Choosing the right league is important when it comes to high stakes fantasy baseball. If you have never played in one, be selective in what you choose. It also depends on how much money you are willing to risk, the experience in the format and the knowledge of the player pool. The National Fantasy Baseball Championship (NFBC) is the most popular and rtsports.com offer some leagues, too.

The best preparation for the NFBC format is the draft champions league. There are entry fees of $150, $400 and $1,000 for this format. There's an overall prize of $30,000. The difference with this format is you don't make any waiver wire moves. As with all NFBC formats, there are no trades. All you do is draft your team and set your lineup each week for pitchers with hitters being allowed to be changed on Friday's for the weekend. These are 15-team leagues with 50 rounds and that's your roster for the season. This helps you get a deep knowledge of the player pool. The drafts can be done with a one-hour, two-hour, four-hour clock or one minute.

For those used to playing in a points format, the NFBC offers the best ball cutline championship. The leagues consist of 10 teams and 42 rounds. This is a best-ball format, which means you don't have to set lineups. It automatically takes the best scores each day for the 23 starting slots. 

There are only two FAAB periods on April 13 and June 8 where free agents can be acquired. The regular season ends July 7 and then there's a nine-week period where you need to make the cut to advance. The contest concludes on Sept. 19. The entry fee is $150 with $250 going to first place in the league as the majority of the entry fees go to the overall prize of $75,000. There's consolation prize of $5,000 to those that don't make the initial cut.

The big prize comes in the Main Event. This is a 5x5 roto league consisting of 15, 40-team leagues. The draft is 30 rounds with FAAB running each Sunday night. The FAAB budget is $1,000. The overall prize is $150,000 and, in each league, the winner gets $7,000, second place gets $3,400 and third gets $1,700. These drafts can be done online or live in person in New York, Las Vegas and Chicago in March. These are very competitive leagues.

If the price point for the Main Event is too much, there's an online championship with an entry fee of $350. These are 12-team leagues with 30-round drafts and the max amount of teams is 2,500. The league winner gets $1,400 and second place gets $700. The overall prize winner gets $125,000. This format might be most similar to a home league except it's not a daily format. The pitchers are locked in at the beginning of the week, while the hitters can be changed on Friday for the weekend. FAAB runs on Sunday nights.

If you're not ready to play in an overall contest, there are satellite leagues where the entry fees are only rewarded to that league. For 15-team leagues, the entry fees are $150, $250 and $500. In the 12-team formats, the fees are $150, $250 and $500.

There's also an auction format, which I have participated in for the last two years live in New York. Last year, there were no live events and I did an online draft, but it didn't play out due to the pandemic. The entry fees are $1,400 and $2,500 with an overall prize of $30,000. If you can't do it live, there is also a new format with the online auction championship with entry fees of $150, $250 and $500 with an overall prize of $5,000. These are 15 teams with 23 players being auctioned on a $260 budget with a seven-round snake draft after the auction. The top eight overall will be paid in addition to the top three in each league. There are also an NL-only and AL-only leagues with a $1,400 entry fee with $8,400 going to first place and the top three get paid. There are also standard auction leagues with a $125 entry with a $1,000 prize to first and the top three get paid and there are $500 entry fees with $4,000 to first and the top three get paid.

The NFBC also has two new formats that are out for the second year. One is a 15-team Guillotine league with a $200 entry fee and top league prize of $1,400. The other is the Solo Shot, which is a single-entry format. This is $1,000 to enter with league payouts of $4,500 to first, $2,200 to second, and $1,000 to third place. The top 10 overall get paid with the grand prize of $25,000. The max amount of teams is 150. 

If you want to start off cheap, there are “50’s” that are satellite $50-entry 12-team leagues. First place gets $400 and second place gets $100. The NFBC will have all the teams compete in one large overall tournament and first place gets a 2022 Main Event entry, second gets a 2022 Solo Shot entry and third gets an Online Championship entry. If you don't want to invest a lot of money, this is a good option. There are also qualifier leagues. Winners of the $50 Qualifier leagues receive a free entry to the 2022 Online Championship and winners of the $125 format get a free entry to the 2022 Main Event.

If you enjoy keeper leagues, the NFBC has started to run them this season. There is a max of five keepers. The entry fees are $250, $500 and $1,000. 

There are also stand-alone leagues with big entry fees if you're a big baller. There is a $15,000 Platinum league, a $10,000 diamond league, which also has an auction format and leagues of $5,000 and $2,500.

The RealTime Fantasy Baseball Championship is an online championship. The grand prize is $10,000 and the top 25 overall teams get paid. There will be up to 180 teams competing in 12-team leagues with an entry fee of $350. The league champion wins $900 and second place gets $600. The draft is 32 rounds with 23 starting spots in a 5x5 roto format and nine reserve spots. This is a 5x5 roto format with on-base percentage instead of average.

RealTime Fantasy Sports also has leagues with the prizes going to the league only. These are 10-team leagues with different price points. The $125 leagues have $1,100 in prizes, $250 leagues have $2,250 in prizes, $500 leagues have $4,500 in prizes, $1,000 leagues have $9,000 in prizes and $2,000 leagues have $18,000 in prizes.

RealTime also has a 12-team head-to-head points style league. The entry fees are $125, $250, $500 and $1,000. The winner of the $1,000 league gets $6,000. The top four teams qualify for the playoffs and playoffs are a three-week total points challenge.