Fantasy Sports
Created | Updated Jun 1, 2003
If you cannot be an athlete, be an athletic supporter!
Being a sports fan can be very exciting1 or exhausting2. In either case attaching one's hopes to a team lets the fan become a part of an event larger than everyday life.
A sport for everybody
If you are reading this3, then the world of sports is availible to you. The Internet allows fans to follow virtually any sport around the world. Many events are broadcast on the Net, and countless others are reported about. Following American Football can be as easy as following Association Football from any place with access to a computer. But if football, of any variety, is not your sport there are dozens of others from which to choose.
Fantasy Sport: what is it?
In any sport, from golf to baseball, there are statistics and participants. Fantasy sports involve selecting players, or occasionally entire teams, and certain appropriate statistics upon which the players are rated. If you wanted to play Fantasy Golf, for example, a league might select 5 golfers per fantasy team for a certain event and receive points for the final position, numbers of strokes, and number of birdies. The intricacy and depth of the Fantasy League should reflect the players in the league and the sport involved.
Staring a league
Certain things are essential to every fantasy league:
Find several fans of the same sport.
Establish the rules of the league. This should include the number of players to be chosen for each team, and, if appropriate, the number of positions for each team.
Chose a commissioner, or chairperson, to run the league, enforce the rules and control the inevitable taunting that the winners regularly inflict upon the losers.
Set a time, place and method of player selection. Drafting players and auctioning players are two of the most common forms of selecting players.
Select an amount to wager for the league. This both makes winning that much sweeter and increases the excitement of the league, but is not absolutely necessary to play.
Two Examples of Fantasy Sports In Action
Some sports lend themselves to collective data throughout the course of the year, while other sports are more effectively played in a head to head competitive method
Baseball: a year long or Rotisserie-style league
With nine players in a league, choose two players at each position and an additional five pitchers. The easiest method for selecting players is via a draft. Each team selects a number from a hat that will estabilsh their draft position. The first round of the draft than procedes with the team that selected number one choosing a player, then next team, through the team that selected numer nine . In the second round the order is reversed to maintain fairness or parity through the league. So in the second round the team with the ninth choice in the first round chooses first, continuing through the team that selected first. This process is called a "serpentine" draft because the draft "snakes" back and forth 1-9, then 9-1.
Statistics are gathered for the following categories for offensive players:
- Hits
- Home Runs
- Runs Batted IN
- Runs Scores
- Stolen Bsaes
The following statistics are gathered for pitchers:
- Wins
- Saves
- Strikeouts
- Earned Run Average
The statistics are gathered for each team throughout the year. The teams are ranked in order for each statistical category. The team with the best rank is awarded the most points, in this case nine points, and each of the other teams gets awarded the appropriate points for their finish in each category. In this way each team has a collection of points awarded from each category. The team with the most overall points at the end of the year is then the winner.
Fantasy Golf: A Fantasy Event
Enhancing the experience
The goal of Fantasy Sports is to make the sport even more exciting. In every league, in every sport there are some games in which even the most avid fan does not have interest. However, if that game has a player that is on a Fantasy Team, the lost interest is renewed. Furthermore, there comes a point in the season for most fans when their team is eliminated. The fans of this team often have diminished interest for the remainder of the year. But, if their Fantasy players are on their team, they at least have someone to root for each game.
Websites for people interested in Fantasy Leagues
The traditional sports information sites often have Fantasy Leagues:
Other popular sites include many search engines with sports sites:
AOL, enter Keyword: Fantasy Sports for a list
Countless sites4 are dedicated to Fantasy Sports exclusively, or at least primarily. Some of the nicer sites include:
