When Fantasy Is Better Than Reality
Josh Lippman, MBA2
Issue date: 10/10/05 Section: Sports
- Page 1 of 2 next >
It is the fourth quarter, two minutes are left on the clock and your favorite NFL team clings to a three point lead. The opposing team starts running a hurry-up offence and are moving the ball with ease against a bewildered defense.
Before you know it, the "bad guys" are in the red zone and all of a sudden this is going to be a not-so-good day.
Or is it?
As the opposing quarterback lines up under center, you recognize a run play in progress and see that a key member of your fantasy football team is about to score the winning touchdown.
Your net result: a loss on the field, a win in cyberspace. If you have ever wondered, even for a second, where your loyalties lie at this moment, you are among the 15 million Americans for whom Fantasy Sports plays an important role.
Fantasy sports, whether traditional football and baseball leagues, or the more niche basketball and golf leagues, attract some of the most sought after audience demographics for professional sports associations, franchises and the marketers whose advertising dollars support the entire industry. Fantasy players have a higher tendency to watch more games for longer stretches of time, buy more merchandise and be better informed about the sport and its sponsors than the average fan, making fantasy players the ideal target in a target rich marketing environment.
Given the spending potential of this growing segment of sports fans, it is not at all surprising to see major marketing campaigns and media devotion to the fantasy space. CBS, Fox, and ESPN, all of whom carry NFL games, each produced television specials aimed squarely at fantasy players, with current and former NFL stars giving their picks for armchair GMs to evaluate.
Fox's weekly Fantasy Football show and the inclusion of fantasy-relevant statistics in post-game reporting further underscore the importance media companies place on outreach to this market.
The concept of sabermetrics, a statically-rooted method of baseball player evaluation highlighted in Michael Lewis' bestseller Moneyball, has recently found its way from the diamond to the gridiron. The information available to fantasy players now rivals that available to front-office executives, and analysis of player performance done by fans for fans is regularly of extremely high caliber (and validity to those who actually make player personnel decisions).
Before you know it, the "bad guys" are in the red zone and all of a sudden this is going to be a not-so-good day.
Or is it?
As the opposing quarterback lines up under center, you recognize a run play in progress and see that a key member of your fantasy football team is about to score the winning touchdown.
Your net result: a loss on the field, a win in cyberspace. If you have ever wondered, even for a second, where your loyalties lie at this moment, you are among the 15 million Americans for whom Fantasy Sports plays an important role.
Fantasy sports, whether traditional football and baseball leagues, or the more niche basketball and golf leagues, attract some of the most sought after audience demographics for professional sports associations, franchises and the marketers whose advertising dollars support the entire industry. Fantasy players have a higher tendency to watch more games for longer stretches of time, buy more merchandise and be better informed about the sport and its sponsors than the average fan, making fantasy players the ideal target in a target rich marketing environment.
Given the spending potential of this growing segment of sports fans, it is not at all surprising to see major marketing campaigns and media devotion to the fantasy space. CBS, Fox, and ESPN, all of whom carry NFL games, each produced television specials aimed squarely at fantasy players, with current and former NFL stars giving their picks for armchair GMs to evaluate.
Fox's weekly Fantasy Football show and the inclusion of fantasy-relevant statistics in post-game reporting further underscore the importance media companies place on outreach to this market.
The concept of sabermetrics, a statically-rooted method of baseball player evaluation highlighted in Michael Lewis' bestseller Moneyball, has recently found its way from the diamond to the gridiron. The information available to fantasy players now rivals that available to front-office executives, and analysis of player performance done by fans for fans is regularly of extremely high caliber (and validity to those who actually make player personnel decisions).