The Relationship Between Fantasy Sports and the Media: Past, Present, and Future

Fantasy sports has become one of most popular indulgences of men (and some women) over the past ten years. Fantasy sports is now an estimated 4 billion dollar per year industry, with a whopping 30 million people who participate in the owner-like simulation of whatever sport they choose. Fantasy leagues are available for basketball, baseball, football, hockey, golf, stock car racing, and just about any other sport you could imagine. When "Fantasy Sports" is searched in Google, over 57 million search results come up in under one tenth of a second. To put this into perspective, when "Orangutan" is searched in Google, only 1.5 million results come up in a little over two tenths of a second. Fantasy sports has become a huge industry, mainly because of the internet age, but there are many other factors that have contributed to the success of fantasy sports.


Below is an interview with Gregg Rosenthal, a writer for rotoworld.com, on videojug.com. He gives a brief overview of the history of fantasy sports, specifically fantasy football, as well as information about the game, and wraps up the interview with his predictions on the future of fantasy sports.


Fantasy Football:
History And Future Of Fantasy Football



The Relationship Between Fantasy Sports and the Media: Past



The true birth of fantasy sports is credited to Daniel Okrent, a man who has been involved in basically every branch of media, including publishing, magazines, newspapers, television, and film. His true passion was writing books, yet his bio on his website states that "Still, despite all of that, Okrent expects that he remains best known (and will one day by eulogized) for inventing Rotisserie (aka "Fantasy") Baseball."

The original name for the "fantasy" sport that Okrent created was called "La Rotisserie" or a "Rotisserie League". Okrent and some of his friends used to meet at a restaurant called la rotisserie francaise in New York City to meet and play, hence the name "Rotisserie League". Still to this day, the word rotisserie has become synonymous with fantasy sports. Some examples include the website rotowire.com, which is one of the largest fantasy news websites, as well as rotoworld.com, which is another fantasy news website directed toward fantasy baseball players, and is owned by NBC.

Before the modern day style of play that takes place on the computer, the game was done by hand where people kept track of their own players' stats, and drafts took place with all participants present. This old-school draft style still occasionally takes place today. In the fantasy football league that I am currently in, me and eleven of my friends all go sometime in mid-august to my friend's house. The draft takes place in his backyard where we order pizza and heroes, and it has become one of the anticipated events of the summer for all of us. Each person drafts his players one at a time and this is done for fifteen rounds. The players who have been drafted are kept track of on an extra-large whiteboard to make sure that the same player was not picked twice. From there, the players and teams are entered online by our "league owner", and once that had taken place, stats, substitutions, and all other aspects are monitored and adjusted online.

Although this was not done intentionally, Okrent's ties to the media greatly helped propel his "rotisserie" baseball league into the booming industry it is today. Initially, he used the topic to fill some space in a few magazines, but the game quickly caught on and became very popular within the sport of baseball. The reason that the term rotisserie faded out and the term fantasy became so popular was because Okrent and his posse trademarked rotisserie baseball, so it was just a matter of time before a new catch phrase was used. The game has been on the rise ever since, but it truly became the powerhouse it is today after the internet boom. Although one may assume that fantasy sports came up on its own and from there began to affect the media, in reality it was the media that helped fantasy sports get off the ground. After fantasy sports got increased press coverage while it was still a rather unpopular game played amongst friends, it began to grow in popularity and the phenomenon began to catch on as a result of more articles being published about the game



The Relationship Between Fantasy Sports and the Media: Present



Fantasy sports have completely revolutionized the way that professional sports are watched. The days where fans stood by their team and rooted for them through the best and worst of times no longer exists. We live in a day and age where athletes are supported as individuals, separate from their contributions to their teams and are looked to score points not to help lead their team to victory, but to help fantasy owners beat their scheduled opponents that week. Fantasy sports has become a sub-culture of its own that more people than you think can relate to. A film called "Silly Little Game" aired April 20th on ESPN. The film documented the history of fantasy sports, as well as why and how it became so popular. The movie touched upon the history of the sport previously mentioned in the blog, and included the role that Daniel Okrent played in the development of fantasy sports. Not only are there movies, advertisements and segments on television shows about fantasy sports, but there is now a show on television called "The League" where the plot of the sitcom is that the main characters are all in a fantasy football league. Below is a commercial for the FX show now heading into its second season...





The shift from sports that are about teamwork to sports centered around individual efforts is apparent now more than ever. Athlete's are now interviewed about their thoughts on their fantasy impact rather than how they feel about their team's success. Here is an interview with future hall of fame running back LaDainian Tomlinson on FOXSports and he is primarily questioned about fantasy football.





