Introduction to the Phenomenon of Fantasy Sports
Fantasy sports, now also a multi-billion dollar industry, allow individuals to own a virtual team of real life professional athletes. In year-long fantasy sports, an individuals team is matched up against someone else in their league. The team that performs the best wins. The virtual platform in which fantasy sports operate parallels to the real world in this way. A team that performs well wins, a team that does not loses. Wins and losses are totaled week to week (in season-long fantasy sports) and a champion is crowned at the conclusion of the season. If you are unfamiliar with the basics of fantasy sports, below is a brief video detailing how the most popular fantasy sport, fantasy football, works.
A new form of fantasy sports, daily fantasy sports, has become increasingly popular recently. Daily fantasy sports contrast to season-long fantasy sports most fundamentally in the fact that the duration of the leagues/contests are much shorter. This new platform has added another demographic of users and increased total fantasy participation. Below is another brief video that explains the basics of daily fantasy sports. Note how similar it is to season-long fantasy sports. Because the contests are much shorter, an individuals team resets many times over the course of the season.
It is important to understand that there has been a massive cultural migration to fantasy sports participation. This year alone, over 75 million Americans are expected to participate in fantasy football [1]. In a similar fashion to Boellstroff’s research in Second life, the virtual world of fantasy sports can be examined to discover cultural truisms in real life.
[1] Easterbrook, G. (2015, October 6). DraftKings and FanDuel Are Not Your Friends. Retrieved December 4, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/upshot/the-big-winners-in-fantasy-football-and-the-rest-of-us.html
