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We like to fulfil two roles here at Full 90 FPL.
One is to provide the latest and greatest Fantasy Premier League tips around. You can check those out here, or by following us on Reddit.
The second is to help newcomers to FPL, or more experienced players looking for a little extra guidance. You can find this more general advice in our FPL Explained section.
This article definitely falls into the latter category.
There are a whole lot of Fantasy Premier League terms out there which are thrown around unthinkingly by veterans. We do just that, in our regular FPL tips columns, and we take it for granted that you have a clue what the hell we’re talking about.
If you’ve ever wanted FPL terms explained for dummies (it’s just a phrase!), you’ve come to the right place. Read on to get completely up to date on your terminology, from the most basic (what FPL stands for), to the most complex (what is the ICT index in FPL?).
We’ve basically arranged this FPL terms explained article in order of difficulty.
If you’re a complete newcomer, who simply wants to know ‘What does FPL mean?’, we’d recommend starting from the top! If you’re a longer-term player, feel free to scroll down to the more complicated stuff.
Without further ado, let’s get cracking. Here are explanations of the most important Fantasy Premier League terms you’re likely to come across as a beginner.
Let’s start with a nice, basic Fantasy Premier League summary.
FPL stands for Fantasy Premier League.
Note that this specifically refers to the official version, as created and run by the Premier League itself. There are alternatives out there, such as those offered by the Daily Telegraph and Sky Sports. These try to attract players via big cash prizes for winning their fantasy Premier League competitions. The official Fantasy Premier League is far more popular, however, and all our FPL tips centre around it.
Fantasy Premier League is the most frustrating game in the world. You’ll spend forever analysing every move you make, and whatever you choose will inevitably go wrong.
Fantasy Premier League is the UK’s most popular fantasy sport.
In Fantasy Premier League, you start off with a budget of £100.0, just like everybody else. You then pick real-world Premier League players, each of whom has been given a monetary value.
Unlike in draft formats (including Fantasy Premier League Draft – explained here), everybody can own the same players if they wish.
Your team will automatically be entered into the overall FPL competitions. You can join other public leagues, or private leagues with your friends/family/rivals.
Every time one of your FPL picks plays in a real-world match, they will earn (or lose) points for your FPL team.
Up to 11 players can score you points each week, and both your Overall Ranking and private league position will be updated after each gameweek.
To find out exactly how Fantasy Premier League points are calculated, check out our full explanation here.
Just like the real-world season, the fantasy season is split into FPL gameweeks.
A Fantasy Premier League gameweek basically just means a round of games.
At the start of the season, you’ll have a completely normal 10 matches each gameweek. As games get rearranged, however, things get a little more complicated.
Which brings us neatly to…
As you already know, matches get delayed sometimes in the Premier League.
Most often, this is because one team needs to play in another competition (like the League Cup or FA Cup). Their match, therefore, gets moved to a later date.
That’s fine in real life. In Fantasy Premier League, it is a massive pain.
That’s because – when the initial game finally is played, at a later date – you don’t retrospectively get the points. Instead, your player who has a blank gameweek simply gets 0pts.
Double gameweeks are the flip-side of blank gameweeks. In general, we hate the latter but love the former.
When a team’s delayed match is rescheduled, it will typically mean that team plays twice within a week. This double-up also happens in fantasy – hence we have an FPL ‘double gameweek’.
FPL double gameweeks are great. They give you a chance to have somebody playing twice within one gameweek, with – in theory – double the potential for points.
You’re not stuck with your FPL team.
Instead, you can make Fantasy Premier League transfers whenever you like. The only rule is that the new player/s must still fit into your budget.
To make an FPL transfer, just open up the FPL app or website, and head to the Transfers tab. Pick the player you want to bin, select the player you want to add, and confirm the move.
Do be aware, however, that there is one massive caveat here…
You get one free transfer per week in Fantasy Premier League.
This can be ‘rolled-over’ (not used) one time, to give you a maximum of two free transfers.
You can exceed this number of transfers, but it will cost you -4pts. This is known as ‘taking a hit’ in FPL. Click here to find out exactly when you should and should not take a hit.
How you use Fantasy Premier League chips can make or break your season.
We’ve provided some expert FPL tips on how and when to do so here.
For now, here are the most important Fantasy Premier League terms explained when it comes to chips.
Originally, Fantasy Premier League was a basic game. You picked a team, made transfers, and scored points.
Over the years, however, a few different FPL ‘chips’ have been added.
A ‘chip’ is basically a special ability that can be used once. Every player gets the same chips to start the season. But, you have to decide when you actually want to use them.
There are three types of FPL chips: free hits, bench boosts, and triple captains.
For the most part, you’re stuck with your FPL team. You can make up to five free transfers at a time. Apart from that, you need to take a hit to change players, which is usually inadvisable.
A free hit lets you create a whole new team… but only for one week.
You can do this twice per season – once in the first half, and once in the second.
You can pick any players you like, as long as they still fit into your budget. You’ll score any points they register in that week.
After your Fantasy Premier League free hit, however, your team will reset to whoever you had in the prior gameweek.
As in real life, only 11 players in your FPL team can actually play each week.
You must have 15 players in your squad though, with the other four being on your bench. One needs to be a goalkeeper, while the other three will be outfield players.
You should arrange your substitutes before the gameweek begins. Then, if a player from your starting XI doesn’t play, a substitute will automatically come in for them, starting with whoever you had in first position.
Twice per season, however, you can use your bench boost chip.
