Responsible Fantasy Football

   

The NFL football season is here and if you’re like me, that means so is Fantasy Football! While some people are out there comparing the betting bonus options for the real deal, people like me are spending time on the fantasy version.

In the past, I have played with zero investment and the payoff was bragging rights. But this year our commissioner decided it was a $20 buy in to play. I think that is a reasonable amount to both incorporate in a dollar amount to the competition and to make the experience more competitive. Especially since I found out that on average people spend $107 on fantasy football: Deal News.

Furthermore, we decided to do payouts for 1st 2nd and 3rd place which would be $120, $50 and $30 respectively. This also makes sense so that teams continue to be competitive even if during the course of the season their ranking does not allow them to win it all. So if you record is not the best throughout the year, you can still possibly enter into the playoffs and come in 2nd or 3rd place.

Fantasy Football – The Basics

Wait so what exactly is fantasy football you ask. Well, in a nutshell, you get together with some other friends, family, co-workers, and pick a team of real players in the NFL on a computer. Then once your team is set, you play with the other participants’ teams in your league. The same might also go for the upcoming FM22, where you pick players from say, FM22 wonderkids shortlist, and then play with them on a custom dashboard or so.

Here’s an example of what two teams could look like:

Position DangeRuss Wilson Fumblelicious
QB Russell Wilson Aaron Rodgers
RB Todd Gurley Mark Ingram
RB David Johnson Adrian Peterson
WR Odell Beckham Jr. Antonio Brown
WR Steve Smith Sr. Julian Edelman
TE Tyler Eifert Rob Gronkowski
K Justin Tucker Graham Gano
DEF Denver Arizona
Source: SMM

Websites like Yahoo offer the capability to create or join an existing league.

I remember when we weren’t playing for money, some of the participants would be lazy with their teams (e.g., not update their players on the team’s bye week and not replace injured players with replacements). So when I played those teams I was almost sure to win…but the win was not as satisfying because my opponent did not have a real incentive to work hard in setting up his team’s lineup.

On the other end of the spectrum are sites like Draft Kings and Fan Duel. I admit I was enticed by their ad to be able to win hundreds of thousands of dollars. I thought, hey I think I know enough to win some of that.

Last year I spent about $10 on one of these but realized it wasn’t really for me. To not get into a lot of detail, you are basically playing with other people on the internet each week and picking a different team. Higher ranked players cost more to buy, so the more you spend the more chances you have of winning, I think. But it’s not an exact science.

The main drawback for me was that I was playing against people I don’t even know so it was missing this human element and thus lacked a certain satisfaction.

Drafting and Adding and Removing Players

So in fantasy football, there is an initial draft in the beginning of the season where you pick the players you want. If you aren’t super-knowledgeable about all the players or positions or just don’t feel conformable drafting, you can let the system (such as Yahoo Fantasy or ESPN Fantasy) pick the players for you via Auto Draft.

Then each week your players perform and depending on how they do your team earns points. For example, if a running back scores a touchdown, it could be worth six points. If a defense has a sack, it could be worth three points.

You play other teams within your league throughout the season. As players are injured, you’ll receive notifications and can go and replace them depending on who is available to pick up in the remaining players within your fantasy league.

A Little Money & A Lot of Fun

In order to play fantasy football responsibly, my take is to invest both a small amount of money and time. This way you’ll be able to enjoy it enough and not let it consume your daily life. For myself, I set the amount limit at $20 to play in a league and the time limit to 30 minutes per week researching players, setting my line up, adding and dropping, etc.

Twenty dollars is a small amount to invest for about 4 months of fun. And that’s the whole point about playing responsibly; to wager an amount in which you wouldn’t feel much of anything if you lost it. Consider the amount a tool to spark your interest in playing fantasy football.

Even if you’re in debt a little bit and haven’t saved as much as you’d like, I would still say investing maybe $5 to $10 in a Fantasy Football league could provide some fun and relieve stress.

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