Fantasy sports could have never thrived the way it is now without being accompanied by the internet boom of the mid 90's. The internet now allows sports statistics to be available conveniently at all times. People could see trends in their players statistics and make predictions on who will perform best in the upcoming game or upcoming season. Before the internet, people had to research their players' statistics on their own and this probably became quite the production. Only truly dedicated fans (with a lot of time on their hands) could participate in the hobby of playing fantasy sports. Now, people can join online leagues and check periodically and still stand a pretty good chance and being successful. Originally, online leagues cost a pretty penny to enter, and some sources say that it cost around $300 to join an online fantasy league in the late 90's. This is where most revenue was coming from at first. Although charging people to play online produced a nice chunk of change for these websites, the real money started to pour in when online leagues became free. The entrance fee gave direct money to the websites, but deterred many people from participating in the online phenomenon. With the amount of people who play fantasy sports and the amount that advertisers are willing to pay, fantasy sports have really taken off and are now intertwined between all forms of media.

Fantasy sports presently work hand in hand with the media so that all parties prosper. With people becoming obsessed with their fantasy football or fantasy baseball team, they want all the news and tips they can get on how to win their next game. They then go and watch the segments on ESPN or go to sites like rotowire.com to check for the latest news and updates on their players. While having these outlets available helps increase popularity for that particular fantasy sport, the very existence of fantasy sports is helping make money for all parties who support it. ESPN is gaining viewers who are now interested in their fantasy news segments, and the fantasy news sites are getting more hits on their website because people want to read about the most recent injuries and trends in the major sports. The same goes for other media sources such as radio and newspapers. Radio stations can advertise for .com's who provide fantasy sports, and the sites can in turn advertise for sports radio stations. A newspaper can have benefited almost unknowingly from the rise of fantasy sports now that people have more reason to pick up that day's paper and read through the sports section.

And last but not least, the major sports themselves have greatly benefited from the rise of fantasy sports. Fans who never before had an allegiance to a team can easily become interested in a sport due to the element of being able to play in a fantasy league. Whether it be baseball, football, basketball, hockey, golf, and there was recently a case of Fantasy Congress believe it or not, all professional sports have been positively affected from the increased popularity of fantasy sports. The very premise of the game is addicting and it makes the fan feel much more in control of what happens in a sporting event, rather than just a spectator.



The Relationship Between Fantasy Sports and the Media: Future



What does the future hold for fantasy sports? Well all signs currently point that there is no slowing down this beast of an industry. It has hooked many people into its addicting, high risk/high reward style of play and the group of fantasy sports players is still increasing. There do not seem to be any signs of fantasy sports losing any of its popularity in the near future. There are only technological advancements still to come that will make this ever growing hobby even more popular. Gregg Rosenthal mentioned in the first video that he envisioned the television becoming and interactive element in fantasy sports and it seems that that day has come. Verizon FiOS has already released a fantasy football widget which lets you keep track of your players and their production during games on Sunday. Here is a quick clip of the introductory beta form of the widget...



This is just one of the reasons that it seems like fantasy sports are still on the incline and will only become a larger part of our pop culture. All parties are still making money from the existence of fantasy sports, giving them all the more reason to come up with ways to gain fan interest in fantasy sports and create more revenue.

In Conclusion, fantasy sports have gone from a game played over dinner amongst friends to a $3-4 billion per year industry. The rules have now become pretty defined within each fantasy sport, although there are still differences in game play from league to league. Fantasy sports and the media have used each other in order to help the other one grow. Fantasy sports use most media outlets to help its popularity grow, while those same media outlets have more and more people interested in their fantasy news because of how popular the game has become. I personally love fantasy sports and have been playing fantasy football for about four or five years now. It is a great way to have some competition amongst friends, as well as to meet new people if your choose to join public leagues on the internet. And with associations like the FSTA, it is only showing implications that we are just in the preliminary stages of what this massive hobby is really going to become.



Think you have learned anything about fantasy sports from this blog? Text you knowledge out on this "History of Fantasy Sports" quiz on ESPN.com
















Bibliography:



"Fantasy Baseball History." Fantasy Baseball Dugout. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 May 2010. .

Jonathan, Kelly. "Q&A: Fantasy Baseball Creator Daniel Okrent." Vanity Fair. N.p., 21/3/2008. Web. 2 May 2010. .

"Chat with Dan Okrent." Sportsnation. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 May 2010. .

"LaDainian Tomlinson Exclusive Interview with FOXSports ." Youtube. Web. 2 May 2010. .

Independent Media

This week's assignment was to find ourselves an independent news source. After doing some researching, i have found a website (actually it is a blog, similar to this one) in which Gary Ater posts regularly about current issues and events. This website is a little more political than media driven, but nevertheless it is a site with good independent opinions that i feel are coherent and well researched.

Here is a bio on Gary Ater from the American Chronicle


For the past 30 years, Gary had been a Marketing and Sales Executive for high-tech companies located in Silicon Valley. Today, Gary is an opinion on-line author of political and commentary articles on national and world politics and events. His articles and comments are also occasionally published in local Silicon Valley news publications and they have been seen and heard on national TV and radio news-talk programs.

