Fantasy sports industry is dream come true for sports buffs

Obsessed with RBI, WHIP and OPS? How about TDs or FLs? Well, unless you’re an acronym aficionado, chances are you’re a sports fan with a bit of a fantasy habit, and you’re not alone.

According to numbers released Wednesday at the 9th annual Fantasy Sports Trade Association business conference in Chicago, up to 27.1 million Americans played fantasy sports in the last month. That works out to roughly 11 percent of the total U.S. population.

Over the last decade fantasy sports leagues have grown exponentially in popularity and market size with Web sites, magazines and even TV shows on major media networks devoted to analyzing individual athletes stats and their value as fantasy sports “investments.”

Jeff Thomas, President of FSTA and CEO of SportsBuff.com, said the Internet contributed to the expansion of the industry by increasing access and distribution for fantasy sports.

“It made it easier to play, quicker to play and more fun to play,” Thomas said.

The fantasy sports industry is worth an estimated $800 million, according to Aaron Amic, vice president of public affairs for Ipsos North America, FSTA’s market research company, who presented the data Wednesday morning. Not too bad for an industry built on imaginary rosters thought up by guys with a lot of down time.

The information provided by Ipsos North America helps demonstrate the worth and value of the fantasy sports industry, something Thomas, has been working to do since he was elected to the position two years ago.

“Each president has taken the association to a new level,” Thomas said, “and in the last few years it’s been to communicate the popularity of fantasy sports to the marketers, [give them] the value of the demographic, the engagement of the consumer.”

“Right now, fantasy sports consumers spend 3-4 hours per week online playing fantasy games. That’s incredible. You don’t get that at any other marketing venture."

It’s so rare, he says, that even students at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management were surprised. “I asked the branding people in the room, ‘Have you ever done a promotion where you were able to get your consumer in front of your brand for four hours in a week?’ They just laughed,” said Thomas.

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association was formed in 1999, when representatives from companies like CDM, Fantasy Insights, EA Sports, The Sporting News and USFANS decided it was time to establish an organization to better promote fantasy sports.

Casual, impromptu talks among people in the industry had been going on for years before the FSTA’s first official conference, Thomas said.

“We always had informal meetings as guys in the industry. It was just a good ol’ boys club for a while. We’d meet informally in St. Louis or here or there. We’d talk about different issues,” Thomas said.

Today, the FSTA has around 130 active members, ranging from big names like CBSSports.com and ESPN to smaller, lesser-known companies like Dudspuds.com, an online marketplace for fantasy sports content or Commish Kit, which provides fantasy football draft boards and apparel.

As the number of people playing fantasy sports online has increased over the years, it’s not surprising that the number of media outlets covering the industry has also grown. During an FSTA panel titled “Fantasy Sports in Mainstream Media,” at the FSTA conference Tuesday, representatives from USA Today, ESPN, FoxSports, NBC and even The Wall Street Journal, discussed how they had adapted and expanded fantasy sports coverage over the years.

Some media outlets have been slow to include fantasy sports content, but the Journal is among those embracing it, assigning staffer Nando Di Fino to write a fantasy sports column.

The Wall Street Journal covering fantasy sports? Di Fino says the decision was as much about business as it was the interests of the paper’s readers.

“I think [the journal] just saw a niche. A lot of people read the journal, a lot of lawyers, a lot of business people. They also play. There is an audience for this overlap,”

Di Fino’s column will deal with the business of the fantasy-sports industry, but he’ll also pursue the lighter side of it when possible, such as examining whether Jason Giambi’s stats are better when he’s sporting a mustache.

“Before I started I always thought of the Wall Street Journal as boring, business, this kind of stuff but it’s not,” Di Fino said. “They are really trying to have fresh, unique, new easy to read, fun point of view—but still very smart.”

According to Ipsos North America’s research, nearly 22 percent of men aged 18-34 have played fantasy sports within the last month. Thus for those in the fantasy sports industry, the biggest challenge is getting people outside fantasy sports circles to recognize just how big the practice has become.

“We have to start educating the ad agencies, the marketing agencies, the PR agencies about our industry,” Thomas said. “If you are not playing, you see it on TV, but you don’t really realize this is huge. So we are still struggling with it a little bit.”

Over the last five years, Thomas estimates the industry has grown 20-25 percent.

“When I took over as president I just wanted to bring the whole association to a new level and be able to serve our members with professional data and professional information and networking opportunities that can make them all better and I think the last few days was another good step in that direction.”