The 104th season of the National Football League began on Sep. 4, 2025. Fans from across all states tuned in to cheer for their favorite teams, but hometown spirit isn’t the only reason for large viewer counts on football games. Fantasy football is a competitive online game where players pay an entrance fee to join a league, normally with their friends, family or coworkers, and act as a manager of their own football team by drafting players to join their personal lineup every week. Players gain points based on their players’ real-life statistics, and the last player remaining in the playoff season wins the whole pot of money.
The world’s first fantasy football league was created in Aug. 1963, and by 1989, there were more than one million players in the United States. Today, an estimated 50 million people play fantasy football in the United States and Canada, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The most popular apps for those who play are ESPN Fantasy, Yahoo Fantasy and the official NFL Fantasy app. It is on these platforms that players create their team, but can also analyze the statistics of their players, look at their league standings and see advice on the calculated best picks for their team. Fantasy football is very intertwined with watching the sport nowadays, according to junior Fiona Brentani.
“It’s unavoidable; fantasy football goes hand in hand with the real-life thing,” Brentani said. “This is my first year in a league but it’s so fun and it definitely makes me watch more games and get way more invested in them,”
Since those who participate in fantasy football need their players to do well, it leads to more fan-investment in matches and games overall, according to a study by the Journal of Applied Sports Management. This means that not only are viewers more engaged in their preferred teams’ matches, but also tune into matches they otherwise might not watch to see how a certain player is performing and how many points they are gaining. Specifically, participants gain points based on how many touchdowns their players participate in, yards they gain, or passes they complete, but can lose points due to fumbles or interceptions. Fantasy applications automatically tally up and calculate scores, so technically participants aren’t required to watch matches at all, but regardless the thrill of gaining and losing points is enough to draw people in, according to junior Koko Foust.
“I think fantasy was really fun because I got to play with my friends and challenge them,” Foust said. “It got competitive and stressful when I lost points.”
Fantasy football is not the only statistic-based industry heavily intertwined with the sport. Sports betting, a form of gambling, was unbanned federally by the Supreme Court in 2018, and since then 38 states have legalized sports betting in some format, 30 of which authorize online sports betting on apps and websites, according to the Legal Sports Report. The two industries are strongly connected, according to a survey conducted in 2018 by the Fantasy Sports and Gaming Association, that found that 79% of fantasy players said there’s at least a good possibility they’d bet on sports if and when a bill is passed to legalize it in their state. California is one of the few states that has completely banned sports betting, but the fact that it still exists in other states is a big problem, according to physics teacher Matt. Woodard.
“I’ve been to Nevada where sports betting is legal and I think it’s a problem since gambling is very addictive,” Woodard said. “As for fantasy football, I think it could be a gateway to gambling so it’s important to be careful. I was in a league but did not make the playoffs.”
Even though those who participate tend to use money as an incentive to win, fantasy football is not considered gambling as it does not rely on specific outcomes to win, and is seen as a game of skill as one is unlikely to win money if they don’t research and strategize to form their lineup. This makes it legal in more places than sports betting, as constituted by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. For those passionate about football and want to find more ways to engage with the sport, fantasy football seems to be the obvious choice, but its potential to be a gateway into riskier, higher stakes bets is something that people should be aware of, according to Brentani.
“I think fantasy football is so fun to play casually, but I can see how someone can get a thrill out of it and continue to bet on sports in a riskier way,” Brentani said. “Anything out of moderation can be harmful, even for light games like fantasy.”
