League of Legends (LoL) is the most viewed eSports title in the world. Daily fantasy sports (DFS) providers let you cash in on the action by picking players from your favorite teams.
Fantasy League of Legends is an intriguing proposition for players due to its small player pools and large prize funds. We’re here to answer all your biggest questions and provide you with in-depth League of Legends fantasy sports site reviews so you know where to play.
Here are the best sites to play LoL DFS at:
| DraftKings | 20% up to $500 on first deposit | Visit Site | Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Help is available for problem gambling. Call (888) 789-7777 or visit ccpg.org(CT). 18+ in most eligible states, but age varies by jurisdiction. Eligibility restrictions apply. |
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DraftKings LoL DFS: Best Overall League of Legends DFS Site
When you play LoL fantasy sports, you want sites offering the highest guaranteed prize-pool tournaments (GPPs) possible. DraftKings has loads of high-payout GPPs and lower-risk cash game contests throughout the LoL eSports fantasy season.
Playing Fantasy League with DraftKings
DraftKings is a pioneer when it comes to eSports DFS, and has the best overall product for LoL fantasy players. The LoL DFS site is easy to use on both desktop and mobile formats and offers matchups from professional leagues like the LCS, LEC, LPL, and LCK.
Types of DraftKings Fantasy League of Legends Contests
During tournament season, the DraftKings League of Legends fantasy sports site offers bigger prize pools for tourneys like the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) and League of Legends World Championships. It even offers GPPs, double-ups, and head-to-head (H2H) contests for smaller competitions like the LoL: Masters Series.
The DraftKings LoL Fantasy App
DraftKings also publishes a high-quality DFS LoL fantasy app. It has a sleek user interface and its mobile site for smartphones and tablets lets you perform convenient mass player swaps if you find out your favorite Attack Damage Carry (ADC) or Mid Laner isn’t participating in a given matchup.
DraftKings Fantasy League of Legends Summary
DraftKings is the leading provider of LoL eSports DFS products. We use it regularly for all our daily fantasy needs. Our in-depth DraftKings review explains why it’s an ideal site for beginners and experienced users alike.
Monkey Knife Fight LoL Fantasy: Top Site for Beginners
Monkey Knife Fight (MKF) bills itself as “the DFS site for the rest of us”. It’s the best League of Legends daily fantasy site for beginners because it features contests winnable without fancy math and lets you avoid the shark-infested player pools found at other sites.
MKF League of Legends Fantasy Site Features
Monkey Knife Fight has several features you won’t find anywhere else. It creates fantasy League betting proposition markets, so correct picks win you a multiple of your buy-in regardless of how other users perform. It also has a unique online shop where you can buy high-quality MKF swag.
The Monkey Knife Fight LoL DFS App
The Monkey Knife Fight app for iOS and Android devices is useful in its simplicity. It’s not as intimidating as some of the other DFS apps you can find, so playing fantasy League of Legends from your smartphone or tablet is a breeze and easy for newcomers to understand.
MKF Fantasy League of Legends Summary
We love what Monkey Knife Fight is doing. It combines prop betting with fantasy sports to create a one-of-a-kind gambling platform for users. You don’t even need to draft a League of Legends fantasy team; simply log in and make your picks before you watch the day’s matches. Read our Monkey Knife Fight review and get a full explanation of how the site works.
Bethard DFS: Top New League of Legends DFS Site
Bethard is a new entry to the burgeoning stable of American daily fantasy sites. With several years of experience in Europe, it brings a new take on traditional LoL fantasy sports.
Fantasy League of Legends at Bethard
Playing LoL DFS at Bethard is a refreshing experience for players who don’t have the time or budget to compete at bigger sites. Instead of building a roster with multiple players at certain positions, you pick one player for each spot. Plus, it has a snazzy interface to help you make your selections.
Play DFS LoL with Friends
If you want to play against your friends, Bethard makes creating DFS LoL contests a cinch. You can make head-to-head and multi-user competitions for major tournaments and leagues including MSI and the LCS. Even with the rake, it’s great for office pools and private LoL eSports fantasy leagues.
