The biggest takeaway from this week's articles is the influence that fantasy sports now have over an individuals sports consumption experience. What stuck out to me the most came from Participation in Internet Fantasy Sports Leagues and Mass Media Use. The article asserted that Fantasy sports are changing the game because they are speeding up the immediacy with which people need their fantasy sports news. The article talked about how in the past it was common practice to get your fix of sports news by waiting for the sports report during the local news, or by reading the sports section in the paper. In today's society that is no longer the case.
We are given access to things such as 24 hour sports networks, comprehensive sports websites and mobile applications with the ability to feed us sports updates periodically and on command. All of these things changed the way the common citizens interacts with sports news, but the phenomenon of fantasy sports has served to speed up the process even more. People need their fantasy news with extreme speed and in a timely manner to allow them to adjust rosters and make transactions on the fly. There is some flexibility with fantasy football because of the time in between games, but even fantasy football has fans constantly checking depth charts and injury reports. However, take into consideration baseball, and basketball who play their games much more frequently making it literally a daily practice for fantasy players. This need has made it so that the consumers of journalism are the ones in control. They dictate when they need the information.
We also see fantasy sports playing a huge role in the marketability of sports. The articles touched on the fact that fantasy sports are bringing a new crop of fans to sports and to specific teams that perhaps weren't there before. We see boosts in ratings because owners need to see not only their favorite team play, but also the players on their fantasy teams. Mass media outlets such as CBSSports and ESPN run fantasy leagues on their sites which increase the number of eyes on their sites while also boosting advertising dollars. Fantasy sports has become a billion dollar industry which coincides with sports and sports media while encompassing the time of millions of fantasy players.
Fantasy sports are certainly changing the game, and I believe its for the better.
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