Start here: how DFS works

Daily fantasy (DFS) is a contest over one slate of games. You build a roster of real players, they score points from their real stat lines, and your roster is ranked against other people's rosters. When the games end, the contest ends. Nothing carries over.

The salary cap

Every player has a price, and your roster must fit under a cap. DraftKings gives you $50,000. FanDuel gives you $60,000 for NFL. The money is pretend. The limit is the whole game: you can't afford every star, so each big price costs you somewhere else. Build a lineup walks two full rosters through that math.

An NFL lineup on either site has nine spots: a quarterback, two running backs, three receivers, a tight end, one flex (running back, receiver or tight end) and a defense. Other sports and formats are on the rules page.

DraftKings says its NFL prices come out late Sunday and do not change during the week. A backup who takes over a starting job on Wednesday keeps his backup price.

Contest types

• Head-to-head: you against one opponent. Higher score takes the prize.
• 50/50: the top half of the field gets paid.
• Double-up: nearly half the field gets paid, about double the entry fee.
• Multiplier: a fixed multiple of your entry goes to a smaller group.
• Tournament (GPP): a big field where a small share of entries takes most of the prize pool. The pool is set in advance and pays in full even if the contest does not fill.
• Satellite or qualifier: pays tickets into bigger contests, not cash.

The first three are called cash games. Read cash games and tournaments before you pick one, because they ask for opposite rosters.

How a contest pays

Entry fees go in, the operator keeps a cut, and the rest comes out as prizes. California's Attorney General described it this way in a 2025 opinion: payouts "reflect the total expected entry fees paid minus a fee retained by the operator."

You can do the math before you enter. FanDuel's terms say it plainly: "we announce the entry fees and prizes in advance on the contest page."

Take a $10 50/50 that pays $18 to each winner. To get your money back you need to win 10 / 18 = 55.6% of the time. Check it with 100 entries, which cost $1,000. Win 56 and you collect $1,008. Win 55 and you collect $990. So a player who wins 55% of the time beats the field and still loses money. The bankroll page runs this for any contest.

Who ends up with the money

The best public numbers we found are old. McKinsey reported in September 2015 that in the first half of that year's MLB season, "91 percent of DFS player profits were won by just 1.3 percent of players." That is one sport and half a season, and McKinsey's chart calls it one sample, estimated from public data, with no sample size given. We found no newer figure from an operator or a regulator.

The same article has this on the top end. The top 11 players paid an average of $2 million in entry fees and profited $135,000 each, a return of 135,000 / 2,000,000 = 6.75%. That is huge volume on a thin margin. The typical player, the 80 percent McKinsey called minnows, lost an average of $25 on $49 of entry fees: 25 / 49 = 51%.

When a contest fills, less money comes out than went in, so players as a group must lose. A few players beat that. Assume you are not one of them until your own records say otherwise. DFS is not income.

What to do with $0 at risk

1. Learn the scoring. DraftKings pays a full point per NFL catch, FanDuel half a point. The rules page has the tables.
2. Build without an account. The lineup builder has a demo slate of made-up players, and nothing leaves your browser.
3. Paper-play real slates. Write down a lineup before kickoff, then score it yourself after the games. Four weeks is our suggestion, not a rule. If you can't explain why a lineup lost, you aren't ready to pay.
4. Know what free means. FanDuel's terms mention "Giveaway/Freeroll" tournaments, and a 2024 DraftKings golf guide lists buy-ins from $0. We hold no accounts, so we can't tell you what is in a lobby today. Free entry still means an operator account. FanDuel's terms also say credits won in those tournaments can go toward paid entries, can't be withdrawn immediately, and can be taken back if unused within a month.

If you go further

Check where you can play first. DraftKings' own primer points newcomers to Classic contests in Beginner or Casual lobbies, built around single-entry 50/50s and double-ups.

Common bankroll advice says to put a small share of a fixed budget in play on any slate, and less on tournaments. We found no data behind any specific percentage, so rest your plan on the break-even math above and on money you can afford to lose. If this stops being fun, Responsible Play has who to call.

Facts checked Nov 5, 2026.