Fantasy Sports (also known as rotisserie or roto) is a game where fantasy owners build a team that competes against other fantasy owners based on the statistics generated by individual players or teams of a sport.
The most popular format is fantasy football, where players draft teams of NFL players and earn points each week for the real-life performance of the players on the field.
A typical scoring format rewards the fantasy player with points when his real-life players score a touchdown or kick a field goal.
There are fantasy sports leagues for baseball, hockey, basketball, golf, soccer, NASCAR, college football and basketball, soccer and many more.
The internet arms of the major media companies (ESPN, Fox Sports, Yahoo! and more) all operate fantasy contests and leagues along with the sites of the FSAN network.
Users often play at the major media sites, but seek additional information and services from a host of other operators.
What is the size of the fantasy sports industry?
- 29.9 million aged 12 and above in the U.S. and Canada played fantasy sports in 2007.
- 22% of U.S. adult males 18 to 49 years old, with Internet access, play fantasy sports.
What is the economic impact of fantasy sports?
- Fantasy sports has a total market impact of $4.48 billion dollars.
- Consumers spend $800 million directly on fantasy sports products, but also use an additional $3 billion worth of media products related to the hobby (such as DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket and XM Radio's coverage of all MLB baseball games).
Who plays fantasy sports?
The average fantasy player has these characteristics:
- in approximately 2 Sport leagues
- has played for nine Years
- an average of 6 leagues from various sports per year
- spends an average of $493.60 per year playing fantasy sports
- are educated, professionals living in suburban USA
- majority (55%) started playing offline
- 3 out 4 play fantasy sports with people they know.
- spend about 3 hours per week managing their teams
- 92% Male
- 77% Married
- Average Age: 36
- 91% White/Caucasian
- Household size: 43% 3-4
- 86% Own Their Home
- 71% Have a Bachelor's Degree or Higher
- 92% Attended Some College
- 59% make $50,000 or more annually
- $76,871 Average Household Income
What do they play?
The 16 million fantasy players in August 2006 played these sports:
| Football |
12.8 million |
(80%) |
| Baseball |
4.8 million |
(30%) |
| Racing |
4.16 million |
(26%) |
| Basketball |
3.2 million |
(20%) |
| Hockey |
1.92 million |
(12%) |
| Golf |
1.12 million |
(7%) |
The 12.8 million fantasy football players include:
| Male |
10.6 million |
| Female |
2.2 million |
| Males 18-34 |
6.3 million |
| Aged 35-54 |
6.1 million |
| Aged 55+ |
0.4 million |
What kind of fans are fantasy sports participants?
55% of fantasy sport players report watching more sports on television since they started playing fantasy sports
Fantasy sports players buy tickets and spend money at stadiums at a much higher rate than general fantasy sports fans:
- 12% of Americans attended a MLB baseball game per year, whereas 60% of fantasy sport players attended at least once.
- 9% attended an NFL football game (47% of fantasy players),
- 8% attended an NBA basketball game (28% of fantasy players),
- 4% of Americans attended a NHL Hockey game (27% of fantasy sport players)
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