This page defines the daily fantasy words you meet on DraftKings, on FanDuel, and inside DFS Hero, in alphabetical order. The names of DFS Hero's own screens and controls live in DFS Hero terms.
150-max
A contest that allows up to 150 entries per user. It is the largest common entry limit on DraftKings and the home of mass multi-entry play.
20-max
A contest that allows up to 20 entries per user.
3-max
A contest that allows up to 3 entries per user.
50/50
A cash game where the top half of the field wins about the same amount and the bottom half loses its entry fee. DFS Hero lists it under the Cash type. See Find contests.
Bankroll
The money you set aside for DFS play. Tracking it tells you whether your play earns money over time. See Film Room.
Batting order
The order in which a baseball team's hitters bat. Hitters near the top bat more often, so the order matters for MLB projections. See Read the player grid.
Bring-back
One or more players from the opposing team added to a stack, for example a receiver from the other side of a QB stack. A bring-back pays off when the game turns into a shootout. See The Stacks tab.
Captain
The premium seat on a DraftKings Showdown roster, labelled CPT. The captain costs 1.5 times the player's salary and scores 1.5 times the player's points. See Showdown and single-game slates.
Cash game
A contest that pays about half the field a flat amount: 50/50s, double ups, and head-to-heads. You play cash games for steady returns and GPPs for big prizes. See Find contests.
Ceiling
The high end of what a player or lineup can score. DFS Hero measures it as the 95th-percentile simulated score. See DFS Hero terms.
Chalk
The most popular plays on a slate, the players with the highest projected ownership. Chalk is safe in cash games and costly in GPPs when it fails.
Classic
The standard contest format with the sport's full roster across several games. The Classic button on the Day View hides showdown and single-game slates. See Supported sports and sites.
Confirmed lineup
A team's starting lineup after the team announces it. In MLB the batting order is confirmed a few hours before the game, and projections firm up then.
Contest
A paid pool on DraftKings or FanDuel that accepts entries. The two main shapes are the GPP and the cash game.
Contrarian
A play the field mostly avoids, so a low-ownership player or an unusual stack. A contrarian lineup wins big when it hits because few entries share its players.
Correlation
How much two players' scores move together. A QB and his receiver correlate strongly, which is why stacks exist. See Game Sim.
Double up
A cash game that pays about double the entry fee to a bit less than half the field. DFS Hero lists it under the Cash type. See Find contests.
DST
Defense and special teams, the team defense slot in NFL and CFB lineups on DraftKings and FanDuel.
Duplicates
Copies of the same lineup in one contest, from you or from other entrants. Duplicates split a prize, so lower expected duplicates means more of the prize for you. See DFS Hero terms.
Entry
One lineup submitted to one contest. A user can hold many entries in one contest, up to the entry limit.
Entry fee
The price of one entry in a contest.
Entry limit
The most entries one user may place in a contest: single entry, 3-max, 20-max, 150-max, and so on. Film Room breaks results down by entry limit. See Film Room.
Expected value
The average result of a decision over many repeats. A positive expected value earns money over time even when a single slate loses.
Exposure
The share of your own lineups that contain a player. See DFS Hero terms.
Fade
To leave a popular player out of your lineups on purpose. You fade chalk to gain leverage when it fails.
Fantasy points
The score a player earns from real game statistics under the site's scoring rules. Each site scores a sport its own way.
Field
Every other entry in a contest. DFS Hero's simulator builds a field of realistic opponents to score your lineups against. See How the simulator works.
Field size
The number of entries a contest accepts. Large fields need more unique lineups and reward ceiling.
Fill percentage
How full a contest is: entries so far divided by the maximum. A guaranteed contest that does not fill produces overlay. See Find contests.
Flat payout
A payout structure where most paid places win about the same amount, as in cash games. The opposite is top-heavy.
FLEX
A roster slot that accepts more than one position, for example RB, WR, or TE in NFL. On a DraftKings Showdown slate every seat but the captain is a FLEX. See Supported sports and sites.
Floor
The low end of what a player or lineup usually scores. DFS Hero measures it as the 25th-percentile simulated score. See DFS Hero terms.
Game stack
Players from both teams in one game, built to profit from a high-scoring game. A QB stack with a bring-back is a game stack.
GPP
A guaranteed prize pool tournament. The site guarantees the prizes, the payouts are top-heavy, and most GPPs allow many entries per user. See Find contests.
Head-to-head
A contest between two entries where the higher score takes the pool. DFS Hero labels it H2H.
Implied total
The points a team is expected to score, derived from the game total and the spread. DFS Hero shows it as IMP on the player details card and under each team's abbreviation on the game cards. See Open and manage slate tabs.
In the money
An entry that finished in a paid place. Film Room reports it as the In The Money Rate. See Film Room.
Injury designation
A status tag on a player such as QUE for questionable or OUT. It shows as a badge in the Player Pool. See Read the player grid.
Late swap
Changing the unlocked players in an entry after the first games of a slate start. The site refuses a change to a locked seat, so only seats whose games have not started can move. See What Late Swap does.
Leaderboard
The ranked list of entries in a contest with their scores and prizes. The Contest Analyzer opens a finished leaderboard. See Contest results and the Contest Analyzer.
Leverage
The gap between how useful a player is and how many entries hold him. A player the field under-owns compared with his chance to be in the winning lineup carries positive leverage. DFS Hero shows it as Lev. See DFS Hero terms.
Lineup
One legal roster: the right positions, under the salary cap, following the site's team and game rules.