Gary is now regularly published as an Opinion Writer in a number of On-Line news magazines. Those publications include the American Chronicle, Los Angeles Chronicle, California Chronicle and the World Sentinel as well as available via Google News. Gary hopes you are encouraged by his articles to respond on-line with your own comments, ideas and perceptions.
He also offers his "left-of-center" views on his Internet BLOG: "Uncommon, Commonsense" at: http://commonsense-gater.blogspot.com/ , which is also listed as one of the best BLOG's on the web at:
"http://blogs.botw.org/society/politics"

I actually stumbled upon this website through a link from my stepfather's political website, Blue State Update. Both of these websites are fairly liberal but i would not say that either are radical or over the top in their views. I could see Ater's blog as an independent news source that i could visit regularly and find out his views on recent events. In comparison to a major news source such as Yahoo!.com, major websites usually have some sort of agenda. They are looking to make money through advertising, they are also looking to get the most amount of views, and also most likely are trying to keep endorsers happy. A site such as Uncommon, Common Sense has no agenda, there is no money to be made through this website and the author is not looking to please anyone. He is simply stating things as he sees them and discussing his opinions on issues.

In reference to this weeks readings, it was primarily about Marshal Mcluhan and his outlook on the media. He blew up in the 60's and was asked to give his input on what seemed like every radio and television show, but soon became old news and upon further reviews seemed to have some flaws in his theories. Looking back now and looking at how far our technology has come, many of Mcluhan's ideas seem to be very accurate and he seemed to have foresee many of the issues that are troubling us today in our media. He mentions a "perceptual numbing" that has happened to us in the day & age of video games and television that seemed to have happened because we were not prepared for what has come. The author makes several good points about how many of Mcluhan's ideas seem to be clear now more than ever and there are ways in which we can combat the overpowering media of today.

Net Neutrality

If you are not familiar with the term net neutrality, new neutrality means;

NET NEUTRALITY: a principle proposed for user access networks participating in the internet that advocates no restrictions on content, sites, or platforms, on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, and on the modes of communication allowed, as well as communication that is not unreasonably degraded by other traffic.

Basically, this means that the internet is free and that there are no biases dictated by your internet service provider, or ISP.

We currently have net neutrality. This is not an end in which we are aiming for, but a freedom that we are striving to keep. Net neutrality is explained better here. You may be asking yourself why this is important, or why this is an issue of concern. Well the reason is that the internet currently is free and all users can access any sites that they want at any time. Most people take this freedom for granted though. It would be in the interest of most big businesses and websites to create exclusive contracts between an ISP and a website. Let's say for example Optimum Online was to sign a contract with Yahoo! so that Yahoo! was the exclusive search engine of all Optimum Online customers. Yahoo! would make tons of money knowing that all people who have Optimum Online would only use their website, and it cut out all of the other competition. Optimum Online would sign a nice fat contract and make tons of money as well. Everybody wins, right? Wrong. Being able to go to the site of our choice is one of the great freedoms of the internet. This was a luxury that people were able to enjoy decades ago with their newspapers as well, until the big newspapers got bigger and the small newspapers were weeded out. Now people only have so many options when it comes to their newspaper and only have so many opinions to choose from. The very fact that I am writing this blog at this moment is an example of the freedom of the internet. Although I, as well as most other people, take this freedom for granted, it is a wonderful opportunity to have your voice heard over the internet.

The idea of losing net neutrality is a very scary, yet very possible reality. This would benefit most big businesses, so it seems very possible that we could lose this freedom. Luckily, i don't personally think this will be happening in the near future. For one, our president publicly spoke out for net neutrality, which you can see here, which i hope is a sign that this is an issue that our government is aware of and wants to protect. Imagine an internet where your social networking site was chosen for you? Or where your search engine was selected for you and you did not have a choice? What is your ISP suddenly no longer offered facebook as a website available to their customers? It would make things very tricky for most people, and could result in people paying three our four internet bills just so they could use all of the websites that they wanted. This is not a future that I think anyone would like to see.

I personally am very much in favor of net neutrality. I cannot think of any benefits in getting rid of net neutrality, other than big businesses making more money, which i do not think is in my best interest. This is an issue i feel very strong about, and if it seemed like net neutrality was in any way threatened, i would do anything in my power to keep us from losing it. For any information that I did not cover, here is the wikipedia page on net neutrality which goes much more in depth and gives lots of good information on the issue.

February 22nd

This week's readings had a section titled "Saving private Lynch" and briefly described the account.

Here is a more in depth look at what really happened....

And here is a direct response to the New York Times article, and it includes a youtube clip as well.

Here is an amusing political cartoon that i found went along with this week's information.

And last but not least, a wikipedia(ish) page devoted to the pentagon scandal!

I found that these four sources a few good perspectives on the topic of the pentagon basically asking their analysts to say what they wanted them to say. I found the response was very interesting and showed a different outlook on the story. Finding the wiki page about this topic showed me that this was much bigger news than i had realized. The political cartoon was somewhat on topic but i just found it to be funny (i personally am a big fan of political cartoons). This topic to me really made me feel even more strongly of my preexisting feelings that the government is not usually telling us the truth. They tell us what they want us to hear and only in rare cases does bad press come out about our country, and it usually is on accident (i.e. Guantanamo Bay). The fact that all of this information came out that clearly shows that the people in the Pentagon told these analysts what to say, and despite all of this evidence a representative from the Pentagon immediately came out and stated that all they were was provided with factual information shows me how politicians and our government will lie in a heartbeat without a second thought.