1. + A Look into the
Social Media Aspects of
By Caroline Early

2. +
How it all began…
Login to an actual fantasy league page here.

3. +
History of Fantasy Football
- Started in 1962 – Oakland
- Originally was just something to bring fans and their money together
to analyze the Oakland Raiders Football games
- League consisted of 8 teams (members) then a commissioner and a
secretary to handle the trading and money all on paper
- Bull Tunnel (Raiders PR Representative) and Scotty Starline
(Tribune Reporter) made the first unofficial rule book– which became
the official rulebook for modern day Fantasy Football
- An original member must either be:
1. An administrative affiliate of the AFL
2. A journalist with direct relation to pro football
3. Someone who has purchased or sold 10 season tickets for
the Raiders' 1963 season
- In 1969– Fantasy Football went public in Kings X Sports Bar in
Oakland
- Kings X continues to be a Fantasy Headquarter today hosting 6 Live
leagues and even a Queens Division (all women)

4. +
Statistics of Fantasy Football...

5. +
- Over 30 million online players
- 6.5 million are women
- On average, players spend $110 on their team a year
- All online therefore you can play with complete strangers, or start a
league on your own with your friends
- More statistics

6. +
An Abundance of Leagues…

7. +
Pick „Em Leagues
 This format is offered on all
fantasy sites (yahoo, ESPN,
AOL, Sandbox)
 Easiest, least time consuming
version of Fantasy
 Traditional gambling sense, you
just pick the team you think will
win

8. +
Salary Cap League
 Player acts as a virtual owner with
a virtual bank account and receive
point for individual athlete
performance in game
 You have to keep up with trades
and manage your team on a strict
budget to try and build the best
outcome for each match up on a
weekend
 Yahoo! Offers this free, however it
can reach up to $20 on Sandbox
 Average salary per week is $75
million (fake money)

9. +
Full Fantasy Football
 Most popular, most time
consuming
 Can be played head to head like
pick‟em leagues, or like a salary
cap league
 Hosts a Draft – length and time to
be decided by league officials
 You chose who you want, has to fill
certain position requirements, and
you can also sign a number of
your players up for multiple
seasons, like a real manager
 Free on Yahoo! But can get pricey
on the other sites
 Individual leagues set buy in prices

10. +
It‟s life in the Groundswell

11. +
An Overview…
Compliments of Socialmention.com

12. +
More Overview…
Google Trends mapped the
past 90 days
Only popular in areas where
football is popular

13. +
It‟s life on Yahoo!
 Fantasy Football has brought more users to Yahoo! After
Google had taken a lot of its popularity away
 In 2006 it was revealed that "Fans spend more time on Yahoo!
Sports than any other sports site" according to comScore
Media Metrix
 Yahoo! Competes for viewership and participation with ESPN
and Sandbox, but has held a slight lead over both

14. +
Life on Twitter…
Fantasy Football has a very active life on Twitter. Players tweet about their
games, but also @YahooFantasyFootball has a Twitter and tweets stats
that could be used to change players rosters.

15. +
Life on Facebook…
 There is Fantasy 2012 app on
Facebook that allows user to
link their fantasy team from
Yahoo to their Facebook
 Players often leave messages
to each other on Facebook

16. +
Life on YouTube
 Series of Videos being posted weekly for comedy purpose, but revolve
around Fantasy Football.
 People post videos of their own teams drafts
 Commercials get posted to YouTube that also get displayed online
about Fantasy Football
 Even more topics about fantasy football

17. +
It‟s expansion into the Groundswell
according to Li and Bernoff…

18. +
Listening and Talking
 Yahoo! Does a great job of taking feedback from players over
the years to build what Fantasy Football has become today
 November 11, 2012 – Yahoo! Servers crashed and no one
could access their Fantasy. Yahoo! Listened to everything
players had to say and fixed the problem, and sent out an
apology from Ken Fuchs (head of Yahoo! Sports)
 Gives appropriate space to leave comments to Yahoo! About
the Fantasy Leagues

19. +
Energizing
 Yahoo! Sports has outdone itself energizing it‟s Fantasy
Leagues.
 There are commercials during sports games, souvenirs you
can buy about fantasy, they have opened in all gateways
including a phone app
 There hired “Fantasy Experts” to keep players informed who
host blogs and keep stat books

20. +
Supporting and Embracing
 The support system is great because it allows so many
avenues for players to communicate with one another
 The embracement's to allow players to build off of ideas and
communicate right to Yahoo! Has been great because of all the
blogs and open forums
 It is really all online, and it‟s quick popularity and structure
represents the strong presence it holds in the groundswell

21. +
The Marketing Funnel
 Fantasy Football became so popular because it used the
simple marketing strategy of the funnel to jump into the online
community

22. +
How to profit from free venues

23. +
Social Media Economics
 In order to keep something like this going there needs to be
money
 Social Media Economics article by Readwrite mentions how
there are underlying costs for additives that can really build up
 Stat tracker
 In addition to these extras, there are market for advertising on
these sites to earn money, and also with growing popularity
these online entities can branch out
 The product is you (social media today)

24. +
Fantasy Football moves offline…

25. +
The League FX
Very popular TV show about a group of friends and their private
Fantasy Football League
Provides Accurate Description of life in a league

26. +
Television Commercials

27. +
Bibliography
 Aliff, N. (n.d.). Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football. Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football. Retrieved
November 21, 2012, from http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/?lid=332315
 Hunt, M. (n.d.). HowStuffWorks "Fantasy Football History". HowStuffWorks
"Entertainment". Retrieved November 21, 2012, from
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/fantasy-football1.htm
 Email. (n.d.). ReadWrite – Social Media Economics: The Science for Social Success.
ReadWrite – Web Apps, Web Technology Trends, Social Networking and Social Media.
Retrieved November 21, 2012, from
http://readwrite.com/2011/02/15/social_media_economics_the_science_for
 Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2008). Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social
technologies. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Press.
 Schiller, M. (n.d.). Web Economics: The Product is You! | Social Media Today. Social media
news, strategy, tools, and techniques | Social Media Today. Retrieved November 21, 2012,
from http://socialmediatoday.com/node/625921
 Yahoo! Sports - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Retrieved November 21, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org