Matt Dumont

Annotated Bibliography
Dr. Smith
12/5/17
Are Fantasy Sports Relevant?
In APA Style

Fantasy Sports, whether they are yearly or daily have become an important part of the

lives of many individuals. Fantasy sports can be seen anywhere today in ways such as articles

online or in magazines, or shows on TV. Due to the fact that it is so important to people, I feel

that fantasy sports are in fact very relevant to the world today.

Berry, M. (2013). Fantasy Life. New York City, New York: Riverhead Books

In the book, Matthew Berry just gives different stories that people submitted about their

fantasy sports lives while tying them into his personal life story. In one of the stories a man

literally runs across a war zone overseas just so he can change his fantasy lineup. Another kid

bribes a college bus driver to get to the library faster so he can draft his team. This book gives a

good look into people’s lives and how seriously they take fantasy sports. The book is a

combination of primary and secondary sources, which helps the reader see their lives from both

an inside position and an outside view. This was a good book to read as it helped me realize how

import fantasy sports are to people. I play fantasy sports, but I do not take it nearly as seriously

as the people in the book do. Fantasy sports are very relevant in these people’s lives and it shows

how relevant fantasy sports are to society as a whole.

Barbarisi, D. (2017). Dueling with Kings. New York City, New York: Simon and Schuster.
 The part of the book that we read for class talked about how Daniel Barbarisi was a

writer for The Wall Street Journal covering the New York Yankees. He discovered daily fantasy

sports and quickly became addicted to the game. He became so obsessed that he ended up

leaving his job so he could put more time into doing research to select who he wanted on his

team. The problem that hurt him the most was that he was successful at first, if he had lost

money at the start he would not have become as addicted to daily fantasy as he did. This seems

to be a problem with a lot of people who are successful at first with different things. This was a

good primary source because it came straight from him. It made it easier to connect as a reader

because you were getting first hand experiences with the story that he was telling. I feel that this

is a good reason as to why fantasy sports is relevant. If a man is willing to leave his job as a beat

writer, I feel that fantasy sports has a large impact on peoples lives.

Fortunato, J. (2011, September) The Relationship of Fantasy Football Participation with NFL

Television Rankings. Retrieved December 8, 2017 from:

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jsas/6776111.0003.114/--relationship-of-fantasy-football-

participation-with-nfl?rgn=main;view=fulltext

This article talks about fantasy sports in connection with Nielsen TV ratings for prime-

time football games on national television. In the charts that they provided the games with a

higher amount of players on fantasy teams playing in the game got higher ratings than the games

with fewer fantasy owned players playing. It could be that it was just better teams playing in the

game that led to a higher TV rating but at the end of the document they talk about there was a

statistically significant correlation between the fantasy owned percentage and the TV rating. It is

a pretty useful source seeing how all the data was collected and presented in an easy to

understand format. All the data was collected from an outside source, so it was a secondary
source. Seeing how it showed that there was a correlation between the fantasy percentage and the

TV ratings, it is safe to say that fantasy is impacting the NFL in a major way. If fantasy leads to

more viewership of the games being played than NFL will be much more successful than if

fantasy did not exist. In this way this article is a good reason as to why fantasy sports are relevant

because they help keep viewership up for games that would not have had high viewership in the

first place.

Putnam, R. (2000). Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital. New York City, New

York: Simon and Schuster

Bowling Alone talks about how society has changed in a way in that there is less social

interaction nowadays than back in the 1960’s. The main example that he used was bowling. The

number of bowlers increased 10% from 1980 to 1998 but the amount of league bowlers dropped

40%. This may seem like it has nothing to do with fantasy sports but it actually does. Fantasy

sports are bringing back the social interaction element of life but it is through message boards

and trade negotiations. People may be keeping to themselves as a whole but when it comes to

fantasy sports they are interacting more than the average individual. Technology is the reason

why there is less interaction but it is also the reason for the rise in fantasy sports. Now that more

people have access to the internet and people can change their lineups from their phone they are

more likely to participate in fantasy sports. This was a good source because it was not about

fantasy sports. Most of the articles on fantasy sports tend to choose a side on whether it is

important or not. With this article not being about fantasy sport it makes it easier to take the

paper for what it is; an interpretation of what social interaction has become. This article shows

how interaction between people has changed which makes leads me to realize how relevant

fantasy sports are because it is becoming one of the few aspects of social interactions that we see
today. This may be a different way to look at how relevant fantasy sports are in the world today,

compared to a source that talks about fantasy sports exclusively.

