Canadian Football (CFL) DFS can be incredibly lucrative, if you know how to manipulate the roster requirements and scoring. Daily fantasy players (with little experience) can profit quickly with just some basic information because very little is written about CFL inside the industry. My name is DFS Spreadsheets (@dfs_spreadsheet on Twitter), and I wanted to give everyone a quick rundown of CFL DFS before things really got cranked up. I’m a data analyst by trade, and love digging into the intricacies that give our players advantages no one else can deliver.
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The Canadian Football Game (from a DFS perspective)
CFL Rosters
CFL teams may have a maximum of 46 college players, including two players identified as quarterbacks. For the other 44 non-quarterback roster spots, no more than 20 of them can be American. Each team will have a player on their reserve roster.
The 46 man Canadian football rosters are broken down as follows:
- Maximum of 2 quarterbacks
- Maximum of 20 American players.
- Of these 20, four must be identified as Designated Imports. The Designated Imports are players that may play on special teams or they may replace an American starter but they cannot start
- Minimum of 21 Nationals
- Each team must have a minimum of 7 starting National players
- Minimum of 2 Global players
CFL Positions
Canadian football teams use 12 players on a field at a time. On offence, there must be seven players on the line of scrimmage. This usually means teams will have five lineman and two wide receivers on the line, leaving three slotbacks and a running back to fill out the remaining positions. Typically teams will line up one boundary(short side of the field) wide receiver , one boundary slotback, one field side (wide side of the field) receiver and two field side slotbacks. The field side wide receiver is often occupied by a National player as they usually aren’t very involved (as they are the furthest away from the QB).
DFS CFL allows pre-snap motion. The slotbacks and running backs can get a running start to the line of scrimmage. The wide receivers may move laterally pre-snap but must remain on the line of scrimmage.
NOTE: Slotbacks are considered wide receivers on Draftkings
CFL DFS Lineup Requirements
On Draftkings, lineups will consist of 7 players and must include players from at least 2 different Canadian football teams. The 7 Roster positions are:
- QB – 1
- RB – 1
- WR – 2
- Flex (wr/rb) – 2
- DST – 1
NOTE: With the way CFL roster requirements, there is often lineups that get shuffled to make sure requirements are made ( injury to Nationals etc). It is very important to put your two LATEST STARTING players in the flex spots. This will make it easier to pivot when we receive late roster news. I will also note that CFL slates are usually 3-4 games and can very well run over 4 days (Thurs-Sun). Teams don’t submit their rosters until 24 hours before the game.
Canadian Football DFS Scoring
Offense
- Passing TD: +4 Pts
- 25 Passing Yards: +1 Pt (+0.04 Pts/ Yards)
- 300+ Yard Passing Game: +3 Pts
- Interception: -1 Pt
- Rushing TD: +6 Pts
- 10 Rushing Yards: +1 Pt (+0.1 Pts/Yard)
- 100+ Yard Rushing Game: +3 Pts
- Receiving TD: +6 Pts
- 10 Receiving Yards: +1 Pt (+0.1 Pts/Yard)
- 100+ Receiving Yard Game: +3 Pts
- Reception: +1 Pt
- Punt/Kickoff/FG Return for TD: +6 Pts
- 20 Punt/Kickoff/FG Return Yards: +1 Pt (+0.05 Pts/Yard)
- Fumble Lost: -1 Pt
- 2 Pt Conversion (Pass, Run, or Catch): +2 Pts
Defense and Special Teams (DST) for Canadian Football (CFL)
- Sack: +1 Pt
- Interception: +2 Pts
- Fumble Recovery: +2 Pts
- Rouge Scored: +1 Pt (A single is awarded when the ball is kicked into the end zone by any legal means (other than a convert or a successful field goal)and the receiving team does not return (or kick) the ball out of its end zone. A single is also scored if a kick (excluding kickoffs) goes out of bounds in the end zone without being touched.
- Punt/Kickoff/FG Return for TD: +6 Pts
- Interception Return TD: +6 Pts
- Fumble Recovery TD: +6 Pts
- Blocked Punt or FG Return TD: +6 Pts
- Safety: +2 Pts
- 0 Points Allowed: +10 Pts
- 1 – 6 Points Allowed: +7 Pts
- 7 – 13 Points Allowed: +4 Pts
- 14 – 20 Points Allowed: +1 Pt
- 21 – 27 Points Allowed: +0 Pts
- 28 – 34 Points Allowed: -1 Pt
- 35+ Points Allowed: -4 Pts
With players getting points for return yardage, we will keep an eye on DK eligible players (wr/rb) that may be inline for return duties. This can lead to some player/DST mini stacks in hoping he can take one to the house and we get the double dip DST and return TD points. This type of strategy often goes overlooked by the casual CFL DFS player.
The Edge
A lot of casual CFL DFS players are of the “set it and forget it” mentality. There is a big edge when keeping up with all of the league’s roster moves and released depth charts.
I will be using historical team data (home and away splits) for each and every game matchup. I also track how many Draftkings points each team allows to each position. And when I say each position, I mean I track each of the five receiving positions – a HUGE advantage to exploiting great matchups. This is something that very few people track and provide data for. I can’t wait to get this thing going!
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Featured Image Credits:
Sep 7, 2019; Winnipeg, Manitoba, CAN; Winnipeg Blue Bombers running back Johnny Augustine (27) protects the ball as Saskatchewan Roughriders linebacker Solomon Elimimian (10) makes the tackle during the second half of the Canadian Football League game at Investors Group Field. Winnipeg Blue Bombers win 35-10. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Fedyck-USA TODAY Sports