The Best Fantasy Football Betting Sites 2024
Welcome to our expert guide to fantasy football betting sites. Here you’ll find all the information you need to confidently play fantasy football for money. Our team of industry insiders has researched all of the best fantasy football sites and written detailed reviews so that you don’t have to do the hard work of figuring out which website is right for you.
Best Sites to Bet on Fantasy NFL
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MORE ABOUT DFSWhy Are These Sites the Best Places to Play Fantasy Football for Money?
Our team of experts knows what players need when it comes to fantasy football betting. That’s why we take a number of factors into consideration while coming up with our recommendations for the best place to play fantasy football for money.
Our reviews consider anything we think is relevant at fantasy football betting sites. However, a few factors definitely make a bigger impact than others when we recommend a website. Here are a few of the key criteria we use in our fantasy football betting site reviews.
Reputation and Legality
Before we point you to any fantasy football betting sites, we want to make sure they are safe for you to use. That’s why our team ensures that each of our recommended websites is legal to play on in your jurisdiction. We also look into the reputation of each site, so that you can play fantasy football confident that you’ll have a good time and aren’t getting ripped off.
Promotions
You might not think about bonuses and promotions when you play fantasy football for money, but there are definitely sites that offer incentives to their players. Our recommended websites have promotional offers that can save you some cash or get you some added value, and we make sure to point these out in each of our reviews.
The Most Games
Not everyone wants to play fantasy football in the same way. That’s why we favor sites that give you a multitude of options, from customizing your league format and rules to alternative ways to play like daily fantasy games. There are many ways to play fantasy football for money, and the best sites let you pick from as many of them as possible.
How to Play Fantasy Football for Money
Playing fantasy football for money isn’t much different than playing in a free league with friends. While rules vary between different fantasy football money leagues, the general principles usually stay the same.
One difference between traditional fantasy leagues and fantasy football betting sites is that competition lengths vary. Most fantasy football betting sites allow you to bet on a competition for 1 week at a time. But don’t worry, if you like the season-long competition, they’re still available too.
Before the football season or competition week starts, you’ll need to join a league. While many people will do so with friends, most fantasy football betting sites will also let you join into leagues with random people from around the world. At this point, you’ll pay an entry fee, which is a set amount agreed before the league starts.
The most important day of any fantasy football league is the draft. This is when you’ll select the players who will make up your team. Typically, you’ll be drafting mostly skill players: quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends – though the number of players you need to choose will vary from league to league. Some leagues also have players draft a kicker and a team defense, while others use individual defensive players.
Once everyone has drafted their teams, you’ll be ready for your season to begin! In most fantasy football betting games, you’ll submit a weekly lineup and play head-to-head with one opponent each week of the season. In the last few weeks of the NFL’s regular season, your league will hold its fantasy playoffs. At the end, a winner will be crowned, and a few of the top finishers will usually win money.
Of course, other formats are also possible. For instance, you might also play fantasy football for money in a rotisserie format, where you will accumulate stats in various categories throughout the season, and win based on how you rank in each category at the end of the year.
And one of the most popular competition types at our recommended fantasy football betting sites are weeklong, one-off leagues. These short competitions don’t get derailed by injuries or bad luck and you get a fresh set of players each week.
Types of Fantasy Football Money Leagues
Rules vary greatly in different fantasy football leagues. If you want to play fantasy football for money, it’s worth understanding how some different types of leagues work before you jump into them. Here’s a look at a few of the most common variations you might find when playing at fantasy football sites for money.
PPR
PPR stands for points-per-reception and has become a common scoring variation at fantasy football betting sites. Typically, running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends receive points based on touchdowns and yardage, with a common system giving .1 points for every yard gained.
PPR leagues change this by also providing a bonus for every pass caught. The amount of bonus varies: some fantasy football money leagues will use full PPR, meaning each pass caught is worth a full point, while others use half PPR, awarding 0.5 points per catch. Leagues with higher PPR bonuses tend to provide more value to wide receivers.