Fantasy Sports Trade Association. (2017, December 8) Industry Demographics. Retrieved:

December 9, 2017 from: https://fsta.org/research/industry-demographics/

The source is a list of the statistics about fantasy sports and it users. It gives numbers like

the number of fantasy sport participants in the United States and Canada, for instance the number

of users has jumped from 28.4 million back in 2009 to 59.3 in 2017. It also talks about the

amount of money that people are spending on fantasy sports nowadays. In 2012 the average

fantasy player was spending $80 a year compared to 2016 where the average amount spent on

fantasy sports was $556. It gives a chart of numbers about the percentage of Americans that play

fantasy sports. 21% of people older than 12 years old play at least one form of fantasy sports

according to the site. The site is pretty reliable because all the numbers are gathered and put

together. If I was a paid member of the fantasy sports trade association I could have gotten even

more numbers that would have broke down the usage of fantasy sports even more. The one thing

that is not reliable about the source is the fact that it is the FSTA so they are only going to talk

about how fantasy sports are good and popular amongst the general public. I believe that with the

numbers given it shows that fantasy sports are very relevant. Anything that gets over 1/5 of the

population to participate in must be very relevant and important. If as a person I am willing to

spend over $500 on something I must be pretty invested in it and I must find it important to me.

The demographics page on the FSTA website is just more proof as to why fantasy sports are

relevant in todays society.

International Journal of Sport Management, Recreation, and Tourism. (2010) Examining the

Psychological Factors Associated with Involvement in Fantasy Sports: An Analysis of

 Participants’ Motivations and Constraints. Retrieved December 9, 2017 from:

http://www.ijsmart.eu/onlinepic/vol5_1%20Choonghoon.pdf

This article is all about why people play or do not play fantasy sports. The survey was

given to undergrads at Indiana University back in 2010 to analyze what was going to help

fantasy sports take off. I was a survey and questionnaire that had you rate on a scale of 1 to 5 on

how important certain aspects of fantasy sports were to people. Some of the reasons that got high

scores were that people enjoyed drafting their own team and that they felt a sense of

accomplishment when their team did well. The survey is somewhat skewed because it was only

given to kids approximately 18-25 who went to school at Indiana. They chose to do the study on

people that age because they are the ones that are going to influence the future of fantasy sport

the most but if they had done it for different age groups they could have gotten a more accurate

representation as to why people play or do not play fantasy sports. The information is accurate

though which allows the source to be credible. This source shows that fantasy sports are relevant

because it gives the reasons why people play fantasy sports. One of the higher scores was that it

allowed people to interact with their friends and family more. Since the article was release

fantasy sport participation has rose drastically which allows people to think that fantasy sports

are relevant in their lives.

Last Week Tonight (November 5, 2015). Daily Fantasy Sports: Last Week with John Oliver

[Video File] Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq785nJ0FXQ

This video is all about whether daily fantasy sports are gambling or not. John Oliver is

the host for his show Last Week which is on HBO. His show normally covers things that are

trending in the news and is mostly focused around politics. In this episode he uses satire to mock

the daily fantasy sports world by pointing out how obvious it is that DFS is gambling in every
sense of the word. He references other sources such as the Frontline documentary on the world

for daily fantasy sport mixed with sport gambling. The source is very credible considering the

amount of research that the show does on their own end to make sure that the stuff topics that he

is talking about are accurate. If they did not produce a credible show they would never last on the

air because not many people would trust what they are saying. It is a secondary source because

all the information was gathered from sources outside of the show, but all the information is

good. The episode did come out in November of 2015, so it may not be as accurate with the

argument on whether daily fantasy sports are gambling or not as compared to if the show was

made today. The show shows a relevance in fantasy sports because it is talking about it on a

platform that is made for larger topics in todays world. If fantasy sports were not relevant they

would never talk about it on the show.

