DFS Terms to Know | DFS Dictionary Definition |
$/Point | Performance relative to the salary on any daily fantasy site, i.e. the price of a player divided by the amount of fantasy points the player scores. |
50/50 | A contest where half the field gets paid out evenly, typically to the tune of nearly double their entry fee. |
Action | Having some financial or emotional stake dependent upon an outcome in a game or sporting event. |
Algorithm or Model (Projection Model) | A means of describing the mathematical equation that projects the statistical output of a player or game. |
Avoid | Staying away from a certain player, team and/or game. DFS Dictionary example: “The Heat-Pacers game looks ugly so that’s an avoid for me tonight.” |
Balance | Having a lineup of players priced in the mid-range, as opposed to a combination of high-priced and low-priced players. |
Bankroll | The total amount of money you have available to play with on your DFS or sports betting sites of your choosing. |
Buy-in | Also known as an entry fee. |
Cash Game | A type of contest that pays out evenly to a portion of entries, as many as half, as opposed to one that offers scaled prizes with higher winnings to the top scorers. |
Ceiling | The maximum amount of points you can expect from a player based on their past fantasy performances. |
Chalk | A player, team and/or game that is projected to be highly owned by the majority of players in a contest. |
Contrarian | A play that goes against the grain, someone that the public is overlooking or that is not highly owned. |
Correlation | A statistical connection, positively or negatively, between two players or data points |
Dart Throw | A play that is considered a longshot to reach their target score but is worth a look in tournaments at potentially low ownership. |
Deposit Bonus | An amount awarded to your account when signing up and making your first deposit. Typically sites will offer a deposit bonus depending on the size of your initial deposit amount or other qualifications. |
DFS | Get ready to see this term a TON. Daily Fantasy Sports is a phrase you will not be able to get away from. |
Diversify | Decreasing the stake in a financial position on a game or team by playing other complementary components in order to limit the risk of the initial financial position |
DK Points | DraftKings Points, a means of calculating the fantasy points of a player using DraftKings’ default scoring system. |
Double-Up | A contest in which you double your entry fee by placing in the top 50% of the contest. |
Entry Fee | The amount of money a particular contest costs to enter. Also known as the buy-in. |
Exposure | How much of a particular player you have in your lineups compared to the rest of the player pool.
DFS Dictionary example: “I have 30% exposure to Steph Curry.” |
Fade | To have less of a certain player, team or game compared to the field. Whether it be due to a gut feeling, a bad matchup or any another reason. |
FDPs | FanDuel Points, a means of calculating the fantasy points of a player using FanDuel’s default scoring system. |
Fish | An inexperienced DFS player. |
Field Size | The number of people in a given contest. |
Flex | The utility position, a spot where a player of any position eligibility can be used in a DFS lineup |
Floor | The lowest amount of fantasy points you can expect from a player based on projections or their season/career averages. |
Freeroll | A tournament from a DFS provider that requires no entry fee or buy-in. |
Full-PPR | An abbreviation for one fantasy point per reception for a player, DraftKings’ default scoring format for football. |
Game Script | An attempt to predict how a game is going to play out. DFS Dictionary example: “Because the Rams and Chiefs pass so often and we have a high Vegas total, the game script would indicate a lot of opportunity for Patrick Mahomes.” |
GPP | Abbreviation for Guaranteed Prize Pool, a tournament that guarantees a minimum prize pool of a certain dollar amount. |
Grinder | A player who is willing to play for lower stakes but higher chances on a return on investment. |
GOAT | An acronym standing for Greatest Of All Time. |
Half-PPR (0.5-PPR) | An abbreviation for one half fantasy point per reception for a player, FanDuel’s default scoring format for football |
Head-to-Head | A contest in which you and one other person compete against each other. |
Hedge | To take a contrarian position on an outcome you or others are currently taking in order to minimize your overall risk profile.
DFS Dictionary example: “I have a futures bet on the Warriors to win the Finals. Once I knew the Cavs were going against them, I hedged with a bet on the Cavs to win the series.” |
High-Stakes | A contest that has an entry fee of more than $50, typically played by sharper DFS players, pros and Sharks. |
Late Swap | The ability to switch players in or out after the first game has started on the slate. |
Lean | Which way you’re currently favoring on a position. DFS Dictionary example: “My lineups lean Clint Capela over Andre Drummond, but it’s close.” |
Lineup Lock | When the lineups lock for a particular slate. The impact of this depends on the DFS site. |
Live Final | This is an event hosted by DraftKings, FanDuel or another DFS company. Typically to get invited to a Live Final you must win a tournament or qualifier to receive a ticket (seat) to the event. Depending on the size of the Live Final, one may have more than one ticket (seats) for the event. |
Min Salary | The lowest amount a player can cost on a given site. (Normally $3,000 on DraftKings, $3,500 on FanDuel, and $10 on Yahoo!) |
MME | Mass Multi Entry. This is a strategy in which a DFS player would typically max-enter lineups into a contest.
