How Non-Sports Categories are Gaining Popularity in the Fantasy Sports Industry?

Fantasy sports have revolutionized the iGaming industry through its growing popularity and enhancing revenue rate every year. The changing landscape of the fantasy sports industry can be witnessed through the evolution of its traditional game types into innovative and unique ones that prove to be highly engaging for the players. Whether it’s about growth in terms of revenue or the number of participants, this industry is marking an unrivalled level of growth every year. Let’s have a deep dive into the evolution of fantasy sports from basic sports categories to innovative non-sports categories.

History of Fantasy Sports

Most people do not know that fantasy sports have existed since the 1980s. The first fantasy league was invented at a Manhattan restaurant, La Rotisserie Francaise by Danie; Okrent, a sportswriter. Initially, it got named as rotisserie baseball due to the name of the restaurant. By 1984, fantasy baseball gained popularity but the one which had to earn much attention was fantasy football. The rules of fantasy football were detailed out in 1984 by Cliff Charpentier and Tom Kane Jr. The growth of fantasy sports kept on elevating and as per an article in 1988, more than 5,00,000 people played the game at that time. The FSTA of Fantasy Sports Trade Association got founded by 1999 and till that time the fantasy sports industry turned out to be one of the biggest industries with skyrocketed revenues and recognized throughout mainstream America.

Current Scenario of Fantasy Sports Market

The rapidly growing sports industry has witnessed a sudden halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic all over the world that has led to a complete lockdown of people at home which eventually called upon for the cancellation of all the sports leagues and matches. Postponement or suspension of sports leagues has resulted in a big crisis for the fantasy sports industry and has affected the revenue of fantasy sports businesses up to a significant extent but a ray of hope is present behind every curtain & so is the case in the fantasy sports industry. Though sports leagues have disappeared still there are some innovative and trending options to keep your players engaged which include non-sports like fantasy esports, stocks & forex, fantasy celebrity leagues, TV reality shows and many more.
Integrating such innovative non-sports categories in your fantasy sports businesses can keep your audience engaged and your revenue maintained. Thus you should keep moving and do not halt your business with the void of sports leagues.

New Decade of Fantasy Sports

Fantasy sports are around for years under the radar and are immensely played among family, co-workers and friends. After the existence of the internet of things, the fantasy sports industry got boomed into a business of multi-billion dollars reaching millions of users and leagues.
The traditional method of playing fantasy sports includes mobile apps or web portals nowadays that are played in the shadow of real sports including Football, Basketball, Baseball, Soccer and many more. Multiple real players are picked from various teams of professional sports and a virtual dream team is created which competes against opponent teams in rival.
The points in fantasy sports are awarded on the basis of a player’s performance in real-time. The user earning the maximum points till the end of the league gets crowned as the winner and gets exciting prizes and rewards. However, the fantasy sports industry is not just limited to the arena sports and has also ventured into multiple distinct realms including online gaming industry of esports, might stock market, the universe of reality TV shows and politics, etc. Such non-sports opportunities are endless and can definitely bring a wave of revolution in your current business offerings and help you in driving a boosted engagement for your fantasy sports business.

Non-Sports Categories of Fantasy Sports

• Fantasy software for the stock market

The voice that is echoing in your head is continually demanding you for investing in the stock market but you are clueless about the working of the stock market. In such scenarios, when the time does not allow you to join courses or read books related to the stock market, stock market simulator proves to be an ideal option. Players have the flexibility of signing up anytime for joining daily trading hours in the stock exchange and start buying shares without staying worried about the loss of real money. Fantasy software for the stock market offers the liberty to users for starting with virtual money of some fixed amount for buying and selling stocks that are present in stock exchange indices. It also comes integrated with useful analytical as well as statistical tools which create replicas of real-world stock trends and prices which allows market’s in-depth analysis. A rookie can gain recognition as a professional through a feature-rich fantasy stock market platform.

• Fantasy software for esports
• A rapidly growing prize pool and a fan base which sum up to billions of dollars have made esports a shining star of the iGaming world. The industry has unrivalled revenue generation rate which is rapidly increasing with the passing time. Introduction of fantasy gaming in esports tournaments and games such as DOTA 2, LOL, CS: GO, PubG and many more have brought an all-new and exciting wave of interest and entertainment for the gaming enthusiasts. Fantasy esports platform allows players for creating virtual rosters among the professional pools and similar to fantasy sports, points get awarded as per their performances. The player with highest scores registers the victory!
• Fantasy software for politics

Are you a political junkie and eagerly waiting for some crucial decision or next tax reform? Or you are just interested to know what President Trump will tweet today? Let’s accept the fact that politics interests almost everyone. When the genre of fantasy sports takes a leap into the world of politics, the politics enthusiasts get a golden opportunity to test their knowledge and get rewarded for it through fantasy politics software. All they need to do is register and play. The predictions that can be done in fantasy politics include guessing the next political leader, next to the economic budget declaration and much more. Similar to other games, players having the highest score registers winning.

