DFS Hero terms

This page defines the names DFS Hero uses on its own screens, in alphabetical order, with a link to the guide that covers each one. General daily fantasy words such as GPP, chalk, and bring-back live in DFS terms.

Active strip

The line in the Build Settings header that lists what will constrain the next build, for example 1 Stack Rule or Max Exp 40%. It stays hidden while every setting is at its default. See Build Settings overview.

Actual

The real fantasy points a player or lineup scored on a finished slate. It appears as an Actual column in the grid and as a Rank by option on scored past slates. See Read the player grid.

Advanced Mode

A switch in the grid's more menu that adds the simulation columns Vegas, Floor, Ceiling, and the salary multiples. See Read the player grid.

Apply Exposure To

The Exposure tab setting that picks which players the blanket exposure values stamp: My Pool, Filtered, or All. See The Exposure tab.

Auto-schedule

A setting on your default Playbook that schedules a cloud build as soon as you upload entries for a slate. Power plan. See Manage playbooks.

Automate builds

The button in the Day View stats bar that opens a sheet to build every slate with entries at once, now or 5 to 30 minutes before lock. Power plan. See Schedule a cloud build.

Balanced Exposure

A Selection method that matches each player's exposure in Entries Preview to how often your pool uses them. It works with or without a simulation and is the default before a sim. See Selection methods.

Bankroll Tracker

The former name of Film Room. See Film Room.

Boost

A step of 5% on one player's projection, up to three steps up. The fire icon in the grid's Boost column adds a step, and the optimizer, the simulator, and the Swap sheet use the boosted number. See Boost and dock a player.

Build

One optimizer run that produces a pool of lineups for a slate. The Build button opens Build Settings, and the sheet's footer starts the run. Every build counts against your plan's per-build cap. See Build Settings overview.

Build & Sim

The build mode that builds the pool and then simulates it in one pass. It is the default once you upload an entries file, and it enables the Sim tab in Build Settings. See Build and sim.

Build note

A one-line note you write on a build, up to 140 characters, from the Manage builds sheet. It shows on the build's row there and in the tooltip on its tab, and it follows the build to every device. See Saved builds and tabs.

Build Only

The default build mode when no entries file is uploaded. It builds the pool and stops, and you can simulate the pool later from the lineups panel. See The Basic tab.

Build Settings

The sheet that opens when you click Build. Its tabs are Basic, Exposure, Min/Max, Stacks, Groups, Sim, and Templates. See Build Settings overview.

Build stats

The popover behind the chevron in the lineups panel. It summarizes the working set's projection, ownership, salary, and, after a sim, its simulation results. See Read sim results.

Build tab

One build's settings, pool, and lineups inside a slate tab, shown as a chip in the workspace toolbar. See Saved builds and tabs.

Cash

A sim metric: the share of simulated contests in which the lineup finished in a paid place. The general term is in DFS terms. See Read sim results.

Ceiling

A player's 95th-percentile simulated score, so 1 in 20 simulated games lands above it. It shows as an Advanced Mode column, as CEIL on a player card, and as a Rank by option for lineups after a sim. See Read the player grid.

Cloud build

A Playbook run that DFS Hero executes for you before lock, with your browser closed. You pick a lead time of 5 to 30 minutes in the When row, and the result lands in the Mission Report. Power plan. See Schedule a cloud build.

Command palette

The search box that opens with Cmd+K on macOS or Ctrl+K elsewhere. It jumps to pages, open and unopened slates, builds, playbooks, players, and actions such as Open Swap. See Navigate the app.

Constraints

The Basic tab block that bounds a whole lineup's sums: Min Total Ownership %, Max Total Ownership %, Min Total Projection, Max Total Projection, and Force low ownership players. See The Basic tab.

Contest Analyzer

The sheet that opens a finished contest's real leaderboard inside the workspace, with every lineup, the field's real ownership, and the winning stacks. See Contest results and the Contest Analyzer.

Contest Lobby

The Contests tab on the Day View. It lists the biggest contests across every slate on the date, with a button that opens the slate straight into a build. See Find contests.

Contest Setup

The popover behind the gear in the Entries Preview controls. It holds Priority, Fill order, Duplicates, the per-contest FILL FROM select, the per-contest Fill switch, and the Picks count. See Contest Setup and Fill.

