Fantasy football is an interactive competition in which users compete against each other as general managers of virtual teams built from real players. The players that an individual is able to manage are professional American football players in the National Football League. The different actions people are able to make are drafting, trading, adding or dropping players, and changing rosters. Due to the growth of the Internet, Fantasy football has vastly increased in popularity, particularly because Fantasy football providers such as ESPN, Yahoo, CBS, and the NFL itself are able to keep track of statistics entirely online, eliminating the need to check box scores and newspapers regularly to keep track of players. Most leagues have a single week championship in Week 16 of the NFL season.
The rules for what eventually became fantasy football were developed starting in 1963 at New York City's Milford Plaza Hotel by a limited partner in the Oakland Raiders named Wilfred "Bill" Winkenbach together with Bill Tunnell, former Raiders public relations manager, and Scotty Stirling, a former reporter.
The inaugural league was called the GOPPPL (Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League), and the first draft took place in the rumpus room of Winkenbach's home in Oakland, CA in August 1963. The league consisted of eight members, made up of administrative affiliates of the AFL, pro football journalists, or someone who had purchased or sold 10 season tickets for the Raiders’ 1963 season. Each roster consisted of the following in the GOPPPL: two quarterbacks, four halfbacks, two fullbacks, four offensive ends, two kick/punt returners, two field goal kickers, two defensive backs/linebackers and two defensive linemen. The current GOPPPL roster now includes: two quarterbacks, four halfbacks, six wide receivers/tight ends, two kickers, two defensive backs, one return team, and a bonus pick for any position. As of 2012, the GOPPPL will celebrate its 50th season and still maintains its TD-only scoring heritage.
In 1969, Andy Mousalimas, an original creator of GOPPPL and participant in the inaugural draft, brought the game to his sports bar, the King's X in Oakland, CA, where he added another couple leagues. When the patrons of other Oakland and San Francisco bars visited for trivia contests they soon learned of the game and passed the word about it. Due to the time consuming nature of the game's scoring it was difficult to pick up and spread slowly across the country.
Another early fantasy football league is “The league formerly known as Maria’s”. This league was founded in Spokane, Washington on September 2, 1981, at the now defunct Maria’s pizza parlor. Originally, Maria’s Fantasy Football League had eight franchises drafting from a single player pool. Today, the league boasts twenty-four franchises divided into two conferences each drafting from a separate player pool. The playoff system mirrors the NFL playoffs with weekly live auction redrafts as the player pool diminishes culminating in a Super Bowl between the two conference champions. Like other pre-information age leagues, Maria’s was founded as a TD only league to simplify manual scoring. Since, the rules have been modified by adding “bonus points” for milestone yardage achievements – but otherwise Maria’s franchise owners have opted to maintain the spirit of Maria’s TD-only history.
For years, the popularity of Fantasy football grew slowly. In 1997, CBS launched the beta version of the first publicly available free fantasy football website. The game immediately became widely popular. Within three years, all major sports media websites launched competing fantasy football hosting websites. The NFL released their own official game in 2010, NFL.com Fantasy Football, further driving industry growth. Fantasy football is now the single most important marketing tool for the NFL. Today it is estimated over 19 million people compete in public and private leagues online nationally.
In 2009, Fantasy Football was christened mainstream with a fantasy football based sitcom, The League. The League was created by the husband-and-wife team of Jeff Schaffer (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld) and Jackie Marcus Schaffer (Disturbia, EuroTrip) who serve as executive producers and directors. The series is produced by FX Productions.
A new style of fantasy football is modeled after the popular "survivor pool" or "knock out pool" style of weekly NFL wagering that allows each pool member to pick one NFL team to win each week, but he or she can only pick that team once all year.
Similarly, survivor fantasy leagues allow owners to draft a fresh team of seven players each week, with each player only available to each owner one week per year. This added level of strategy places an emphasis on weekly NFL match ups, while at the same time diminishing the negative consequences of injuries.
Another type of league that allows for year round fantasy football is called Simulation Football. Simulation Football uses a computer to simulate the games with simulated players, instead of relying on the NFL for its players and stats. The most basic type is a GM league, where all the player has to do is put together a team and the computer does most of the work. A much more involved type of simulation football is called a "Create-a-Player" or CAP league. In a CAP league, top players vie for the chance to be a GM and put together a team using players that are created by other people. There are different types of scoring for determining who is a "top player" but the people are charged with making their player as good as possible using the league's scoring system.
The popularity of fantasy football has filtered down into the collegiate level as well. Fantasy College Football is gaining in popularity as diehard fantasy players and college football fanatics combine two of their favorite passions into one. The most popular leagues involve the BCS only schools while other leagues incorporate all FBS schools or even just the "non-BCS" schools.
League Manager and Gambling
Many leagues are composed of friends, family, co-workers and even strangers that are in the fantasy league to prove who is the greatest couch coach. Millions upon millions of dollars are won and lost each year in fantasy league betting. The Federal government has determined that fantasy league gambling is not a "game of chance" and as such is not illegal. Websites such as FantasyHook.com and Leaguesafe.com make fantasy fee transactions simple by completely automating the buy in and the payout of the winnings.
All individual players
There are a few dynasty leagues that follow the NFL's roster model and score all possible NFL players at all individual positions. Offensive linemen (OL) are scored by total yards and points minus sacks given up. Fullbacks are partially scored as offensive linemen because of their blocking duties. Kick and punt returners are scored by yardage and touchdowns. Punters are scored by net average and punts inside the 20 yard line.
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