NBA embraces fantasy with new official scoring system
New system designed for simplicity and to help avoid ties in DFS contests
The NBA has thrown its weight behind fantasy sports by announcing the adoption of an official scoring system.
The system will be adopted by all of the league’s official fantasy partners ahead of the 2017-18 season, including Yahoo, FanDuel and Playon.
The system will include six categories, with each point scored worth a point, rebounds worth 1.2 points, and assists e worth 1.5.
Players also get three points for every steal and for every blocked shot, and be docked one point for every turnover.
“We’ve seen all the data that shows how engaged fantasy players are, and how much live basketball they watch,” said Scott Kaufman-Ross, NBA associate vice-president, fantasy sports.
“Because of that, we’ve been looking for ways to make fantasy a bigger part of basketball culture and make fantasy basketball a bigger part of the basketball conversation.”
The NBA said it made the scoring system as simple as possible to attract more casual players.
Kaufman Ross also told ESPN the scoring had been designed with DFS front-of-mind
“We’ve seen in the daily fantasy world that they have to do certain things to make sure there aren’t too many ties, which is where the decimals come in.”
Basketball is becomingly an increasingly popular DFS game, behind only the NFL, thanks to the quantity and velocity of games, while the Association itself appears more willing than other leagues to embrace DFS and gambling.