Introduction To Fan Duel Daily Fantasy Sports

Today begins a new era in DFS articles for us over here at FakeTeams.  We are switching over to Fan Duel, I can't get in to the exact details why we are making the switch, but expect an announcement shortly.  Due to the fact that we are making the switch so suddenly I will take today to explain the differences between DraftKings and Fan Duel.

From here on in the article I will refer to Fan Duel as "FD", and DraftKings as "DK".

1) The first major difference you will notice is the salary cap.  On DK you have a $50,000 cap, where on FD you have a lower cap set at $35,000.

2) This relates to the first difference you will notice - since the salary cap is significantly lower, you only draft one pitcher.  I actually like this since it's tough picking one pitcher, let alone picking two.

3) Position eligibility is different on FD from DK.  For instance you can slot Ryan Zimmerman at third base or outfield on DK, but can only slot him in the outfield on FD.

4) The point system is vastly different on FD, here is how the scoring system works:

As you can see there are a few big differences – for instance Fan Duel doesn’t penalize pitchers for hits or walks, but you will lose points any time your hitter is out (strikeout, groundout, error, etc…).  With this point system you won’t see ridiculously high scores like on DraftKings, so don’t worry too much about it.

5) FD doesn’t allow more than four players from one team on a roster (including pitchers); in contrast you could have six hitters from team and their pitcher on DK. So stacking is a little more strategic on FD, it also levels out the playing field in my opinion.

6) This might be the biggest difference - once the first game starts, your lineups lock on Fan Duel, whereas on DraftKings you could change your roster until your player plays.  This is where my "check weather and lineups" tagline becomes very crucial.

These are the biggest differences I've found while playing on both DFS sites.  I honestly prefer Fan Duel (the switch wasn't my decision).  There will be minor differences to the user interfaces, where DK is less user friendly, and FD is more direct and to the point.  Fan Duel offers the same sports as DK (minus PGA), so don't worry you will still get your MLB, NFL, and NBA fixes.