Update: FantasyDraft was acquired by MonkeyKnifeFight.com in September 2020. All customer balances were kept safe during the transition, and former FantasyDraft customers were provided the option to transfer their funds to a new or existing MKF account. To sweeten the deal, MKF offered a free $100 full season contest entry to all FantasyDraft players who took the offer to transfer their funds over.

FantasyDraft.com opened in 2014 and has grown to become one of the bigger sites in the daily fantasy industry. It still faces stiff competition from the likes of FanDuel DFS and DraftKings DFS but offers a unique take on DFS that just might prove quite tempting to regular DFS players.

In July 2019, FantasyDraft unleashed a totally new model to become the first rake-free fantasy site. Rather than charging rake like every other mainstream DFS site, FantasyDraft.com works on a subscription model with fixed monthly costs. This means you pick your plan, pay a monthly fee and never pay rake again.

Pros

Very soft competitionFree contest entry with your first depositLucrative referral programRake-free contests based on a monthly subscription model

Cons

Some contests have a hard time fillingDoesn’t do much to differentiate itself for players
Bonuses and Promos
Deposits and Withdrawals
User Interface
Contest types

The subscription plan is attractive for two reasons. First of all, it’s probably quite a bit cheaper over the long run than paying rake on every contest you enter. As the FantasyDraft homepage notes, rake can eat up as much as 30% of an average player’s bankroll over time. This also means FantasyDraft pays back 100% of all contest entry fees to players in the form of prizes.

Second, the subscription plan is a fixed cost that you can know and account for. As a player, you know exactly how much it’s really costing you to play in all those contests and you can much more easily track your results.

Rake is a clever way for fantasy sites to turn a profit because it’s on not as obvious as charging a flat monthly fee, but it adds up quickly. The Fantasy Draft model is transparent and easy to comprehend. There are numerous plans to choose from (detailed below) and plans can be swapped out any time.

Moving beyond the subscription model, FantasyDraft is at its core a normal daily daily fantasy app. You get your virtual salary, draft players for your team and accumulate points based on your athletes’ real-world performances. Score more points than the competition to win the league and a cash prize.

The Rundown:

  • New Player Bonus: $4 free entry + 10% rakeback
  • Promo Code: Use links on this page
  • Established: 2014
  • Headquarters: Cornelius, NC
  • Sports Leagues Covered: NFL
  • Coming Soon: MLB, NBA, NHL, PGA, CFB and CBB
  • Stakes: Buy in to contests for as little as $1 and as much as $1,060
  • Deposit Options: credit card, debit card and PayPal

FantasyDraft Subscription Plans

FantasyDraft does indeed offer rake-free fantasy contests as advertised, but those have been replaced with two other costs. First are the various subscription plans as detailed below. Second, all deposits are now subject to a 3% “processing fee.”

It’s not free, but choosing the right plan can potentially save you quite a bit of money over the long run. Here are the seven plans players can choose from:

Plan NameCost Per MonthEntry Fees Waived Each Month
Playersfirst$0$100
Starter$5.99$1,000
All-American$14.99$3,000
Professional$49.99$10,000
All-Star$99.99$25,000
MVP$499.99$100,000
Hall Of Fame$999.99Unlimited

When you sign up for a FantasyDraft account, you’ll be asked to select one of the above plans. If you’re new to DFS or aren’t sure how much you’ll really play, the Playersfirst plan is an easy first choice. This one will cost you absolutely nothing and it will waive up to $100 worth of entry fees every month.

To be clear, you will still pay to enter costs under any plan – you’re just not going to be charged any rake. This means if 10 people join a $10 contest, the total prize pool will be the full $100 as all winnings are now paid back to contestants. Likewise, 50/50 contests actually pay a full 2x your entry in winnings to the top 50% of the field.

You can also adjust this as you go to better tailor your plan to your needs. If you log in to your FantasyDraft account, visit settings and enable “Show Entry Fees Paid,” you can then go to your My Contests page to see how much you have paid in rake so far. With this, you can see how quickly you’ve been going through your monthly allotment of waived fees and adjust your membership plan accordingly.

FantastyDraft Deposit Bonus

FantasyDraft.com offers a free $4 entry ticket with your first deposit. After you sign up for an account and make a deposit, you’ll get entry to a $4 contest of your choice.

Joining Contests And Drafting Teams

The main lobby is where you go to join contests and draft teams. This part of the website is organized in a pretty straightforward manner. You can filter the games by league, contest type, entry fee, prize pool and number of entries allowed.

