Fantasy sport

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As fantasy sports (also: Rotisserie ) is called a category of most online operated games where each 8 to 12 participants form a "League". At the beginning each member puts together a virtual team from real players from a professional league of the respective sport. In the further course of the game, the virtual teams receive points that are measured according to the performance of the real players in the ongoing game. It is determined in advance which statistically measurable player performances are to be included in the rating (e.g. goals scored, points, running distances, possession of the ball, etc.) As in real sport, a new team line-up can be formed from the existing squad before each game day; The composition of the squad can also be changed within certain limits over the course of a season (so-called "transfers"). The winner is the player with the highest number of points in the end. The game extends either over a whole season, over a week or a single game day (so-called daily leagues ).

Fantasy sports leagues were originally groups of friends for whom a "league administrator" manually calculated and awarded the points according to set rules. Fantasy sports only really took off with the spread of the Internet. The vast majority of fantasy sports are played online today. Commercial providers such as FanDuel and DraftKings provide online platforms for playing games. Participation in the game is either free of charge or against money stakes, from which cash prizes are paid out to the winners. The size of the stakes can vary greatly.

The most popular sport in fantasy sports is American football than fantasy football ; Fantasy sports are also available for numerous other sports such as B. Soccer , basketball , baseball , ice hockey , golf and car racing .

The US industry association for fantasy sports, the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association (FSGA) (until 2019: Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) ), named the number of approximately 59.3 million players in the US and Canada alone in 2017, the average Spend $ 556 a year on it and generate total industry revenue of $ 7.2 billion.

history

The main inventor of fantasy sports is Wilfred Winkenbach, a businessman from Oakland , California . As early as the 1950s, he designed rules for fantasy golf, a fantasy sport that is particularly easy to play because of the simple number of strokes. In 1962, Winkenbach, who was then a partner in the American football team Oakland Raiders , developed the first rules for fantasy football with two sports journalists who were friends, and in 1963 they formed the first league with friends. William Gamson, a sociologist at Harvard University and later at the University of Michigan , formed a fantasy baseball league with colleagues in 1960. In Michigan, David Okrent got to know the game, who later as a sports journalist in Manhattan was working and there in 1980 with friends and colleagues, the first fantasy baseball league founded, gained greater prominence, the Rotisserie League , named after the restaurant La Rotisserie Francaise where the participants met. The alternative designation rotisserie or roto for fantasy sports is derived from this. In 1989 the first fantasy sports magazine , Fantasy Sport Magazine was founded and the first books and computer programs on the subject were published.

In 1995, the Canadian company Molson Breweries launched the first platform on which fantasy ice hockey could be played online as part of an advertising campaign. In the 1990s, numerous web providers emerged which, for a fee, provided statistical information and result calculations for fantasy sports players. Yahoo integrated free fantasy baseball into its web offering in 1999. The rapidly growing spread of fantasy sports led large sports associations such as the NFL and commercial media providers in the field of sports such as CBS or ESPN to discover and promote them as a marketing tool and a means of audience loyalty.

Web links

literature

  • Andrew C. Billings, Brody J. Ruihley: The Fantasy Sport Industry. Games Within Games. Routledge, London and New York 2014, ISBN 9780415525183 (Routledge Research in Sport, Culture and Society) (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to FSGA press release: Fantasy Sports Now a $ 7 Billion Industry. June 20, 2017, accessed May 3, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Corinne Green: 'Wink': Wilfred 'Bill' Winkenbach invented Fantasy Football way back in 1962 with GOPPPL in Oakland ( memento from September 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) on news5.com
  3. ^ Patti Summerfield: Hockey Net in Canada: Molson scores with fantasy league. In: Strategy. October 16, 1995, accessed May 3, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Yahoo! Sports Hits Home Run With Free Fantasy Baseball ( Memento from October 31, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (Press release from February 23, 1999)