Effective ownership
Effective ownership, usually written EO, is the share of managers in a given field who own a player, with every captain counted twice and every triple captain three times. Because captaincy multiplies, EO can exceed 100 percent, and it is the number that tells you what a player is really worth to your rank rather than to your score.
The arithmetic
EO is roughly the percentage who own the player, plus the percentage who captain him, plus another copy of the percentage who triple captain him. A player owned by 60 percent and captained by 45 percent has an EO of about 105 percent, which means the average manager collects slightly more than one full copy of his score.
Ownership tells you how many rivals have the player. EO tells you how many copies of his points the field will bank. Those are different questions, and only the second one moves your rank.
Reading it in a mini-league
The published EO figures describe the global game or the top 10k. Inside a mini-league of a dozen managers the real EO is your own, and it looks nothing like the global figure: one rival who both owns and captains a player nobody else has gives him an EO of 2 in 12, about 17 percent, in that field. An EO of 200 percent would need all twelve to own him and captain him. Working out the EO of the popular captain in your own league is the fastest way to see whether following the crowd is safe or simply expensive.
Example
A striker with 105 percent effective ownership scores 10 points. The average manager banks 10.5 points from him. If you own him but did not captain him you take 10, so you lose half a point to the field despite owning the best player of the week.
Related terms
Now check your own league
Benchmarks are one thing. The Butler applies them to your own mini-league: a verdict after every gameweek, awards for the heroes and the blunders, and a season archive that never forgets. Enter your league code and see where your table really stands.
See your league