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Fantasy sports becoming more popular than the real thing

What started as a group of baseball nerds tracking stats and following every pitch of every game has now escalated to millions of people constantly stalking their phones on gameday, praying for that one touchdown, home run or shot that will give their team the edge.
Fifty-nine million people. That’s the number of people in the United States and Canada who played fantasy sports last year, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA), a Chicago-based trade group that represents the fantasy industry. Within the last 10 years, this number has risen from 30 million to 59 million—nearly double. The social and competitive aspects of fantasy sports make it an appealing experience for avid sports fans everywhere.
“I enjoy competing with my friends and having the opportunity to make lots of money if I win,” said WHS senior Parker Omberg. “But it also gives me the opportunity to follow sports very closely, making me a well-rounded sports fan.”
WHS senior Brendan Riccardi is in it for the competition, however: “The joy of watching your players do well and constantly rooting for them so you’re not always rooting for one team makes fantasy sports special,” he said.
While fantasy baseball is popular among fantasy players worldwide, fantasy football is the clear-cut favorite among WHS students.
“Fantasy football is the best fantasy sport because it doesn’t take up a lot of your time,” said WHS junior Andrew Caminiti. “It’s also a great way to earn bragging rights over your friends.”
Time is valuable for WHS students, especially with the amount of work that they have on a daily basis, making fantasy football the most practical.
“I probably spend 15 minutes a day on the ESPN Fantasy app,” said WHS senior David Sprung. “It doesn’t take a lot of time to maneuver through the app, making it very appealing to the user.”
Fantasy sports are nothing new. They are oftentimes more popular among adults who have been around since the beginning of the fantasy sports era.
Take WHS physical education teacher Brian Sloan, for example. “My first league was probably in 1995,” said Sloan. “People in my high school decided to create a league and I’ve been playing with the same group ever since.”
Back then, stats weren’t automatically uploaded to the fantasy apps.  League commissioners would have to look at the box scores in the newspapers the day after the games and add up the totals for each individual player, making playing fantasy sports sometimes tedious.
“I didn’t want to be commissioner back then,” Sloan said.
In addition to the changes in how we play fantasy football, we’ve also seen changes in how it’s presented to us on TV and social media.
Constant scrolling of stats on the bottom line of televised games always keeps us aware of who is playing well, and who is not. Networks are aware of our love for fantasy sports, and they are making it their goal to fuel our obsession each Sunday.
NFL RedZone, presented by the NFL Network, is a seven-hour, commercial-free add-on that fans can use to watch every NFL game, as the channel shifts from game to game based on what team is in the red zone (inside the opponent’s 20-yard line).
Likewise, RedZone prides itself in showing its viewers every touchdown from every game.
“Fantasy football makes watching meaningless games fun, and RedZone makes it easy to do so,” added Riccardi.  “It makes watching a Browns-versus-Jaguars game enjoyable to watch because it may have fantasy implications, which makes football all- around more enjoyable on Sundays.”
While RedZone’s ability to show fans every touchdown from every game can be a dream for some fantasy players, others find themselves isolated in a dark room, eyes glued to the TV. They stalk their phones for the duration of every Sunday from September to January, waiting for RedZone to display their players’ successes.
While fantasy sports have been around for a while, the daily fantasy sports apps such as FanDuel and DraftKings are taking off, giving fans the chance to set a lineup for one day and make hundreds to millions of dollars based on how they perform on the worldwide stage.
“The daily leagues can be smart short-term investments if you’re winning,” said Riccardi, “but they can be rather challenging based on the fact that there are so many people that play them.”
Yet some people see daily fantasy leagues as gambling, and not so much as a hobby. “I see fantasy sports as a hobby as long as you’re putting in low amounts of money,” said WHS senior Will Rackear. “Some people play for a trophy, but some people are betting $500 a day on FanDuel and DraftKings.”
Sprung added, “If you look at DraftKings there are some people literally living off fantasy sports. I think it definitely could lead to gambling problems or addiction.”
Most WHS students are choosing the smaller-money leagues, putting in $10 with the chance to win hundreds amongst their friends, or just sticking to the free leagues, aiming for the trophies Rackear mentioned. Either way, it is clear that they are not stopping their fantasy obsessions anytime soon.
Count WHS freshman Will Ohlig among them. “Fantasy sports are so enjoyable because they make me feel like I am managing my own team and competing with them,” Ohlig said.