Fanduel Review
FanDuel wasn’t the first daily fantasy site but when they came on the scene they became the biggest and best in a very short time. They have withstood the legal challenges and the ongoing FanDuel vs. DraftKings battle (the other biggest DFS sites) and have kept a loyal and ever growing fan base satisfied not only with their other fantasy sports offerings but most importantly their fantasy golf.
It’s easy to compare the two companies when it comes to DFS golf but we have reviewed FanDuel a little more closely to let you decide which of the two is better and more importantly why you should join FanDuel to play their DFS Fantasy Golf contests.
We have played at FanDuel since they came out in 2009. Back then there were only a handful of DFS sites and FanDuel quickly established themselves as a leader and had big money backers with venture capitalists being early investors and allowing players the confidence that the site was here to stay. FanDuel grew to being worth over $1 Billion before the legal issues took over the fantasy sports industry. With all that mess behind them, FanDuel is now a major player in both the daily fantasy sports scene in the US and well as becoming a legal betting operator in the US and expanding each year as more states legalize sports betting.
Fanduel Fantasy Golf Contests
Although a big reason for the explosion of daily fantasy sports in the world FanDuel wasn’t originally on the ground floor of daily fantasy golf. Unlike other professional sports in which fantasy sports was deemed legal by the Federal government, golf was in a grey area of the law and it was never clear as to whether fantasy golf fell under the legal parameters of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) which was the law that deemed fantasy sports a skill game and not considered to be gambling.
FanDuel was at that point very image conscious as they were considering becoming a publically traded company and did not want any impediments to their expansion. DraftKings, their main competitor, interpreted the rules differently and began offering up their fantasy golf games leaving FanDuel at a disadvantage. It was after a proposed merger of the two companies began to form that FanDuel began to offer their own fantasy golf games and continue to offer contests today even after the merger fell apart.
Today, Fantasy Golf at FanDuel is a big part of their site and they continue to offer up HUGE cash prizes for the four golf majors including the biggest golf major of them all…The Masters! A grand prize of $200,000 and cash prizes over $1 Million were up for grabs last year for the Masters in their PGA MEGA Eagle contest. Additionally FanDuel ran many other promotions during the golf year and a huge FREE Fantasy Golf Contest for all four majors.
If you want to get in on the action playing Fantasy Golf at FanDuel you need to first make a FanDuel account which you can do here FanDuel.com. Once you’ve joined and filled out the necessary signup info you can start checking out the site. The lobby has tons of free fantasy golf contests for you to review and if you are ready to jump into the deep end and start making some real money playing fantasy golf then if you’ve joined using our membership link, you will get an extra $5 bonus into your account to play with once you make your first deposit to FanDuel. That gives you a chance to try out playing in free money contests on their dime!
Types Of Contests At Fanduel
Beginners Only – As the name suggests, if you are a new player at FanDuel you can choose to only play against other new FanDuel players. Great if you want to try out the site without worrying about playing against some really great DFS players.
Tournaments – Tournaments offer up the big prizes and have the most entrants. Also called Guaranteed Prize Pools or GPP’s an entry fee will give you a chance to win the largest prizes and the biggest money payouts.
Beat the Score – A set score is posted and you need to create a fantasy lineup that will score that amount or more to win. There is a set prize and all the players that beat the score divvy up the prize money evenly. Another good game for new DFS players.
Satellites and Qualifiers – Winners of satellites or qualifier contests can win entry fees into the larger fantasy golf contests at FanDuel like the PGA MEGA Eagle. Many of these contests have an entry fee of under $1 and give you the opportunity to win in the bigger GPP contest tournaments.
3 to 100 – These are contests that range from 3-100 players and you can enter many free ones with no prizes to win, or there are contests to play for set cash prizes.
Friends Mode – Create your own fantasy contest for just people that you invite. If you have been trying to run a fantasy golf pool with friends or co-workers, this is a great option to consider.
