What is "fantasy football"

n. A competition in which participants select combinations of football players in a real league and score points according to their performance.

Fantasy football is a reality-based recreational activity in which the participants of a fantasy football league serve as the general managers of virtual professional football teams. The competitors choose their team rosters by participating in a draft in which all National Football League players (or Canadian Football League players, depending on the league) are available. Points are based on the actual performances of the players in real-world competition.

There are two main types of fantasy football:

• Traditional, which is mostly run by amateurs and in which the competition can run either for an entire season or many seasons if it is a keeper league, or
• Daily, an accelerated version in which the contests are conducted over shorter periods, such as a week or a single day.

Daily fantasy football is managed by commercial internet companies who charge a percentage of each betting pool. In the US, the two largest of these firms are FanDuel and DraftKings.

Fantasy football may refer to one of the following fantasy sports:

• Fantasy American football
• Fantasy association football
• Fantasy Australian rules football

Fantasy football may also refer to:

• Fantasy football (board games), a genre of board game involving two teams of fantasy races competing in an extremely violent variant of football
• Fantasy Football League, a British television programme

Fantasy football (less commonly referred to as fantasy association football worldwide but known as fantasy soccer in the United States) is a game in which participants assemble an imaginary team of real life footballers and score points based on those players' actual statistical performance or their perceived contribution on the field of play. Usually players are selected from one specific division in a particular country, although there are many variations. The original game was created in Italy by Riccardo Albini in 1990, after seeing the success of American fantasy sports games in the eighties, then introduced in England by Andrew Wainstein the following year, when Fantasy League Ltd was set up. Fantasy football has evolved in recent years from a simple recreational activity into a significant business due to exposure via the internet.

An emerging variant is club-based fantasy football in which participants select players from within their own club. Participating clubs typically have more than one football team and adopt club fantasy football to increase communication and banter between teams. Some clubs charge a nominal amount for players to enter a team and either use the proceeds as a fundraiser or to fund the fantasy league prizes. Club fantasy football leagues tend to be less sophisticated than the national variety since most clubs run them on a spreadsheet. Niche sports websites now offer online versions with both paid and free versions available.

Fantasy football is a genre of board game or wargame which normally involves two teams of fantasy races (such as elves, dwarves or orcs) competing in an extremely violent variant of gridiron football. Violent future sports such as Rollerball may also be classified as fantasy football. However, this is less likely. Often the only resemblance to gridiron football for many fantasy football games is to get the ball into an end zone or goal, but these games still fall under the fantasy football genre.

The most famous of fantasy football games is Games Workshop's Blood Bowl series.

Fantasy football is a fantasy sport in which competitors score points based on the performance of players in the Australian Football League. The two biggest competitions are the Herald Sun's Supercoach competition and the AFL's Dream Team competition. Both games are designed and run by Vapormedia.

Other competitions include Fox Sport's Fantasy AFL, Yahoo!7's AFL Football Fantasy, Footytips, Ultimate Footy and FantasyFooty.net.au (formally My Fantasy Footy).