Fantasy Football represents the Dungeons and Dragons equivalent for the sports fan. With websites organizing leagues for competitors, the market research firm Ipsos estimates that 25.8 million people will compete this fantasy season. What does this mean for the marketplace? Ipsos believes $1.1 bullion in revenue.
ESPN, CBS, NFL, and Yahoo!'s sites comprise 76% of the fantasy marketplace and have advertisers like Volkswagon and Snickers willing to committ as much as $3 million in sponsorships on the sites.
Fantasy football competitors do not just select players and throw a team out there every week. Oh no. These competitors study the game and their competitions, scouring stats, potential matchups, and any article that could provide them an edge in their upcoming matchups. This hobby/lifestyle/passion/obsession generates incredible interest and impressions on fantasy websites and sports posts.
"Our dream user that we talk about is, we get an 18-year-old kid going into college, get nine of his friends to play fantasy football, and we have them for the next 30 years," said John Diver, ESPN's senior director of product development.
According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, the demographics project that the typical fantasy player is a college-educated professional, often a male, in his 30s or 40s with an average household income over $90,000. Additionally, 49% of fantasy users who pay to play spend an average of $468 on league fees, subscription advice sites, and analytics apps.
Some marketers worry that Fantasy users begin to tune out these advertisements as they return to the websites over the course of the football season. Additionally, many advertisers are looking into expand into the mobile side where 25% of users access their team.
These concerns aside, the numbers for Fantasy advertising are continuing to rise along with the anxiety levels of those playing along throughout the season!
After 10 weeks in the Digital Business Operations Department, I am finishing my internship and returning to Philadelphia for the remainder of my summer. Thank you to everyone in the department who took the time to show me the ropes and teach me the ways of ESPN. I could not have asked to work with a better group of people and am so honored to have had the pleasure of learning this piece of the industry. I wish you all the best as Fantasy Football and College Football get underway and hopefully I will see you all again somewhere down the road!
Some marketers worry that Fantasy users begin to tune out these advertisements as they return to the websites over the course of the football season. Additionally, many advertisers are looking into expand into the mobile side where 25% of users access their team.
These concerns aside, the numbers for Fantasy advertising are continuing to rise along with the anxiety levels of those playing along throughout the season!
After 10 weeks in the Digital Business Operations Department, I am finishing my internship and returning to Philadelphia for the remainder of my summer. Thank you to everyone in the department who took the time to show me the ropes and teach me the ways of ESPN. I could not have asked to work with a better group of people and am so honored to have had the pleasure of learning this piece of the industry. I wish you all the best as Fantasy Football and College Football get underway and hopefully I will see you all again somewhere down the road!
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