FanDuel Labs Introducing Creative New Game Types in 2018

FanDuel Labs has been unleashed upon the world and things are about to become a whole lot more interesting at the second-largest daily fantasy site. The purpose of FanDuel Labs is to develop, introduce and experiment with creative new contest types just to see what they can come up with and which games FanDuel DFS customers love the most.

All the standard daily fantasy contests you know and love won’t be going anywhere either. Your normal tournaments, cash games and big guarantees will still run as normal with the full support of FanDuel. Labs will just come up with new game types and let you try them out yourself.

You can find these new game types by using the filter on the left side of the FanDuel lobby with the [LABS] tag. Just select that option and you’ll see all new game types available for your sport of choice. Alternatively, you can use the filter to hide Labs contests if you’re looking for standard contests only.

Looking at the New Contest Types Available Now

FanDuel says it will be releasing and testing new game types moving forward, taking some games off the market and introducing others as they play around with various formats. Here’s a look at what FanDuel Labs has released so far.

NFL Super Contests

NFL Super contests went live back in December before the announcement of FanDuel Labs, so you may have seen these already. If you haven’t already seen them, Supers give you a $60K salary and remove the kicker and defense positions in favor of a flex and super flex position.

The flex position allows you to pick any running back, wide receiver or tight end while the super flex position allows all of those plus any quarterback. This means you can potentially draft two quarterbacks on your team.

NBA Positionless and Starting 5

NBA Positionless contests are still listed as coming soon, but what we know is these contests will have no position requirements. All eight roster slots are considered UTIL positions.

FanDuel also rolled out a new format called Starting 5 last month. Starting 5 contests are not currently labeled as “Labs” products, but it’s a new contest type nonetheless and worth a mention. In Starting 5 contests, you are select a team of just five players consisting of two guards, two forwards and one center using the same $60,000 salary and playing rules.

NHL Captain

NHL Captain contests have you build a roster of just five players consisting of 1 center, 2 wings, 1 defenseman and 1 captain who generates 2x points. The normal $55,000 salary cap and scoring rules apply.

EPL 5-A-Side

Here’s another contest type that hasn’t yet been unleashed but should be coming soon. In EPL 5-a-Side games, you build a 5-player roster consisting of 1 forward, 2 midfielders, 1 defender and 1 UTIL.

FanDuel Making Changes

FanDuel has been on a bit of a kick in trying new things lately. FanDuel recently held the Bitcoin Bowl for the first round of the playoffs consisting of two contests. One was a free play contest awarding 1 bitcoin to the winner while the other was a paid tournament offering 2 bitcoins to the winner.

This in addition to the new contest types shows FanDuel trying new things even as the company announced a round of layoffs last month and the departures of both co-founders in recent months. FanDuel seems to be undergoing a bit of a squeeze and making changes since conceding the number one position in daily fantasy to DraftKings DFS.