Fantasy Sports: Top 10 Websites & Apps (2021)

Most Popular Fantasy Sports Betting Games

Below you will find brief guides to the most popular DFS games, and the best way to approach them.

Fantasy Cricket

Conventionally, Fantasy Cricket games involve you selecting a full squad of XI players, who earn points depending on their performance levels. The most obvious point-scoring actions are runs and boundary hits (fours/sixes) for batsmen and dismissals for bowlers and fielders. Micro elements, such as run rate and bowling economy, can also have an impact.

Depending on the competition, squads can be selected from any of the teams involved, on a round-by-round basis or with a squad for the whole tournament. In the latter case, you are only allowed a certain number of changes between rounds. Alternatively, a competition may require you to choose a number of players from teams engaged in a particular fixture – e.g. ‘an XI for Mumbai v Delhi’, which comprises of players from either team.

Top tips for Fantasy Cricket

Although looking at form is very important, it is always advisable to make the inclusion of top-order batsmen a priority. This is especially true for DFS games themed on T20 cricket. Also of great importance is looking at weather conditions, and the state of the pitch for each game if possible. Some operators, such as Superbru, offer a premium service with in-depth reports on conditions and expert insights that can enhance your chances of getting a vital edge over fantasy league opponents.

As identified in our guide on how to bet on cricket, slow and dry pitches make spinners far more effective, while a pitch with higher dew levels and humidity will favour power hitters and swing bowlers. With that in mind, it is also important to have a good combination of Batsmen, Bowlers, Wicketkeepers and Fielders, even if there is no cap on how many players in each position you can have within your fantasy XI. In most cases, known all-rounders should be your primary consideration, alongside top-order batsmen with some history of decent wicketkeeping.

Fantasy Football

This works very similarly, where you pick a formation and a squad of XI, and earn points based on the actions of your players. Goals are the most obvious points booster, with bonus points usually added if the goalscoring player is a midfielder or defender. Players in either category, along with goalkeepers, also earn bonuses for shutting out the opposition (also known as a ‘clean sheet’). Negative elements such as yellow and red cards, own goals and missed penalty kicks subtract points.

As with Fantasy Cricket, DFS games themed on football enable you to pick any XI, either on a whole-season or per-round basis. Some operators also offer a five-a-side fantasy games, whereby you select five players from within a certain fixture and compete against other squads for prizes.

Top tips for Fantasy Football

Picking the right players is a challenge, especially with such a limited budget. Finding players with a lower price that exceed expectations is key. An example from recent years would be the key trio behind Leicester’s shock title success of 2015/16, where N’Golo Kante, Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy all commanded relatively low prices ahead of the season, but finished top of key metrics, such as assists, clean sheets and goals.

In reality, these are exceptions, and it is very difficult to predict which lower-priced players will overachieve. One possible route is to look at players who have transferred from bigger clubs to less successful ones, and found themselves making a huge impact having learned from the best – even if they were not always playing regularly for the ‘better’ club they are leaving.

A prime example from the 2020/21 season is Jesse Lingard, who was moderately priced and transferred to West Ham from Manchester United in real life in January 2021. He became one of the most in-form players during the second half of that campaign, with West Ham’s higher-than-usual league position making them a focal point for promotions on top football betting sites.

If using all-round form as a factor in making selections, a series of good performances over a period of at least four weeks prior to selection is ample justification to include a player. This allows you to transfer them at a more cost-effective price, before the rate of their price increase is accelerated by a higher league position and any individual player awards.

Fantasy Kabaddi

As a major sport in India, most of the operators in our top ten also offer a regular Kabbadi fantasy game, including Dream11, Ballebaazi and FanFight. It works in the same way as other team sports, whereby you pick a full squad, or draft a set number of players into a lineup of five (or six, seven etc) and earn points based on their actions. The key to success is to stay on top of the schedule, plan ahead accordingly, and look at the top betting tips around. If you read our guide to Pro Kabaddi League Betting, you will be able to do this effectively and gain an advantage over your rivals!

Fantasy US Sports

The four major American sports franchises out there, namely the NBA, MLB, NFL and NHL, are all covered by more than one DFS operator. The same team-picking conditions apply, where the star players cost more and require close study to determine their true worth. Events such as the annual NBA championships have enjoyed particularly rapid growth amongst Fantasy Sports players in India, and they too have certain keys to success that can lead to rich rewards.

Perhaps the biggest of those ‘keys’ is to relate your picks to the most popular betting markets surrounding US sports. These include:

Handicap result

The teams that frequently win by margins of multiple goals, or an above-average margin of points, will invariably have some players who are reasonably priced, but good to include in any fantasy squad. It is generally the case that every member of the team, not just one, is exceeding expectations if the team’s results list is heavy with handicap-beating wins.

Top scorer (outright)

Teams that regularly win by relatively high margins will always have one player with an ability to score high in many games. They will almost certainly feature near the top of seasonal top-scorer odds markets for their respective leagues. Even if they are expensive, their sheer popularity makes them worthy of inclusion, as they can act as a buffer against conceding DFS points to your league rivals.

Over / Under

One of the most popular betting markets out there is ‘Over/Under’, where the total points – accrued by one team or within an entire game – must (or must not) exceed a certain threshold for the bet to prevail. Looking at a team’s history of being involved in high-scoring fixtures is particularly useful in some niche DFS contests, particularly those where you pick a certain number of players from within a certain fixture.

Quarter / Half win

Some fantasy games allow you to jump in after the end of certain periods in play – such as Fantasy Cricket games, where you might play only one of the two innings, enjoying a quicker-paced game while also fielding players who thrive either early or late in games. With US sports, the same principles apply, and for any DFS tournaments where you can switch players in-play, looking at which teams and players improve as play progresses can be a very important element of success.

Rookie of the Year (outright)

Players in their first season out of a US college will always see their prices tempered somewhat, given that they are inexperienced at professional level. Players that are selected in the first round of drafts at the start of every year usually command shorter odds for Rookie of the Year, so these are always worth considering as an inclusion if selecting a season-long squad, rather than selecting one on a per-round basis.

Other Sports

Tennis, Rugby, F1 and UFC are other popular sports amongst players. Each sport boasts its own unique dynamics, which dictate how fantasy games run. With Tennis, the scoring changes very quickly, so invariably you will need to make shrewd calls before the start of play to experience any real success.

Formula 1 races also provide a unique challenge, as the fantasy games associated with it require you to either guess the correct finishing order or select racers from different ‘tiers’, depending on how well you think they will do. With Fantasy UFC, meanwhile, you pick a ‘stable’ of several different fighters, all of whom earn points based on win method and the speed of the result.