Bethard League of Legends Fantasy Site Summary
As a new League of Legends fantasy site, Bethard is up against stiff competition. However, as we mention in our Bethard review, we think it’s the best new DFS operator offering fantasy LoL. We are looking for big things from Bethard as it gains a foothold in the American market.
How to Play Fantasy League of Legends
Playing fantasy League of Legends is a fantastic way to get involved in the action. Depending on the operator you play with, there are several formats and contest types. The basic LoL DFS format requires you to draft a certain number of players while staying under a set salary cap.
DraftKings Classic Contests
DraftKings classic contests are the most common option played by LoL fantasy players. Roster construction involves a selection for each position, plus a captain who receives 1.5x the number of points, as well as a team, for a total of seven picks. The salary cap is $50,000.
DraftKings LoL DFS Scoring
Scoring consists of several factors. Kills, assists, deaths, creep score (CS), and other areas relevant to the performance of teams and players have point values that accumulate throughout the game. If you draft your lineup well, you can put yourself in the position to take down a tournament or beat your head-to-head rival.
Check out the following table to see how scoring works for DraftKings classic LoL contests. As you can see, you should focus on players who are in spots to get a lot of kills and assists while minimizing deaths.
| Statistic | Fantasy Points |
|---|---|
| Kills | +3 Pts |
| Assists | +2 Pts |
| Deaths | -1 Pt |
| Creep Score | +0.02 Pts |
| 10+ K/A Bonus | +2 Pts |
| Statistic | Fantasy Points |
|---|---|
| Turrets | +1 Pt |
| Dragons | +2 Pts |
| Barons | +3 Pts |
| First Blood | +2 Pts |
| Win | +2 Pts |
| Win in Under 30 Minutes Bonus | +2 Pts |
Roster Requirements
A standard DraftKings LoL DFS lineup requires seven selections. It’s important to consider synergies between positions near each other on the map.
ADC and Support are the only team members who share a lane (bottom lane), while the Jungler and Mid Laner (and occasionally the Top Laner) frequently set each other up for valuable early game ganks. The positions are as follows:
- Captain (Scores 1.5x Points)
- Top Laner
- Jungler
- Mid Laner
- Attack Damage Carry (ADC)
- Support
- Team
A successful lineup maximizes correlation. An optimal LoL DFS lineup normally consists of a 4-3 or 4-2-1 stack. The ADC and Mid Laner usually score the most points because they scale well into the late game.
Therefore, it’s worth considering those positions as your captain and connecting them with a Support for an ADC captain or a Jungler with a captain from the middle lane.
It’s worth noting that game stacks, a common strategy in other popular DFS sports like baseball, football, and hockey, almost always have a negative correlation in League of Legends DFS. Stacks from winning teams almost always have more points than ones from the losing team.
Bethard Daily LoL Fantasy Contests
The format at Bethard for LoL DFS games is similar to the one found at DraftKings. Instead of drafting a captain though, you simply draft the best five-player roster possible. Plus, with smaller player pools, you won’t be up against sharks using complicated (and expensive) DFS optimizer software.
Scoring at Bethard for LoL DFS
Bethard uses a scoring system with a smaller spread between the statistics awarding the most positive and negative points. At established sites like DraftKings or FanDuel, you should concentrate on players who get the most kills.
At Bethard though, individual players receive team-based points, making full team stacks the way to go. Take a look at the scoring system to see what we mean. With no team to draft, team-based stats essentially get multiplied by the number of players you have on your roster from a specific team.
| Catagory | Points |
|---|---|
| Kill | +3 |
| Death | -3 |
| Assist | +15 |
| First Blood | +7 |
| Turret Takedown | +1 |
| Baron Kill | +10 |
| Dragon Kill | +3 |
| Creep Score | +0.03 |
Roster Requirements
Drafting an LoL daily fantasy team at Bethard requires you to pick one player from each position, with a valid roster consisting of members from a minimum of two teams. Once again, it’s important to consider stacking positions that influence each other at different points in the game.
