The Absolute Beginners Guide to FanDuel – 2020 Edition
No real reason you shouldn’t be playing over at FanDuel!
So you’ve heard about Daily Fantasy Sports and you want to play.
Well this guide to FanDuel, walks you you through every aspect of the rules, the games and the prizes and how to play.
First Step – Signing Up & Creating Your FanDuel Account
The sign up window you’re presented with.
When you first visit FanDuel you’ll simply hit the “join now” button and sign up giving your email address, choosing a screen name, and choosing a password. (Make sure to use the promocode FREAK when you sign up to lock in the maximum bonus of 100% deposit match.)
Funding Your Account
Before you play for real money, you’ll have to fund your account.
Clicking “add funds” (top right hand side of the screen) will take you immediately to a bonus page where you can choose one of four bonuses, or even customize your own. I’ve already deposited and taken my bonus so I don’t have a screen shot of that.
You’ll then be asked for either your credit card details (VISA, Mastercard or Discover) or you can also deposit via PayPal – enter the amount you want to deposit and you’re ready to go. You can also deposit with online banking if supported by your bank, and the list of accepted banks is incredibly long.
Game Selection – Choose Your Contest to Join
In the lobby there are a great many tournaments on show at any one time. Fortunately you’ll be able to filter for separate events. There are four main filters and here is an explanation for each:
Recommended for you – Contests that the folks over at FanDuel think you’ll be interested in.
Beginner tips – Exactly what it sounds like. Check out these helpful hints for getting started on FanDuel.
Experienced players excluded – Compete against beginner and intermediate players.
Biggest prizes – Ready to just right in with the big dogs? You can do so right here.
In the Spotlight – Special promo contests going on at the time.
Single game – I would use this to test the waters. Just get one good game in and check it out.
Single entry – Only one entry per player, so put your best lineup forward!
And many more depending on the “Sport of Choice” you picked while signing up. I chose NBA. As this is being typed March Madness is fast upon us.
Game Information
Having filtered (or not) you’re now in a position to enter one of the events. The details of each event are clearly listed in each contest box.
Contest – The name of the event.
Prizes – What you stand to win, or a portion of.
Time – The time the contest starts. I see these listed as EST where I live. This may or may not change for you.
Entries – How many people have entered this contest.
Price – The price you’ll pay to enter.
You’ll notice that on some events there are either one or two different symbols to the right of the contest name.
You’ll also find that some contests are called “satellites”. These are not events in their own right, but offer tickets to other bigger contests. The satellite will tell you how many seats are up for grabs in the name – “2 seats” meaning you’ll have to finish in the first two to be successful in the satellite event.
Clicking on any of these boxes obviously means you’d like to take part in the contest.
Roster Selection – Building A Lineup
This is what it looks like when drafting your team. Again, it’s March Madness time, so I’m looking at NBA games.
When you enter a contest you have to pick the players who will be representing you that day. The way FanDuel works is by giving players a total amount of salary to spend on your roster – each player in the league having a different salary. The better the player is expected to perform on a given day, the higher salary they will command. Depending on the sport, you’ll have different positions to fill on your roster, and you’ll not be allowed to go over your salary – if you do, you won’t be able to submit your entry.
Your roster will then score points based upon what happens in the real life action that day. Players will score points depending on various achievements. As an example, here is how your players will score points in basketball –
the NBA scoring table over at FanDuel
You’ll be able to monitor how your roster is faring throughout the day, and FanDuel will update the leaderboard of every contest after any points are scored. The contest will finish when the final game of the day is over, and the leaderboard at this point will be the final one. If you have finished high enough to finish in the money, your account will be credited automatically.
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