1 · Site & player pool

Contest site

Salaries CSV (required) — the export from the site

📥 Drop the player list CSV here, or browse

DK: the player pool export · FD: the players-list CSV

Your projections CSV (optional) — overrides the site's numbers

📈 Drop projections here, or browse

Columns: an id column + a projection column. Matched by player ID.

2 · Trim the pool

Toggle off injured or players you don't want. A shorter list makes cleaner lineups and solves faster. Players the site marks Out start switched off — tick them back if you disagree. Players with no projection (a blank or zero points-per-game) are never used unless you give them one.

Lock (right column) forces a player into every lineup. A locked player is in 100% of lineups, so a lock overrides any exposure cap you set for him — the lock wins. Lock sparingly; each one cuts diversity.

Optional. Unchecks players ESPN lists as Out (tick them back if you disagree); Day-To-Day, Questionable and Doubtful just get a badge. Source: ESPN injury report.

Filter

0 active

Turn off players below salary $

…and / or below projection

Team:

	Pos	Player	Team	Salary	Proj	Value	Lock

3 · Rules

Saved setups — keep these rule settings and reuse them on any slate

Saves everything in this Rules card: lineup count, team limits, exposure, cooldown and uniqueness. It does not save the salary cap, tonight’s players, your locks and exclusions, or your typed projections — those change every slate. Setups live in this browser only; a different browser or device starts empty. Saving under an existing name replaces it.

Tier 1 · Site rules

# of lineups (max 150) Solve time budget (seconds)

The batch stops here whether or not it reached your lineup count. This build allows up to 240s.

Salary cap $

Filled in from the site’s published rule, not read from your file — the export doesn’t state it. If your contest’s cap is different, type it here.

Min salary used (0 = off)

Tier 2 · Within lineup

Max players from one team (blank = site rule only)

FanDuel allows at most 4 from one team. DraftKings has no team limit, but it requires players from at least 2 different games.

Min teams in lineup

1 = no extra rule. Raise it to spread the lineup across more teams.

There are no stacking rules for NBA: teammates’ scores are only weakly linked, so a stack is not worth forcing. Positions and slots are fixed by the site.

Tier 3 · Across lineups

Max player exposure %

Cap on how many of your lineups any one player can be in. Locked players ignore this — always 100%.

Player cooldown (last K)

A player used in the last K lineups sits out the next one — forces turnover across every spot. 0 = off.

Min unique players per lineup

Min players that must differ vs. every prior lineup. Higher = more diversity but harder to solve. 1 = only need 1 new player each time.

Lineups

What is this NBA DFS lineup optimizer?

A free NBA DFS optimizer for DraftKings and FanDuel — no signup, no paywall, no “3 free lineups” teaser. It solves a real mixed-integer program (the same math the paid tools use) to build a set of lineups that are individually strong and collectively different, because in large tournaments one good lineup is easy — twenty different good ones is the hard part.

How it works

Export the player list from DraftKings or FanDuel and upload it above.
Trim the pool: lock, exclude, or cap exposure on any player, and overwrite projections.
Set the rules — team limits, how often one player may appear, and how different each lineup must be from the rest.
Generate up to 150 lineups. You get salary-cap-legal lineups in a CSV formatted for direct re-upload to the site.

A worked example

A DraftKings classic NBA roster has eight slots — PG, SG, SF, PF, C, a guard slot (PG or SG), a forward slot (SF or PF) and a UTIL that takes anyone — under a $50,000 cap, with players from at least two games. A FanDuel roster has nine slots, and the slots depend on the contest: the optimizer reads them from the file you upload. Under the hood that is a knapsack problem: maximize projected points subject to the cap and the position rules. A player listed at two positions can fill either, and the solver assigns him wherever it helps.

Common questions

Is it really free? Yes — it is a working demo of optimization models I have built for 20+ years. No account, no lineup limit tricks.

Which sites does it support? DraftKings and FanDuel player exports, with upload-ready CSV output for each. DraftKings upload cells are Name (ID); FanDuel upload cells are the player’s Id. IDs belong to one slate, so always load the file for the slate you are entering.

Why no stacking? In baseball and hockey the rules create players whose points rise and fall together, so stacking them is a real edge. NBA teammates are only weakly correlated, so this tool leaves the choice to the projections and the exposure caps.

What about Showdown / single-game contests? Not yet — this is classic full-slate only.

Are the projections any good? Unless you upload your own, the tool uses the site's own number from your file — DraftKings' AvgPointsPerGame or FanDuel's FPPG. That is a season average of actual fantasy points, not a forecast for tonight: it knows nothing about the matchup, minutes, or an injured teammate, and early in the season it rests on a handful of games (a player with one big game can look like a bargain). Upload a projections CSV (or overwrite numbers in the list) and those replace it. The optimizer’s job is squeezing the most out of whatever numbers you trust.

What happens to injured players? Players the site lists as Out (DraftKings OUT, FanDuel O) start switched off. Questionable players stay on. Press Update injury list in step 2 to also check everyone against ESPN’s injury report: players ESPN lists as Out are unchecked (tick them back if you disagree); Day-To-Day, Questionable and Doubtful players just get a badge. Use On/Off by status above the player list to switch a whole status on or off at once.

Do you have one for baseball, football or hockey? Yes — MLB, NFL and NHL.

NBA Lineup Optimizer