Rules & Scoring

(Last Updated 08/13/2026)

NFL Playoff Best Ball

In Playoff Best Ball, entrants draft a lineup via a live snake draft prior to the start of the tournament or Sit & Go. The Best Ball tournament or Sit & Go will last multiple weeks of the playoffs. After the draft is completed, there is no roster management. For each Playoff Round (as defined in Tournaments Section below), an entrant’s highest scoring players become the entrant’s starting lineup and count toward the entrant’s fantasy point total. If a round of a tournament includes a prize component, prizes are awarded at the conclusion of that round based on cumulative fantasy points scored during the round. Participants who advance to the next round of a tournament become eligible for prizes in the next round of the tournament.

Entry and participation in each Playoff Best Ball tournament and Sit & Go must be made only as specified in the Terms of Use and these Contest Rules. Failure to comply with the Terms of Use and these Contest Rules will result in disqualification and, if applicable, prize forfeiture.

Scoring

Lineup Requirements

Lineups will consist of 12 players and must include players from at least 2 different NFL teams. After the conclusion of the draft, if a player in an entrant’s lineup switches teams, leaving the lineup with only players from 1 NFL team, such lineup will be voided.

Lineups will have 6 starting players and 6 bench players. The roster positions are:

For each round during the tournament or Sit & Go, the highest scoring players at each roster spot are automatically the entrant’s starting lineup for that round, and the non-starting players make up the entrant’s bench. Fantasy points for players on the bench do not count toward an entrant’s fantasy point total for that round.

Lineups are permitted to contain up to 3 QB’s and 3 TE’s. In the event a lineup does not have at least 1 QB, 1 RB, 2 WRs, and 1 TE, the entry will be invalid. Invalid entries will remain in the tournament or Sit & Go while not accruing fantasy points. Entry fees for invalid entries will not be refunded.

Player Pool

The Player Pool will consist of players expected to be on an active roster for any NFL team at the time the pool is created and may include players that are not on an NFL team at the time the pool is created. Players in the Player Pool will receive fantasy points for the team they play for, regardless of any trades or transactions that may occur. As teams are mathematically eliminated, players will be disabled and highlighted in red.

Draft Start Time

Playoff Best Ball drafts will begin once the required number of entrants enter the draft. There will be a two-minute countdown period between the time the draft fills and the time the countdown begins for the first pick of the draft. Playoff Best Ball drafts are snake drafts, and the draft order is randomly determined once the draft fills. Entrants are permitted to withdraw entries prior to the draft filling.

Pick Clock

Playoff Best Ball drafts are fast drafts. Entrants have up to 30 seconds to make each pick.

Draft Requirements

To be eligible for prizes in Playoff Best Ball tournaments and Sit & Gos, an entrant must take at least one of these three (3) actions:

1. Edit the DraftKings default pre-draft player rankings.
2. Add a player to the draft queue during the draft.
3. Make a manual draft pick during the draft.

Failure to take at least one of these actions will result in an invalid entry. Invalid entries will remain in the tournament while not accruing fantasy points. Entry fees for invalid entries will not be refunded.

Pre-Draft Rankings

DraftKings provides default pre-draft player rankings. Entrants can create a personalized draft ranking by editing the DraftKings default pre-draft players rankings. The last saved version of an entrant’s draft rankings are automatically imported once the draft starts. Entrants can edit their draft rankings at any time.

Changes made to pre-draft positional limits will apply to all drafts with the same game set, inclusive of any ongoing drafts.

Auto-Draft

When auto-draft is enabled or if an entrant does not make a selection before their clock expires, DraftKings will auto-draft a player for the entrant based on the following logic and in the following order:

1. The highest ranked undrafted player from an entrant’s draft queue will be automatically selected.
2. If there are no undrafted players in the entrant’s draft queue and the entrant edited the DraftKings default pre-draft rankings, the highest ranked player from the entrant's edited draft rankings will be automatically selected.
3. If an entrant did not edit the DraftKings default pre-draft rankings, the highest available ranked player from the DraftKings’ default pre-draft rankings will be automatically selected.

Auto-draft will not select more than 2 QBs, 3 RBs, 5 WRs, or 2 TEs for a lineup, however, auto-draft will no longer adhere to such limits once an entrant has edited the DraftKings default pre-draft rankings, added a player to their draft queue, or made a manual selection during the draft.

