The Reality of Fantasy Sports

As I sat down to watch the 49ers play in the first Sunday Night Football game of 2013 in my dorm, I couldn’t help but feel a rush of jubilation at the thought of a new season, a clean slate for my team after Super Bowl XLVII. But for many football fans a new season holds more excitement than what is simply found in 60 minutes on the gridiron and they work themselves up into a frenzy over one thing, and one thing only: fantasy football. Now this excitement over fantasy teams is in no way unique to NFL fans, but rather there are fantasy leagues for basketball, baseball, soccer, hockey, and even auto racing along with many others.


Much like the professional leagues themselves, fantasy sports have become an incredibly lucrative industry. According to IBISWorld US, fantasy sports services have estimated annual profits of $445.8 million from $1.2 billion in revenue. This is not difficult to believe as The Pew Research center reports that 46 percent of those who have fantasy leagues have paid to play. Additionally, IBISWorld US reports that fantasy sports services have been growing rapidly. In a market dominated by ESPN, CBS Corporation, and Yahoo! Inc. in the past five years fantasy sports have grown at an annual rate of 11.7 percent.

This high rate of growth can be easily explained by the growth of the technology industry. In addition to having Internet capabilities in many buildings throughout the world, the development of applications for not just fantasy leagues but sports in general has allowed many fans that might not have played on a computer originally to have the a fantasy league app at their finger tips all day every day.

However, on this Sunday spent sitting on the couch in my dorm, enjoying the 49ers win their third straight game against the Packers, the thoughts of fantasy football hadn’t even crossed my mind. Many friends have told me over the years about how much I would enjoy starting a fantasy team in a variety of sports and yet I have never brought myself to actually do one. This begs the question: if I am already following the sport closely why not draft a team? Well, for two reasons. The first of which is that there are only so many hours in a day and knowing myself as I do, I would become enthralled, spending hours looking up players, stats, etc. trying to craft the best team possible.

 

While this may sound enjoyable to many, I have made the smart decision to direct my time towards more useful endeavors, like actually reading that chapter of homework that was assigned for class. However, the second reason I have never ventured into fantasy sports didn’t become clear to me until this Sunday afternoon. In being the only person from San Francisco on my floor, I was left to enjoy the 49ers game by myself as the Bills and Jets fans filtered out of the TV lounge. But sensing what a fantastic matchup this game was likely to be, some fans returned, many talking about how the game would affect their fantasy teams.

This idea of how a player’s performance can affect your overall score is at the crux of my dislike for fantasy sports. One young man on my floor remarked at how Aaron Rodgers needed to stop throwing to Jordy Nelson because he needed James Jones to pick up a few more yards. Others watching the game urged Colin Kapernick to throw an interception because their competition needed to lose a few points (a suggestion, I might add, that I clearly objected too).

In listening to these ridiculous requests I started thinking about how with the growth of fantasy sports we have lost what made watching sports so enjoyable in the first place. In focusing on how individual players’ performances affect a fantasy score, people may find themselves even rooting against their own team.

Not a bad bet to lose points.

Need someone in the league who has Eli Manning at QB to lose a few points? Then the Giant’s first two games of the season were great even for a die-hard Giants fan.

Have Anquan Boldin on the roster? Screw the Packers then, because after all those points could be the difference in beating the guy that started James Jones at wide receiver.

At the heart of this issue is that in focusing on this microcosm of competition we forget that the purpose of sports is to enjoy the game rooting for one whole team and each and every one of its players. In sports the whole is most definitely greater than the sum of its parts.



President Obama's March Madness Bracket

This same behavior is demonstrated each March as sports fans madly rush to perfect their brackets. In choosing teams for the sake of small time competition, many of us find ourselves rooting against the Cinderella teams that are what makes the NCAA Tournament so great. I myself rooted against Wichita State and Florida Gulf Coast University because they kept busting my bracket, while I should have been cheering for the underdogs that are what make the Tournament more than just a mathematical equation where the winner could easily be found through running a simulation.

While my opinion may be easily dismissed as one ignorant girl’s ideas, my dislike of fantasy sports could be rooted in the fact that only one percent of all females actually play fantasy sports according to The Pew Research Center. Maybe us female sports fans are just missing something from the experience. But for the 14 percent of men 18-29 out there who have fantasy leagues I suggest an evaluation of priorities when it comes to sports. If sports hold no meaning beyond a way to compete with friends, then by all means continue with these fantasy activities.

But if you are like me, your love of sports is rooted in more than just small time competition, and instead in pride for a team and respect for the talent it takes to play at these high levels, it might be worth considering how fantasy leagues affect the way we view sports. For those out there who agree with me I urge the following: save the phone battery and the cash and stop wasting time on fantasy sports.