Fantasy Sport-Part I
Posted By admin in Fantasy Baseball, MLB
By Vincent
INTRODUCTION
Fantasy sports started in baseball in 1980, with fantasy players compiling statistics from sources such as The Sporting News (Isidore, 2003). The Internet era and computerized statistical data fueled the explosive growth of fantasy baseball according to Gregg Klayman, the Director of Fantasy and Interactive Games for MLB.com (Lachimia, 2003). Beginning from baseball, football now is the most popular fantasy sports. According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (2001), a representative organization of the industry, it is estimated that more than 15 million Americans, or 7.2% of the adult population, participated in fantasy football in 2002. That figure was an increase from 4 million in 1994 (Flood, 2004). Washington, D.C.-based Ipsos Public Affairs surveyed more than 2,000 U.S. residents in August, 2003, and asked them about their fantasy sports playing habits (Adams, 2000b). Eleven percent of males and four percent of females in the survey reported they had played in at least one fantasy sports league in the past year. Nearly two-thirds of those players were ages 18-39. Table 1 illustrates the favorite fantasy leagues of those players (Adams, 2003b).