In the past two decades, the fantasy sports industry has
grown to include more than 15 million Americans
BY WILL SEYMOUR
DAILY EMERALD FREELANCE REPORTER
For some, it is a harmless
diversion. For others, this
billion-dollar industry is a
serious competition. From the
casual sports fan to the hard-core
statistician, the world of fantasy
sports has something for every
one of the 15 million Americans
it serves.
Fantasy sports had its humble be
ginning in 1980, in the back room of
La Rotisserie Francaise, a Big Apple
eatery. According to fiso.co.uk, a
New Yorker named David Okrent is
credited with the concept of a
competition where each participant
would choose a team of real
baseball players, and then based on
the statistics of these players, they’d
proclaim a winner. Most fantasy
baseball leagues follow this
same premise; some hold the title
“rotisserie leagues” in honor of the
founders’ meeting place.
The rapid growth of the fantasy
sports industry can be traced to
the advent of the World Wide Web,
which forever put an end to the
laborious task of cutting out box
scores every day. This information
is now available with a few clicks
of a mouse. To further aid this
process, there are a multitude of
sites that host fantasy leagues,
doing everything from compiling the
stats to facilitating transactions
between teams.
These services don’t come cheap.
The Fantasy Sports Tirade Associa
tion says fantasy baseball fans spent
an average of $178 last season,
covering everything from site fees to
research materials. Sportsline.com
reports it took in $14.2 million in
fantasy revenues last year.
The idea of fantasy sports
has spread from the baseball
diamond to leagues for football,
baseball, golf and hockey, to name
a few. Fantasy competition has
even gone beyond the world of
sports, as there are leagues for
“Survivor” and WWE fans.
Football, the most popular sport
in America, is also the most popular
fantasy sport in the country.
According to a study conducted by
the FSTA, more than 10 million
American adults take to the virtual
gridiron each year.
Among them is freshman Corey
Brown, who has been an owner
since his freshman year of
high school. For him, the primary
attraction of fantasy sports is the
entertainment, and although he said
he isn’t overly serious about the
game, Brown said he understands
how people could get to that point.
Junior Dan Elliott used to be a
fanatic in his fantasy basketball
league, until he found himself
spending too much time running
his team.
“I could easily spend a few hours
a day, looking to see who had played
the most games and thinking about
trades,” he said.
Elliott’s reason for playing the
game showed his solemn purpose.
“You’re competing against your
friends and thousands of people at
the same time,” he said.
Elliott was by no means alone in
his level of devotion. According to
the FSTA study, the average fantasy
football owner spends three hours
per week on team business and will
likely become more involved over
time. Owners are even seeing effects
on their production at work. Assum
ing that the average player wastes 10
minutes of company time a day, the
consulting firm Challenger, Gray and
Christmas predicts that fantasy
football alone will cost businesses
$36 million this year.
Thanks to technology and the com
petitive drive of the participants,
fantasy sports should continue to
grow. In light of the almost addictive
properties it holds for some, what
began in the back room of a
restaurant 25 years ago has become a
phenomenon of epidemic proportions.
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