Contest Simulation

The sheet that opens from Simulate in the lineups panel, where you set up and run your sim scenarios. See Run your first sim.

Contest Size

A scenario field: the total number of entries in the simulated contest. See Contest simulation settings.

Contests panel

The rail inside a slate workspace that lists every contest on that slate. After you upload entries it puts your entered contests on top. See Find contests.

Credits

Money on your DFS Hero account that comes off your next invoice. You earn credits in Hero contests, on Discord, and through the Hero Streak. See Credits.

Dashboard

Your home page outside the workspace. It shows your build activity, the Hero IQ card, your Film Room summary, credits, and recent slates. See Dashboard.

Day View

The home screen of the app: every slate for one date, with filters by site, format, and sport. The button that opens it is labelled Day View. See Day View.

Default playbook

The one Playbook per sport and site that you mark with a star. It is the only Playbook that can auto-schedule. See Manage playbooks.

Dock

A step of 5% down on one player's projection, up to three steps. The ice icon in the grid's Boost column adds a step. See Boost and dock a player.

Divide Between Players

An option under Manual Randomness and under the exposure controls. It splits the percentage across the players instead of applying the full value to each one. See Randomness.

Duplicates (Contest Setup)

The Contest Setup switch between All Unique and Allow Repeats. It decides whether one lineup may fill more than one entry across your contests. See Contest Setup and Fill.

Earlier builds

Entries

Your contest entries, loaded from the entries CSV that DraftKings or FanDuel exports. DFS Hero fills them with lineups and writes the file back for upload. See Upload your entries.

Entries Preview

The lineups panel tab that holds the working set: the lineups this build would put in your entries. It is always a preview, on every build. The Fill button copies it into your saved entries. The same name is the count control on the Basic tab. To see what your entries hold right now, open the Entries view. See The lineups panel.

Entries view

The page that shows the lineups your entries hold right now, per contest, with the exposure inside one contest or across every contest, and the Swap sheet. It opens from View entries in the entries popover, from the slate on the Day View, or from the command palette. See View your entries.

Entry Size

A scenario field: the contest's maximum entries per user, for example 150 in a 150-max contest. It is not your own entry count. See Contest simulation settings.

Essential

The base plan. It builds up to 500 lineups per build and includes the simulator, entries, late swap, Replay of a single contest, and Film Room. See Plans: Essential and Power.

Exact build

A build with Smart Randomness off and Manual Randomness at 0, of up to 500 lineups. Each lineup is the highest-projected lineup your rules still allow after the lineups before it. Above 500 lineups the build turns on Smart Randomness and tells you. See Randomness.

Exclude

The circle icon next to a player that removes the player from the build pool. See Lock, exclude, and filter players.

Export

Writing your saved entries into the original entries file and downloading it for upload to the site. Export never changes your entries. See Export and upload to DraftKings and Export and upload to FanDuel.

Exposure

The share of your own lineups that contain a player, a team, or a stack. Min Exp and Max Exp bound it during a build, and the Player Exposure grid shows it afterwards. See Player exposure after a build.

Fill

Assigning built lineups to your uploaded entries, contest by contest. The Fill button in the Entries Preview footer does it, for the contests switched on. After one Fill, Live Sync keeps those entries synced with the build. See Contest Setup and Fill.

FILL FROM

A per-contest switch in Contest Setup. A contest either follows the Selection or picks its own lineups from the full pool by a metric or a method. See Post-sim tools.

Fill order

The Contest Setup option that sets the order in which contests claim lineups: Priority Order, Snake Draft, or Shuffle Draft. See Contest Setup and Fill.

Film Room

The page that turns your real contest results into profit, ROI, and in-the-money tables and charts, and compares your entries with each contest's field. DFS Hero tracks your contests by the site username you save in Settings, and you can import past contest history. Both plans include it. See Film Room.

FilterIQ

The Pool tab filter behind the funnel icon. It keeps only the lineups inside the numeric ranges you set, and on Power it also accepts a plain sentence through the Hero AI filter. See Edit the pool.

Floor

A player's 25th-percentile simulated score, so 1 in 4 simulated games lands below it. It shows as an Advanced Mode column, as FLR on a player card, and as a Rank by option for lineups after a sim. See Read the player grid.

