How the Builder Works

From picking a DraftKings slate to a CSV you can upload, in six steps

Back to the Builder
1
Pick a Slate

Classic or Captain Mode, then the DraftKings slate you are entering

2
Check the Games

Kickoff times, spreads, totals, and implied team totals

3
Shape the Player Pool

Edit FPPG, set exposure, trash players you do not want

4
Set the Builder

Lineup count, salary floor, stacks, volatility, and rules

5
Build

Submit and review player usage and build statistics

6
Edit and Export

Prune, compare, and download a DraftKings-ready CSV

1

Pick a Slate

Game style

Start by choosing the DraftKings game style. The count next to each button is how many slates are currently loaded.

Classic

Nine roster slots (QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, WR, TE, FLEX, DST) under the $50,000 cap. Covers the main slate, the early and afternoon windows, primetime multi-game slates, and any other classic slate DraftKings posts.

Captain Mode

Single-game Showdown slates. One Captain slot scores 1.5x points at 1.5x salary, plus five FLEX slots from either team. Kickers are in the pool.

Slate cards

Each card names the slate (for example a 13-game main slate or a single game) and shows a pill for every kickoff window it covers: green for early, yellow for afternoon, red for night. Featured slates are flagged. Expand a multi-game card to see every matchup and kickoff time, then click the card to open it.

Where the data comes from: contests, player salaries, positions and game odds are synced from DraftKings and the betting market several times a day. Injury designations come from the official NFL injury report, cross-checked against a second source, with extra injury and odds refreshes in between full syncs. If a slate's data is older than it should be, a notice at the top of the builder says so. Injury designations are not game-time updates — always verify player status before you enter.
2

Check the Games

The top of the builder lists the slate's dates and one button per game. Click ODDS to flip every game to its market line, or click a single game to flip just that one.

  • Spread: shown from the favorite's side, for example "KC -3.5".
  • O/U: the game total.
  • ITT (Implied Team Total): the points the market expects each team to score, derived from the spread and total. It appears as a column in the player table, colored by how big a favorite or underdog the team is, so you can sort the whole pool by game environment.

Odds are not a build input. The builder uses FPPG (see step 3). ITT is there to inform the edits you make.

3

Shape the Player Pool

The player table

Every player on the slate is listed with position, team, ITT, salary, FP/$1K (points per $1,000 of salary), FPPG, ΔFP%, and Min and Max exposure. Sort any column, filter by position, show injured players only, or search by name. The player pool counter shows how many players are still in the pool after trashing.

Edit FPPG

FPPG starts as DraftKings' average fantasy points per game this season. It is not a projection: it is the number you replace. Type a new value into the cell, or use the plus and minus buttons to move it 5% at a time. The ΔFP% column shows how far you have moved each player from baseline, and the undo button resets him. The build uses the edited number.

Trash players

Click the X on a row to remove that player from the pool for this build. The TRASH button shows the count and opens a list where you can restore anyone. Auto-trash removes players below a salary or FPPG threshold or carrying an injury designation (Out, Doubtful, Questionable, Probable) in one click.

Set exposure

Min Exp and Max Exp are the share of your lineups a player must and may appear in. Set Min to 100 to put a player in every lineup. Set Max to 30 to cap a pivot. Max exposure starts from the per-position defaults on your Builder Defaults page.

Defaults from your profile

Builder Defaults holds your defaults for lineup count, minimum salary, auto-trash thresholds and injury statuses, and (with the Season Pass) volatility, unique players, and per-position max exposure. They are applied every time a slate loads.

Table edits are per session. FPPG edits, exposure values, and the trash list apply to the slate you have open and reset when you reload the page or click RESET. Your profile defaults are what persist.
4

Set the Builder

Build row
Lineups

Pick a preset (1, 3, 5, 20, 50, 100, 150) or type a number. Free accounts build up to 20 lineups per run; the Season Pass raises that to 150.

Min salary

Every lineup spends at least this much of the $50,000 cap (default $40,000). Raise it to stop the solver leaving money on the table.

Builder settings Season Pass

One line above the build row summarizes what is active, for example "Stacks: Triple 100% · volatility 10% · 3 unique per lineup". Click Edit to open the three tabs.

