Everything to Know Before Starting Season-Long Fantasy Sports Business

Now it’s the time when sports leagues have started getting back on track after a long break due to COVID-19 pandemic. Sports enthusiasts have been waiting for this time since long when they can buckle up and give a try to their luck for winning the fantasy sports leagues. In the past few years, fantasy sports has become one of those industries that has an unrivalled level of popularity and has witnessed a great change due to the advancement in technology and affinity of people towards fantasy gaming concept.

The concept of fantasy sports involves various aspects including line up creation, game types, game formats, etc. When talking about fantasy sports game formats, it includes daily/ Weekly fantasy sports and season-long fantasy sports. Let’s take a deep dive in the concept of season-long fantasy sports !

What are Season-Long Fantasy Sports?

When fantasy sports are played across an entire season, it is termed as season-long fantasy sports. It is a traditional game format in which a team is drafted in the season’s beginning and then their actions are followed every week. Creating a team and then moving them towards victory demands a great strategic acumen. Hence, dedicating multiple weeks for team drafting and strategizing & finally getting victory is a wonderful feeling for the sports fans. Since the inception of fantasy sports, season-long fantasy sports has emerged as a wonderful gaming concept which has completely transformed fantasy sports into a hobby-turned-obsession that has engaged multiple sports fans. In season-long game format, players draft an initial line-up of the potential players who have secured the maximum points throughout the season. The season-long fantasy sports involves assessment of the value of players, drafting a team, making roster cuts, starting lineup setup & negotiating for the upcoming blockbuster trade. Every member pools money which the winner takes in the end or a grand prize is offered by the league at season’s end. Prizes are also offered by the leagues for teams with maximum points and those who have secured second and third positions.

Industry Overview 

• Fantasy Sports has undoubtedly become one of the rapidly growing and lucrative industries in the 21st century.
• The market size of the fantasy sports industry is expected to reach 26400 million globally by the year 2024.
• As per Fox Business, nearly 59 million Canadians & Americans participate in the fantasy sports
• Among total players, nearly 58 million participate in season-long fantasy sports and 10 million play daily fantasy sports.
• Most of the men belonging to the age group 20-40 participate in fantasy sports which is a cream group of gaming enthusiasts that contribute in leveraging and building revenue streams for the fantasy sports industry.

Why Season-Long Fantasy Sports are Gaining Popularity?

Season-long fantasy sports not only proves to be a beneficial income model but it also assists in enhancing the value of your brand and advancing your user engagement. Fantasy sports enthusiasts find season-long exciting due to its ample of beneficiaries including:-

• Plethora of Drafts
  Multiple engaging draft types are supported in season-long game formats that include auction drafts, snake drafts and straight drafts. Your players can easily draft a winning team of players by employing the draft type of their choice. Thus it seems to be an interesting concept for the players.
• ADP or Average Draft Position
  Season-long game formats completely test the user’s passion as well as knowledge about the game. Users can use the concept of ADP or average draft position for their advantage which allows them to keep manipulating their drafts throughout the season based on how certain players get valued by the others & how they value such players. The strategy of users based on ADP helps them to strategize their selection and choose the unique players those who are falling in the drafts due to some injury or other reasons due to which others do not choose them but a user can count on that player as per the calculated risks.
• Engages New as well as Seasoned Players
  Season-long fantasy sports engages new as well as seasoned players as players get ample of time for researching, strategizing and altering their drafts throughout the season. Players spend multiple weeks and even months creating their drafts which also creates an opportunity for inviting and engaging their peers & friends to the platform.
• Scope for Bonuses & Rewards
  A seasoned player would not wait for the complete season to win and get the prize when there are additional reward earning opportunities present in the mid of the season. Various weekly prizes and side bets such as maximum points, highest record, etc are present for enabling the players to earn rewards and bonuses.
• Play-Off Challenges Postseason
  Even after the end of the leagues, there are some play off challenges after the season that allows them to determine the order of their drafts for the future drafts in next leagues. For example, if users pick some players who didn’t perform well and feel that they should have picked some other player they can get a second chance of choosing those players.

