Fantasy Baseball UK, the free-to-play online fantasy baseball game, is back for 2019 and celebrating 15 years of existence!*
Originally launched in 2004 in association with BaseballSoftballUK and MLB on Five (Channel Five’s televised baseball coverage), Fantasy Baseball UK (FBUK) continues as an independently run online league with a passionate core fan base. The fantasy league was an oft-discussed feature in between innings during MLB on Five game broadcasts, right up until the show stopped airing in 2008.
After 15 years, the game could be considered something of a veteran player on the scene but we’ve been trying to keep things fresh. For the past few seasons, the game expanded with two new competitions alongside the main game and FBUK was able to offer a range of prizes thanks to the support of BaseballSoftballUK. Last season, we launched the re-designed website.
The game will start on Major League Baseball’s Opening Day on Thursday 28 March and rosters will open ahead of that for managers to start building their team. In the meantime, register or log in to your account to create your team name(s) and choose the games you want to enter. Managers can still join after Opening Day as well.
At the end of this season, the winners of each of the three fantasy league games will be awarded a special ‘FBUK Champion’ trophy. There will also be small prizes for divisional winners and for the best monthly fantasy performance during the season.
* Yes, we know we also made a milestone out of last year being our ’15th season’ but we’re stretching out the celebration for as long as we can. If you missed it, check out our article looking back over 15 MLB seasons.
Features of the game
- An independent, online fantasy league originally devised for UK MLB fans – but open to all!
- Free to play It’s free to register a fantasy team in the Main Game and another in one of the side games. If you want to enter more teams, you can buy them for a small fee.
- Build and manage your roster of Major League Baseball players and amass points based on their stats through the season – but you must stick within the weekly salary cap!
- Compete against other managers in one of 30 divisions named after MLB franchises. Come out on top of all managers to be crowned FBUK Champion!
- Join the FBUK Forums to chat fantasy baseball and MLB in general
- Side game! The $5m Game – Pick a team of the best low-cost players to keep your team salary below $5m. How good are you without star names in your team?
- Another side game! The Limited Trade Game has no bench and permits just three trades per month (unlike the main game, which allows unlimited Sunday trades and daily bench swaps). With limited flexibility, your roster decisions are even more important, but it is also great for those fantasy players who don’t want to make constant changes to their line-up.
- Prizes! The overall champions of the main game, $5m Game and Limited Trade Game will receive a special ‘FBUK Champion’ trophy. The winners of each division in the main game will receive a specially-branded baseball – either representing the MLB club that their division is named after or with the FBUK logo on. There will also be a small prize for the best monthly fantasy performance in the form of an Oyo MLB minifigure.
So step up to the plate and play the best fantasy baseball game this side of the Atlantic!
Some of the prizes that were awarded last year