How to play Fantasy Premier League

Of all the varieties of football Fantasy worldwide, the most popular is the Fantasy Premier League, also known as FPL, also known as Fantasy English Premier League. This is logical, because the Premier League itself has been considered the most entertaining for many decades in a row, it features the largest number of world football stars, and it is not surprising that the greatest number of people on the planet want to manage these players in their Fantasy teams.

In this article we will explain in detail how to play Fantasy for the EPL, how to start building your team and what nuances to keep in mind while completing the entire Fantasy Premier League season.

Let's start with the basics. What is Fantasy Premier League and where to find it?

How to register in Fantasy Premier League?

The Fantasy Premier League itself is located on the official website of the English Premier League, and you need to register for participating in Fantasy for the EPL there. The registration process is standard, requires no special maneuvers, let alone any financial costs. Playing Fantasy EPL can be completely free!

You can register using an email address, as well as social media accounts, but the simplest and most convenient is registration using your Google account. It takes less than a minute of your time.

How to start playing Fantasy English Premier League?

After completing a quick registration and taking care of the initial formalities, you can and should move on to assembling your team. That is – selecting players for your Fantasy EPL squad. In fact, this is the basis of how to play fantasy premier league.

To start, choose 15 players with a total budget of 100 million pounds and come up with a suitable name for your team. It can be your first name, last name, any word you like, as long as nobody has taken it before.

You can also create your own team emblem in Fantasy for the EPL. This is not required and won't add points, but it will look nice!

The goal of the game is simple – to score as many points as possible throughout the season.

Players earn points for goals, assists, and “clean sheet” matches, but lose points for things like yellow and red cards or missed penalties.

Once the team is formed, you can join any number of leagues or invite as many friends as you like. You can create your own Fantasy EPL league. Complete freedom of action.

How to build a squad in Fantasy for the EPL?

You need to assemble a squad of 15 players using a budget of £100 million. It must include players of the following roles:

• 2 goalkeepers;

• 5 defenders;

• 5 midfielders;

• 3 forwards.

And one more small but important nuance to understand how the Fantasy Premier League rules work: you can select no more than three players from a single club, so simply filling your team with players from the current champion and hoping for his progress will not work.

Out of the chosen 15 players, 11 will be in the starting lineup for the upcoming gameweek, and the other four will be on the bench.

Depending on the players you choose, you can use one of seven possible formations. And, as in real football, the key to a successful team is balance: allocate your budget across different positions. So don't dump all the money on forwards. Clean sheet matches for goalkeepers and defenders can also bring very valuable points.

You will probably want to acquire a couple of premium players – usually the top scorers, such as Erling Haaland or the leading assist makers, like Bruno Fernandes. But be careful: they will eat up a significant part of your budget.

True MVPs are players who provide an excellent amount of points each gameweek. So pay attention to:

• rising stars;

• guaranteed starters;

• set-piece takers – penalties, corners, free kicks;

• defenders who spend a lot of time on the other end of the field (primarily full-backs, covering the whole flank from whistle to whistle).

You also need to consider the substitutes. Why? Because if a player from your starting lineup for any reason does not take the field, he will automatically be replaced by a player from the bench. Substitutes come on in the order you set, so it’s important to pick players who have a chance to appear in a real match.

Because if they spend the entire real match on the bench, you won’t earn any points from them. Alternatively, you could risk it and spend your whole budget on an incredibly strong starting eleven. But, as always, there are no guarantees. It’s a high‑risk, high‑reward strategy.

One of the most important decisions you’ll make each game week is who to appoint as captain. The captain earns double points, so you should make sure he is very likely to perform well and rack up many useful statistical actions.

And if for any reason the captain doesn’t play, the captain’s armband automatically passes to your vice‑captain. A safe option for someone looking to figure out how to play fantasy football might be to pick big stars, but truly great managers know how to give the captain’s armband to the right player at the right moment.

Your star striker may perform much better against a team from the bottom of the table, but struggle against one of the league’s best defenses. So choose wisely. It all depends on form and the match schedule.

Both can be checked by studying any player’s statistics and upcoming fixtures when assembling your squad.

And don’t forget: you must lock in your team 90 minutes before the first kickoff of each game week! After that you can no longer make changes and will only have to endure the tension from your virtual coaching bench.

How to earn points in Fantasy Premier League?

Now onto another important aspect when discussing how to play fantasy premier league – scoring points. Players earn points for various actions, including appearances, goals, assists, “clean sheet” matches and saves, with the amount of points depending on the player’s position. For example, a forward gets 4 points for a goal, while a defender – 6.

Let’s look at this in more detail.

As you might guess, everyone wants to know how to score more points in fantasy, and here’s a quick tip – it can be quite profitable to invest in attacking defenders, in case they manage both a clean sheet and a goal.

Participating in attacking actions in the same match and allocating more funds to attacking midfielders instead of forwards can also lead to additional points.

