Fantasy Football Terms Explained: Complete FPL Jargon Guide

If you're new to fantasy football, you'll likely come across a lot of terminology that seems confusing at first.

Many of these are abbreviations, acronyms, or bits of jargon used to describe common scenarios in fantasy football.

We've compiled a comprehensive list of them (and their definitions) to help you navigate the world of Fantasy Premier League.

A to Z Glossary of FPL Terms

Auto-sub: When a bench player is automatically substituted for a starting player who doesn't play. Occurs after the gameweek ends.

Asset: Another name for a player (typically used within the confines of fantasy football).

Bench Boost (BB): A chip that allows all 15 players in your squad to earn points in a single gameweek.

Bandwagon: A player who becomes overly popular due to recent good performances or easy fixtures, resulting in a surge of transfers in.

Blank: When a player earns 0 or relatively few points in a gameweek.

Blank Gameweek (BGW): A gameweek where one or more teams don’t play at all. This usually happens due to cup fixtures causing postponements.

Bonus Points System (BPS): The scoring system that determines which three (occasionally more) players earn the bonus points.

Captain: The player selected each gameweek to score double points.

Casual: A less experienced or less engaged FPL manager who often make decisions without much planning.

Clean Sheet: When a team concedes zero goals in a match. Goalkeepers, defenders and midfielders receive extra points for keeping a clean sheet.

Chip: A special one-time tool that can boost your points for that gameweek, and sometimes beyond. These chips are called Wildcard, Free Hit, Bench Boost, and Triple Captain.

Community Team: A team managed collectively by a group of people, often seen on social media or forums.

Dead Teams: Teams that are no longer being managed (no transfers, captain changes, etc). This mostly happens with casual players who enter a team at the start of the season and abandon it shortly after.

Double Gameweek (DGW): A gameweek where a team plays more than once, usually due to rescheduled fixtures.

Differential: A low-owned player. Due to this if they perform well they will often boost your rank. Players selected by 10% or less of managers are generally considered a differential pick.

Double up/Triple up: Selecting two or three players from the same team. This either happens because it's one of the top teams and/or there are favourable fixtures.

Effective Ownership (EO): A metric combining ownership percentage and captaincy to show how a player’s performance will impact your rank. Effective Ownership is also often only measured for the top x managers, ie the top 100,000.

Enabler: A cheap player who frees up budget to afford more expensive players elsewhere in your squad.

Essential (Must Have): A player considered too good or too highly owned to go without.

Eye Test: Judging a player’s performance by watching them in matches rather than relying on stats or data.

Flagged: A player marked with a yellow, orange or red icon primarily indicating injury or suspension.

Free Transfer: A transfer that doesn’t cost points. In FPL, you get one free transfer a week and can roll over up to 5 of them.

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO): The worry about not owning a popular or high-performing player.

Gameweek (GW): A round of fixtures in the FPL season. Also known as "Matchday" (MD) in other fantasy football games.

Green Arrow: An upward change in your overall rank.

Haul: A big points return by a player across a gameweek, typically 10+ points.

In the Bank (ITB): The amount of money you have left over after buying your current squad.

ICT Index: A metric in FPL combining a player's Influence, Creativity, and Threat to measure potential fantasy output.

Locked In: Refers to a transfer, captain, or lineup being finalised before the deadline.

Mini League: A private league where FPL managers compete against friends, family, colleagues or as part of a competition.

Nailed: A player who is almost certain to start.

Non-template: A squad that isn't made up of the most selected players. A non-template team will often include a few differentials.

Overall Rank: Your global ranking among all managers.

Ownership: The percentage of teams that currently own a player.

OOP (Out of Position): When a player is listed as a certain position but plays in a different one in real matches.

Punt: A risky or speculative player pick made in the hope of big points.

Premium: An expensive player (typically £10.0m or more) who is expected to deliver consistent returns.

Red Arrow: A downward change in your overall rank.

Return: When a player scores FPL points through a goal, assist, clean sheet, bonus or defensive contributions.

Rotation Risk: A player who might not start every game due to squad rotation.

Rolling Transfer: Saving your free transfer so you can store it and use it a later time.

Set and Forget: A player you keep in your lineup long-term.

Single Gameweek (SGW): A standard gameweek where each team plays only once. The vast majority of gameweeks are SGWs.

Triple Captain: A chip that triples your captain’s score instead of doubling it.

Template: A team or squad made up of highly owned players.

Transfer Deadline: The cut off time for making transfers or changes to your team before a gameweek begins.

Transfer Hit: A -4 (or more) point deduction for making extra transfers beyond your free ones in a gameweek.

Team Value: The total value of your squad and the money you have in the bank.

Talisman: A player who is central to their team’s attacking output and point-scoring.

Under the Radar: A player who is performing or has the potential to that isn't known to the most fantasy football managers.

Upside Chasing: A strategy that targets high risk, high reward players to maximize rank gains.

Wildcard (WC): A chip that allows unlimited transfers in a gameweek without a points hit.

Wildcard Draft: A temporary version of your team while testing wildcard squad options.

Zombie Team: A team entered at the start of the season and left untouched.