Ian JohnThere’s something new and exciting for you to try at bet365 which offers you a new way to put your sporting knowledge and predictive skills to the test, with a chance of winning some money if your predictions pan out successfully.
That new feature is the bet365 Fantasy Sports section of the site, which can be accessed either through the bet365 Sport betting part of the site, or via a direct link to the fantasy section at the very top of the home page.
So what are bet365 doing by releasing their Fantasy Sports product? What does it mean for fans of sports betting, fantasy sports, or those that enjoy both
And perhaps more importantly, what are the things that you need to know in order to get the most out of this new feature on the site?
Of course, you do need to be a bet365 customer in order to try out their fantasy sports offering, so if you have not yet signed up and claimed your bet365 bet credits as a Welcome Offer, then now is a great time to do so.
Assuming you are now signed up, signed in and ready to go, let’s work our way through ten questions which, when answered, will hopefully give you everything you need to know about playing and enjoying the fantasy sports betting options at bet365.
Which leads us nicely into the first question, which is probably the most obvious one to ask.
- What Is Bet365’s Fantasy Sports Game And Does It Differ From Other Fantasy Games?
At the moment, bet365 Fantasy Sports offers fantasy games for football, tennis and golf, with football being the most popular option.
Bet365 offers fantasy sports as a betting product, allowing customers to wager a stated amount (the price per tournament varies from just a few pence, to considerably more allowing players to wager what they feel most comfortable with).
By entering the tournament, you are deciding to put your ability at fantasy sports gaming and prediction to the test in the hope of winning enough fantasy points to finish in the paying positions in your tournament.
If you can do that, then you will win a cash prize, and the higher you finish on the tournament leaderboard, the greater the value of the cash prize.
While there are sites that offer similar fantasy games, traditional fantasy games, such as those you will find linked to the Premier League or the NFL, are free-to-play models that run by a similar process over the course of an entire season and which have a very small number of prizes in comparison to the bet365 Fantasy Sports games.
- What Is My Entry Fee Used For When Entering A Bet365 Fantasy Game?
The majority of your entry fee is added to the prize pool for your chosen fantasy game. This is the prize money that is collected from all the entries into the tournament and then divided up between the players that finish the tournament in a paying position.
A small percentage of the entry fee may be held by bet365 Sport as their rake for running the tournament.
The size of the entry fee, the current prize pool and how much rake bet365 will take from your entry fee are all displayed in the Details of the tournament which you can click on and peruse before deciding to enter.
- What Are My Chances Of Winning A Cash Prize?
Compared to standard fantasy sports games that are free to enter, your chances of winning a cash prize at bet365 Fantasy Sports is much greater.
That’s simply because every prize pool is divided up to ensure that a good proportion of entrants into the tournament receive at least some payout. This can range from prizes of several hundred or maybe even thousands of pounds, down to prizes where you earn a little more than your entry fee.
However, because there are so many cash prizes to be won, your chances of winning are much higher compared to free-to-play fantasy games, where there may be one or two prizes to win over the course of a season and you face competition from hundreds of thousands of other players.
For example, in a recent Premier League Matchday fantasy game, there were 5578 entrants into the tournament with the top prize being £577.49 and the top 949 players in the tournament will earn a cash prize.
- Do I Need To Have Played Fantasy Sports Before To Play At Bet365?
No, there’s no need to have played fantasy games before, although if you have done so, you will undoubtedly be familiar with the process you need to go through when entering a tournament and picking your team.
However, if you have never played before, bet365 have developed a very easy to follow process to follow to help you select your team, and there are guides on the site to help you understand what the criteria of your tournament is, what the rules are and how best you can win.
Fantasy Sports are popular because they are fun and very easy to pick up and play even for a novice.
- Is Fantasy Sport A Game Of Skill Or Chance Or Both?
Fantasy Sports is a game of both skill and chance, and you need both to be in your favour in order to be successful.
In terms of skill, there is a clear benefit to being able to understand what players you can pick will give you the best chance of fantasy points and how you can utilise the strengths and/or weaknesses of individual players and teams to give your team a chance of earning more points.
For example, if a player you are selecting is facing a team that gives away a lot of free kicks and penalties, and the player you are selecting is a dead ball specialist, then using that knowledge could benefit your team.
I say could because there is no guarantee that player will score or create a goal from a set piece. Indeed, they may have a poor game. This is where the high degree of luck comes into it.
Quite often many players will pick the most popular fantasy options because they score regular points, but it is often finding the less well known players who don’t score highly as often, on the right game weeks which can have a big impact on your team.
- What Happens If I Win A Cash Prize?
Winning a cash prize on fantasy sports is the same as winning a bet with bet365. You will be paid out upon completion of your fantasy tournament and you will be paid the stated amount for your finishing position in cash.
There are no wagering requirements attached to any winnings and you are free to do with them what you would like.
- What Happens If One Of My Player Selections Does Not Play For Any Reason?
If this happens, then bet365 Fantasy Sports have a feature called a ‘safety net’ which ensures that players that do not play a match, but who are selected to your fantasy team, do not penalise your team.
In cases such as this the safety net will see the player not playing replaced with a replacement from the same team, provided that by adding the player they do not go beyond the salary cap in place for the tournament.
The safety net is a nice feature which ensures that your fantasy team features players that play at least some part in a game, and thus have an opportunity to earn you points.
- How Can I Pick A Team Of Tennis Players Or Golfers?
While the idea of picking a fantasy team of footballers is easy, for tennis players and golfers, picking a team is somewhat alien to how these individual games usually work.
So for these fantasy games, you may need to pick a team slightly differently and often this is achieved by making a stated number of selections from different tiers of players.
Each tier will group together players of a similar ability and you will have to make one or more selections from each tier to populate your team, ensuring you get a mix of the likely high scoring fantasy players, as well as those that usually don’t score as highly.
- Do You Have Any Tips For Fantasy Sports At Bet365?
The main tip I would have for these games is to stick with what you know. If you are not a follower of tennis for example, and you wouldn’t know Roger Federer from Roger Ramjet, then I would stick to the sports available that you are familiar with.
For many, that is football, and there are a huge number of fantasy football games for you to pick from where you can test your knowledge and luck!
Other than that, my only other tip is to not be afraid to give fantasy sports a try, with many games playable for very small entry fees, you can try them out and risk just a few pence or a couple of pounds or so.
- Will bet365 Offer More Fantasy Sports Opportunities In The Future?
At the moment, nobody knows for sure, but given how bet365 have extended and expanded their esports betting and Virtual Sports betting options over the last 5 years or so, it would be unusual if the company didn’t look into expanding into other fantasy sports.
My guess is that they will once the software and the timing is right and I’d expect to see fantasy options for sports such as Basketball, American Football, Formula 1 and more in future.
However, you’ll just have to wait and see what goodies are rolled out over the coming weeks, months and years in the new Bet365 Fantasy Sports section!
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