The start of the upcoming English Premier League is approaching fast and excitement is building for a fresh season of fantasy football. The most popular football league in the world organizes the world’s biggest football Fantasy league every season, the Fantasy Premier League (FPL). In the last season, the FPL boasted of over 9 million users across the globe. This season, it is predicted to get even bigger.
Whether you are a beginner starting out or an experienced player of FPL, Betting Tips Africa presents a guide for everything you need to know ahead of the campaign including the Rules, Strategy, Prizes, and Betting opportunities on FPL.
If you are an experienced player looking to capitalize on betting markets offered for FPL, here are the bookies we’ve found that feature various FPL betting markets:
If you are not willing to take a chance on FPL betting and still want to continue with typical real-life betting on Premier League matches, we advise you to visit our Premier League betting predictions page, where we analyze most matches in detail each and every EPL round!
Premier League Fantasy Explained
The Fantasy Premier League represents a platform for millions of people to enhance their experience of watching the English Premier League and enjoy predicting top-performing players along with their friends. The aim is to select the best 11 players across the 20 clubs and the users that have the best performers are able to earn the most points over a period of 38 game weeks.
Each user is given £100 million at the beginning of the season to select a squad of 15 players. Every game week the user has to choose the best 11 who they think can win the most points. The team has a captain whose points for the game week are doubled. FPL also offers exciting chips like bench Boost, Triple Captain, Free Hit, and Wildcard which allows more creativity with user strategy.
Many users have separate leagues with their friends where they compete against each other while everyone has a global ranking each week. There are weekly, monthly and seasonal prizes associated with the global ranking. Prizes are distributed to champions and runner-ups, whereas at the end of the season prizes are distributed up to the 5th place.
The FPL offers users a chance to battle it out with their friends and test themselves across millions around the world. The main objective of the FPL is to accumulate as many points as possible across the entire season.
Additionally, in anticipation of the upcoming season, be sure to check out our Premier League season preview page, where you can find useful information about what has transpired during the off-season, the updated odds for each Premier League matchday, and Long-term preseason bets!
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Rules of EPL Fantasy
It is important to understand the various rules and scoring systems involved in order to play the FPL and enjoy it fully. Also, various sites like Betway, 1xBet, and Melbet offer betting markets on player points before every game week.
- Selecting Initial Squad
The squad size is of 15 players with 2 goalkeepers, 5 defenders, 5 midfielders, and 3 forwards. The total value of the squad must not exceed £100 million. You can select up to 3 players from each single premier league team. - Managing the Squad
Every game week there is a deadline which is 90 minutes before the kickoff of the first match of the week. You have to select your starting 11, however, if a player doesn’t play, he is automatically substituted. You have to select a captain and vice-captain before every game week. The points for the captain are doubled but if the captain doesn’t play, the vice-captain is promoted to captain. You should also prioritize your bench in the order you would want the automatic substitution to take place. - Transfers
You can make unlimited transfers until the first game week deadline. Afterward, you have one free transfer every week, you can make more transfers but you will have -4 penalty points for more than one transfer. The wildcard chip allows unlimited transfer for 0 penalty points and you can use it twice a season. - Chips
You can use chips to enhance the performance of your team. There are four chips as provided below
| Name | Effect |
|---|---|
| Bench Boost | The points scored by your bench players in the next Gameweek are included in your total. |
| Free Hit | Make unlimited free transfers for a single Gameweek. At the next deadline, your squad is returned to how it was at the start of the Gameweek. |
| Triple Captain | Your captain points are tripled instead of doubled in the next Gameweek. |
| Wildcard | All transfers (including those already made) in the Gameweek are free of charge. |
- Scoring
Your fantasy football players will be allocated points based on their performance in the Premier League every game week. Below is the table for the scoring system:
| Action | Points |
|---|---|
| For playing up to 60 minutes | 1 |
| For playing 60 minutes or more (excluding stoppage time) | 2 |
| For each goal scored by a goalkeeper or defender | 6 |
| For each goal scored by a midfielder | 5 |
| For each goal scored by a forward | 4 |
| For each goal assist | 3 |
| For a clean sheet by a goalkeeper or defender | 4 |
| For a clean sheet by a midfielder | 1 |
| For every 3 shot saves by a goalkeeper | 1 |
| For each penalty save | 5 |
| For each penalty miss | -2 |
| Bonus points for the best players in a match | 1-3 |
| For every 2 goals conceded by a goalkeeper or defender | -1 |
| For each yellow card | -1 |
| For each red card | -3 |
| For each own goal | -2 |
EPL Fantasy Strategy
There are various strategies a user can implement overall a season. We will cover an optimal strategy for picking players that will enable scoring many points and being effective on transfers.