Stacks
  • SINGLE, DOUBLE, TRIPLE, QUAD: a QB plus one to four of his pass catchers
  • RB & DST from the same team
  • Include RBs in QB stacks, or keep them to WR and TE
  • Every lineup carries one of the enabled shapes around its QB. The percentage caps how often any one team's stack of that shape may appear; 100% is no cap
  • Classic slates only. Showdown lineups already draw from both teams
Volatility
  • A slider from 0% to 30%, with Cash (0%), Balanced (10%), and GPP (20%) presets
  • Each player's FPPG is nudged up or down by up to this much, freshly for every lineup
  • 0% builds straight off your FPPG numbers. Higher values spread the pool across a tournament build
Rules
  • Team exposure: the share of lineups any one team may appear in (10% to no cap)
  • Unique players: every lineup differs from every other by at least 2 to 6 players
  • Players per team: cap of 3 to 8 from one team, or none. A stack needs room: DOUBLE is 3 from one team, QUAD is 5
  • QB vs DST: never roster a quarterback with the defense he is facing

Free accounts build with the default settings: no stacks, 10% volatility, no team cap, and 3 unique players between lineups. RESET returns everything, including table edits and the trash list, to your defaults.

5

Build

What happens when you click SUBMIT
  1. Your settings and table edits are validated. A stack that cannot fit under your per-team cap, or a min exposure above a max, is rejected with a message before anything runs.
  2. The pool is loaded with your FPPG edits, exposure values, and trash list applied.
  3. The solver builds lineups one at a time, each the highest-FPPG roster that satisfies the cap, position slots, stacks, rules, and uniqueness against every lineup before it. Exposure caps are paced across the build, so a 50% player alternates rather than filling the first half.
  4. Builds of up to 20 lineups run in the request and come back in a second or two. Larger builds run in the background with a progress bar, a lineup count, and a time estimate; a full 150-lineup build takes longer with stacks on and tight exposure caps.
Build Results

When a build finishes, the results window opens:

  • Player Usage: every player used, with salary, FPPG, and the share and count of lineups he is in, filterable by position. Plus the projected points and salary range across the build.
  • Statistics: stack breakdown (single, double, triple, quad, RB and DST, and the share of stacked lineups), salary distribution, and average salary by position.

If the constraints only allow some of the lineups you asked for, you get the ones that were possible, flagged as partial, with a note about what to loosen.

6

Edit, Compare, and Export

Lineup Editor

View Lineups opens the build in a grid with one row per lineup. Name the build, select rows to remove or duplicate, and save. The build's lineup count, average points, and average salary update as you go.

Pruning

Built more lineups than you will enter? Enter a target count, pick a strategy, and click Preview: the lineups that would go are highlighted in the grid before you apply it.

Top FPPG

Keeps the highest-FPPG lineups. Best for cash games, or for dropping the weakest tail of any build.

Most Different

Starts from the top lineup and keeps adding the lineup that shares the fewest players with those kept, with FPPG breaking near-ties. Best for large-field tournaments.

Spread Exposure

Repeatedly drops the weakest lineup containing the most-used player, so top exposure falls with every cut. Best when one player took over a multi-entry build.

Stack Variety

Groups lineups by QB stack (by captain in Showdown) and takes the best from every group in turn, so you do not lose a game stack when you trim.

Duplicate Selected and Copy to Current can leave exact copies in a build. Remove Duplicates, in the pruning tool's header, drops them.

Build history and comparison

The BUILDS button lists every build for the open slate (or all slates) with lineup count, average points, average salary, top lineup, and build time. Your browser keeps the 20 most recent builds and up to 5 you have saved with the lock button, for a week; the rest are dropped as new builds arrive. Compare opens two builds from the same slate side by side and lets you copy lineups from one into the other.

Export to DraftKings Season Pass
  1. Click CSV in the editor, the history panel, or the comparison view. The file uses DraftKings' upload format and player IDs.
  2. Log in to DraftKings, open the contest, and choose the bulk upload option (labeled "Upload lineups" or similar depending on the page).
  3. Select the file. DraftKings creates one entry per row, up to the contest's entry limit.
  4. Review the entries and confirm.

Free accounts can build and review lineups but not download the CSV.

Open the Builder