Fantasy Premier League (FPL) has returned for the 2026-27 season.

As well as changes to some player prices and positions, there are also a number of new features. These include help with picking starter teams, live updates to mini leagues, a price-change predictor and more.

Advertisement

Here is everything we know about FPL before the new season, with less than a month to go until it all kicks off.

More help with picking a starting team

One of the first things any FPL manager does is pick their starting team. But with a £100m budget, 15 empty spaces and a plethora of options, it can be tough.

An option introduced to FPL for this season is assistance with making that initial squad. By answering a couple of questions, including the team you support and your intended playing style, FPL will build a starting squad for you.

Of course, the starting squad can be altered by you as much as you want until the deadline for gameweek one closes.

Advertisement

Live updates to mini-leagues

For many players, competing in mini-leagues with friends, family and colleagues is the main attraction of playing FPL.

Previously players had to wait until after the final match of each day for the league table to be updated. However, tables will now be updated live during matches to reflect how their teams are performing against others.

Points accumulated via bonus points will also be shown in live tracking and not just after they have been confirmed, with bonus points to be shown from the 20th minute in each match.

Price-change predictor

Among the changes for the new season is the introduction of the price-change predictor.

Advertisement

Here, FPL will predict how likely a player’s price is to drop or rise at midnight the following day. While it will not guarantee a player’s fate, it will give an indication of what is expected to happen to their value.

It will be graded in five ways – very likely to rise, likely to rise, unlikely to change, likely to drop and very likely to drop.

Tweaks to bonus points and a later lockdown

Following a major overhaul of the bonus-point system for the 2025-26 season, further tweaks are being made.

Players will no longer be punished for being tackled, something which did count towards bonus points last season.

Advertisement

That change is likely to affect attacking midfielders the most. Nine of the top 10 most-tackled players in the Premier League last season were attacking midfielders, including Chelsea’s new signing Morgan Rogers and Manchester City duo Antoine Semenyo and Jeremy Doku.

City summer signing Elliot Anderson also featured among the most-tackled players last term.

Full-backs will also benefit from this. England duo Djed Spence (Tottenham) and Nico O’Reilly (Manchester City) were among the six defenders to have been tackled the most last term, with Brentford’s Michael Kayode topping that list.

There will be fewer opportunities for defenders to benefit from both defensive contributions and bonus points. The number of clearances, blocks and interceptions (CBIs) needed to earn a BPS point – used to calculate bonus points – has increased from two to three. That is meant to make it less likely for defenders to score high amounts of defensive contribution points and bonus points.

Advertisement

There is also a change to how goalkeeper saves are recorded. Previously, goalkeepers earned two BPS points for a save against a shot from outside of the penalty area and three for one inside the area. Now, all saves will earn two BPS and the ‘outside of the penalty area metric’ has been removed.

However, goalkeepers will earn an additional BPS point when denying a ‘big chance’ where the player shooting is expected to score.

The number of BPS points for saving a penalty has dropped from eight to seven, but goalkeepers will also take an additional point for the ‘big chance’ saved. That effectively means nothing has changed.

There will also be a later lockdown for when bonus points are finalised. This has changed from one hour after full-time to 09:00 UK time the morning after that match, allowing Opta to complete its post-match data review so bonus points are calculated as accurately as possible.

Advertisement

Price reveals and position changes

Manchester City striker Erling Haaland has broken his own record of being the most expensive player in FPL history.

Having started the game two seasons ago at £15m, the Norwegian is now £15.5m.

A major increase has also been applied to Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes, who provided a Premier League season record of 21 assists in a single campaign last term.

Having started last term at £9m, he will begin the new campaign at £12m.

Arsenal centre-back Gabriel has also had an increase to his starting value from £6m to £8m, making him the joint-most expensive defender in FPL in the past two decades.

Advertisement

There have been 11 players who have given new positions for the new FPL season.

Four players are moving to midfielders, having been defenders last season. These are Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal), Lamare Bogarde (Aston Villa), Keane Lewis-Potter (Brentford) and Patrick Dorgu (Manchester United).

Bournemouth’s Eli Junior Kroupi is the only player to have been a forward last season who is now a midfielder.

Brighton’s Mats Wieffer, Crystal Palace’s Rio Cardines, Fulham’s Ryan Sessegnon and Eric Moreira of Nottingham Forest are all defenders this year, having spent last season as midfielders.

Advertisement

Manchester City’s Omar Marmoush and Brighton’s Georginio Rutter are both forwards this term, having previously been midfielders.

History checker and gameweek recaps

Another feature is the history checker, where you can now easily compare your ranking from previous seasons to those of other FPL players.

Included in that is a percentage ranking, meaning you can see what your highest percentage finish is compared to in previous years as opposed to just your overall ranking.

Managers will also be given the option of a recap of their gameweek in imagery form.

Once a week is concluded, players will be given the option to see a picture of their performance, as well as recapping who their top-performing player was.

Advertisement

How to enter the BBC Sport FPL league

As in previous years, BBC Sport will be running its own dedicated FPL league for our readers to join and compete against each other.

Details of how to join the league will be posted nearer to the season starting.

This article is the latest from BBC Sport’s Ask Me Anything team.

More questions answered…