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Note: Our 26/27 FPL Draft Rankings are now live! You can check those out right here.
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It’s high time to dive into the world of Fantasy Premier League Draft, with our ultimate guide to light the way.
Whether you’re new to the draft format, or looking to refine your strategy, understanding the fundamental rules and best practices is key. Trust us – we’ve been battling away at it for years!
This comprehensive resource covers everything from league setup to player selection, ensuring you’re equipped to build a winning squad and dominate your league.
Read on to learn how Fantasy Premier League Draft works, how to trade, get FPL Draft tips, and a bunch more besides.
Fantasy Premier League Draft is… what it sounds like!
It’s basically a ‘draft’ version of FPL. If you’ve ever played fantasy NFL, basketball, or baseball (or any other draft-based fantasy sport, for that matter), this works the same way. The only real difference is that it’s for the Premier League.
FPL Draft first launched back in July 2017, and is completely free to play.
While it’s certainly not as popular as the main game, it still has plenty of fans. You’re also able to easily play Draft alongside regular FPL, using the same account, mobile app, and so on.
Let’s break this down into two parts. The first will explain the draft format, and the second will cover FPL Draft specifically.
If you don’t already know, a fantasy ‘draft’ happens at the start of the season, and involves all the real-life managers (like you) taking it in turns to pick players.
To make things fairer, this draft follows a ‘snake’ format. That means the player who picks last in the first round picks first in the second round (then again in the third/fourth, fifth/sixth, and so on).
So, how does FPL Draft work specifically?
In regular FPL, every manager has the chance to own the same players. Therein lies the big difference. In FPL Draft, each player can only be owned by one manager.
In normal FPL, everyone can own Haaland. In Draft, if you’ve got him, then nobody else can use him… and you’ve immediately got a good chance of winning your league.
Even after the draft is finished, you can still make in-season changes to your team. These can be via free transfers or trades with other players, both of which we’ll cover later.
In some important ways though, FPL Draft isn’t too different from regular Fantasy Premier League. It uses the same basic scoring system, the same gameweek system, all the same real-life players, and so on.
In short, if you’ve played either regular FPL, or a different draft-based fantasy sport, you’ll have no problems with FPL Draft.
(Even if you’ve done neither of those things… don’t worry. It’s not very complicated).
So, we’ve got a general overview of the format. Now it’s time to dive into the fun stuff… the FPL Draft rules.
No, wait – come back! They’re not that complicated, I promise!
As with the overall structure, the Fantasy Premier League Draft rules will be very straightforward for regular FPL players to understand, and for players of other draft-based fantasy sports. Once again though, if you don’t fall into either category, you’ll still pick these up easily enough.
Here are the main Fantasy Premier League Draft rules explained:
And that’s about it, for the basic FPL Draft rules!
The other crucial area to tackle, of course, is how you score points in Fantasy Premier League Draft.
This works in almost exactly the same way as regular FPL. I’ve written a detailed explanation of how points are calculated here.
In short, you get the most points for goals, assists, and clean sheets. In addition, certain players will score extra Bonus Points, which you can read about here.
Creating a Fantasy Premier League Draft team, and playing the game in general, is extremely straightforward.
In fact, this is probably an easier game to learn than regular FPL. That’s because you don’t need to worry about stuff like ownership, price changes, chips and wildcards… all the stuff that FPL nerds like me worry about endlessly, but which more casual players might not like.
This user-friendly nature is evident from the very start here, as you can see in this mini-guide on how to start playing FPL Draft.
I’ve already outlined the process for creating an FPL account here. In short though, you simply head to the FPL homepage or download the FPL Draft app from the App Store or Google Play, click Sign Up Now, and complete the registration process.
Log in to your new account, then hover over the Fantasy button at the top of your screen, and click Fantasy Draft. Click the Start button, and you’ll see all your options for joining different drafts.
You can simply join a draft with random people by clicking Join A Public League. Alternatively, if you want to compete against people you know, select Create A Private League to make that draft yourself, or Join A Private League to join a draft someone else has created.
Log into your account before your draft starts, head to the FPL Draft area of the website, and click Enter The Draft Room. You should now see something very similar indeed to the screen above.
When it’s your turn to pick, simply click the Draft button next to the player you want. They will then automatically be added to your team. Repeat the process until you’ve filled your squad with 15 players.
Once you’ve drafted your team, wait until the first set of fixtures are approaching. You can then go into the management screen, and pick the 11 players you’ll be starting for Gameweek 1. Exciting!
You now know the mechanics of how to get started in FPL Draft. Now though, it’s time to look in more detail about how you actually make your Fantasy Premier League Draft team.
