Fantasy football is a game in which the participants serve as owners and general managers of virtual gridiron football teams. The competitors select their rosters by participating in a draft in which all relevant National Football League (NFL) players are available. Fantasy points are awarded in weekly matchups based on the actual performances of football players in real-world competition. The game typically involves the NFL, but can also involve other leagues, such as the Canadian Football League or NCAA.
There are three main types of fantasy football: Traditional (redraft) – Leagues in which the competition can run for an entire season, normally culminating in playoffs. Participants build their initial rosters in an annual draft. Keeper or dynasty leagues – These leagues are initially drafted in the same fashion as a traditional season-long league. However, each team in a keeper league is able to retain a certain number of players from one year to the next, and in a dynasty league each team retains all players who have not retired. All subsequent drafts solely involve players who are joining the NFL for the first time. Daily – Daily fantasy sports are accelerated versions of the traditional fantasy format in which contests are conducted over shorter periods, such as a week or a single day.
Fantasy football is often played in small groups of mutually familiar individuals who may or may not be playing for money. However, online fantasy contests, particularly those run by daily fantasy companies, regularly involve large groups of people who otherwise do not know each other contributing to a shared betting pool. The structure of these games has led some jurisdictions to characterize and regulate online fantasy contents as a form of gambling.
History
Modern fantasy football can be traced back to Wilfred "Bill" Winkenbach, an Oakland, California businessman and limited partner in the Oakland Raiders. In a New York City hotel room during a 1962 Raiders cross-country trip, Winkenbach, along with Raiders public relations employee Bill Tunnel and Oakland Tribune reporter Scotty Stirling, developed the rules that would eventually be the basis of modern fantasy football. The inaugural league was called the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League (GOPPPL), and its first draft took place in Winkenbach's home in Oakland in August 1963. The league consisted of eight members, made up of administrative affiliates of the American Football League, pro football journalists, and individuals who had purchased or sold 10 season tickets for the Raiders' 1963 season. Each roster consisted of two quarterbacks, four halfbacks, two fullbacks, four wide receivers or tight ends, two return specialists, two kickers, two defensive backs or linebackers, and two defensive linemen. The scoring system was entirely dependent on real-life scoring. It awarded 25 points for a touchdown pass, rush, or reception, 25 for a field goal, 10 for an extra point, and 200 for a kickoff, punt, or interception that was returned for a touchdown. As of 2015, the GOPPPL was still active and had maintained the original scoring system.
In 1969, Andy Mousalimas, an original creator of GOPPPL and participant in the inaugural draft, brought the game to his Oakland sports bar, the King's X, where the first public fantasy football league was founded. From this point onward, the idea spread by word of mouth when the patrons of other Bay Area bars visited the King's X for trivia contests.
Fantasy football slowly spread across the country in the following decades. Early leagues whose existence has been documented were typically founded by groups of friends attending school together. Examples include leagues founded at DePaul University of Chicago, Illinois in 1978, Case Western Reserve University of Cleveland, Ohio in 1980, and Marist School of Atlanta, Georgia in 1983. Each of these leagues maintained continuous operation for several decades after their founding.
In 1985, the Grandstand Sports Services launched the first nationally available fantasy football leagues online through Q-Link (later America Online). In 1987, Fantasy Football Index, the first national magazine dedicated to fantasy football, was launched by Ian Allan and Bruce Taylor.
A national fantasy football game, Pigskin Playoff, was developed by Robert Barbiere and Brad Wendkos in collaboration with the company Phoneworks as a telephone-based fantasy sports promotion. Phoneworks produced similar interactive fantasy games for multiple sports during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Pigskin Playoff launched in 1989 in a number of major newspapers throughout the United States, including the Arizona Republic, the Detroit Free Press, the Los Angeles Times, and the Miami Herald. Players selected their teams by calling a toll-free phone number and entering four-digit codes for each of their choices. The game is regarded as an early predecessor to modern daily fantasy football, awarding each week's highest-scoring participant a trip to Hawaii. In 1997, CBS launched an online fantasy football competition, with other sports networks and websites quickly following suit. Yahoo was the first site to launch a free competition, giving it an advantage over its industry competitors. The NFL launched its own official game on the league's website in 2010. Online growth has fueled both the fantasy football industry and interest in the NFL itself. As of 2022, an estimated 62.5 million people played fantasy sports in the United States and Canada, per the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association, and around four out of five fantasy participants played fantasy football.
