daily fantasy sports articles

Footy is back and all the variations of AFL fantasy have been the talk of the town in recent weeks.

With so much chatter surrounding Supercoach, AFL Fantasy and Daily Fantasy Sports strategy, it’s a good time to take a look at the differences between these two fan favourite fantasy formats and help those looking to transition across to Draftstars daily fantasy contests.

In this article, we unpack the differences between season-long fantasy and DFS strategies

RISK ASSESSMENT

Risk is a key element of fantasy football, and it dictates the decisions of coaches in both season-long fantasy and daily fantasy sports.

The risks that come into play with footballers include but are not limited to injuries, role, job security, and of course, form. 

While these issues impact players week-to-week across a season, they are treated more seriously by season-long fantasy coaches, as risk can accumulate. For example, the chance of a player getting injured over the course of one DFS slate is a lot lower than the chance of them getting injured at some point during the season (which is what season-long coaches consider). As such, DFS users are able to take more risk in selecting injury-prone players with the hope that they can remain on the park for one whole game.

The same applies to roles - it’s easier to pick a player based on their expected role for one round as opposed to forecasting their position in the team across a year. When it comes to form, a DFS player can enjoy the benefits of an out-of-form player producing a ‘spike’ game without worrying about their performances in the later weeks and months.

On the whole, it’s clear that season-long fantasy favours coaches who can predict long-term trends and are more risk-averse, while DFS users are generally happier to look past concerns that may or may not apply to a single slate.

JOB SECURITY

Job security refers to how likely a player is to be selected week after week without being dropped.

To put it simply, this matters in season-long, but is irrelevant in DFS.

SuperCoach and AFL Fantasy players are trying to achieve two objectives when choosing their lower salary picks - 1) Fill a team with players who will be selected every week and, 2) Select players who will score well.

DFS players only have to worry about the latter goal, as their selections are only relevant for one contest and do not carry over to the next week.

For this reason, a lot more emphasis is placed on job security as one facet of long-term viability when it comes to player selection in season-long fantasy.

CHALK AND PODS

As mentioned in our player ownership article, ownership strategy plays a big role in DFS. 

While both season-long and DFS fans need to select Point of Difference (POD) players in order to access the top prizes, season-long fantasy is a marathon, not a sprint, so users tend to prefer sticking with popular formulas to keep up with the pack.

When a player is highly owned, season-long fantasy geeks will often select that player to avert the risk of missing out on valuable points.

On the other hand, POD selections are vital in DFS as the winners are decided on the day, and sticking with the ‘chalk’ will only result in a small win at best. Highly owned players are treated more often as selections to avoid, while low-owned obscure selections are considered a necessity to chasing the big money.

With SuperCoach and AFL Fantasy, it’s more often about the timing of selections rather than the ‘who’. 

CONCLUSION

As you will likely have gathered from this article, the differences between season-long fantasy and DFS all stem from the time frame that each consumes. 

With season-long fantasy, it’s all about getting out your crystal ball and predicting the distant future with accuracy. Conversely, DFS is a mad scramble to take the right risks and earn instant rewards.

Both forms of fantasy football are hugely popular and for good reason, so get involved with both if you can!