A bench boost in FPL means your entire squad plays. This includes your backup goalkeeper, and all three outfield players. All 15 of them score points, for one gameweek only.
Every FPL gameweek, you get to ‘captain’ one player. This means that their regular points total will be doubled.
If you’ve played a bit of Fantasy Premier League before, and were wondering ‘What is a vice captain?’… we’ll tell you!
Your vice-captain should also be selected before a gameweek starts, and he will automatically replace your captain if he doesn’t play.
The triple captain in Fantasy Premier League is another chip which can be used twice per season. When you do, your captain’s score will be tripled, rather than just doubled.
We would recommend saving this for a double gameweek, whenever possible, when you can get a truly enormous haul from one player.
Technically, the Fantasy Premier League wildcard isn’t usually counted as a ‘chip’. It fulfils a similar role though, giving you a one-off superpower to use on your FPL team.
Normally, as stated, you can make up to five free transfers per gameweek. Any more will cost you a hit.
A wildcard, however, lets you make unlimited free transfers for one gameweek only.
You can change all 15 of your players, if you like, without losing any points. That said, you must still abide by your team budget.
You are given two Fantasy Premier League wildcards per season.
The first must be used within the first half of the season.
The exact dates vary, so you should always check them on the official Fantasy Premier League rules page. Generally speaking though, you can use it anytime between gameweek 1 and gameweek 20. If you don’t use it in time, you’ll lose it.
The second wildcard can be used after that halfway point. Again, you can choose to use it whenever you like, right up until gameweek 38.
They’re all of the basic FPL terms explained. Now that you understand these, you’ll be perfectly able to get underway and enjoy the game.
That said, there are still a few more Fantasy Premier League terms which you’re likely to come across.
So far in our FPL terms explained for dummies article, we’ve been focusing on the regular version of the game. This is the older version, and remains the most popular.
There is an alternative, however – Fantasy Premier League Draft.
In FPL Draft, each player can only be owned by one team. If you have Harry Kane, for example, nobody else in your league can have him.
Initial ownership is determined by a draft at the start of the season, in which everyone takes turns to pick players. After that, there are two ways to change your players.
The first is to sign free agents. You can see who’s available under the ‘Transactions’ tab, by first ticking the ‘Show Available’ box, then clicking ‘Sign’.
The second is to trade with your rivals. Go to ‘Transactions’ again, find a player who isn’t a free agent, then click ‘Trade’ and put a proposal together.
Fantasy Premier League Draft follows the same gameweek structure as the regular game. Be aware, however, that there is no captaincy, nor any chips available.
This could refer to two things.
The first is a popular FPL tips website, called Fantasy Premier League Scout. It’s a big platform with plenty of content, but much of the best stuff is hidden behind a paywall.
The second is simply called ‘The Scout’. This basically refers to the official FPL tips part of the Fantasy Premier League website.
It’s a decent source for news, but the actual quality of the FPL advice here isn’t always the best.
As in real football, form in FPL refers to a player’s recent performances. In a Fantasy Premier League context, it’s usually used in two different ways.
The first, and more common way, is colloquial. In our Fantasy Premier League tips articles, we’ll constantly refer to a player’s ‘form’ over the past few days.
The second is an actual metric, which can be viewed on the FPL app or website.
When looking at potential players to transfer in, one of the metrics you can use is form (go to ‘Sorted by’, then ‘Form’). All your options will then be presented to you in order of their recent points output.
Basic ownership in Fantasy Premier League simply refers to the number of FPL players who own a real-world player. If Player X has an ownership of 30%, that means he’s in 30% of all FPL squads.
Effective ownership is different, and arguably more useful.
It aims to calculate how important a player is to own, rather than simply how widely-owned he is.
The main metric used here is ‘Teams Started By’, rather than simply how many squads the player’s in. It’s also based on how many times that player is captained or vice-captained per week, which indicates how important they are to their owners.
There are many websites in which you can view effective ownership in Fantasy Premier League. Arguably the best is Live FPL, since it lets you see what the Top 10k FPL players are doing at a glance.
ICT Index in FPL is a complex metric, created by Fantasy Premier League itself.
You can check out everything that goes into it here. In short though, it judges how well a player is actually playing in real-life, not just their FPL output.
Over 40 individual metrics are used, which are boiled-down to three categories: Influence, Creativity, and Threat.
You can see each player’s ICT Index score by simply opening their page on the official FPL app or website. Alternatively, you can sort all players by their ICT Index score within the Transfers tab.
We already explained what regular FPL points are, and – again – you can get an in-depth review in our FPL explained article here.
In addition to those regular points, however, there are also FPL bonus points.
Every match, a total of up to three players will be awarded bonus points, on top of their normal score.
They’ll receive 1-3 points respectively, based on their performance as judged by the Bonus Points System (BPS).
To an extent, Fantasy Premier League is its own little world. Unsurprisingly, it has its own language too, full of lingo and phrases that sound bizarre (rightly so!) to outsiders.
That said, after reading this Fantasy Premier League terms explained article, you should have a good grasp on the basics.
There’s only one way to improve your FPL vocabulary, and – of course – your Fantasy Premier League performance: exposure.
The longer you spend around the FPL community, the more you’ll understand the ins-and-outs of the language, and the game itself.
As part of that exposure, we’d obviously love it if you checked out all of our Fantasy Premier League tips articles, and gave us a follow on Reddit or Twitter.
For more general FPL Explained articles, click here.
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