FantasyDraft Review
When it comes to fantasy sports, FantasyDraft is one of the really good ones. They have a great product and bring a lot to the table with what they are currently offering. Just because they have a good site doesn’t mean that they will be the best place for you to play, though. Before you create an account at FantasyDraft, be sure to read over our FantasyDraft review and even check the site out for yourself.
DFS can be a lot of fun to play, but it’s important to match yourself up with the right site. Curious to see if FantasyDraft is the right place for you? Keep reading to find out more about this new site.
Start Your Season at FantasyDraft
About FantasyDraft
FantasyDraft was founded in late 2014 but didn’t really hit its stride until 2015. It’s based out of Charlotte, North Carolina, and is one of the few fantasy sites that actually has a lot of professional athletes—current and retired—that play at the site. They will sometimes have featured contests where you can compete against the pros, which gives it a completely unique experience in the vast field of fantasy sports.
The site might be one of the newer ones out there, but the product that they offer is extremely professional in its nature. We strongly encourage you to check out their platform before committing to play at this site so you know what it’s like and are comfortable with it.
FantasyDraft Bonuses and Promotions
Because FantasyDraft is a fairly new player in the world of daily fantasy sports, you can expect to get some pretty good rewards right now when you create an account. Their big promotion is currently a $4 free play just for creating an account and making your first deposit. This is the promo that they promote on their homepage, but it’s certainly not the only perk that FantasyDraft has going for them. In fact, their bonus structure is currently one of the most competitive there is in the entire DFS world. The good news is that this has helped FantasyDraft grow quickly. Although they are not nearly as big as the two major sites, they are one of the biggest “small” sites on the web thanks to this aggressive bonus structure.
FantasyDraft uses bonus cash, what they call FantasyCash. This is the bonus cash that you get for creating an account—up to $200 worth of it without an extra promo code. This unlocks as you enter tournaments and can be used just like cash in your account as it’s unlocked. The rate is 4 percent, which means that for every $100 you spend in contests, you get a bonus $4 to play with in your account. You can even withdraw this money once it has been unlocked.
In addition to first time deposit bonuses, FantasyDraft has other promos and bonuses that they offer on a consistent basis. We have a little bit more on bonuses and promos that FantasyDraft offers in the sections below. These have become such an important part of their business model that it’s impossible not to talk about the rewards that they offer to their customers. They also have VIP Experiences and giveaways that they offer from time to time.
What Makes FantasyDraft Stand Out?
There are a few things that help FantasyDraft stand out amongst all of the other daily fantasy sports sites out there. One of the things that pops out instantly about the site is how smooth their platform and user interface is. A lot of other sites seem clunky or unnecessarily complicated, but not FantasyDraft. They have a smooth and interactive design, one that makes it easy to find what you want, when you want it.
Their referral program is also one of the most innovative in fantasy sports right now. Most of the other sites that have referral programs have a pretty straightforward policy. If you refer someone to signup and they make a minimum deposit, you will have a small amount of bonus cash added to your account. FantasyDraft does this, and then a whole lot more. They call it the 6 Degrees of Pay, and it has the potential to be extremely lucrative. Basically, if you refer someone to the site and they make a deposit, then whoever they refer in the future also benefits you. Just referring a handful of people, and then having them refer a handful of people, could potentially put huge amounts of extra cash in your account. This is designed to encourage people to become ambassadors of the site, and so far, it has proven to be quite successful.
This last point we had to dig a little bit deeper to find, but FantasyDraft takes substantially less money out in their cut than other sites do. The rake fees will vary depending on the size and the cost of the contest, but these rarely ever go up above 6 percent. In head-to-head contests, where you are competing against just one other player, the rake fees are half of what they would normally be.
Now, this might not seem like a big deal, but it means that you are paying the site less to use their services. When you win, that means a higher percentage of what you invested into the site is returned to you. Over time, this could mean the difference between losing money and gaining money. All DFS sites have a rake—that’s how they make money. For example, if you are competing in a 10 person tournament with an entry fee of $100, you would expect there to be a prize pool of $1,000. But because the site takes a cut out of it, you’re likely going to see just a prize pool of $900. That would be a 10 percent rake that the site has imposed. At FantasyDraft, that percentage is consistently lower than other major DFS sites.
