FanDuel vs DraftKings lineup strategy
Same sport, different games: how scoring, salary caps and roster rules change what a good lineup looks like on each site.
It is tempting to build one NFL lineup and enter it on both sites. The rosters look alike, but the scoring and pricing are different enough that the best lineup on one is often not the best on the other.
Scoring
- Receptions. DraftKings awards a full point per catch; FanDuel awards half a point. High-volume, short-area receivers and pass-catching backs gain relatively more on DraftKings.
- Yardage bonuses. DraftKings adds bonuses for big yardage games — a 300-yard passer or a 100-yard rusher or receiver. FanDuel has no such bonuses, so on FanDuel a player’s value leans more on touchdowns and steady yardage.
Salary and roster rules
- Caps. DraftKings NFL uses a $50,000 cap and FanDuel $60,000, with player prices scaled to match. What matters is price relative to projection on the site you are building for, not the raw number.
- Team limits. FanDuel limits how many players a lineup can take from one team, which caps how heavily you can stack a single offense.
- Single game. DraftKings Showdown and FanDuel Single Game both have a premium seat — Captain on one, MVP on the other — that multiplies a player’s points. Roster size and pricing for that seat follow each site’s rules, so the right premium choice can differ between them.
What that means in practice
Build each site separately, from projections made for that site's scoring. A pass-catching running back who is a core play on DraftKings can be merely fine on FanDuel. Treat the two sites as two slates that share a schedule.
Doing it here
- Choose the site first — DraftKings or FanDuel — then the slate.
- Projections, salary cap, roster rules and the premium seat are applied as that site defines them, and the export is that site’s upload file.