What Are Fantasy Sports?

Fantasy sports have become a staple for fans of professional leagues. When you are in a fantasy sports league, you draft players from real-world teams along with other people in your league. The goal is to accumulate the most wins or points in the league by the end of the season. Fantasy sports allow you to take on the role of general manager by constructing a roster of players you believe will succeed in the coming season.

  1. History

    • Fantasy sports draw their roots from Strat-O-Matic baseball and football games. These games pitted players against one another using statistical probability cards. Modern fantasy sports first took shape in the early 1980s. Sportswriter Dan Okrent and a group of friends began the trend by outlining fantasy baseball during a lunch together. As the game started to spread, fans of other sports began to form fantasy leagues as well. In 2009, the Georgia Tech Journalism Department estimated that about 30 million people in the United States and Canada play fantasy sports annually.

    League Formats

    • Fantasy sports leagues typically fall into one of two categories: points leagues (also called rotisserie in baseball) or head-to-head leagues. Points leagues accumulate a team's performance across preselected statistical categories for the entire season. The team with the most total points at the end of the season wins. Head-to-head leagues also use predetermined categories but you are not necessarily judged on your entire season. You are matched up against another team each week. The team with the most points during that week gets a win. The teams with the most wins at the end of the season goes to the playoffs, where the top teams face one another in weekly games just as they did during the season.

    League Variations

    • Aside from the traditional draft format, you can also participate in an auction league. Auction leagues have salary caps, so you bid on players based on what percentage of your salary cap you think they are worth. Keeper leagues let you hold players from your current year's team to the next season. Only a certain percentage of your team can be kept. You can also choose to limit your player selection pool to players from a specific league or conference to narrow your available options.

    Statistics

    • Fantasy baseball teams are usually judged in 10 categories--five for hitting and five for pitching. Among them are batting average, home runs, runs batted in, runs scored, stolen bases, pitcher wins, earned run average, walks and hits per inning pitched, strikeouts and saves. Standard fantasy basketball categories include points, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals, three-point shots, shooting percentage and free-throw percentage. Fantasy football players typically gain offensive points for every 25 passing yards, every 10 rushing yards, touchdowns in any form and field goals. Defensive points are earned by getting sacks, interceptions, fumble recoveries, safeties, touchdowns, blocked kicks and if your team shuts out an opponent or limits them to a predetermined amount of points. You can also lose ground if your offense turns the ball over or your defense gives up too many points.