DraftKings Best Ball Overview: Contests, Scoring & Prizes

DraftKings is widely known for its daily fantasy sports (DFS) and betting platforms, but they also have a plethora of best ball contests and tournaments already live and ripe for drafting.

In best ball contests, users draft a season-long lineup using a snake draft format. Once the draft ends, there are no trades, waiver wires, or any other type of roster management. During each week of the contest, your highest-scoring players are automatically used as the starting lineup for that week and count toward your team’s overall fantasy point total.

DraftKings Best Ball Resources: DraftKings Best Ball: Weeks 15-17 Cheat Sheet

DraftKings Contest Types

Sit & Go's

These contests are the most similar to your seasonal redraft league, or home league, in that users will draft via snake draft for 20 rounds, and that team will remain their team for the entire season, competing with the other teams in that particular draft. The team with the highest cumulative points after Week 17 is the winner. League sizes range from three to 12 teams, and the payout structure varies based on league size and entry fee.

Tournaments

All best ball tournaments boast 12 teams, draft via 20-round snake format, and feature larger prize pools. Like Sit & Go's, the players are the same for the entire season, but these offer a four-round structure. After each round, a varying amount of top teams advance and will compete against other winners from their respective 12-team leagues.

Tournament Schedule

• Round 1: Weeks 1-14
• Round 2: Week 15
• Round 3: Week 16
• Round 4: Week 17

Common Tournament Sizes

• Round 1: Top 2 Advance (12-Team Pods)
• Round 2: Top 1 Advance (12-Team Pods)
• Round 3: Top 1 Advance (12-Team Pods)
• Round 4: Final Round

DraftKings Flagship Contest - NFL Best Ball $15M Millionaire

Prize Payouts ($20 entry):

Round 1

• 1st - 2nd: Advance to R2

Round 2

• 1st: Advance to R3
• 2nd - 3rd: $40
• 4th - 12th: $30

Round 3

• 1st: Advance to R4
• 2nd - 3rd: $150
• 4th - 12th: $100

Round 4

• 1st: $1,500,000
• 2nd: $1,000,000
• 3rd: $715,600
• 4th: $500,000
• 5th: $400,000
• 6th: $300,000
• 7th: $250,000
• 8th: $200,000
• 9th - 10th: $150,000
• 11th - 15th: $100,000
• 16th - 20th: $75,000
• 21st - 25th: $50,000
• 26th - 35th: $30,000
• 36th - 50th: $20,000
• 51st - 70th: $15,000
• 71st - 100th: $10,000
• 101st - 150th: $7,500
• 151st - 200th: $5,000
• 201st - 250th: $4,000
• 251st - 350th: $3,000
• 351st - 450th: $2,000
• 451st - 650th: $1,500
• 651st - 1,021st: $1,000

Win over a million dollars in DraftKings' newest Best Ball tournaments. Play now!

DraftKings Best Ball Scoring

Pick Clocks

DraftKings has a choice of slow or fast draft settings in their Sit & Go's and some of their tournaments.

Fast Drafts

You will have up to 30 seconds to make each pick. Fast drafts typically take 30 minutes to a few hours to complete depending on league size.

Slow Drafts

Drafters have up to eight hours to make each pick. Slow drafts typically take a few days to a week to complete. During slow versions, drafters who go on the clock between 10:00 pm ET and 4:00 am ET will have 10 hours to make a selection. This only applies to picks when the selection time begins after 10:00 pm ET. The slow draft timer will also update on the following schedule:

• Monday, 9/2, at 10 am ET – the slow draft pick clock will move to 1 hour per pick. The pick clock will revert to 8 hours per pick between the hours of 10 pm ET to 10 am ET.
• Tuesday, 9/3, at 10 am ET – the slow draft pick clock will move to 10 minutes per pick. The pick clock will revert to 8 hours per pick between the hours of 10 pm ET to 10 am ET.
• Wednesday, 9/4, at 7:30 pm ET – the slow draft pick clock will move to 2 minutes per pick. There will be no overnight period after this change.

New in 2024

For those already in the DraftKings best ball streets, they have some new features this season to better the experience.

• Custom Position Limits: If a participant needs to auto-draft, they can set position limits while editing rankings to better customize their lineup.
• Player Exposure: Users can view exposure to different players across best ball drafts and classic DFS lineups, even after lock.
• Max QBs & TEs: Participants will only be able to draft a max of five at each position this season.
• Extended Night-TIme Pick Duration: In slow drafts, if your pick starts between 10:00 PM and 4:00 AM ET, you will have up to 10 hours to make a selection instead of the usual eight.
• Earlier Draft Notifications: In fast drafts, users now get a notification when they are two picks away from being on the clock.

Lineup Requirements

Teams will consist of 20 players and must include players from at least two different NFL teams. Each week you will have eight starting players and 12 bench players. The roster positions are:

• 1 QB
• 2 RB
• 3 WR
• 1 TE
• 1 FLEX (RB/WR/TE)
• 12 BENCH (QB/RB/WR/TE)

Each week the highest-scoring players are automatically in the starting lineup. Non-starting players make up the bench, and their fantasy points will not count toward the team’s overall fantasy point total for that particular week.

DraftKings Draft Requirements

To be eligible for prizes in DraftKings best ball contests, you must either edit their pre-draft rankings, add a player to the queue during the draft, or make a manual draft pick at some point during the draft. Failure to take one of those three actions will result in an invalid entry, therefore forfeiting your entry fee and any prize money.