• Fantasy software for reality TV

Almost all of us loves TV shows, especially reality shows as all of us love drama. It would be a lot more interesting if one gets the chance of adding their own drama into the experience of viewing! Fantasy reality TV platform is a wonderful tool which enables people to do just that! They can predict the outcomes of some particular episodes of the reality TV shows and correct predictions register them as winners.

• Fantasy Celebrity Leagues

Predicting the behaviour of favourite celebrities in some popular tv show or event is the tendency of most of the people. But do you know that this guessing skill can make people win exciting rewards ?? Fantasy celebrity leagues are an enticing way of engaging people and offering them an all-new fantasy gaming experience.

Popular Non-Sports Events

• The Bachelor
• The Oscar
• Dancing with the Stars
• Celebrities on Tabloid Covers
• Survivors
• Fantasy Movie League

Changing Landscape of Fantasy Sports Industry

• Use of Fantasy Sports as a Storytelling Medium by Media Houses
• More viewers and readers are driven through fantasy sports app towards the sports news consumption. Fantasy sports has been proven as something more than an editorial offerings feature for the media companies throughout the globe. It has become a significant factor in their long term plannings. As the industry keeps on growing, fantasy sports participants got recognized as a segment with high values in the population of sports consumers. Multiple media houses have recognized fantasy sports potential as an exclusive storytelling medium. One of the first and well-recognized media houses that started a Fantasy Football league was Yahoo News which was later followed by News Corp, Golf News Net, The Telegraph, TSN (Canada) and many others. As per the report of online surveys, 60% of the fantasy sports players have said that they have started reading more about sports due to fantasy games. Most of the media houses including news channels, newspapers and magazines aimed at engaging more viewers or readers.
• Newspapers such as The Telegraph focus on suggestions, news and tips about the fantasy sports platforms for enhancing their reach and engagement of the wider audience. The online portal of Fox Sports provides draft guides, fantasy sports analysis along with fantasy games & leagues. Fantasy sports have allowed magazine portals as well as news channels for introducing real gaming experience to their readers. Focussing on the consumption of digital content is a key force for driving media which is investing resources for ensuring long-term and enhanced growth in digital audiences. It proves to be innovative as well as a modern approach for connecting and reaching the sports fans for the purpose of retaining audiences.
• As per research conducted,40% of growth in the consumption of sports news has been contributed by fantasy sports.
• Fantasy Sports & Casinos — A Profitable Combination
  The phenomenal popularity of the fantasy sports industry among sports enthusiasts all over the world has made it a highly profitable option for other branches of the iGaming world to merge with it. One such branch is online casinos! Combination of casino and fantasy sports can prove to be a profit booster for online casino businesses.
  Gamers who are seeking to broaden and improvise their casino gaming experience will definitely find fantasy sports an entertaining and exciting option. The strongly immersive format of the fantasy sports enables players for incorporating their knowledge and skills for some particular sports and draft their teams by identifying players which prove to be useful for winning some specific league. In easy terms, it proves to be a real boost for the gamers confidence as their selected team registers winning and keeps them motivated for indulging in repeating gaming cycles which helps casino operators for making consistent revenues. Integrating the concept of fantasy sports in casinos brings a boosted benefit for the casino businesses as players find it much more interesting to play fantasy sports and enjoy casino gaming experience in a combination. Thus fantasy sports when combined with casinos can turn out to be a big thing in the near future!
• Fantasy Sports for Engagement of Viewers for TV Shows
  Reality TV is more inclined towards the source which has the most audience and that is the Internet. The average age group of the fantasy sports players is 18–49 and fantasy sports players are 25–45. Now the question is what can be seen as a common point in these demographics ? Both the categories of audiences like winning awards, competition, rewards, contests and pursuing idols in sports players, singers, reality TV stars, etc. The fans of fantasy games boast a great knowledge about sports, world records, matches, players, etc while the viewers of reality TV shows have deepened knowledge about adventure, food, music, etc. Both categories of consumers desire to stay in touch with their interests via news, social media, merchandise and statistics. When a fantasy game is built around some TV reality series or shows, it is kept in the viewers' memory for an enhanced span of time. Here are some benefits that can be witnessed while creating fantasy games based on reality TV:-
• – Continual recall value
• – Additional revenue generation
• – Niche branding
• – Viewership and Popularity

Future Scope of Fantasy Sports

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