Even with smaller lineups, players are only eligible for one position, removing the flexibility the captain spot provides at DraftKings. This benefits less-experienced players who may not see all the angles for maximizing upside. Here are the required positions for Bethard LoL DFS lineups:
- Top Laner
- Jungler
- Mid Laner
- Attack Damage Carry (ADC)
- Support
With team-based points spread out over your entire roster, roster correlation is even more important at Bethard than at other sites. If you get it right, taking down a tournament with a 3-2 stack is not uncommon.
Monkey Knife Fight LoL Contests
At Monkey Knife Fight, you don’t play against other users. Instead, you bet against the house, making your LoL picks using over/under markets based on fantasy points.
MKF: More or Less
Monkey Knife Fight calls its basic contest format “More or Less”. As the name implies, you predict whether a player scores more or fewer fantasy points than what the platform presents.
MKF Fantasy LoL Betting Markets
With no rosters, positions, or salary constraints, MKF is the perfect place to learn the basics of playing League of Legends daily fantasy sports.
For “More or Less” contests, you simply need to correctly predict the performances of two individual players to get paid, saving you hours of research needed to be successful at other sites.
| Catagory | Points |
|---|---|
| Kill | +3 |
| Assist | +2 |
| Death | -1 |
| Creep Score | +0.02 |
Making MKF LoL DFS Picks
Before you make your picks, you should consider a few things. First, you should be familiar with how MKF scoring works. Kills, assists, and deaths all affect player point totals.
Then, you should think about the current most effective tactics available (META). The META determines the champions players select and how the overall composition of the teams (the synergisms between all the positions) may impact individual performances.
LoL DFS Tips & Strategy
League of Legends is a video game in the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre. Players control characters, known as champions, trying to destroy enemy defense towers and ultimately their base. The game is played on a single map known as Summoner’s Rift.
LoL DFS Roster Construction
To play League of Legends DFS, you need to understand the roles each team member plays. Each position on the map has a specific purpose and requires specialization at the professional level, which can help you develop your overall LoL DFS strategy.
There are three lanes on Summoner’s Rift, referred to as the top, middle, and bottom lanes. The top and middle lanes have one champion a piece, while the bottom lane has two.
The fifth position, the Jungler, roams the map to assist other players throughout the game.
Filling out a solid LoL DFS lineup requires deep knowledge of how the positions and champions interact with each other to influence the outcome of a match.
Pro League of Legends teams draft their champions during the pick/ban phase before games start according to the META to have the best composition possible.
Top Lane
The top lane is somewhat isolated from the other positions. Therefore, players usually want tanky characters with strong survivability traits into the lane to survive the early game.
Playing this role requires great one-on-one skills to get through the laning phase. During the mid-to-late game phase, Top Laners play an important front-line role, absorbing damage in team fights over objectives to protect the more attack-minded Mid Laner and ADC.
Examples of champions frequently played in top lane at the professional level include Gwen, Jax, and Jayce.
Jungler
The Jungler is the only player without a lane assignment in the early game. To scale effectively, Junglers need to help laners by setting up ganks.
Ganks are surprise attacks executed by Junglers to secure early game kills for the carries who are the primary damage dealers.
The most common ganks are in the middle and top lanes. The Jungler often assists the Mid Laner to secure kills and acquire gold to level up weapons to do damage in mid-game team fights.
It’s usually worth stacking an effective mid-jungle duo when you construct your League of Legends DFS rosters. You can also think about adding the Top Laner, especially if they like to team up with their Jungler and Mid Laner to help with ganks, for a three-man stack.
Popular Junglers include Nocturn, Skarner, and Viego.
Middle Lane
The middle lane is arguably the hardest position to play. Players must have superior map awareness and quick reaction times to influence matches as effectively as possible.
The Mid Laner’s role is complex. In the early laning phase, players need to concentrate on killing minions to increase their CS and gold, harassing their opponents, and looking for roaming opportunities to help the top and bottom lanes.
