Determining Factors of Risk Tolerance: Evidence from Fantasy Football Snake Drafts

This paper utilizes fantasy football snake drafts to analyze risk tolerance of individuals who are trying to maximize their present and future utility, but are faced with unknown factors and only have limited resources. Fantasy football provides a unique perspective on risk tolerance, different than the commonly researched fields of auctions, financial portfolios, and lotteries. I examine mock draft data from Fantasy Football Calculator as well as rankings data from Fantasy Pros to gauge the amount of risk associated with each draft pick. I find that the more perceived uncertainty that is connected to an individual selection, the more likely the selection will exhibit risk averse characteristics