With the 2026/27 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) season nearly upon us, so too is Fantasy Draft, another free-to-play option that offers a twist on the classic game.

Below, we provide a rundown of how it works, plus a ranked shortlist of the 100 best players to pick using our industry-leading season-long points projections!

How to sign up

You can sign up for FPL Draft here, using the exact same login details needed for classic FPL. Then, you can join a private league, which is for two to 16 managers, and invite others.

The game’s creators say eight teams is the “optimum size” for the draft process, to ensure the player pool won’t stretch too thin.

You also have the option to enter public leagues containing four, six or eight randomly assigned managers.

Also, previous competitions can be renewed; just ask your league administrator to go via the Start tab. Once that happens, all managers from last season are automatically re-added, though some can be removed post-renewal by the administrator.

Basics on how to play FPL Draft

The key difference compared to regular FPL is that each top-flight player is owned by only one manager per league. Therefore, just one participant can benefit from Erling Haaland’s goals. No more than one gets Bruno Fernandes’ assists.

Also, there isn’t any need for player prices or a budget from which to pick your 15-man squad – two goalkeepers, five defenders, five midfielders and three forwards.

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of the selection process, some final gameplay basics:

• Point scoring: FPL Draft sees players score points in the same way as traditional FPL. However, there are no captains or vice-captains.

• League scoring: FPL Draft administrators decide between ‘Classic’ or ‘Head-to-Head’ scoring when setting up the league, just like regular FPL.

In ‘Classic’ scoring, teams are ranked based on total Fantasy points accumulated. Whereas ‘Head-to-Head’ pairs off teams in weekly match-ups, giving three points to winners and one each when it’s a draw.

How does the FPL Draft process work?

Another responsibility for league administrators is choosing the format that decides which manager gets the first pick.

This can be determined randomly, or, in leagues where the same managers took part last season, there’s an option to give 2025/26’s last-placed manager the first pick, while the reigning champion goes last.

Either way, a manager picks one player in every round of the draft. And there’s a time limit to make each selection – 30, 60, 90 (default) or 120 seconds.

Under such pressure, it’s important to have your priorities in order. If the person before you picks the player you want, be ready to react with someone else.

Once round one’s picking order is decided, the rest of the process follows a ‘snake draft’ format, whereby the order is reversed next time. For example:

• Round 1: Team A, Team B, Team C, Team D, Team E

• Round 2: Team E, Team D, Team C, Team B, Team A
  

The aim of this is to try offering all managers as many opportunities as possible to choose balanced squads of a similar quality to the rest. So, if you had to wait a while during round one, your consolation is being able to choose earlier in round two.

What happens if I miss the FPL Draft event?

Dates and times of a private league’s draft are decided by the administrator. The only stipulation is that it must be completed before the upcoming Gameweek’s deadline (no later than 90 minutes before the opening match kicks off).

In public leagues, the draft takes place within 30 minutes after the first team joins.

There is also the option to run a mock draft, which could help people become familiar with the process and its time limits, before doing the real one.

Meanwhile, the ‘Watchlist’ function allows each manager to rank players in priority order. 

This is particularly helpful if you’re unable to take part in some, or all, of the live draft. In those situations, selections automatically happen on your behalf, based on the priority order.

Alternatively, if there’s no watchlist, the in-game ‘Draft Rank’ is used to make such default selections. This orders Premier League players based on their total 2025/26 FPL points, and/or their potential for points in 2026/27.

What if I’m not happy with my FPL Draft squad?

If you’re unhappy with the drafted squad, there are a few options.

Waivers, free agents and player trades

Managers can submit a ‘waiver request’ for someone new, make a direct swap for a still-unpicked individual, or even trade players with a rival manager. 

Any players who remain unselected at the end of the draft process are deemed to be free agents. They can be swapped into a squad during the 24 hours before a Gameweek deadline (‘Free Agency’ mode).

When new players are added to the game (or released by other managers after the draft), they are not automatically free agents and can initially only be signed through a waiver request.

This involves a proposed swap of someone in your squad for an available player in the same position.

A round of waivers runs once a week, and all of the requests are processed 24 hours before the Gameweek deadline. You can make any number of such requests each week, but they’ll need to be prioritised if there’s more than one.

At the waiver deadline, an automated process makes the transfers with the following priority:

• Before the first Gameweek: The reverse of the draft order
• In subsequent Gameweeks: Lowest-ranked manager gets first choice

When a waiver request is successful, that team then moves to the end of the Gameweek’s waiver queue. Afterwards, ‘Free Agency’ mode is active until the Gameweek deadline.

When it comes to managers trading players directly between themselves, separate to this process, there are also four trade settings for league administrators to choose from before the draft begins. 

They range from ‘All Trades’ – which are processed immediately – to ‘No Trades’.

‘Redrafts’

Furthermore, administrators have the power to schedule up to three additional drafts throughout the season.

These won’t affect the current league standings and can take place at any point. But deciding the Gameweek, date and time for such redrafts must be done before the prior Gameweek (eg/ a Gameweek 11 redraft must be scheduled before Gameweek 10’s deadline). 

All league managers will be notified about this by email.

Ranked: FPL Draft top 100 players

Finally, we’ve compiled a ranking of the top 100 prospects in FPL Draft.

This uses the trusty season-long player projections tool in our Members Area, at the time of writing:

The rest of this article below is completely free to read but requires a Fantasy Football Scout user account for access – you can get yours at no cost here