Fantasy Sports Leagues Embrace the NFL, But Shun College Football
Company Executives Tell Gambling911 Why That’s So And Why It’s Changing
When it comes to legal sports wagering at Las Vegas sportsbooks, more money is wagered on pro football than any other sport.
The NFL is No. 1 for the books and always has been.
The second most popular sport to bet on at the Vegas books is college football, not surprising considering the overall popularity nationally of the game of football.
So why hasn't this affection for NCAA football translated to fantasy sports the way NFL football has?
Fantasy sports leagues, especially those that run daily fantasy sports contests, all do the NFL.
And most also do the NBA, the NHL and Major League Baseball.
Some even do golf and tennis.
Most, however, don't do college football.
In fact, one had to search hard and wide to find fantasy leagues this past season that had contests, either season-long or daily, that involved college football players.
For sure, there were some, but they were as rare as Eskimos in Alabama.
So why the reluctance of fantasy sports leagues to engage in a gambling-like activity with an NCAA entity?
Are the leagues afraid of the NCAA, which has as much affection for anything gambling as Chris Christie has for salads?
It turns out that's not the case.
ScoreStreak (www.scorestreak.com), based in suburban San Francisco, is one of the newer fantasy sports leagues in the nascent but quickly-prolifigating industry.
The company is finishing up a very successful season of contests involving the NFL.
ScoreStreak, however, had nothing to do with college football this past season.
So Gambling 911 interviewed ScoreStreak chief executive officer Ross Borden earlier this week and asked him why his company shuns NCAA football, as well as NCAA basketball for that matter.
"We included college football and college hoops contests in our early beta test trials last year and we found that there was far less interest in joining them, so we decided to focus on the big three--NFL, NBA and MLB--in the short term," Borden told Gambling 911.
"It makes sense that pro sports, which are full of individual stars, are so much more popular for fantasy sports. For instance, most hard-core sports fans could easily name 20 NFL quarterbacks, but might not be able to name even five or 10 college quarterbacks.
"And I think that is true for most sports fans. I personally am a huge college football and college hoops fan, but I don’t have anywhere near the same amount of knowledge about individual college players, even within my favorite conference."
Maximum Fantasy Sports (www.maximumfantasysports.com), based in Chicago, also ignores college football.
Gambling 911 earlier this week asked company co-founder Bill Parsons why.
"Maximum Fantasy Sports does not host college contests and I would think our reasoning is similar to many other companies," Parsons told Gambling 911. "The costs are quite a bit more since there are four times as many teams and the interest is far lower. While many NFL fans are college fans, the NFL ranks higher almost every single time.
"Since the college football season runs concurrently to the NFL, it is very difficult for players to find time for college games alongside pro games, due to the amount of time dedicated to weekly research for NFL players, who are more commonly known than college players.
"With college players turning over so much on a yearly basis, college research requirements are far greater. Add it all up and you will see a small base interested in playing college fantasy football, thus the lack of college fantasy football offerings."
Another successful fantasy operation that has nothing to do with college football is Star Fantasy Leagues (www.starfantasyleagues.com), based in Rochester, N.Y.
Gambling 911 talked to Star's chief operating officer, Seth Young, earlier this week and asked him why his company also took a pass on NCAA football this past season.
"The simple answer is that licensing statistics for sports like college football costs money," Young told Gambling 911.
But, he added, he's changing that tune.
"We have a license to use college football statistics and are planning on launching a college football product in 2015," he said.
Major League Fantasy (www.playmlf.com), is another successful new fantasy sports league based in suburban San Francisco that also shunned college football last season.
Gambling 911 interviewed Major League Fantasy owner Jesse Merl earlier this week to find out why.
"We do not currently offer college football, but that is only due to us having just launched," said Merl, whose company debuted in November.
That stance is changing, he said.
"We definitely will be offering college sports in the future," Merl told Gambling 911.
Look for more and more fantasy sports leagues that previously shunned college football to start embracing it next season.
After all, if Vegas can make money from it, why can't they?
By Tom Somach
Gambling911.com Staff Writer
