The Best Daily Fantasy Sites
by RotoPicks.com Staff
Daily fantasy baseball, basketball and hockey as well as weekly fantasy football has gained serious momentum in the fantasy arena with no slowing down in sight. You better believe that the business world will be there with supply to meet this demand as well.
New daily fantasy sports sites will be popping up everywhere as web wisemen try to cash in on the gold rush that dailly fantasy provides.
This leaves the question of "what are the best daily fantasy sites?"
There are numerous things to take into account when deciding on which site you will be joining. Let's take a look at a handful of those variables:
User Friendliness
This may seem like a "no duh" no brainer but you'll see what we mean as you get familiar with the daily/weekly fantasy bettin industry. A site can have all the cool options in the world but if it's not well organized it can be stressful to navigate! Make sure the site you choose is one that's well laid out and easy to get around.
Tenure and Reputation
As of 2012, daily and weeky fantasy leagues are still a fairly new proposition. While it may seem a bit goofy to say that a website that started in 2011 has tenure, it surely holds merit when compared to the rest. Despite the industry being so new there are indeed a few that stand heard and shoulders above the rest. Those are Draftkings and Fanduel.
Both of the above listed sites have basically been around since inception of daily fantasy, have GREAT reputations and are considered to be the cream of the crop.
Volume and Liquidity
A site can be beautiful and even offer a superior product, but it's all worthless if they don't have the proper player base. One should make sure that there's "good action" going on at a site prior to signing up and depositing money. It'd be real frustrating to signup and deposit and then not be able to find anybody to play! Building the necessary critical mass (player base) is not easy and takes very deep pockets to do so. It's not out of the realm of possibility that some of these sites may go out of business in trying to do so. Do your homework.. Make sure the site has a high volume of players before depositing! Better yet, we've already done the homework for you! Sleep well at night playing at one of the above listed sites!
Signup Bonuses
Many new daily fantasy sites will bend over backwards to gain the critical mass necessary in order to fill GPP's and have a full menu of game offerings. The best daily fantasy sites will offer incentives for you to sign up, with the most common being a signup bonus. These can be 20%, 40%, 50% and we've even seen 100% and 200%.
Example: Let's say that you deposit $500 at a daily fantasy site that offers a 40% signup bonus. Under this scenario, the daily fantasy site is saying that they'll give you $200 free to play at their site. These bonuses are released into your account in increments as you play on the site. The reason the cash is disbursed incrementally is so that you don't hit and run them by grabbing the bonus and running. It's a fair practice on their part.
Note: While bonuses are great, if a site is giving away "too much", it might be a good idea to avoid that site until they've proven themselves. Enormous bonuses can be a red flag that a site is desperate or a scam. Think of it this way, if a site gives away too much, how will they be able to profit and stay in business? It's always a better option to take a lesser bonus and stick with the security of a proven site like one of the two listed above, that we believe are the two best daily fantasy sites on the web.
Game Variance
If your passion is snake drafts, you don't want to make the mistake of signing up at a site that doesn't offer snakes (serpentine drafts).
Conversely, if you're a guy who enjoys daily guaranteed prize pool tournaments (GPP's), you want to make sure that those are offered at the prospective site.
Other options include survivor pools, home run derby, head to head matchups, championship tournaments, pick'ems and more. I imagine that one of these sites will get crafty sometime soon and offer online auction leagues as well. Wouldn't that be wild?
In summary, there's quite a bit to consider when signing up to play. We take all the guess-work out of this equation for you by giving our stamp of approval and recommendation that Draftkings and Fanduel (Type in promo code: ROTOPICKS to get the best possible bonus offered at either) are the two best daily fantasy sites on the web as of right now. If this changes or more superb options are worthy of being listed here, we'll make the addition! Good luck!
Fanduel: Enter promo code ROTOPICKS into the box to receive a special 100% sign-up bonus on your first deposit up to $200!
Draftkings: Enter promo code ROTOPICKS when signing up and receive a GIANT 100% bonus up to $600 in free cash!
DFS Site Rake Comparison - Daily fantasy sports sites collect a small percentage of each league entry fee called "rake" (just like poker). The rake is what keeps them in business and pays their bills. This article features a comparison of what each website charges so you can get the most value for your dollar!
Loyalty Programs - Daily fantasy sports sites will fight for your business. Get rewarded by playing at a site that offers free vouchers for entries to cash leagues, merchandise, contests, prizes and more!
Free Daily Fantasy Leagues - List of sites offering free salary cap, snake draft and double up leagues! Test the waters before you play and receiver a generous sign-up bonus when you decide to take the leap into cash league games!
Daily Fantasy vs. Season Long Leagues - Daily fantasy leagues have taken the web by storm and there's no signs of this trend slowing down! Draft today, get paid tonight!
Money Management - Adam gives advice on what of the biggest shortfalls of all daily fantasy sports players; properly managing their account balance.
Are Daily Fantasy Sports Legal? - Yes, however, there are a handful of states where it's not allowed. We've got the full list as well as an explanation of the law that states DFS is a game of skill.
Daily Fantasy Sports Terms - DFS has taken the industry by storm! With that has come a whole new language of terms, jargon, lingo, acronyms and synonyms! We list them all here!