Entrants can add players to the "excluded" list. Players on the excluded list will be auto-drafted only when required to create a valid lineup (i.e., if the player on the excluded list is the last remaining player for a needed position in the entrant’s lineup). Players on the excluded list can be manually drafted and can be auto-drafted from the entrant’s draft queue.

Auto-draft can be enabled or disabled in the draft settings. When auto-draft is enabled, auto-draft will make the selection at the beginning of an entrant’s turn in the draft, and the entrant will not receive push notifications for the draft. For clarity, in the event an entrant has disabled auto-draft, but has not made a selection prior to the end of the entrant’s turn, auto-draft will make a selection for the entrant at the end of the entrant’s turn.

• If an entrant does not make 6 consecutive manual selections in a fast draft, auto-draft will be automatically enabled.

On certain occasions, DraftKings may "disable" players from being eligible for selection by auto-draft, including, but not limited to, players that are no longer eligible to score fantasy points. These disabled players can be manually drafted, but they will not be eligible to be auto-drafted regardless of an entrant’s draft rankings or draft queue.

Draft Cancellations

DraftKings may cancel a completed draft prior to the start of the tournament or Sit & Go in its sole and absolute discretion, for any reason or no reason, including, but not limited to, when necessary to protect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of the tournament.

DraftKings also reserves the right to cancel a completed draft prior to the start of any round of a tournament in its sole and absolute discretion, for any reason or no reason, including, but not limited to, when necessary to preserve the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of the tournament.

If for any reason the draft does not finish before the tournament or Sit & Go starts, or cannot run as originally planned, then the draft will be canceled and entrants refunded. If a draft remains unfilled, DraftKings will cancel the draft and refund the entrants.

If a completed draft is canceled, the entrants will be informed with entries refunded. For more information, please see the Terms of Use.

If an entry corrupts or affects the fairness, integrity, security, or proper conduct of a tournament, as determined by DraftKings in its sole and absolute discretion, for any reason or no reason, DraftKings may disqualify and void the entry at any time, including after the tournament or Sit & Go has started.

Disqualified entries will not earn fantasy points, advance, or be eligible for prizes, and entry fees will not be refunded.

Tournaments

Playoff Best Ball Tournaments are played out over multiple rounds. Playoff Best Ball Tournaments are played out over 4 rounds with the following schedule:

Round 1: NFL Wild Card Playoff Games
Round 2: NFL Divisional Round Playoff Games
Round 3: NFL Conference Championship Playoff Games
Round 4: NFL Championship Game

Each tournament will have a specified number of contests for each round, number of entrants in each contest, number of advancing entries per contest for each round, and maximum number of Round 1 entries an entrant can have.

For each round of the tournament, with the exception of Round 4, entries will be randomly entered into contests. If you have multiple entries advancing in a tournament, DraftKings’ random contest distribution will avoid matching entries from the same entrant whenever possible. At the end of each round of the tournament, with the exception of Round 4, a specified number of entrants from each contest for that round advances to the next round of the tournament based on their placement in the contest standings for that round. Advancing entries keep the same lineup they drafted at the start of the tournament. There is no redrafting between any rounds. After Round 3 of the tournament, a specified number of entrants from each contest for Round 3 advance to Round 4 of the tournament which has 1 contest. The winner of Round 4 is the winner of the tournament.

If there are not enough advancing entries to fill future round contests, there will be wild card entries that advance. Wild card entries are the entries that scored the highest fantasy points in that round of the tournament among the non-automatically advancing entries.

For example only: there is a tournament with a maximum of 12,000 Round 1 contests with 12 entrants in each contest, where the top finisher in each contest of Round 1 advances to Round 2. Round 2 is made up of 1,000 contests with 12 entrants in each contest, resulting in 12,000 total entries for Round 2 of the tournament. If only 11,000 round 1 contests were to be filled, only 11,000 entries would automatically advance, in which case the additional 1,000 entries would be filled by wild card spots from Round 1.

If there is a tie for an advancing entry or wild card spot, the advancing entry/wild card spot will be the one with the highest scoring round of the tournament. If a tie remains, it will be the entry with the second highest scoring round of the tournament. This process will continue through the lowest scoring round of the tournament. If a tie remains, the advancing entry will be the one with the overall highest scoring player in the lineup in that round. If a tie remains, it will be the entry with the second overall highest scoring player in the lineup in that round. This process will continue through the lowest scoring player in the round. If a tie remains, the advancing entry will be the one with the overall highest score through all completed rounds (inclusive of prior rounds). If a tie remains, the advancing entry will be the one that was drafted first.

