Head to head: Fantasy sports sites

1: Year-long fantasy football will never change and will also never lose the high popularity it has gained

By Daniel Laible ’18

Fantasy football is a season long, stressful and exhilarating time of the year for most football fans to become immersed in from the day the draft time is set.

Draft day is one of the best times of the year for many people, from fretting over who you pick up in the draft, to what sleepers you are going to pick in the later rounds that will make or break your team.

There’s something about feeling confident in your team before the season starts while arguing with everyone else in your league over how talented your team actually is.

Deep down, you realize this and there is almost something fun about finding that gem on the waiver wire or trading someone in order to improve your team.

“I love finding someone perfect for your team and picking him up before everyone else notices,” junior Michael DeFranza said. “It is part of the reason I love the season long format.” He has played fantasy football for four years and doesn’t want to ruin his experience by playing in the daily leagues.

The year-round format forces you to be more invested and focused on your one team, instead of thinking that you will just play certain players next week rather than this week.

Many people would play year round fantasy rather than week to week because playing against your friends, family and strangers can all be fun. Playing in the weekly leagues is all about winning money, which depends on your matchup—no season long commitment or playoffs at the end of the year.

With the rise of these daily leagues, many people are hopping on the bandwagon and going along with it. They choose to leave their season-long leagues with minimal attention because all they care about is winning money from the different formats of games available.

These leagues are a band of people that become very close during this time of year, from watching the games together, talking to each other about trades, or how well your team is doing. The season long format is truly a community of people who are all considered members of a “family,” people who stay together through this great game.

2: Fantasy football is changing quickly, and weekly fantasy sites are becoming the greater choice for all players

By Chris Tsakonas ’18

Fantasy football has changed in the last few years. The rise of daily/weekly fantasy leagues is revolutionizing fantasy sports. At the apex of this revolution are two online companies that run these formats: DraftKings & FanDuel.

They’ve become household names overnight, thanks to their aggressive ad campaigns. Now, you can’t go one NFL commercial break without seeing at least one 30-second spot of a guy telling you how much money you can win by simply picking a team and paying a small fee to join a league. We hear stories from people who claim to have won thousands of dollars online by clicking a few names.

“Weekly sites are more meaningful in the terms that you can actually win a good amount of money on them,” junior Mike Centrella said.

This has turned the whole industry upside down for the better. The old fantasy leagues would require you to go through an entire season with the same team.

Weekly leagues changed all that. If you don’t have the time to commit yourself to an entire season, or just want to earn some quick cash, this is a much better option. It’s fast, efficient and easy. If a player doesn’t perform as well as you expect him to, you aren’t stuck with him the whole year.

This massive paradigm shift hasn’t been without controversy. The entire weekly fantasy industry is running under shaky legal ground. Sports betting is illegal in most of the United States (with the exception of gambling hotbeds like Las Vegas and Atlantic City). Some now say that the websites are a form of gambling, and should be shut down, like what has happened recently in New York.

But this is nothing like gambling. Gambling involves games of chance which rely on pure luck. The casino always wins in every format of the game. Weekly fantasy leagues require strategy on the part of the player when he selects his lineup.

Overall, the weekly fantasy system enjoys numerous advantages that the traditional model simply can’t offer. It is simply the next step in the evolution of fantasy sports, an adaptation of the old-fashioned way fit for the new, digital-based era.