Types Of Fantasy Football Drafts
by 67 
With the growth of the internet, more and more people are getting interested in joining a fantasy sports league. Fantasy football is a game where participants are allowed to draft a team of real-life NFL players then each fantasy football team scores points based on all the drafted real-life players statistical performances. Fantasy football has two basic types of drafts: the snake draft and the auction draft.
In the NFL, the draft order is usually set by how you finished the previous season, kind of like a loser win stacking of the draft in order to make sure that even the worst teams get a shot at the talent on the draft board. However, in a fantasy football league, drafting is a little bit different, but sometimes it is exactly that. Here is a look at some of the available types of fantasy football drafts.
The Snake Draft
The snake draft is your standard fantasy football draft. If you are new to fantasy or you do not want to make a huge time commitment, you should play in a snake draft fantasy football league. The snake draft is divided into rounds. Draft orders are reversed in every round, creating a back and forth snakelike pattern hence the name “snake draft”. If you decide to pick first in the 1st round, you pick last in the next round and vice versa. The advantage of this type of draft is equality since your draft pick order gets inverted every round.
The key to becoming successful in a fantasy sports league using this draft method is to make preparations based on your draft position. This way, when you get to make an earlier pick, you get the chance to make a draft one of the biggest studs in the NFL. If you get to pick in the second round, you will be in a position to land at least top-15 players in the league.
The Auction Draft
The auction draft works a lot like an auction on eBay, where you bid on NFL players. The auction draft is considered as the most strategic and it is quickly gaining in popularity. An auction draft assigns each player is assigned a unit value and every fantasy team has a unit budget. It is required that each team must fill its roster requirements without exceeding its budget. You are allowed to bid as much as you want for a player provided that you still have enough units left to complete the rest of your roster.
Similar to the snake draft, the auction draft also has rounds where the number of rounds mirror the number of roster spots. However, instead of you drafting a player when it’s your turn in a round, you place the player on the auction block and bidding starts at your chosen amount.
The Straight Draft
The straight draft is the least common of the above mentioned fantasy sports league draft types. The straight draft works in a similar fashion like the NFL draft. The main advantage of here is competitive balance in the long-term.
To learn more about fantasy football league action, visit DraftStreet.
Jason Ihaji writes for a variety of blogs.
