Best ball

Best ball is a season-long draft with no management. You draft once. Each week the system starts your best scorers for you, so there are no lineups to set and no waiver moves to make. Your whole season is decided on draft day.

The rules we could confirm

These are DraftKings' rules, from its guide updated May 19, 2026, and its 2024 contest announcement. They are the only best ball rules we read, so don't assume another operator matches.

• Drafts are snake drafts, fast at 30 seconds a pick or slow at eight hours. The draft starts when the league fills.
• You draft 20 players. At minimum: 1 quarterback, 2 running backs, 3 receivers and 1 tight end.
• Each week the system picks your highest-scoring lineup: 1 quarterback, 2 running backs, 3 receivers, 1 tight end and 1 flex. That is eight starters and 12 on the bench.
• Your 20 players must come from at least two NFL teams.
• No trades and no roster moves after the draft.
• Scoring matches DraftKings' NFL table, with a full point per catch and 3-point yardage bonuses. The lineup has no defense or kicker slot.
• In 2024, tournaments ran four rounds: Weeks 1 to 14, then Week 15, Week 16 and Week 17, with a set number of entries advancing from each contest. Check the current contest, since the prize structure varies.

Why volatility is worth more here

In a normal league, a player who scores 20 one week and 0 the next hurts you, because you have to guess when to start him. In best ball the system guesses right every time, in hindsight.

Here's a made-up example. Your flex spot is held by a player scoring 12. Bench player A scores 10 every week. Bench player B scores 0 half the time and 20 the other half, so both average 10. With A, your flex stays at 12 every week. With B, it's 20 half the time and 12 the other half, an average of 16. Same average, 4 more points a week.

So a boom-or-bust receiver is worth more in best ball than in a weekly league. A steady, low-ceiling player who rarely beats your starters adds little.

Roster shape

Only one quarterback counts each week, and usually one tight end, while running backs and receivers fill five or six of the eight spots. That is why most of a 20-man roster should sit at those two positions.

Two or three quarterbacks and two or three tight ends leaves 14 to 16 spots for running backs and receivers. That is a starting point we find sensible, not a rule. One quarterback meets DraftKings' minimum, but a week without him is a zero at that spot, and nobody can fix it for you.

Stacking

Draft a quarterback with one or more of his pass catchers. A big passing day counts for both, and the bonus structure pays for it. The stacking guide explains why. Stacks matter most in tournaments, where finishing high means everyone on your roster peaks in the same weeks.

If your contest has advancing rounds, the late weeks carry the prize money. In the 2024 format Weeks 15, 16 and 17 were single-week rounds, so one bad week could end your run. Survive Round 1, then have a roster that can spike in those games. Stacking a quarterback with his receivers is the plainest way to do that, and it's reasonable to look at matchups in those weeks while you draft.

Bye weeks

Every NFL team sits out one week, and teammates sit out together. A quarterback with two receivers means three players gone in the same week. That's a fair price for a stack. It only becomes a problem if the rest of your roster shares that week too.

After the draft, count your bodies for each week. If your only two quarterbacks share a bye, you get a zero at the position that week. In a 14-week first round, one empty week is 1 / 14 of your scoring chances at that spot, or 7%. Draft your backup with that in mind, and check tight end the same way.

Before you enter

Your entry is spent on draft day and stays in play for months, with nothing you can change. Read the prize table first, since DraftKings says structures vary by contest.

Availability can shift too. RotoWire reported on September 7, 2026 that Underdog would stop taking new entries in its Drafts product in seven states. Check where you can play before you draft.

Facts checked Nov 5, 2026.