ESPN Fantasy Football: Even More Fun and Feature-packed for 2021

• The No. 1 most popular fantasy football game available only on ESPN.com and ESPN Fantasy App
• Industry-leading game features, expert analysis, news, insights, and statistical data
• Exclusive content for ESPN+ subscribers on ESPN.com and the ESPN and ESPN Fantasy Apps
• Exclusive leagues for ESPN+ subscribers, including chance to win $250,000 Grand Prize
• New, updated Trade Assistant powered by IBM Watson

ESPN Fantasy Football, the No. 1 most popular fantasy football game, has made the 2021 season even more fun and enjoyable to play for new players and hardcore veterans alike. With more enhanced game play and expanded content for every fan, ESPN Fantasy Football is available on both the ESPN Fantasy App and ESPN.com, with exclusive, premium content for ESPN+ subscribers and the fantasy sports industry’s most comprehensive collection of expert analysis, news, statistical data, and tools across app, web, television, and audio to help all fans be more competitive in their leagues.

The ESPN Fantasy App, the No. 1 fantasy app on iOS and Android devices, makes playing ESPN Fantasy Football easy, fun and fast, providing more information and insight for fans than any other fantasy football game. Fans on the Fantasy App can sign up, create or join a league, customize their league and draft, make trades, add players, follow matchups with real-time scoring, and see expert analysis and video. This includes the ability to stream all of ESPN’s Fantasy shows – Fantasy Football Now, Fantasy Focus Football Podcast, The Fantasy Show with Matthew Berry, and more — along with live events directly in the Fantasy app.* The Fantasy App also allows fans to play the entire suite of ESPN Fantasy games, including fantasy sports like Fantasy Baseball, Basketball and Hockey, and free-to-play prediction games like Streak, UFC Pick’em, Pigskin Pick’em, and special contests for major sports events. All ESPN Fantasy games are free to play.

New and updated features for the 2021 season of ESPN Fantasy Football include:

• A new picture-in-picture function that allows fans to stream ESPN and ESPN+ content, both live and on-demand, in the ESPN Fantasy App, while they manage their team or follow a matchup.
• A new and improved content experience, allowing ESPN Fantasy Football content to be presented in new ways that deliver the most important, relevant and insightful stories to fans as they happen.
• New data on player pages, including a player’s actual and projected “targets” on a game-by-game basis to help fans make more insightful lineup decisions each week.
• A new trade feature that lets fans designate the trade availability of players on their roster and notify other managers in their league. For example, fans can make it known they are looking to trade Tom Brady, or they can tell everyone in their league that he is off limits.
• Improved public league game play that now matches fans with others of similar experience levels and more efficiently fills leagues to ensure each league starts their drafts on time.
• More updates and enhancements will continue to be introduced throughout the season.

Also, ESPN Fantasy continues to build on its work with IBM to incorporate AI-generated insight from Watson into unique, in-depth projection and player comparison tools that make ESPN Fantasy Football easier and more fun. Trade Assistant with Watson, a matchmaking tool that helps fans find potential trades to propose and evaluates the fairness of those trades, returns this season with updated features that allow fans to specify which positions they want to see in the trade packages presented to them by Watson, while also enabling them to ask Watson to find plausible trades for a specific player.

ESPN+ Fantasy Leagues: $250,000 Grand Prize, 18 Weekly Prizes
New for the 2021 season, ESPN+ Fantasy Football Leagues will give ESPN+ subscribers the chance to put their fantasy football skills to the test against other subscribers. Fans who join ESPN+ leagues will be automatically entered in a random drawing to win a $250,000 grand prize and one of 18 weekly prizes, which will give winners an opportunity to submit a fantasy football question and have it answered on The Fantasy Show with Matthew Berry. Each ESPN+ Fantasy Football League will use standard ESPN Fantasy Football league settings, including 10 teams, a snake-style draft and one point per reception.

Draft Tools, Data and Expert Advice | Premium Content for ESPN+ Subscribers
Fantasy football content on ESPN.com provides multiple resources to ensure an easy, fun and successful draft, including the 2021 ESPN Fantasy Football Draft Kit, a collection of links to cheat sheets, mock drafts, projections, and more. This year’s Draft Kit has the latest edition of Matthew Berry’s Draft Day Manifesto; Cheat Sheet Central, which includes Mike Clay’s team-by-team projection guide, and composite rankings for every position in the draft.