FantasyDraft lobby

When you see a contest you like, click on its name, and a summary will appear that shows all the details. You’ll see the payout structure, a list of games included in this contest, a list of entrants, scoring rules, and a start date. Click on the blue “enter” button if everything looks good.

Fantasy Draft contest details

Now it’s time to draft your team. In the NFL, you get a salary of $100,000 that you can use to draft nine players. Each player is priced according to his perceived strength, the average number of fantasy points earned, and so on. The rules for NFL games are that you remain within the salary cap, you fill all nine positions, you draft players from at least three teams and you have fewer than six players from any one team.

Click on the arrow next to any player’s name to add that player to your lineup. As you add players to your team, the roster will update itself to show how much salary you have remaining and the average amount you have left to spend on each player.

Drafting Your Team

You can also click on any player’s name to see a summary of that player. The summary displays that player’s stats for the season, average number of fantasy points scored, how that player looks against the upcoming opposing team, and recent news for that player.

Player Bio

FantasyDraft Contests And Scoring Rules

FantasyDraft.com has a standard lineup of contest types. All contests are hosted in the salary cap format, but there are differences in how many entries are accepted and how payouts are awarded.

Leagues: The leagues accept anywhere from 3 to 20 players. Payouts are awarded as either “winner take all” or with payouts for the top few players. You can join leagues created by other people or host your own with custom rules for size, entry fee, and number of paid places.

Tournaments: Tournaments are just like leagues except bigger. The biggest tournaments accept thousands of entries and pay out significant, life-changing amounts of money to the top performers. If you want to try to strike it big, tournaments are the way to go.

50/50s: 50/50 contests accept multiple entries and double the money of the top 50% of the field. All you have to do is place in the top 50%, and you’ll win double your entry.

Head-to-Head: A head-to-head contest pits you against exactly one other person. Whoever ends up with the most points wins the entire prize pool.

Beginner: Beginner contests are for the rookies of FantasyDraft. These contests are only open to people who have participated in fewer than 60 contests.

Guaranteed: Guaranteed contests publish a prize pool in advance and run no matter how many people enter the contest.

StatPoints
Offense
Passing TD4
300+ Passing Yards3
Passing Yard.04
Interception-1
Rushing Yard0.10
100+ Rushing Yards3
Rushing TD6
Receiving Yard0.10
100+ Receiving Yards3
Reception1
Receiving TD6
Kick Return TD6
Lost Fumble-1
2 Point Conversion2
Field Goal 0-39 Yards3
Field Goal 40-49 Yards4
Field Goal 50+ Yards5
Extra Point Conversion1
Defense
Sack1
Blocked Kick2
0 Points Allowed10
1-6 Points Allowed7
7-13 Points Allowed4
14-20 Points Allowed1
21-27 Points Allowed-1
28-34 Points Allowed-4
35+ Points Allowed-6

StatPoints
Hitters
Single3
Double5
Triple8
Home Run10
RBI2
Run2
Base on Balls2
Hit by Pitch2
Stolen Base5
Caught Stealing-2
Pitchers
Innings Pitched2.25 per complete inning (.75 point per each 1/3rd inning pitched)
Strikeout2
Win4
Earned Run Against-2
Hit Against-0.6
Base on Balls Against-0.6
Hit Batter-0.6
Complete Game2.5
Complete Game + Shutout2.5
No Hitter10

StatPoints
Point Scored1
3-Point Basket0.5 bonus points
Assist1.5
Rebound1.25
Steal2
Block2
Turnover-0.5
Double-Double1.5
Triple-Double3
Player can have either a double-double OR triple-double in a game

StatPoints
Skaters
Goal1.2
Assist6
Shot on Goal2
Shorthanded Goal Bonus5
Shorthanded Assist Bonus3
Hat Trick Bonus8
Blocked Shot
Goalies
Win5
Save0.5
0 Goals Allowed15
1 Goal Allowed10
2 Goals Allowed5
3 Goals Allowed2
4 Goals Allowed-2
5 Goals Allowed-4
6+ Goals Allowed-8

StatPoints
Double Eagle25
Eagle10
Birdie5
Par1
Bogey-1
Double Bogey-2
Worse Than Double Bogey-3
1st25
2nd20
3rd15
4th13
5th12
6th11
7th10
8th9
9th8
10th7
11th-15th6
16th-20th5
21st-25th4
26th-30th3
31st-40th2
41st-50th1
51+0
3 Birdie Streak3
4 Birdie Streak4
5+ Birdie Streak5
Bogey Free Round5
Hole in One5