With your account registered and funded, it’s now time to go and find some contests to play.
Contest Lobby
The ‘Lobby’ is where you’ll find all the action and by clicking the Lobby option at the top of the website, you’ll see a selection of sports to choose from, currently encompassing:
- GOLF – Golf
- FTBL – Football (Soccer)
- NFL – American Football
- NBA – Basketball
- MLB – Baseball
- MMA – Mixed Martial Arts
- NHL – Hockey
- NAS – NASCAR
- CFL – Canadian Football League
- EL – EuroLeague Basketball
- LOL – League of Legends (Esports)
We’ll focus on golf in this guide, however there’s plenty more contests to try out if you follow any of the other sports listed above. When using the lobby, any sports that don’t have a current contest running will be coloured in grey and you won’t be able to select that option. This happens, for instance, before a salary market is established for the week’s golf events which is typically ready by Monday evening GMT for events that start on a Thursday.
Selecting a Contest
There are literally dozens of contests for you to select from for each golf event and crucially they ALL work on exactly the same scoring mechanism (more of which later), so for now it’s a case of choosing a contest that suits your budget. From free entry contests all the way though to those costing in excess of $10,000 to enter, there’s a contest to suit every type of player.
When searching for a contest that suits you, perhaps the best place to start is to sort the contests by cost to enter, so by clicking ‘Entry Fee’ the available contests will be ranked based on the amount it costs to play. If you’re looking for the big contests with top prizes then sorting by ‘Total Prizes’ will allow you to see where the biggest jackpots are; likewise sorting by ‘Entries’ lets you see where the events with the largest (or smallest) numbers of players are.
For golf, some of the most popular contests are the $3 entry ‘Birdie’ or $4 entry ‘Fore’ contests which tend to offer amongst the biggest overall prize funds for a relatively small entry fee – however of course you’ll need to beat thousands of other players if you’re going to win big.
Depending on which contest you choose, some allow multiple entries (and may stipulate a maximum number of entries as per the examples above), whereas others are single entry. The beauty of the multiple entry contests is that you can try a number of different strategies with teams containing different players and of course any or all of them could result in a payout.
Prizes
Having selected a contest to play in, you’ll be presented with a summary page which details the important information relating to that event:
The contest summary tells you the number of entrants, the top prize and also how many of those entrants will earn a prize of some description. The prize payout on the right-hand-side goes into more detail about the prizes paid by finishing position, whereas the ‘entrants’ section allows you to see who’s already entered into the contest. Symbols against an entrant determines whether they have submitted multiple entries into this contest or not (denoted by the symbol M), plus the experience badge denotes whether they are an experienced player and/or whether they’ve won a prize of over $1,000 in the past.
Selecting Your Team
Now for the important bit – actually picking your team of 6 players!
The salary cap for golf contests is $50,000 which means you need to build a team of 6 players whose salaries combined are equal to or less than the overall $50,000 limit. Player values tend to range from around $6,000 to $12,000 with the most expensive correlating with those players who are most likely to win and the cheapest those who aren’t expected to perform well.
There’s undoubtedly a strong correlation between the salaries for each player and the odds that the bookmakers offer, so the favourite tends to be the most expensive player to select, however this isn’t an exact science and there are often disparities between salaries and odds which can help you find some value players. With $50,000 in salaries available between 6 players, the average for each of your selections can be no more than $8,333 – so if you pick one or two of the most expensive players you will of course be limited as to which other players you can select and still stay under the $50,000 limit.
The ‘Rem Salary’ will tell you how much you have left in the bank for your players once you’ve started adding them to your lineup and, when you get to the final player, any selection that would potentially take you over the $50,000 limit is coloured in red to make it easier for you to see who can be selected.
With 150+ players available for a typical event, the search function comes in very handy as it allows you to partially match the name of a player and find them far more easily than scrolling down:
Of course if you want to change a player then simply click the red X by his name and he’ll be removed from your lineup. Once you’ve submitted a team you can also go back and edit your lineup any time before the event starts – great news if there’s a late withdrawal or if you have an 11th hour change of heart.
There are a number of basic stats listed against each player which may help you choose your team:
- FPPG: Fantasy Points Per Game – the average DratKings points achieved by this player for the season.
- T10s: the number of top 10s achieved by this player for the season.
- CUTS: the number of cuts made by this player for the season.
- AVG: stroke average for this player for the season.
Of course this is all very basic stuff, so combining this data with our stats, previews and predictor models should help you make a more informed decision. Once you’re happy with your team simply click the green ‘Enter’ button and you’re in the contest.
DraftKings Golf Scoring
DraftKings scoring on golf isn’t overly complicated, however it’s worth understanding the individual components as some elements are worth more than others. The full scoring mechanism is as follows:
Per Hole Scoring
- Albatross or Better: +13 Points
- Hole in One: +5 Points
- Eagle: +8 Points
- Birdie: +3 Points
- Par: +0.5 Point
- Bogey: -0.5 Point
- Double Bogey or Worse: -1 Point
Tournament Finishing Positions Scoring
- 1st: 30 Points
- 2nd: 20 Points
- 3rd: 18 Points
- 4th: 16 Points
- 5th: 14 Points
- 6th: 12 Points
- 7th: 10 Points
- 8th: 9 Points
- 9th: 8 Points
- 10th: 7 Points
- 11th–15th: 6 Points
- 16th–20th: 5 Points
- 21st–25th: 4 Points
- 26th–30th: 3 Points
- 31st–40th: 2 Points
- 41st-50th: 1 Point
Streaks and Bonuses
- Streak of 3 Birdies of Better, Maximum 1 Per Round: +3 Points
- Bogey Free Round: +3 Points
- All 4 Rounds Under 70 Strokes: +5 Points
