By Josh Wardini
Though sports fandom has slowly been slipping in the past decades, one sector within the professional sports industry has grown exponentially over the past ten years. That sector is fantasy sports (FS) and, today, is an $18 billion-dollar industry globally. FS refers to an online game played by about 20% of the entire populations of Canada and America. As revealed by FS statistics and market data, these FS players are information-hungry team managers that are propping up a sporting industry and contributing to a huge marketplace. Here is a quick look inside the huge profits and growing trend on fantasy sports.
What Exactly is Fantasy Sports?
Fantasy Sports is a game played by managing fantasy teams based on real players. The teams are then pitted against each other, and based on the real game statistics of the players on your team, a winner is determined. These teams are then ranked over the course of a time period or season, and the winner is the team manager who picks the best statistically performing team over that period.
How Many People Play?
According to data, the FS market has rapidly grown to today being a huge sub-sector of the sporting industry. 86% of the daily FS sports market users are from North America, mainly Canada and the USA. However, a growing number of fantasy leagues that cater to European football (soccer) junkies are becoming more and more adopted. In North America, the game is played by 59.3 million players and is growing with the highest levels of play coming from the younger market segments.
How Is It Changing the Marketplace?
A few key changes are happening due to FS growth. New TV programs and sports news websites are rapidly becoming successful, as the average fantasy sports player is highly information hungry. Additionally, the out-of-area premium viewing packages are selling more to these players, who have a true hunger for watching players who play on a wide array of teams.
Finally, another sector changing rapidly is the sports betting sector, where some states have concluded FS is not a form of betting and others have ruled it is. Regardless, FS players spend an average $465 annually on entry fees and have the potential of winning huge pots and prize pools that reached over $2 billion USD in 2017.
FS is a growing market that is making huge profits and changing the way fans consume, engage and enjoy sports. For more information on the growing FS industry, check out this data on the industry from BettingSites.