Common Terms Used in Fantasy Sports

A

Action

Action in fantasy sports refers to the total sum of money in play during a game round.

Average Draft Position (ADP)

ADP is used to describe the location where players are drafted.

Auction Draft

An auction draft in fantasy sports describes an event that allows managers to grow their team by bidding on players based on their budget.

B

Bankroll

Bankroll refers to the total amount of money a player is willing to invest in a fantasy sport.

Bearish

Bearish in fantasy sports refers to a manager's pessimistic notion about a player, team or situation. When a manager is bearish on a player, it's likely that such a player will not be included in the line-up.

Blind Bidding

Blind bidding in fantasy sports is a type of bidding that involves the player placing bids without exposing the real numbers to other bidders.

Bench Players

Bench players are the additional players that the manager picks to play for the week. These players won't be included in the starting line-up.

Breakout

A breakout is said to occur when a player performs higher than what was expected from him/her during a fantasy sports contest.

Bullish

Bullish is the exact opposite of bearish. It is the optimistic notion a manager has on a player, team or situation.

Bust

A bust occurs when a player performs well below what is normally expected of him/her.

Buy In

Buy-in refers to the amount of money needed to enter any fantasy sports league or contest. It is also known as the entry fee.

C

Cash Game

Cash games refer to the safe types of games in fantasy sports. They include games like 50/50, Head to Head, and Double Up.

Ceiling

A ceiling describes the highest number of points a player, team, or line-up can attain.

Commission

Commission refers to the % fee that is charged by fantasy sports websites to play. It is also known as the rake.

Cut

Also known as a drop of release. It is used to refer to a player that you no longer welcome on your team.

Contrarian

A contrarian refers to a distinct manager who selects players that others discard and write off.

D

Deep League

Deep leagues refer to leagues in Daily Fantasy Sports that consist of more than 12 leagues.

Donkey

A donkey is an average player in DFS.

Draft

Draft refers to an event in fantasy sports where participants are able to grow their team of players.

E

EV

Acronym for Expected Value.

Exposure

Exposure refers to the amount of money or % of your bankroll that is placed on a player.

F

Fade

To fade means staying clear or avoiding a game or player.

Flyer (Flier)

A flyer describes a player who is added to a team as a free agent because of his skill or potential.

Floor

The floor is used to describe the lowest amount of points a player or team can score.

Freeroll

A freeroll is a daily fantasy league that awards a prize to the winner; however, the entry fee is free.

Free Agent

A free agent in fantasy sports is a player that is not signed to any team in the league.

G

GOAT

Acronym for Greatest Of All Time.

Game Versions

Game versions refer to the types of games that are offered by different fantasy sports websites.

Grinder

A grinder is a player whose aim of playing is to boost profit and win prizes in cash games.

H

Half PPR

Also known as .5 PPR. It is a scoring system that offers a .5 per reception.

Hedge

Hedge in fantasy sports refers to the steps taken to avoid losing a significant amount of your bankroll.

High-low

Also known as star and scrubs. It describes a method of balance where highly paid salary players are picked alongside average-salary players.

High-stakes

High stakes refer to fantasy sports contests that require expensive entry fees.

I

Injury Report

An injury report refers to a report that accounts for every fantasy sports player that was injured.

K

Keeper

A keeper refers to a player currently signed to the same owner who kept him/her during the last season.

L

Late-Swap

Late swap refers to a practice that involves editing a line-up at the beginning of a contest.

Lean

To lean means to favor a particular player or team.

LU

Short acronym for line-up. It is also known as a rooster.

M

Manager

A manager in fantasy sports refers to the individual who is responsible for making decisions for a team in regard to trades, drafts etc.

Minimum Salary

The minimum salary is the smallest amount of money that can be paid to a player in a particular position.

Mock Draft

A mock draft is used to describe a practice draft that allows players to create and test strategies to help build a solid team at real drafts.

Multiple Entry

Multiple entries refer to contests that allow players to enter multiple line-ups.

N

Narrative

A narrative can be described as an explanation of a generally acceptable situation to everyone.