Force low ownership players

A Constraints checkbox. When on, every lineup holds at least N players projected under P% ownership. See The Basic tab.

Freshness stamp

The stamp above the grid that tells you when DFS Hero last updated the slate's projections. See Read the player grid.

Game Sim

The panel that shows DFS Hero's simulated outlook for one game: the totals, each player's range of outcomes by percentile, and a replay of a simulated game. It opens from a game card in the Games strip. See Game Sim.

Games strip

The row of game cards that the Games button in the workspace toolbar shows or hides. Each card carries each team's implied total, and controls that filter, exclude, or boost a team. See Open and manage slate tabs.

GeoMean

A sim metric and Rank by option: the geometric mean of a lineup's simulated results. It rewards lineups that do well often, not only in rare worlds. See Rank by options.

Group rules

The Groups tab rules. A Min/Max group bounds how many players from a named set a lineup takes, and an If/Then rule forces one set when another is present. See Group rules.

Guardrail

A check inside a Playbook that runs After build or Before fill. When the number it watches misses the bar, the guardrail can stop the run, skip the fill, or only notify you. See The Playbook editor.

Handbuild Mode

A mode in the grid's more menu for building one lineup by hand, seat by seat. It is available before a build exists. See The grid more menu.

Hero

The name Hero Chat uses for itself. See Meet Hero Chat.

Hero Academy

The built-in lessons that teach the loop on your own slates: a welcome card on the Day View, the Loop rail in the workspace, the Academy tab in Help & Updates with four lesson tracks, and four one-time hints. Each First slate lesson ticks on its own when you do the real action. See Hero Academy.

Hero Chat

The assistant built into DFS Hero. It reads your slate, entries, and results, and it proposes changes such as build settings, a build, a fill, an export, or a late swap through cards you confirm. Power plan. See Meet Hero Chat.

Hero Insights

DFS Hero's written analysis of a slate. It opens from the Hero Insights icon in the workspace toolbar, and Hero Chat can read it. Power plan. See Open and manage slate tabs.

Hero IQ

Coaching text written from your own builds, entries, and contest results, on the Dashboard and in Film Room. It updates as your build and result history grows. Power plan. See Hero IQ.

Hero Jump

A small game inside DFS Hero, reached from the command palette. It has nothing to do with slates or builds. See Hero Jump.

Hero Own

DFS Hero's projected ownership for a player, as a grid column. My Own starts equal to it. See Projections and ownership.

Hero Proj

DFS Hero's projection for a player, as a grid column: the player's simulated average game. See Projections and ownership.

Hero Streak

The loyalty ladder on the Power monthly plan. Every full month adds $5 to your monthly credit, up to $30 from month 6 on. See Credits.

Highest Ranked

A Selection method that keeps the N best lineups by the Rank by metric. See Selection methods.

Lens

One column of sim metrics for one contest, shown on each lineup when you simulate several scenarios. Hero IQ also uses the word for each of its three analyses: Dashboard, Film Room, and Contests. See Sim scenarios and Hero IQ.

Lev

The leverage column and metric. Before a build it shows how much more or less the winning simulated lineups use a player than the field does, and after a sim each lineup gets its own value. The general term is in DFS terms. See Read the player grid.

Lineup count

The number in the Build Settings footer that sets how many lineups the build makes. Type any count up to your plan's cap, 500 on Essential and 10,000 on Power, or pick a shortcut. See Pool size and lineup count.

Combined build

A build tab that generates nothing and holds lineups from other tabs. Right-click a build tab and choose New combined build to make one. Fill it with Import More Builds, or check lineups on another tab in Select mode and use Copy to build or Move to build. Duplicates are skipped, and the tab holds at most your plan's lineup limit. Copied lineups arrive without sim results until you simulate the combined build.

Lineups panel

The right-hand panel that opens after a build, with the Entries Preview and Pool tabs, the Selection and Rank by dropdowns, and the Simulate button. See The lineups panel.

Live Sync

After you press Fill once, the build keeps your entries synced. Change a selection method, an exposure cap, or Contest Setup, and your entries follow. The footer reads Syncing... while it writes and Synced when your entries match the preview. An export pauses Live Sync so your uploaded file stays true; press Fill to start it again. Another build, another device, or a swap stops it until you press Fill again. The switch sits under Preferences in the lineups panel menu. See Contest Setup and Fill.

