One of the most frustrating aspects of Fantasy Premier League is seeing one of your players claim a massive points haul only to discover he is in the majority of your mini-league rivals’ teams as well.
Thankfully, Fantasy Premier League Draft offers you the chance to really demonstrate your managerial skills by taking sole ownership of players.
It means only one manager in your mini-league can have Harry Kane and only one can select Mohamed Salah, while getting your hands on a decent goalkeeper is even more prized.
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FPL Draft runs alongside the Fantasy Premier League and uses the same scoring system.
Fantasy managers also pick a 15-man squad but there are no player prices and no budgets. It allows managers to build a squad of big-hitters they may not normally afford in FPL, provided they get in ahead of their FPL Draft rivals, of course.
In the draft, each manager takes their turn to select players over 15 rounds.
Managers have between 30 and 120 seconds to select a player, depending on the time selected by the league administrator.
The order of picks is decided randomly at first and will then ‘snake’ from round to round, with the order of selection reversed each time.
For example, if round one went Team A, Team B, Team C, Team D, then round two would see Team D pick first followed by Team C, Team B and finally Team A.
You can create a private Draft league of up to 16 managers and invite friends to get involved.
Or you can join a private league that they have set up using the league code.
You can also choose to be in a public league that has four, six or eight managers.
The date of the draft is set by the league administrator, while drafts in public leagues will take place within 30 minutes of the first team joining.
Before you dive headlong into the FPL Draft, however, there is the opportunity to take part in a mock draft. This allows you to experience the draft process before doing one for real and will give you a better idea of the players at the forefront of other managers' thoughts.
FPL Draft Tips
It makes sense to build a watchlist of targets to help avoid losing precious time when considering your selections.
The watchlist will be used to automatically select a player if you are not available to make a pick.
As a player can only be owned by one manager in a league, it is wise to immediately target those you see as your core starters - players you are happy to field every Gameweek.
Although there are no captains in FPL Draft, big-hitting attackers should still be the top priority.
Players such as Harry Kane, Mohamed Salah and Erling Haaland will be snapped up quickly, so it pays to have reliable alternatives to hand.
This is where an eye for a breakthrough player can really make the difference. Last season, one of those was Jarrod Bowen who improved upon his haul of 141 points in 2020/21 by registering 206 points.
Ivan Toney, meanwhile, contributed 139 points for newly promoted Brentford, so spotting the value from newly promoted teams is also the way to go.
Finding a balance at both ends of the pitch is also vital. This is particularly important in eight-team leagues, in which the competition for players is tougher and attacking options are quickly depleted.
But don’t despair if the draft doesn’t pan out as well as expected.
Once the draft has finished, you can change your squad before and during the season. Using waiver requests, you can sign players who are free agents or trade players with mini-league rivals.
Trade offers can be made each Gameweek until the waiver deadline. If trades in your league require approval, then the trade deadline will be 24 hours before the waiver deadline.
A trade offer involves proposing to swap one or more players in your squad with the same number of players from another squad in your league.
Trades can involve multiple positions but must be like for like. For example, you may offer to trade one midfielder and two forwards for one midfielder and two forwards but not two midfielders and one forward.
That being said, your chances of offloading Ross Barkley, Christian Benteke and Bryan Mbeumo in return for Son Heung-min, Harry Kane and Gabriel Jesus would still be slim to none.
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