Fantasy sports can also offer community

How fantasy baseball fights the loneliness epidemic

Experts believe the erosion of traditional community organizations has led to a loneliness epidemic. This deep dive explores how fantasy baseball has filled the gap for some men, providing a stand-in social network.

As fantasy football grew more popular, the NFL began adapting

By the late 1990s, CBS, ESPN, and Yahoo had all launched their fantasy platforms, allowing the game to grow even more popular. By 2009, the NFL took note and began offering coverage that explicitly focused on fantasy metrics, including “RedZone,” a popular Sunday show that allows viewers to tune into the most crucial moments from around the league—or across their fantasy rosters.

Fantasy sports can have adverse health effects

Experts warn that fantasy sports, including fantasy football, can encourage obsessive use because they offer hits of dopamine. Daily fantasy games, which function more like gambling, are especially problematic.

The 300 best fantasy football players ever

Fantasy leagues (and their corresponding group chats) are no strangers to arguments, and this list will likely inspire a few spirited ones. Ten ESPN writers were asked to pick 30 of the undisputed greats of fantasy football, making for a fascinating look back at the all-stars of the digital gridiron

Fantasy football is a head-to-head game based on NFL stats

Competitors draft players from across the NFL, then earn points for their real in-game achievements, like touchdowns, receptions, and interceptions. The team with the most points in a given week wins.

Fantasy sports have turned fans into 'second screen' consumers

The rise of smartphones made fantasy sports more accessible and contributed to a phenomenon called “second screen consumption,” where sports fans are not only watching a live broadcast but are simultaneously watching the statistics from that game play out in their fantasy matchup.

One fantasy football league has been running for over four decades

The Fantasy Football League began in 1980, before fantasy football was available online. The group, which began in Northern California, originally used a touchdown-only format because it was easier to score in the preinternet era.

'Daily fantasy' is a high-stakes subset of fantasy sports

The form, pioneered by platforms like FanDuel and DraftKings, uses anonymous daily leagues and large payouts, looks more like typical betting than the season-long, community-minded setup of more traditional fantasy.

An estimated 49 million people played fantasy football in 2022

The number, estimated by the Fantasy Sports and Gaming Association, has grown exponentially since the start of the century. While fantasy sports in general are popular, football is the most popular, with an estimated 79% of fantasy participants playing fantasy football.

Fantasy football is now a $10B industry

Curious about how fantasy football grew into a global empire? This video breaks down how a losing Oakland Raiders team led to the first form of fantasy football, long before the internet and smartphones made it a worldwide phenomenon.

By the 1980s, fantasy football was a national activity

The Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League was a private league, but by the end of the ‘60s, a bar in Oakland opened the first public fantasy football league. Over the next few decades, the game grew more popular, as evidenced by this how-to article from a 1980 issue of “Inside Sports.”

A 2024 cheating scandal cast doubt on the industry

In 2024, National Fantasy Football Championship, a fantasy league with big payouts, fired one of its employees for manipulating data. The episode cast doubt on the relatively unregulated industry, despite the league coming down hard on the nefarious worker.

​​Some allege the NFL has shifted gameplay toward fantasy

Recent rule changes in the league have increased passing and point-scoring, which critics argue is motivated by a desire to appeal to fantasy-loving viewers who might be frustrated by slower, lower-scoring games.

A 1930s card game birthed modern fantasy sports

"National Pastime" used the statistics of real Major League Baseball players to determine a winner, creating the template for the modern fantasy sports model.

The inventor of fantasy football first experimented with two other sports

In the mid-1950s, Wilfred “Bill” Winkenbach, a part-owner of the Oakland Raiders, concocted two fantasy sports games: one for Major League Baseball and one for the Professional Golfers’ Association. In 1962, he invented fantasy football alongside two writers from the Oakland Tribune.

Fantasy sports' roots go back to an 1860s parlor game that simulated real-world baseball.

NFL Draft decisions are shaped by brain science, data, and office culture

Carnegie Mellon researchers say Draft-room choices are influenced by the "jackpot effect"—where higher stakes can impair performance—as well as by groupthink, the limits of data, and whether scouts feel safe speaking up.

