DraftKings Fantasy: Contest types and how to play

DraftKings Fantasy is one of the top apps for DFS enthusiasts. Whether you love the NFL above all else or prefer NBA, MLB, NHL, college football, college basketball, golf, NASCAR, MMA or any other sport, DraftKings Fantasy has elite offerings for you!

DraftKings is always innovating with new types of contests and new, exciting ways to play. Keeping track can be difficult at times, so this page is here to help you sort through all the DraftKings Fantasy offerings to find the right contests for you.

Whether you prefer classic salary cap contests, single-game showdown captain mode entries, best ball tournaments, superflex entries, snake drafts or tiers contests, DraftKings Fantasy has you covered! Let’s get started breaking down all the offerings DraftKings Fantasy has to offer.

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DraftKings Fantasy Contests

Classic

These are the contests DraftKings is most known for. You start with a salary of $50,000 and must fit a certain number of players into your lineup while staying under the salary cap.

For NFL contests, the positions that must be filled are:

• QB
• RB
• RB
• WR
• WR
• WR
• TE
• FLEX
• D/ST

Here’s a look at a lineup I entered into a double-up contest for the Week 18 NFL main slate to end the 2023 regular season (minus the FLEX position and the D/ST spot because they didn’t fit in the screenshot):

Things I did right? Paying up for Justin Jefferson and CeeDee Lamb. Things I did wrong? Well, Noah Gray didn’t do anything even though starting TE Travis Kelce didn’t see much action while gearing up for the playoffs.

DraftKings Fantasy has classic DFS contests available for a wide variety of sports. Sure, NFL and NBA contests are the most popular, but there are plenty of other options, including college basketball and college football, for fans of all varieties.

Get creative with your $50,000 salary cap in order to maximize your chances of winning some real money!

Showdown Captain Mode

These contests are very similar to the classic contests, but you only pick players from one game. If the Dallas Cowboys are playing the Green Bay Packers, you’d pick a team consisting of players only from those 2 squads.

There is 1 important distinction, though. You must pick a “captain” to lead your team. Any points scored by your “captain” are worth 1.5x what they’d normally be worth. If you pick CeeDee Lamb as your captain and he records a catch for 10 yards, that would be worth 2 points normally (1 point for a reception, 1 point for 10 yards). However, if Lamb is your captain, that same play would be worth 3 points (1.5 points for a catch, 1.5 points for 10 receiving yards).

Here’s a Showdown Captain Mode contest I did for the Celtics-Timberwolves NBA showdown on January 10, 2024:

That lineup didn’t cash in the tournament I entered, despite 4 of the 6 players surpassing their projections (thus the flame icon). It can be tough to cash in showdowns, as many contestants will enter very similar lineups. Most players had Jayson Tatum as their captain in these tournaments, for example.

Still, if you can make your lineup different enough and find value where others don’t, there’s money to be made!

Reignmakers

These contests are currently available online only on the DraftKings Fantasy site. Reignmakers combines the world DFS with the NFT scene. Basically, your goal is to build a collection of digital playing cards featuring players. Then you enter those cards into contests against other users.

Best Ball

Best ball tournaments are getting more popular every year, particularly when it comes to the NFL. DraftKings has one of the best tournaments out there with its Milly Maker contest. Basically, these best ball contests are like season-long fantasy leagues, with one important difference — you don’t have to set your lineup every week! You draft a team and then sit back and watch it accumulate points all year.

DraftKings will automatically optimize your lineup every week so you earn the best possible score with the players you drafted. No longer will you have to curse yourself for leaving a guy who scored 40 fantasy points on your bench!

Tiers

Tiers contests are like classic contests, but instead of crafting a lineup based on a $50,000 salary cap, you simply pick one player from each “tier” and then hope your roster combination outscores your opponents.

Superflex

Superflex contests are similar to the classic and showdown classic captain mode contests described above, but with the flex position changed to a “Superflex” spot. In the Superflex spot, you can play a second quarterback if you want to, unlike the normal flex spot that only allows you to play a wide receiver, running back or tight end.

Snake

These are the sorts of contests new DFS players are probably the most familiar with. If you play season-long NFL or MLB fantasy leagues, there’s a good chance you’ve done a snake draft before. The player who has the first pick in Round 1 doesn’t pick again until the last selection of Round 2. If you have the final pick in Round 1, the draft “snakes” around and you have the first pick of Round 2.

In these contests, you draft against other users and then your lineup is entered into whichever contests you choose. It takes away the salary cap option and lets users try to out-scheme each other in a familiar draft format.

Snake Showdown

Snake Showdown contests are the same concept as the Snake contests detailed above, except you draft smaller teams of players with the draft pool coming from 1 specific game.

Madden Classic

Madden Classic Contests are similar to the Classic Contests described earlier in this section, but the games involved are simulated from the Madden video game franchise. Pick your teams while staying under the $50,000 salary cap and then watch the live stream of Madden games provided by DraftKings. It’s similar to other esports offerings on other DFS apps, only with Madden.

Madden Showdown Captain Mode

These are the same as the Madden Classic contests described above, but for 1 specific simulated Madden game rather than a full slate of games.

As you can see, there are numerous options available for DFS enthusiasts over at DraftKings Fantasy. While I mostly prefer to stick to the classic, best ball and showdown classic captain mode contests on the DK Fantasy app, there are styles that should be enticing to anyone who wants to get in on the fun.

Ready to get started playing DraftKings Fantasy, which is one of the top DFS apps on the market? Click here or check out the box below to take advantage of a special first-time deposit match worth up to $500: 

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Adam Spencer

A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 14 SEC football teams. He is the news editor at Saturday Down South and across all Saturday Football brands.