Best ball fantasy football is an exciting way to enjoy the game without the hassle of weekly lineup management. In a best ball format, you draft a team at the beginning of the season, and each week, your highest-scoring players are automatically selected to form your starting lineup. This eliminates the need to make weekly decisions or worry about setting your roster, making it perfect for those who love the draft but want a more hands-off experience throughout the season. If you want to expand your knowledge and learn best ball, it starts with the basics.
Best Ball Sites
There are several sites that offer best ball contests. The most popular are Underdog Fantasy, DraftKings, Drafters and FFPC. All sites have their own scoring settings.
Clock Speeds
Across the industry, a slow draft gives you eight hours to make a selection (and an extended period after 10pm or so). A fast draft is generally 30 seconds per pick, however, Underdog recently implemented a 15 second clock option. Users who are new to best ball should try a few slow drafts before entering into a fast draft. It will give you extra time to think about your selections and give you a chance to get a feel for ADP.
Best Ball Formats
Best Ball is becoming more popular and evolving with new formats every season. With a progressive prize structure that can top a million dollars, it’s no wonder it’s gaining popularity. Here are a breakdown of the different formats.
Tournament Style
The most popular contests are tournament style contests, where you must advance through several rounds for a chance at a big prize. Initially you draft with 12 other people from one player pool and that is your first grouping or pod. You have to finish first or second in order to advance out of that group, which lasts roughly 2/3 of the season. Different tournaments have different advancement structures, but generally you need to come in first in the next grouping of roughly 12 people to advance to the next round, which in football is one game, in other sports it is an accumulation of two weeks of scoring. Finally, you must finish first in that grouping to advance to the finals, which can be anywhere between 10-1000 other people.
Cumulative Scoring
In cumulative scoring, every player gets their score for the scoring period (usually a week) and those points accumulate throughout the season and the person with the most overall points wins the tournament.
Superflex
Superflex adds a second flex position that can be filled with another quarterback.
Tight End Premium
FFPC has tight end premium scoring, which gives tight ends 1.5x the score of other positions
Roster Structures
Structure refers to the positional makeup of your roster. In football, there are names for specific structures, which started with RB. You could call these strategies by any position name.
Zero RB
Zero RB is when you don’t select a running back for the first six rounds. You instead load up on receivers and/or elite QB or TE. You then take more to make up for in quantity that you lack in quality.
Hero / Anchor RB
Hero RB is when you select one running back from the first few rounds and then wait to fill out the rest of your running back room.
Robust RB
Robust RB is when you select 3-4 RBs within the first five rounds but you stop at four.
Vocabulary
ADP – Average Draft Position
Advance Rate – The percentage of teams that advance out of the first round. Most drafts are 12 people and two people advance, so expected advance rate should be 2/12 or 16%.
Back Stack – To pair teammates together close to the end of the draft (QB and WR for instance)
Fade – To Avoid
Handcuff – Pairing a team’s starter with the same team’s backup.
Pod – Grouping of other players.
Snipe – To have a stacking partner or target taken before your selection.
Stack – Two or more teammates paired together.