Fantasy basketball is a fantasy sport inspired by fantasy baseball.

Originally played by
keeping track of stats by hand, it was popularized during the 1990s after the advent of the
Internet. Those who play this gae are soeties referred to as general anagers
!"#s$, who draft actual %ational &asketball 'ssociation !%&'$ players and copute
their basketball statistics. The gae was popularized by ()*% +antasy )ports, %&'.co,
and ,ahoo- +antasy )ports.
Contents
1 .eague settings
o 1.1 /ategories
o 1.0 %uber of teas
o 1.1 +antasy drafts
o 1.2 /ounication
0 )coring types
o 0.1 3otisserie !3OTO$
o 0.0 4ead5to5head !404$
o 0.1 +antasy points
o 0.2 6aily fantasy basketball
1 3eferences
2 (7ternal links
League settings
There are any rule variations when playing fantasy basketball. The rules used in a
particular league are deterined by the rule settings. )oe coon rule variations are
discussed below.
Categories
/oonly, fantasy basketball leagues
819
ay track as few as three or as any as eleven
categories. Three5category leagues usually account for only points, rebounds, and assists.
+ive5category leagues generally add blocks and steals. (ight5category leagues usually
add field goal percentage, free throw percentage, and either three5point field goals ade
or three5point field goal percentage. %ine5category leagues usually add turnovers. 3arely,
other statistics such as fouls are counted. )oe leagues also prefer to break down the
rebounds category into two categories: offensive and defensive rebounds.
)oe leagues allow the league ;coissioner; to deterine which categories will be
tracked. If these categories are chosen poorly, the league ay be unfairly weighted for or
against certain positions. +or e7aple, a league that tracks points, assists, steals, free
throw percentage and three5point field goals would be weighted toward guards, who
typically have higher nubers in any of those categories, and against power forwards
and centers, who typically have higher nubers in the rebound, block and field goal
percentage categories, which are not counted.
Number of teams
In public leagues, the nuber of teas in a league is typically ten or twelve. In private
leagues, which are invitation5only and usually utilized by players who want to copete
against a group of people they know, the nuber of teas will vary substantially.
Fantasy drafts
There are two types of drafting used to select players: the snake draft and the auction
draft. In a snake draft, the first round is drafted in order. In the second round, the draft
order is reversed so that the anager who ade the last pick in the first round gets the
first pick in the second round. The order is reversed at the end of each round so that the
anager with the first overall pick does not aintain this advantage in every round. In an
auction draft, each anager has a set budget !coonly <0=0, an aount borrowed fro
fantasy baseball$ that he or she ust use to fill out the tea>s roster. *layers are put up for
auction by anagers, and the anager willing to pay the ost for the player ;drafts; that
player. The advantage of an auction is that all anagers have e?ual access to all players
!not the case in a snake draft$. The disadvantages are that it typically takes longer than a
snake draft, and can be intiidating for newer or ine7perienced anagers who ay be
relying on ranking.
Communication
)oe leagues have a feature whereby players can counicate through the site. #any
sites have ;)ack Talk; features which allow players to counicate with one another
whenever they want. They can trash5talk their opponents during the gae or before the
gaes start.
8citation needed9
Scoring types
Rotisserie (ROTO)
In rotisserie scoring, the real5life statistics accuulated by the players on a tea are
aggregated and ranked against the sae statistics for the other teas in the league.
+antasy points are earned based on these rankings. +or e7aple, in a twelve5tea league,
the tea with the ost rebounds over the course of the season to date would be awarded
twelve fantasy points. The tea with the ne7t5highest nuber of rebounds would be
awarded eleven fantasy points, and so on, with the tea with the fewest rebounds being
awarded a single fantasy point. +or negative categories like fouls or turnovers, the tea
with the fewest statistics is awarded the ost fantasy points. This is done for all
categories counted by the particular league. The tea with the highest nuber of fantasy
points at the end of the season is the winner.
3otisserie scoring encourages balance on the tea>s roster. @inning the rebounds
category by one rebound or by one thousand rebounds counts the sae, while winning
the steals category by one steal and the assists category by one assist is worth twice as
any points as winning the single rebounding category by one thousand rebounds.
)uccessful teas ust fare well in several categories to win in rotisserie leagues.
Headto!ead (H"H)
In head5to5head scoring, teas copete against a single other tea over the course of a
week. 6uring that week, the real5life statistics of the players on each tea are
accuulated, and at the end of the week the tea with the ost points over the week
wins.
There are two styles of head5to5head scoring:
#ost categories is a winAwhichever tea has the ore favorable statistics in the
categories chosen !ost points, fewest turnovers, highest free throw percentage,
etc.$ is awarded a point for that category. One can also weight each category, for
e7aple: winning scoring earns a player three points, winning rebounds wins two
points, winning steals wins one point. The tea with the ost points wins that
gae.
(ach category is a winAwhichever tea has the ore favorable statistics in a
category !ost points, fewest turnovers, highest free throw percentage, etc.$ is
awarded a ;win; for that category. The other tea is tagged with a ;loss;. The
results of these weekly atch5ups are accuulated to provide a seasonal win5loss
record.
4ead5to5head leagues often eploy a ;playoff; syste, with seeding based on the
seasonal win5loss record. #atchups are deterined via a bracket, with the winners of
each atchup advancing and the losers being eliinated until a winner is deterined.
In head5to5head leagues, schedules can be changed in the tie until the first gae of that
atch5up.
Fantasy points
In fantasy point scoring, the coissioner deterines the nuber of fantasy points that a
particular statistic is worth. +or e7aple, the coissioner ay deterine that a steal is
worth two fantasy points, where a rebound is only worth one, and a turnover is worth
negative one. +antasy points are accuulated nightly based on the real5life perforance
of the players on each tea, and the tea with the ost fantasy points at the end of the
season wins.
's when choosing categories, care ust be paid in assigning fantasy point values to
categories. +ailure to achieve balance will result in weighting the league for or against
players at certain positions.
#aily fantasy basketball
.ike traditional fantasy basketball, in daily fantasy basketball, players draft a tea of
%&' players who then score fantasy points according to set scoring rules. 4owever,
instead of being stuck with the sae tea through a whole season, daily fantasy sports
contests last Bust one day.