IDP
IDP stands for individual defensive player. While the majority of fantasy football leagues only have contestants draft a single team defense – for instance, the New York Giants or Baltimore Ravens – IDP leagues have you draft by position on defense as well, meaning you’ll have to pick up linemen, linebackers, and secondary players as a part of your team.
Knowing how your defensive players will be scored is just as important as how your offensive players get points and adds another dimension to the fantasy football experience.
Rotisserie Leagues
Today, almost all fantasy football betting leagues use head-to-head formats, where your team takes on another team each week. Whoever scores higher that week gets a win, while the other team gets a loss.
But rotisserie fantasy football leagues still exist and provide a format that eliminates some of the luck of the draw seen in head-to-head leagues. If you play fantasy football in a rotisserie system, your team will simply accumulate stats throughout the year, in categories like touchdowns scored and passing yards accumulated.
At the end of the season, all teams will be ranked in each statistical category. In a 12-team league, the top finisher in each category gets 12 points, the second-place team 11 points, down to the last-place team, which earns just one point.
The team with the most total points wins the league. This prevents you from situations where bad luck keeps you out of the playoffs in a head-to-head league even if your team performed extremely well overall for the season, but eliminates much of the weekly drama and fun of head-to-head competition.
Regular Fantasy Football vs. Fantasy Football Betting
For many people, fantasy football is a pastime that doesn’t involve betting money. But adding a wager to your fantasy football play comes with a few benefits that might make you reconsider putting some money down on your next league.
For one, when you play fantasy football for money, there’s something on the line for everyone in the league. That can add excitement and drama for you personally. But it also raises the level of play in the league as a whole: at fantasy football betting sites, you won’t see many owners abandoning teams mid-season, making ridiculously unbalanced trades, or forgetting to submit lineups.
Fantasy football money leagues also give you the chance to actually win cash! When you play fantasy football for money, you can turn your knowledge of the sport into an actual profit. That never happens when you play free fantasy football games.
Are there any disadvantages to playing fantasy football for money? The obviously one, of course, is that you can lose cash if your team doesn’t do well. That means free fantasy football a great way to learn how to play fantasy football for money before you actually start doing so: you can take your lumps without feeling bad about losing any money, then join fantasy football betting sites and compete with confidence.
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Fantasy Football Betting Sites FAQs
Where can I play fantasy football for money?
There are many fantasy football betting sites available that will help you set up and manage leagues where you can play the game for money. Our expert team has recommended the best fantasy football sites for you, and they’re listed above.
Can you bet on fantasy football?
Yes, fantasy football betting is a popular activity! Many people enjoy wagering money on the outcome of their fantasy football leagues and fantasy football betting sites are becoming increasingly common.
Is betting on fantasy football illegal?
The legal status of fantasy football betting varies from state to state and between different countries. In the US just residents of Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada and Washington are blocked from betting on fantasy football.
How do you make money playing fantasy football?
Most fantasy football money leagues give out prizes to the top handful of finishers. The first-place team at the end of the year will win the lion’s share of the prize money, while other owners who reached the playoffs will also earn some money. Daily fantasy sports contests also offer prize money to winners, with large tournaments typically paying out to the top 10 to 20 percent of finishers.
How much does it cost to play fantasy football?
Fantasy football can cost as much or as little as you like. Most fantasy football betting sites offer a range of levels for you to play at, from leagues that cost just a few dollars to high-stakes leagues for those who want to risk serious money each time they play. Most sites also offer free options if you are not yet ready to play fantasy football for money.
Ed Scimia
Ed Scimia is a freelance writer who specializes in coverage of the gaming industry. He graduated from Syracuse University in 2003 with degrees in Magazine Journalism and Political Science. Ed is also the author of So Bad, It’s Good, a book on great movies for bad movie nights. In his free time, Ed is a competitive curler who coaches the Yale curling team.