As in regular FPL, you will have 15 players in your Draft squad. This must consist of:
Obviously, you need to fill all of these spots during the draft. Is it boring to draft a terrible fifth midfielder you’ll never actually play? You bet, but you’ve got to go through the motions anyway.
As noted, every real-life Premier League player can only be owned by one player in Draft. Also, unlike in regular FPL, there’s no captaincy – so that’s one less thing to worry about!
Regarding who actually plays, you must set your lineup before the deadline each week. This will usually be 90 minutes before the first match of that gameweek.
You’ll be shocked to learn that you must start 11 players – just like in real life! Also like in real life, you can’t use any completely ridiculous formations. You must start a goalkeeper, plus at least three defenders, and at least one forward.
Finally, remember to set your substitutes. If any members of your starting 11 don’t play, your subs will automatically replace them, based on the order which you set before the deadline (i.e. whoever’s first on your bench will replace the first player who doesn’t actually play).
As touched upon earlier in this Fantasy Premier League Draft Explained guide, there are two ways to change your team in-season. These are free transfers, and trades.
Since each Draft manager can only own 15 players, there will always be a big pool of free agents in your league. The vast majority of these will be rubbish. Often, however, there will be one or two who represent upgrades on your current team.
You can view the current free agents whenever you like. You can also put in a claim for them… but this doesn’t mean you’ll actually get them.
Free agent signings initially work on a waiver-based system. In short, this means everyone in your league can try to claim a certain player. The system will then determine who actually gets them.
In the very first gameweek, the waiver system will simply go in reverse order of the draft (i.e. whoever drafted last in the first round gets the top pick of the free agents). The rest of the season, it goes in reverse order of the league standings (whoever’s last gets first pick on the waivers, and so on). If players are tied in the rankings, the one who gets the free agent is determined randomly.
Waivers are processed 24 hours before the gameweek deadline… so remember to get those claims in ahead of time!
Any players left after waivers have gone through are fair game. You can head straight to the Transactions page, and pick them up immediately.
The other main way to change your team in Draft – which is far harder, but also more fun – is by trading.
How do you trade in FPL Draft? You send out a hundred proposals each week, and – eventually – someone says yes (maybe).
In all seriousness, trades are the best way to dramatically change your team. Free agents can certainly be nice improvements, but you’re rarely going to get a true star that way. The only realistic way to do so is by trading for one.
Trades can be proposed from the Transactions screen. You must request the players you want from the other person’s team, and offer them players in return. Somewhat annoyingly, unlike in fantasy NFL, for example, you must offer the same number of players that you’ll be receiving.
A quick FPL Draft tip here: if you send someone a trade request, message them separately to let them know (preferable directly, via text or social media, if you can). The notifications don’t work very well in either the FPL Draft app or regular website, so – unless they’re checking their team page every day – it can be easy for the other player to simply miss your proposal entirely.
Team construction is one of the main ways in which FPL Draft strategy differs from the way you play regular FPL.
In the latter, you’re capped by a budget, and must decide how you spend it. Your two basic options are to spread your budget evenly, or – like most experienced players – go for a ‘stars and scrubs’ approach.
With Draft, however… you basically have to take who you can get.
In the draft itself, at least in the first few rounds, don’t worry about team construction. Just take the best available player. If you can magically get Saka and Bruno with your first two picks, for example, don’t think ‘Ooh, no, I shouldn’t take Bruno – I need to get a forward instead’. Just take the best player, who will almost certainly be Bruno.
In short, Draft is much more about the stars. With regular FPL, stars don’t actually matter that much, since – if a few players are dominant – everyone has them anyway. In Draft, a couple of dominant stars can win you your league almost single-handedly.
A few years ago I got the first pick, took Salah, largely messed up the rest of my draft… and still auto-won most weeks anyway, simply because I had Salah.
To summarise, get as many stars as you can in the draft. Afterwards, grab any that are dropped as free agents, or try to aggressively trade for them.
Of course, you do also need to fill out the rest of your roster, after the first few rounds. That’s where FPL Draft rankings come in handy.
And where can you find such rankings? Right here on Full 90 FPL, of course!
I’ve already tried (emphasis on the word tried) to sprinkle nuggets of wisdom throughout this Fantasy Premier League Draft Explained guide. Before I bow out, however, I’d like to collect together a few key pieces of advice. Here are your top five FPL Draft tips.
I cannot emphasise enough the importance of mock drafts.
To the uninitiated, mock drafts use exactly the same interface as regular FPL drafts. They’re simply for practice, however, with the teams you make disappearing immediately afterwards.
It’s crucial that you run at least one mock draft before your first actual draft. Ideally, you should do several.
This has two main benefits.
Firstly, you get used to how the interface works. As well as simply picking players, for example, you can learn to add players to your watchlist, filter the available players by position, and so on.
