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Fantasy football (gridiron)

Fantasy football is a game in which the participants serve as general managers of virtual professional American football teams. The competitors select their rosters by participating in a draft in which all relevant NFL players are available. Points are based on the actual performances of the players in the real-world competition. The game typically involves the National Football League, but can also involve other leagues, such as the Canadian Football League or NCAA.

League types

There are many different methods of organizing fantasy football leagues, some of which may be combined. The popular league type is head-to-head but it is also possible to play total points leagues. Leagues can be based off of team structure or by competition. Besides traditional leagues, there is also daily fantasy sports where players draft a team of real-world athletes who then score fantasy points according to set scoring rules. However, instead of being stuck with the same team through a whole season, daily fantasy sports contests last just one day (or in the case of NFL, one weekend). Users can play head-to-head or in larger field tournaments. Both cash leagues and free contests are available for play.

Competition variations:

• In head-to-head leagues, a fantasy team matches up against a different fantasy team from the league each week. The team that receives the most points of the two receives a win for that week. Points are dictated by the scoring system that is either standard set by the website or custom set by the league. A team's total is the sum of all players' points who were placed in a starting slot by the team owner for the day they were playing (as opposed to being on the bench, in which any points gained would not count). Teams with the best win-loss record advance to the playoffs. If two teams have the same record, tiebreakers are employed based on league preference.
• Total points leagues are leagues in which teams accumulate points on an ongoing basis. The league standings are determined by the teams’ total points. The most popular total points leagues are "best-ball" leagues, where the week-to-week roster management is removed. Playoff leagues are also frequently total points leagues.
• All play leagues are leagues in which all teams play each other each week. For example, if there are 14 teams in the league, the top scoring team that week would post a 13–0 record, 2nd highest scoring team would post a 12–1 record and so on.
• Pirate Leagues are leagues where a winning team gets to choose a player from his opponent's roster.

Roster variations:

• A Keeper style league allows teams to keep a set number of players from one year to the next and sometimes assign them contracts. In the first season of a keeper league, the draft is performed the same as any other standard league draft would be performed. In a keeper league you cut your roster limit to a certain number each offseason. Keeper leagues can keep as few as 1 or as many as even 16 or more in deeper keeper leagues. If your roster limit is cut down in the offseason, it's a keeper league as opposed to a dynasty league where you maintain your entire roster.
• A Salary cap league is a particular type of fantasy league which adds another factor of realism similar to the NFL: the salary cap. Each player has an associated salary and the total spent on all the players on a team has a maximum - the "salary cap."
• In Auction leagues, a team is composed of players who are bought auction-style during the draft, as opposed to using traditional snake drafts that are common in fantasy football. Each team is given a budget to bid on players.
• In Dynasty leagues, a team keeps all players from year to year and replenishes rosters through rookie drafts. Dynasty leagues are enhanced versions of keeper leagues. In dynasty leagues, your roster limit is unchanged in the offseason, or increases temporarily to allow the addition of rookies.
• In Two-quarterback leagues, a team has the ability to start two quarterbacks in their weekly lineup. This changes the value of the quarterback position, as it doubles the number of quarterbacks able to start in any given week. However, in any fantasy football format, the number of quarterbacks who can start is determined by the league commissioner.
• In Empire leagues, teams compete in a dynasty-format and prizes are offered for league winners. A special side-pot is created from entry fees each year. Once an owner wins the league two years in a row, the Empire pot goes to that owner, and the league starts over.
• SuperFlex Leagues are leagues in which teams can start a QB in the flex position. Generally, a superflex position is added in addition to traditional roster spots such as a flex position. Often, defenses and kickers are removed from these league formats.
• IDP or Individual Defensive Player leagues are leagues where teams draft individual defensive players in addition to offensive players, as opposed to drafting an NFL team's defense. In rare cases, it is also possible to draft individual players at other positions that are not typically on fantasy rosters, such as offensive linemen, kickers, punters, and return specialists.

Draft

Each season, fantasy football leagues hold a draft (note: in dynasty leagues, this normally consists of NFL rookies only), where each team drafts NFL players. These players are kept unless they are traded or dropped, whereby they enter a pool of unowned players that any team may claim. In most leagues, no player may be owned by more than one team, although some leagues do allow for this. There are essentially two types of drafts. In a traditional "serpentine" or "snake" draft, owners take turns drafting players in a "snake" method, i.e. the owner who picks first in the odd rounds picks last in the even rounds, in the interests of fairness.