'RedZone' intentionally appealed to fantasy fans

This short documentary explains how the NFL Network show quickly became a hit for football fans, especially those looking to monitor the stats for their fantasy teams.

A part-owner of the Oakland Raiders spearheaded the first fantasy football league.

The NFL is so successful because it is perfectly suited for television

The predictable weekly cadence of football games ritualizes the experience of watching together, and their relative scarcity makes every game meaningful. With the stop-and-go play of the sport, there are predictable, repeating stoppages to allow broadcasters to sell lots of advertising inventory. The league sits in the sweet spot compared to MLB (many games) and NBA and soccer (continuous play with fewer ads). This Acquired episode distills fascinating insights into the NFL's business and history.

Fantasy is heavily influenced by myths, legends, and folk tales

In fantasy, anything is possible, mirroring the supernatural worlds of history’s earliest stories. The narrative voice of fantasy is often similar to early tales, too, with an affinity for the magisterial rather than the contemporary.

Explaining the rise in adult sports leagues

Community sports leagues shifted from publicly supported entities to privatized ones in the 1990s, as tech advances streamlined registration processes. Millennial interest drove significant growth in social sports leagues for adults, growing much faster than other kinds of sports. A few industry leaders have benefited from this shift.

One writer believes fantasy is a form of realism

The literary genre has become massively popular in the 2020s, turning a previously marginal form into a mainstream concern. Spufford, a literary novelist who grew up loving books that explored fantastic worlds, argues that fantasy is so popular because it so accurately reflects the real world.

How NFL teams mistake the values of their draft picks

The NFL draft is a highly anticipated event. Each spring football franchises take turns selecting roughly 250 players over seven rounds. Teams regularly trade draft picks to reach a certain player they expect to fall at their selection point, giving market analysts the ability to determine the value of those trades. This video explores the NFL draft market's inefficiency.

Watch the evolution of the NFL Draft

The NFL Draft evolved from a small group of team representatives huddled in a Philadelphia hotel ballroom in 1936 into a three-day primetime spectacle that regularly draws over 500,000 fans and 13 million TV viewers. Explore how it became the event it is today.

Sports media have also embraced sports betting

For decades, ESPN kept its distance between reporting on games and talking about gambling lines. Sports teams refused to have franchises in Las Vegas, fearing it would harm the sport. But since 2018, that has changed. ESPN’s personalities regularly pick games, and the company has also launched its own betting app.

One data scientist argued that fan fiction improved writing

In an academic study, University of Washington professor Cecilia Aragon found that fan fiction often teaches young writers how to craft stronger sentences and convey complex ideas effectively. Much of that comes from the larger fan fiction community, which regularly comments on others' stories, offering kind-hearted constructive criticism in what she calls "distributed mentoring."

Fan fiction implies art is an ongoing, communal practice

Although some serious literary types disregard fan fiction, other academics consider it a fascinating development in art and communication, one that allows everyday people to participate in worldbuilding and storytelling.

Mental health experts caution against youth sports betting

People in their early 20s represent the fastest-growing group of sports gamblers. That fact concerns mental health professionals, who warn that early exposure to gaming primes children’s brains to seek digital rewards.

The NFL held its first draft of college players in 1936

The NFL draft is a three-day spectacle with wall-to-wall media coverage and months of speculation about who will go to number one. But it wasn't always like that. The early days of the draft were done on a chalkboard and created a need for professional scouting departments.

Fantasy is a genre that relies on the supernatural

Fantasy is a literary genre that embraces supernatural and magical elements. While the stories often follow common narrative archetypes, like a quest, they frequently take place in elaborately constructed worlds, which sometimes have their own complex physics, lifeforms, and societies.

Learn how the NFL Draft works

Teams select players in a set order over seven rounds, with the weakest teams from the prior season picking first. Picks can be traded, and teams that lose free agents may receive additional compensatory picks.

True crime fans can sometimes disregard the real people and trauma behind cases

True crime content has become a social gathering place. In addition to content generated by creators, consumer-driven true crime spaces have blossomed on social media. In these spaces, consumers track developments and share theories as if criminal cases are sports. Citizen sleuths can sometimes inspire new leads but often add to survivors' suffering and sling speculation that can clog tip lines and hit innocent bystanders.

