How FPL Bonus Points Work: The Bonus Points System Explained, From BPS Scores and Ties to the Actions That Earn Them

FPL bonus points are extra points awarded to the three best-performing players in each Premier League match in Fantasy Premier League, decided by a separate scoring model called the Bonus Points System, or BPS. The match statistics on RubiScore, from tackles and clearances to key passes, cover many of the actions that feed that model, which makes it possible to understand why some players collect bonus points so regularly.

This explainer covers how the BPS works, how bonus points are shared out, what changed in recent seasons and how to read a player's bonus potential. Premier League match statistics are available at https://rubiscore.com. Values quoted below are those published for recent seasons, and because the scoring is reviewed most summers, managers should always check the current official rules.

What Are FPL Bonus Points?

In every Premier League match, each player who takes part receives a BPS score. After the match, the three players with the highest BPS scores receive bonus points in Fantasy Premier League:

The highest BPS score earns 3 bonus points.
The second highest earns 2 bonus points.
The third highest earns 1 bonus point.

Bonus points are added to the player's normal FPL score for that match. They are part of the official scoring alongside goals, assists, clean sheets, saves and defensive contributions.

Where the BPS Came From

Bonus points were originally decided in a less transparent way. The BPS was introduced to make the process data-driven and consistent. It uses a long list of match statistics, each with a positive or negative value, and adds them together to give every player a single score for the match.

The idea is to reward all-round performance, not just goals and assists. A defender who blocks shots, wins tackles and keeps a clean sheet can outscore a forward who scores once but does little else.

How the BPS Score Is Built

The BPS combines several families of actions:

Playing time. Players earn a base score for appearing, with more for playing a larger part of the match.
Attacking actions. Goals, assists, key passes, big chances created and successful dribbles add to the score.
Defensive actions. Clean sheets, saves, tackles won, clearances, blocks, interceptions and recoveries all count.
Passing. High pass completion over a meaningful number of passes adds points.
Negative actions. Cards, own goals, missed penalties, errors leading to goals, conceding penalties and other mistakes reduce the score.

Goals are weighted by position. Before the 2025/26 season, a penalty earned the same BPS as any other goal: 24 for a forward, 18 for a midfielder and 12 for a defender. That positional weighting still applies to goals from open play.

This creates an interesting inversion. In the main FPL scoring, a defender's goal is worth more points than a forward's. In the BPS, a forward's goal is worth more. The likely reason is balance: defenders and goalkeepers already collect large BPS totals from clean sheets and defensive actions, so the goal weighting stops them dominating every match.

What Changed in 2025/26

The 2025/26 season brought several changes to BPS values:

Penalty goals. A converted penalty now earns a flat 12 BPS for any position, so penalty-taking forwards no longer gain a large bonus advantage from spot-kicks alone.
Goalkeeper saves. Saves are split by location: 3 BPS for saving a shot from inside the penalty area and 2 for a shot from outside it.
Penalty saves. A penalty save is worth 8 BPS, plus the 3 for saving a shot from inside the box.
Goal-line clearances. These rose sharply, from 3 BPS to 9.
Tackles. Each tackle won now earns 2 BPS, replacing the old net-tackle calculation that subtracted tackles lost.

Together, these changes moved bonus points slightly away from penalty takers and towards goalkeepers and defensive players.

Bonus Points Versus Defensive Contributions

Defensive contributions were introduced as a separate source of FPL points in 2025/26. A defender who reaches 10 clearances, blocks, interceptions and tackles in a match earns 2 FPL points, while midfielders and forwards need 12, with ball recoveries also counting for them.

These are standard FPL points, not bonus points, although some coverage mislabels them. The two can overlap: a player who makes many tackles may earn defensive contribution points and also climb the BPS rankings, because tackles won add to his BPS score.

How Ties Are Resolved

Ties are common, and the official rules explain how they work:

Tie for first place. Both players receive 3 bonus points, and the next player receives 1.
Tie for second place. The leader receives 3, and both tied players receive 2.
Tie for third place. The leader receives 3, the second player receives 2, and both tied players receive 1.

This means more than three players can earn bonus points in a single match. If two players share the top score and three others share the next score, the top two receive 3 each and the other three receive 1 each.

When Bonus Points Are Confirmed

During a match, live BPS tables show provisional rankings that can change with every action. A late tackle, a save or a yellow card can move a player up or down. Bonus points are confirmed only after the match has finished and the data has been processed, so managers should treat live bonus projections as estimates.

A Worked Example

Imagine a hypothetical 1-0 match. The winning goal is scored by a forward who has few other touches. A centre-back on the winning team plays the full match, keeps a clean sheet, makes a goal-line clearance and wins several tackles. The winning goalkeeper makes four saves, three of them from shots inside the box.

The forward's goal earns a high BPS value, but the centre-back's clean sheet, goal-line clearance and tackles add up quickly, and the goalkeeper's saves from inside the box now carry extra weight. In a match like this, it is entirely possible for the defender or goalkeeper to finish top of the BPS, with the goalscorer taking the second or third bonus place.

How to Read a Player's Bonus Potential

Some players earn bonus points far more often than others. A few patterns help explain why:

Defenders in strong defensive teams benefit from clean sheets and defensive actions.
Goalkeepers facing many shots from close range gain from the higher value of saves inside the box.
Creative midfielders who make key passes and big chances can score well even without goals.
Penalty takers now gain less from spot-kicks than they used to.
Players who commit fouls or pick up cards often lose BPS, even in good matches.

Match statistics on RubiScore show many of these underlying actions, such as tackles, clearances and key passes, which helps explain why a player's bonus record looks the way it does.

Common Mistakes When Reading Bonus Points

Bonus points are easy to misread. Several mistakes come up often:

Treating bonus as random. It can feel unpredictable from week to week, but over a season it follows the actions a player regularly performs.
Judging from a few matches. A player can collect bonus points in three straight games and then go several without any, so short runs say little.
Forgetting team context. A defender's BPS depends heavily on clean sheets, which reflect the whole defence, not just one player.
Ignoring the opponent. Matches against attacking teams create more saves and blocks, while matches against weaker sides create more goals and assists.
Assuming old values still apply. Changes such as the flat penalty value mean that bonus records from earlier seasons are not a perfect guide.

How Bonus Points Fit Into Decisions

For most managers, bonus points are best treated as a tiebreaker between similar options rather than a reason to buy a player on their own. When two players have similar expected minutes, fixtures and attacking threat, the one whose style regularly produces high BPS scores, through defensive work, saves or creative passing, may offer a small but steady edge over a full season.

The Takeaway

The Bonus Points System ranks every player in a Premier League match using a long list of positive and negative actions, and the top three earn 3, 2 and 1 bonus points in Fantasy Premier League. Goals are weighted by position, ties can spread bonus points across more than three players, and recent changes have shifted value towards goalkeepers and defensive actions while reducing the advantage of penalty takers. Understanding how the score is built helps managers see why some players collect bonus points week after week and others rarely do.