In an auction draft, each owner has an imaginary budget which he must use to purchase all his players in an auction format. Owners take turns nominating players for open bid. The owner who bids the highest on each player receives that player, reducing their remaining budget accordingly. Auction drafts are viewed as the more fair method since every owner begins on equal ground. A few leagues use a hybrid of the two styles, selecting a portion of their roster via auction, with the remainder selected through a serpentine method.

The most commonly used strategies are value-based drafting and opinion-based drafting. Value-based drafting entails projecting the total fantasy point value for each player in the draft and then figuring their value with respect to other players at their position, while standard opinion-based drafting requires ranking each player based on your opinion of worth or other people's opinion of said player's worth.

An example of a complete in-person fantasy draft board.

Drafts can be conducted in "live" or "auto" formats. Live drafts involve players utilizing real-time strategy and reactionary measures to acquire specific available players. Auto-drafts use preliminary draft rankings set by each team to automate the draft cycle and establish the teams. Live drafts are often preferred to automated as they require more skill.

The location of fantasy football drafts depends on the geographic location of each team manager. With the rise of the internet, all fantasy football providers have made online drafting an option. The vast majority of fantasy football drafts take place online. Some leagues make a tradition of meeting up to draft, and in some leagues, managers travel cross-country to attend annual league drafts. Group drafts conducted in-person are typically scheduled many weeks in advance. Common locations include boardrooms, offices, bars, or dining establishments. Once the league is full with team owners, the order of the draft numbers should be initiated by either a random in-person or computer-based draft order, or, in a keeper or dynasty league, the draft order runs in reverse order of the previous year's standings or reverse order of most potential points for.

Team rosters

Each team is allowed a set number of players on each roster, as well as a specified number of starters at each position that can be used in a matchup. Each week, owners determine which players will start and which will be "benched." Just like in real football, players who are usually benched can become starters for various reasons such as a starting player's injury, poor performance, or if the starter's NFL team has a bye that week. Whether to sit or start a player is also based on strategic considerations, such as the player's past and expected performance, defensive match-ups, and the team he is playing that week.

Starters

Each team owner must designate which players from the overall roster will be starters each week. Only players in the starting lineup may earn fantasy points. The following is a standard starting lineup configuration and is used as the default setting on NFL.com, ESPN, and Yahoo except where noted:

• 1 Quarterback (QB)
• 2 Running Backs (RB)
• 2 Wide Receivers (WR)
• 1 Tight End (TE)
• 1 Flex (RB, WR, or TE)
• 1 Placekicker (K)
• 1 Team Defense/Special Teams Unit (D/ST)
• 6 Bench (BN)

There are many variants on the traditional roster alignment. The number of bench and injured reserve slots can be adjusted, as well as the ability to play a tight end in the flex position. Some leagues have a "superflex" position, in which any offensive player, including quarterbacks, may fill the slot. Other leagues have a two-quarterback requirement for a starting lineup. In individual defensive player (IDP) leagues, the defensive portion of rosters is composed of individual players from various teams rather than an entire NFL team's defensive and special teams unit.

Scoring configurations

League managers earn fantasy points based on the performance of their starting players' performances in NFL games. While the values vary depending on the league, players accumulate points based purely on their statistical output. This means that each real-life yard gained or touchdown scored correlates to a certain number of fantasy points. On the other hand though, yards lost and turnovers result in negative fantasy points as well.

While rare, it is also possible for players to earn points for plays not traditionally associated with their position. For example, a wide receiver who completes a pass would earn the same number of points as a quarterback completing the same pass.

Standard and PPR scoring

A key distinction in scoring systems is between standard and points per reception (PPR) scoring. Leagues with standard scoring award no points for receptions, though players still earn points for receiving yards gained. PPR leagues award one point for each reception, while half-PPR leagues award half a point. PPR leagues are higher-scoring and place a greater emphasis on wide receivers, tight ends, and running backs who catch a large number of passes, while half-PPR leagues attempt to provide more balance between rushing and receiving. In a survey conducted by Apex Fantasy Leagues, PPR scoring was found to be the most popular scoring system. Many major fantasy football websites use PPR as their default setting, including ESPN and NFL.com.

