Daily Fantasy Football Comparisons

Comparing Scoring Systems on Yahoo, Fan Duel, and Draft Kings

Every day when I log on to Fan Duel or Draft Kings, the default now goes to Daily Fantasy Football. As I am planning on playing with a little of my winnings, I thought it might be important to examine the scoring structure, along with understanding what plans Yahoo*** has for their game.

*Yahoo Salary Cap has yet to be confirmed.

• SALARIES & LINEUPS

The chart at the right seems to show marked similarities between the sites, with the exception of Yahoo's $200 pricing structure.  I haven't been able to corroborate that number via anything Yahoo has put out so far, but I can't imagine them being too different from their baseball game.  Plus, even if I'm wrong about this, the ratios of the yet to be determined Player Salaries to Salary Cap really diminish the impact should my guess be incorrect.

The most notable differences between the three are the handling of Kicking and Defenses.  Fan Duel plays with both, with Yahoo & Draft Kings have jettisoned the KICKER.  Yahoo also will be playing without a DEFENSE.  This may seem radical to the traditional season long football player, but the reality is that these are the most highly variant and unpredictable positions in Fantasy Football. I think it's a decent idea to rid them in a game where real money is on the line each and every day.  I know my long term league we ditched these two a couple of years back.  

Equally interesting is Fan Duel's not having a FLEX position, while Yahoo & Draft Kings do.  I think Fan Duel has a cleaner game because of this.  Having an option to play a WR or RB or TE, in a season long league is a nice option to ride out injuries and bye weeks in 17 week league.  In a daily format, adding the FLEX position adds back in a lot of the variance the removal of KICKER and/or DEFENSE took away.  The next best offensive player for the money could be just about anyone: a second string TIGHT END, a back up RB who leeches a couple of goal line carries, or a 3rd string WR, who maybe returns a kickoff for a TD.

• OFFENSIVE SCORING

Offensive scoring is even more similar among the big three sites.  Fan Duel & Yahoo will be 1 pt per 25 yards for passing, and 1 pt per 10 yards rushing or receiving.

**Yahoo has stated that their points system will mimic their standard league
 scoring system,however these scores have not been independently verified.

completely identical among the three sites in question.

Yahoo has decided to go with a .5 PPR (points per reception) format like Fan Duel.  Draft Kings uses a full point PPR format.  Adding in PPR enhances the value of WR's, TE's and RB's who specialize in catching passes.  Therefore, this advantage will be more noteworthy for players on Draft Kings.

Draft Kings also adds in small bonuses for exemplary games from QB's, RB's or WR's, giving a 3 point one time bonus for crossing the 300 yard passing threshold or 100 yards Rushing or Receiving.  A lot of season long league utilize similar bonuses.  This is a personal preference thing in my view.  If you want higher scoring games that reward your players for bigger offensive days, you should probably head over to Draft Kings.

On a smaller note, Draft Kings also penalizes a QB only -1 for an INTERCEPTION THROWN, whereas both Yahoo & Fan Duel, use a -2 point penalty.  A bad QB outing will therefore will have less impact to the Draft Kings Players.

• DEFENSE & KICKING

As only Fan Duel utilizes both of these positions, this is of most importance to the the Fan Duel Player.  Yahoo's decision to jettison both of these concepts signals a much cleaner game from them as the scoring from these positions is usually the most complex and difficult to understand, let alone predict.

Where they allow scoring Draft Kings and Fan Duel are identical. And the points added or deducted for DEFENSIVE POINTS ALLOWED are pretty much exactly what I see in most season long fantasy football leagues.  

Fan Duel remains the only site of the three to score KICKERS giving the standard 1 point for a conversion and 3 points for a FG, with a small bump for long field goals over 40 yards.  Nothing crazy or out of the ordinary for the season long fantasy football player.

Strangely enough, looking at scoring as a whole Yahoo will most likely have the lowest scoring game, while Fan Duel or Draft Kings will likely be the highest, depending on whether your Kicker has a great day or your Team catches lots of passes and accrues multiple bonuses   This flips on its head my experience with DFS baseball, where Fan Duel's rules are dramatically different and good scores are often 1/3 lower than other sites.

 I can't definitively tell you where you should play or which site is better without playing each.  But the first rule of Fantasy Sports is always, "Know your rules," and that is what I've done with this modest complilation which I've now shared with you.

***The information on Yahoo DFS Football was principally taken from the following interview with Brad Evans. Information on Yahoo default scoring can be accessed here.