Rules & Scoring

MLB Best Ball

In Best Ball contests, participants will draft a lineup via a live snake draft and contests will last multiple weeks of the season. After the draft there are no trades or roster management. Each week of the contest your highest scoring players are automatically your starting lineup and count toward your team’s overall fantasy point total (rosters and scoring summarized below). Overall contest payouts are based on the cumulative fantasy points scored by your starting lineup each week.

Participation in each contest must be made only as specified in the Terms of Use. Failure to comply with these Terms of Use will result in disqualification and, if applicable, prize forfeiture.

Scoring

Scoring Notes

• Hitting statistics for Pitchers will not be counted, and Pitching statistics for Hitters will not be counted.
• For the purposes of the 2026 MLB Best Ball season, Shohei Ohtani will be considered an OF, and will not accumulate pitching statistics.

Lineup Requirements

Lineups will consist of 20 players and must include players from at least 2 different MLB teams. Starting lineups will consist of 9 players.

The 4 roster positions are:

Your highest scoring players are automatically your starting lineup. Your non-starting players will make up your bench and their fantasy points will not count toward your team’s overall fantasy point total.

Player Pool

The Player Pool will consist of all MLB players expected to be on an active roster during the 2026 season. A player may be missing from the Player Pool due to unforeseen circumstances.

Draft Start Time

Best Ball drafts will begin once the required number of entrants enter the contest (best ball contests must fill completely). There will be a two minute countdown period between the time the contest fills and the time the countdown begins for the first pick of the draft. The draft order is determined at random once the contest fills. You can withdraw from a best ball contest at any time before the contest fills.

Pick Clock

Best Ball drafts will have fast draft and slow draft settings.

Fast Drafts

You will have up to 30 seconds to make each pick. Fast drafts typically take a few minutes to a few hours to complete.

Slow Drafts

You will have up to 8 hours to make each pick. Slow drafts typically take a few days to complete.

The slow draft timer will update on the following schedule:

• Sunday 03/22 at 10:00am ET – the slow draft pick clock will move to 1 hour per pick. The pick clock will revert to 10 hours per pick between the hours of 10pm ET to 4am ET, and 8 hours per pick between the hours of 4am ET and 10am ET.
• Monday 03/23 at 10:00am ET – the slow draft pick clock will move to 10 minutes per pick. The pick clock will revert to 10 hours per pick between the hours of 10pm ET to 4am ET, and 8 hours per pick between the hours of 4am ET and 10am ET.
• Tuesday 03/24 at 10:00am ET – the slow draft pick clock will move back to 10 minutes per pick. At 7:30pm ET – the slow draft pick clock will move to 2 minutes per pick. There will be no overnight period after this change.

Draft Requirements

In order to be eligible for prizes in the Best Ball contests you must either edit the pre-draft rankings, add a player to your queue during the draft, or make a manual draft pick during the draft. Failure to take at least one of the prior three actions will result in an invalid entry and you will not be eligible for prizes and your entry fee will be forfeited.

Pre-Draft Rankings

You can create your own personalized ordering of a Best Ball player pool by editing the pre-draft rankings. Your last saved version of the pre-draft rankings are automatically imported for you as soon as a draft starts. You can edit your pre-draft rankings at any time and it will apply to every draft in the game set. If you edit and save your pre-draft rankings while in the middle of an ongoing draft, your new rankings will pass through to all ongoing drafts in the game set. If you do not edit the pre-draft rankings before a draft starts, you will use the default DraftKings player rankings.

Auto-Draft

If you do not make a pick before your pick clock expires, we will draft a player for you based on the following logic:

1. We will pick the highest player from your queue
2. We will pick the highest ranked player from your pre-draft rankings

Note: We will not auto-draft more than 7Ps, 7IFs, or 7OFs for your team when auto-drafting from the pre-draft rankings. It is possible to exceed these limits when auto-drafting from the queue. On the pre-draft rankings page, users may add their own position limits to override the default ones. If you add position limits, the only way to override them once the draft starts is to make a manual selection or by adding players to the queue. If a set position limit has been reached, the top player in the queue will be selected from a position with a limit that hasn't been reached yet. If the queue only contains players from positions with limits that have been reached, the top player in the queue will be selected. Position limits cannot be altered in the middle of a draft.

You also have the option to add players to the "excluded" list on the pre-draft rankings page. Players on the excluded list will not be auto-drafted unless it is necessary to create a valid lineup (i.e. if that player is the last remaining player for a needed position available in the draft). Excluded players can still be manually drafted or auto-drafted from the queue if no other players are in the queue.

If you fail to make 2 consecutive manual selections in a slow draft, we will automatically turn auto-draft on for you. If you fail to make 6 consecutive manual selections in a fast draft, we will automatically turn auto-draft on for you. You can turn auto-draft on or off in the draft settings. When you are on auto-draft you will not receive push notifications for the contest.

On certain occasions, DraftKings will at their own discretion "disable" players who are no longer eligible to score fantasy points. Those players can still be manually drafted, but they will not be auto-drafted from a user's pre-draft rankings or their queue.

Contest Cancellations

If for any reason a draft does not finish before the contest goes live, the contest will be canceled and all users will be refunded.

In order to ensure all drafts finish before the contest goes live, we will cancel and refund all unfilled contests one to two hours before the contest start time.

