There are a few things that drive home the popularity of American football and help it dominate the domestic sporting landscape in the US. Streaming and digital platforms taking the sport overseas and several overseas games at Wembley Stadium have helped a lot; the cross-influence of these components can’t be understated. 

Today, we will explore fantasy football’s appeal and why we must not overlook its importance as a market that helps keep fans entertained while attracting new, casual fans to the sport. Fantasy football is one of the most cost-effective and thorough fan engagement tools the NFL has to prop up much of its ongoing popularity.

Fantasy Football & The Digital Revolution

No sporting brand can grow to the stature of the NFL without having a number of markets that help it along. As we’ve just explained in our introduction, the emergence of overseas games in the mid-2000s was one of the catalysts in bringing American football to a broader, global audience. The emergence of a digital world also facilitated more straightforward access to live games. It allowed fans to join online communities, where it was much easier to keep up to date with the latest NFL news from outside the US. 

Other mediums helped to advertise the sport to more casual fans, like the emergence of NFL video games, which have continued to be a big hit for EA Sports both in the US and across Europe. As new video gaming technology helps to continually drive the popularity of some of the most popular football games, they’re also used as a scouting tool for those who want to scour the big leagues looking for a fantasy football bargain and to scoop up the point-scoring players for fantasy-league value. 

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I wouldn’t say, from personal experience, that it is a good 

idea to use video gaming as your only source of information to construct your fantasy team. But use video gaming as a supplementary way to keep your experience fun and engaging without getting too immersed in fantasy football. 

You can use it to become acquainted with some lesser-known players if you play online, which is another market that has exploded thanks to the rise of the internet. It’s easy to check out fixtures from the big leagues or other fixtures from A7FL; you can also get to know other NFL fans from across the world and see what sort of tips they use for their fantasy team.

Online Gambling & Fantasy Football

Throughout the last twenty years, we’ve witnessed the rise of the digital platform as the primary way we get all our football news or conduct our fantasy football business. Online gambling has also acted as another avenue to generate interest, particularly on social media and in countries where gambling was more prominent than it was in the US at the time, such as the early 2010s. 

While there are stark differences between these two markets, they share similarities in that they are both ways people can predict the outcomes of a live game. Fantasy football, however, enables people to focus solely on tactics and knowledge of the game and the player’s performance rather than the gambling markets.

Players can enter fantasy football competitions and win big prizes if they finish high on the leaderboard. Fantasy football is so accessible, cheap, and easy to use that millions of Americans are drawn to it every season. Super Bowl 58 was the most-watched final of all time, attracting over 120 million viewers in the US alone and nearly 200 million worldwide.

Conclusion

Undeniably, the key reason why fantasy football retains such popularity is because it’s fun, engaging, and has a collective, cost-effective attraction that all football fans can enjoy. It was estimated that in 2013, the fantasy football market in the US was worth nearly $70 billion. 

Since this period, there’s been a considerable uptake in the number of people using their mobile phones and other devices to piece together their fantasy teams. This figure is now comfortably in the three-figure region, with tens of millions in the US spending hours a week constructing their team and trying to get one over on their friends and family. 

Fantasy games are a massive hit in a number of sports. Soccer fantasy football in the UK exemplifies how captivating it can be when the rules are tied into the game’s most exciting moments. Fantasy football is the same, too. 

Without the appeal it brings and football’s knowledge-building element, we’re not saying that American football wouldn’t be as popular. Still, there wouldn’t be that platform that gives people other things to talk about other than the sport itself. In a digital age, it’s more prevalent and relevant now than ever, and the sport’s health can be attributed to the contributions from these subsidiary markets.