Fantasy (or Rotisserie) Sports
Once a game, now an industry
There are games from the 20th Century that made real money, and I’ve already covered a few: Magic, Dungeons and Dragons, Video Games like Atari, Bridge1, and others. Some of them brought in billions of dollars, which is huge compared to most games. But compared to one genre, that’s chump change.
You can’t turn on a TV without seeing an ad for (corporate) Fantasy Sports; but that’s only because they haven’t figured out a way to play the ads when the TVs are off. A quick search said that Draft Kings (to pick an example) is worth north of $17 Billion dollars. Which makes sense if you consider that Fan Duel apparently had $50 Billion in bets, and I’m sure they are taking their sweet, sweet cut.
Now, let’s be clear. I don’t like this. I stand with Zvi Mowshiwitz when he says “The Online Sports Gambling Experiment Has Failed” and he’s got the research to back it up. But it wasn’t always that way.
My first Fantasy game was a bunch of (mostly college) friends … we all drove back to the Alma Mater after graduation, and had a weekend of drinking, revelry and drafting, with a big board. Some of us (undoubtedly) spent $10 for a magazine that dissected all the players so that we wouldn’t be too un-informed. I think we each ponied up $25 or $50 for the pot. In the grand scheme of things our bets were insignificant compared to the trash-talking, bragging rights, and general smack-talk.
It is like a home game of poker. Some money would change hands, to be sure, but that wasn’t the point.
The first fantasy leagues (as we understand them) were started the ‘50s or 60s, probably independently. There were golf fantasy, fantasy football, and (in the 80s), fantasy baseball — the first league being founded in the La Rotisserie Française restaurant (hence the name).2 By the 90s this was not a huge deal, but you could find the afore-mentioned fantasy sports magazines in most bookstores. At most (but not all) of the places I worked there would be a small group that did fantasy football along with picking brackets for the College Basketball Playoffs and the Great Owl of Football. A break from work and a few minutes by the watercooler3 on Monday Morning bemoaning your luck.
Fantasy Sports has metastasized from what it became into the industry it is today. I can bemoan the latter while still appreciating the former even though I eventually got tired of Fantasy Sports … because I tired of watching the main sports involved. But I’ve submitted a roster for Fantasy Sumo for the last two tournaments — no money involved, just bragging rights. There’s no reason to throw out the baby, even if the bathwater gives off a smell.
The change is — in my mind — so significant, that I didn’t even realize I’d left “Fantasy Sports” off my list of candidates for several years! It was only when someone reminded me of an old fantasy league that I (figuratively) smacked my forehead.
I think that Fantasy Sports are an obvious, first ballot entry into the Most Influential Games of the 20th Century. Just not in the way I’d have liked.
Bridge didn’t really make big money for the inventor, but hey, he was already loaded. But it makes plenty of money for the national organizations and club owners, directors, professionals, etc.
According to Wikipedia’s page on Fantasy Sports.
Possibly longer, depending on if your manager was also in the league.