This article is part of our DraftKings NFL series.
DraftKings recently launched a new contest called Reignmakers, which you've likely seen if you have visited their website over the last month. It combines the excitement of daily fantasy sports and the NFT (non-fungible token) market that exploded onto the scene in 2020. If you're unfamiliar with NFTs, it's easy to feel overwhelmed at where to start, so we'll work on covering all the basics to know to get involved in Reignmakers. In the most simplistic terms, you'll use the cards you own to build what you think will be the best fantasy football lineup in a given contest.
Player Cards
When you first sign up for Reignmakers, you'll be given a starter pack of CORE cards that includes a QB, RB, WR, WR/TE, Flex and DEF/K. My pack consisted of a few noteworthy players — Joe Mixon, Jerry Jeudy and Rhamondre Stevenson — with a few others who aren't likely to hold much fantasy value. DraftKings rates their NFT cards in five tiers: CORE, RARE, ELITE, LEGENDARY and REIGNMAKER. As you would expect, CORE cards are the most common as that's what you're given in your starter pack and the categories become rarer as you go, with REIGNMAKER cards the rarest.
While there are no entry fees for contests on Reignmakers, your starter pack likely won't be enough for you to complete your roster. From there, you'll need to acquire cards, which can be done in a variety of ways. When creating a lineup, you'll see that players have a dollar amount in the marketplace for which their card can be purchased. Cards are, of course, more expensive the better the player is perceived to be, and priced higher by each increasing tier. As a result, prizes for each contest are also separated by tier with the largest prizes in the REIGNMAKER tier. In addition, you can at anytime list the cards you own to sell in the marketplace. This brings in some strategy of purchasing a card before the season starts or early in the season of a player that you expect to have a much better year than the consensus projects. It also brings in another element of this being more than simply a fantasy football game as people who love to collect cards can also make money via trading.
Another way to build your portfolio is by purchasing player packs. There are a variety of these available, starting with the Booster and SuperStar packs that are the most common and the least expensive. The SuperStar pack will give you one of 17 players DraftKings deemed as "SuperStars," which includes most of the top handful of QBs, RBs and WRs and is a great place to start to give you a stud player. Meanwhile, the Booster pack will give you either two or three CORE players with a 50/50 chance at one of the three cards being a RARE card. Other packs are available and will have a breakdown of what that card pack guarantees and the likelihood of receiving a card from each tier. Auctions are available for the top tiers as well.
Contests
When it comes to choosing a contest, you'll notice that the selection is similar to what you'd see on a normal NFL slate with showdowns and main slate contests. Single-game showdowns will have a lineup that consists of a captain (1.5x points) and three flex spots, while main slates will require a QB, RB, WR, WR/TE and a flex. Contests are broken down by tiers and you'll have to meet the requirements of having enough qualified cards for each contest in order to enter it. Scoring runs the same as non-NFT NFL slates, which includes full point-per-reception (PPR).
While at first glance some might look at Reignmakers being advantageous to those with larger bankrolls, note that regardless of how many "SuperStars" cards you own, only one can be played per lineup. That along with having contests for different tiers helps to negate the advantage of people that want to outspend the competition.
Interested in getting started? Visit the DraftKings Reignmakers page here to get your starter pack!
