Sky Sports are the first fantasy premier league site to open. That can only be good as it will mean more bargain hunting potential. I haven’t done it before but it seems a broadly straightforward. It has the following key fantasy premier league points to using the Barclay fantasy premier league site as the precedent:
Premier league games only
30 transfers per season. 5 games max per month
Double points captain although only 1 change per week?
No wildcard
No substitutes
Player values don’t appear to change
No vice captain
No 3-4-3
No limits on players from anyone team
Every position has same points (5) for a goal
High goals against points
Pass and tackle points to allow a defensive midfielder to be an option
No clean sheet points for midfielders
“Generally… last clean pass” assist rule
Man of the match points no guidelines though
Clean sheet rule is 75minutes
Not sure if game week 1 is a double yet?
Warnings of site stability on last minute changes
Decent prizes
Not sure how many people participate.
I did the ESPN fantasy soccer site for fantasy premier league last year which was a similar site but with subs and did ok about 100 from 100k people. I’m pretty sure I’m going to do this and open a league. I’ll keep you posted.
Here’s a few initial thoughts on the site:
The lack of subs and limited transfers plus no wildcard makes you very vulnerable to injuries and rotation.
The emphasis on goals scored and lack of differentiation in points between goals for positions will mean an emphasis on elite attackers.
The penalty for goals against and lack of rotation with no subs makes a cheap defence difficult
It will be hard to recover from a bad opening team selection given the lack of transfers and wildcard
4-3-3 seems the only realistic formation
Luck will play a huge part
So that’s a quick fantasy premier league summary and interpretation.
Below is the fantasy premier league detail from Sky Sports. Excuse the cut and paste frenzy but here’s the detail from the Sky Sports site below, complete with cheesy sales pitch, if you’re interested. I’ve also attached an interview with the winner, also cut and pasted from Sky Sports, which is relatively interesting from a fantasy premier league point of view.
“The time has come to name your team for the 2012/13 Fantasy Premier League season and picking your all conquering line-up couldn’t be simpler:
Pick 11 players keeping within the £75m budget.
Use your tactical expertise to select one of five formations:
4-3-3: Four defenders, three midfielders and three strikers.
4-4-2: Four defenders, four midfielders and two strikers.
4-5-1: Four defenders, five midfielders and one striker.
3-5-2: Three defenders, five midfielders and two strikers.
5-3-2: Five defenders, three midfielders and two strikers.
You can have as many players from any Premier League club but remember the £75M budget! Once you’ve picked your team you’ll be asked to name a captain who will score double points.
The players you choose score points for you based on their performances in the 2012/13 Premier League. Before the first Premier League match kicks off on August 18th you can make unlimited changes to your team. Then, once the season kicks off you will have 30 transfers to make over the course of the season, but can make no more than 5 per calendar month.
Following on from last season’s success Live Scoring has come back new and improved, this means as every game is being played you can see an indication of your team’s progress during the course of the games!
SCORING POINTS: Players in your team will score points based on their real-life performance in Premier League matches during the 2012/13 season only. Points will be scored from the first eligible Premier League on Saturday 18th August 2012 and up to an including the last eligible matches scheduled to be played on Sunday 19th May 2012 (or when so ever played). Points will be awarded as follows:
All Players:
Starting XI +2 (awarded for starting the match in the starting XI)
Substitute appearance +1 (awarded for making a substitute appearance having started the match on the substitute’s bench)
Goal scored +5
Goal assist +3 (assists may be awarded to more than one player)
Man of the match +5 (awarded to the Skysports.com man of the match which may differ from the televised man of the match)
Missed Penalty (penalty taker) -3 (penalty taker fails to score direct from the penalty kick)
Yellow card -1
Red card -3 (includes -1 for a yellow card)
Goalkeepers and Defenders only:
Team clean sheet +5 (awarded to players who have played for 75 minutes or more in the game and includes the substitute appearance point if applicable)
Goal against -1
Missed Penalty (goalkeeper) +3 (awarded if no goal is scored direct from the penalty kick – save or missed)
Bonus Points
Player completes 60 or more passes: 2pts
Player completes 4 or more successful tackles: 2pts
Bonus points will be awarded based on strict criteria from our stats provider OPTA. The judge’s decision in respect of the awarding of points will be final and they will not enter into any correspondence regarding points deducted or allocated to players.
“The drama of the Premier League final day which captured the imagination of football fans around the world was even more significant to one man – with Sergio Aguero’s last-gasp strike earning Michael Shipley the Sky Sports Fantasy Football title.
That goal ensured the IT professional turned Fantasy footy boss landed the £25k jackpot after he handed the Manchester City striker the captaincy for the season’s climax.
Shipley’s ‘Renmeister Generals’ sat third heading into the final weekend of the season, but went on to win the title by a mere six points after Aguero’s vital goal and the subsequent Sky Sports man-of-the-match bonus worth five points apiece.
With Aguero wearing the armband, that strike actually racked up 20 points for Shipley, who had kept faith with the game’s overall top scorer Robin van Persie for most of the season.
He said: “I had Van Persie as my captain for the majority of the season but ended up getting Aguero in for the last week, which proved decisive in the end.
Unlike the City fans who knew they were champions as soon as Aguero’s strike found the net, the 34-year-old from Leeds had to wait until the Fantasy leaderboard was updated before he could be sure the title was his.
“I had an inkling that I had a good chance so I was constantly refreshing the leaderboard,” he added. “So it was more of a relief from the intense anticipation once the update occurred.
Favouring frontmen
With regards to the rest of his team, Shipley used a combination of finding cheaper defenders from the most stringent backlines and bagging bargains for his midfield – saving plenty of pennies for his big-scoring frontmen.
He added: “I tend to go for the value defenders within the good teams like Luis Enrique and Jonny Evans.
“I mixed it up quite a bit in midfield with the likes of Gylfi Sigurdsson and Clint Demspey, saving money so I could get the best strikers – at one point I had Aguero, Wayne Rooney and Van Persie.”
