Free fantasy basketball with $23,000 in real cash prizes

Football · Rugby League · Aussie Rules · Women's Aussie Rules · Basketball · AUS Cricket · IND Cricket · Global Cricket

Why coaches are switching to GDS Basketball

Most fantasy basketball games hand you a leaderboard, a bit of merch and a reset every spring. We do it differently. GameDay Squad Basketball is free to play, pays real cash every single round, and the player cards you collect are yours to keep. The squad you build this season is the one you start with next season, just stronger.

• Real money, every round. Over $23,000 in cash prizes across 21 rounds and end-of-season awards for the 2026/27 season.

• Free to play, free to win. Every coach gets 153 starter cards on sign-up, and the Contender competition pays cash to the top three without you spending a cent.

• Your cards, forever. Pack a Gold Bryce Cotton once and he's in your reserves for as long as you play.

• Eight competitions from one collection. Starter, Contender, Classic, Challenger, Champion, plus three specials: Hero Ball, Anything Goes and Swordplay Homegrown Talent.

Cards you can collect

Every card is yours to keep. The higher the rarity, the bigger the score multiplier. A few of the cards coaches are chasing right now:

Bryce Cotton - Gold

Kristian Doolittle - Platinum

Nathan Sobey - Gold

William Hickey - Gold

How GDS Basketball works

1. Open your packs. Download the app, sign up free, and you'll get 153 Bronze player cards straight away: 18 in each of the five positions. That's more than enough to fill a court.

2. Set your 10. Two point guards, two shooting guards, two small forwards, two power forwards and two centres. Everyone on the court scores. Everyone in your reserves doesn't.

3. Beat the lockout. Basketball runs a rolling lockout, so each player locks 10 minutes before their own game tips off. Thursday's players lock Thursday, and you can still tinker with Sunday's until Sunday.

4. Win cash and cards. Round prizes land every week, seasonal prizes at the end. Cash goes to your wallet, packs go to your collection, and better cards unlock harder competitions.

The 2026/27 prize pool

We're putting more than $23,000 in cash on the line for Basketball this season, spread across every round and topped up with end-of-season prizes. Here's what the top spot pays each round.

Prizes run deep, not just to the winner. Classic pays cash to the top five and packs to the top 500 every round, and the top ten in Classic, Challenger and Champion all take home a Prize Card at season's end. The full round-by-round breakdown is in our Basketball prize table.

Pick your competition

Every coach starts in Starter and climbs from there. Your court's combined salary decides which competitions you can enter, and salary is set by card rarity, never by how well a player is going. A Bronze card costs $500k all season, even if he's leading the league in scoring. Only the 10 players on your court count towards the cap, so your reserves can be as deep as you like.

Three specials, new for 2026/27

• Hero Ball: $50 to the round winner and $250 plus a Prize Card to the season winner.

• Anything Goes: the biggest weekly cash prize outside Champion at $150 a round, plus $250 and a Prize Card for the season.

• Swordplay Homegrown Talent: $50 a round, $250 and a Prize Card for the season.

All three pay Unique packs to the top three and Rare packs to the top ten every round. Squad rules for each are in the app when you enter.

How scoring works

Your round score comes from what your players actually do on the court, then multiplied by the rarity of the card you own. We reward both ends of the floor. A steal or a block is worth five points, an assist four, and an offensive board beats a defensive one.

One thing to know: if a player has two games in a round, only his best single game counts. Inactive players score zero, even if they play. Full details on our scoring page.

The card multiplier

This is the bit no other platform has. The same player on a better card scores more.

One knockout cup, one Classic squad

Set your Classic squad every week and you're automatically in the running for the GDS Cup. No extra entry, no extra work.

• The GDS Cup: 64 coaches, head-to-head survivor format. The top 64 combined Classic scores across two qualifying rounds go in, fixtures are redrawn every week, and lose once and you're out. Survive six weeks and you're picking in the Prize Card Draft.

• Every week you survive pays. Common packs for qualifying, then Rare, an All Star Card, Unique and a 9 Player Elite Pack the further you go.

Built for Australian coaches

Every lockout is shown in your local time, games are spread across the week so there's always something to set, and our community lives on Discord where coaches trade cards, argue about projections and post their squads before tip-off. In-app you'll also see which players are active in the player pool, a projection for every player every round from The Stats Lab, and real-time selected-by percentages across the standard competitions.

Ready to build your squad?

It takes about two minutes. Download GameDay Squad, open your starter packs and set your first 10 before the next tip-off. Your cards are waiting, and so is this round's prize money.

Frequently asked questions