With the new Premier League season just two weeks away, armchair pundits will be keenly waiting to prove their football knowledge at the opening of the fantasy football season.
It has become part of many football fans’ pre-season rituals, creating their teams and setting up leagues against their friends to prove once and for all who is the Antonio Conte of the fantasy world and who has all the gear but no idea. You can check out our fantasy football tips here.
Sky Sports will again be running their annual fantasy football game for the 2019/20 season and is periodically one of the most popular formats of the game available.
How to sign up
In order to play Sky Sports Fantasy Football, you need to have a Sky Bet account and sign in using your Sky ID and pin. If you don’t have a Sky Bet account, you can create one by clicking here.
How to choose your team
Players of the Sky Sports fantasy game are given a £100m budget to spend on signing 11 players which make up your team. Unlike other versions of the game, there are no substitutions there to replace unavailable players who have not played that particular game week. As a result, managers must keep a close eye on their team each week to ensure points are not wasted through injury or suspension.
Managers can make a total of 40 transfers throughout the season and are free to do so as and when they choose, with a maximum of 5 transfers each weekend. Captains are also featured in Sky’s fantasy football, who score double points that particular weekend, however, there is extra flexibility with Sky’s choice of captain. If, for example, there are multiple games in a particular week, then managers can schedule their captain for each individual matchday. Sky have also added an ‘overhaul’ feature, which allows players to make unlimited transfers and is available twice in the season – once in September and once in February.
Players must also choose their formation, with six different combinations available to players. They are; 4-3-3; 4-4-2; 4-5-1; 3-5-2; 3-4-3 and 5-3-2. Sky Sports also allow managers to select two teams, making the decision to whittle down players you want in your side slightly easier.
How to join a league
Sky’s fantasy football gives players the option to enter and create two different types of leagues: free leagues and prize leagues. The free leagues are generally the most popular, with nothing other than pride at stake and are perfect for the casual fantasy football player. However, those who prefer to have a tangible reward at the end of the season can enter a prize league, with Sky offering the chance to join leagues for either a £2, £5, £10 or £20 stake per person, with either a winner takes all or tiered prize structure.
The creator of the league will be given a pin and become chairman of the league and is responsible for giving other entrants the pin to allow them to enter the league. Players will be automatically entered into a supporters league alongside other managers who have picked the same club as themselves. Head to Head gameweeks are another new feature for the 2017/18 season, with players now having the option to challenge their friends to a one-week contest, with the option also to put money on the contest, with no added fee for handling the transaction.
Prizes are particularly lucrative on the Sky game also, with the winner of the overall leaderboard at the end of the season taking home a tasty £50,000 cash prize, while second and third win £5,000 and £1,000 respectively. Other rewards include the Manager of the Month who wins a pair of VIP Premier League tickets, with Manager of the Week awarded EFL tickets.
Other Fantasy Games you can play
Sky Bet also run some other fantastic games for fantasy football fans, they offer a weekly game on a Saturday called Sky Super 6, you can get all our Sky Super Six tips here, as well as that on Sunday they run a six a side game which allows players to pick their fantasy team for the Sunday match. You can check all our six a side fantasy football tips here.