Creating an Account
Creating an account at FantasyDraft is pretty simple. You will need to create a username, give your email, and select a password. You will also need to check a box to verify that you have read the Terms of Service and that you are at least 18 years old. That’s about it. You can create an account for free, and they even have freeroll tournaments once in a while, which is a great way to jumpstart your DFS bankroll without putting any of your own money at risk.
Before we go further, its important to point out that before you create your account, there will be a link that you can click that says “Do you have a referral or promo code?” Using a promo code is a really easy way to get a few extra bucks in your account. Click this, enter the group or individual that referred you, along with the promo code. It only takes an extra 30 seconds, and it will help you to get a much bigger bonus in your account when you make your first deposit. Typing in who referred you helps them to gain a percentage on what you deposit, and the bonus code helps you to do the same for yourself.
If you’re looking for a promo code, head over to our Bonus section to find the best codes for creating an account at FantasyDraft.
Depositing money is also pretty easy at FantasyDraft. They have a couple different methods that you can use, most noticeably credit cards and PayPal. Either works fine, depending on what’s easiest for you. Deposits must meet a minimum of $10.
Just remember that whatever method you use for deposit, you will also be using for withdrawal later on. Withdrawals can take a few days to process, and your account needs to be verified before you can withdraw your earnings. The sooner you follow the verification steps after you create your account, the better. This way, there will not be as many hoops for you to jump through when you are ready to withdraw your earnings.
Playing at FantasyDraft
FantasyDraft offers daily fantasy sports games in baseball, football, basketball, hockey, and PGA golf. They have a traditional salary cap structure, with each player assigned a price tag, and fantasy managers are constrained by a maximum cost that they cannot exceed. This is a common setup in fantasy sports, and most of us who have experience in the field are used to this structure.
If you’ve ever played DFS at DraftKings or FanDuel before, then you know that having a specific strategy in mind is very helpful as you are creating your teams. A strong DFS strategy that is applied consistently and expertly is the best way to make money playing fantasy sports.
FantasyDraft is no different. You will need to have a strong strategy is you want to be successful at this site. The concept of value is always a good place to start. With this in mind, your goal as a fantasy manager is to score as many points as possible, spending as little cash as possible in order to get those points. For example, if you want to draft a top ranked QB, you are going to spend a lot of your salary. If you draft a lower ranked QB, you will spend less cash, but will likely score fewer points as a result. The goal is to spend your cash in a way that returns the maximum number of fantasy points. Value means spending as little as possible to score as many points as possible.
One way to think about it is to consider how many salary dollars you spend per expected point. If you can maximize your points on paper and stay within the salary cap, then you have just used the concept of value to your benefit. You won’t win every time because your predictions will not be on spot each night you play. But by doing this consistently over a long period of time you will prove to be profitable at the right DFS site. Whether FantasyDraft is the right place for you is up to you and your unique circumstances.
One of the nice things about FantasyDraft is that they simplify the process a lot, which makes things more accessible to the average fan, and helps more serious sports fans—especially those with fantasy sports experience—gain an edge against their competition. This is done through the position draft process that many are already familiar with. Take baseball, for example. Rather than needing to draft a first baseman, a second baseman, a shortstop, and a third baseman, you simply need to draft three infielders. They do this with all of the position-based sports that they offer, which makes games a lot more accessible for those that are not necessarily experts.
For more information on how to construct a strong DFS team and the strategy necessary to do so, head over to our strategy section.
Conclusion
FantasyDraft has some great things going for it right now, but it’s certainly not the best DFS site for everyone to use. Hopefully, our FantasyDraft review here has helped you to get a better idea about the site and whether or not they’re right for you. If you still have questions about FantasyDraft, I encourage you to head over to their site for yourself and check them out. After all, this is your money and your time that we’re talking about, so you will be the best judge of where you should be playing.
There are a lot of new fantasy sport sites out there, and not all of them are great. However, FantasyDraft stands out above the crowd of new guys and is definitely worth checking out.