Scheduling Changes

The policies in this section are meant to cover how DraftKings will deal with disruptions to the NFL Playoffs due to any extenuating circumstances. However, because of the unpredictability of scheduling disruptions, DraftKings reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, for any reason or no reason, to amend these rules based on how specific situations may play out.

Rescheduled Games

In the event a game is postponed, rescheduled, delayed, or suspended, any statistics generated in such game, before or after such postponement, rescheduling, delay, or suspension, will count towards the round of the Tournament or Sit & Go associated with the playoff round of such game, provided that such statistics were classified as official statistics by the NFL. For example only, if a Wild Card Playoff Game is rescheduled, any statistics generated in such game will count towards Round 1 of the Tournament, regardless of when such game is rescheduled for.

If a game is cancelled and not rescheduled, no fantasy points will be accrued for such game. It may be possible that not all teams end up playing the same number of postseason games.

Canceled Postseasons

Tournaments:

• If the NFL postseason is canceled before the Divisional Round is completed, DraftKings will cancel the tournament and refund all entrants.
• If the NFL postseason is canceled in the middle of a Playoff Round before all scheduled games for that round have been played, stats from that Playoff Round will not count.
• If the NFL postseason is canceled after the Divisional Round, but before the end of the Conference Championship, the stats for Round 3 of the tournament will not count, and all entries in Round 3 of the tournament will receive an equal share of the remaining prize pool for rounds 3-4.
• If the NFL postseason is canceled after the Conference Championship Playoff Games, but before the end of the NFL Championship Game, the stats for Round 4 of the tournament will not count, and all entries in Round 4 of the tournament will receive an equal share of the remaining prize pool for round 4.

Sit & Go's:

• If the NFL postseason is canceled before the Divisional Round is completed, DraftKings will cancel the Sit & Go and refund all entrants.
• If the NFL postseason is canceled in the middle of a Playoff Round before all scheduled games for that round have completed, stats from the non-completed round will not count.
• If the NFL postseason is canceled after the end of the Conference Championship Playoff Games, DraftKings will pay out the Sit & Go based on the standings after the last fully completed Round.

Shortened Postseason

In the event the NFL postseason is suspended, DraftKings will attempt to wait until the NFL announces their decision about restarting the postseason before DraftKings determines the settlement of the tournament or Sit & Go. In the absence of clarity, DraftKings reserves the right to consider the postseason as final.

Tournaments:

If the NFL postseason, or any portion of it, is shortened, postponed, or otherwise materially modified, DraftKings reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, for any reason or no reason, to adjust contest duration, scoring windows, advancement criteria, prize structure, and settlement procedures as necessary to preserve fair and consistent tournament administration, as determined by DraftKings in its sole and absolute discretion. Unless otherwise stated in the applicable contest details, only statistics deemed official by the NFL will count for scoring purposes. If DraftKings determines, in its sole and absolute discretion, for any reason or no reason, that the disruption materially impairs the integrity or intended operation of a tournament, DraftKings may suspend, modify, cancel, or void the tournament, in whole or in part, and provide refunds, credits, or other remedies in its sole and absolute discretion.

Sit & Gos:

If the NFL postseason, or any portion of it, is shortened, postponed, or otherwise materially modified, as long as the divisional round of the NFL postseason has ended before the postseason is shortened, postponed, or otherwise materially modified, the Sit & Go will be based on the statistics at the end of the shortened, postponed, or otherwise materially modified postseason.

Scoring and Stat Corrections

Live scoring updates are strictly for the enjoyment of DraftKings’ customers. DraftKings’ official scoring validation uses statistics deemed official by the NFL prior to payout.

On occasion, the NFL or DraftKings third-party stats provider may issue a stat-correction after DraftKings’ scoring validation process has been completed. After DraftKings’ scoring validation process is completed, scoring will not change regardless of any statistics or scoring adjustments made by the NFL or DraftKings’ third-party stats provider at later times or dates.

If a correction needs to be made after the scoring and validation process is finalized due to an error with the data feed or the scoring and validation process, while extremely rare, DraftKings may, in its sole and absolute discretion, for any reason or no reason, reverse and/or recalculate the scoring and validation process.