How does the Fantasy Premier League draft work? Tips for confused FPL fans for 2021/22 football season

As fantasy football teams and team names are carefully being selected, managers can also get their teeth into a different game called the FPL Draft.

Here’s a look at what the draft is, how it works, how points are scored and transfers made in a quirky twist on the traditional Fantasy Premier League game.

What is the FPL Draft?

In addition to the Fantasy Premier League competition, there is the chance for FPL managers to compete in the draft against friends or others around the world.

Similar rules apply in which you have to select a squad of 15 players - two goalkeepers, five defenders, five midfielders and three forwards - but with no budget.

Instead, players are selected in a draft process within your league of between 2 and 16 managers, where each Premier League player can be picked once.

The draft will allow each manager to pick a player at a time as squads are assembled for the 2021/22 Fantasy Premier League draft season.

How does the FPL draft work?

Each manager will get plenty of chances to pick a player to assemble their squad for the season.

Before the process of picking players begins, the order in which players are selected is randomly generated which will see the order snake from round to round until squads are completed.

The snake draft means the order is reversed each round, meaning if you were first in one round you’ll be last to pick in the next round, before the process repeats itself. For example:

Round 1 - Team A, Team B, Team C, Team D.

Round 2: Team D, Team C, Team B, Team A.

This means that although you might get your number one pick one round, you’ll have to wait and hope your other targets don’t get snapped up by the other managers in the next round.

This is to try to ensure a fair and balanced process to allow all managers equal opportunity when assembling their squads for competition in the Fantasy Premier League Draft 2021/22.

When is the FPL Draft?

The league’s administrator will decide when the FPL Draft takes place but must be done before the next gameweek deadline, 90 minutes before the opening match in that week.

If a manager cannot make the draft then they are allowed to create a wishlist of players listed in priority order which will be used to automatically assemble their squad.

If players are taken or no watchlist is created then draft ranks are used to prioritise selections.

FPL managers can get a taste for how the draft will work in a practice go, named mock draft.

How does my FPL team score points?

Each player scores points in the same way as the traditional Fantasy Premier League game, but there is no captain or vice captain in the FPL Draft.

Teams are ranked either in the Classic method of total fantasy points awarded to the team or Head-to-Head where teams play against each other each gameweek.

The winner of the match is determined by who scored the most fantasy points, with three points awarded to the winning team and one point for a draw.

Can I make transfers and trades in the FPL Draft?

In short, yes. These preferences are set by the league’s administrator before the draft begins.

Managers can make a waiver request for a player or make a direct transfer from the free agents pool of players not selected in the draft.

The waiver request is similar to the draft process to allow all managers the chance to pick up a new signing or player released by other managers.

You make a waiver request when proposing to swap a player in your squad with an available, or unselected, player in the same position.

Managers can make as many waiver requests as they like and requests will be processed 24 hours before the gameweek deadline.

The order of selections is determined by the rankings at that time - the lowest ranked team manager will have their waiver request processed first.

If waivers are made before the first gameweek then the order will be the reverse of the draft order and once the waivers are processed free agency mode will be activated.