Arsenal Top the League for Bonus Point Distribution

Oct 15

Fantasy Football – Bonus Points

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Guest Post from Richard Kenny – Follow him on twitter @InfernoSix

Introduction

Bonus points are an important part of the game. Each week there are 6pts on offer per game and so 60pts in total. Over a season, it is theoretically possible for a player who is awarded the maximum of 3 pts each week, to accrue over the season 3*38 = 114 bonus pts. It is also important to understand how the bonus points are calculated and which players are being awarded them. This can then influence our transfer, captain & formation decisions.

How are points awarded?

There is a full explanation on the FPL website as to how the bonus points are awarded. Below is an extract from the site:

Bonus points are a key ingredient of the scoring in Fantasy Premier League.

They are devised and allocated post-match according to a Bonus Points System (BPS).

The BPS utilises a range of statistics supplied by Opta that capture actions on the pitch, to create a performance score for every player.

The players with the top three BPS in a given match receive bonus points – three points to the highest-scoring player, two to the second best and one to the third.

Bonus point ties are resolved are as follows:

If there is a tie for first place, Players 1 & 2 will receive 3 points each and Player 3 will receive 1 point.
If there is a tie for second place, Player 1 will receive 3 points and Players 2 and 3 will receive 2 points each.
If there is a tie for third place, Player 1 will receive 3 points, Player 2 will receive 2 points and Players 3 & 4 will receive 1 point each.

Players earn BPS points based on the following statistics (one point for each unless otherwise stated)

So what do I make of the BPS system? Most points, 24 are awarded for forwards scoring a goal whilst midfielders scoring goals are only awarded 18 pts. This is in contrast to the normal points players are awarded in the game, where forwards receive 4 pts and midfielders 5 pts.

As they play further away from goal, it is logical to think that midfielders should be awarded more BPS points than forwards. The same is true for defenders; again the BPS for defenders scoring is only 12 pts, half that of forwards. I think the scoring goals BPS should be adjusted so it is in line with the normal point scoring goal awards.

Bonus Point Distribution

Table 3 shows the bonus point distribution by team and position up to the end of GW7

The teams are listed in points order. Top of the list is Arsenal with 36 points closely followed by MCI 35 points and LIV 33 points.

Liverpool midfield has 31 points on its own and is the highest position score of any team by a long way.

MCI has the best forwards, no surprises there! However, their midfield is even better with 18 pts.

ARS & MUN have the joint best defences with 17 pts each.

Overall, midfielders have accrued 203 bonus pts to forwards 85 bonus pts. This could be explained as there are more midfielders than forwards.

However, table 4 is the same data but just for the top 10 players in each position. Again the midfielders have outscored the forwards. This supports my theory that the best formation to use is 352.

Liverpool Player Analysis

As Liverpool’s midfield has the highest position score of any team, I thought it would be good to look at these first.

Milner is the player who has the highest BPS 193 and bonus points of 9. He is the cheapest midfielder however Mane, the most expensive midfielder has only 109 BPS and 2 bonus pts. Interestingly, he is the second most popular player with 15% of teams selecting him.

When making a decision on who to pick out of a number of choices, I sometimes go with the player who is scoring to most bonus points. So if I didn’t have a Liverpool midfielder in my side I would pick Milner. Although, I am thinking about adding Milner to my midfield.

ARS/MUN Defender Analysis

Arsenal and Man Utd have the best defences for bonus points. In the last two game weeks Blind has replaced Shaw and played as a fullback. In this position he has been awarded 4 bonus pts even though Utd have not kept a clean sheet in either game.

Koscielny has higher BPS than the more popular Bellerin and could be a good differential.

The table does highlight an apparent anomaly with the BPS system. Monreal has scored 156 BPS pts and been awarded 4 bonus pts. Whilst Bellerin has scored 13 less BPS pts and been awarded 1 more bonus pt. This is because the award of bonus pts also depends on the BPS of the other player in each game.

Defender Analysis

Defenders have scored 133 bonus points overall but do full backs score the same as centre backs? Table 7 is a comparison between the two.

28 fullbacks scored 82 bonus points which is an average of 2.93 per player. Whilst only 51 bonus points were scored by 20 centre backs at an average of 2.55 points per player. This means that we should be selecting fullbacks and not centre backs for our teams.

Conclusions

The BPS system has a flaw in that forwards are awarded more BPS for scoring goals than midfielders and defenders.
In spite of this, midfielders are being awarded more bonus points than forwards and so the optimum formation is 352.
Liverpool’s midfield has more bonus points than any other team/position. There should be at least one of them in every FPL team.
Koscielny could be a good differential as opposed to Bellerin.
Fullbacks are awarded more bonus points than centre backs. Therefore, when picking defenders we should go for attacking full backs.

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