- Core Group
Select a core of 5-6 players you believe will accumulate the most points throughout the season despite their form at the beginning of the season or in the middle. Ideally, these should be your high-priced players who usually have the most statistical contributions in a season (E.g Mohammed Salah, Harry Kane, Kevin De Bruyne, etc). Choosing the right key core players helps in transfer efficiency.
- Selecting Captain
The captain is the most important player of the team as his points are doubled, your captain should be from the above core group of players discussed and can be alternated between two or three players over 38 weeks. A scenario is if Liverpool is hosting a relegation battling team at home, it is a good time to captain Salah whereas if the next week Liverpool is playing away at Manchester City, it is probably better to captain Harry Kane if Tottenham is playing a mid-table team.
- Value Picks
Players who are priced in the mid-range but can produce the same amount of points as a high-priced player for either a short period or throughout the season. Also, it is better to focus on transfers of such players based on their form. E.g In the 2021/22 season, James Ward-Prowse of Southampton who is currently priced at £6.5 million scored 159 points whereas Bruno Fernandes of Manchester United who is priced at £10 million only produced 151 points. These predictions are one of the key differentials.
- Minimum Value Players
It is extremely tricky to pick 15 good players in a squad, however after a core group of 5-6 players is chosen and then another 5-6 value players are selected, the remaining squad needs to be filled with minimum value players who are regular starters and could produce many points occasionally. These players are priced from £4 million to a max of £5 million. These players are usually seasoned veterans or youth academy players who recently graduated into the first team.
- Teams Selected By %
The difference between scoring good points and winning prizes is the Teams Selected By the % (TSB) of the players in your team. For example, players like Salah or Kane will be selected by more than 50% of FPL users. If Salah scores a hattrick, not only will you score a lot of points, but more than 50% of your competition will also score high points. However, if you have a player like Allan Saint-Maximin from Newcastle who will have a TSB% of less than 20%, then the game week in which he earns 10+ points, you will have 10 points more than 80% of the rest of the users.
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Premier League Fantasy Prizes
The FPL offers various weekly, monthly and seasonal prizes. The biggest prize is the FPL champion who secures the number 1 rank among the global user base.
1st Prize – 2022/23 Fantasy Premier League Champion
- 7-night break in the UK including VIP hospitality at two 2023/24 Premier League matches
- A week’s worth of experiences at popular tourist attractions courtesy of Visit Britain
- Includes travel and 7 nights’ accommodation
- Hublot connected watch
- Copy of FIFA 23
- Laptop computer OR SIM-free smartphone
- Noise-cancelling Bluetooth headphones (in-ear OR on-ear)
- Nike manager jacket
- FPL goody bag consisting of a rucksack, t-shirt, mug, water bottle, stress ball, pen, pad, and key ring
Similar but lesser prizes are awarded to users ranked up to the 5th place. Every month, the player that secures the most points in that month only gets the manager of the month prize.
Monthly Prizes – Manager of the Month
- Laptop computer OR SIM-free smartphone
- Copy of FIFA 23
- Nike Flight match ball
- Nike manager jacket
The top 10 Managers each month (including Manager of the Month) will receive:
- FPL goody bag consisting of a rucksack, t-shirt, mug, water bottle, stress ball, pen, pad and key ring
Weekly prizes are awarded to the manager of the week and the runner-up each game week. They get Noise-cancelling Bluetooth headphones (in-ear OR on-ear) along with the goodies mentioned above.
Betting on FPL Player Points
As previously mentioned various bookmakers in Africa offer the chance to bet on player points during every FPL game week. The rules are the same are the FPL scoring system, and the betting market usually offered Player A Points Over/Under “a certain amount of” Points (E.g Harry Kane Over/Under 7.5 Points). The odds vary as there are low points markets, average points markets, and high points markets. Betway has a dedicated section for FPL where as 1xBet, Melbet and other such bookies also offer a similar market. Check out each of them and choose which one suits you best:
In case these betting markets are of no interest to you – at your disposal, you can have a look at our straight win predictions page and get free predictions for various matches from the Premier Leagues as well other leagues and competitions!