We frequently talk about the ever-changing daily fantasy landscape, with new sites popping up all the time while others are shutting down.  It can be difficult to keep track of all the comings and goings and which sites are worthwhile, but we here at DFSEdge keep tabs on these things and try to point you in the right direction when things get churned up.  The daily fantasy site Fantazzle recently announced that they were shutting down, but unlike another recent shutdown, Daily Joust, which was gobbled up by Fan Throwdown, I’ve yet to hear where Fantazzle players will be headed to quench their fantasy thirst.  As such, I thought I’d take a look today at Fantazzle’s scoring system and roster setup and figure out where players should go if they’re looking for a similar experience.  In other words, which sites are most similar to Fantazzle?

Stat	Fantazzle	Fantasy Feud	FantasyAces	FanDuel
1B	25%	25%	25%	25%
2B	50%	50%	50%	50%
3B	75%	75%	75%	75%
HR	100%	100%	100%	100%
RBI	50%	50%	25%	25%
R	50%	38%	25%	25%
BB	25%	13%	25%	25%
SB	50%	50%	50%	50%
CS	-25%	-25%	0%	0%
HBP	25%	13%	13%	25%
K	-25%	-13%	-6%	0%
GIDP	-25%	-13%	0%	0%
SAC	0%	0%	0%	0%
Out	0%	0%	-6%	-6%

To determine compatibility, I computed scores for all hitters with at least 300 plate appearances and all pitchers with at least 10 games started in 2012 from each of the eight sites we endorse here at DFSEdge (and, of course, Fantazzle).  I then ran correlations to see which sites matched up closest to Fantazzle and did some manual analysis of the scoring systems and roster structures.  This narrowed the choices down to three sites: Fantasy Feud, FantasyAces, and FanDuel.

In my analysis, I reached the conclusion that Fantazzle is most similar to Fantasy Feud in terms of hitter scoring and second-most similar in terms of pitcher scoring.  It is sixth-most similar to FantasyAces for hitters and third-most similar for pitchers.  It is least similar to FanDuel in terms of both hitting and pitching scores, which would seem to rule FanDuel out entirely, but there is one factor in FanDuel’s favor that warrants their inclusion (which we’ll get to later).

Hitter scores between Fantazzle and Fantasy Feud correlate very closely, and as you can see to the right, their scoring systems have a lot of similarities (all scores are presented as percentage of points awarded for HR to make it an apples-to-apples comparison; so, for instance, if a HR is worth 4 points, a 1B is worth 1 point on each site).  They both use and ignore all of the same categories and give identical weights to many of them—and those where they differ most, like HBP and GIDP, are low-probability events anyway.  For hitters, Fantasy Feud is far and away the choice.



Things are much less clean-cut for pitchers, though.  Because daily sites use so many different pitching categories, including a lot of low-probability ones, it’s hard to find any sites that match up perfectly or even close to it.  That said, Fantazzle matches up well with Fantasy Feud and FantasyAces on all the main categories except for earned runs, and to be fair, no site is within 10% of Fantazzle when it comes to ER.  They are (or were, I suppose) very much an outlier in that category.

Fantazzle uses some bonus categories like Complete Games, Shutouts, and No-Hitters that our three finalists don’t use, but as we’ve discussed, these occur so infrequently and are so difficult to predict that they can almost be ignored.

What you can’t ignore, however, is that while Fantazzle scores correlated well with Fantasy Feud scores for pitchers, Fantasy Feud makes use of relievers, which weren’t included in the correlations.  If you’re going to move over to Fantasy Feud, that will be something you’ll have to acclimate yourself to.  You do have the option of ignoring relievers and only selecting starters, but ignoring any of a game’s quirks just means that you’re giving your opponent the exclusive opportunity to exploit them.  This is the primary reason why FantasyAces makes the shortlist: their pitcher scores correlate the best with Fantazzle among sites that ignore relievers.



The only problem is that Fantazzle used a very different roster structure than Fantasy Feud and a moderately different one than FantasyAces… but an identical one to FanDuel, as you can see to the right.  FanDuel, of course, offers a very different scoring system and actually had the lowest player-score correlations among all sites for both hitters and pitchers.  Go back up to the previous tables and see how it compares—not particularly well.  FanDuel and FantasyAces are the only sites to only use 1 pitcher, and FantasyAces has other quirks, like lumping first basemen with third basemen and second basemen with shortstops.

So it really becomes a matter of preference.  If you’re a former Fantazzle user, do you want a learning curve when it comes to roster structure, scoring system, or an expanded player pool?  For me, it would be easier to adjust to having a couple extra roster spots.  If I already know how to evaluate them, I just have to select a few more each day.  That means either Fantasy Feud or Fantasy Aces would be my choice, with the deciding factor being the reliever.  Whatever decision you make, hopefully this analysis proved helpful in reaching it.