A beginner's walkthrough. Account setup, your first XI, contest entry, captain selection, and the first-week learning curve. Read this once, then read it again after your first contest.
Five steps cover everything you need before paying an entry fee. Take them in order; skip nothing.
Read our app verification guide before installing anything. Confirm the platform is reachable from its official domain.
Use a unique email, a strong password, and authenticator-based two-factor. Read our login walkthrough.
Every platform publishes its own points sheet. Read it before building your first XI. Read our points primer.
Use credits and role quotas to build a balanced XI before chasing star names. Read our team-balance playbook.
Most platforms offer free or low-cost practice contests. Run your first XI through one before paying an entry fee.
A captain decision can double a points return or wipe out a strong XI. Most beginners pick the most famous name on the team-sheet. That is the wrong signal.
The first five contests are the steepest part of the learning curve. Treat them as research, not as a chance to win. Most beginners lose money on the first three contests; that is the format, not a personal failure.
Before any contest season, set three numbers and refuse to move them: weekly cap, stop-loss, and pause weeks. Treat the cap like a cinema budget.
Most beginners fall into the same five traps. Read the list, recognise the patterns, and walk past them.
The most famous name on the team-sheet is rarely the best captain pick. Pick the role-fit instead.
A losing entry is not a reason for a bigger entry. The next contest is a fresh decision, not a recovery play.
A bonus code should not drive a play decision. If the contest only makes sense with the bonus, walk away.
A pick outside the announced XI earns zero points. Confirm the XI is announced before locking your team.
Conditions change fantasy points. A pitch report is part of the research, not an optional extra.
Pass one is about the contest structure: how many players in an XI, what the role caps are, and what the salary ceiling looks like. Pass two is about the points system: which actions earn the most points, which lose points, and where the captain multiplier lives. Pass three is about the app itself — source of the download, identity of the operator, and the legal status of real-money fantasy contests in your state.
Our beginner walkthrough walks through those three passes in sequence, with screenshots of the relevant screens and a checklist at the end.
Once the three passes have produced a contest-structure summary, a points-system map, and an app-safety verdict, the next step is the XI itself: which eleven players, which captain, which vice-captain, and which differentials. The desk's beginner walkthrough walks through each of those calls with worked examples from the most recent tournament window, so a new reader can follow the reasoning on a known fixture before applying it to their own contest.
The walkthrough deliberately avoids recommending specific contests or specific stake sizes. We are an editorial desk, not a contest operator. Your stake size is your decision; our job is to make sure the XI is built on a defensible read of conditions, role math, and opponent matchups.