Fantasy Sports: How to Build a Business Based on a Hobby

Many people like competing with each other in the fantasy league because everything happens like in real matches. The goal is to score points and win. eSports make an ordinary tournament an extremely exciting event. For the period of international championships, fantasy competitions attract lots of interested people, thus bringing operators good income.

The niche can be a perfect example of a situation when a successful business starts as a simple hobby. In 1960, William Gamson, a professor of sociological sciences, established a thematic seminar among baseball fans. The participants in this workshop knew the athletes of the corresponding league and created on the sheet their teams that consisted of real players.

Having performed the task, people were to follow each member of their teams and count points for certain actions. Later, a well-known sports journalist Daniel Okrent picked up the professor's idea, and by the end of the 80s, fantasy sports became a real trend that covered big events and attracted 500,000 US citizens.

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Types of Competitions: Classics and Daily

There are many variations of such entertainment given that now, it is also represented on online platforms. Fantasy baseball, football, and basketball are considered the classics of the niche. However, biathlon fans, for example, also have no limits. The main thing is devotion to your favourite sport.

There are also various temporary game formats: the tournament can last a month, or maybe a couple of days, like in Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS). Here, everything happens much faster than in the classic version. For one session, it is possible to win a good prize if you put together a dream team. DFS holds a large share of the market. Moreover, people create teams that consist not only of their favourite players but also outsiders.

There are different game formats: one-on-one, 50/50, or arrange tournaments where several teams can become champions simultaneously. There are no limits here. The main prize in entertainment can also be different. This is a great way to make money from a hobby.

Is It Possible to Earn without Investing and How to Play for Real Funds?

Various portals and platforms hold seasonal tournaments for free: they earn on advertising, and everyone can try themselves as football analysts. You can, of course, win a symbolic reward but usually, no one is pursuing this goal.

Another form of free fantasy sports is the DFS freerolls. On such sites, there is a certain prize fund. It is unlikely that you will be able to become extremely rich but you can understand the rules and learn how to predict the outcome of the game.

Here, there is no need to be afraid to experiment and make mistakes, which makes this DFS format very attractive for beginning users. During UEFA Euro-2016, the FanTeam site held 6 freerolls, and the maximum prize was €2,000. The award for winning started from €200.

The goldmine of DFS is the cash game:

• It disperses the blood of gamblers, which makes them even more willing to play.
• It brings huge profits to both operators and providers.

The principle of verification is similar to the confirmation of an account on a trading site. Users must provide an identification document. Next, they need to make a deposit. Many owners of such a business, in the fight for a new member in their league, arrange promotions and provide discounts on the first payments. This is very beneficial but it is not recommended to start with a paltry sum.

Participation in the tournament begins with the choice of room and lobby area. On their sites, providers must indicate the buy-in amount (the starting bid for participation) and the size of the prize pool.

After all the formalities, it is time to select players for the team. Everything will depend on the amount of money people are ready to spend since each athlete has special value. For example, for $100, gamblers can collect a whole football team.

Oligarchs of the DFS World: How Simple Users Become Millionaires

The idol of the industry is Peter Jennings. Ever since school, he has been a frequenter of online casinos and covered his pocket expenses thanks to poker. But everything changed on Black Friday — April 15, 2011, — when raids on online gambling establishments throughout the United States were organised.

Peter was forced to look for a new scope of application for his talent and chose fantasy sports:

• After several big wins, in 2014, he hit a huge jackpot in the championship of the National Basketball Association — $1,000,000.
• Two years earlier, with an initial deposit (buy-in) of $10, he won $150,000 in the championship of the National Football League.

Al Seilenfeld, who also suffered from Black Friday, began to earn more than on the main job since his very first tournaments. He earned $50,000 in the NBA championship. Al decided to devote himself to his favourite niche and founded an analytical portal for fantasy sports fans. Besides, he created a course of lectures for beginning gamblers.

Michael Cohen and James Trana are also considered fantasy football heroes. After retraining from online casino visitors, they applied all analytical skills and quickly won their first million.

But the most famous millionaire who became one thanks to fantasy entertainment is Aaron Jones. He won $5,000,000 in the NFA during the live semi-finals. The tournament was held with the support of the DraftKing provider.