DFS vs Season-Long Fantasy Sports

When there are outlets like FanDuel and DraftKings that allow players to play for the cash, users ponder if playing season-long fantasy sports is still worthy. The answer is a big YES as there are many benefits of season-long fantasy sports & multiple distinguishing factors among DFS & Season-Long game formats.

Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS)	Season-Long Fantasy Sports
Team drafting is done for some specific day and not for the complete season.	Team is drafted mindfully for the entire season with season-long preparation.
Player Injuries, waiver wire and trades do not affect the DFS as it’s for a single day or short period.	Player injuries can affect the entire season of the leagues or matches.
Line up creations do not involve creating match-ups as players are not engaged for a longer period.	Match-ups of winning players with good history plays a crucial role in season-long fantasy sports.
This game format is well suited for the pro players who have enough skills to draft a winning team in a single day.	Season-long game formats suit seasoned as well as new players as they can strategize team drafting for longer duration.
Draft Types Supported : salary caps, pick’ems, auto draft, quick draft, etc	Draft Types Supported:- auction draft, live draft, offline draft, snake draft, etc

Key Terms in Season-Long Fantasy Sports

• Team Drafting
  Creating a team of the players based upon their player cards that includes playing history, skills and other crucial details which guide about the capabilities of a particular player is termed as team drafting.
• Bench Boost
  It is referred to a scenario when the points that are scored by the bench players of users in upcoming gameweek get included in the overall scores. It can be used just once in a complete season and it can also get cancelled any time before the deadline of the game week.
• Free Hit
  Free Hit allows users for making seamless transfers which applies to only for a single week. The actual squad gets returned by the next deadline. Free Hit is used only once in a season but it cannot get cancelled once it is played.
• Triple Captain
  It refers to the tripling of the captain points that are chosen by users instead of doubling in upcoming game week.
• Wildcard
  It refers to the transfers that are made by users and are free of charge. It is used only twice in a season, once in the initial half and next in the second half.

European and American Season Long Fantasy Formats

European and American season-long game formats vary in terms of drafting options and terminologies involved in fantasy gaming. Fantasy Sports have become 20 years older in Europe and have come a long way since then. Unlike the USA where fans prefer MLB, NFL and NBA leagues, fantasy sports enthusiasts in Europe are more inclined towards Football. It is because of the popularity of leagues like La Liga, EPL(English Premier League), etc.European players are emotion oriented players unlike American players who focus on player stats. In Europe, fantasy sports are more popular in the UK followed by Ireland and Germany. As per experts, European market’s developmental pattern will resemble Canadian & American pattern in upcoming years.

Why Should Businesses Invest in Season-Long Fantasy Sports Platform?

Digitization has completely evolved the way in which sports media get consumed by sports enthusiasts. Fans have become tech-savvy and are always on surf for the active content experiences thereby creating opportunities for the entrepreneurs and sports publishers to try new business models which perfectly resonate with the affinity of the sports enthusiasts. Fantasy sports businesses seem to be beneficial as it comes with the engaging features and functionalities that entice users such as :-

• It comes with a great variety of leagues & drafts
• Players get engaged for a long-lasting haul for a complete season
• There is a great scope for bonuses, rewards and other engagements
• Post-season & year long play-offs are lucrative for players.

Not only these engaging features make fantasy sports business a lucrative one but there exists multiple additional attractions for the fantasy sports business owners:-

