Fan or Manager?: How Online Fantasy Football has Changed the Game
Sports fans have engaged in conversations about their "dream team" for years. The NFL Pro-Bowl and the NBA All Star Game attempt to show fans what such "dream teams" can do. But for many fans, nothing compares to building and managing your own team and quantifying success based on real-time game play statistics. Hence the ever-growing popularity of internet fantasy sports.
While fantasy play is available for all professional sports, football is by far the most popular with 85% of fantasy users participating in football leagues (Randle and Nyland, 2008). That, coupled with this blogger's personal love for the NFL, make online fantasy football the primary topic of this post. While I could write a term-paper on the topic, this is just a blog! So, I will focus on two primary questions today. What new media applications are powering the fantasy football phenomenon? How do these new media applications change a fantasy owner's consumption of the game? So, here it goes...
What new media applications are powering the fantasy football phenomenon?
So, I already told you how popular fantasy football is...given that, it's no wonder that some of the biggest names in sports and the internet are giving power to and profiting from this phenomenon. Here are the top 3 results from Google:
4 days ago ... Yahoo! Fantasy Football. Create or join a NFL league and manage your teamwith FREE live scoring, stats, scouting reports, news, and expert ... Play Fantasy Football for free on ESPN! Expert analysis, live scoring, mock drafts, and more. Join or start a league today! Play the official free fantasy football game of the NFL. Enjoy exclusive instant video highlights, free live scoring, custom leagues and more.
In case you were wondering, the search for fantasy football yeilded 39,3oo,000 results! You can see here that Yahoo and ESPN are the top providers of fantasy football with the NFL itself also getting us into the game. Functionality doesn't differ greatly between the applications. Each of them offer league management tools, player drafts, live stat updates, live scoring, and team analysis. The NFL version is the most robust, which makes sense, ya know...the NFL should probably provide the best gateway into NFL fantasy football!
You may have also noticed the word "free" in each of the site descriptions. So, what do they get out of it? Randle says "If media outlets can develop good relationships with fantasy sports fans, by sponsoring leagues and providing up to date information, they have the potential to gain a devoted segment of the media viewing market. Such reasoning may be the impetus
behind new television programs like ESPN2’s The Fantasy Show..(2008)" Poulton thinks the media attracts us by exploiting our interest in violence (2007). I say it all comes down to the bottom line - $$$. Internet advertising is big money these days. According to the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report "Internet advertising revenues (“revenues”) in the United States totaled $14.9 billion for the first six months of 2011. (2011)"
How do these new media applications change a fantasy owner's consumption of the game?
From fan to manager - fantasy football makes the sports fan an "owner" of his dream team comprised of the top players available at their position from all around the league. Personally, I experienced a huge fan conflict while managing a fantasy team last year. I cheered when my star running back tore up the field of my home team. I was secretly happy when an opposing team player was injured. Yup, I became a ruthless business woman - all for the chance to win $80. But it's not just fantasy team owners who are focusing more on individual performance than team success. Fantasy guides, fantasy draft programming, and constant fantasy analysis on the NFL network are all centered around the individual player as a fantasy commodity as opposed to a member of a team.
We've all heard the term "Monday morning quarterback"but the introduction of fantasy media has made owners 24-7 quarterbacks. Nesbit and King researched fantasy activity levels and tell us that 60% of fantasy players spend over 1 hr per day just thinking about their team, and 85% spend over 30 minutes (2010).
What other implications from the research could be discussed?
As I plan my next post on this topic, I'd like to know what readers and my fellow new media and sports scholars (Ashley, Sam, and Alex) want to read more about. In my research, I came across several interesting spin-off topics. Here's a couple that could be interesting - what do you think?
Sources - (Cuz intellectual piracy is lame)
Creamer, M. (2006). For agency fan, football a game in more ways than one. Advertising Age, 77(5), 23. Retrieved from EBSCOhost October 16, 2011.
Nesbit, T. M., & King, K. A. (2010). The Impact of Fantasy Sports on Television Viewership. Journal of Media Economics, 23(1), 24-41. doi:10.1080/08997761003590721
Poulton, E. (2007). 'Fantasy football hooliganism' in popular media. Media, Culture & Society, 29(1), 151-164. doi:10.1177/0163443706072003
Randle, Q., & Nyland, R. (2008). Participation in Internet Fantasy Sports Leagues and Mass Media Use. Journal of Website Promotion, 3(3/4), 143-152. doi:10.1080/15533610802077180
Fan or Manager?: How Online Fantasy Football has Changed the Game
I feel like Fantasy Football has become such a sweeping obsession for fans, it can ruin relationships! If it's anything like The League, I can see why. (see teaser here)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hulu.com/watch/172512/the-league-youre-in-the-league
Also, did you catch the "Brought to you by UGG for Men" ad? Not to plug my posts through yours, Karen, but this is exactly what I wrote about!
