Another new football season means another crack at trying to master Fantasy Premier League.
It’s a great time of year as we tune into the pre-season games, recapture our thoughts and feelings from the end of last season, and start to plot how we are going to leave our mates in the mud by topping our mini-leagues.
But dream a little more and not only could you have bragging rights over your pals, but you could actually go and win the entire thing.
Seems impossible, right? Well, it’s not. Every season very normal football fans go on to clinch the top prizes. They are not professionals, they are not content creators; they just love the game, stick with it throughout the season…and enjoy a little luck along the way.
Last season almost 11 million teams were registered to play the Premier League’s official fantasy game so we decided to seek out some past FPL champions to discover what it is like to claim the big prize.
The prizes include VIP trips to top-flight games in England – with flights and accommodation thrown in – and Jonas Sand Labakk will be enjoying such gifts soon.
The reigning champ was watching from a pub as his dream was realised on the final day of the season. His team, Onkel Blaa, ended the campaign 51 points clear of second-place and the post-season break has provided a time for realisation for the Norwegian student.
Jonas Sand Labakk
Conservative selections and statistical models
“It took a few weeks for it to actually sink in, but it’s a great feeling and it’s quite surreal!”, he told GIVEMESPORT. “I’m a university student, and was very busy with exams at that time so I actually haven’t celebrated it yet.
“I think many people believe you need to do a lot of crazy stuff in order to win, or even do well in FPL. For me that was not the case.
“I played quite safe for nearly the whole season, with a few calculated risks. So my number one advice would be: Even though the transfer, captaincy or whatever may seem boring, it’s ‘boring’ and popular for a reason. Don’t try to be much smarter than everyone else, it usually doesn’t work out.”
He makes it sound easy, and there is no doubt he has a laid-back approach compared to some serious FPLers out there. But dig a little deeper and it turns out there was still plenty of game planning and data analysis involved.
“Throughout the season I had a structured plan,” he says. “It was quite simple. I came up with some thoughts around Sunday and Monday. Throughout the week I tried not to think too much about FPL. I tried to start thinking again around Thursday or Friday. During that time I just gathered information and usually made my decision on Saturday, a few hours before deadline.
“I also tried to avoid early transfers as I believe the information you get throughout the week is more important than an 0.1million or 0.2million player value swing. Ahead of the season, I adapted an analytical play style, which means I used statistical models rather than the good old eye test.”
Analysing data might sound a little dull but studying statistical information continues to be a popular way for successful FPL managers to pick their team, with an increasing number of websites and social media accounts dedicated to helping users gain an edge by studying trending numbers.
Jamie Piggott
FPL’s highest ever points scorer
American Jamie Piggott is FPL’s highest ever points scorer, claiming the winners prize in the 2021/22 season. His score was 2844 as his Futbol is Lift team clinched the top prize.
That’s 45 points more than current FPL king Labakk managed to knock together, and his advice is simple: “Plan your chips out strategically. Play the fixtures. Plan ahead. And target double gameweeks.” But he also mentions the focus towards stats.
“Similar to real football, FPL is moving more and more towards analytics,” he explains. “If you want a step up, employ some of the models to help your decision making. But if you want to win, you’ve got to take some risks and get lucky. But most importantly, remember to have fun!”
And that points record?
“I’ll be honest, the high score was just a symptom of Covid cancellations,” he admits. “The only reason I ended up with the highest score was because of how many double gameweeks there were that year. I bet the top 500 or more that year also would have set a new record.
“It was all surreal at the time. I thought I threw away my chance a few weeks before only to get thrust into the mix the last few weeks. With all ten games on at the same time, the final week is absolute chaos.
“I was in a bar, nervously drinking a pint of beer and a shot of tequila at 7am, up one point on second place, with family and friends and with a crowd of fellow local FPL folks – it went down to the wire.
“It was stressful, exhilarating, quite unbelievable… that’s how I would describe it. To be first out of nine million players at the time is absolutely insane. It’s a cool fun fact to be known as the first American to win the biggest fantasy sport competition in the world.
“But I nailed my chip strategy, got extremely lucky and the rest is history. I could pretend to be an expert but honestly, anyone who doesn’t mention extreme luck is delusional. You only win FPL by getting lucky.”
Further proof then that any one of us truly could go on to win the crown next season.
Ali Jahangorov
Don’t overthink it
Ali Jahangorov from Baku, Azerbaijan claimed the winner’s spot in 2022/23 as his FPL Gunz team racked up a score of 2776 points and he clinched the first position in the final game week.
“I was top for the final six consecutive weeks at the end – but I was top five for quite a while, too”, he says. “It is difficult not to overthink it when you are in a position like that – my friends said I was thinking a bit too deep. But some of the decisions I made were good, captaining Callum Wilson towards the end of the season was a good one.
“When you are up there it is a different game. People would arrive in the top ten and then they would disappear – but then someone else comes up. It was stressful because when I was top three or four in the world I was focusing on top three but they were always changing.
“Some of the leaders around that time ended up finishing down in the 50s – it is really brutal. It’s not that easy at all.”
Ben Crabtree
Captain success
Everton fan Ben Crabtree won it in 2016/17 with his Crab Dogg team racking up 2564 points.
“I think your captain success is the most important,” he explained to GMS. “I had around 750 points from my captains – which was over a quarter of my total points.
“I would look for opportunities to captain lower owned players, Leighton Baines being the best example, and I also remember quickly getting Sanchez after an injury and maximising the small window of unique points by captaining him.
“It’s important not to force the issue but each season there’s easily ten games when you can go for someone not obvious or lower owned, due to circumstances.”
What you win for coming first in FPL
The extra effort is always worth it when you land top spot and land one of the game’s big prizes.
Crabtree added: “I went to Everton away at Newcastle for one of my prizes. Rooney scored a winner in a 1-0. The seats were fantastic and I was about five seats across from £25m Davy Klassen, who was deemed not good enough for the bench.
“My other game was Everton away at Arsenal. Not for the hope of three points but to experience Emirates hospitality. We shared a box with other Premier League guests, including the creator of FPL. We got hammered 4-1 but 1st class train tickets, two nights in a smart hotel and a day of hospitality football was all very enjoyable. There’s some criticisms of the prizes but the VIP tickets being something difficult to buy do make it more special than a few months pay getting put in your bank account.”
As the new campaign begins, we are all equal and can dream big. Past winners are living proof that anyone, anywhere, can win it.