This may seem like a silly question to ask, but the world of fantasy sports is growing in popularity each year, and has become a popular pastime on the internet and in people’s basements. Firstly I am a fantasy sports owner. Each season since 2006, I have played fantasy football, baseball, and soccer. People do not understand the amount of time, money, and integrity that surrounds fantasy sports. In this blog, I’d like to explore each of these areas, and see if fantasy sports are good for the sporting world.
First there is time. Sports are a 24-hour 365-days-a-year business. At any given time, something is happening with sports somewhere in the world. The same goes with fantasy sports. People are constantly checking rosters, trading players, picking favorable matchups, and keeping tabs on their fantasy players. On average, I would say people waste close to 2 hours a week on fantasy sports. Now to some, that doesn’t seem like a long time, but that’s just an average. I know when I was in high school, every morning in my first period class; I would check my fantasy sports teams. Even though it was probably unnecessary, I still checked rosters and free agency every day. I don’t do it as often now a day. But I would probably bet there are the hardcore fantasy owners that constantly check stats.
Money is another issue. Wouldn’t it be considered a form of gambling when it comes to fantasy sports? Not necessarily, This follows real life sports too, nearly every major sport game can be betted on, so there is nothing illegal when it comes to gambling though fantasy sports. I personally don’t gamble when I play fantasy sports. I usually play for free on Yahoo.com. Not every fantasy league or owner pays money to play, with a chance of winning it in the end, but a good majority of leagues are ran with a betting system. Venues like Yahoo, CBS Sports, and NFL.com offer a more user-friendly area to play fantasy sports. But there are still a large following of people that play fantasy sports offline and handle money free-hand.
Finally there is integrity. Fantasy sports are all based on numbers. In any of the fantasy sports, a victory could depend on a matter of fractional points. I can vouch that I’ve lost a few fantasy football games by .15 points at least. It’s a rough game. In case you aren’t familiar with fantasy sports, athletes are given points based on the stats that they get in their games. During week 10 of the NFL, Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew knelt down at the one yard line when he had an open opportunity to score a touchdown. To fantasy owners of Jones-Drew, this was huge. Fantasy sports players usually don’t care how the outcome of a game goes for a team, as long as the player on their team does well. I think this hurts fan-hood, because it encourages individual success in a team sport. It would be different for fantasy golf, but this is an issue in most fantasy sports. Fantasy baseball owners hate it when their players are forced to sacrifice bunt, and in fantasy basketball when players foul on purpose.
Despite some of these minor issues in the sports, I think fantasy sports are harmless. Real life teams and players are aware of fantasy sports, but still play the sport in the way they have always played it. Fantasy owners can’t do much more than gripe if their players don’t rack up the big points, but I do agree that fantasy sports offers just another venue of friendly completion between friends, co-workers, or complete strangers.
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ReplyDeleteThis is a great topic, Brendan.
ReplyDeleteYou'll find no bigger critic of the NFL than me. And it discomforts me to know that the country's most popular sport is only so because of fantasy sports. It bothers me to know that much of the interest in the league is derived from fantasy football. Although I don't think fantasy sports ruin sports, it certainly creates an unstable fan base void of as much team loyalty as there used to be.
I think that fantasy sports somewhat bring more attention to the sport. I am an avid fantasy sports owner in just about every fantasy sport there is. I am huge baseball fan and always have multiple teams each season. But, as far as other sports, I don't follow them nearly as much as I follow baseball. However, I'm addicted to the fantasy world and creating fantasy teams forces you to do some research and make an attempt to follow the sport to create the best team. I don't think that fantasy sports attract team loyalty. I play fantasy basketball and hockey but I don't really have a favorite team and root more for individuals than a whole team.
ReplyDeleteBrendan,
ReplyDeleteAs an active Fantasy Football player I don't believe Fantasy Football ruins sports. I believe in this bad economic time, fantasy sports help sports. More and people watch games and attend games so they can follow their players. Fantasy sports only attract more attention to the game. However I think it does take away from sports when fans and fantasy players get angry when players make logical decisions for their teams that hurt the fantasy owners. Example- Maurice Jones Drew this weekend kneeling ball at one yard line to run the clock out, not scoring a TD.
I have always wondered if there is a gendered component to fantasy sports. For one thing, how many people play "fantasy" WNBA? Probably not too many, considering that there are not that many fans who attend "real" WNBA games. I think that fantasy sports provide one more way to enhance the attraction of a sport--just like gambling (or "pools," as in the case of March Madness); and bobble head giveaways; and video games (Madden, etc.). So, when people do not participate in fantasy sports for women, there is no enhancement of the experience. I have to believe that makes a difference in the overall popularity (or lack) of women's sports. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteBrendan this was a great blog about this topic. The ideas written on are the ideas behind fantasy sport. I once played fantasy football for a couple years in a little league with some friends. This was a free league that I played in. I feel that since I was a part of this league I paid more attention to what was going on in the NFL. The league not only kept me up with who won each week but also helped me know who played for what team. I do feel there is a negative though fans lose sight of the real game and get carried away with the side game. I think there has to be a balance but overall fantasy sports increased a fan base and I feel made sports more popular and easier to follow. This was a great idea to increase sports!
ReplyDelete