How do Fantasy Premier League bonus points work?

There are plenty of rules to Fantasy Football, but one of the trickiest to understand is how bonus points work. Let us explain.

It's that time of year where every football fan gets to choose their very own squad ahead of the Premier League campaign, which gets underway with Burnley vs Manchester City on Friday night.

With a £100 million budget and over 573 players to choose from, over 11 million people sign up every year to play the iconic game against friends, family and colleagues or to simply test their own knowledge.

But how much should bonus points influence who you select for your team?

Essentially, the game's Bonus Point System (BPS) uses a range of statistics obtained through Opta to create a performance score for each player.

They are a key ingredient of the scoring process and allocated to the players with the top three BPS, with three points given for the highest-scoring player, two to the second best and one to the third.

But how are they calculated? Fortunately, the Fantasy Premier League website has detailed all the scenarios where players receive points or are demoted points.

Playing 1 to 60 minutes - 3

Playing over 60 minutes - 6

Goalkeepers and defenders scoring a goal - 12

Midifielders scoring a goal - 18

Forwards scoring a goal - 24

Assists - 9

Goalkeepers and defenders keeping a clean sheet - 12

Saving a penalty - 15

Save - 2

Successful open play cross - 1

Creating a big chance (a chance where the receiving player should score) - 3

For every 2 clearances, blocks and interceptions (total) - 1

For every 3 recoveries - 1

Key pass - 1

Successful tackle (net*) - 2

Successful dribble - 1

Scoring the goal that wins a match - 3

70 to 79% pass completion (at least 30 passes attempted) - 2

80 to 89% pass completion (at least 30 passes attempted) - 4

90%+ pass completion (at least 30 passes attempted) - 6

Conceding a penalty - -3

Missing a penalty - -6

Yellow card - -3

Red card - -9

Own goal - -6

Missing a big chance - -3

Making an error which leads to a goal - -3

Making an error which leads to an attempt at goal - -1

Being tackled - -1

Conceding a foul - -1

Being caught offside - -1

Shot off target - -1

Topics: Fantasy Football, Fantasy Premier League, Football, Premier League

Joe Adams

Joe is a Journalist for SPORTbible with a primary focus on football. He has previously covered a number of other sports including boxing, rugby and F1. Wishes he was born left-footed.

@joeadamsjourno