COVID-19 & Scheduling Changes

The policies in this section are meant to cover how DraftKings will deal with disruptions to the MLB season due to COVID-19 or any other extenuating circumstance. However, because of the unpredictability of the situation, DraftKings reserves the right to amend these policies based on how specific situations may play out.

Rescheduled Games

The Scoring Period each week for MLB contests is the date of the first game in the game set through the date of the last game in the game set.

In the event a game is suspended, any statistics generated before the game is suspended will count in the scoring period the game is started. Any statistics generated on a later date will count in the scoring period the game is picked back up.

In the event a game is postponed and rescheduled to a new date or time, the game will count for the scoring period in which it is played. This includes both games of any double-headers.

Due to schedule changes, it may be possible that not all teams end up playing the same number of games in the season.

Suspended, Canceled or Shortened Seasons

Sit & Gos

In the event the MLB season is suspended, DraftKings will wait until MLB makes a decision about restarting the season before we make a decision about the settlement of our contests. If MLB has not made a decision by October 31, DraftKings may choose to consider the season as final. DraftKings reserves the right to amend this date depending on the situation.

In the event the MLB season is canceled or shortened before they play at least 4 full weeks, DraftKings will cancel and refund all contests.

In the event the MLB season is canceled in the middle of the week (before all scheduled games have been played that week), none of that week’s stats will count.

In the event the MLB season is canceled after they play at least 4 full weeks, DraftKings will pay out contests based on the standings after the last fully completed week.

Tournaments

In the event the MLB season is suspended, DraftKings will wait until the MLB makes a decision about restarting the season before we make a decision about the settlement of our contests. If the MLB has not made a decision by October 31, DraftKings may choose to consider the season as final. DraftKings reserves the right to amend this date depending on the situation.

In the event the MLB season is canceled or shortened before the end of Round 1, DraftKings will cancel and refund all contests.

In the event the MLB season is canceled after Round 1 but before Round 2 is complete, none of the stats for Round 2 will count. All entries will split the equity from rounds 2-4 evenly.

In the event the MLB season is canceled after Round 2 but before Round 3 is complete, none of the stats for Round 3 will count. All entries will split the equity from rounds 3-4 evenly.

In the event the MLB season is canceled after Round 3 but before Round 4 is complete, none of the stats for Round 4 will count. All entries will split the equity from round 4 evenly.

Collusion

DraftKings takes collusion seriously. If DraftKings suspects there was collusion in a contest, the contest may be canceled. The users suspected of collusion will not be refunded and may be permanently banned from DraftKings.

Collusion is any action or decision that is made between two or more users in a draft with the intention of gaining an unfair advantage over other users, or otherwise, in DraftKings sole discretion, may compromise the integrity of the contest.

Tournaments

Tournaments are Best Ball drafts that are played out over multiple rounds of contests. Our tournaments are played out over 4 rounds.

Full Season:

Round 1: 18 weeks (3/25 - 8/9)

Round 2: 1 double week (8/10 - 8/23)

Round 3: 1 double week (8/24 - 9/6)

Round 4: 1 double week (9/7 - 9/20)

Midseason:

Round 1: 6 weeks (7/16 - 8/30)

Round 2: 1 week (8/31 - 9/6)

Round 3: 1 week (9/7 - 9/13)

Round 4: 1 week (9/14 - 9/20)

At the end of each round, a specified number of entrants from each contest advances to the next round based on their placement in the contest standings. Each tournament will have specified contest sizes for each round, number of advancing entries per contest for each round, and maximum number of round 1 contests you can enter.

Advancing entries are randomly matched up against other advancing entries in rounds 2 through 4. If you have multiple entries advancing in a Tournament, we will avoid matching you up against yourself, whenever possible.

Advancing entries keep the same lineup they drafted during round 1. There is no redrafting between any rounds.

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 among the non-automatically advancing entries.

Example: There is a tournament with a maximum of 12,000 12-man round 1 contests, where the top finisher in each contest advances to round 2. Round 2 is made up of 1,000 12-man contests (12,000 total entries). If only 11,000 round 1 contests were to fill, only 11,000 entries would automatically advance. We would make up the additional 1,000 entries with wild card spots.

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 single week in that round. If still tied, it will be the entry with the second highest scoring week in that round. This process will continue through the lowest scoring week in the round. If still tied, the advancing entry will be the one with the overall highest scoring player in that round. If still tied, it will be the entry with the second overall highest scoring player in that round. This process will continue through the lowest scoring player in the round.

Scoring and Stat Corrections

Live scoring updates are strictly for the enjoyment of DraftKings’ customers. DraftKings’ official scoring validation process happens each week and begins once all games in a week are final. Once a week is finalized, the results will show up under the “Recent Interval” section of the overall standings.

On occasion, official scorers may issue a stat-correction after games have ended and the official scoring validation process for the week has completed. These corrections are rare, but can occur days after a game is played. Therefore, after the scoring validation process for the week is complete, the scoring for that week will not be changed regardless of any official statistics or scoring adjustments made by the leagues at later times or dates, and there will be no impact on that week’s scores or the overall standings. Conversely, if a correction needs to be made after a week is finalized due to a bug with the data feed or the finalization process, while extremely rare, the finalization process (including payment) may be reversed and redone in DraftKings’ sole and absolute discretion.