For ESPN+ subscribers, the Draft Kit offers even more vital information and analysis from the ESPN Fantasy staff, including an array of tools and information to help fans win. Clay’s Fantasy Football Playbook outlines everything any fan needs to know in order to play like an expert; Sleepers, Busts and Breakouts provides a summary of the overlooked, underperforming and ready-to-rise players this season; and the Custom Dollar Generator, which now includes individual defensive player and offensive player options for superflex leagues, runs ESPN.com’s Fantasy projections through Rotowire.com’s dollar value formula, creating personalized rankings and dollar values for salary cap drafts.

ESPN+ subscribers will also have access to Eric Karabell’s highly popular “Do Not Draft” and “Do Draft” lists, as well as his tiered rankings of running backs and wide receivers; Berry’s 100 Facts and Fantasy Football Marathon Cheat Sheet; Clay’s Ultimate Draft Board; Tristan H. Cockcroft’s Deep Sleepers and his best picks by draft slot column; Field Yates’ “My Guys” list; Matt Bowen’s favorite draft-day targets; Adam Schefter’s Friends and Family Cheat Sheet; and more.

Insight and Analysis Throughout the Season
ESPN Fantasy delivers the most comprehensive news, analysis and insights on fantasy football throughout the season from the industry’s No. 1 roster of writers, analysts and media personalities. The unmatched depth and breadth of ESPN’s Fantasy coverage makes playing ESPN Fantasy Football easier and more fun for both experienced players and fans who are new to fantasy sports.

• Matthew Berry (a.k.a. “The Talented Mr. Roto”), Fantasy Sports Writers Association (FSWA) and Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) Hall of Famer, will host The Fantasy Show with Matthew Berry on ESPN+, appear weekly on ESPN.com and the ESPN and ESPN Fantasy apps, as well as Fantasy Football Now on ESPN2. His weekly column will be published Thursdays on ESPN.com and the ESPN App.
• Field Yates will continue to co-host the daily Fantasy Focus Football Podcast with Berry, write his weekly free agent pickup column, contribute to ESPN.com fantasy rankings, and host Fantasy Football Now on ESPN2 for a second consecutive year.
• Fantasy injury analyst and ESPN.com senior writer Stephania Bell, who in 2017 became the first woman inducted in the FSWA Hall of Fame, will continue to provide her injury analysis expertise on a variety of platforms, including the Fantasy Focus Football Podcast, Fantasy Football Now on ESPN2, and various columns and features on ESPN.com and the ESPN App.
• Mike Clay will continue to drive ESPN’s season-long projections with a new weekly version of his Fantasy Football Playbook, containing all his best advice to help fans win their matchups. He will also contribute to the Fantasy Focus Football Podcast, providing his industry-leading wide receiver/cornerback matchup analysis every week.
• NFL writer Matt Bowen, who spent seven years in the NFL as a safety, will use his X’s and O’s acumen and the NFL’s Next Gen technology to deconstruct plays and help fans understand how players exploit matchups and opportunities to score. Bowen will also continue to provide position rankings and team up with analyst and historian Tristan H. Cockcroft to break down and contextualize the most important fantasy storylines every Sunday.
• In addition to working with Bowen on Sunday fantasy reactions, Cockcroft, an ESPN.com senior writer and FSWA Hall of Famer, will continue to compile ESPN’s exclusive Consistency Ratings, contribute to weekly rankings, and write his ESPN+ Matchups Map column on Thursdays, highlighting skill-position players with the best and worst matchups each week.
• ESPN.com senior writer and FSWA Hall of Famer Eric Karabell will write daily, including a first take on the coming week every Monday morning, a ranking of player values for the week and projected through the remainder of the season on Tuesdays, and his popular Flex Rankings every Wednesday.
• com’s NFL Nation will provide insights specific to all 32 teams in the league with at least two fantasy-dedicated pieces each week.
• Every Tuesday, ESPN will publish a compilation of analysts’ PPR and non-PPR rankings, which will also be integrated in the ESPN Fantasy App to help fans make well-informed start/sit and free agent pickup decisions within the game. ESPN’s PPR rankers include: Berry, Yates, Karabell, Cockcroft, Clay, and Daniel Dopp. Karabell, Cockcroft, Clay, and Bowen contribute non-PPR rankings.

The Fantasy Show with Matthew Berry on ESPN+
The Fantasy Show with Matthew Berry on ESPN+ returns for another season of Berry’s insights, irreverent style and cast of unconventional characters. Presented with a daily mix of news, analysis and special guests to help fantasy players win their leagues, The Fantasy Show with Matthew Berry takes deep statistical dives into key players each week, with a few twists and sidekicks joining Berry, Daniel Dopp, their puppets, and a robot delivering all the fun. The show gives fans information not available on other ESPN platforms on who to start, who to sit, who to trade, and who to pick up, all in the name of making everyone a smarter fantasy player.

