The WNBA season is fast upon us – Beginning tomorrow May 14th and lasting through September 19th, not including the playoffs. With it comes WNBA DFS, offered on both Draftkings and Fanduel. As with all the sports the sites offer there are a few differences between both sites. This article will serve as a brief introduction to WNBA DFS, providing a basic understanding of the sport and some of the base ways to exploit fantasy scoring on each site.
My name is Glen, aka @DfsBlande on Twitter. Tail me out there, as I’ll occasionally make updates to the advice in the article in real time. But, you’ll mostly find me in our VIP coaching forums where I provide detailed lineup pivots and answer all lineup questions based on all-important late-breaking news.
Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
WNBA DFS vs NBA DFS
- Rules and scoring are basically the same as you are used to if you play NBA DFS.
- Slates are smaller than NBA though, with the majority of slates being 2, 3, or 4-games.
- Therefore, expect more variance in WNBA than in NBA, and expect ownership to really concentrate in obvious places (hint- we can exploit that in DFS Army!)
The inconsistency in performances and the wider spread in potential outcomes lends WNBA DFS towards a GPP-style of play. After all, let’s get paid!!
WNBA Formats to Target
- Increased volatility from slate to slate and game to game make cash games more inconsistent….favor GPPs.
- Increased priority on contrarian, high-upside plays when we can accurately predict where the public will focus their lineups.
- Even league play has merits, all the way down to 3man and 5man leagues.
On every slate, there’ll be chalky studs in great matchups who have a high probability of smashing. In the same vein, there will be studs in very bad matchups with a low probability of performing. In any contrarian strategy, we intentionally build suboptimally so we have less competition when we are correct. We gamble that when the masses are wrong, the sinking ship drags all of them down with it, leaving us all alone atop leaderboards for all the monies!
For cash games, the best lineups to use here will be what we call Hybrid lineups. These are lineups that combine the chalky players with some higher upside less chalky options. This is necessitated by the increased variance in the WNBA. Sort of a “tweener” between using the predictable stud players and some lower owned pivot plays for exploitation.
Draftkings Specifics
- Two positions: Guards and Forwards
- $50,000 salary cap
- 6 players: 2 Guards, 3 Forwards, and 1 Util
- Scoring is the same as DK NBA DFS
- Forwards generally outscore guards
- Generally, need 1 value play
It’s an easy system with just two positions. With forwards generally outscoring guards, the go-to move is to use the Utility spot to roster a forward. Occasionally, there is an opportunity to divert from this generic strategy, thus increasing your chances at a unique lineup. In general, you need a value play to fit in the studs in your lineup due to pricing. It’s easier to get unique lineups by defaulting to a more balanced strategy, but pricing usually makes this difficult.
Fanduel Differences
- Two positions: Guards and Forwards
- $60,000 salary cap
- 7 players: 3 Gaurds, 4 Forwards
- Scoring is the same as FD NBA DFS
- Forwards generally outscore guards
- Generally, need 2 value plays
Pricing is usually much tighter on FD, forcing you to make sacrifices and play at least 2 value plays in order to fit your studs. It’s very normal to find yourself hating your FD lineup as you build it. Once again you want to spend much of your capital on forwards, however, there are a handful of guards who are generally consistent and make for good options to spend up for, especially in cash games where their predictive nature yields a higher floor. Building more balanced lineups is more likely to work on FD than DK.
Remember, this is just a base review of WNBA DFS. We will provide more detailed guides daily (see our WNBA page here) as we continue our coverage for each WNBA slate.
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