Fantasy Sports

Fantasy sports have gotten to be a big part of sports in the past decade.  Chapter fourteen of Billings, Butterworth, and Turman’s book Sport and Communication talks about four different types of motivations for fantasy sports participants.  First would be the people who play for the camaraderie of it.  This type of person plays because they want to be a part of something that many other people are doing at their work, in their family, at their gym, etc.  As one that enjoys the camaraderie, you want to keep up with your team so you can share in that same rhetoric.  The second motivation would be that enhanced enjoyment.  This type of participant plays in order to make games more meaningful and provides more of a focus to what you’re watching.  In other words, you are watching games and rooting for your hometown/favorite team as well as watching your fantasy players closely.  The third factor in fan motivation would be autonomy.  This is the very simple and common idea that you could run a team better than your team’s current coach/general manager.  It’s a thought that is in all of our heads, especially when we as fantasy owners make an ingenious pick up of a player who ends up having an unexpected, break out season.  The final motivation for fantasy players is that addiction aspect.  There are certainly many people out there that have become addicted to fantasy sports; I may even be considered one of them.  Some addicts start betting large amounts of money on their fantasy leagues, games, etc.  Others just put a massive amount of their time and effort into it.

            So, those were the four motivations of fantasy participants that were the main focus of chapter fourteen.  They compare extremely well to the Sport Fan Continuum that was discussed all the way back in chapter three.  There are three fan types in the continuum.  Social fans are those who are just into the game or the sport simply for the interaction and connection with the other fans.  Focused fans are those who have a moderate investment with a particular team or sport.  The vested fans are those with significant emotional attachment to the success/failure of their favorite teams.

            I believe strong comparisons can be made between the motivations for fantasy participants and the fan sport continuum.  First off, the person who participates in fantasy sports for camaraderie would be similar to the social fan in the continuum.  They both play and watch their sports/fantasy sports in order to participate in a certain rhetoric and interact with others in that particular group.  This would be people who love to tailgate with their friends more than actually watching the game, just like these people at this Steelers tailgate outside of Heinz Field.

The next motivation would be enhanced enjoyment, and that would most appropriately compare to the focused fan in the continuum.  Both types of people are focused on particular things within the sport they are watching.  These are the fans that really take their time and study, study, study for a fantasy football draft, or take time to really analyze how your favorite team did in their last game like these people are all doing in the picture below.

The third comparison would be the addiction motivation to the vested fan on the continuum.  These types of people would be those highly invested in their teams, sports, and fantasy teams.  They are the people who dress up in crazy costumes for all the games they go to in order to support their favorite team, just like these Seattle Seahawks fans are doing in this picture.

Since there are four motivations for fantasy participants and only three aspects on the sport fan continuum, I would insert autonomy in between the focus and vested fan.  These are the people who think they can do better at creating a winning team.  They aren’t necessarily a vested fan, but they are certainly more than just a focused fan.  The comparisons that can be made between the motivations for play and the sport fan continuum are pretty cool to see.  This shows how sport communication works pretty similarly in most aspects of a sport culture.