Best DFS Sites: Top Daily Fantasy Sports Apps

Types of Daily Fantasy Sports Sites & Games

Daily fantasy sports games come in a variety of forms with varying prize potentials and selection structures. You should understand the different types of games so you can choose the best DFS site for you. Below we’ll try to make sense of it all by breaking down the most popular forms of DFS games.

Traditional Salary Cap Contests

Traditional salary cap contests were the original games popularized by FanDuel and DraftKings when DFS first launched.

In salary cap contests, entrants put together a team using a preset budget—aka the salary cap. The objective is to select the best lineup possible while staying under the salary cap.

Salary cap contestants are ranked using a points system. Your players earn points based on their individual performances, just like in normal fantasy football. The more points you get, the higher your ranking and the better your chances are of winning a prize.

Depending on the contest, you might need to have the highest score to be eligible for the award, whereas others might require you to place among the top half or third. When it’s split among the top half or third, the players that rank the highest make the most and it goes incrementally down from there

Payout amounts in salary cap contents vary primarily by how many entrants there are and what the entry fee is (typically ranging from $1 to $100).

In double-ups, a variation of cash games, half of the players win double their entry fees. The Guaranteed Prize Pool (GPP) is a tournament competition with a higher entry fee that pays out more.

The metric value for statistical achievements varies between DFS operators. For instance, a reception in an NFL game is worth 0.5 points at FanDuel, but 1 point at DraftKings.

FanDuel and OwnersBox are the best options if you’re looking for traditional DFS salary cap contests.

Draft Contests

Draft contests are not constrained by salary caps. Entrants draft a team from a pool of players, just like in normal fantasy.

In draft contests, the pool of players available is shared between entrants. Once someone selects an athlete, no one else can pick him/her. Contestants pick players to form their squads one after another in a snake format (last pick of first round gets first pick of second round), with around 30 – 60 seconds to do so.

You’ll earn points based on how well your players perform in the game. Like salary cap contests, the most successful entrants win prizes at the end of the event. The number of entrants can be as little as 2 and as high as 12.

Underdog Fantasy and Sleeper are the best option for DFS drafts.

Pick'em Games

This new type of DFS game works the same way as player prop bets at sportsbooks. Essentially, you're predicting whether a specific player (or several players) will go over or under a specific stat total and playing against the house. 

Sites like PrizePicks allow you to choose which players and stat categories you want to include in your entry. It then works like a parlay in sports betting where you have to win all legs of the entry to win the entire thing. The more picks you add to your entry, the higher your payout will be.

For example, you can take Kevin Durant to score more than 30.5 and Ja Morant to score under 28.5 points in an NBA game. The more picks you add, the bigger the payout. In most cases, you’re competing against the house and not other participants.

To be considered a daily fantasy site and not a sportsbook, platforms require that you pick at least two players from two different teams.

Several sites offer Pick'em contests, including Underdog, Sleeper, Jock MKT,  Thrive Fantasy, and ParlayPlay.

You can also check out our guide to the Best DFS Pick'em Sites by Entry Size to find the ideal site to use based on how many picks you want to include.

Head-to-Head Games

When daily fantasy sites offer H2H games, they typically refer to one of two things:

• You vs a single other player. This is a one-on-one contest where you are battling against one opponent rather than an entire field. In this caseIt's your team versus the other entry, with the winner taking the entire pot minus the operator's fee.
• Choosing which player will perform better. In this case, you have to decide whether at least one of two players will perform better in a specific stat, such as points, rushing yards, or hits. The more mactchups you add, the higher the payout. If you miss one matchup, you typically lose the entire entry, like with a parlay.
• Your lineup vs the house’s lineup. On some DFS sites, players in H2H games compete against house line-ups instead of random users. Like with Higher/Lower games, the more lineups you choose to compete against, the bigger the potential payout.

Many of the best DFS apps offer H2H games, such as Thrive Fantasy and Underdog.