Fantasy sports are virtual games which are also known by the name of rotisserie or roto. In these sports players act as owners of the teams which they build. They compete against other such payers based on statistical information that is generated from real games these particular virtual sports are inspired from. All fantasy teams have got a manager that is responsible for compiling the points in accordance with the roster that has been selected.
The Fantasy Sports Trading Association is in charge of hosting conferences of these sports and is also responsible for ensuring their continuous growth. This association includes almost 120 members ranging from the newer and smaller start-ups to the more established larger media corporations. The estimated age of fantasy sports players was twelve and above and extended to 29.9 million people in 2007.
Fantasy sports experienced a boom during the dot-com era with a variety of companies investing in this domain. However when this dot-com bubble burst, most of these companies went bankrupt. Some of the more established and long standing companies did manage to survive these turbulent times and remerged, some with new names such as RotoWire.com and some with new marketing strategies and business models such as Yahoo. Over time, in spite of the unstable economy, it was noted that the average American fantasy players spent almost 8.4 hours of surveying the NFL per week compared to watching the NFL on TV. NFL was able to recognize the opportunity that lay in fantasy sports and started to run ads for fantasy football featuring existing players. These people were possibly the first to identify that it was fantasy play that drives T.V. viewing.
Some of the most popular fantasy sport are fantasy baseball, fantasy basketball and fantasy football. The other games that have gained prominence over time are fantasy golf, fantasy cricket, fantasy auto racing, fantasy hockey and wrestling.
Fantasy baseball is regarded as one of the oldest fantasy sports and is among the hardest and time consuming sports. It follows the Major League Baseball season of 162 games. Fantasy basketball is said to be inspired from fantasy baseball. Ever since the 1990s fantasy basketball continues to be increasing in its popularity especially with the internet exposure that it has got. NBA has gotten advantage of its immense popularity by launching a global competition called the Premier Fantasy Championships. This competition is considered to be one of the largest and most exclusive fantasy sports competitions. NBA has additionally launched a program called Fantasy Hoops that offers fantasy sports players all the news and information that they need from the happenings within the world of fantasy basketball.
Fantasy football on the other hand has become more popular then ever and has taken over the mantle of popularity from fantasy baseball. This is mostly attributed to the complexities associated with fantasy baseball with regards to the players involvement for the number of days as well as the many number of matches that are played. Fantasy football, however, gives its players and managers a lot more flexibility particularly in time since the games take place only once every week as compared to daily in fantasy baseball.
Some of the most popular fantasy sports players and games news providers are Yahoo.com and ESPN Fantasy Sports. They gather all of the news, reviews, statistics and players performance and provide it on the table for fantasy sports enthusiasts..