Gaming Rules in Fantasy Sports

This is the most difficult and incomprehensible part of this gambling area. In fact, you can sit down by yourself or with a friend and come up with any rules. But unified sets of requirements still exist, although they depend on each operator and the scoring system he uses.

Let us consider the most common type of rule in DFS on an online platform:

• Eleven athletes are required for the tournament.
• The formation of the team is standard: 4 defenders, 4 midfielders, 2 forwards, and a goalkeeper.
• The demonstration of the list of players is monopolised by Opta Sports which provides statistics for many media, radio programs, and sponsors.
• The price per player does not change after the opening of a set of applications for the tournament. But in subsequent competitions, it may increase, depending on the performance and popularity of the athlete.
• Fantasy sports operators allow gamblers to change a team before the deadline.
• The calculation of the results of the match and the determination of the winner take place within 24 hours.
• If the match was cancelled or postponed, then all athletes of the team receive 0 points.
• There are events for which points are awarded, and there are those for which they are dropped. For example, the situation in fantasy football can be the following: 2 goals conceded is -1 for a goalkeeper, and a goal scored is +6 points for a defender. The scoring system must be provided by the operator.

Preparing Business Cornerstone: Providers of DFS Products

There are 2 giants in the field of DFS — DraftKings and FanDuel. Both brands offer high-quality software and are constantly developing it. They also work with the majority of the world's leagues.

DraftKings

This is a huge enterprise that has won multi-million dollar contracts with many channels over the past few years, including the ESPN American cable sports television channel. The company’s site is very popular in America and Canada, but, alas, it is considered illegal in the EU and CIS countries. By the way, it does not prevent users from registering on the site and taking part in freerolls.

A wide range of sports events will please fans of football and martial arts.

DraftKings is famous for providing customers with high-quality software, nice welcome bonuses, and a guaranteed win.

The brand provides several types of tournaments:

• GPP — where players will 100% receive a prize;
• 50/50 — all winners of the tournament will get the same payouts;
• Multipliers — in this format, it is possible to increase the size of the initial deposit;
• Qualifiers — a round where all participants have a chance to get an invitation to the big game.

FanDuel

It is widely known for its excellent software and customer support. About 10 years ago, the operator hosted the first NFA championship. 10 clients competed against each other in the final, and the winner received $25,000.

Other important nuances:

• FanDuel receives over 600,000 team registration requests per week. Over a million active users visit its platform, and it can boast of a total payout of $2 billion in 2019.
• It is worth noting the special function provided by the brand — personal meetings. For $25, gamblers can compete with 20 opponents. The prize for each game corresponds to the payout. With this option, people can expand their gaming experience.
• Registration on each of the platforms is straightforward, even for a beginner in the field of fantasy sports. Both providers are highly cherished by customers and are considered the best on the market so far.

The market is not limited to these 2 operators. There are also such foreign sites as FantasyBet, PremierPunt, MondoGoal, and DraftJam. The latter is engaged in fantasy hockey.

DFS Software

On specialised forums, players complain that it is rare to find good entertainment of this type. This will change in the near future since the niche is considered very lucrative.

Thus, the PredictionMachine company offers DFS software of the highest quality, which is very popular with players.

Some of the most useful options are:

• Optimizer — this feature will help you find the perfect team based on the brand’s predictions regarding the estimated score.
• Next Man Up — here, you can get all the data about the injuries of the athletes and quickly remove the weak link from your team. Statistics are constantly updated.
• Winning Strategies — a weekly metric that includes rankings, score, and best/worst performance during a specific DFS tournament.
• Winning Lineups — it shows which athlete or team brings the best result.
• Team Projections — this feature will help you predict the rating and assess the team's capabilities in the next tournaments.

Among the useful DFS software, we would also like to mention Fantasy Cruncher. This tool will help you select the compositions of the teams and choose the one with the best potential. The solution is very popular with gamblers due to its free use for 1 week.

The Main Things about the DFS Niche

The fantasy sports sector has repeatedly proved its profitability and prospects. By the end of 2019, the size of contributions to DFS tournaments reached $14 billion.

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• event line elaboration, etc.

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