Mid Laners need to do all this while avoiding ganks from the enemy Jungler and securing valuable kills when possible to acquire gold, weapons, and levels as quickly as possible to help their team win objectives during mid-game team fights.
The best Mid Laners for daily fantasy purposes are attack-minded carries rather than roaming map controllers. Carry-style mids accrue more kills and assists, and thus, more fantasy points.
Popular midle lane champions include Galio, Tristana, and Azir.
Attack Damage Carry (ADC)
The Attack Damage Carry is the easiest player to kill on the team. For this reason, it’s played with a partner in the bottom lane, known as the Support. The ADC has a single role; gain CS to scale as quickly as possible so they can do as much damage as possible during team fights.
ADCs need the support of the rest of the team in terms of acquiring kills. League of Legends awards kills to players who have the last hit on their enemies, so most teams funnel easy kills to their ADC so the high-powered champions receive the extra gold to buy weapons with.
When you think about your LoL DFS strategy, consider stacking ADCs with their co-laners in the Support position or using them in spots awarding a points multiplier. ADCs usually have the most kills and CS on the team, with the fewest deaths, making it the highest-scoring fantasy LoL position on average.
Favorite ADC champions for pros include Kai’sa, Ezrael, and Xayah.
Support
The Support player is the team’s utility role. Usually equipped with strong defenses and lots of binding crowd control, the Support’s main job is to keep the ADC alive during the laning phase.
In the mid-game, the Support turns into a roaming assist machine, helping other laners make plays and helping secure objectives. In late-game team fights, the Support is responsible for locking down the opponent’s back lines and preventing them from freely dealing damage.
Supports usually don’t get many kills, so you want to draft players in this position who like to play champions with strong area-of-effect crowd control so you can maximize the potential for scoring fantasy points from assists.
Champions commonly found in the Support position are Morgana, Nautilus, and Thresh.
Guide to the Rules and Roles of LoL
Video can be a helpful resource for those new to LoL DFS. For a more in-depth look at pro-level play, here is a video outlining the rules and roles of professional League of Legends competition:
Professional League of Legends Leagues, Format, & Teams
Before you dive into playing at a League of Legends daily fantasy site, it’s worth knowing the teams and competitions you will be gambling on. Riot Games, which develops League of Legends, organizes and oversees all matches at the professional level.
Professional League of Legends Leagues
There are several professional LoL leagues throughout the world, but there are four primary regional leagues and two main tournaments. Here’s a list of the main competitions:
- Legends Pro League (LPL) – China
- League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) – South Korea
- League of Legends European Championship (LEC) – Europe
- Legends Championship Series (LCS) – USA
- Mid Season Invitational (MSI)
- League of Legends World Championship (Worlds)
LoL Season Format
The professional League of Legends season is broken down into two splits; the Spring Split and the Summer Split. The Spring Split begins with a lock-in tournament and culminates with the Mid Season Invitational, and the Summer Season ends with the World Championship.
The Most Successful LoL Teams
The most important tournament in League of Legends is the League of Legends World Championship. Eight teams can call themselves winners in the 12-year existence of the tournament. Here are the most successful LoL teams:
- T1 (South Korea)
- Gen.G (South Korea)
- Fnatic (United Kingdom)
- Damwon Gaming Kia (South Korea)
- Edward Gaming (China)
- Royal Never Give Up (China)
As you can see, Asian teams dominate professional League of Legends. With how popular eSports are in the region, it’s hard to see this changing anytime soon. Think about choosing players from these regions if you’re constructing lineups for fantasy esports League of Legends competitions during MSI or Worlds.
