Who can honestly say that they’ve never felt they could do a better job of running a sports team than the coaches who are being officially paid to do it? More to the point, who hasn’t dreamt of having the cash to buy their own football, baseball or even NASCAR team and running it just the way that they want?
While only a tiny minority of people will be able to do this for real, the availability of fantasy sports leagues means that we can at least put the theories into practice to see if we can create a team that can crush the opposition.
Even so, it can still take some time to discover just how successful we could be as many leagues run over periods that can be as long as a whole season. This is fine if you’re the patient sort. But for those of us who want to see instant results there is the very good alternative. Play these and there’s no waiting around for the final analysis or being stuck with the same sport all season long.
The action is fast and furious
Instead you’ll be able to play, and hopefully win, over a much shorter time scale. It may be a week or even a single game. So you’ll see the results of your decisions almost straight away, as well as being able to switch sports if you decide that your chances will be better in another one instead.
Ever since the daily version of the game was introduced it certainly has seemed to find favor with sports lovers all over the US where over $1 billion in fees are paid by players each year spread amongst the main operators. It’s also given rise to several other fantasy sport-related economies of its own.
As well as the speed of play, another factor that has made daily fantasy sports so very popular is that the top sites are all optimized to be played on mobile devices. This is especially useful for the kinds of play in which team changes can be made as the action is occurring. So if one of your main picks turns out to be underperforming in the first quarter or innings of a game, you can change them for a player who’s doing a little better.
There are also different ways in which you can play daily fantasy sports – either by being part of a pool of contestants, the best of which share in the prizes, or by going head-to-head against other individuals. Naturally, many operators also offer the option to set up your own mini league to play against friends or co-workers.
How to get started
As you might expect, getting going in fantasy daily sports has been made as frictionless as possible by the biggest names. Typically, the process goes like this:
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Set up your account
You have the choice to either go to the individual operator’s website or to install their daily fantasy sports app on your mobile device. They just need a little information about you but make registration as quick and easy as possible.
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Pick your sport
Once your account’s been set up, it’s time to decide which sports you’re going to choose. The range is pretty wide generally, including football, baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis and golf. There are also specific leagues for women’s sport as well as for NASCAR and MMA contests.
This is also when you decide what kind of contest you want to play, either aiming to collect points in a pool of players or go directly against others to try and beat them. At this stage you’ll also need to pay your entrance fee and it’s this contribution that goes towards funding the general prize money.
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Create a winning team
Now it’s the really interesting bit – time to build your team or back your individual player if you’re going for a game like golf or tennis. For team games, it’s just a question of building a balanced squad of players who you think will excel and who have a great track record. As well as the superstars it’s important to build a solid foundation of others who will be dependable if not outstanding. It would be great, and easy, to build a team exclusively of the sport’s greatest names – but you’d soon find that you’ll have reached your salary cap while only having half a team.
One thing you won’t be short of is online advice about building a team. There may be a charge for this, but you’ll be paying for someone else to have crunched the numbers for you to provide the most statistically-accurate recommendations.
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Game on!
Then it’s just a question of letting the games commence. The great thing about leaving the running of a daily fantasy league to a recognized operator is that all you have to do is pick the players. The points you score and your position in the league is calculated for you automatically. Hopefully, you’ll also soon find yourself winning a little money too, thanks to your wise choices.
So if you’re looking to enhance your enjoyment of your favorite sports, this is definitely a good way to do it and it’s also one that promises quick results. Give it a go and you’ll soon wonder why it’s taken you so long to try it out!
