The Impact of Motivational Factors on Daily Fantasy Sports Participation

Since the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act (UIGEA) in 2006, the fantasy sports world has had a tumultuous decade. Shortly after the passing of UIGEA, daily fantasy sports became marketable, and saw several years of tremendous growth. However, recent legal issues have clouded the industry, and lawmakers have questioned whether daily fantasy sports indeed fall under the exception granted by UIGEA as a “game of skill”, or whether the games are illegal gambling. This study is meant to look at what motivates fantasy sports participants, especially through this time of turmoil in the industry. It specifically looks at how players’ competitive, knowledge-seeking, or social tendencies affect their participation habits. Additionally, this thesis explores the effect that marketing messaging that portrays a daily fantasy sports website as a perfect place to satisfy these individual traits has on player participation. Finally, this study investigates the role that a sense of fairness plays in shaping players’ perceptions of these websites. To study these things, we began by looking at previous studies that focus on competition, knowledge, and social factors, both in the fantasy sports field and elsewhere, and creating a literature review. Following the literature review, an experiment was created, which tested these three scales as well as the perception of fairness, using a fictitious fantasy sports site, Fantasyland. The results obtained from this experiment indicate that those with competitive or social dispositions are the most likely to try fantasy sports. Additionally, it was found that those who are socially motivated are more likely to recommend a fantasy sports site to friends or strangers. Lastly, the perception of fairness did not have a direct effect of participants, although in one case, it did positively impact an individual’s willingness to try a daily sports website. These results and their implications as well as future research directions are outlined in the concluding discussion section

Building a Taxonomy of Player Types and the Effects on the SELF and Interaction between Players

This paper conducted a literature review of current research examining fantasy football participants. Fantasy football has become popular in recent years due the attention from the media, most notably sports shows providing more coverage of fantasy football. Theories that have examined fantasy football include gambling theory, and uses and gratifications. Motivational types also provide categories to describe players. Additionally this theory also provides a method to measure these players called the Motivational Scale for Fantasy Football Participation (MSFFP). Thus the purpose of this paper is twofold: to explore the literature in fantasy sports; propose to build taxonomical categories for serious and casual players using an adaptive form of the MSFFP to see which motivational type influences the Self and interaction with other fantasy football players

Optimization modelling for analyzing fantasy sport games

In a fantasy sport game, participants act like a team manager building a team of real individual players of a professional sport. The real performances of these players (or their teams) are translated into points for their team managers. The managers’ aim is to collect as many points as possible thereby defeating the fantasy teams of opponents. First, we discuss a number of common game rule characteristics of fantasy sport games. Based on these characteristics, we present a mixed integer programming model to produce and analyze ex-post results for a large variety of fantasy sport games. We discuss how these results create value for both the game organizer and the participants. Finally, we apply our system in practice to a fantasy cycling game

Online communities\u27 impact on the profession of newspaper design

The importance of the Internet to visual journalists is increasing with every technological progression. Recently online communities have formed, creating a commonplace for creative professionals to meet and share visual work. This study focuses on the possible impact of these emerging online communities on the newspaper design profession. Interviews of newspaper designers who participate in online communities specifically focused on the profession unveiled current and important transformations occurring within the newspaper design profession. Additionally, this study expands on both offline and online community theory, giving qualitative insight into future studies which may focus on the Internet\u27s effects on various professions

Segmenting Motivation: An Analysis of Fantasy Baseball Motives and Mediated Sport Consumption

Fantasy sport consumer behavior research is a burgeoning area of inquiry as this growing segment of sport fans exhibits unconventional, yet robust media consumption habits. In addition, consumer motivation and market segmentation represent core principles within the study of marketing, yet the integration of these two essential concepts with regard to sport consumers is limited. The purpose of this study was to explore fantasy baseball motives, develop a motive-based taxonomy of users, and quantify the differences between segments through an examination of mediated sport consumption. An exploratory hierarchal cluster analysis with a subsequent K-means analysis was conducted to determine the number of segments. Additionally, a MANOVA was performed to ascertain behavioral differences between the motive-based clusters. Four distinct segments emerged with statistically significant differences between each with regard to mediated consumption intentions. The following paper addresses theoretical and practical implications for academics and practitioners. Future research is also suggested

Impact of Fantasy Sports on Participants’ Interest in Real-League Occurrences

Fantasy sports have developed into their own significant section of the sport industry, accounting for $4 billion and having over 32 million participants in the United States and Canada (FSTA, 2012). Academic research into fantasy sports is a fairly new, and much of it has focused on motivation behind fantasy gaming, while any consumer behavior research has been focused on media consumption and team identification. This research is for determining what the relationship between fantasy sport participation and consumption of information about league current events, such as rule changes, labor issues, and team rebranding, is. The participants in this research took a survey posted on Facebook and Twitter, and were between 18 and 25 years of age. This information helps leagues find if fantasy sports help increase the depth of a fan’s commitment to the league. There was also information gathered about fantasy sports’ perception as a form of gambling, due its tumultuous past

Fantasy sports and esports: Is unconventional becoming conventional? A case analysis

Fantasy sports and esports are relatively recent phenomena that are growing in popularity and their importance in today\u27s society. Per their nature, they are also tightly connected with sports. In this chapter, the authors present these two phenomena and explain their importance in today\u27s sports industry. Furthermore, the chapter analyzes fantasy sports and esports consumption patterns and discusses how the Covid-19 pandemic affected them. To conclude, the chapter suggests the possible implications for fantasy sports and esports in the future

A New Player in the Game: Examining Differences in Motives and Consumption Between Traditional, Hybrid, and Daily Fantasy Sport Users

Due in part to a $200 million advertising campaign, daily fantasy sport (DFS) participation exploded in 2015. With faster payouts and unlimited lineup options, the activity has added to an already thriving fantasy sports industry. However, little is known about the distinct attitudes and behaviors that drive DFS participants. The current study examined 511 participants who played DFS-only, traditional, season-long fantasy football (TFS), and those who played both activities for motive and behavioral differences. Results indicated statistically significant motive scores differences across the groups as it relates to the factors of gambling, social interaction, and competition while escape and entertainment scores showed no difference. Media consumption differences were also found between the groups as those who played DFS in any form consumed more traditional broadcast and new media

The Fantasy Focus: A content analysis of sports magazines examining the rise in popularity of fantasy games

Fantasy sports (FS) have become a mass phenomenon; it has been estimated that close to thirty million people play some form of fantasy sports, creating a multi-billion dollar market whose popularity and visibility have grown exponentially since its inception. This research examined the rise in popularity of FS with the Diffusion of Innovations theory used as a framework. A content analysis was conducted to gain insight on FS and various topics linked with the games, including social dynamics, gambling associations, and gender issues. Two coders examined fantasy content taken from issues of ESPN magazine, Sports Illustrated, and Sporting News from all of 1999, 2000, 2001, as well as March (start of baseball season), August (start of football season), and October (start of basketball season/only month when all three leagues are active) of 2007, 2008, and 2009. The study found a major increase in FS content in all three magazines examined, both in quantity and length of articles. There was also an increase in the number of players mentioned per article, with additional findings, discussions, limitations, and suggestions for future research included