The Big Board - 2021 NFL Best Ball on Underdog

We are one week removed from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beating the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 in Super Bowl LV. All that phrase means to me is that 2020 NFL season is wrapped up and it is already time to look at drafting for the 2021 season. Underdog Fantasy continues to impress the Best Ball community and opened up a $10 entry fee tournament, called “The Big Board”. The main takeaway from this tournament is that it is one that is only open up until right before the NFL Draft happens as it closes on April 29th. With it already being over 40% full (2,400 out of 5,800 entrants), it is likely to fill up well before that April deadline.

I wanted to give some details on this tournament to help you if you are thinking of entering it once, twice, 10 times, or the max amount of 150 times.

General Tournament Information:

• Entry Fee = $10

• Total Entries in the Contest = 5,760

• Max Entries = 150

• Total Prize Pool = $50,000

• Rake = 13.2%

• Draft Size = 12-Man Drafts

• Roster Size = 18 Players

• Timer = 30 Seconds (Fast Draft)

• Starting Roster = 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex, 10 Bench

• Contest Closes = April 29th, 2021 at 4:12 PM

How The Tournament Works?

Entrants compete in groups (“Groups”) over the course of multiple rounds (“Rounds”).

• The Tournament will have 4 Rounds, the first Round consisting of 12-person Groups, the 2nd Round 12-person Groups, the 3rd Round 12-person Groups, and the Final Round a single 40 person group.

• The Tournament will consist of 5,760 total entries and in the first Round, a total of 480 12-person Groups.

• At the end of Round 1, the top three (3) performing entries in each Group will advance to Round 2 and potentially be awarded a prize (as described below). Round 2 will consist of 1,440 entries in 120 12-person Groups.

• At the end of Round 2, the top two (2) performing entries from each Group will advance to Round 3 and be awarded a prize (as described below). Round 3 will consist of 240 entries in 20 12-person Groups.

• At the end of Round 3, the top two (2) performing entries from each Group will advance to Round 4 and be awarded a prize (as described below). Round 4 will consist of 40 entries in 1 group.

• At the end of Round 4, the top one (1) performing entry from the Group will be the Grand Prize winner and prizes will be awarded to all entries in Round 4 (as described below).

• Rounds*

  • Round 1 – Week 1 - 14

  • Round 2 – Week 15

  • Round 3 – Week 16

  • Round 4 - Week 17

Prize Pool Breakdown:

• 1st = $10,000

• 2nd = $5,000

• 3rd = $2,500

• 4th = $1,250

• 5th = $650

• 6th = $450

• 7th = $375

• 8th = $330

• 9th = $300

• 10th = $275

• 11 - 20th = $180

• 21 - 30th = $165

• 31 - 40th = $150 (Guaranteed If you finish Top 2 in Round 3)

• 41 - 120th = $50

• 121 - 240th = $40 (Guaranteed If you finish Top 2 in Round 2)

• 241 - 720th = $15

• 721 - 1080th = $12

• 1081 - 1440th = $10 (Guaranteed If you finish Top 3 in Round 1)

That is the general idea and breakdown of Underdog Fantasy’s “The Big Board” tournament. The highlights of a tournament like this are the fact that everyone is on an equal playing field as Rookies and Free Agents don’t have their teams quite yet and every drafter in these drafts are having to make educated guesses on where these players fall in Free Agency and in the Draft. We will get some answers for the Free Agency part in March as it opens up for the NFL but as far as predicting where rookies will land (other than Trevor Lawrence with the Jags), every drafter has the same information. My personal favorite part of this contest is that the top 3 out of 12 teams move on to Round 2, and Top 2 teams in Round 2 and Round 3. I think that offers so much more value to your overall ROI in the end as it is not an all or nothing type of tournament as you have a 25% chance of getting your money back and moving onto Round 2. That 25% chance also does not account for the 1 or 2 teams that are dead from the start with bad roster construction, not stacking, not finding values, etc.

So the final question you might ask yourself, “Is there an edge in drafting a team in this type of tournament?” I say, Yes - there is always an edge but you have to put in the time and effort in your preparation leading up to drafting a team. Listen to NFL Draft podcasts, read about the prospects, study coaching changes/schemes, and know who are free agents and how it could effect teams depth charts if that player moves teams. The number one area that people lose out early in these drafts is by not preparing themselves. Do your rankings, adjust your rankings, don’t be afraid to rank/draft players before their current ADP, be different and have a general strategy but don’t be afraid to adjust it as you go.

I will be back with more tips and tricks and best of all my full set of NFL Underdog Rankings.

If you are a fan of Best Ball and want to discuss NFL Best Ball in general feel free to contact me via Twitter @JamesBrimacombe

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