How I won fantasy football in my first ever season - without using AI

Erik Ibsen

The Premier League season might be long-forgotten already – but we’re definitely still in the window where bragging about how well you did in fantasy football is just about acceptable.

Plenty of people will have been frantically checking the app on Sunday to see if they’d beaten friends, family or colleagues and topped their mini leagues.

Someone who was refreshing a little more than most is 23-year-old Everton fan Erik Ibsen.

But the Danish medical student managed to hold on to his lead to be crowned the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) champion – in his first season playing the game.

Ibsen only started playing because his sister was doing a work league and wanted some help, which turned into him picking his own team “for sibling rivalry”.

But he tells BBC Newsbeat going on to then beat millions of others to the title is “completely insane”.

“If you had told me at the start of the season I’d even be close I would have thought it’s a joke,” he says.

“I don’t know how to put it into words. I don’t think I understood what position I was in until I actually became number one.

“I remember when I was like number 18, just that alone was completely insane, but then to win it and bring it home.”

‘You should see my Excel sheet’

FPL is the UK’s most popular fantasy league, and claims to have more than 11 million players taking part.

Users face a £100m budget as they select squads of 15 footballers, who each earn points based on their weekly on-pitch performance.

Ibsen was 21 points ahead going into the final day of the season but ended up winning by 38 points thanks to a 14-point haul from his captain, and Manchester United’s skipper, Bruno Fernandes.

“Of course there’s been some luck involved but I have also put time into it and it’s taken a lot of my energy,” he says.

“It makes me feel like a football expert, even though I’m not really.

“I think my childhood dream was always to be a football manager.

“But I don’t really have any education [in] football, all my analysis and statistical understanding is based off of my own education.”

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FPL has become so competitive that it’s led to a whole industry of content creators offering weekly tips for anyone looking to sift through stats as the season goes on.

More players have been turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools – as Newsbeat found out in January – though not everyone agrees they have a place in the game.

It’s fair to say FPL took over Ibsen’s life even before he tells Newsbeat “you should see my Excel sheet”.

“I think I was sitting with it four or five hours a day [in] the last week,” he says.

“I have an exam in three weeks and I haven’t even started studying for it.”

Ibsen admits the amount of FPL content he consumed “grew more and more” as the season went on, but says he resisted the temptation to turn to AI for help.

“I think people can look back at my first few weeks and see this guy didn’t use AI,” he says.

“I had [James] Tarkowski captain, [Marc] Guéhi captain, [David] Raya captain, not normal things at all.

“I didn’t use AI to plan it, especially because I felt like it didn’t really take account for scenarios.

“For example like when [Manchester] City and Arsenal were playing the last game, they were still rated as the best players to buy, even though they had nothing to play for, whereas I was quite critical of that.”

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One of the many prizes Ibsen gets for winning FPL is a seven-night UK break, including VIP hospitality at two Premier League games next season.

And he says he’s already looking forward to a trip to his beloved Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium.

“I’ve never watched a Premier League game, to go from nothing to those kind of seats will be a special experience,” he says.

“I’ve heard so many good things, it would be an awesome experience.”

The medical student is holding off celebrating properly until he’s finished his exams next month.

But he’s already planned an “appreciation post” for players who helped him – like when Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott scored 12 points against Arsenal in April.

And his advice for the millions of people who will pick up the FPL app again next season, despite promising themselves they wouldn’t do it to themselves again?

“For new people who want to win, just have patience.

“And for people who just want to start playing, just have fun.

“I had so many bad weeks and I still ended up winning… don’t let the weak results define your whole season.”

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back How I won fantasy football in.

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