Legal Daily Fantasy Sports Betting Leagues
Years ago, fantasy sports was only known to a handful of cult fans. It wasn't until fantasy sporting leagues joined the likes of ESPN and professional leagues (NFL, MLB, NBA) that fantasy sports were re-branded and took off into the stratosphere. This is a sporting genre wherein a league member will assemble a roster via a draft. Said roster players operate on a points-based system, accumulating points for positive plays. The better a player performs, the more points the fantasy owner is awarded. The more points accrued by the fantasy owner, the better his or her odds of winning become.
Fantasy sports have become so popular that some big-name websites are paying out millions of dollars every single week through guaranteed tournaments. And since these fantasy sites primarily operate by taking a rake rather than clearing the losers' money into their coffers, the average person does have a positive net in the genre.
Is Fantasy Sports Betting Legal In The USA?
To put a very simple answer on it: Yes, fantasy sports are considered legal in most US states. The biggest fantasy sites on the planet are operated on US soil, and they operate in full view of the law, with a slew of commercials on cable networks. There are two main reasons for this. Reason one: Fantasy sports were not banned by sports betting laws such as the Federal Wire Act of 1961, PASPA in 1992, or the UIGEA in 2006.
Secondly, many states have passed legislation that legalized DFS and fantasy sports betting, allowing outside vendors like Fanduel and DraftKings to provide local services.
The Best Daily Fantasy Sports Betting Site
Software
In House
Compability
Site Rating
Draft Kings
Top Rated Fantasy Sports Betting Site
Draftkings is one of 2 giant fantasy sites that are operate legally from within the United States. They accept players from all but 5 US states and offer all new players a 100% matching bonus up to $600 free. They offer a millionaire maker tournament every single week where first place takes down a cool million bucks. Why not you?
A Breakdown Of How Daily Fantasy Sports Leagues Work
Fantasy sports operate like a well-oiled machine, and it all starts with a self-contained league system. Leagues made up of 8, 10, 12, or 14 franchises will begin by conducting a draft, where you will pick players for your team until all spots are filled up. After the spots have been filled, you will be pitted against other owners (league members) to see which fantasy owner can accumulate the most points after the games are played for the NFL.
Of course, the records will be compiled throughout a few matches. For example, a league with eight teams may end up having a 4-team playoff, with the two winners of each branch facing off against one another to see which fantasy owner wins the big prize. These prizes can be upwards of a million dollars or more on big-name sites. However, understand that these leagues are typically a lot larger, and they are much harder to compete in, as you will be squaring off against people who play fantasy sports and take them very seriously. Fantasy pros, so to speak, and they are hard to defeat.
Types of Fantasy Sports Offered
If there is a sport out there that is popular, you can probably find some element of fantasy offered, whereby you can join a league, pick a team in a draft, and compete against other league owners. To that end, there are literally dozens of different fantasy sports available out there. However, since these fantasy leagues operate on a season-long system, staying intact for as long as the sport runs, we are only going to go into any real detail about the most popular in the USA today. As you can see below, these are the big-four American sports, and add in some Esports with the explosion of the gaming genre over the past couple of years.
Fantasy Football
The biggest of them all, fantasy football basically covers the NFL but can technically extend to the NCAA men's D1 football division as well. In NFL fantasy football, players enter into a draft and select members of teams to fill their rosters. These roster spots typically include: 1 quarterback, 2 running backs, 2 wide receivers, 1 flex player (offensive: TE, WR, RB), 1 tight end, 1 placekicker, 1 defense/special teams squad, and six bench players. Yards accumulated, catches, touchdowns, field goals, extra points, interceptions, and other positive plays all accumulate points for your roster. If you score the most points, you win.
Fantasy Baseball
Fantasy baseball deals primarily with Major League Baseball (MLB) and very similar to football, you are drafting players to your roster in hopes of accumulating enough points. The player with the most points wins. In baseball, you can choose a roster of 26 players (25+1 DL). You can split this up between pitchers and hitters, typically using 9 pitchers, 13 batters, 3 bench players, and 1 DL (disabled list) player. A pitcher's ERA counts here, as in the earned runs they give up. Singles, doubles, home runs, RBIs, walks, hit batters, and other stats also count to the score total.
Fantasy Basketball
Like the sports before it, fantasy basketball also operates on a points system. Since so many points are scored on a court, other things are also taken into consideration and weighed heavily, including blocks, steals, assists, and other positive plays on offense and defense. Generally speaking, your fantasy basketball roster will have 10 players: 1 point guard, 1 shooting guard, 1 guard (P or SG), 1 small forward, 1 power forward, 1 forward (PF or SF), 2 centers, and typically 3 utility players (any position).
Fantasy Hockey
While hockey might not be as popular as football or basketball, it still has quite a large fantasy niche. In fantasy hockey, goalies are probably the most valuable players. Their saves and blocks and other statistical categories are weighted very heavily, as hockey is generally a low-scoring game and it's rare players will have goals scored as points. Your roster here will include 2 centers, 2 left wings, 2 right wings, 4 defensemen, 2 goaltenders (goalies), and 6 bench players. When drafting, be aware if you have a keeper league, a snake league, an auction system, etc. Each variation will have a different sort of draft.