Special 2021 preseason episodes available to stream on ESPN+ began this week, starting with How to Win Your Draft, along with QB Rankings, 2021 Love/Hate, RB Rankings, WR/TW Rankings, Sleepers and Busts, Mock Draft/Last Minute Draft Questions, and more to follow before the start of the season.

ESPN Fantasy Football on Linear TV
ESPN will provide fantasy players with insights, information and analysis on its television networks for the 2021 season, including:

• ESPN’s 2021 Fantasy Football Marathon – ESPN’s 2021 Fantasy Football Marathonkicks off on Tuesday 8/17, at 7 p.m. ET. Over the course of 26 hours ESPN Fantasy Football will be highlighted by NFL programming cornerstones Fantasy Football Now and NFL Live, as well as special editions of SportsCenter, Daily Wager, Get Up!, First Take, Jalen & Jacoby, and Keyshawn, JWill & Zubin. The Marathon will also feature The Fantasy Show with Matthew Berry highlighting Berry’s annual Love/Hate Special on Tuesday 8/17, on ESPN+; the Fantasy Focus Podcast crew on Wednesday 8/18, at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN Radio and simulcast on ESPN+; and a Fantasy Football Draft on Wednesday 8/18, at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2. The Fantasy Football Draft will be simulcast for the first time on the ESPN App, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
• Fantasy Football Now – The award-winning pre-game show debuts Sunday 9/12, at 10 a.m. ET on ESPNEWS and will move to ESPN2 at about 10:50 a.m. Field Yates will host and be joined by senior fantasy sports analyst Matthew Berry, senior writer and injury analyst Stephania Bell, and writer and analyst Mike Clay. NFL analyst Damien Woody and senior NFL Insider Adam Schefter will join the show for weekly appearances, and ESPN’s team of NFL reporters will provide live updates from stadiums around the League. The three-hour show will be on ESPN2 from 10 a.m. ET to 1 p.m. ET every Sunday throughout the remainder of the regular season.

(Schedules subject to change.)

ESPN Fantasy Football on Audio
Fantasy Football content on ESPN Audio will include expanded programming and new content for the 2021 season.

• ESPN’s Fantasy Focus Football Podcast with Matthew Berry, Field Yates, Stephania Bell, Mike Clay & Daniel Dopp – The 14th season of the No. 1 fantasy sports podcast will once again deliver fans robust player-based discussions, game overviews and draft strategies. The show streams live at a new time this season, 11 a.m. ET, Monday through Friday on the ESPN App, ESPN Fantasy App, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Fans can listen anytime on demand wherever they access their podcasts or on ESPN.com. During the regular season, fans can look forward to a packed weekly schedule that includes: Game recaps on Mondays; Yate’s waiver-wire advice on Tuesdays; in-depth position rankings on Wednesdays; Clay’s WR/CB matchups on Thursdays, along with a second episode focused daily fantasy insights; and Friday game previews featuring Berry’s “Loves and Hates” and Bell’s injury analysis.
• ESPN Radio – Covering fantasy football throughout the season and especially on Sundays, ESPN Radio delivers to fans a full slate of NFL-specific weekend shows, along with fantasy-centric segments and topics. A rotating team of fantasy experts also provide key insight and updates across all of ESPN Radio’s NFL weekday and weekend programming.

*In-app streaming of ESPN+ content requires an ESPN+ subscription. Fans can subscribe to ESPN+ within the ESPN Fantasy App or on ESPN.com, as well as the ESPN App across mobile and TV-connected devices. In-app streaming of content on ESPN television networks requires an authenticated MVPD subscription.

About ESPN Fantasy
Part of Disney’s Media and Entertainment Distribution segment, ESPN Fantasy is the No. 1 provider in fantasy sports with a comprehensive portfolio of award-winning games and content serving more than 20 million fantasy players across the web, mobile, audio, linear TV, and streaming video. Drawing on resources from nearly every aspect of the division, ESPN Fantasy continues to innovate, expand and reach new and younger audiences through all of its products.

About ESPN+
ESPN+ is the industry-leading sports streaming service that offers fans in the U.S. thousands of live sports events, original programming not available on ESPN’s linear TV or digital networks and exclusive editorial content from dozens of ESPN writers and reporters. Launched in April 2018, ESPN+ has grown to more than 13.8 million subscribers.

Fans sign up to ESPN+ for just $5.99 a month (or $59.99 per year) at ESPN.com, ESPNplus.com or on the ESPN App (mobile and connected devices). It is also available as part of The Disney Bundle that gives subscribers access to Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu for $13.99/month (Hulu w/ads) or $19.99/month (Hulu w/o ads).

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