Secondly, you’ll learn the type of team you’ll actually be able to create. FPL Draft rankings will give you a good idea of player values ahead of time. But it’s not until you actually try making a team yourself, while also competing with other players, that you truly learn which positions are scarce, where you’re struggling to round out your team, and so on.
It’s all well and good having a Fantasy Premier League Draft strategy in place. I can guarantee, however, that your actual draft will not follow any plan you’ve created ahead of time.
As such, you need to be flexible.
As noted, I’d certainly recommend using FPL Draft rankings to help guide your decisions. You can also bet, however, that certain players will fall, while others will be taken far earlier than expected. When this does happen, you need to adjust on the fly.
Likewise, if a run of players in a certain position takes place, you might need to jump in.
Forwards are the most classic example of this, since there are far fewer reliable options than for other positions. If everyone else is taking forwards, and there are literally just one or two decent goalscorers left… you’ll probably need to suck it up and just take one, even if there are ‘better players’ available at other positions.
Not to be mean… but you’re normally shopping in the bargain basement when it comes to picking up free agents in FPL Draft. That’s particularly true after the early-season breakout stars have already been hoovered-up.
I can almost guarantee, however, that – at least once or twice a year – a star will land on the waiver wire.
Sometimes, this is because the manager simply isn’t very good. Maybe they’ve just panicked after the star hit a bad run of form. Everyone else will put in a bid for that star… and you should too!
Where it gets more interesting, however, is when someone has dropped a star because they’re injured.
Obviously, there are a few factors to weigh up. Not least of which is the severity of the injury, and the length of the recovery.
Assuming the recovery won’t take too long, however (let’s say less than a month, or even two), it can absolutely be worth stashing an injured star player.
The chances are at least one or two of your bench players are crap. You almost certainly won’t be starting them anyway, and it’s unlikely they’ll be subbed-on. As such, you’re not losing anything by using that spot to keep the star player.
Are you still taking a short-term hit to your roster flexibility? Of course. But FPL Draft operates on a 38-gameweek season, and a play like this can still pay massive dividends in the long-term.
Again, it’s the stars that win you your league in FPL Draft. You should therefore do whatever it takes to get them.
Don’t panic if you only got one or two in the draft, and nobody’s dropping them in free agency. In this case, you’ll just have to trade for them.
Obviously, nobody’s trading you Haaland if he’s banging in hat tricks for fun. Not for anything less than a monster trade package, anyway.
If a star’s been playing poorly for weeks on end, however… you’d be surprised at how itchy a manager’s feet can get.
Looking from afar, you might barely notice that star’s poor form, or at most have a little chuckle at it. When the other manager’s burning a roster spot, however, and it’s starting to feel like they wasted a high draft pick… that’s when you can jump in and exploit them!
The best way to do this is to offer one of your players who’s overperforming. Don’t take the mick with this, or the other manager will know exactly what you’re doing.
Offer… Chris Wood for Haaland, for example, just because Wood’s scored in two games in a row, and you’ll immediately blow your chances of a trade.
But if it’s a player who’s been playing well for an extended period of time, preferably with a solid track record, the other manager’s at least going to think about it.
Could you accidentally be selling a breakout star in return for someone who’s destined to have a down year? Of course it’s possible. But it’s more likely that the proven star will become a star again, and the in-form player will revert back to their usual, lower level.
Sounds obvious, right?
I don’t care! This is the stupidest, most frustrating way to spoil your chances in FPL Draft… and I’ve done it many, many times myself!
Firstly, remember that the Draft deadline for waiver pickups is much earlier than the main deadline. This is what trips up many experienced players of regular FPL.
In Draft, you must get your claims in 24 hours before the actual gameweek deadline.
Use whatever tricks you need to help you remember this. Setting a weekly reminder on your phone is the most reliable way, based on my experience.
Obviously, you also need to remember the actual gameweek deadline too. Your team must be set by the time this rolls around. In particular, remember to put any newly-acquired players into your starting lineup, if that’s where they belong.
While technically Draft is a different game to regular FPL, the fact is that it’s still very similar, as noted earlier in my FPL Draft Guide. Also, from a mechanical perspective, the differences are pretty easy to understand.
The biggest difference, and the biggest challenge – as touched upon earlier in my FPL Draft Guide – is really team construction. Aside from the obvious fact that you can’t all have the same players, the real trick here – unless you completely nailed your draft in the first place – is managing your roster as the season progresses.
Regarding nailing that initial draft, I highly recommend checking out James’ FPL Draft Rankings for 2024/25. We’ll also be checking in regularly on Draft throughout the 24/25 season, but – should you want any more personalised advice – we’ll be happy to dish it out over Twitter (@Full90FPL) or Reddit.
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