DFS Lineup Optimizer

A DFS lineup optimizer builds the highest-scoring lineup it can fit under the salary cap, given the projections you feed it. The tool below does that for today’s DraftKings main slate, and it starts you off with two numbers you can actually check: DraftKings’ own published salary and listed average for every player, plus the betting market’s implied team total for every team on the slate.

Every projection is yours to edit. Change a number and the lineup rebuilds around it, so the optimizer works with your read rather than replacing it. Lock the players you want, exclude the ones you do not, and let it fill the rest.

How to Use the DFS Optimizer

Hit “Build optimal lineup” and the tool fills all ten roster spots under the $50,000 cap. From there it is a conversation: lock a player you are set on, edit a projection you disagree with, then rebuild. The lineup optimizer solves around whatever you have fixed in place.

• Lock: Pin a player into every lineup. Locked players stay at the top of the pool so you can always unlock them, even after filtering.
• Your proj: The editable column. It starts at DraftKings’ listed average and the solver uses whatever you put there.
• DK avg: DraftKings’ own listed fantasy-point average. A dash means DraftKings lists no average for that player, usually because they have not played recently.
• Team total: How many runs the betting market expects that team to score, with the vig removed.
• Sort and filter: Order the pool by salary, projection, value, or team total, and narrow it to a single position.

Why Team Totals Belong in a DFS Tool

An implied team total is the betting market’s estimate of how many runs a team will score, pulled from the prices sportsbooks actually post. It matters in DFS because fantasy scoring follows real scoring: hitters in a lineup the market expects to put up five runs have more paths to a big night than hitters in a game the market has priced for three.

We take the median posted team total across the regulated sportsbooks we track, then strip the vig out of the two-sided price. One caveat worth knowing: on a typical baseball slate almost every team lands on either 3.5 or 4.5, so the posted number alone separates teams into broad tiers rather than a clean ranking. Where two teams share a number, we order them by the vig-free price behind it, which is the finer signal.

Where These Numbers Come From

Every figure in the tool belongs to somebody else, and we say who. Salaries, positions, and listed averages come straight from DraftKings’ published slate data. Team totals come from the odds feed we maintain, taken across regulated US sportsbooks only.

• We do not publish our own projections. The default projection is DraftKings’ listed average, labelled as theirs. When DraftKings lists no average, you get a dash rather than a number we invented.
• Injured and inactive players are left out of auto-fill. You can still lock one in deliberately if you know something the status field does not.
• Regulated books only. Offshore sportsbooks are excluded before any average is taken, so they never move a number you see here.
• Posted lines beat derived ones. Where a sportsbook posts a team total we use it. If a game has none, we split the game total using the spread and mark that figure with a dagger so you know the difference.

The lineup the optimizer returns is arithmetic, not a forecast. It is the highest-scoring roster that fits the cap under the projections in front of it, which means a lineup is only ever as good as the numbers you gave it. No optimizer knows who is going to have a big night, and this one does not claim to.

Building for Cash Games Versus Tournaments

The optimal lineup is a starting point, not a finished entry, and what you do next depends on the contest. Cash games reward a high floor, so the raw optimal build is usually close to what you want: consistent producers, safe pitching, little concern for how many other people land on the same players.

Tournaments are a different problem. If thousands of entries run the same lineup optimizer against the same public numbers, the chalk lineup gets duplicated, and a build everyone else has is hard to win a large field with. That is the practical argument for editing projections: nudging the players you genuinely rate, then rebuilding, pulls you off the consensus lineup on purpose. Our DFS strategy guide covers stacking and leverage in more depth.

For today’s slate read, including which stacks and pitchers we like and why, see our daily picks. New to the format? Start with how to play daily fantasy sports, and check where DFS is available before you deposit anywhere.

DFS Lineup Optimizer FAQ

Common questions about how the lineup optimizer works and what its numbers mean.