The connectivity and interaction between watching an NFL game and owning fantasy teams seems uncanny. Not that football isn't competitive enough, but running a team against your own friends based on something you have absolutely no control over seems, well, insane! But true fans get a kick out of it.
Moreover, they get a kick out of having control over their favorite past time: football. As we have noted many times, the progression of new media has increased our capacity for entertainment; fantasy football gives new media-ites the consumption they need!
I really like the idea of hearing more about Randle, 2008. Does having this said "control" note a vicarious player? Are most fantasy team players unable to play the game thus aiming for glory in another facet?
On "Control" and "Vicarious": The NFL represents a very high caliber of athlete, I think that's a fantasy for many fans, especially the largest fan demographic of men. Given that the vast majority of college football players, even Hiesman trophy winners cannot play pro-football - it is definitely inaccessible to the average fan. Randle also introduced role-playing theory to discuss the appeal to fans asserting that since we have a lack of knowledge on how to actually do it, we enjoy outlets that give us a role to play.
ReplyDeleteOn the Ads: The masculine advertising plays into the whole picture. Advertising shows us what we can't have so we'll want it even more. I think it just perpetuates the man's need to be a "part of the NFL".
Karen, good point on the "perpetuating the man's need to be 'part of NFL!'" I didn't think about it like that, but I completely agree.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that interests me greatly on this topic is the rise of TV shows dedicated to fantasy football. You mentioned it briefly in your post. Now, there are TV shows that run alongside regular pregame shows dedicated to up-to-the minute fantasy predictions and injury reports. Even on the major pregame shows, there are tickers and graphics on the screen ranking the top fantasy-producing players. The NFL is even demanding their stadiums to put up stats of other teams and players for the purpose of fantasy football. The article below says that sports purists are angry that this will take away from the experience of watching a live game. I think, as does the NFL, that this will open more people up to watching games that do not include their favorite team. It gives the league and other teams broader exposure to a larger fan base and in turn, more revenue.
ReplyDelete(http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2011/09/nfl-fantasy-football-stadiums-green-bay-packers-new-orleans-saints/1)
Fantasy has definitely changed the way many people watch football. As a lifelong Lions fan, fantasy football has kept me interested in the NFL through the course losing season after losing season after losing… well you get the point. Even like you Karen, I have found myself hoping a player my team is going against tears his ACL on the field just so I have a shot at winning $100….
Just last night on Inside the NFL, the analysts were discussing how malicious fans are when interacting with players and analysts online. I wonder if this is more related to the role of ownership that fans now play, or if it is more closely tied to the issues of anonymity and cyber-bullying that we have been discussing in class.
ReplyDeleteNot going to lie, when I saw Matt Ryan go down and not get up just now, the first thing I yelled out was "tear that ACL!"
ReplyDelete(One of the teams I am going against this week has Ryan as their QB)
Turns out, fantasy football is not the only thing that has made NFL fans more cynical. This article in Time talks about the fans in Miami and Indianapolis who are rooting for their teams to lose so they can get the top pick in next year's draft.
ReplyDeletehttp://ideas.time.com/2011/10/21/suck-for-luck-why-nfl-fans-can-root-against-their-teams/
I think that rooting against your team for the sheer fact that they may possibly get a decent rookie next year is ridiculous. The media puts so much hype into the draft every year and gets these fans' hopes up. It has gone from an all day, partially televised event to a primetime series in the past few years. I remember going to watch the beginning this year thinking that I would get to see the Lions' first few picks but was disappointed when I found out that it would take days to finish. Again, another way the NFL is making me cynical...
To me it seems that Fantasy Football has given people an outlet that they have always been wanting, to feel apart of the game and to vent their frustrations. Karen was questioning whether its the fact that fans have more ownership or anonymity online. I think it's both and that part of the success of both the real live action sport and Fantasy Football have been driven by each other. Alex I think the "Suck for Luck" campaign is kind of funny because it just seems ridiculous like you said and that the media has to find another way to keep people engaged with what is going on. Doesn't it in some way change the idea of what it means to be a fan? I mean the whole point is to root for your home team or your favorite team right? And really if you do join in with the "Suck for Luck" campaign doesn't only speculate that your team will make it to the first draft pick next time. It just seems like it goes against everything about being a fan of the game.
ReplyDelete