Best Ball Season is BACK!

If you’re not sure what that means, let me introduce you to your new favorite way to play fantasy football. Take the most fun part of the fantasy football season (the draft), remove the most annoying parts (waiver wires, getting start/sit decisions wrong, dealing with bad trade offers, etc.), and don’t limit yourself to only a few leagues as all you need to do is keep drafting.

And did I mention there is around $50M in prizes up for grabs?

Best Ball Mania VII launched. DraftKings will be awarding someone $3M for first place. And Drafters is back with their unique contest structure at an affordable price point.

Underdog | BBMVII Headlines the Slate

The OG flagship is back. $25 entry, $15M total prizes, $2M to 1st, 150-entry max. This remains the pinnacle of best ball contests and carries the most respect around the industry.

But the full Underdog menu is where the depth shows up:

• BBMVII — $25 / $15M / 150 max

• The Eliminator — $10 / $1.75M / 150 max

• Weekly Winners — $10 / $1.7M / 150 max (lower variance, weekly payouts)

• The Puppy — $5 / $1M / 150 max (entry-level reps)

• The Big Dog — $500 / $1M / 64-entry max

The Eliminator is back and will be my second favorite contest on UD I’ll be entering. Unique format that requires a different strategy than traditioanl best ball.

DraftKings | The Biggest Top Prize in Best Ball History

Quietly, DK now has the biggest top prize the format has ever seen.

The $20M Millionaire:

• $25 entry, $20M total prizes, $3M to 1st

• 940k entries, 1089 person finals

• 2/12, 1/12, 1/12 advance structure

DK has a wide range of other tournaments ($3 Play-Action all the way up to the $3,180 Luxury Box and $555 Monster Millionaire). Exciting that the largest best ball prize in history will be awarded this year.

Drafters | Cumulative Contest, Weekly Payouts

Drafters' Main Event '26 is the most differentiated product in the space:

• $15 entry, $1.5M prizes, $250K to 1st

• 12-team drafts, fast and slow

• Total points format — Weeks 1-17, no playoffs

• Season-long AND weekly prizes

Why this matters: every other format funnels to a playoff structure with the finals in Week 17. Drafters provides a different structure that rewards consistency across the entire season. And my favorite part, you can autodraft the contest and still be very competitive.

Where I'm Playing

• Underdog: I’ll be maxing the BBM and likely the Eliminator, dabbling elsewhere

• DraftKings: I’ll be maxing the $25 main contest, TBD on what high stakes contests I play this year

• Drafters: I’ll likely be autodrafting this similar to last year

The season is officially upon us. We’ve got 4+ months of drafting so make sure to pace yourself and your bankroll. Best of luck and keep tuning into FFin60 to help throughout the offseason.

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