Throughout the season of the particular sport you were playing, you would continue to correspond, make roster changes, add/drop players, etc, via snail mail. Some games even gave you a toll free phone number to call to make such changes, so that you wouldn't have to wait the 3-5 days or so for your changes to take affect. Prizes were given at the end of the season based on how your team did throughout the season. I can even recall a fantasy baseball league I was once in, awarding weekly prizes to the top scorers for that week.
Fantasy sports was born in 1962 when a limited partner of the Oakland Raiders, Bill Winckenbach, invented Fantasy Football. It was an 8 team league called the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League (GOPPPL). It wasn't very popular then and it took a very long time to catch on. In fact, it was fantasy baseball that really got the ball rolling with fantasy sports.
Ivan R. Dee, and others, established the Chicago Baseball League in 1978, using players real time stats to accrue points. A year later, Daniel Okrent invented the rotisserie scoring system and Rotisserie Baseball, or Roto, started storming the country. As it became more popular, the ads for Roto baseball started showing up in newspapers and magazines, getting even more people to play. By the 90's, these games started venturing into other sports as well. Again, all of it was done through the mail, or among a group of friends who played together. If the latter, someone (a commissioner) still had to keep track of the stats via the newspaper or magazines like Baseball Weekly.
In 1997, CBS offered a beta version of the 1st fantasy football website, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Today, fantasy football is so popular that the people who play it may be more into the fantasy aspect than they are the actual games being played. A degenerative few are more into it than real life itself, but that's another story. A serious fantasy player no longer just roots for their home town team to win, they're rooting for multiple players from multiple teams to do well, so that your fantasy teams scores more points. Sometimes you find yourself rooting for a player playing against your home town team.
Fantasy football is so popular that drafting a team that you have to manage for the entire season just wasn't enough. Enter DAILY fantasy sports. Daily fantasy games like FanDuel and DraftKings, allow the fantasy player to draft a different team every single day, or in the case of football, every week. You're not limited to the players you drafted before the season for the entire season. Daily allows you to start over from scratch every week. Unlike your typical fantasy league where if you draft player X, then he's not available for anybody else, daily allows you to draft the same player as anybody else, much like how the mail order games used to work.
These Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) games have exploded onto the scene here in the last 2 to 3 years or so. Actually FanDuel started in 2009. DraftKings, it's biggest competitor, started in 2012. Today, 2015, both companies are each valued at an estimated $1 BILLION, and control 95% of the DFS market. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft even has a stake in DraftKings.
Though fantasy football is as popular as ever, what has caused the explosion of these DFS sites is the money that is being paid out on a weekly, and daily, basis. In the opening week of the 2015 NFL season alone, FanDuel paid out $12 MILLION in prize money, including a contest that paid the top winner $1,000,000. That's right, a FanDuel member with the username jeremybronson became a millionaire on September 14, 2015, winning a FanDuel contest with a $25 entry fee. And this prize money goes out every single week, and in the case of baseball, basketball and other sports that have games every day, that prize money goes out daily.
Unfortunately, because of the times we live in, when there is the kind of money being flung around that these DFS provide, there's always someone somewhere that wants a piece of the action. That someone is usually government.
"Legally", there are only 4 states where you can bet on sports. Delaware, Montana, Oregon, and of course, Nevada. Now, I don't know much about what goes on in the 1st three states listed, but Nevada, of course, is the gambling capital of the world. Las Vegas, in particular, was built on fixed slot machines where very few can win, frowning upon skills, i.e. card counting, simply screwing people out of their money so that these hotel owners can rake in their gozillions. That is perfectly legal. And with the success and popularity of DFS games like FanDuel and DraftKings, Vegas sportsbooks can't be too happy about it. I mean, it has got to be cutting into their sports betting profits, especially when you're not limited to making a bet by actually having to go to Vegas to do it. DFS can be played in the comfort of your home in your Cheetos stained underwear.
The state of Nevada has already raised a big stink about DFS being played in their state and have successfully lobbied a cease and desist order where Nevada residents can NOT play the DFS games. The state of New York is the latest state trying to get these DFS games banned. Their reasoning is that DFS is illegal gambling, that these DFS games are addictive and rob people of their money with these games of chance. Never mind the fact that buying lottery tickets in the state of New York is perfectly fine for these addictive gamblers. The difference of course, is that the state makes money off the lottery. They don't get anything from DFS.