The following is the default scoring system on NFL.com and is identical to the default scoring systems of ESPN and Yahoo except where noted. Negative points are awarded for yards lost at the same rate that positive points are awarded for yards gained.

• 1 point for every 25 passing yards
• 1 point for every 10 rushing or receiving yards
• 1 point for each reception
• 4 points for each passing touchdown
• 6 points for each rushing or receiving touchdown
• 6 points for each fumble recovered for a touchdown by the offense
• 2 points for each passing, rushing, or receiving two-point conversion
• -2 points for each interception thrown or fumble lost
• 1 point for each extra point made
• 3 points for each 0-49 yard field goal
• 5 points for each 50+ yard field goal
• 1 point for each sack by the defense
• 2 points for each interception or fumble recovered by the defense
• 2 points for each safety by the defense
• 6 points for each touchdown scored by the defense
• 6 points for each touchdown scored by a player returning a kickoff or punt

A team defense can also gain or lose fantasy points based on the number of real-life points that they allow. The following is the default defensive scoring system on NFL.com and Yahoo.

• 10 points for a shutout
• 7 points for allowing 1-6 points
• 4 points for allowing 7-13 points
• 1 point for allowing 14-20 points
• 0 points for allowing 21-27 points
• -1 point for allowing 28-34 points
• -4 points for allowing 35+ points

Pure-scoring and pure-yardage leagues

A pure-scoring system awards fantasy points based solely on touchdowns, field goals, and extra points scored by a team's players. Many of the original fantasy football leagues were pure-scoring leagues as this provided for easier tracking of team points throughout the season. As the game matured and moved online, tracking yardage became easier and more sophisticated scoring configurations were adopted. In pure-yardage leagues, points may only be scored by accumulating passing, rushing, or receiving yards.

Individual defensive player (IDP)

An alternative method for scoring defense is individual defensive player (IDP) scoring. Rather than awarding points for the on-field actions of entire defensive units, IDP scoring awards points for plays made by individual players. Such plays may include tackles, sacks, interceptions, quarterback hits, safeties, and other defensive statistics.

Additional customization

Most fantasy websites allow leagues to customize their own scoring options. Some leagues award bonus points to players for exceptional performances. For example, NFL.com allows leagues to customize scoring to award bonus points for a player who passes for over 300 yards in a game or scores a touchdown of over 40 yards, among others. NFL.com also allows players to earn points in statistical categories that are not traditionally a part of fantasy scoring, such as pass attempts or yards gained on kickoff and punt returns. In addition to earning or losing fantasy points based on real-life points allowed, team defenses may also earn or lose points based on real-life yards allowed. ESPN even allows custom scoring for punting yards, touchbacks, and punting average.

Effect on American economy

In 2019, over 46 million people over the age of 18 played fantasy sports in the US.

Many fantasy leagues require an entry fee that is given to or used to fund prizes for the top player or players in the league. Daily fantasy platforms, such as FanDuel, manage games with thousands of players and collect a percentage of each entry fee before distributing winnings. For example, FanDuel's revenue includes 10% of its entry fee intake.

Fantasy players also contribute to the economy via spending on industry products and services, such as advanced scouting reports and player rankings. In 2012, an estimated $1.67 billion was spent on fantasy sports in the United States and Canada, not including league entry fees. In 2019, the size of the American and Canadian fantasy sports industry was estimated at more than $7 billion by the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association.

Ad revenue

Advertising is one of the largest sources of fantasy football revenue. Many sports websites that offer free entry into leagues utilize advertising to support their fantasy offerings. Though difficult to quantify, revenue generated by ads on fantasy football programming is estimated at $2 to $5 billion annually. This form of revenue can be especially lucrative because fantasy team managers are often frequent Internet users. On average, fantasy players generated four times more page views and spent six times as long on NFL.com than non-fantasy players in 2012.

Complementary and derivative industries

Fantasy football has given rise to a number of complementary and derivative industries. Subscription-based information sites, such as Rotoworld, offer advanced data and player rankings marketed as providing an informational advantage. Fantasy-specific escrow companies, such as LeagueSafe, may hold league entry fees in secure accounts until the end of the season. Other websites offer the ability to have disputes between players solved by a third party via fantasy football arbitration.

