Fantasy Premier League Bonus Point System (BPS) Changes Explained

The Fantasy Premier League community has been abuzz with the upcoming changes for the 2024/25 season – announced on Tuesday 16th July – and for good reason. Stackable transfers will be a game changer for both casuals and the engaged FPL manager alike. Likewise, the mystery chip – set to be introduced in January – will continue to draw speculation between now and next winter.

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But another – seemingly less significant – change has also taken place, the ramifications of which may have gone a little under the radar.

Changes to the Bonus Points System (BPS) will have an impact on how our players accumulate bonus points. This is something which is often overlooked, but managers would be wise to factor ‘bonus point magnets’ into their thinking.

After all, if your player scores top in the BPS, then he will be awarded 3 points, the equivalent of an assist.

What is changing?

There are five changes to the BPS this coming season. One being a change to the scoring of an existing rule, another is the introduction of a totally new BPS scoring penalty, and the remaining three represent new ways players can earn BPS points.

#1: Goalkeeper penalty saves

When a goalkeeper saves a penalty, the BPS score will be reduced to 9 (down from 15). This is intended to reduce the ‘double whammy’ effect whereby a goalkeeper is disproportionately rewarded for a penalty save, having already been awarded 5 FPL points for the same occurrence.

Seven goalkeepers saved penalties last season, including Alphonse Areola (£4.5m) who saved two as shown in the Custom Stats Builder tool above.

#2: Goalkeeper or defender conceding a goal

As well as losing their clean sheet points, goalkeepers and defenders will now lose 4 BPS points for each goal conceded, which will further penalise players of teams who concede more than one goal in a game.

This somewhat lessens the appeal of generating points from our defenders for defensive duties alone, although this is somewhat counter-balanced by the next change.

All three relegated teams conceded the most goals per game last season, but next in the list are West Ham (1.95), Nottingham Forest (1.76), and Bournemouth (1.71). Find out more defensive stats from the 2023/24 season using the Opta Stats Sandbox tool.

#3: Goal line clearances

There are few things as exciting as seeing a defender visibly praised by their relieved teammates after some goal line heroics, in which they save their team from conceding what looks to be an inevitable goal.

This exciting aspect will now be reflected in the BPS scoring, with any player who makes a goal line clearance being rewarded with 3 BPS points.

Seven players made more than two off the line clearances last season, amongst them were Lewis Dunk (£4.5m) and Dan Burn (£4.5m). You can see the full list of goal line clearances using the Custom Stats Builder

#4: Fouls won

A straightforward change. If a player is awarded a foul, he gets 1 added to his BPS score. Players who often draw fouls, such as Bruno Guimarães (£6.5m) – who was the most fouled player last season (108 times fouled) – will benefit most from this change.

As shown in the Custom Stats Builder tool above, numerous midfielders could see an increase in BPS for the 2024/25 season.

#5: Shots on target

Another big one for forwards. Now any player who registers a shot on target will earn 2 bonus points.

As shown in the Opta Stats Sandbox tool above, Haaland (1.9) came out on top for shots on target per game in the 2023/24 season.

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