Call me naive, fanatical, crazy or both but I love Fantasy Sports (Football especially) and I do not want to see anything ruin this excellent obsession of mine. So when I read Oskar Garcia's Associated Press article "Daily fantasy sports become a gambling reality" yesterday I cringed (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jElxdNKNquIets1aE3)izojKIyx1AD9IEH90O0.
The lead sentence is..."Sports fans are betting online each night on athlete's performances -- and its all legal". Talk about throwing somebody under a bus. That loud oooooofffffffff sound was the fantasy sports world being sucker punched.
Then I thought, "maybe nobody read it". A quick google search revealed 1.5 milion hits and the top page were references to sites that posted the article (NBC Sports, Yahoo, some Las Vegas TV stations, a Taiwan newspaper etc). It is safe to say the cat is out of the bag.
Why am I so upset? Because it is a big problem when you associate gambling and fantasy sports. I have to force my fingers to use them in the same sentence even if it is just to point out that they should not be there and it is a issue to do so. It is a slippery slope that divides gambing and fant... well you know what.
The 2006 Anti Gambling carve out language specificially for fantasy sports, in my opinion, was for season long fantasy sports operations, not daily operations (which were not in existence at that time). I hope the websites and gamers who have moved into this daily fantasy sports arena have not endangered all of fantasy sports.
I consider daily playing and winning to NOT be fantasy sports. In fact, after reading some examples in the article it sounds more like day trading than fantasy sports. Fantasy sports is a season long endeavour to win. Daily wagering and winning seems to me to be more gambling than fantasy sports. There I said it. If you want my opinion playing for a single event seems like betting. Anyone who has played fantasy football for any length of time knows that on any given sunday a team or player can have inconsistent performances. But the true test is evaluating and drafting players for a season long contest.
I will admit I have not thought this whole thing out and I love player props just as much as the next guy. But when I play a prop it is at Veags not through some "fantasy sports" site. I play fantasy sports at the FFPC, WCOFF and NFFC and these are season long contests. I would hate to see real fantasy contests such as these suffer because others are taking advantage of the fantasy sports industry to "bend the rules" whether that be the spirit or letter of the law.
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Fantasy Football Basics: The Ultimate "How to" Guide for Beginners available ($10.95, now just $7.39 33% off) at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/0982428634
Fantasy Football Guidebook (2nd Edition): Your Comprehensive Guide to Playing Fantasy Football ($19.95, now 10% off at $17.95) http://www.amazon.com/dp/0982428650
Fantasy Football Almanac 2010: Your Essential Fantasy Football Reference Guide. Order at amazon.com ($10.95 but now 20% off at $8.76) (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0982428618
Fantasy Baseball for Beginners ($10.95 Pre Order at 32% off for $7.38 only at BN http://tinyurl.com/32ogh9t)
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