How To Play Fantasy Premier League (EPL) - Overview Guide, Tips, Chips, and Rules

Euan's Fantasy Premier League (FPL) "how to play" guide and overview for the English Premier League fantasy game. Expert advice on rules, scoring, chips, tips, and strategy for winning your EPL Fantasy Premier League.

This year's edition of FPL brought about the most changes I can remember since I started playing the game. Defensive players' stocks are on the rise, and some attackers may see a dip in their usual plethora of points.

The Gameweek 1 deadline for the 2025-26 Fantasy Premier League season is Friday, August 15, at 1:30 p.m. EDT, when Liverpool hosts AFC Bournemouth. Check out the rest of our excellent soccer coverage as the squad gets you all set for every EPL and UCL slate with our EPL DFS lineup picks and betting picks.

Join the RotoBaller FPL League

Fancy pitting your wits against fellow RotoBallers? Then, join our free league to compete against the team and our dedicated FPL fans. Head to the official FPL site, click the leagues and cups tab, and enter the RotoBaller league code: 7xqqnf.

The best way to enjoy #FPL is to play with those closest to you 🫶

Personalise and share this with your friends and family to get them involved in your mini-league 📲 pic.twitter.com/z55KsOvkmQ

— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) July 29, 2025

How To Play Fantasy Premier League?

Squad Building

Fantasy Premier League managers are given a budget of £100 million to make a squad of 15 players: two goalkeepers, five defenders, five midfielders, and three forwards. Each player is awarded points based on their in-game actions, such as scoring goals, assists, and clean sheets.

Out of those 15 players, you'll select your starting lineup of 11 players to score your FPL points. You must start those players in a valid formation. Those formations are:

• 5-2-3
• 5-3-2
• 5-4-1
• 4-3-3
• 4-4-2
• 4-5-1
• 3-4-3
• 3-5-2

Don't forget, you can have a maximum of three players from each Premier League. So use those Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, and Chelsea slots wisely.

Captaincy

Every gameweek, you'll be able to select a Captain and a Vice Captain. Your Captain will score double points for the week, so, ideally, you'll give the armband to the player with the best matchup or in the best run of form. The Vice Captain will only score double points if your original Captain pick does not play in their intended fixture.

Gameweek Transfers

Managers can now roll up to five free transfers. Rolling a transfer is when you do not bring in or transfer out a player, and accumulate it for the following week. This can be particularly useful early in the campaign or if you want to move budget around at different spots in your lineup.

This scoring plays out throughout 38 gameweeks, coinciding with the 38 games each Premier League team plays every season. Because you won't or can't have (through injury) the same 15 players all season, the game provides one free transfer per gameweek to switch up the squad.

Changes

There are several new features for the 2025-26 season. Defensive contributions (DefCons) allow every position to secure two extra points per match if they reach a certain threshold (see more in Scoring). Assists have been simplified to allow for more points, and every FPL manager will receive five free transfers to accommodate the African Cup of Nations starting in Gameweek 16.

For a further, in-depth look at all the changes to the 2025-26 version of Fantasy Premier League, check out The FPL Manual's article from the game launch in late July.

We are so back.

Fantasy Premier League: A game for everyone.

👉 https://t.co/4psnv10I9n#FPL pic.twitter.com/mIT5LM4pc3

— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) July 21, 2025

Scoring

Clean Sheets

You're minding your own business. Your defender is playing in a game when his team is winning 3-0, and you don't have a care in the world. A clean sheet and four valuable points are on the way for your FPL team, but then BAM, the opposition scores. All four points down the drain, and your defender has a two next to their name instead of six.

It's a feeling I can only compare to when you see the backup running back enter the game at the two-yard line in NFL Fantasy Football, and your heart sinks because your RB1 is about to be robbed of six glorious touchdown points.

However, if your defender was substituted after the 60th minute, but before the goal was conceded, they would've kept those four points. It's a strange mechanic of the game, where you want minutes-monsters, but sometimes it can come back to bite you.

Defensive Contributions (DefCons)

It's all the rage for the 2025-26 season, as DefCons are set to open up the FPL player pool to players we never would've thought about adding to our roster. Previously, ball-winning beasts like Elliott Anderson (£5.5M) and Moises Caicedo (£5.5M) would be skipped over when building a team, but now they are two of the most-selected midfielders in the game.

There is a slight variation that managers need to learn when it comes to DefCons, however. Defenders only need 10 combined clearances, blocks, interceptions, or tackles (CBIT), while midfielders and forwards need 12 combined clearances, blocks, interceptions, tackles, or recoveries (CBITR).

Also, these points do not stack. Once a player reaches the threshold, they receive the two points. So a defender will receive two points whether they have 10, 20, or 30 CBIT in a game, and a midfielder or forward will receive two points whether they reach 12, 24, or 36 CBITR.

