How To Navigate ESPN’s Fantasy Site

Fantasy sport has been gaining immense popularity over the years. It is an online game where participants assemble an imaginary team of real-life professional players. These teams compete to earn points, and the points are based on the statistical performance of those real-life players. 

Once the match is over, the performance is converted into points, and the team with the most points wins. The point system can be calculated through simple and complex methods. If you want to try your hand at fantasy sports, you can access ESPN’s fantasy games through ESPN’s fantasy site, which is simple to use and allows you to play to your heart’s content. 

ESPN’s Fantasy Games 

In 1995, ESPN, a popular entertainment and sports programming channel launched an internet-based fantasy baseball game. Many other sports and entertainment companies followed suit after they saw just how popular it had become. 

ESPN saw massive growth, and millions played fantasy sports on their website. It is reported that 40 million people alone were playing from India, and in 2019, this number had grown to 90 million. 

Due to its popularity, ESPN and other popular sports networks created dedicated weekly fantasy programs that analyzed players’ performances. They also predicted outcomes in relation to the popular scoring system, which was extremely useful for the participants. 

ESPN’s on-demand streaming platform also saw how popular fantasy games were getting, so ESPN+ started offering a fantasy program called The Fantasy Show, which Matthew Berry hosted. 

Accessing the ESPN Fantasy App 

ESPN has an app available for its fantasy sports. This ESPN Fantasy Sports app is available on Play Store and App Store. If you want to download it, simply search for it and download it. 

Then, you can create an ESPN account if you are a first-time user or sign in with one that you already have. Then, there are many different sports options for you to choose from. Choose football from the top row.

From there, the app will direct you to ESPN Fantasy Football through the app. 

Starting or Joining a League

When you have signed in or signed up, you can either create a league or join an existing one. If you want to join a public league, tap the Join Public League option, and you can choose which one you want to join. 

If you want to start your own League, simply tap the Create New League Button. This will create a league, and you can change up the settings and put in your desired methods to play. You don’t have to be super careful when doing this because you can always change up the settings.

To form a league, you need people. You can invite friends and family through various apps such as Facebook, Twitter, text message, or email. It is always best to invite league managers as soon as possible, but it is your choice to create a league and invite participants later on. 

Customizing Your League Settings

If you need to change your league settings, you can go to your league or team page and click on League. Then navigate to Settings. Here, you can find general settings that you can change by choosing Edit.

Among the basic settings, there is League name, where you can set whatever league name you like. You can have fun with it and have it however you want. The only limit is that it should not contain any vulgar language or HTML and not be longer than 32 characters. 

Another league setting is the number of teams. Ideally, you choose to have an even number of teams as it makes it easier for you to compete head to head each week. You can also choose to have an odd number of teams, but your schedule will include bye weeks where teams will not be able to participate. 

The ideal number for most leagues is eight teams or fewer. By choosing less number of teams, you can ensure that the roster of these teams will be filled with high-quality players. You can also choose to enlarge each team’s roster and allow them to have two starting quarterbacks, extra wide receivers, etc.

Traditionally the size of most leagues is 10, which allows each team to have stars, but will also make getting those stars slightly challenging, which adds to the game’s fun. If you want to up the challenge, then having 12-14 teams will do the trick. 

Within the league settings, there is also an option to make it public. This option allows those outside your League to view it and join it.

Within the league settings, you can also change up the roster. Standard rosters usually include one quarterback, two wide receivers, two running backs, one tight end, one defense or special team, one kicker, and seven bench spots. 

However, there are limitless configurations that you can choose from. If you want to make the game more challenging, you can allow the teams to have more than one or two quarterbacks. This becomes challenging because they will have to go through the top 20-plus quarterbacks each week.

The league settings also include the option to set how you want the scoring done. Three options are available: PPR Standard, Standard, and Fractional. It is recommended that you choose the default PPR fractional scoring setup.

League and Team Pages

Once you have joined the ESPN fantasy league app, you will see several tabs at the top of the page. You can access the tabs by clicking on them.

My Team

The first main tab is usually the Team tab called My Team. Here you can make lineup changes and manage your injured list, and you must click on the Move button to make lineup changes.

Other tabs that show up underneath the My Team tab include Overview, Stats, Schedule, News, Projections, Ranks, and Team Settings.

Team settings are located in the upper right, where you can personalize your squad. You can give them a new name, a team logo, etc.

League

Home is a vital tab that can be found under the main league tab. From here, you can access your League’s home page. Here you will find options such as LM notes, which league managers use to keep you updated on essential league information. Here you will be able to find an overview of league activities, including trades, waiver moves, etc.

Another essential tab found under the league tab is Settings. Here you can construct your League to be precisely how you want it. To ensure that the league settings are helpful, study the rules and check every angle of these settings. 

Players

Players is another main tab that is very important. Under it, there are various other tabs such as add players, watch list, scoring leaders, etc., which can help you keep track of your players. 

You can also add players by clicking on Add Player. When you do so, the website will take you to a page where all the available free agents will pop up. To remove players, you will have to click Drop Players, and the site will remove them from your roster. 

The Watch list option allows you to keep track of a free agent during a season. If you click the flag button by his name, he will appear in the Player area as a player in your watch list. 

You can also keep track of the scorers in your League if you navigate to the scoring leader’s tab within Players. Here, the players are usually sorted by availability, position, and scoring type. ESPN also allows you to check out live draft trends for each player, which is very useful pre-draft. This option is called Live Draft Trend and is often broken down by position. 

Other options under this tab include Points Against, Added/Dropped, Player News, Projections, Waiver Order, Waiver Report, Undroppables, Budget Summary, Offers Reports, and Stat Corrections.

Other main tabs include Fantasy Cast, Scoreboard, Standings, and League Manager Tools.

Trading

Trading is one of the most fun parts of fantasy games, and it helps improve your team and get to know your fellow managers better in the process. ESPN’s fantasy site makes trading extremely simple. You can find the players you want to trade through the Players tab. Once you click on Filter: On Rosters, the players will show up. 

You also have the option to compare players by toggling the Compare Players switch. You can find this switch on the upper right. When you have found a player you would like to have on your team, click the blue double-arrow button located under Action. 

Once you have clicked the double arrow, the manager roster will open up, and you can check the box beside any player you would like to acquire and click Proceed to Next Step, which you can find at the bottom of the page.

You can repeat the steps for players you want to offer to other managers. From here, you can also drop players. Before you click Finalize Trade Offer, you should select how many days the manager should respond. 

Accessing Fantasy History

Learning from mistakes in the past is an excellent way to improve. ESPN offers you the ability to go back to previous seasons to see what went right and what went wrong. You can do so on the ESPN Fantasy app. 

If you are logged into the app and want in-depth advice, fantasy history, and player reviews, you will have to subscribe to ESPN+. It is a paid service that allows you access to numerous exclusive content that can significantly benefit you.

It is also one of the best sources of sports news, reviews, and more.

Conclusion

Fantasy Games have been around for a long time, and millions worldwide log in to various fantasy sites, like ESPN, one of the top fantasy sports apps for soccer, to participate in matches. However, knowing the game’s rules and navigating the ESPN site is of great help. 

Knowing which setting and options are where you save a lot of time and the trouble of fumbling around not knowing where the options you need are. Therefore, before you start playing, learn your way around the fantasy site for a better overall experience.