Chopped & Guillotine FAAB Bidding Strategy: Real League Data

What thousands of real chopped and guillotine leagues show about FAAB bidding: how big your biggest bid should be, when to spend, and how often bids tie or are won by $1.

2026 so far: the biggest bid each week

In a typical chopped (guillotine) league - the median across 9,000+ Sleeper leagues - as a share of the starting FAAB budget:

• Week 1: biggest winning bid 42% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 15%
• Week 2: biggest winning bid 45% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 17%
• Week 3: biggest winning bid 45% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 17%
• Week 4: biggest winning bid 47% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 15%
• Week 5: biggest winning bid 43% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 14%
• Week 6: biggest winning bid 40% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 13%
• Week 7: biggest winning bid 33% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 10%

2025 season: the biggest bid each week

The median across 3,000+ finished Sleeper chopped leagues:

• Week 1: biggest winning bid 50% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 16%
• Week 2: biggest winning bid 50% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 20%
• Week 3: biggest winning bid 45% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 20%
• Week 4: biggest winning bid 40% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 18%
• Week 5: biggest winning bid 40% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 16%
• Week 6: biggest winning bid 35% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 13%
• Week 7: biggest winning bid 30% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 10%
• Week 8: biggest winning bid 28% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 8.5%
• Week 9: biggest winning bid 21% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 5.5%
• Week 10: biggest winning bid 15% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 4%
• Week 11: biggest winning bid 10% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 2.5%
• Week 12: biggest winning bid 6.1% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 1.2%
• Week 13: biggest winning bid 4% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 0.9%
• Week 14: biggest winning bid 1.6% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 0.4%
• Week 15: biggest winning bid 0.7% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 0.1%
• Week 16: biggest winning bid 0.1% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 0.1%
• Week 17: biggest winning bid 0% of the starting budget, 3rd-biggest 0%

Close calls in 2025's $1,000 leagues: of 139,000+ contested claims, 9.7% ended in a tie (decided by waiver order), 4.2% were won by exactly $1, and 23% by $5 or less.