The Best Daily Fantasy Sports Betting Sites for 2024

Daily Fantasy Football

Football is the big daddy of fantasy sports online betting. It is the season the DFS sites live for. It doesn’t have constant scoring like basketball, but the point swings that can happen after a change of possession or if a running back goes off are very exciting.

While most contests focus on the Sunday games, some span Sunday and Monday and some even use only the Sunday night and Monday night games. Part of why football is so popular in the DFS world is because there is a week between contests, so the anticipation for the big day builds.

A typical football lineup includes QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, WR, TE, Flex (RB, WR, or TE), and a Team Defense. Lineup structures can vary site to site, but they will be very similar.

Daily Fantasy Basketball

Basketball is great because unlike football, there are contests just about every day. Following your contest is thrilling, as well, as the up-and-down action in a basketball game means that your team’s point total is always changing.

Choosing players in basketball is a balancing act of two sides of the same coin. On the one hand, it is usually easy to figure out who the top scorers are going to be on a given night. You know Giannis is going to rack up points on any daily fantasy sports betting site. But at the same time, it can be hard to figure out who those cheap role players will be that will put your team over the top.

As mentioned earlier, a standard DFS basketball lineup is: PG, SG, SF, PF, C, Any G, Any F, Utility (any position).

Daily Fantasy Baseball

Similar to basketball, baseball has games going on every day of the week during the season, so there are ample opportunities to have fun betting on DFS online. It is obviously a slower game than basketball, though, so staring at your lineup while the games are going on can be like watching paint dry. Naturally, the pitcher is the one that is the most fun to keep track of, as his point totals change every inning he is in the game.

Baseball can get most interesting when it comes to stacking. While we won’t get into the strategy on this page, stacking is when you select multiple players from the same team. In baseball, you would do this with hitters you feel will be in a slugfest. Some DFS bettors will stack half their lineup with hitters from the same team if they foresee a favorable matchup.

It can be a feast-or-famine strategy, as if the opposing pitcher has a great night, your stacked team is sunk.

Fun fact: Fantasy sports started with baseball. The origin of fantasy dates back to the early 1980s when a group of journalists in New York invented what was then called “Rotisserie League Baseball,” named after the restaurant where they met to play their first game.

A typical daily fantasy baseball lineup: P, P, C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF.

Daily Fantasy Hockey

Hockey is sort of a happy medium between daily fantasy basketball and baseball. There are games every day during the season and the action is fast paced, but not quite as much when it comes to scoring as it is in basketball. For the most part, your scoring has to do with shots on goal, goals, assists, and goals blocked, with bonus points for hitting certain statistical marks.

The standard daily fantasy hockey lineup consists of: C, C, W, W, W, D, D, G, Utility (any position but G).

Though we said we weren’t going to get into strategy on this page, we do have a general daily fantasy sports betting strategy page you can check out when you are ready to give DFS a try, as well as individual sports strategy pages. And again, remember that each site has its own lineup structure and scoring system.

Cash Games

Cash games are usually small contests that naturally come with smaller prizes compared to the buy-in. Contests of 10 or 20 players are very common; some are structured so that half of the players win equal payouts, while some are a little more top heavy with larger payouts for finishing higher in the ranks. Head-to-head matches are also very popular, just you against one other player.

For beginners, low-stakes cash games can be a good way to get used to playing. It is easy to keep track of where you are in the standings and you don’t have to beat many players to make money.

Tournaments

Tournaments, usually called Guaranteed Prize Pool (GPP) contests, are what you see touted in commercials. These are the massive contests, often attracting hundreds of thousands of entries, that sometimes boasts top prizes that hit seven figures.

As the name GPP implies, these tournaments all have a set, minimum total prize pool that is guaranteed by the daily fantasy sports betting site. If enough people enter, the prize pool can grow beyond that minimum. They are just like poker tournaments in that regard.

While the prize money can be jaw-dropping, it is very hard to win big money. Not only do you have to beat tons of opponents, which usually means getting lucky and picking a near-perfect lineup, but in the most lucrative GPPs, you will be competing against professional DFS players who submit dozens or even hundreds of lineups, depending on the site’s rules. GPPs generally pay 10% to 15% of the field.

Though large tournaments are difficult, it is also a lot of fun to watch your team climb up the rankings, even if you only end up winning a few bucks. Just competing against thousands of players can be a rush. And you never know….

Sport Selection

No worries at all if you are interested in the most popular sports for daily fantasy, but DraftKings offers a wider range of sports than FanDuel, including eSports, EuroLeague basketball, and MMA.

Scoring

The two sites are mostly the same, but the few differences sometimes steer players toward one or the other, or at least require players to alter their strategies. DraftKings gives bonus points for statistical milestones, such as a QB having a 300-yard passing game.

DraftKings also awards a full point per reception in NFL contests, compared to half a point on FanDuel. FanDuel, on the other hand, awards more points for steals and blocks in NBA games than does DraftKings.

Customer Base

DraftKings has more customers than FanDuel and therefore its prize pools in GPPs tend to grow larger. DraftKings’ flagship tournaments are also usually slightly more expensive than are FanDuel’s.

Again, it is really all about personal preference. Most people create accounts on both sites to take advantage of promotions and give themselves more options for contests. Their online interfaces and mobile apps are comparable.