Safe to say that pretty much every sports fan has or currently has or has at some point had their own fantasy sports team. And then of course, there are those who by fantasy standards, have been in the GM business for years…Some actually have extra grey hairs from the pressures of being a GM, it truly does get that intense. Many Sportsbooks but not all, incorporate fantasy leagues at some level in the products they provide, and those that don’t, should probably start. Fantasy leagues are only growing in popularity and as the popularity and the intensity of fantasy sport grows so grows the opportunity for Sportsbooks to increase revenue made from proposition wagers.
Fantasy team owners are always watching the sports ticker. They know all the days stats of all their players and the best owners and fantasy GMs know the day’s stats on every one else as well. As such, Sportsbooks that offer extensive proposition wagers on individual player’s stats are more likely to attract those fantasy cats. And it’s easy to see why. The fantasy GM not only knows all the statistics but he also knows tendencies, he knows weaknesses, he knows when he’s due for a big game, or when he’s due for a piss poor performance. The fantasy GM has all the tools to really enjoy proposition bets, and in win them in many cases. The knowledge of an individual player’s past performances against certain teams, certain defenses, playing injured, or on short rest, or on a back to back night, is all known the good fantasy GM. It is that exact knowledge that is required to make great proposition bets.
Fantasy GM’s know their players like the back of their hands. It’s funny shit listening to a fantasy GM rant and rave over a player that’s not performing up to snuff. It’s even funnier to bust his balls about it.
With the delay of the UIGEA law and the almost daily changing face of the online gambling industry, it’s not too hard to picture a future partnership of fantasy sport with gambling. Fantasy leagues could easily transition to online wagering, allowing players to make proposition wagers on the players of their own team and the others in their league. It would increase the competition and the excitement of the experience, and the bragging rights would be legendary once money gets involved. As the fantasy trend continues to grow year after year, it not only gets a little easier for some of us vets to do well in our leagues…but it becomes increasingly more of a market waiting to be tapped into by online wagering. Many sports bettors who are big time fantasy players have been waiting for that day for a long time; the day when their fantasy league has so much real money flowing around it that it actually is as close to the real world GM life as possible…Might be getting a little ahead of ourselves, but it’s an interesting concept to consider, particularly if online gambling ever becomes legalized or regulated.
Fuck, I wish they had that right now, Chris Johnson would be running me all the way to the bank!