The biggest controversies of the NFL

Some of the biggest controversies in NFL history didn’t just spark debate—they changed the game. From Spygate and Deflategate to concussion research and the league's ambivalent stance on it, these moments led to new rules, safety measures, and major policy shifts. Explore how each scandal shaped the league and its future.

1440: The National Football League

Explore the best resources we found on the NFL

Leagues like the Premier League differ from the World Cup.

The Premier League and other similar club leagues are professional organizations like the NFL or the NBA, where owners purchase player contracts. World Cup teams, on the other hand, are organized by citizenship.

The longstanding bond between the NBA and anime

Japanese anime and the National Basketball Association may not have obvious similarities, but fans have long noticed the shared themes of heroic accomplishment and intense competition. Both NBA players and fans draw inspiration from anime, comparing dramatic basketball moments to well-known anime scenes.

Watch ten surprising moments from the NFL Draft

The NFL Draft often delivers as much drama off the field as on it. Watch this countdown of the top 10 wow moments in Draft history, featuring infamous prospect slides, a missed pick, and surprising trades and selections.

Wrestlers maintain the illusion of a fictional narrative through 'kayfabe'

Outsiders are often confused by wrestling fans’ emotional investment in predetermined matches. After all, how can you be invested in a scripted sport? That question misses a key component of fans' love for pro wrestling. They suspend their disbelief in the same way that readers of novels do.

Even athletes aren't immune to the sports-betting craze

While gambling scandals occasionally blew up before 2018, the widespread legalization of sports betting provided athletes with more opportunities to bet on the games they were playing.

Thanksgiving's connection to football began in 1876

It all started with a match between Princeton and Yale in 1876, attended by fewer than 1,000 fans. That competition spawned an annual tradition attracting millions of viewers across college and professional teams.

The fantasy-based tabletop role-playing game 'Dungeons and Dragons' has seen a renaissance in the last few years

It's becoming mainstream after being relegated to the dorks for decades. LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman has contemplated the role the game played in his own formation as a person and a business leader.

Understanding the basics of football

While American football may be entertaining, for fans who never played the game it can be confusing. Why do teams choose to run, pass, line up in certain defenses, run people in motion, call audibles at the line—or do any of the many other things that happen on the field?

Fantasy has dozens of subgenres

“Fantasy” itself is a rather broad way of characterizing fiction. The genre encompasses many subgenres, including epic (like JRR Tolkein’s “Lord of the Rings”), dark (like Neil Gaiman’s “Coraline”), or even superhero (like your favorite Marvel or DC comics).

Support groups offer support, safety, and the relief of common experience

Gathering—virtually or otherwise—with people going through a similar experience or navigating the same disease can make someone feel like they're part of a larger community. Participants can receive and offer support, and potentially learn tips that could improve their quality of life or lead them to other resources.

Tailgating is a cornerstone of college football culture

Hours before kickoff, fans gather in stadium parking lots and nearby lawns to grill, share drinks, and celebrate.

Prediction markets and sports betting are not forms of investing, despite how some fans portray them.

George Blanda was the first fantasy football draft pick

The first pick in the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League was future Hall of Famer George Blanda, then an Oakland Raider. Blanda played quarterback and kicker. Because of his dual role, the GOPPPL allowed him to be drafted twice, by two separate competitors.

Hosting the NFL Draft comes with hidden public safety costs

The economic upside of hosting the Draft—Detroit reported $214 million in impact in 2024—depends on months of behind-the-scenes work. Coordinating law enforcement, emergency medical services, and traffic control entails real public costs that rarely make the headlines.

Sports leagues have attempted to prevent athletes from betting

As pro and collegiate sports embrace betting (and the revenue that comes with it), each league works diligently to ensure the integrity of the games by hiring private firms to analyze irregular bets. These companies have flagged bets that led to the firing of Alabama’s baseball coach, the suspension of multiple athletes at Iowa and Iowa State, and, most recently, a lifetime ban on former Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter by the NBA in April 2024.