might want with your next pick into the Nomination Queue in the order you rank them. If your clock runs out -- be it because you took too much time thinking or had a computer glitch -- the system will pick the top player in your queue for you. It also helps you avoid forgetting about a player you want during the draft.
Making your pick: When it's your turn, the clock at the top left will start ticking down toward zero, at which point it will take the top player in your queue or (if there is no one in your queue) the top-ranked player available.
To make your pick and avoid the automated selection, click on the player you want and make sure his image and stats appear in the Selected Player section. If you want him in a specific position, use the dropdown to choose the position before you finalize your pick. Then click the bright red Draft Player button to finalize your pick.
Draft Summary: As each pick is made by your league, they will show up above your queue. You can also click Draft Summary to see the full draft and which team took which player.
Draft Results: On the right, you'll see your roster, so you can see which positions you still need to fill (you'll need to fill each of those positions by the end of the draft). You can also use the Select Team dropdown to view other teams and see which positions they have filled.
League Chat: Use this area to talk smack, ask questions or beg your league manager to pause the draft if an emergency comes up.
League Manager: This section allows your LM (if you are in a league that uses that system) to pause the draft and roll back picks, in case someone made a mistake.
To improve your chances of draft day success, we highly recommend participating in as many mock drafts as possible before your draft. That way, you'll enter your real draft with a leg up on the competition and feel more confident knowing you are fully prepared.
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How to play fantasy league?
This season in the Parimatch Championship of the Nizhny Novgorod region we are again waiting for the fantasy league, which has already managed to catch the fancy of many fans over the past year.
How fantasy league works : 1) A user registers on fantione.com. You can register through Vkontakte with one click, or you can use an email address, but then the mail will need to be confirmed - without confirmation it will not be possible to play fantasy.
2) Then the user searches for the league he needs (the list of active leagues will be on the main page). In our case, this is the Major League of the Championship of the Nizhny Novgorod Region.
3) After selecting a league, the user goes to its page, clicks "Play" and becomes a member.
4) Next, you need to open the card sets to find out which players can be fielded for the upcoming fantasy tour. You will have 15 sets of cards. Each set contains 5 cards (for each position - point guard, attacking defender, small forward, heavy forward, center).
5) After opening all the cards, ideally, you need to look at what has fallen.
There will almost certainly be duplicate cards - duplicates can be removed, leaving only 1 card of the same cards available. When deleted, the user receives points, which can then be exchanged for new sets of cards (1000 points for 1 set). Removal of a simple card - 100 points, removal of a silver card - 200 points, removal of a gold card - 500 points. The difference in the color of the card is the bonuses that are awarded for each useful action by the player. Regular cards have no bonuses, silver cards have 1 bonus, gold cards have 3 bonuses. Bonuses and which cards drop out are all randomly generated. There will always be 1 silver card in one set. Possibility of getting into the gold card set - 10%. You can delete not only duplicate cards, but also cards of players that, in the user's opinion, will not be useful in fantasy, and he will not put them on upcoming rounds. It is impossible to remove a previously played card in one of the rounds. It is also not recommended to delete everything in a row - a situation may occur that there is no player in the position, and then 0 fantasy points will be awarded to the user for this position.
6) When all the cards are open, you need to go to the selection of the composition in the menu. The choice of the composition is 5 players for the next games, one player for each position. You just need to scroll down and choose from among the available cards those that, in the opinion of the user, will be most useful in the next tour. The choice is simple - scroll down, find a card from the available ones, click on it, and it should automatically appear at the top. Click "Save", etc. no need. Everything is saved. Changes to the selected five can be made before the start of the first game in the upcoming round. You can replace an already issued card if the changes are not blocked yet.
7) After choosing the composition, you can go to the prediction league. The League of Predictions is an additional opportunity to earn points for new sets of cards. There you need to guess the outcomes of matches and some random events. Correct predictions go to the overall standings, as well as to the standings of points that can be sprayed.
At the end of all games, the results for the round are processed, and the site in the "Leaders" section displays user data with their five players by fantasy points. And in the section "Statistics" - indicators of fantasy-points of the players of our Championship. By default, summary indicators are opened, but you can switch to a specific tour.
Please note that one round in the Parimatch Championship of the Nizhny Novgorod region lasts 2 weeks, but in the fantasy league we play for a week, so points are calculated every Monday.
You can play the Fantasy League here - https://fantione.com/
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All 3 teams from the Nizhny Novgorod Region reached the Semifinals of the Russian Championship which is growing every day. While for some it is a hobby, for others it is already a way to earn money. Understanding the pros and cons of a new phenomenon
In the next 3-5 years, PwC experts predict the growth of the fantasy sports industry by an average of 7.2%. This is largely due to the legalization of sports betting at the federal level in the United States, as well as the pandemic, which has increased the importance of interactive online technologies. Although in Russia the fantasy direction is still in the "gray" legal zone, our audience is also actively involved in the game.
What is fantasy sports
This is a virtual game based on real competitions in various sports: football, baseball, basketball and so on. Usually it is arranged on the basis of a specific real tournament, whether it is the championship of Russia, Italy, England or the Champions League.
Fantasy managers, as people involved in the game are called, assemble virtual teams from existing players from different sports clubs. You can safely have both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the same team, that is, you are not limited to one club.
In this case, there is a limit in the form of a bank - for example, 1,000 conventional units. In each tournament, the manager has a certain amount for "salaries", that is, it is impossible to fill the team with only top players from different clubs. It is also necessary to calculate everything and choose several promising, but less expensive ones. Therefore, for constant victories, you need to know one or another sport well, although a certain amount of luck also matters.