Esports
In fantasy Esports, it's all about the game you're playing specifically. For instance, drafting a roster for a League of Legends tournament will have different positions and spots than drafting players for a Starcraft 2 roster. Some of the roster positions you can expect to see are tops, junglers, mids, AD carries, support players, flex players, entire teams, and alternate players who will sub for starters. Points here are scored on straight wins, frags accumulated, the time it takes to play, assists, and kill variations such as a triple kill, a creep kill, etc. However, keep in mind that these things will vary depending on which Esport you're playing.
Huge Guaranteed Prize Pools Awarded Every Week At Fantasy Sites
You have probably seen commercials all over TV, but is that really true? Can you really win big bucks with online fantasy sites? The facts are overwhelming. While you will undoubtedly need a whole lot of skill and also a truck full of luck, you can technically win $1 million or even more on a fantasy site like DraftKings today. The money is so real, and the buzz is so loud, in fact, that from Disney to Fox News, huge international corporations are getting in on the action as sponsors.
Now, we can sit here at Legal Betting Online and sing the praises of fantasy, telling you about its legality and how lucrative it can possibly be. But who are we? However, when you follow the money and see that these huge corporations are in on it, including the sporting leagues themselves, like the NFL and NBA, you start to realize that fantasy sports are legit in America. These sites don't play. If you can draft the right teams, you can win big bucks.
The majority of these big-dollar pots work with daily fantasy leagues, which we spoke about above. Upon entering the precise tournament you want, e.g., the $1 million big daddy, you will see who you're going up against. You then get to draft your team and see how well you do. Though there are so many people here that you will play in more a March Madness style of bracket, having to re-draft players and win through every level.
However, this is far from being your only option. At these big-name sites, you can enter into tournaments for less or even go heads-up with people, and still, you can win some serious money.
Check back with our website in the near future. We will have plenty of tips and tricks you can use to chase after that big money. For right now, just rest assured that online fantasy gambling is perfectly legal, and the money you win is yours to keep.
One other thing to keep in mind if you sign up with any of the USA sports betting sites we recommend is that the more research you do in fantasy, the better your sports wagering will be. I've found myself really starting to know a lot about the players, their stats, how teams fare against the run, etc., all of which help me make better decisions when it comes to capping the games.
Helpful Links And Fantasy Resources
Types of Fantasy Leagues Available
Fantasy sports today are hugely popular, 100% legal, and there are sites popping up all over offering players the chance to play and win real money. However, it may get confusing when you hear about all these different league types. Rotisserie leagues where points accumulate over an entire season, one-day leagues, and other variations can just add confusion to a sport you may not know enough about already. Hopefully we can clear some of this confusion up at Legal Betting Online by going over a few of the popular league types. Some of the leagues include:
Head to Head leagues – these leagues pit you, a fantasy owner, against one other fantasy owner in a heads-up match. If your team scores the most points, you win. Odds say you will face a new team each week in such a match-up.
Total Point leagues – in this type of league, you're not playing any set game or match per se, but rather you are going off of the points you accumulate over a set time: A season, a few games, a tournament, etc.
All-Play leagues – with this type of league, every team plays the other team each week. In an 8-team league, for instance, all teams play one another, and the highest point totals advance until thorough enough records to name a winner have been accumulated.
Keeper leagues – these leagues actually allow fantasy owners to keep their players. So rather than drafting year on year, you keep your players with your team, letting go and signing new players as you need.
Salary Cap leagues – with these leagues, you have a salary cap that cannot exceed X dollars. Of course, this is a way by which fantasy sports look to add more realism to the genre.
Auction leagues – another popular league type, an auction league forces you to purchase your drafted players auction-style, and you will get a set dollar amount before the draft starts so you can bid.
Dynastic leagues – in a dynasty league, you will keep veteran players while going through rookie drafts, like a farm system in baseball or preseason in football. Similar to a keeper league, a dynasty league still allows you to draft.
Two-QB leagues – specific to only fantasy football, this league lets you get two quarterbacks and thus gives you the option to play either one on a week by week basis.
Empire leagues – played in a dynasty system, the first year in this league is when a portion of the proceeds are set aside. This money is set aside every year, until one owner wins back-to-back titles. Upon winning a second consecutive title, the "empire pot" goes to that owner.
SuperFlex leagues – a SuperFlex league is where a QB can start in the flex position, and obviously this is another league type specific to fantasy football.
Daily fantasy sports – the most popular league type today, offered by the likes of FanDuel and DraftKings, one-day leagues still use drafts, and still use a points-based system. Though rather then being locked into your roster for a full season, you are drafting new players every time you enter into a match/tournament.
Rotisserie leagues – the classic of all classics, a "roto" league is where a rotisserie scoring system is used to accumulate points. In this league, scoring works by an entire team's batting average, total home runs, total RBIs, total bases stolen, total team wins, and other statistical criteria.