The Most Famous League of Legends Players
There are several household names among professional League of Legends fans and LoL DFS pros. You should strongly consider including these players in your League of Legends fantasy team if they appear on a given slate. Here are the most famous LoL players worldwide:
- Faker (T1 – Mid Laner)
- Gala (Royal Never Give Up – ADC)
- Rekkles (Karmine Corp – ADC)
- Perkz (Vitality – Mid Laner)
- TheShy (Weibo Gaming – Top Laner)
- Elyoya (Mad Lions – Jungler)
The Top League of Legends Fantasy App
The best LoL fantasy app by far is DraftKings. It has a fully functional app downloadable for both Android and iOS devices. However, several of its competitors create high-quality LoL daily fantasy apps worth talking about. Here are the ones we enjoy using most:
- DraftKings
- Monkey Knife Fight
- Bethard
- FanDuel
- PrizePicks
- SuperDraft
Helpful League of Legends DFS Resources
Before you use a League of Legends fantasy site, you should brush up on your knowledge. Luckily there is a multitude of websites and resources dedicated to the LoL eSports DFS scene. While eSports is relatively new in terms of daily fantasy sports, many of the concepts that apply to traditional daily fantasy sports correlate with playing League of Legends DFS.
New players can watch games for free using Riot Games’ live streaming and video-on-demand (VOD) services through the League of Legends client. Watching matches and replays is the best way to learn about the gameplay, teams, and players.
Learning about the teams in the four main professional leagues is a must if you want to be successful. The way teams navigate the pick/ban phase of choosing champions, implement their gameplans, and play around certain team members can help you quickly identify the best plays on a slate.
There are also several sites offering paid subscriptions for League of Legends DFS lineup optimizers, which are powerful analytics platforms. However, some of these sites are better than others, so it’s worth doing extensive research and asking around on forums like Reddit to see which of these LoL DFS tools are the most powerful.
YouTube is another useful resource for people new to League of Legends daily fantasy sites. Several ex-professionals review professional League of Legends matches, providing you with valuable insight into matchups and overall strategy. Plus, you may even find some DFS pros posting videos dedicated to showing you the ropes free of charge.
Final Thoughts on Choosing a League of Legends Fantasy Site
Fantasy LoL is booming. The COVID-19 pandemic turned a lot of people onto fantasy eSports, so many new users came to LoL DFS. This means the player pools at the average League of Legends fantasy site are less skilled and less knowledgeable than the ones found for more traditional sports.
We can confidently recommend any of the sites we list on this page. Our favorite League of Legends fantasy site is DraftKings for its roster flexibility, top-notch app, and massive prize pools. But don’t take our word for it, go ahead and sign up today.
| DraftKings | 20% up to $500 on first deposit | Visit Site | Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Help is available for problem gambling. Call (888) 789-7777 or visit ccpg.org(CT). 18+ in most eligible states, but age varies by jurisdiction. Eligibility restrictions apply. |
Frequently Asked Questions
While we tried to make this guide to picking a League of Legends fantasy site as comprehensive as possible, our readers occasionally have more specific questions. Here are our answers to the most common queries regarding LoL DFS.
What is the best site for playing League of Legends fantasy contests?
The best League of Legends fantasy site in our opinion is DraftKings. It's an industry leader for a reason, and we appreciate its appeal to all types of LoL fantasy players, new and veteran alike.
When does the fantasy LoL season start?
Fantasy LoL usually starts with lock-in tournaments for the major leagues in January or February. The season is split into two sections, with separate playoffs and champions. There is a major tournament at the end of each split, with a victory at Worlds after the summer competitions being the primary objective for every team.
Is fantasy League of Legends legal?
Yes, fantasy LoL is fully legal in 41 out of the 50 states and Washington, D.C. Provided you are in a state with a legal operator, you should have no issues creating an account and drafting lineups right away.
How do I play LoL eSports fantasy contests?
With so many different sites, there are several ways to play League of Legends DFS. You can see our guide on how to play LoL DFS by site for a more in-depth look at the format at each operator.
What is fantasy League of Legends?
Fantasy League of Legends is a daily fantasy sport in which you pay an entry fee and draft lineups according to how you believe players will perform. A key difference between each of the League of Legends daily fantasy sites is the contest rules and constraints, which can drastically alter your experience.
How do I win at fantasy LoL eSports?
Fantasy LoL eSports are a form of gambling, so wins are never guaranteed. However, statistics show that DFS is primarily skill-based, which is the reason for its widespread legalization. Check out our strategy guide to learn the basics of playing LoL DFS.