Underdog Fantasy MLB Season Best-Ball Contests: How to enter and play for up to $500K in prizes
Underdog Fantasy is a great way for MLB fans in states where sports betting isn’t yet legal to get in on the action with best-ball fantasy contests.
Pick teams of your favorite players, whether that’s Ronald Acuña Jr., Nolan Arenado, Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, Max Scherzer, Shohei Ohtani or any other big-name star and compete against other Underdog Fantasy users for real money!
Use promo code “SOUTH” when you sign up for Underdog and you’ll receive up to $100 in matching funds as a welcome bonus!
What are best-ball fantasy contests? Let’s dive into exactly what these fun Underdog contests entail.
Underdog Fantasy MLB Best-Ball Contests
There are several best-ball contests on the Underdog Fantasy app that last for the duration of the 2023 MLB season.
Underdog is legal in 41 U.S. states. Here’s a helpful look at where you can play:
| Underdog Fantasy Promo Code | SDS |
|---|---|
| 💰 Underdog Fantasy Promo Offer | 💰 Deposit Match up to $100 |
| ✅ Underdog Fantasy Legal States | ✅ All US States Except: CT, DE, FL, HI, ID, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MI, MS, MT, NV, NH, NJ, OH, PA and WA |
| 📱 Underdog Fantasy Sign-Up Link | 📱 Play Underdog Fantasy |
| 💵 Underdog Fantasy Deposit Methods | 💵 PayPal & Debit/Credit Card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover) |
| ✍️ Terms | ✍️ New players only, 18+, must be a resident of legal state. |
| 🗓️ Promo Code Last Verified | 🗓️ April 24th, 2024 |
There are hundreds of thousands of dollars up for grabs this MLB season at Underdog. These are some of the most popular MLB best-ball contests on the Underdog Fantasy app:
The Dinger is one of the top offerings in the MLB space, so let’s take an in-depth look at that contest with a $500,000 prize pool:
The Dinger
The Dinger is an Underdog Fantasy MLB best-ball contest for the entire 2023 season that features a $10 entry fee and $500,000 in total prizes. It’s perhaps the biggest, most-popular Underdog MLB best-ball contest out there, so we’ll highlight it in-depth.
You’ll draft against 11 other users to select your 20-player team, then compete against a 12-person group for the first 18 weeks of the MLB season (more on that in a minute).
Prize money is at stake for thousands of players. You don’t have to win, or even finish in the top 100, to make a sizable profit in The Albatross contest.
Notably, you draft 20 players, but only 10 — 3 pitchers, 3 infielders, 3 outfielders and a FLEX position — will score points every week. Underdog will automatically insert the top scorers from your team into those 10 spots, so there’s no need to manage a roster every day.
Still, you’ll want to draft carefully and have a balanced team in case of injuries or struggles!
Here’s how the tournament works:
The Dinger tournament schedule:
The first 18 weeks of the MLB season are the qualifiers. You play in a 12-person group, competing for spots in Round 2. After Round 1 is over, the top 2 entries in each 12-person group will advance and win a prize. Additional wildcard qualifier spots may be available depending on the overall number of entries in the contest.
At the end of Round 2 (Weeks 19-20 of the MLB season), the top 2 teams from each group once again move on and win prizes. Round 3 (Weeks 21-22) is made up of 12-person groups also, with the top 2 advancing to Round 4 (Weeks 23-24), which is a 260-person final group. The winner of that group takes home the $100,000 grand prize.
Here’s a look at all the prize slots:
The Dinger winnings:
There are $500,000 in total prizes up for grabs in The Dinger contest. Here’s a prize breakdown for the event:
- 1st place: $100,000
- 2nd place: $40,000
- 3rd place: $20,000
- 4th place: $15,000
- 5th place: $12,000
- 6th place: $10,000
- 7th place: $7,500
- 8th place: $6,000
- 9th place: $5,000
- 10th place: $4,000
- 11-20th place: $2,000
- 21-30th place: $1,450
- 31-50th place: $749
- 51-100th place: $400
- 101-174th place: $200
- 175-260th place: $120
- 261-390th place: $80
- 391-780th place: $60
- 781-1,560th place: $50
- 1,561-2,340th place: $25
- 2,341-4,680th place: $20
- 4,681-9,360th place: $10
Yes, by finishing in the top 9,360 scorers in the tournament, you’ll at least make your $10 entry fee back. Not bad for a season of work! The top 4,680 scorers in the contest will at least double their money.
The Dinger event has a maximum of 56,160 entries. Once the contest is full, you can no longer enter it. So be sure to get your entries in soon before Opening Day!
Other Underdog Fantasy MLB best-ball contests include The Warmup – MLB, with a $3 entry fee and $25,000 in total prizes, and The Perfect Game, which has a $250 entry fee and a $100,000 prize pool.
Next, let’s take a look at how these MLB best-ball contests are scored on Underdog.
Underdog Fantasy MLB Best-Ball Scoring
Here’s a breakdown of how you earn points in each MLB best-ball contest for the 2023 season:
Pitchers:
- Win: 5.0 points
- Quality start: 5.0 points
- Strikeout: 3.0 points
- Inning pitched: 3.0 points
- Earned run: -3.0 points
Hitters:
- Single: 3.0 points
- Double: 6.0 points
- Triple: 8.0 points
- Home run: 10.0 points
- Walk: 3.0 points
- Hit by pitch: 3.0 points
- RBI: 2.0 points
- Run: 2.0 points
- Stolen base: 4.0 points
As you can see above, pitchers are the only ones who can lose points, so you’ll have to be careful drafting players at those positions. But getting points for innings pitched should be a nice counterbalance for that.
Meanwhile, for hitters, guys who hit the long ball or demonstrated a proclivity for stolen bases have extra value.
My Underdog Fantasy MLB Best-Ball Team
What does my team look like, you ask?
I had the No. 8 pick in a 12-team draft for The Warmup 2 – MLB event, and I was thrilled to be able to get potential Triple Crown threat Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in that spot. On the wraparound, I was able to snag Gerrit Cole to anchor my pitching staff:
Later on in the draft, I prioritized veterans who underperformed in 2022 and some young guys who could have breakout seasons. I really liked getting Oneil Cruz with the No. 65 pick and Brady Singer at No. 152. Hopefully this team makes it through the first couple of rounds and I can win some real money.
Ready to compete against me? Get in on the action soon before Opening Day is here!
Ready to get started? Remember to use promo code “SOUTH” to get a welcome bonus matching your first deposit up to $100! Click below to get in on the MLB regular-season best-ball action!