Head-to-Head Contests – Take your fantasy golf lineup and challenge one other player to a fantasy duel. There are tons of head to head games available in the FanDuel lobby for either free games or for a set amount. Beat your opponent and you win the cash.
50/50 – Enter a fantasy golf tournament and if you finish in the top half of the standings you win. Finish in the bottom of the pack and you lose…Simple enough?
Multipliers – The higher the multiplier, the higher the odds of winning. Contest have 2x, 3x, 5x and 10x multipliers available and like 50/50 contests, you need to finish in a certain spot in the overall standings to win. In a 5 x multiplier you have to finish in around the top 20% of entries and in a 10x multiplier you need to finish slightly better that the top 10%. These games can be lucrative if you are confident in your lineups.
How Do You Play Fantasy Golf On Fanduel
FanDuel Fantasy Golf is a game based on a fictitious budget of $60,000 and you must create a lineup of 6 golfers using their given salary cap value. FanDuel determines salaries for players based on their ability, strength of tournament field and what their odds are of winning the tournament. You must find the 6 golfers that fit into the $60,000 salary cap and that is the lineup that you put up against other players. There are contests for the entire golf tournament, just one round or just the weekend and salaries are different for each game.
One you’ve chosen which contest to enter you will need to set up your lineup. When you enter the contest you will see a screen with players names and faces as well as their salary cap value and a “+” symbol. To pick a player, click the “+” symbol and that player will move over to the right hand column which has the 6 empty spots waiting for your lineup to be filled. As you add in players, the spots will fill up and the total amount of money left to spend on players will decrease as well. The total also shows the average amount left per player that you have to spend. Once you’ve filled up your roster you need to officially enter your lineup and your fantasy golf team is ready to play. If you want to enter that same lineup into other contests, you can simply import your players quickly or if you so choose, you can create a completely new lineup of golfers.
You have until the first tee time of the tournament to make changes or to edit your team for the full 4 day tournament and for the single day or weekend contests you have until those tee times to set your lineups. After the contest starts, you will not be able to edit again. Then you just sit back, turn on the golf channel and keep you screen open to watch the live scoring statistics and see how well your golfers are doing and how you are doing against your opponents.
Golf Scoring Rules
Scoring for FanDuel Fantasy golf is pretty simple. You get points for pars, birdies and eagles and lose points for bogeys or double bogeys. Where the golfer finishes in the standings allots him points and then there are other bonus points that can be earned as well. See the chart below for a summary of FanDuel’s golf scoring.
Fanduel Prize Pools and Contests
Fanduel runs some of the largest fantasy golf contests, maybe only second to DraftKings in overall prize money but for players that are just playing in non GPP contests there are plenty of games to choose from. If contests fill up, new games are added automatically and the only time you really worry about not getting into a fantasy game at FanDuel is if it’s one of their major tournaments for golf like for the majors. If you want, you can reserve a spot in the contest early on and then set your lineup whenever, that way you are still guaranteed being in the contest as there are occasions where the big tournaments do fill up. In those cases there are more added but once the major tournament is filled, you’re left with all the other choices.
FanDuel gives out millions each week in fantasy golf prizes just for regular tournaments so you can be assured that if you want to play a game at FanDuel…there’ll be one waiting for you!
If you are still new to daily fantasy golf and aren’t sure about the whole money thing, FanDuel has you covered…there are tons of games in the lobby of just players playing for fun and you can simple set the slider in the sidebar to $0 entry fee and pick the games you want to play.
Final Thoughts
It’s easy writing a review of FanDuel’s fantasy golf game because we’ve been playing it since it started. The game has evolved over time based on feedback from players and that’s made it even better to play at. Their golf fantasy contests cater to every type of fantasy player: from the newbie that doesn’t want to play for money and just have fun, to the grinder that wants to spread out his lineups and play a bunch of $1 games with multiple lineups all the way to the high rollers that will play in $5,300 head to head contests against multiple opponents.
