Underdog Fantasy runs the show when it comes to Best Ball. The app is clean, the prize pools are record breaking, there are drafts all 12 months of the year, and the two co-hosts on The Underdog Football Show are very handsome. But if you’re new to the best ball concept, let me guide you through the waters with general rules and strategies to win some money.

Best Ball Rules

1. Draft Only

Instead of worrying about time-consuming waivers like you do in season-long fantasy leagues, best ball leagues are all about the draft. That means we can enter as many contests as possible leading up to the season without worrying about being exhausted by actually managing each roster.

2. Snake Drafting

Underdog Fantasy uses snake drafts, meaning the team who picks last in the first round will pick first in the second round.

3. Underdog Sets Your Best Lineup at the End of Each Week

Like alluded to above, there’s no setting rosters after the draft is completed. Whoever scores the most points on your roster each week will be automatically placed into the “starting lineup.” Then the standings are determined by total points at the end of the season.

5 Best Ball Strategies

1. Stay Near ADPs

Don’t overreach on players. The wisdom of the crowd is a valuable baseline, and drafting a player too early limits the upside of your roster. In best ball tournaments, somebody will have drafted a very similar team to yours but drafted them at better values if you do pull the trigger early. There’s always the next draft if you miss out on “your guy” by a few slots.

2. Stack Your Roster

Drafting players from the same real-life team adds correlation to your roster. If you’ve drafted a receiver in the second round, then you’ve already made a bet that his quarterback will be decent, too, so might as well draft his quarterback later on. People who had two different triple stacks (three players from the same team) in the inaugural Best Ball Mania tournament in 2020 had the best odds of winning their league. For more, check out this YouTube video.

3. Draft Players “Better in Best Ball”

Receivers who have spiked weeks are better than receivers who are consistent but don’t have a ceiling. Typically, if two receivers are projected for the same amount of points, the receiver who wins downfield and in the red zone will be better in best ball than a receiver who catches passes within five yards of the line of scrimmage. Here’s more on the strategy.

4. Use the Queue & Upload Rankings

In fast drafts, users have 30 seconds to get a pick in, so you’ll see others miss their pick and be put onto auto-draft. Don’t be that person! Make sure you are using the queue feature in the draft lobby. If the timer goes off, you’ll at least have someone you were thinking about drafting instead of getting stuck with the player that you didn’t want. Speaking of that, you should upload your personal rankings before entering the draft. You can find The Underdog Football Show’s updated rankings here on Underblog.

5. Listen to The Underdog Football Show

Josh Norris and Hayden Winks have four shows per week on YouTube and post all of their content for free here on Underblog. After a combined decade of grinding news at Rotoworld, their sole mission is to provide the information that will help you win $1,000,001 in Best Ball Mania II. Here’s where you can subscribe: