Jose Sanchez
Research expert covering society, economy, & politics for Latin America
Fantasy sports in the U.S.- statistics & facts
A fantasy sport is a game in which a participant selects a team from players competing in a professional sports league. Points are gained depending on how successful a fantasy sports team’s players perform in real-life sporting events. Since fantasy sports first emerged in the United States in the 1950s, the rules of play have evolved and new formats have emerged. In recent years, the two main formats of fantasy sports are season-long fantasy sports and daily fantasy sports (DFS). In season-long fantasy sports, rosters can only be changed during specific time windows or through player trades. The DFS format, however, allows players to select new rosters before each new game. As of 2022, 29.2 million players in the United States participated in fantasy football, making it the most-played U.S. fantasy sport by a significant margin.
The legal landscape of U.S. fantasy sports
Although most U.S. states allow the playing of daily fantasy sports within their jurisdictions, daily fantasy sports platforms are still not allowed in five of them. On a federal level, fantasy sports participation in the U.S. was legalized in 2006 because the dominant format at the time, season-long fantasy sports, was deemed a game of skill rather than luck. The ability to predict long-term trends during a season was at the heart of this decision. However, the resemblance that daily fantasy sports bear to sports betting, which isn’t legal in all U.S. states, has complicated the notion of fantasy sports as a game of skill and created conflicts with certain states’ gambling laws.Digitalization of fantasy sports in the U.S.
One significant change in recent years has been the digitalization of the industry. Online fantasy sports platforms, such as ESPN, DraftKings, and Yahoo, have spearheaded the growth of the online market, and, in 2022, the reached 9.48 billion U.S. dollars. Despite the prominence of these leading fantasy sports platforms, there has been room within the industry for newcomers, with the number of businesses in the U.S. fantasy sports sector having increased from 244 in 2013 to 651 in 2023.Who plays fantasy sports in the U.S.?
Between 2015 and 2022, the number of fantasy sports players in the U.S. grew steadily. As of 2022, the total number of U.S. fantasy sports players reached 50.4 million. When looking at the ages of these U.S. fantasy sports players, the largest share was made up of 18 to 39-year-olds, who accounted for 71 percent of all players. Meanwhile, data documenting the gender distribution of U.S. fantasy sports players, showed that most fantasy sports players in the U.S. identified as male.
