Thousands of wild baseball fans participate in fantasy games through The National Fantasy Baseball Championship, but one man wins. Twice.
Lindy Hinkelman has won two of the last three contests in this "league," and he has earned over $300,000 in prize money. When he's not acting as a fantasy manager, he's farming pigs in Greencreek, Idaho.
The small town farmer credits a lot of his success to his experience on the farm:
"Raising pigs and this baseball thing really go together. There are certain things in farming: keeping track of productivity, indexes for your sows, the genetic lines there. To do well, you’ve got to be pretty proficient in numbers. Math has always been my strong suit. I can see things with the numbers."
Fantasy sports got their start in 1980, but the concept really caught on with the boom of the internet. The fantasy sports association says that about 13 million people currently play fantasy baseball, second only to fantasy football.
What does this say about society as both sports reporters and sports watchers? It is a crazy phenomenon that is financially paying off for fans. Think of it this way: Hinkelman made more money off of fantasy championships than most reporters, stadium workers and other employees in the industry.
In some ways, this fantasy obsession benefits the sports industry: more people are watching, paying attention and tracking games. With their fantasy team on the line, fans now watch the games of all teams, not just their own. At the same time, does this desire to win a fantasy game kill the essence of watching a game in the first place? Is it creating the wrong kind of fans?
I personally think fantasy football has hurt the NFL. I enjoy watching college football more because I don't have anyone in my ear talking about how they need such-and-such a player to score a meaningless touchdown so he can win his fantasy league.
ReplyDeleteFor the NFL, it has been fantastic. More people watch makes for more ad revenue, and the leagues themselves are either paid or ad-driven. Lots of new money, so it will stick around. It also makes fans feel that they have control over the game, while being less risky than gambling. People love it.
One thing I'm always impressed by is the range of stories that appear on the class blog. Good find, Meagan!
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