How do price changes work in Fantasy Football and why does a player's price rise or fall during the course of the season?
The Fantasy Premier League has become a household application throughout the world with multiple users across the globe being glued to their phones watching their favourite players battle it out on the field and them making predictions about it and choosing the best possible players to garner points for themselves.
The users turned managers get a real-life experience of fielding a combined eleven from all the teams featuring in England's Premier Division. The game has a price tag attached to every player and managers have to make a team of 15 players with an equal budget given to every user.
While the prices of a player could stay intact throughout the season, several players see their prices fluctuate with some witnessing an increase while some seeing a drop.
Here, GOAL explains why the price of a player changes during a season and what are the major reasons behind it and how a manager could make the most of these fluctuations to boost their points.
WHAT ARE PRICE CHANGES IN FANTASY PREMIER LEAGUE?
A player's price change in the Fantasy Premier League mostly occurs when the ownership of a player increases or decreases. When a vast majority of managers playing the game run behind a specific player owing to his great form or if he's tipped to have a thundering couple of matches, managers tend to acquire him to give themselves an advantage heading into the next game week.
This mass increase in the ownership of players sees the price of that specific player increase by £01.m every week. A player's price can increase or fall by £0.1m to £0.3m but it cannot cross that mark.
The key factor here is that not every player witnesses a price change. As a matter of fact, only a handful of players witness a change in their price between game weeks. When managers clinically assess these price changes they can get a massive edge over their competitors in the game because they not only help managers buy players but also sell them at the right time helping them garner profits every week strengthening their final scores.
AdvertisementGettyWHY DOES A PLAYER'S PRICE CHANGE IN FPL
FPL player's prices are somewhat equivalent to stocks and multiple comparisons can be drawn to illustrate the reasoning for changes in the prices of a player. Like in the stock market, the price of a stock skyrockets after multiple parties start buying and this is the same as with a player in the game.
If a player is bought by multiple managers playing the game, his price is touted to go up meaning a player's value will go up in accordance to the volume of its ownership.
Let's take an example, Manchester City's midfield maestro Kevin De Bruyne is valued at £12m. The players of FPL don't pick him up early on the season because of a tough set of fixtures or his price but by Gameweek 5 he manages to score 6 goals.
Now managers would want to bolster their side by picking the Belgian midfielder and the volume of his purchase in the game rises with every passing week. In this situation, De Bruyne's price will get an increment of £0.1m meaning his price tag would be £12.5m by the end of Gameweek 6.
But if owing to an injury or other circumstances, De Bruyne gets sidelined by Pep Guardiola in the next week and former Leeds United midfielder Kalvin Phillips finds a way into the eleven because he's going through a purple patch, the players would immediately swap the Belgian with the English midfielder which would see De Bruyne's price drop and could see the latter's price rise in the upcoming weeks.
There are multiple factors that could affect the changes in the price like form, fixtures, injury, or suspension to name a few that could see an alteration in a player's price.
Getty ImagesHOW DO THE PRICE CHANGES IN FPL WORK?
If the player's price rises a manager won't be able to earn the full amount if he decides to sell the player. After a player's purchase, the manager gets only a specific amount from the rise in price of the player if he decides to sell them in the future.
For every £0.2 price increase during the time the player is held by a manager, the owner can only garner a sum of £0.1m when the player is sold by them.
For example, Liverpool's swashbuckling winger Mohamed Salah is priced at £12.5m and managers bring him in the initial game weeks. Now the Egyptian goal machine produces some scintillating performances increasing his price to £13.1m.
For a manager who's buying Salah for the first time, the Liverpool goalscorer would cost them £13.1m, but he can be sold by an existing owner for just £12.8m. So for the £0.6m increase in Salah's price, the manager earned a value of £0.3m.
The sale would still sit at £12.8m if Salah's price increases and he's sold by his manager at a time when his price would be £13.2m. If Salah's price drops to £13m, the manager would be able to get only £12.7m for the sale of the Egyptian.
Managers have to be street-smart in deciding when to sell a player and when to acquire him. While a continuous increase in price could be a boon for managers to make money to use in the transfer of other big names, a sudden drop could see their plans get washed away.
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Getty ImagesWHAT HAPPENS TO PRICE CHANGES WHEN A MANAGER USES WILDCARD?
A Wildcard in Fantasy Premier League is a manager's way of reconstructing his side in the middle of the campaign and earning himself a boost before heading into the next game week.
Wildcards help a manager make unlimited transfers without getting a points hit and if utilised properly can be very useful keeping in mind the change in prices of players.
This helps you target any player whose price could increase in the near future and sell them when there's an increase.
For example, Manchester United's latest signing Mason Mount earns popularity after his initial days at Old Trafford and becomes a popular incoming transfer in the future. Now a manager can buy the former Chelsea graduate and wait for his price to rise and then sell him at the market value to earn themselves a profit.
Players can also sell the players who are going through a rough phase and then buy them back for cheaper prices using their wildcards in the upcoming weeks.