FPL, Data and the Twenty3 Toolbox
Fantasy Football seems to get more competitive with each passing year.
The first-ever edition of the world’s most popular fantasy football game – Fantasy Premier League (FPL), which debuted during the 2002-03 season – was won with just 1,940 points, while the average winning score in the first 10 campaigns was just over 2,312.
However, players’ growing appreciation of the value of analysing data when making decisions in FPL has contributed – alongside a few rule changes – to a dramatic increase in points totals, with the last three winning scores of 2,776, 2,844 and 2,680 the three highest ever in the game’s history.
As the number of fantasy football players continues to grow, we take a look at how the Twenty3 Toolbox can enable organisations that want to proactively target their fantasy game-playing audiences through the creation of insightful, high-quality content.
Advancements in data
Data has become an integral, inextricable part of how fantasy football is played.
The keenest players delve deep into the numbers in search of a competitive edge – but even more casual players regularly dabble in advanced metrics.
For example, the FPL official website shows far more than surface-level information such as points, goals, assists and clean sheets – expected goals, expected assists and expected goals conceded are all also readily available.
And with bonus point algorithms for the unsung heroes often requiring a forensic assessment of obscure ‘hidden’ performance metrics, the demand for more advanced analysis grows year on year.
With simple data monitoring features available through Event Lab, Discover and Insight, the Twenty3 Toolbox can quickly and intelligently serve up eye-catching data for content creators that even the most diligent of players might struggle to unearth or track.
Making the Twenty3 Toolbox your differential
Chelsea’s Raheem Sterling emerged as the standout performer in FPL gameweek three, earning a round-high 19 points. He was a major differential, owned by less than 10% of players for the round.
However, use of the Toolbox could have hinted at his burgeoning potential.
Prior to gameweek three, Sterling ranked inside the Premier League’s top five for completed crosses (four), shots on target assisted (three) and touches in the opposition box (15).
Both the England international’s goals came from inside the area, while his low cross was turned in by Nicolas Jackson to complete the scoring.
A home match versus Luton Town made Sterling an obvious ‘transfer in’ for many fantasy players.
But with lots of attractively-priced midfield options to consider, any publisher that shared an objective and timely reinforcement of Sterling’s potential utilising our Smart Graphics tool would likely have had fantasy players flooding to their channel ahead of the next gameweek.
Club profiles
Using the Toolbox to profile clubs as a whole is similarly effective.
While the early attacking exploits of Brighton and Hove Albion, Brentford and Aston Villa had put the FPL community on alert for attacking assets from those three teams – their leading assets were generally widely owned ahead of gameweek three – Sterling’s comparatively low ownership suggests Chelsea were still yet to convince the majority of users.
However, despite their underwhelming tally of just two goals from their first two games – neither of which were scored by star forwards – the Blues had posted an xG of 4.06, the sixth-best in the division at that stage.
That, coupled with the alarming fact that Luton had posted the division’s sixth-worst expected goals conceded tally (4.16) despite only playing once, would have been a strong endorsement for picking up Chelsea assets ahead of the pair’s clash at Stamford Bridge.
We’ll be delving into Twenty3’s assets at regular intervals this season to highlight creative ways that publishers can bring data-led fantasy guidance to their audiences.
As they say – it’s a marathon, not a sprint, but get in touch using the button below to make sure you don’t fall too far behind in 2023-24.