Lock a player

The lock icon next to a player. It puts the player in every lineup of the next build. See Lock, exclude, and filter players.

Lock clock

The strip at the top of the Swap sheet. It shows every game start on the slate as a wave, folds started games into one locked cell, and counts down to the next lock. See What Late Swap does.

Manage builds

The sheet behind the list icon after the + in the workspace toolbar. It lists a slate's builds, ticks several for one delete, selects the earlier ones, reorders them by a drag handle, and holds each build's note and pin. See Saved builds and tabs.

Manual Randomness

A flat percentage from 0 to 100 applied to every player's projection during a build. It is enabled only while Smart Randomness is off. See Randomness.

Match my entries

A Playbook Select option that keeps one lineup per uploaded entry, decided at run time. See The Playbook editor.

Max Exp

The highest share of the next build's lineups a player may appear in. It is a per-player grid column, default 100%, and the Exposure tab sets a blanket value. See Player exposure limits.

Memory

The facts Hero Chat keeps about you across threads, behind the brain icon in its header. See Meet Hero Chat.

Min Exp

The lowest share of the next build's lineups a player must appear in. It is a per-player grid column, default 0%, and the Exposure tab sets a blanket value. See Player exposure limits.

Min Player Ownership

The Own floor of the Basic tab's Player Floors control. It removes a player with projected ownership below the percent from the pool before the build, except a locked player, a player with a Min Exp above 0, and a player a short roster slot needs. The default is an automatic floor measured from real top-1% lineups for the sport, slate type, and slate size. A player with no ownership projection stays in the pool, and a slate with no ownership projections ignores it. See The Basic tab.

Min Player Projection

The Proj floor of the Basic tab's Player Floors control. It removes a player projected below the value from the pool before the build, except a locked player, a player with a Min Exp above 0, and a player a short roster slot needs. The default is an automatic floor measured from real top-1% lineups for the sport, slate type, and slate size. See The Basic tab.

Min Unique Players

A Basic tab setting: each lineup in the build differs from every other by at least this many players. The default is 1 Player. See The Basic tab.

Min Uniques

A Selection method that keeps only lineups that differ from every other kept lineup by N or more players. It works with or without a sim. The general term is in DFS terms. See Selection methods.

Min/Max tab

The Build Settings tab for team and game limits: the most players from one team, per-team minimums and maximums, and limits on individual teams and games. See The Min/Max tab.

Mission Control

The full-screen view of a Playbook run in your browser, stage by stage from Building to Exporting, with a cancel button. See Run a playbook in the browser.

Mission Report

The Day View overlay that follows a cloud build from Queued to Complete and opens the result or downloads the CSV. See Scheduled builds.

My Entries

The number of your own lineups in a sim scenario. The lineups panel tab with the working set is Entries Preview. See Contest Simulation settings.

My Own

Your own ownership number for a player, as an editable grid column. It starts equal to Hero Own. See Projections and ownership.

My Proj

Your own projection for a player, as an editable grid column. It starts equal to Hero Proj, and the optimizer uses it under My Projection, the default Projection Source. See Projections and ownership.

My slates

The group that opens the Day View: every slate where you uploaded entries for the date, plus the multi-day slates you entered that still have games to play. Each one shows its entry count and an icon for where it stands: Needs lineups, Ready, Still running, or Locked. The same slates stay pinned in the tab strip. See Day View.

Next Lock

The countdown to the next lock among the slates where you have entries, shown as a pill on the Day View. Inside the Swap sheet the bold cell of the lock clock is the next lock, your deadline for a swap. See What Late Swap does.

Optimal

A grid column: how often a player lands in the winning lineup across the simulated worlds. It is the grid's default sort. See Read the player grid.

Out player

A player the Swap sheet marks as ruled out, projected at zero, or missing from the pool. The Replace outs mode swaps these first. See Run a late swap.

Paid %

A scenario field: the share of the field that gets paid. The default is 20%. See Contest simulation settings.

Payout Structure

The scenario block with Entry Fee, Prize Pool, 1st Place, and Paid %. See Contest simulation settings.

