The American male's obsession with sports is nothing new, but try this on for size: Greater than half of fantasy sports fanatics spend over an hour a day simply fascinated about their teams.
So how a lot cash is spent on Fantasy Sports? That finding, together with the truth that one in four fantasy gamers spends more than $500 a 12 months on the video games, comes from the first-ever sociological evaluation of on-line fantasy sports participants, performed by Don Levy, an assistant sociology professor at West Virginia Wesleyan College.
These games, burgeoning in reputation and run by Web pages like ESPN.com and CBS SportsLine, enable regular Joes to create and run teams of precise skilled athletes in sports activities like baseball and football. The teams square off in opposition to one another in leagues formed by buddies or workmates, with groups earning factors primarily based on the on-subject performance of, say, Derek Jeter or Peyton Manning.
With upwards of 15 million gamers in the U.S., fantasy sports are a billion-greenback market. CBS SportsLine, for example, generated $15 million in sales from 1.3 million fantasy football clients final year.
Since fantasy gamers tend to linger on sites -- reading participant profiles, pondering their beginning lineups, and sending messages to others in the league -- they attract blue-chip. Responding to fantasy players' insatiable want for content, CBS and ESPN are also doing more to incorporate fantasy storylines and themes of their TV protection of sporting events.
Who's the fantasy sports activities fanatic?
Whereas fantasy's viability as a business is now unquestioned, little has been heretofore known about the people who play fantasy sports.
For starters, the one-yr examine, made exclusive to FORTUNE Magazine, found that they are largely male, white, married, properly-educated (over two-thirds of Levy's sample had a school degree or higher) and earn an honest living.
Of the practically 1,200 folks queried, three out of 4 earn no less than $50,000 a yr, effectively above the nationwide average.
"These aren't social misfits dwelling of their dad and mom' basement," mentioned Levy. Not surprisingly, the bulk rated their sports activities "fanship" very high, with fanship being outlined as lively consumption of sport.
Most fascinating, although, was Levy's discovering that 60 % of fantasy gamers spend over an hour a day simply occupied with their fantasy crew, and 85 percent spent over 30 minutes.
Granted, Levy's sample was skewed in the direction of rabid fantasy players like Larry Dobrow, 35, a Manhattan-based mostly freelance writer who thinks the one-hour-a-day figure may be understated.
"In the course of the days main up to a baseball or soccer draft, [fantasy] is just about your main concern -- including work, relationships, and typically hygiene," he said.
Employer beware
Workplace consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimates that fantasy football alone will value employers $196.1 million in lost productivity during the current NFL season. That determine may prove to be conservative, because it was based on fantasy players taking only 10 minutes out of their work day to handle their teams.
"Productivity goes down the drain," said CEO John Challenger. "It is like a virus."
Regardless of the impression on productiveness, Challenger says corporations should not quash fantasy participation throughout work hours, as the consequences of a ban could be far worse than the injury caused by enjoying fantasy games.
Levy's examine quantifies that injury: Two-thirds of his pattern spend at the least 5 hours every week managing their fantasy groups, and greater than an third are busy with fantasy sports for more than 10 hours a week. Those hours can come at any time. During his eight-day Mediterranean honeymoon cruise, Mark Del Franco, 36, recalled logging onto the ship's Internet connection to make daily lineup changes. "At that point, my wife was asking herself if she made a mistake," he said.
The injury extends to fantasy gamers' wallets as well. Since most players pony up dollars not just for league entry charges but in addition subscribe to fantasy information and analysis websites, the money spent by fantasy players yearly can really add up. The common quantity spent was $360, Levy found, but 24 p.c spend more than $500 a year on their numerous teams.
Author Resource:
Fantasy Sports Wealth Maker: You ever wonder about how to build money while enjoying fantasy sports? Its uncomplicated. FantaZ is the answer. All you need to do is visit Sports Fantasy and you will gain knowledge of how to make loads of money the fun and uncomplicated way. Check out FantaZ here .
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")