The Evolution of the Fantasy Sports Industry

As we are inside an hour away from another action-packed Sunday of NFL Football, we also near another Sunday of fantasy football.  While fantasy sports have been around for quite some time now, they have really taken off in the last five to ten years with lots of fantasy publications, websites, a TV show on ESPN2 on Sunday mornings before kickoff, NFL Redzone, and even satellite radio programs have came along.  I caught up with Adam Ronis who writes for Rotoexperts.com and also hosts one of those satellite radio programs on Sirus XM weekdays from 7-10 to discuss how and why fantasy sports have became so popular.

Much like anyone else, Ronis was surprised at how much the industry has grown.  “It’s definitely surprising how much the industry has grown.  I’ve always wanted to do radio but I never thought I would have been for fantasy,” Ronis said.

Ronis believes the growing popularity can be attributed to lots of diehard fans whose appetite for more fantasy coverage always seems to increase.  Fantasy sports have taken off to the point where it’s a whole new world.  There’s the real world where winning and losing is predicated upon the success or lack thereof of teams and then there’s the fantasy world where winning and losing is dependent totally on the individual’s performance.

With so many fans engrossed in the fantasy world as they are the real sports world nowadays, it begs the question…Would a channel like NFL RedZone, where all they do is show scoring plays and teams getting close to crossing the goal line, even exist without fantasy football?

“Probably not,” Ronis said.  “I think it’s a great tool for fantasy players because they want to see who’s about to score.  I think that’s huge in the fantasy community,” he added.  But for fantasy enthusiasts there’s a lot more to it than the weekly indulgence of football on Sundays.

Ronis said that Rotoexperts does a great job with fantasy baseball and baseball is one of their most popular services aside from football.  Football and baseball seem to be the more popular fantasy sports but basketball has been growing a lot in the fantasy community.  In addition to basketball, Ronis said there are a lot of daily games offered on Rotoexperts which offer fantasy aficionados yet another way of diving deeper into the world of fantasy sports.

Moving forward, believe it or not, Ronis believes there’s room for even more growth.   He noted that Rotoexperts is working on a TV station and with lots of media outlets on the internet now he believes that the industry can continue to thrive.  But he did say that he feels that some of these outlets aren’t having the success they expected.

“Unless you’re a big site you’re not making money,” said Ronis.  While this is true, as most people look to ESPN, Yahoo, and other big name sites for their fantasy services, it could drive these other smaller sites to think outside the box.  There seems to be a lot of new stuff in the fantasy world and in an industry that’s always evolving, it might help to try and be one step ahead of the game.

Logos:

http://rotoexperts.com/

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