Daily Fantasy Sports: The Modern Arcade
If you have watched a sporting event in the last 6 months, you have probably seen an advertisement for a Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) site. The two giants, FanDuel and Draftkings, have taken the fantasy sports industry by storm. A user drafts a team with a confined salary cap (better players cost more) and the team they select competes against others in a daily (or weekly in games like football or golf) competition. Each competition has an entry fee that varies in price, and teams that do well receive payouts. The size of these fantasy payouts are staggering. Eilers Research CEO Todd Eilers estimates “that daily games will generate around $2.6 billion in entry fees this year and grow 41% annually, reaching $14.4 billion in 2020” [1]. DFS users have formed a cult-esque society growing in population that resembles the formation of arcade society in the 1980s.The rapid growth of DFSs is not the only reason why I believe they are the modern arcade games; the virtual platform and space in which DFSs operate are very similar to the virtual platform of arcade games.
As was discussed in a commentary on the persistence of video games, original arcade games—Pac-Man, Asteroids, etc.—are non-persistent platforms. Similarly, DFSs are non-persistent as a player’s team and score completely resets after one competition is over. This is a sharp contrast to season-long fantasy sports, which are persistent games that create a virtual world for total immersion. Due to the non-persistence there is no precondition of commitment in DFSs. If one does poorly playing a DFS game one week, one can readily play again immediately (with no carryover from the previous game) or even jump to another sport. This parallels to the arcade in which many different games were available in one location. Gamers could continue to play the same machine attempting to win (get a high score) or move on to another game if they felt they would fare better. The last similarity, and a somewhat controversial one, is the presence of skill in success at these games. In the arcade, games had underlying computer code that created patterns. Skilled gamers developed strategies for these patters (i.e movements of Pac-Man based on the coded personalities of ghosts) and had a higher chance of success. In DFSs gamers with an enhanced knowledge of statistics, sports, and game theory can create algorithms (similar to a arcade gamers strategy) that enhances their chances of success. According to a Sports Business Journal study, only the top 1.3% (why its controversial) of players actually made money playing DFSs [2]
On the surface, DFSs and arcade games seem like entirely different species. However, they both incited very similar cultural interactions from mass amounts of population. This shows the ability of virtual spaces to transcend the constraints of real life materiality and allow cultural realities to exist in a virtual platform.
[1] Meitner, D. (2015, September 15). The Hyper Growth of Daily Fantasy Sports is Going to Change our Cultures and Our Laws. Retrieved December 5, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/darrenheitner/2015/09/16/the-hyper-growth-of-daily-fantasy-sports-is-going-to-change-our-culture-and-our-laws/
[2] You Aren't Good Enough to Win Money Playing Daily Fantasy Football. (2015, September 10). Retrieved December 8, 2015, from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-10/you-aren-t-good-enough-to-win-money-playing-daily-fantasy-football