O

Overlay

An overlay occurs when a Daily Fantasy Sports website loses money and gets to pay more than the total entry fee that was collected at first.

P

Paying Up

To pay up in fantasy sports means to spend money on a very expensive player.

Pickup

A pickup refers to a player who was signed into a team when he/she was a free agent.

Player Pool

A player pool refers to the total number of players available to be drafted.

Prize Pool

The prize pool is used to describe the total sum of money that was paid out in a fantasy sports contest.

Projections

Projections in fantasy sports refer to predictions about a team or player's performance for a game, week or season.

Punt

Punt is used to describe low-priced calculated risks that fantasy sports players take to save money elsewhere.

Q

Qualifier

A qualifier is a fantasy sports tournament played daily in which the prize of one tournament is an entry into another larger fantasy sport.

R

Rake

Rake is a way by which the daily fantasy sports contests support themselves by taking 10% of the entry fee paid by the players. For instance, if $10 is paid by two players, the prize for winning the tournament would be $18, and the $2 is the rake.

Rate my team (RMT)

Rate my team is an expression designed for managers to ask a fantasy team to rate a fantasy team, selection, or roster where respondents will share their view of teams in general and individual players.

Reach

Reach is a way of adding a low-value player to a line-up, i.e., a player with a high dollar cost per projection rate is added to the line-up.

Referral program

A referral program is a program set up by the daily fantasy sports contest which rewards old players who refer new players to the site, with the reward being a percentage of the amount of rake a player pays.

Return on investment

Return on investment, also known as ROI, is the percentage return on entry fees. If a player wins above the amount staked, the profit level will be shown and used to refer to how much a player scores versus his history.

Roster

The roster is another word that is used to qualify for line-up

S

Salary cap

The salary cap is the total amount of money spent on drafting a line-up

Shark

A shark refers to an experienced player who gazes and focuses on the fish at a site, with most sharks focusing on cash games.

Sleeper

A sleeper is known to be a cheap player with great potential.

Single entry

Single entry is the opposite of multi-entry, meaning contests can only be entered once.

Snake draft

Snake draft is known to be a drafting pattern whereby a team that drafts first in the first round would be the team to draft last in the second round.

Splits

Splits are referred to as a player's or team's stats that are broken down into different categories.

Stacking

Stacking refers to lining up players from the same team, which can either increase or decrease the volatility of a team depending on which positions are stacked. For instance, stacking up a quarterback and a wide receiver increases the team's volatility, as a bad game would give you fewer points, and a good game earns you extra points on both players.

Studs and scrubs

Studs and scrubs line-up, also known as the high-low line-up, is a combination of expensive and inexpensive players.

Survivor tournament

A survivor tournament is described as a tournament where you have to achieve a minimum score to move to the next contest stage the following week.

Sweat

Sweat is an act of watching a game with a lot at stake.

T

Tier

Tier is the grouping of players with similar ranks based on their position.

Tilt

Tilt is a player who keeps on making bad decisions because he is frustrated or has bad luck.

Tournaments

The tournament is a category of daily fantasy sports contests with multiple players playing the game, but only 20% or 10% of the players get the prize money.

Trade

Trade is known to be the exchange of players between two teams.

Train

A train is an act of entering the same line-up in multiple contests

Train up

Train up is a part of the fantasy sports contest where you can triple your entry fee.

Transaction

Transactions are known as line-up action, such as dropping, picking or trading a player.

U

Upside

The upside is the potential of a player to perform better than what is expected of him based on his salary.

Undroppables

Undroppables are elite players that cannot be dropped from a line-up

V

Value

Value is known as how much value a player adds and how much a player scores compared to his salary.

Value pay

Value pay is a low-priced player who performs beyond expectation.

Vegas line

The Vegas line refers to the prediction made by the Vegas sportsbook about upcoming games.

Viable

A line-up choice that is expected to give value is known as viable.

W

Waivers

A waiver is a player that is dropped from a particular team

Whale

The whale is known as a high-volume fantasy sport player