Lock
The moment a slate's first game starts and entries close. On a slate with several start times each later game locks its own players. See Day View.
Main slate
The slate with the most games on a day, usually the biggest contests. On NFL Sundays it is the 1:00 PM ET slate.
Min uniques
The smallest number of players by which two of your lineups must differ. Raising it spreads your entries across more players. See Selection methods.
Min-cash
The smallest prize in a contest, paid to the last paid place. In a GPP it is a small multiple of the entry fee.
MME
Mass multi-entry: playing the full entry limit, often 150 lineups, in one contest. Duplicates and exposure matter most here.
Multi-entry
A contest that allows more than one entry per user. The name usually carries the limit, for example [150 Entry Max].
MVP
The premium seat on a FanDuel Single-game roster. The MVP costs 1.5 times the player's salary and scores 1.5 times the player's points. See Showdown and single-game slates.
Optimal lineup
The single lineup with the highest projection under the rules. DFS Hero's Optimal column measures how often a player lands in the winning lineup across simulated worlds. See Read the player grid.
Optimizer
Software that builds the best lineups under the salary cap, the position rules, and your settings. DFS Hero's optimizer runs every build. See Build Settings overview.
Over/under
The betting market's total points for a game. The game cards show each team's share of it as the implied total, so the over/under is the sum of the two. A high total points to more fantasy scoring. See Open and manage slate tabs.
Overlay
Guaranteed prize money beyond what the entry fees collected. It appears when a guaranteed contest does not fill, and DFS Hero shows it in green in the Value column. See Find contests.
Ownership
The share of entries in a contest that hold a player. High ownership makes a player chalk, and low ownership makes him contrarian. See Projections and ownership.
Ownership sum
The total projected ownership of every player in a lineup. DFS Hero shows it as OWN Σ and lets you bound it with the Constraints. See The Basic tab.
Payout structure
The table of prizes by finishing place. It decides how top-heavy or flat a contest is. See Contest simulation settings.
Pivot
A player you use instead of a popular one at a similar price and position. Inside the Swap sheet, Pivot is the mode that swaps one player for another across your entries. See DFS Hero terms.
Points per dollar
See Value.
Position
The roster role a player fills, such as QB, RB, C, or G. A player listed at two positions can fill either slot.
Prize pool
The total money a contest pays out.
Projected ownership
The share of the field expected to hold a player before lock. DFS Hero's number is Hero Own, and you can edit My Own. See Projections and ownership.
Projection
The fantasy points a player is expected to score. DFS Hero's number is Hero Proj, and you can edit My Proj. See Projections and ownership.
Punt
A very cheap player used to fit expensive players elsewhere in the lineup.
Qualifier
See Satellite.
Rake
The share of the entry fees the site keeps. A 15% rake on a $20 contest sends $3 of every entry to the site, so a lower rake is better for you. See Find contests.
ROI
Return on investment: net profit divided by the entry fees paid. Film Room reports it from your real results, and the simulator estimates it per lineup. See DFS Hero terms.
Roster
The set of slots a lineup must fill for a sport and site, for example QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, WR, TE, FLEX, DST on DraftKings NFL. See Supported sports and sites.
Salary
The price the site sets for a player on a slate. Salaries change every slate.
Salary cap
The most total salary a lineup may spend, for example $50,000 on DraftKings NFL and $60,000 on FanDuel NFL. See Supported sports and sites.
Satellite
A contest whose prize is a ticket to a bigger contest instead of cash. Sites also call it a qualifier. See Find contests.
Sharp
An experienced, winning player. A sharp field is harder to beat than a casual one.
Showdown
DraftKings' one-game format, named Showdown (Captain Mode), with a captain seat at 1.5 times. FanDuel's version is Single-game. See Showdown and single-game slates.
Simulation
Playing a contest out thousands of times with random but realistic player scores to see how often each lineup wins, cashes, or busts. See How the simulator works.
Single entry
A contest that allows one entry per user. DraftKings marks it [Single Entry] in the name.
Single-game
FanDuel's one-game format, with an MVP seat at 1.5 times. See Showdown and single-game slates.
Slate
A group of games with one lock time, offered as one set of contests, for example the NFL Sunday Main slate. Every tab in DFS Hero is one slate. See Day View.
Spread
The betting market's margin of victory, for example CIN -3.5. A big favorite tends to run the ball late, which matters for projections.
Stack
Several players from one team in one lineup, chosen because their scores correlate, for example a QB with his WR and TE. See The Stacks tab.
Stars and scrubs
A lineup shape with a few expensive stars and several cheap punts, instead of a balanced spend.
Top-heavy
A payout structure that sends most of the prize pool to the top places. GPPs are top-heavy, cash games are flat.
Tournament
Another word for a GPP.
Turbo
A short slate that covers the late games of a day, for example the NBA games after 9:00 PM ET.
UTIL
A utility slot that accepts any position in the sport, for example any skater in NHL or any player in NBA. On a FanDuel Single-game slate every seat but the MVP is a UTIL. See Supported sports and sites.
Value
Projected points per $1,000 of salary, also called points per dollar. A player with 26 points at $8,000 has a value of 3.25. See Read the player grid.
Variance
How widely a player's or lineup's outcomes spread around the average. High-variance plays win GPPs and lose cash games.
Vegas
The betting lines for a game: the total, the spread, and the implied team totals. DFS Hero shows the implied team totals on the game cards, and the full lines on the player details card and in the Vegas column. See Open and manage slate tabs.
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