If you want to manage a team of a virtual professional football team, then Fantasy Football is the game for you. A draft decides the roster for the competition.
It has all the real football league. Actual performance of the players determines the score of the participants. It involves National Football League, Football League or college football.
Fantasy football is conducted in two ways. The first one is a traditional way.
Traditionally, the players play for an entire season. The second way is a daily version. The matches are conducted for a short period, for say, a week or a day. Online internet companies manage these regular competitions.
They earn by charging a percentage of the betting pool. FanDuel and DraftKing are the leading companies of Fantasy football in the USA.
Fantasy Football is all thanks to late Wilfred “Bill the Gill”. He along with Bill Tunnel of Raiders Public Relations and Scotty Stirling of Tribune sat in a hotel room and developed the system and rulebook for fantasy football.
This system and rulebook are followed in modern fantasy football.
Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticator League (GOPPPL) was the inaugural league for fantasy football. The first draft was in a rumpus room in Oakland, California, in 1962. The league consisted of eight members.
At that time there were two quarterbacks, two field goal kickers, four offensive ends, two defensive linemen, two fullbacks, two kick/punt returners, and two defensive backs/linebackers.
In the modern fantasy football, there are two quarterbacks, six full receivers/tight ends, two defensive backs, four halfbacks, one return team, two kickers, and a bonus pick.
Andy Mousalimas took the game to a sports bar in 1969. Many patrons visited for trivia and the game caught on. Since, the game employees a lengthy scoring procedure, it took a while to get around.
Some high school students had their first draft in 1979 and had their 42nd draft in 2017. It is the longest continuing operating fantasy league in the world.
Grandstand Sports Services held the first online fantasy league in 1985. Grandstand improve the online gaming with first time automated draft along with real-time transaction and trading with real-time scoring followed by the continuous association.
The first national fantasy football league was Pigskin Playoffs. It was developed in 1989. It allowed a large number of players to participate and compete against each other for a prize.
The first publicly available free fantasy football website was launched in 1997 by CBS. The game gained popularity. Within years, the major sports media started their fantasy football websites. Today, over 19 million people are competing in fantasy football.
A sitcom was also made on fantasy football called The League. It was directed and produced by Jeff Schaffer and Jackie Marcus Schaffer.
Fantasy Football has various types of leagues. The leagues include daily fantasy sports, dynasty league, empire league, auction league, two-quarterback league, Superflex league, Individual defensive league or IDP, salary cap league, keeper style league, pirate league, head-to-head league, and total points league. (Choose Your Fantasy Football Team Name)
Over 41 million people are involved in fantasy football as per the statistics from FSTA. Teens qualify for 34% of the market.
80% of people were likely to play the game for a decade, and 40% said that they would play for life. Fantasy football is addicting. The average demographic is 34 years old.
Fantasy football has been good for the American market.
It might have some minor setbacks, but what does not. The growth of the game has never turned around.
Yes, due to the lengthy scoring procedure, the game did not catch on, but with computerized scoring, fantasy football is a new thing. The managers get started for free, but they still spend money on complementary industries of fantasy football.