Fantasy Baseball Public Prize Leagues - Official Rules

Overview

Yahoo Sports Fantasy Baseball Public Prize Leagues ("Fantasy Baseball Public Prize Leagues" or the "Contest"; each such league participating in the Contest is a "League") is a game of skill where you compete against other users to win prizes based on your knowledge and skill in assembling and managing a fantasy baseball team (your "Team"). Payment of an entry fee is required to register a team. Entry fee amounts will be clearly marked during the registration process.

Playing Season

Fantasy Baseball Public Prize Leagues are played in connection with the 2024 MLB regular season. As currently scheduled, the 2024 Season begins on the first day of the regular season and concludes with the final day of regular season games. The key dates related to the schedule can be found on the Fantasy Baseball important dates page : https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/gamedates.

Additionally, the full MLB game schedule can be found at https://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/scoreboard/.

The 2024 Season is divided into a series of "Game Weeks." Game Weeks generally follow a seven-day Monday-Sunday schedule, beginning each Monday morning at 12:00 AM PT and ending the following Sunday evening at 11:59 PM PT, or at the conclusion of the last regularly scheduled game for that Monday, whichever comes first. Exceptions to this Game Week schedule are posted and updated on the Fantasy Baseball important dates page: https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/gamedates.

Please note, for the 2024 Season, Game Week 1 and its start date will vary for Head-to-Head leagues, based on the date of the league’s draft.

Drafts completed before March 20, 2024: Game Week 1 begins March 20, 2024
Drafts completed March 20- March 27, 2024: Game Week 1 begins March 28, 2024
Drafts completed March 28, 2024 - April 7, 2024: Game Week 2 begins April 8, 2024

By default, the “Fantasy Regular Season” will begin with Game Week 1 and end at the start of the “Fantasy Playoffs.” The “Fantasy Playoffs” commence at the start of the third to last week of the MLB regular season, unless otherwise communicated. Dates may change based on MLB initiated schedule changes. Users will be notified of any date changes and the key dates related to the current schedule can be found on the Fantasy Baseball important dates page: https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/gamedates.

Please keep in mind that you will only receive credit for MLB games that begin and are played after your League's initial draft has taken place and your League's season is underway.

Real-life playoffs have no bearing on any of the Leagues in this Contest. Statistics from real-life playoff games, and from any makeup games that may be played after the scheduled end date of the 2024 Season, will not be included in the scoring for any League in this Contest, unless Yahoo provides notice otherwise.

Yahoo reserves the right to modify, change, or reschedule the Fantasy Regular Season, the Fantasy Playoffs, or the conclusion of Fantasy Baseball Public Prize Leagues in the event that the 2024 Season schedule is changed for any reason.

Leagues

You may purchase as many as 50 teams in Fantasy Baseball Public Prize Leagues. All Leagues in Fantasy Baseball Public Prize Leagues are public leagues that use one of two standard scoring systems: standard Head-to-Head Categories or Rotisserie. Within each scoring system, all Leagues use the same standard settings.

All Leagues in Fantasy Baseball Public Prize Leagues are either Standard Draft or Salary Cap Draft Leagues, and all drafts will be held live online at a predetermined time. "Autopick" and "Offline" draft leagues are not available in Fantasy Baseball Public Prize Leagues.

In each League, you are competing against a group of fantasy players. When you sign up, you will be randomly placed in a League with other managers who have chosen the same type of league, entry fee, draft type, and draft time.

While other Fantasy Baseball games allow different league sizes, all Fantasy Baseball Public Prize Leagues have exactly 12 managers per League. A League will not conduct a draft or begin League play until all 12 slots have been filled. If your League does not fill up before its scheduled draft time, the League will be canceled, and all managers will be issued a refund to their Yahoo Sports Fantasy accounts.

Please refer to Fantasy Baseball help pages to read more about all general rules regarding Fantasy Baseball, including standard settings and scoring, draft types, transaction deadlines, waivers, free agents, and trades, as well as Fantasy Baseball Public Prize League help pages.

Scoring

Fantasy Baseball Public Prize Leagues offer two different scoring options – "Head-to-Head Category Scoring" and "Rotisserie Scoring". For those Leagues that use Rotisserie Scoring, there are no playoffs offered in connection with the Contest; in those Leagues, the fantasy season ends at the conclusion of MLB’s regular season. For Leagues that use Head-to-Head Category Scoring, the "Fantasy Regular Season" will consist of MLB’s regular season, excluding the last three weeks of the regular season which will be deemed the “Fantasy Playoffs.”

In a Head-to-Head Category Scoring League, if your League conducts its draft after a Game Week is already underway, your Team/League will not begin its season until the start of the following Game Week. Your League's Fantasy Regular Season will also be shortened accordingly.

In Leagues that use Rotisserie Scoring, your Team/League will always begin its Fantasy Regular Season on the next day following your draft.

Playoffs and Prizes

In the event of a tie in the Head-to-Head Category Standings of two or more Teams at the conclusion of the Fantasy Regular Season, or a matchup tie between two Teams during the Fantasy Playoffs, the tie will be broken using the tiebreak formulas described in the Regular Season Tiebreak Rules and Playoff Tiebreak Rules articles, respectively. Rotisserie (Roto) leagues do not have a playoff or tiebreaker for the final ranking.

Statistics from real-life MLB playoff games (including any so-called "one game playoffs" added to the schedule to break a tie for a playoff spot at the conclusion of the MLB regular season), and from any makeup games that may be played after the scheduled end date of the MLB regular season, will not be included in the scoring for any League in this Contest. All Fantasy Playoffs will conclude by the end of the real-life MLB regular season.

Head-to-Head Category Public Prize Leagues use playoff reseeding, which will adjust the second round matchups so the highest seeded team will play the lowest-seeded team in the championship bracket. Playoff reseeding will occur when there is an upset in the first round of the playoffs.

In order to be prize-eligible in Public Prize League contests, you must accept the Paid Fantasy Terms of Service and if you are unable to attend the live draft, you must accept the Yahoo Pre-Draft Player Rankings. In the event that a potential prize winner is deemed ineligible for any reason, the prize may be awarded to the next eligible participant in the League's final standings. Should such a substitution be necessary, the prize positions will be shifted proportionally. For example, if a potential second place prize winner is deemed ineligible, the third place finisher, if eligible, will be awarded the second place prize, the fourth place finisher, if eligible, will be awarded the third place prize, and so on. No winner will receive double prizes as the result of a higher-ranked participant being deemed ineligible.

Additional Terms and Conditions

Each contest is governed by Yahoo Sports Paid Fantasy Terms of Service. For additional terms and rules, including rules regarding eligibility for each contest, please see the Paid Fantasy Terms of Service.

Last updated 2024-01-10