On May 27, 2022, Cincinnati Reds player Tommy Pham slapped Joc Pederson of the San Francisco Giants in the face prior to a game; he would later receive a three-game suspension and a $5,000 fine. Pham said that the slap was prompted by his belief that Pederson had broken the rules of a fantasy football league in which they had both participated during the previous football season. Pham said that he did not regret the slap, stating: "It's a matter of principle, man."
League types A fantasy football league may be organized in a variety of ways. The most popular league type is head-to-head, in which each team is matched up against an opponent each week, with the team that scores the most fantasy points earning a win in the standings. A less common form of league is a total points league, in which the league standings are determined by the number of points each team scores over an entire season. In addition to scoring variations, league organization may also differ based on the structure of each team's roster.
Competition variations In head-to-head leagues, a fantasy team matches up against a different fantasy team from the league each week. The team that receives the most points of the two receives a win for that week, while the other team receives a loss. Points are dictated by a common scoring system that can be adjusted in a variety of ways (see Scoring configurations). A team's total is the sum of all points accumulated by players who were placed in a starting slot by the team owner for the day they were playing (as opposed to being on the bench, in which any points gained would not count). Teams with the best win–loss record may advance to the playoffs in the final weeks of the season. If two teams have the same record, playoff qualification tiebreakers are employed based on league preference. Total points leagues are leagues in which teams accumulate points on an ongoing basis. The league standings are determined by the teams' total points. Total points leagues are often also best ball leagues, in which owners do not need to set a starting lineup, as their weekly point totals automatically reflect their highest-scoring players at each position. Other forms of roster management, such as player trades and the waiver wire, are typically eliminated in best ball leagues. This is often the structure on platforms such as Underdog and DraftKings. All-play leagues are leagues in which all teams play each other each week. For example, if there are 14 teams in the league, the highest-scoring team in each week would post a 13–0 record, the next highest-scoring team would post a 12–1 record, and so on. Pirate leagues are leagues in which a winning owner gets to choose a player from their opponent's roster. In guillotine leagues, the lowest scoring team is eliminated from the league each week. All of the players on the eliminated team's roster become free agents and may be subsequently added to any remaining team. This process continues until only one team remains and is crowned the league winner.
Roster variations Keeper leagues allow teams to keep a set number of players on their roster from one year to the next. In the first season of a keeper league, the draft is performed in the same manner as any other standard league draft. At the end of each season, each roster is cut down to a predetermined limit. Teams in keeper leagues can retain as few as one player or as many as every player on the roster except one, though generally the number of retained players between five and ten. In dynasty leagues, a team keeps all non-retiring players from one year to the next. After the first season of a dynasty league, each subsequent draft only includes NFL rookies. Developmental or devy leagues are dynasty leagues in which owners are allowed to draft college players in addition to the standard pool of NFL players. Campus 2 Canton (c2c) leagues are a form of devy league in which each owner controls two teams. One team is composed of college players (Campus) and the other NFL players (Canton). The teams score points independently of each other, which creates two separate leagues running simultaneously. Once the college players graduate, they are eligible to be used on the Canton team. Superflex leagues are leagues in which teams can start a quarterback in the flex position, which is normally limited to running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends. The superflex slot may exist on its own or in addition to a traditional flex position. In two-quarterback leagues, each team has the ability to start two quarterbacks in their weekly lineup, rather than one, thus creating a premium on value at the quarterback position. Along with superflex, both of these roster variations are particularly popular in dynasty leagues. Individual Defensive Player (IDP) leagues are leagues in which teams draft defensive players as individuals, rather than as an entire unit. In rare cases, it is also possible to draft individual players at other positions that are not typically included on fantasy rosters, such as offensive linemen, punters, and return specialists. In empire leagues, teams compete in a dynasty format, with each year's winner receiving a portion of that year's entrance fees. The rest of the fees go into a special pot known as the empire pot. Once an owner wins the league in two consecutive seasons, he or she wins the empire pot.
Draft