DFS terms
The words people use around a contest, in plain English. Start with chalk, because it's in our name.
Chalk means the crowd's pick.
Words about the crowd
Chalk. The most popular plays in a contest. The word is usually traced to horse racing, where bookmakers chalked the odds on a board, though nobody has pinned down its first use. In cash games chalk is often right. In tournaments it is what you have to beat.
Ownership. The share of lineups in a contest that hold a player. Projected ownership is an estimate. The real number appears after lock.
Leverage. Being right when most of the field wasn't. A low-owned player has value only if he has a real path to a big game.
Fade. Leaving a popular player off your roster on purpose.
The field. Everyone else in your contest.
Words about the money
Entry fee. What one lineup costs to enter.
Rake. The operator's cut: the share of entry money that doesn't come back as prizes. Contest math works it out for any contest.
Break-even. The win rate that gets your money back. Entry fee divided by what a win pays.
Cash line, or cut line. The score that gets paid. Finish a point above it and you are paid the same as first place in a 50/50.
Overlay. A guaranteed contest so short of entries that the prizes top the entry money. The rake is below zero.
Bankroll. Money set aside for contests and nothing else. Never the rent.
Words about contests
Cash game. A head-to-head, 50/50 or double-up, where a large share of the field wins a flat prize.
GPP. Guaranteed prize pool: a tournament. The pool is set in advance and a small share of entries takes most of it.
Multiplier. A contest that pays a fixed multiple of your entry to a slice of the field.
Satellite, or qualifier. A contest that pays tickets into bigger contests, not cash.
Slate. The set of games a contest covers.
Showdown. One game, six players, and one Captain at 1.5x points and 1.5x salary on DraftKings. See Showdown.
Best ball. Draft once, and your best scorers count each week with no lineups to set. See Best ball.
Multi-entry. Entering more than one lineup in a contest.
Words about rosters
Salary cap. The pretend budget your roster must fit under. $50,000 on DraftKings NFL, $60,000 on FanDuel NFL.
Value. Points per $1,000 of salary. It narrows the list. It doesn't pick the lineup.
Punt. A cheap player you roster to pay for stars elsewhere.
Stars and scrubs. A roster built that way, as opposed to a balanced one.
Stack. Two or more players whose scores tend to rise together, such as a quarterback and his receivers. Our chemistry board has the numbers.
Bring-back. A player from the other team in your stack's game, for when that game turns into a shootout.
Floor. What a player gives you on an ordinary bad day.
Ceiling. What he gives you on his best day.
Exposure. The share of your lineups that hold a player.
Lock. The moment a lineup spot can no longer change.
Late swap. Changing a player whose game hasn't started after the contest has begun, where the contest allows it.
Facts checked Nov 6, 2026.