Yahoo Best Ball is here: 101 guide on how to play this low-maintenance fantasy game

Yahoo Fantasy Football is already the best place to play and win, but we just made things even better. We’re thrilled to announce that Best Ball is officially open for the 2019 NFL season!

If you’re new to Best Ball, it brings all the awesome aspects of fantasy — drafting a team, rooting for your players each week, and being part of a community — without the stress and pressure of managing a roster throughout the football season.

Let’s walk through the key points, so you can get ready for the best season of fantasy yet!

What is Best Ball?

Best ball is an increasingly popular type of Fantasy Sports game loosely based on the golf scoring format of the same name. Simply put, Best Ball is a simplified version of fantasy football that removes the week-to-week roster management for a streamlined experience.

Things still start with what is the favorite day of the season for many fantasy players: The draft. After you draft a 20-player team (the same way you would in a typical season-long fantasy team — minus kickers), you’ve completed the biggest, most important part of Best Ball.

That means no waiver pickups and no trades; forget about scrambling for a bye week replacement or sweating over who to start each week. The reason why Best Ball is so popular is that you don’t have to worry about the tough decisions of season-long formats while still enjoying all fantasy has to offer.

You draft and then you let your team work. But now that you’ve built your roster (and you won’t want to have just one Best Ball team when it’s that easy, now do you?), how does scoring work and how is a league champion crowned?

How do you play?

1. Your best lineup will be calculated for you each week. What does that mean? Well ...

2. The highest scorers at each position (1 QB, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, 1 TE, 1 FLEX, 1 Defense/Special Teams) will make up your lineup automatically.

3. Again, you don’t have to make ANY roster moves and due to that ...

4. This is where roster construction during the draft comes into play. You have to balance depth and upside to give yourself the best chance to rack up points on a weekly basis since your lineup is automatically built for you.

5. Default scoring is half-point-per-reception. Yahoo Best Ball is a points league with no playoffs.

6. Your point total is a running tally with the highest-scoring team winning the league at the end of the season, which is Week 16.

We’ll have plenty on strategy in the coming weeks to get you ready to draft!

Why should you play Best Ball on Yahoo?

If you’re already playing Fantasy Sports, this is one more way to get in on the fun and competition with Yahoo’s award-winning games.

For you diehard players, Best Ball offers many intriguing possibilities:

• Increase the number of leagues you’re able to join without any more work than showing up for your draft.

• Select players you might have missed out on in traditional season-long leagues.

• Be better prepared than you would be with mock drafts. Is there anything more annoying than someone taking a kicker in Round 2 and the whole mock being a waste of time? Well, that won’t happen with Best Ball — remember, there are season-long stakes on the line!

For those of you who are new to fantasy or are on the fence about playing this year, Best Ball offers a stress-free way to get in on the excitement of drafting and rooting for players each week without the perceived time commitment that would keep you from making the plunge.

We’ll have free leagues as well as paid options, so you can find the right fit for your interests. We’re launching Best Ball with public leagues only.

Just like with season-long fantasy, you’ll be able to play on desktop and our mobile app (coming soon).

So what are you waiting for? Join a Best Ball league now!