But it's not only about goals. Thanks to defensive actions, players earn points for actions such as clearances, blocks, interceptions and tackles. And, like attacking points, defensive points are available to players in any position.

Furthermore, after each match the three best players receive up to three bonus points, reflecting the player's overall contribution to that match.

But it's not only about gaining points. Players can also lose them. Yes, that's right. You didn't think everything would be that simple when trying to figure out how to play fantasy football, did you?

If your player's team concedes a goal, goalkeepers, defenders and midfielders lose the bonus for a “clean” match. In addition, defenders and goalkeepers also lose one point for every two goals conceded.

Missed penalties, as well as red and yellow cards, lead to point deductions regardless of the player's position. So you need to be careful and think carefully about whom you assign the captain's armband to.

The last thing you want is to receive a negative number of points from the captain, which then get doubled. Your goal is to score more points in fantasy, not to lose as many as possible, right?

How to make transfers in Fantasy English Premier League?

The most important thing you can influence is transfers. This is where strategy matters and it is what separates the best managers from the rest.

Within your budget of £100 million you receive one free transfer each game week. Those are the fantasy premier league rules and they are the same for everyone.

You remove player A, bring in player B. Simple? In a way – yes. However, you need to monitor player prices, as they can change during each game week – by up to £0.3 million in either direction.

And all this depends on the number of transfers of a player – specifically how many managers buy him and how many sell him. For example, if a player starts the season priced at £8 million and performs well in the first game week, he will likely be bought actively.

This will increase the number of owners of that player and, in turn, could raise his price to £8.3 million by the next game week. Therefore, sometimes it's worth making an early transfer if you have decided to acquire a particular player. This will allow you not to miss the price rise or be left with a player whose price is falling quickly.

If you want to make more transfers than you have free ones, it will cost 4 points for each additional transfer. Therefore, they must be truly justified.

But there is also good news. If you do not make a transfer in a game week, you can accumulate them. You can accumulate up to five free transfers.

How to use chips (boosts) in Fantasy EPL?

Fantasy Premier League has several powerful tools that can turn the course of your season. You can't understand how to play fantasy premier league without knowing about them. They are called chips, or boosts. When used wisely, they can save a bad game week, significantly enhance a good one, or even permanently change your team.

Moreover, throughout the season you receive two sets of chips, so there are plenty of opportunities to improve your ranking.

Just make sure you used the first set before the update after Gameweek 19, otherwise they will disappear forever.

Here's what each chip does.

Wildcard - «Wildcard»

Wildcard allows you to make an unlimited number of free transfers at once. No penalty points, no punishments.

Early use can let you take advantage of players who started the season brilliantly.

But don't think you have to use it immediately. It's a chip worth saving until the moment you really need it to score more fantasy points.

It can also help prepare your team for using other chips from your arsenal.

Free Hit - «Free Hit»

The Free Hit chip also gives you unlimited transfers, but only for one gameweek. Moreover, these changes are temporary – in the next gameweek your old squad will return.

Many managers will probably save a second Free Hit for weeks when some teams don't play. But things don't always go as planned.

Remember: these chips are meant to be used when you need them or when, in your opinion, they will bring the maximum benefit.

Bench Boost - «Bench Boost»

Usually only your starting 11 earn points. But when Bench Boost is activated in Fantasy PL, all 15 players in your squad can earn points.

So think ahead about having strong fixtures for the players on your bench. Using this chip together with the Wildcard in previous gameweeks can also significantly boost its effectiveness.

Triple Captain - «Triple Captain»

Here everything is as simple as possible. Your captain gets triple points instead of double. And since you have two such chips, you'll have plenty of opportunities to pick the most favorable matches for your captain.

You can even take a risk and pick an unexpected option in a double gameweek – when a player has two matches in one week and thus gets twice the opportunities to score points.

So you can't win the whole season with chips alone. But if you use them wisely, your points will surely see a significant increase.

How to create leagues in Fantasy for the English Premier League and join existing ones?

Fantasy Premier League shines in full when you compete with friends and colleagues. Let's figure out how to join a league, send invitations and what types of leagues you can choose. Without this it's also impossible to understand how to play fantasy football.

Go to the Leagues and Cups tab, click Join a League and Cup, then select Private League and enter the league code that was provided to you. Click Join League – congratulations,  you’re in!

You can also use the Auto Join link. Just click it and it will automatically take you to the league.

Use the Invite Friends button in your league to send any of these options.

Any questions? Don't worry – there is a huge amount of material that will help you understand the rules and how to score more fantasy points. All of it will be published on our website. In addition, there will always be a massive amount of statistics and data available here, including information on the most sought‑after players, price changes, match difficulty ratings and, especially important, injury news.

It's definitely worth keeping an eye on all this regardless of the level you play at.

Good luck, Fantasy managers!