The rise of fantasy football has contributed to a rise in interest in applying high-level mathematics and computer science to the fantasy industry. A small number of fantasy players, usually with advanced degrees in mathematics, statistics, or computer science, apply algorithms and advanced statistics in order to hypothesize the best possible lineup for a given week or season. These advanced players are often far more successful than casual fans; a 2015 study found that 91% of daily fantasy baseball profits over the first half of the season were won by the top 1.3% of players.

Gambling

Fantasy sports is generally considered to be a form of gambling, though it is far less strictly regulated than other forms of sports betting. In the United States, three states – Arizona, Louisiana, and Montana – have bans against online fantasy sports. However, only Montana's ban is codified in statute. Arizona law does not explicitly prohibit fantasy sports, and Louisiana is in the process of adopting legal online fantasy sports competitions. In contrast, only 18 states have legalized sports betting. Unlike traditional sports betting, fantasy football is generally viewed as a "game of skill," rather than a "game of chance," thus exempting it from gambling bans and regulations in many jurisdictions.

As of March 2020, daily fantasy sports operate in 43 US states as well as in several other countries around the world.

According to a recent study published by the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association, "19% of Americans aged 18+ participate in sports betting. And 19% of Americans aged 18+ participate in fantasy sports.". This number is an increase from 2014 when 13% of Americans over 18 participated in fantasy sports and sports betting.

Effect on spectatorship

Fantasy football affects viewership for the NFL as players have rooting interests beyond the traditional fan. While most individuals will follow a specific team, fantasy players follow the entire league due to the nature of the game. Despite leading to some conflict of interests between rooting interests and fantasy success, the game has had a positive impact on spectatorship.

NFL executives have recognized the importance of fantasy football's success to the league as well. A 2019 survey found that people who had played fantasy football were more than twice as likely to follow the NFL "very closely" or "somewhat closely" than those who had not. Nearly a quarter of fantasy players reported that the primary reason that they watched NFL games was to keep up with their fantasy teams. Fantasy participants are also reported to attend 0.22 to 0.57 more NFL games in person per season than non-fantasy players. The NFL entered into a reported five-year, $600 million deal with Sprint in 2006 that was driven at least in part by fantasy sports, allowing subscribers to draft and monitor their teams using their cellphones. In 2011, the NFL directed teams to show fantasy statistics during games on stadium video boards.

On the other hand, NFL players have displayed mixed reactions on the impact of fantasy football on fans' habits and preferences. In 2006, then-Denver Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer told ESPN, "I think it's ruined the game" due to fan allegiance shifting away from teams and towards individual player performance. Then-New York Giants running back Tiki Barber said that "in a game solely designed around the team concept, it's nice to have some individual recognition every now and then. Fantasy football does that." Fans frequently ask players on their fantasy rosters to score more often; Peyton Manning reported that only autograph requests exceeded fan requests for "more fantasy touchdowns" from him. Several NFL players have stated that they play fantasy football as well.

A key component of fantasy football team management is tracking player injuries throughout the season. Critics charge that this leads to fantasy players being more concerned with the amount of game time missed by an injured player than the nature or extent of the injury. David Chao said that when he was team doctor for the San Diego Chargers, "The first 10 to 12 years, I would be asked 'Is LT (LaDainian Tomlinson) healthy?' to help our team win this Sunday. The last five years there, the question would be 'Is (Antonio) Gates healthy? He’s on my fantasy team!'"

Fantasy Football and popular culture

The FX show The League is a prime example of "fantasy football hooliganism", as it is one of the few attempts by the entertainment industry to depict the experience of fantasy football. The show's plot focuses on a group of friends playing in a fantasy football league as they try to win at all costs. The show ran for 7 seasons from 2009 to 2015 and featured cameos from various NFL players including Jason Witten, Marshawn Lynch and Antonio Gates, amongst others.

There are also many celebrity fantasy football leagues, some of which are played for charities and other notable causes. One particular example of this is the AGBO Superhero league which was started by The Russo Brothers and features multiple actors known for playing superheroes such as Ryan Reynolds, Chris Hemsworth, and Tom Holland along with many more. Each participant plays for a specific organization with the winner's charity receiving a donation for $100,000. Additionally, the team owners release weekly trash talk videos in which they call out their opponent for the week on social media and on the league website, which is updated weekly with standings and other information.