• Sponsorship
  Sponsorship proves to be beneficial for sponsoring companies as well as fantasy games. The sponsoring brands offer services as well as assets for season-long fantasy games including content, stats, visuals, ambassadors & influencers having a great follower base that prove to be profitable for marketing of the platform.
• Advertising
  Banner advertising on the fantasy sports platform featuring season-long matches and leagues can prove to be an effective additional revenue generation model. Offering the promotional banner spaces brings income via CPC (cost-per-click), CPM (cost-per-mile) and CPS (cost-per-sale).  Adding advertising banners in the platform covering most popular leagues proves to be a revenue booster for your business.
• Affiliate and E-commerce
  Allowing a webshop to get integrated as a suggestive source for helping fans to buy sports related merchandise. The sports fans keep following their favorite players and teams to the core thus there are more possibilities for the webshops to generate benefits from it. You can collaborate with the e-commerce web shops and earn additional revenues from your platform.
• Cross-sell and Upsell Subscriptions
  You should never underestimate the great networking of your existing customers and their referral powers through which you can create more engagement for your fantasy sports platform. Your users can refer the platform to their sport-minded friends and invite them to the platform which allows you to enhance your sales.

Must-Haves for a Season-Long Fantasy Sports Platform

For planning a season-long fantasy sports platform, you need to stay mindful regarding some of the crucial aspects:-

• Always Hire a Team of Expert, Experienced and Technically-Advanced Professionals
• Stay Clear About the Costing Factors & Ensure that the Provider do not Demands Unwanted Revenue Sharing
• Get Trending & Ultra-Modern Features in your Season-Long Fantasy Sports Platform.

Fantasy sports platform must offer a high performance bar as even small connectivity blips or functionality issues can result in signing off of users and publicly showcasing the frustrations. Thus, it becomes necessary to keep your fantasy sports platform well integrated with necessary and trending features and functionalities such as :-

• On-Ground & Lively Gaming Experiences
  You can provide an unforgettable and on-ground gaming experience to your users through enthralling gaming features such as live field view, automatic substitutions, auto drafting, different leagues & fixtures, etc.
• Multiple Boosters
  Broadly four types of boosters should be enabled in a season-long fantasy sports software including wildcard, bench boost, triple captain and free hit.
• Enticing Fan Experience
  You can create engaging and exclusive fan experience through uniquely combining season-long fantasy game format with exciting engagement features including line-up creation, player cards, player transfer, field view, etc.
• Smart Updates & Player Statistics
  Your users can stay well informed through the necessary player statistics such as highest scoring players, best captain, leading players depicted on leaderboards, etc. This helps your users in making a wise team drafting decision and stay ahead of the curve. Real-time updates and notifications are necessary to stay informed about the necessary details regarding matches and leagues.
• Multilingual Support
  Ability of handling multiple languages enables your fantasy sports platform to engage the audiences belonging to different geographic locations.
• Sponsorship Space
  Have a space for the sponsored banners and advertisements for having an additional revenue stream in your platform.
• Admin Panel
  Admin panel enables you to monitor as well as manage all the crucial operations including reporting, marketing, finance, user management, sponsorships, team management, daily operations, etc. This panel allows operators to handle the mundane tasks & monitor performances. 

How can GammaStack help you with an Ultra-Modern Season-Long Fantasy Sports Software for your Business?

Being a reliable company dwelling in the realm of fantasy sports, GammaStack develops feature rich fantasy sports that go beyond leaps and bounds for delivering an engaging gaming experience.  We have a complete understanding of the fusion of creative ideas, technology and artistry thus we create graphically appealing and functionally strong fantasy sports software. With the comeback of sports leagues, fantasy sports are expected to get in more demand in the upcoming time. Thus, if you have a fantasy sports platform idea cooking in your mind, let’s have a word & inject life into it. Our season-long fantasy sports software comes with unrivalled features, engaging designs and unique game types that seem to be exciting as well as engaging for your users.

Sources:-

What is the difference between daily fantasy and season long fantasy sports?

https://subscribers.footballguys.com/apps/article.php?article=hesterhybridleague15

 

https://www.gamblingsites.com/daily-fantasy-sports/daily-vs-season-long-leagues

 

 

https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/fantasy-sports-market-to-explore-the-huge-trend-in-the-upcoming-period-2020-2024-leading-players–fanduel-draftkings-yahoo-espn-cbs-nfl-fantasy-fox-sports-fantasy-football-myfantasyleague-2020-05-27