Conditions may differ depending on the specific tournament. For example, in fantasy competitions in the Russian Premier League, a team must consist of 15 players: 2 goalkeepers, 5 defenders, 5 midfielders, 3 forwards, the total value of which must not exceed 100 million units. You can select no more than 2 players from one club.
Then points are awarded for the effective actions of specific players in actual matches: for example, in football, these are mainly goals. If the same Lionel Messi scored, you get extra points. The tournament is won by the team with the highest total of points, respectively, the manager who collected it wins.
How it appeared
Fantasy sports originated in the USA in the 1960s. There are two points of view: some sources claim that it all started with football, and others that it started with baseball.
For example, in the 1960s, sociology professor William Gamson first began to organize the so-called "Baseball Seminar" - participants assembled lineups of real players on paper, and then competed to identify the winner according to various parameters.
In 1980, editor Daniel Okrent, who had once learned about the game from one of the seminar participants, came up with detailed rules for a new game, which he called Rotisserie League Baseball.
Already in July of the same year, The New York Times wrote about fantasy baseball, then columns devoted to the nuances of the game appeared, and soon individual books began to be published. K 19In 1988, there were already 500,000 people playing all kinds of fantasy sports in the USA alone, by 1994 their number had reached 3 million.
And then the Internet appeared, and already in 1997 the fantasy games industry reached a new level. The Commissioner.com website was launched, offering real-time data updates, a closed league system with its own forums, and detailed statistics. Now ESPN, CBS and Yahoo! Sports, the largest American sports internet players, there are entire specialized divisions.
Fantasy games reached Russia in the early 2000s, and this direction is actively developing to this day.
It is believed that a significant part of the players come here from online gambling: casinos and classic sports betting. In this case, the prospects for the direction are huge - the revenue of bookmakers operating in Russia in 2020 exceeded ₽238 billion. There are no special restrictions: it can be hockey, biathlon, tennis and so on. But, of course, there are the most popular options - for example, football.
According to the format of the game. One-on-one, 50/50 where half of the participants win, as well as tournaments where several players can win - there are many different options.
According to the prize format. There are tournaments for fun, with a physical prize like sports merchandise and, finally, fantasy sports for money.
According to the duration of the game from , the most popular are:
Seasonal last a long time and completely cover major competitions - a national championship or a world tournament.
They are divided into tours. Not many actions are required from the manager, but they need to be carefully thought out and strategic decisions made in order to get a good result at the end of all rounds: take into account the weakness of the opposing team, keep personal statistics of their players, analyze the cost, and so on. The most famous example in this category is the Fantasy Premier League, the official seasonal fantasy game of the English Premier League.
Daily cover matches over a short period of time - this can be, for example, competitions for one match. Each match, prices for players change dramatically, and managers assemble completely new lineups. The daily is played for money - this is where the largest prize pools are played. An example is FanTeam, the main European daily platform.
How fantasy sports are earned
Fantasy managers can earn serious money by winning tournaments or reaching the finals. Prize pools grow from season to season.
For example, from 2018 to 2020, the prize money of the FanTeam tournament for the English Football League championship increased tenfold - from €20,000 to €200,000.
Also popular are daily championships, which are in many ways similar to classic sports betting. Only in fantasy sports it depends more on the manager himself, because you form the team yourself.
Startups are also actively developing. For example, in September 2021, the fantasy football blockchain platform Sorare raised $680 million in the next funding round. Since its founding in 2018, the total investment in the French startup was $739.4 million, now it is estimated at $4.3 billion.
Who is the main audience of fantasy sports
According to the FSGA, the audience of fantasy sports is mainly people with permanent jobs and higher education. They play fantasy games twice as often as everyone else and willingly pay money: for data mining programs, for additional statistics, for participation in leagues with cash prizes.
In the USA and Canada, a study was conducted on the motivation of fantasy players. Most of them turned out to be hedonists - they go to restaurants, order food delivery and even go to social networks more often than others, that is, they actively consume. Such people often play for the sake of competitive spirit and communication with competitors. And the betting aspect, that is, making money, is important only for 30%. Even so, 78% of fantasy players bet on sports in 2018.
Sports leagues have their own interest in fantasy: according to NFL research, fantasy managers watch competitions one and a half times more often. Moreover, the anxious expectation of the success of "their" player can give additional interest to even the most ordinary game. Leagues are actively working with fantasy sports: for example, the Russian Premier League and fantasy football platform Sorare announced a partnership in 2021: digital player cards will be issued. This will create additional income for the league and increase the buzz among managers.
Fantasy sports not only gives you a chance to win big, but also increases interest in watching matches and changes the perception of the game — you follow your team players much more closely, you are afraid of substitutions, and you watch the match with hope until the final whistle.
What are the disadvantages of this hobby
Decrease in involvement in work. A study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that employees' overemphasis on fantasy sports costs their employers about $17 billion a year. Approximately 67% of active players have a full-time job, and on average everyone spends an hour of working time watching match results, selecting a team, and so on. Instead, the employee could be engaged in official duties and bring profit to the company.
Risk of becoming a gamer, facing psychological and other problems. A harmless interest in sports can over time take over a person's emotions, leading to pathology. Fantasy sports players are at serious risk of gambling in general, ruining personal relationships, losing their jobs, going broke, experiencing depression and suicidal thoughts.
