With the 2015/16 English Premier League season kicking off this weekend, now is the time to set up your fantasy English Premier League team if you haven’t done so already.
The best fantasy league is the official competition offered by the English Premier League at http://fantasy.premierleague.com. Last year it had more than 3.5 million players, making it the biggest fantasy football game in the world.
Fantasy English Premier League Resources
The BBC have published an interview of last year’s Fantasy English Premier League winner. His top picks for this season are Wayne Rooney, Diego Costa, Jordan Henderson and David Silva. He reckons that the following players are also worth a look: Callum Wilson, Troy Deeney, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Patrick Bamford, Matt Ritchie, Memphis Depay, Dimitri Payet, Mesut Ozil, Yaya Toure, Juan Mata, and Diafra Sakho.
If you’re looking for a general English Premier League preview, check out our 2015-16 English Premier League Team-By-Team Preview, which includes the major player transfers and futures betting tips.
One of last year’s winner’s tips was to look at the team first, then the player. Knowing the nature of each team and their opponents for the week will help with weekly team selections. Be sure to check out our EPL form guides and other English Premier League betting resources.
It’s recommended that you wait until shortly before the round commences before committing to team selections, but if you want to pick your team earlier in the week you can check out the Fantasy Football Scout to see predicted line-ups for each team.
The Fantasy English Premier League website has a scout of their own, who publishes weekly fantasy previews, which include pointers and players to watch. With the season about to commence his players to watch are Simon Francis, Sadio Mane, Dimitri Payet, Memphis Depay, Roberto Firmino and Troy Deeney.
Team Selection
You pick a squad of 15 players, consisting of:
2 Goalkeepers
5 Defenders
5 Midfielders
3 Forwards
The total value of your initial squad must not exceed £100 million. You can select up to 3 players from a single Premier League team.
Each gameweek you select your starting eleven and nominate your captain and vice captain. Your captain’s score will be doubled. If your captain plays 0 minutes in the Gameweek, the captain will be changed to the vice-captain.
The remaining four players serve as substitutes. Your substitutes provide cover for unforeseen events like injuries and postponements by automatically replacing starting players who don’t play in a Gameweek. Based on the priorities you assign, automatic substitutions are processed at the end of the Gameweek as follows:
- If your Goalkeeper plays 0 minutes in the Gameweek, he will be substituted by your replacement Goalkeeper, if he played in the Gameweek.
- If any of your outfield players play 0 minutes in the Gameweek, they will be substituted by the highest priority outfield substitute who played in the Gameweek and doesn’t break the formation rules (eg. If your starting team has 3 defenders, a defender can only be replaced by another defender).
Transfers
Each week you can make one free transfer. Each additional transfer you make in the same Gameweek will deduct 4 points from your total score (Classic scoring) and match score (Head-to-Head scoring) at the start of the next Gameweek.
If you do not use your free transfer, you are able to make an additional free transfer the following Gameweek. If you do not use this saved free transfer in the following Gameweek, it will be carried over until you do. You can never have more than 1 saved transfer.
Player prices change during the season dependent on the popularity of the player in the transfer market. Player prices do not change until the season starts.
The price shown on your transfers page is a player’s selling price. This selling price may be less than the player’s current purchase price as a sell-on fee of 50% (rounded up to the nearest £0.1m) will be applied on any profits made on that player.
For example, if you buy a player for £8.3m and when you transfer him his price is £9.0m, his selling price will be £8.6m.
Chips
New for the 2015-16 season, each gameweek you can choose to apply one of the following four chips:
All Out Attack – Allows you to play a 2-5-3 formation in the next Gameweek.
Bench Boost – The points scored by your bench players in the next Gameweek are included in your total.
Triple Captain – Your captain points are tripled instead of doubled in the next Gameweek.
Wildcard – All transfers (including those already made) in the Gameweek are free of charge.
The All Out Attack, Bench Boost and Triple Captain chips can each be used once a season and are played when saving your team on the my team page. They can be cancelled at anytime before the Gameweek deadline.
The Wildcard chip can be used twice a season, once in the first half of the season (before 28 Dec 14:00) and once in the second half of the season. The Wildcard chip is played when confirming transfers that cost points and can’t be cancelled once played.
Fantasy English Premier League Scoring
Below is the scoring system for the 2015-16 Fantasy English Premier League season.
For playing up to 60 minutes: 1
For playing 60 minutes or more: 2
For each goal scored by a goalkeeper or defender: 6
For each goal scored by a midfielder: 5
For each goal scored by a forward: 4
For each goal assist: 3
For a clean sheet by a goalkeeper or defender: 4
For a clean sheet by a midfielder: 1
For every 3 shot saves by a goalkeeper: 1
For each penalty save: 5
For each penalty miss: -2
Bonus points for the best players in a match: 1-3
A Bonus Points System has been created which utilises a range of statistics to create a BPS score for every player. The three best performing players in each match will be awarded bonus points. 3 points will be awarded to the highest scoring player, 2 to the second best and 1 to the third.
For every 2 goals conceded by a goalkeeper or defender: -1
For each yellow card: -1
For each red card: -3
For each own goal: -2
A clean sheet is awarded for not conceding a goal whilst on the pitch and playing at least 60 minutes.
If a player receives a red card, they will continue to be penalised for goals conceded by their team. Red card deductions include any points deducted for yellow cards.
Ultimate Fantasy League
If you’re really keen there’s also an Ultimate Fantasy League where you pick a 25-man squad. The entry fee is £5 and there are £35,000 in prizes: a £25,000 first place prize and monthly £1,000 prizes.