A League of Our Own: Empowerment of Sport Consumers Through Fantasy Sports Participation

Introduction

While estimations concerning the exact size and scope of the fantasy sports industry vary, what remains unchallenged is its status as a maturing industry connected to large portions of leisure time and activity, escalating numbers of participants, and increasing marketplace fertility (Janoff, 2005). Janoff (2005) and Fisher (2007) estimated fantasy sports to be a $2 billion industry in 2005, including website fees, game add-on features, videogames, and so on. Less well known are the underlying dynamics of the unique market of fantasy players and the major transformations occurring within the fantasy sports business (Russo & Walker, 2006). The explosion of popularity in fantasy sports participation and the dearth of research about it create a need for investigation in this relatively new form of sport spectatorship (Davis & Duncan, 2006), not to mention new challenges for marketers, media companies, and others within the sport industry who wish to capitalize on the fantasy sports audience (Russo & Walker, 2006).

The purpose of this chapter is to propose a conceptual framework for marketers to utilize in their examinations of influences on the consumption of fantasy sports by postmodern sports fans. The framework is based on literature from psychology, sociology, sport management/marketing, general management/marketing, and consumer behavior.