Pinned build

A build you pinned from its tab's right-click menu or the Manage builds sheet. It carries a pin mark, never folds into Earlier builds, and no bulk delete takes it. Its own X or its own Delete build row still deletes it. See Saved builds and tabs.

Pivot (Swap mode)

The Swap sheet mode that swaps one named player for another in every entry that holds him. The general term is in DFS terms. See Run a late swap.

Playbook

A saved plan for one sport, site, and contest mode. It chains build settings, the simulation, lineup selection, entry fill, and export into one run, in the browser or as a cloud build. Power plan. See What is a playbook.

Player details card

The card that opens when you click a player's name. It shows the range of outcomes, hit-rate chips, form, and the last 10 games. See Read the player grid.

Player Exposure grid

What the player grid becomes after a build. It shows each player's exposure with counts, plus icons to filter, hide, or trash lineups by player. See Player exposure after a build.

Player Pool

The grid of every player on the slate, with projections, ownership, salary, and the columns you edit before a build. See Read the player grid.

Pool

The lineups panel tab that lists every lineup the build produced. Entries Preview is picked from it. See The lineups panel.

Position cap

A max exposure value for one roster position, set under By position on the Exposure tab before a build and under the Max Exp header after a build. A player's own Max Exp wins over it: before a build any value, 100 included; after a build a value from 1 to 99, because 100 there means no cap of their own. A player at two positions takes the lower cap. See The Exposure tab.

Position tabs

The tabs above the grid, ALL then one per position. On a showdown slate they include CPTN on DraftKings or MVP on FanDuel. See Read the player grid.

Power

The top plan. It builds up to 10,000 lineups per build and adds Playbooks, cloud builds, Hero Chat, Hero IQ, Hero Insights, and Replay of a Playbook across past slates. See Plans: Essential and Power.

Prefill from Contest

The picker in a sim scenario that copies a real contest's size, entry limit, fee, and prizes into the scenario. See Contest simulation settings.

Projection Hub

The tool that brings your own projections into the grid: download the template, upload the CSV, map the columns to My Proj and My Own, and match the players. See Upload custom projections.

Projection Source

The Basic tab setting for the number the optimizer maximizes: Hero Projection, My Projection, Pre-Lock, or Actuals on a scored slate. See The Basic tab.

Proposal card

The card Hero Chat shows before it changes anything. It lists the change with Confirm and Cancel, and nothing happens until you confirm. See Meet Hero Chat.

Quick Stack

A Stacks tab shortcut that sets a common stack shape for the sport in one click. See The Stacks tab.

Rank by

The dropdown that orders the lineups by projection or ownership, and after a sim by the sim metrics. See Rank by options.

Rdm %

The randomness applied to a player's projection during a build, as an editable grid column. Smart Randomness fills it. See Projections and ownership.

Re-optimize

The Swap sheet mode that re-solves every open seat in every selected entry with current projections. See Run a late swap.

Re-Simulate

The Simulate button's label after a sim. It runs every scenario again over the current pool. See Sim scenarios.

Ready by

The time a cloud build is promised to finish, shown above the When row. See Schedule a cloud build.

Rebuild

The button that replaces a build's pool with a new run of the same settings. It also clears every simulation result for that build. See The lineups panel.

Record

The result band on a Playbook card after a Replay: Net, ROI, and Best. See Replay.

Replace outs

The Swap sheet mode that replaces the out players and keeps every other player. It is selected first when outs exist. See Run a late swap.

Replay

The tool that scores a set of lineups against a contest that already finished, on the real leaderboard and the real payouts. Both plans replay workspace entries or a saved build against one contest, and Power replays a Playbook across up to 20 past slates. See Replay.

ROI (sim metric)

The expected return per $1 entered in the simulated contest, shown per lineup and as a scenario average. The general term is in DFS terms. See Read sim results.

Run funnel

The readout at the end of a Playbook run: Built, Selected, Filled, Exported. See Run a playbook in the browser.

Salary Range

The Basic tab setting with the lowest and highest total salary a lineup may have. The upper field starts at the site cap. See The Basic tab.

Scenario

One contest shape to simulate the pool against: size, entry limit, fee, prizes, and your entry count. A run can hold several scenarios, and each gets its own results. See Sim scenarios.

Scheduled builds

The sheet that lists your cloud builds with their status. Power plan. See Scheduled builds.