One of our FPL analysts, The FPL Manual, has covered which defenders, midfielders, and forwards will benefit from this new rule in his position previews.

Which of these premium defenders will have the best season? 🛡️#FPL pic.twitter.com/UiflP1SKjH

— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) July 22, 2025

Bonus Points System

During each Premier League game, every player's in-game actions are awarded a certain number of points and calculated to reveal their Bonus Points System score. The three highest-scoring BPS players are given one, two, or three bonus points.

If a goalkeeper from an underdog side concedes one goal, but makes 10 saves against Manchester City, they will have a great chance at being awarded three bonus points. It's a way to give more points to those outstanding players from the match without relying on the regular FPL scoring system.

This article on the Premier League website shows every iteration where a player can pick up points in the BPS system.

As mentioned earlier, each gameweek, every FPL manager will gain one free transfer to fix their squad. However, you don't have to use the transfer that week. Since the 2024-25 season, strategists can opt to roll up to five free transfers and make sweeping changes to their squads.

Having at least two transfers makes reconfiguring your FPL team a lot easier. Say you want to swap Erling Haaland (£14.0M) for Mohamed Salah (£14.5M) in Gameweek 2. You'll only have one free transfer. Unfortunately, Salah (midfield) and Haaland (forward) play different positions. As a result, you'll need to take a four-point hit to make the moves because that's what an extra transfer will cost your squad.

However, if you wait until Gameweek 3, you can move the Norwegian striker to Chelsea's Joao Pedro (£7.5M), then take £6.5m in your budget and upgrade Man United's Matheus Cunha (£8.0M) to the Egyptian midfielder.

This is an excellent example of how patience can give you squad a lot of flexibility to make significant changes to your lineup.

AFCON Transfers

In Gameweek 16, the African Cup of Nations will begin, and players belonging to the qualified countries will start to leave their teams and go to play at the continental competition.

To compensate for the departures of Mohamed Salah, Bryan Mbeumo, and others, the game has decided to give every FPL manager five free transfers for Gameweek 16. You don't have to use all free transfers, and you don't need an African player in your team to qualify for these transfers. You'll get them no matter what.

A helping hand when AFCON gets under way 🤝#FPL pic.twitter.com/8xBofwl95e

— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) July 19, 2025

Chips

For the 2025-26 season, Fantasy Premier League is giving managers four chips. However, unlike previous seasons, every manager will get two of every chip. The first set of chips must be played between Gameweeks 1-19, and the second set needs to be played between Gameweeks 20-38.

Here is a breakdown of every chip the game will give its managers.

Wildcard

The most powerful chip in the game. Whenever you activate the Wildcard, you will have unlimited transfers for that upcoming gameweek. It allows managers the chance to completely reset the team without transfer penalties.

It is particularly powerful to use this chip when a couple of teams are entering a great run of fixtures, and other teams are ending a terrific run.

Triple Captain

The Captain you pick for a particular gameweek will score triple points instead of double points. Usually, FPL strategists deploy this chip during a double gameweek. Still, because they have to play the first Triple Captain during the first half of the season, it will likely come down to the best matchup available.

Bench Boost

During a regular gameweek, it's only your starting XI players that will score your FPL points. However, when you activate the Bench Boost, all 15 players will score points for your squad.

Free Hit

This chip turns Fantasy Premier League into a DFS version for one gameweek. In that gameweek, you can pick any player in the FPL pool without a transfer hit. Then, the following week, your team will revert to the squad you had before you activated the Free Hit chip.

Double the fun ✌️

FPL managers will receive two of every chip in 2025/26 🍟#FPL pic.twitter.com/X2JwYpJukw

— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) July 18, 2025

Chip Strategy

It's tough to plan for every scenario, but having a general schedule for when to play the chips in your head is helpful. At the same time, it'll be different for every FPL squad. Here's where my head is at with 10 days until the start of the season.

Bench Boost 

The squads will be the most rested, and the starting XI will be the most predictable for the first couple of weeks. I'll sacrifice a little bit of budget to get this chip out of the way and then funnel my budget more into the leading 11 players of my team.

Triple Captain

I'll save this for whenever Mohamed Salah or Erling Haaland plays a promoted side at home. Haaland plays Burnley at home in Gameweek 6, while Salah meets Sunderland at Anfield in Gameweek 14.

Free Hit

This is also a candidate for Gameweek 6, especially if I don't have Haaland. Newcastle hosts Arsenal while Liverpool has a tricky test on the road at Crystal Palace. It would allow me to keep those players in my squad for Gameweek 7 and beyond while loading up on Man City assets versus Burnley.

Wildcard

Everyone and their Grandma seems to be targeting Gameweek 13 for a Wildcard, but that seems late for me. I try not to knee-jerk react in FPL as patience usually suits my style of play better. However, if a rash of injuries hits my team, I'll have no fear in activating the most powerful chip in the game.