The Sun Dream Team Guide

With the new Premier League season just a month 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 all our fantasy football tips here.

The Sun’s ‘Dream Team’ fantasy football game will once again return for the 2017/18 season with the prizes as grand as ever.

How to sign up

The signup process for The Sun game is extremely simple, with the only required details being an email address, password, name, date of birth, mobile number and the team you support.

Classic vs Weekender

There are two different ways to play on The Sun Dream Team, with the choice of playing either classic or weekender. The classic format is the standard, season-long way of playing fantasy football, where you pick a side to compete for the full duration of the season and collect points along the way.

However, the weekender edition of Dream Team sees managers select teams on a week-by-week basis, with points counting for that weekend’s fixtures only. This mode is also free to play and will require players to pick a different team each week, with teams consisting of just seven players.

How to choose your team

Once signed up, the process of selecting a team begins, with the classic edition requiring managers to select 11 players using a £50m budget. However, the flexibility of formations is restricted with Dream Team, with players limited to only 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 to choose from with their team. With regards to transfers, managers may make three changes to their squad each calendar month; unused transfers do not carry onto the following month.

Weekender players meanwhile must select seven players – one goalkeeper, two defenders, two midfielders and two strikers – but have no budget and are free to select who they choose. Players using this format can also select as many players from one club as they wish playing the weekender format.

Players are scored not only for the usual fantasy reward system (goals, assists, appearance), but are also linked to their overall match performance. If a player wins the Who Scored Star Man award from their match that gameweek an additional 5 points will be added to their score, while a match rating of 7 or above will see 3 points gained to their total. As such, finding those consistent 7/10’s every week can prove to be extremely valuable in Dream Team.

How to join a league

Before joining a private league, each player is automatically entered into the Dream Team’s overall league, from which there is a shared prize pot of £250,000, with the winner taking home £150,000. As well as this, the weekender competition features a combined prize fund of over £300,000 across the season.

Players also have the option to join a mini-league, with one option being a public league where any player is eligible to join without requiring a PIN. The second option is a private league where players can keep it strictly between their mates only, where a PIN is required to join, however, The Sun have discontinued their stakeholder service meaning any stakes involved will need to be carried out separately.