Selection

The dropdown that decides which lineups make up Entries Preview: Highest Ranked, Min Uniques, Win Paths, or Balanced Exposure. See Selection methods.

Share

The grid more-menu action that turns your top exposures into an image you can copy or download. See The grid more menu.

Sim tab

The Build Settings tab that holds the sim scenarios. It is enabled only in Build & Sim mode. See Build and sim.

Slate tab

The tab in the top bar that holds one slate's workspace. It shows the site, the sport, the slate name, and the lock time. See Open and manage slate tabs.

Smart Randomness

The default randomness setting. It scales the nudge on each player's projection to that player's volatility, at one of three levels: Minimum, Moderate, or Aggressive. See Randomness.

Sport Rules

The Basic tab block of roster rules for the sport and site, for example 1 RB Per Team or Offense vs Defense on NFL. Every checkbox rule starts off. Offense vs Defense, Skaters vs Goalie, Offense vs Goalie, Hitters vs Pitcher, and Offense vs Team start on Auto. See Sport rules by sport.

StackIQ

The panel that rates every team on the slate for stacking, with its projected points, ceiling, ownership, and rank. On NHL it rates each team's lines and power-play units. It can arm stack rules for you. See StackIQ.

Starter playbooks

The four shipped Playbook presets, from Cash Single Entry to GPP Mass Multi-Entry. See Starter playbooks.

Stats bar

The strip on the Day View that appears once you upload entries. It summarizes your entered slates, contests, entries, and fees, and counts down to the next lock. See Day View.

Swap deadline

The earliest game start among the players a swap changed in one entry. Upload the new file to the site before it. See What Late Swap does.

Swap sheet

The Late Swap surface. It opens from the swap icon in the toolbar or from the Entries view, re-solves only the open seats of your filled entries, previews every change, and prepares the file you upload again. See Run a late swap.

Team Stack

A Stacks tab rule that puts a set number of players from one team in a lineup, with optional bring-back players from the opponent. You can hold up to 5 team stack rules. See The Stacks tab.

Templates

Saved snapshots of your Build Settings for one sport and site. The Templates tab holds them. See Templates.

Thread

One Hero Chat conversation. Hero names a thread from your first message, and the thread switcher lists your recent ones. See Meet Hero Chat.

Top 0.1

A sim metric: the share of simulated contests in which the lineup finished inside the top 0.1%. It hides when the contest is too small for that band. See Read sim results.

Top 1

A sim metric: the share of simulated contests in which the lineup finished inside the top 1%. See Read sim results.

Top 5

A sim metric: the share of simulated contests in which the lineup finished inside the top 5%. See Read sim results.

Trash

A soft status for a lineup you set aside. Trashed lineups sit in the Trash accordion of Entries Preview until you restore them or empty it. See Edit the pool.

Trial

The $1 for 5 days trial on the Power monthly plan, once per user. A trial user has full Power access. See Create your account.

Undo (Swap)

The Swap sheet button that restores the lineups from before the last swap, inside DFS Hero only. See Run a late swap.

Unmatched contest

A contest in your entries file that DFS Hero cannot match to a known contest. The Add payout info button lets you supply its fee and prizes. See Upload your entries.

Value (column)

In the player grid, projected points per $1,000 of salary. In the contest lists, the rake percentage or the overlay amount. The general term is in DFS terms. See Find contests.

Weather score

The game's weather read from 0 to 10 on the game cards, the Slate Map, and Stack IQ's WX column, from temperature, wind, and rain chance. On MLB it is hitter friendliness: H+ favors hitters, P+ favors pitchers. On NFL it is passing friendliness: Air+ favors the passing game, Ground+ favors the run game and the defense. A dome shows no weather. See Stack IQ.

When

The row in the Build Settings footer with Now and the lead times 5m to 30m. A lead time schedules a cloud build that many minutes before lock. Power plan. See Schedule a cloud build.

Win

A sim metric: the share of simulated contests the lineup won. See Read sim results.

Win Paths

The Selection method that uses your sim: it keeps lineups that crack the top 1% in as many different simulated outcomes as possible. It needs a simulation. See Selection methods.

Workspace

The three-panel screen for one slate: the Contests panel, the Player Pool, and the lineups panel, with the build controls in the toolbar. See Navigate the app.