And though DFS is technically gambling, there is a skill involved, or at least a knowledge that allows you to make a much more informed wager. Much like doing your due diligence when picking companies to invest in in the stock market, which, by the way, is also gambling. In DFS, though you do have to pick numbers, in this case players, and hope those players put up the stats you need, it does take some knowledge to improve your chances. For example, the numbers/players have certain values. Player X, say Tom Brady, will carry a certain value over player Y, say Colin Kaepernick. The fantasy player has to weigh that knowledge and determine where his value can be best utilized in relation to the value at other positions. So there is indeed some "skill" involved and it is not a total game a chance like playing the lottery.
In the lottery, all the numbers are the same. Picking the number 7 has no advantage, has no more value over the number 43. Picking numbers for your lottery entry is no different than being blindfolded and throwing darts at a dart board. Yet the lottery, a total game of chance where knowledge and skill make no difference, and people can still blow their paychecks on, is perfectly OK in New York. Never mind the rigged slot machines in "legal" casinos all over the country, ROBBING people blind. That's perfectly legal.
Of course, that's not the REAL issue. The real issue is state's make money off their state lotteries, they don't make money off of FanDuel. FanDuel and DraftKings are going to court to plead their cases and get the cease and desist order removed. Their contention is that their games require a skill to play, or at least to win, and are not solely based on luck like picking lottery numbers is. And since the values of the numbers/players is different for each number/player, their game does not violate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which is sketchy at best when it comes to defining games of skill and games of chance. I mean, before DraftKings and FanDuel hit the big time, no one was going after Yahoo's, or anyone elses, thousands of season long fantasy leagues that pay out prizes to league champions, runners-up and so forth. All of that has been OK since the day they went online, and even before that with the mail order games.
I honestly don't see FanDuel and DraftKings having success in court though, unless the state somehow worms their way in to getting a piece of the pie. It's a damn shame that government is just as much of a crook as the guy with a gun at a liquor store. Maybe more so, because they can "legally" get away with it.
In the meantime, fantasy players, some who make a decent living playing these DFS games, some who just hit the big one and are set for life or at least set for retirement or a nice nest egg or whatever the case may be, are facing having that opportunity taken away from them. And if the concern is that it is addictive and people are spending their paychecks on it and losing their cars or homes or whatever the case a degenerate gambler, or one with a legitimate gambling addiction, may have, it doesn't limit that person from spending that paycheck on the state lottery, or throwing that money away in a rigged slot machine in any of the states that now allow casino gambling.
The whole illegal gambling thing is a farce anyway. 46 states have some form of "legal" gambling, whether it be lotteries, casinos or horse racing. 46! New York is included with all of the above. Again, it's all OK as long as the state gets their cut, but that's not the case with DFS, and that's why New York is trying to shut it down.
Hypocrisy up to our necks here. You are allowed to blow all of your money on horses, but you will not be allowed to blow it all on football.
Ivan R. Dee, and others, established the Chicago Baseball League in 1978, using players real time stats to accrue points. A year later, Daniel Okrent invented the rotisserie scoring system and Rotisserie Baseball, or Roto, started storming the country. As it became more popular, the ads for Roto baseball started showing up in newspapers and magazines, getting even more people to play. By the 90's, these games started venturing into other sports as well. Again, all of it was done through the mail, or among a group of friends who played together. If the latter, someone (a commissioner) still had to keep track of the stats via the newspaper or magazines like Baseball Weekly.
In 1997, CBS offered a beta version of the 1st fantasy football website, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Today, fantasy football is so popular that the people who play it may be more into the fantasy aspect than they are the actual games being played. A degenerative few are more into it than real life itself, but that's another story. A serious fantasy player no longer just roots for their home town team to win, they're rooting for multiple players from multiple teams to do well, so that your fantasy teams scores more points. Sometimes you find yourself rooting for a player playing against your home town team.
Fantasy football is so popular that drafting a team that you have to manage for the entire season just wasn't enough. Enter DAILY fantasy sports. Daily fantasy games like FanDuel and DraftKings, allow the fantasy player to draft a different team every single day, or in the case of football, every week. You're not limited to the players you drafted before the season for the entire season. Daily allows you to start over from scratch every week. Unlike your typical fantasy league where if you draft player X, then he's not available for anybody else, daily allows you to draft the same player as anybody else, much like how the mail order games used to work.
These Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) games have exploded onto the scene here in the last 2 to 3 years or so. Actually FanDuel started in 2009. DraftKings, it's biggest competitor, started in 2012. Today, 2015, both companies are each valued at an estimated $1 BILLION, and control 95% of the DFS market. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft even has a stake in DraftKings.
