So let’s assume you join FanDuel and you want to play fantasy baseball.

First, you log in. And after logging in, you’ll find yourself in the FanDuel Lobby.

Go to the left sidebar and you’ll see . . .

To play fantasy baseball, click on the “MLB” tab and you’ll be directed to the MLB Lobby.

Yes, it looks confusing on your first visit. There’s 1,000s of daily contests listed – which makes the list look complicated. But it’s not really. It just takes a couple of visits to become acclimated.

TYPES OF CONTESTS

You can start your own league or find a tournament.

But your every-day contests fall into three types. And, trust me, the contests are simple and they all employ a salary cap. Despite the 1,000s of daily contests listed, there are only three types of contests to choose from:

(1) GPPs

(2) 50/50s

(3) Head-to-Heads

GPPs

GPP stands for Guaranteed Prize Pools. They are the most popular contests for players looking to hit a home run – pun intended. The prize money is considerable and the prize pool is guaranteed no matter how many players participate.

In other words, you can win a lot of money. This is the type contest where you hear the ads about players winning thousands or even a million dollars. But with that much at stake, in my opinion, it attracts the toughest competition.

Only a small percentage of players win money and the prize money is graded down from first place on down the list of winners.

More players lose than win.

My son likes the GPPs because he’s always going for the home run – and sometimes he wins a pool. So if you’re looking for a larger score, GPPs are the way to go.

50/50s

In 50/50s, the top half of the finishers split the pool while the bottom half lose.

This is the format I used to get my feet wet. I go into each contest believing I’m better than half of the players participating. Therefore, my odds of winning prize money are greater than with the GPP pools. But at the same time, the prize moneys are considerably lower.

I lean toward the 50/50s because I want to collect on a more regular basis and hopefully build my bankroll in smaller-but-steady increments.

50/50s are an excellent starting point. When your skill level and confidence builds, you can always switch over to the GPPs.

Head-to-Heads

Head-to-head contests are winner-take-all affairs – mano to mano – one player wins and the other loses. You find the stakes that suit your comfort zone and you try to beat the other guy.

So that’s pretty much the basics about the three types of contests involved.

Tomorrow, I’ll get into the Scoring aspects on FanDuel’s fantasy baseball contests.

The MLB Fantasy Baseball action begins on April 6th at FanDuel, but you can get started right now. Contests are already listed and spots are filling. Just click the banner below.

Barry Bowe is the author of Born to Be Wild, 1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant, and 12 Best Eagles QBs.