Connata-Bowman, N (2015, September 14) ‘The League’: What this TV Show did for Fantasy

Football. Retrieved December 9, 2017 from:

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/the-league-what-this-tv-show-did-for-fantasy-

football.html/?a=viewall

In this article it talks about how the tv show The League helped fantasy football gain

popularity while fantasy football helped the show gain popularity at the same time. It does not go

into much detail about the show itself, but it says why it may be so popular. They say a reason

why the show is popular is the fact that you can connect with a least one of the characters on a

personal level. The source is not that reliable of a source because it is just someone’s opinion

about the show and its rise to popularity. I honestly do not believe that the show caused fantasy

football to become more popular but I feel it did not hurt it as well. The rise in fantasy football

was caused by the rise in handheld devices that made it easier to play fantasy sports. The article
may not prove how relevant fantasy sports are but the show does as a whole. If a show can last 7

seasons with a topic of fantasy football, people must at least find a little bit of interest in it. The

shows popularity shows that fantasy sports are relevant at least in a pop culture sense.

ESPN (August 30, 2017) 2017 Fantasy Breakout Players: The Fantasy Show with Matthew

Berry [Video File] Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdZE6fhl0tM

The video is a clip from an episode of The Fantasy Show with Matthew Berry. This

particular episode does not have a huge part in why fantasy sports are relevant, but the show as a

whole definitely does. The show premiered this year in August and goes for the entire NFL

season. The show comes on at 5 pm every weekday during the season. The reason why the show

shows a relevance in fantasy sports is the fact that the show even exists. If fantasy sports were

not relevant ESPN would not create a show that talks about it. They especially would not put it at

the time that they did. 5 pm is not exactly prime-time but it is at a time where a lot of people may

be getting home so it can get more viewership. Matthew Berry is one of the reasons that there

was a rise in fantasy sports. He was one of the first fantasy writers to gain popularity and he even

left his job as a writer in Hollywood to change over to fantasy sport writing. If the show gets

brought back next season I feel it proves that fantasy sports are relevant at least in the sport

world.

ESPN (April 20, 2010) ESPN 30 for 30: Silly Little Game [Video File] Retrieved from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG4EkSvuLm4

The video is about the people who created fantasy baseball. It talks about how it all came to be

through the use of box scores found in the newspaper compared to having it pre-done for you

like today. The first every Rotisserie fantasy baseball league had 10 people and now there are
over 30 million people who play fantasy sports at the time of the video. They created the first

ever draft and started trading players for things that were not involved with the league itself. I

feel this is a good source because it is primary with all the stories coming from the people who

created fantasy baseball themselves. The video is made to be funny with the portrayals of the

characters but I feel that just resembles fantasy sports as a whole: a giant joke. I feel that this

documentary proves that fantasy sports are relevant more than any other. One of the head guys of

the league created the stat WHIP which is walk and hits divided by innings pitched. This is now

one of the most popular stats in all of baseball in determining how good a pitcher really is. The

sport of fantasy literally changed the real game of baseball. If a fake or fantasy subject can

change or affect a real one then it must be very relevant.

In conclusion, due to the sources provided above I have come to the conclusion that

fantasy sports are extremely relevant in todays society. Whether it be a TV show based upon the

lives of people playing fantasy sports, or fantasy sports creating one of the most important stats

in baseball used today. Fantasy sport may have hit a plateau in its growth faze but it is only

gaining popularity in the social world. Until the government comes out and takes a stance on

whether or not daily fantasy sports are gambling or not, it will continue to be in the media which

only adds to its relevance.