DFS Dictionary example: In the $.50 Mini Max on DraftKings, you are allowed to enter this contest up to 150 times for $.50 per entry, a total entry fee of $75.00 to ensure as many entries as each other individual player in the tournament. |
Multi-Entry | To enter more than one lineup into a given contest. Some contests can be entered up to 150 times so check the contest entry limits before selecting your game. |
Optimizer | A tool (Fantasy Cruncher) that allows you to generate multiple lineups based on various rules, options and settings.An optimizer typically is also a key tool when “MMEing”, as explained above |
Overlay | When a particular tournament is paying out more money than it is taking in. Otherwise known as a negative management fee. DFS Dictionary example: Read “What is overlay in daily fantasy sports?” |
Pay Up | To allocate salary to higher-priced players as opposed to ones on a lower salary tier. |
Pivot | To switch from one player to another for any number of reasons. Whether it’s switching from Giannis to LeBron because of a minutes restriction on Giannis, or pivoting from a high-owned Steph Curry to a low-owned Kyrie Irving. Pivoting is done to gain leverage on the field by making a substitution. |
Player Prop Bet | A line established by an oddsmaker that focuses on the performance of a single player, typically in a singular statistical category. |
Point/$ | Relative to the salary on any daily fantasy site, the amount of fantasy points a player scores divided by the their price. Similar to $/Point, mentioned previously in the DFS Dictionary |
Prize Pool | The prizes, cash or otherwise, available to the players entering the game type if they place above a certain threshold. |
Punt | A low-priced player that has a path to success but it is less likely they get there. Making them a cheap option to “punt” in case they happen to exceed their expectations. |
Qualifier/Satellite | A tournament designed to gain the top finishers entry into another tournament of more prestige or a larger prize pool. |
Quintuple Up | A contest in which the payout is five times your entry fee. |
Rake | This is the amount of money the host company is making on the contest. If the entry fee is $4 and they are taking in 1,000 entries ($4,000) but only paying out $2,500, the rake would be $1,500. Also known as a management fee. |
Rakeback Program | A program from a provider designed to provide signups with a rebate based upon how much rake or management fee the site would typically take from a player. |
Reach | A player or play believed to be an unlikely outcome relative to expected performance DFS Dictionary example: “I’d prefer to play Drew Brees, a rookie QB like Josh Rosen is too much of a reach.” |
Recency Bias | The psychology of DFS players being more likely to choose a player who has been outperforming expectations in recent games than one who has been struggling, despite the fact that both outcomes will happen naturally with variance and don’t necessarily represent a player’s true skill. |
Referral Program | An initiative designed to provide value to current and new signups towards a site or DFS provider via referring or having another user refer you to sign up. |
Regression (to the Mean) | When a player is overperforming or underperforming relative to their expected production and statistics point to the fact that they should start to see performances closer to their career or season averages. |
ROI | Return On Investment, the amount of money you make relative to the amount of investment originally put in. |
Roster | Typically said by a tout breaking down a player, to roster a player is to put them in your lineup. |
Shark | A more experienced DFS player or one who may be utilizing predatory practices to defeat less competent newer players. |
Single-Entry | A contest in which each player may enter up to one time. This type of contest gives everyone the same chance at taking down the top prize. |
Sleeper | A player the field is overlooking who makes for a good tournament play. |
Spread | The difference in expected points between a winning and losing team according to an oddsmaker. |
Stack/Stacking | To play a group of players from the same team and/or game.
DFS Dictionary example: This is a popular strategy in baseball when stacking a lineup (Benintendi, Betts, and Martinez would be a potent Red Sox stack). This can also be done when stacking a game with a high Vegas total in basketball, such as Warriors vs. Thunder. |
Studs-and-Scrubs | Creating a lineup by allocating your $50,000 salary cap (DraftKings) to a mix of high-priced players (studs) and minimum-priced players (scrubs). |
Tilt | The disappointment a player feels when the positions he or she has taken have not panned out as expected. DFS Dictionary example: “Tommy was so tilted after the Kemba Walker chalk bombed that he didn’t play DFS for a month.” |
Tournament | A competition between multiple players. Despite the real-life applications of the term, there are typically not multiple stages to a tournament in daily fantasy sports. |
Train | When a player enters the same lineup multiple times into a game type that allows multiple lineups. |
Triple-Up | A tournament that pays out three times the buy-in to every winner. |
Upside | The potential of a player to exceed his expected projections. DFS Dictionary example: “Harrison Barnes normally doesn’t do much but with his price so low, he could have some upside.” |
Value | A player that should be priced higher than what they are based on matchup, opportunity or another factor. |
Vegas Line | The expected outcome provided by an oddsmaker, consisting of a “Favorite” (the team expected to win), an “Underdog” (the team expected to lose), a “Spread” (the differential expected between the two teams) and a Combined Total (the combined scoring many bettors play as an “Over/Under” bet). |
Viable | When a player is believed to have the potential to reach a target score. |