Classic

• Team selection: Participants select a squad of 15 players from the Premier League within an allocated £100m budget. A maximum of three players can be selected per club. Starting XIs must contain one goalkeeper and a minimum of three defenders.
• Team management: Managers are permitted to make one free transfer per gameweek with the opportunity to roll over one on a weekly basis for a maximum of two. Additional transfers can be made for a points deduction. Users also select a captain, whose score is doubled for the round, and a vice-captain, who will become captain automatically should the chosen captain not play. Changes must be made before the gameweek deadline. Substitutes are automatically activated in order of bench order preference and within the formation restrictions if a starting player does not play.
• Points scoring: Points are awarded based on real life player performance with actions such as goals, assists and clean sheets earning points while points are deducted for bookings and conceding goals. A bonus points system also rewards players for underlying stats with the top three scoring players in metrics such as pass completion and tackles earning bonus points. Since 2012, Opta has been the data provider for FPL.^[6] The game runs across the length of the entire Premier League season and the overall winner is the manager who has accumulated the most points at the conclusion of the season.
• Chips: Since 2015, managers have been equipped with several chips to use throughout the season. They must be activated prior to the gameweek deadline and may be only used once during the season (except for wildcard). Chips include:
  • Wildcard - unlimited permanent transfers at no cost. Managers are given two during the season.
  • Triple captain - selected captain's points are tripled instead of doubled.
  • Bench boost - points from a manager's substitutes are added to the total.
  • Free hit - unlimited transfers at no cost for a single gameweek. The previous gameweek's team will be restored at the end of the round.
  • All out attack (discontinued in 2017) - enabled managers to play a 2-5-3 formation i.e. start an extra attacker at the expense of a defender.
• Mini-leagues: Users can create their own mini-leagues and invite others to join. Scoring can either be in the standard format or in a head-to-head league whereby teams face off against one other each gameweek, earning three points for a win or one for a tie.
• FPL Cup: A knockout cup competition runs concurrently during the season. Managers are randomly drawn against an opponent and face off in a head-to-head match using their regular FPL team with only the winner proceeding to the next round.

Draft

As well as the standard format, FPL introduced a draft mode for the first time in 2017. In this instance, managers join small private leagues of between 2–16 managers. There is no budget and instead managers take turns to select players for their 15-man squads. However, once a player has been selected, they are not available for any other managers to select.^[7]

Challenge

In March 2024, FPL launched a DFS game called FPL Challenge. The mode is separate to the main game and requires players to build a squad for one single gameweek with a particular challenge unique to that gameweek also active e.g. unlimited budget, players in certain positions or for certain clubs score double etc. Unlike the classic and draft modes, the game is a short-form "daily" game with scores resetting back to zero after each round meaning there are no cumulative season-long leaderboards and prizes are awarded to the top three scoring managers for each individual round.^[8]