Playing fantasy sports is a lot of fun. Even if you aren’t a big sports fan you can end up getting a lot of enjoyment out of the season whichever sport you end up playing. The thing is that it is far more fun when you actually win. 

It does take some discipline to be able to have a chance at winning. Even the most knowledgeable fans still need to have the right strategy and discipline to win the fantasy season. It pays to make sure that you don’t make some of the common mistakes that happen to even the most seasoned pros at fantasy sports. In this article, we will go over several of them so you can have the best chance of winning. 

1 – Being underprepared

Before you decide to start playing you have to have a strategy and do some research to be able to understand what you need to do to put it in place. When you decide to just wing it then you risk making some poor moves. Although preparation doesn’t guarantee a win, being underprepared will almost certainly guarantee a loss. 

You should take some time before the draft to review what the scoring rules are for your league so that way you will know the best way to draft your team. Without knowing this you could place emphasis on a position that doesn’t give up many points even when the player does well. 

Then, you need to review the stats of each player that you think will give you the best chance to win. For instance, if you are doing daily fantasy baseball, then checking out the MLB showdown DFS picks is important so you can get an idea of who you’d want to draft. At this point, you can do a mock draft so you are able to have some backups in mind if your picks get drafted before you have a chance to pick. 

2 – You ignore matchups

Setting up your roster is the second most important thing to do after drafting good players. If you aren’t active in setting up your roster for each week or day that the games are played then you are being too passive. 

The key is to look at the matchups and understand how your players will play against their opponent that week. If you have the number one pick for the QB position but he always struggles against a particular team’s defense then it makes little sense to play him that week. 

3 – You ignore trades

Things often don’t go according to plan during the course of the season. You have to be ahead of the curve when players don’t live up to expectations, they are traded to a new team, or there are injuries. 

You can have a very deep team that can overcome a lot of issues if you are actively coming up with trades or looking out for good ones. Make sure to be thinking of trades before you actually need to make one.