What is FPL draft?

The 22/23 campaign has come to a conclusion but Fantasy Premier League offers much more than its FPL structure. Many managers may have noticed an additional game on the official site called FPL draft, but what is it?

The new season is quite a way away yet but many managers could be itching at the arrival of the new game. We take a look through the rules and basic essentials of FPL draft for managers to have a good idea of what it is before they start the season.

Fantasy Premier League Draft gives Fantasy Premier League managers a great opportunity to test their skills. And with the 2023/24 season just around the corner, it is an ideal time to try it out. FPL Draft is free to play and runs alongside the Fantasy Premier League season, using the same scoring system.

Similar to FPL, Fantasy managers also pick a 15-man squad in Draft. But there is one big difference. Each player can be owned by only one manager in each mini-league. So only one manager in your mini-league can have Mohamed Salah, only one can select Erling Haaland.

No budgets

An exciting aspect of FPL Draft is that there are no player prices and no budgets, which means managers can build a squad of big-hitters they may not normally afford in FPL. In the draft, each manager takes their turn to select players over 15 rounds.

Managers have between 30-120 seconds to select a player in the Draft, 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.

Sign up

If you are not signed up to FPL, you can do so here. Then you just name your team and join a league.

Leagues

You can create a private Draft league of up to 16 managers. You can also invite friends. 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.

There is the opportunity to take part in a mock draft, allowing you to experience the draft process before doing one for real.

How to use your watchlist

It’s wise to build a watchlist of targets to help avoid losing precious time when considering your selections.

Once the draft has finished, you can change your squad before and during the season using waiver requests, by signing players who are free agents or by trading players with mini-league rivals.