Best Ball Fantasy Football: How to Play
Best ball fantasy football has only been around for a few years, but it’s quickly become one of the most popular ways to play NFL fantasy football. Fantasy football best ball is a particular style of fantasy that is perfect for those who love to draft fantasy teams as a way to show their knowledge for the coming NFL season, but may not enjoy certain in-season fantasy tasks like waivers, start/sit decisions, and other aspects of season-long leagues.
At FantasyUnleashd, best ball is our favorite way to play fantasy football. Every week during the NFL offseason we record an episode for the FantasyUnleashd Podcast for best ball strategies and ways to win best ball fantasy drafts. We want to do what we can to grow best ball and get more people drafting teams.
That’s why I wanted to go over a few of the basics of best ball, including what platforms you can draft on, how you can win money playing best ball, and what drafting strategies to use in a best ball draft.
How Does Best Ball Fantasy Football Work?
Best ball fantasy football is a style of fantasy where you simply draft a team, and that’s it. There is no in-season management after you draft a best ball team. After your draft your team, the app or platform you are using will automatically set your fantasy lineup every week based on the highest scoring players at each position.
Many players are attracted to best ball fantasy football because it takes away the need to perform in-season tasks such as waivers claims, trades, and general roster management. This opens up the possibility to do multiple best ball drafts during the same offseason.
In fact, some fantasy players do hundreds of best ball drafts. These players are known as high-volume best ball drafters. Doing multiple best balls drafts will allow you to track exposure to each player you have drafted. If you do four best ball drafts and drafted Lamar Jackson on two of them, that means you would have 50% exposure to Lamar Jackson on your best ball teams. Tracking player exposure over multiple drafts is one aspect of playing best ball many drafters enjoy.
What Are The Best Ball Rules?
The rules of best ball fantasy football can be the same as any other type of NFL fantasy football league. The only defining aspect of a best ball league is that there is no in-season management. This means there are potentially various ways to play best ball, but ultimately it depends on what platform you are drafting on.
No matter what, fantasy football best ball teams can not drop players. There is no free agency in best ball leagues.
Here are a few apps and websites you can use if you want to start playing best ball fantasy football.
Where Can I Play Best Ball?
Because more fantasy players are starting to do best ball drafts, there has been sharp increase in companies offering this style of fantasy. A few platforms where you can start playing best ball are Underdog Fantasy, Drafters, FFPC, MFL10, and DraftKings.
There are probably other apps that allow you to play best ball, but they most likely aren’t as good. You’ll want to stick with those apps and websites I just provided if you want a strong best ball fantasy experience. You should want that, you deserve it.
The most popular best ball league provider in 2022 is Underdog Fantasy. In 2021, Underdog Fantasy offered a Best Ball Mania tournament with a grand prize of $1 million. In 2022, they have a best ball tournament with $10 million in guaranteed prizes that costs $25 to enter.
Most fantasy football best ball leagues on Underdog consist of 12 teams, though they also offer 3-man and 6-man drafts. Some drafts cost as little as $3 to enter.
To begin, players join an open lobby, in the Underdog app or website, and select a draft to enter. When all 12 spots are filled, the draft begins. Underdog has fast and slow drafts. Fast drafts allow for 30 seconds to make a pick, and slow best ball drafts are usually 12 hours per pick.
Most Underdog best ball drafts are 18 rounds. A large number of players and rosters are necessary since there are no in-season transactions. Standard rosters for best ball teams on Underdog typically consist of…
1 QB
2 RB
3 WR
1 TE
1 FLEX
10 BENCH
The Underdog software will then select your highest scoring players for every NFL week to use in your starting lineup.
Different websites like FFPC offer even bigger drafts, such as 26-round best ball drafts. In reality, the best ball concept can be applied to any type of fantasy football, even dynasty. In almost every way, best ball means more fantasy. And more fantasy means more happiness.
Can You Win Money In Best Ball?
Yes, you can win money playing best ball fantasy football. On an app like Underdog, for example, you can join their “Puppy” best ball tournament for $5, and if you draft the best team, you can win $75,000. Of course, you also have to beat 111,780 other teams. The max number of teams you can enter is 150.
For the most part, every best ball fantasy football league is a real-money league, meaning you are playing to win money. Because of this, average draft position (ADP) is usually “sharper” in best ball drafts, making it superior than classic mock drafts. In fact, you can begin doing best ball drafts for the following season almost immediately after the Super Bowl ends. It’s special.
It is highly advised that you use best ball drafts and Underdog ADP to prepare for season-long leagues versus traditional mock drafts.
Best Ball Fantasy Football Strategies
Winning best ball strategies depend on the scoring system and league format you’re using. Draft strategy for a 12-man league where you’re only trying to beat 11 other fantasy players will require a style much different than a tournament team that has to beat 100,000 other teams, or more.
On our podcast and articles when we are talking best ball ADP and roster construction, we are always talking about best ball tournaments. However, since best ball is still relatively new, we don’t have a lot of data about anything that could be considered the ultimate strategy.
What we can say for sure about Underdog in particular is that the wide receiver position is highly valuable. The 2021 and 2022 off-seasons each saw WRs rapidly rise in ADP as more drafts got underway. The high demand for WRs can be attributed to the three starting spots for the position, although it’s important to remember Underdog is only half-point per reception (0.5 PPR).
Aside from the high demand of wide receivers in best ball, roster correlation is generally encouraged by almost all best ball analysts.
Stacking In Best Ball
The most common type of roster correlation is player stacking. Some fantasy players may know this as a DFS strategy, but it applies to best ball leagues, too. Stacking refers to combining players from the same team in an effort to double-down on highly advantageous game scenarios. The most basic stack is a single stack, consisting of a QB and WR.
When the QB you drafted throws a touchdown pass to the WR that’s also on your best ball roster, that is a major boost to your weekly score. Data also seems to suggest it can be wise to find a “bring back” for your main stack, meaning a player from the opposite team that would also score a high amount of fantasy points in the same game.
Since most best ball tournaments end in a playoff in week 17 of the NFL season, it is possible to look ahead at the NFL schedule for stacking match-ups in the week 17 championship game.
How Many Tight Ends Should I Draft In Best Ball?
One thing to consider with best ball drafts is how many tight ends should a team have… because the tight end position stinks at fantasy. In fact, we even have some data that suggests going with only one TE on your roster can work. Actually, forget the data, we have the actual evidence since both Rob and Josh’s best ball teams that reached the finals last year only had Mark Andrews at TE.
Really, this is just an indicator that it’s important to think outside the box with best ball draft strategies and what kind of roster construction you want. On the whole, win rates look strongest for the 2QB-6RB-8WR-2TE builds.
A zero running back strategy in recent years has shown to be slightly less effective for winning best ball leagues, yet seems stronger at helping teams advance in the best ball playoffs.
NOTE: We do not promote one TE builds as the most viable. This is an EXTREMELY risky strategy and we do not recommend to do it. Proceed with caution!
Best Ball Fantasy Football Rankings
You may realize that we don’t have 2022 best ball rankings on our site. It’s not just because we’re lazy (we are), but it’s also because we do not use best ball rankings when we draft. Because we are high volume drafters, we rely on ADP and roster construction to guide us every best ball draft.
However, for lower volume best ball players, it can be helpful to find fantasy best ball rankings you trust to find potential outliers in the ADP. Regardless, it is important to listen to a podcast like FantasyUnleashd to understand the latest ADP trends on Underdog and know when certain players could get drafted.
Every best ball draft is different. Stay frosty.
We’ll see you in the lobbies.
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