Fantasy Football Dominates Among Casual Gamers

Fantasy gamers all over the world have been gearing up for months for this time of the year, when the National Football League kicks off its 2010 regular season in a little less than a month.

The true stalwarts of the game will have been preparing mock drafts and depth charts in order to put themselves into the best position possible when the actual draft kicks off for their respective leagues. Then there are the others, those who have been playing fantasy baseball for the last five months while they waited for the next football season to begin.

There is no doubt that many of these players will abandon their baseball leagues in favor of picking up the pigskin, but why? Fantasy football is by far the industry leader in fantasy sports, taking in roughly half of all fantasy sports revenues according to this 2007 report by InformationWeek. Now there are a couple of quick and easy answers to the question of why fantasy football is so much more popular than baseball.

Firstly, fantasy football caters toward a more casual gamer. More often than not, the manager will spend more time on the initial draft than he or she will be managing their rosters throughout the season. Because football is played just once a week, the manager will only have to visit their team once a week at minimum, making sure that those with bye-weeks are on the bench and that the hot hands are starting. On the other hand, baseball has teams playing six to seven times a week, with pitchers rotating in and out, players getting injured or coming off of the disabled lists on a daily basis, and other changes that necessitate the manager to interact with their rosters every day for six months. This favors fantasy football as it not only allows the user to play at his or her volition, but also gives them the free time and mental capacity to manage more than one roster in a season.

Secondly, fantasy football is a game where you basically determine the league standings rather quickly. A bad week or a freak injury can doom a roster from the get go, putting the manager in a position to try and hang onto a playoff spot rather than contend for a regular season title. In this regard, managers have an advantage of knowing when they no longer have to mind their teams. Baseball, being a long and arduous season, can overwhelm a casual player who will want the season to be done by mid-August.

There are factors that favor fantasy baseball though. As mentioned above, a freak injury or poor draft decision can really hurt your chances of being competitive in fantasy football. Certainly, there are sleepers to be had early on, but after the first few weeks of the season, it becomes harder and harder to plug players into your roster than will be productive enough to make up for the losses. On the other hand, baseball being a game of hot streaks, rookie call-ups, and game-changing trades, there are more opportunities to recover your team in the short-term and still be productive while injured starters recover. There is a certain level of excitement in picking up a player that becomes a star overnight in baseball that football just cannot duplicate.

At the end of the day, managers who are looking for that quick fix of fantasy goodness are going to pick football over baseball every day of the week. Today's society caters towards those who want to run the sprint as opposed to those who appreciate the marathon. But if you're looking for a long walk to take in the view, baseball is your game. Both are a lot like what you get on the field, football with its short bursts of action and baseball with its drawn out play. In the end, the important thing is that you play, and have fun doing it.

Sources:

Fantasy Football Fumble Angers Fans, InformationWeek.com