Though fantasy football is as popular as ever, what has caused the explosion of these DFS sites is the money that is being paid out on a weekly, and daily, basis. In the opening week of the 2015 NFL season alone, FanDuel paid out $12 MILLION in prize money, including a contest that paid the top winner $1,000,000. That's right, a FanDuel member with the username jeremybronson became a millionaire on September 14, 2015, winning a FanDuel contest with a $25 entry fee. And this prize money goes out every single week, and in the case of baseball, basketball and other sports that have games every day, that prize money goes out daily.
Unfortunately, because of the times we live in, when there is the kind of money being flung around that these DFS provide, there's always someone somewhere that wants a piece of the action. That someone is usually government.
"Legally", there are only 4 states where you can bet on sports. Delaware, Montana, Oregon, and of course, Nevada. Now, I don't know much about what goes on in the 1st three states listed, but Nevada, of course, is the gambling capital of the world. Las Vegas, in particular, was built on fixed slot machines where very few can win, frowning upon skills, i.e. card counting, simply screwing people out of their money so that these hotel owners can rake in their gozillions. That is perfectly legal. And with the success and popularity of DFS games like FanDuel and DraftKings, Vegas sportsbooks can't be too happy about it. I mean, it has got to be cutting into their sports betting profits, especially when you're not limited to making a bet by actually having to go to Vegas to do it. DFS can be played in the comfort of your home in your Cheetos stained underwear.
The state of Nevada has already raised a big stink about DFS being played in their state and have successfully lobbied a cease and desist order where Nevada residents can NOT play the DFS games. The state of New York is the latest state trying to get these DFS games banned. Their reasoning is that DFS is illegal gambling, that these DFS games are addictive and rob people of their money with these games of chance. Never mind the fact that buying lottery tickets in the state of New York is perfectly fine for these addictive gamblers. The difference of course, is that the state makes money off the lottery. They don't get anything from DFS.
And though DFS is technically gambling, there is a skill involved, or at least a knowledge that allows you to make a much more informed wager. Much like doing your due diligence when picking companies to invest in in the stock market, which, by the way, is also gambling. In DFS, though you do have to pick numbers, in this case players, and hope those players put up the stats you need, it does take some knowledge to improve your chances. For example, the numbers/players have certain values. Player X, say Tom Brady, will carry a certain value over player Y, say Colin Kaepernick. The fantasy player has to weigh that knowledge and determine where his value can be best utilized in relation to the value at other positions. So there is indeed some "skill" involved and it is not a total game a chance like playing the lottery.
In the lottery, all the numbers are the same. Picking the number 7 has no advantage, has no more value over the number 43. Picking numbers for your lottery entry is no different than being blindfolded and throwing darts at a dart board. Yet the lottery, a total game of chance where knowledge and skill make no difference, and people can still blow their paychecks on, is perfectly OK in New York. Never mind the rigged slot machines in "legal" casinos all over the country, ROBBING people blind. That's perfectly legal.
Of course, that's not the REAL issue. The real issue is state's make money off their state lotteries, they don't make money off of FanDuel. FanDuel and DraftKings are going to court to plead their cases and get the cease and desist order removed. Their contention is that their games require a skill to play, or at least to win, and are not solely based on luck like picking lottery numbers is. And since the values of the numbers/players is different for each number/player, their game does not violate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which is sketchy at best when it comes to defining games of skill and games of chance. I mean, before DraftKings and FanDuel hit the big time, no one was going after Yahoo's, or anyone elses, thousands of season long fantasy leagues that pay out prizes to league champions, runners-up and so forth. All of that has been OK since the day they went online, and even before that with the mail order games.
I honestly don't see FanDuel and DraftKings having success in court though, unless the state somehow worms their way in to getting a piece of the pie. It's a damn shame that government is just as much of a crook as the guy with a gun at a liquor store. Maybe more so, because they can "legally" get away with it.
In the meantime, fantasy players, some who make a decent living playing these DFS games, some who just hit the big one and are set for life or at least set for retirement or a nice nest egg or whatever the case may be, are facing having that opportunity taken away from them. And if the concern is that it is addictive and people are spending their paychecks on it and losing their cars or homes or whatever the case a degenerate gambler, or one with a legitimate gambling addiction, may have, it doesn't limit that person from spending that paycheck on the state lottery, or throwing that money away in a rigged slot machine in any of the states that now allow casino gambling.
The whole illegal gambling thing is a farce anyway. 46 states have some form of "legal" gambling, whether it be lotteries, casinos or horse racing. 46! New York is included with all of the above. Again, it's all OK as long as the state gets their cut, but that's not the case with DFS, and that's why New York is trying to shut it down.
Hypocrisy up to our necks here. You are allowed to blow all of your money on horses, but you will not be allowed to blow it all on football.
