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Fantasy sports industry is undoubtedly one of the most popular and rapidly growing segments of the iGaming universe. This industry has witnessed a sudden upsurge since past few years and is expected to grow exponentially in the upcoming years. The growing nature of the fantasy sports industry can be justified with the enhanced affinity of people towards skill based fantasy gaming. Fantasy sports are exclusively addictive in nature because players feel that they have a stake in the performance of the players in their imaginary teams. The growth rate of the fantasy sports industry was moving upwards in a smooth manner but it has suddenly faced a decline due to cancellation of major sports leagues as a result of COVID-19 pandemic across the world. Now, it has become a big task for the fantasy sports businesses to figure out an innovative and precise way to survive in the industry post corona pandemic crisis.
Industry Overview – Trends, Demographics & Segmentation
- The industry is expected to register 5% CAGR during the year 2020-2025.
- Fantasy Sports has seen higher level of popularity in USA and Canada
- As per a survey, 80% of fantasy sports players say that they have planned to continue playing fantasy sports for the upcoming 10 years & 40% say that they will play it for lifetime.
- DFS or daily fantasy sports are the most popular game formats in the fantasy sports industry.
- Soccer is one of the most popular fantasy sports followed by American Football, Baseball, Basketball and many more.
- The geographic landscape of fantasy sports depict that it has more popularity in APAC region, followed by Europe, MEA, North America, South America
- The global fantasy sports market is expected to see a growth of $13 billion in the year 2018 to $33 billion in the year 2025.
- The fantasy sports industry grew from 42 million players in 2015 to 45.9 million players in 2019.
- The spread of COVID-19 pandemic all over the world has affected the global economy covering various industries and the sports industry is one of the majorly affected ones.
- COVID-19 has wreaked havoc in the 2020 sports calendar due to decisions by many amateur and professional leagues for postponement and cancellation of their seasons for preventing the spread of virus.
Scenario of Fantasy Sports Industry
- Before COVID-19 Crisis
Fantasy sports industry has always seen a growing graph in various parts of the world. The contributing factors of the growth are the enhancing popularity of players belonging to different sports, improved internet infrastructure and the launching of feature rich and ultra modern fantasy sports platforms and applications. Furthermore significant industry growth was expected in 2020-21 duration as multiple sports leagues were scheduled in the forecast period. But a sudden storm of COVID-19 has shaken the economy of the entire world and the fantasy sports industry is no exception. The cancellation and postponement of various sports leagues has caused a major disturbance in the revenue of the fantasy sports industry.
- Post COVID-19 Crisis
COVID-19 outbreak has caused curbing of the outdoors and the self imposed house arrest has confined people in their homes. The pandemic has put the world to standstill suddenly and now all the industries are grappling their ways through it. Whether it’s about businesses that are making their ways towards remote working or cancellation of sports events and leagues, coronavirus has put halt to the overall growth of different industries. Talking specifically about the fantasy sports industry, although some of the sports leagues are getting rescheduled and resumed but till the sports world gets fully recovered and leagues get back to track completely, some new and innovative game types must be opted by fantasy sports businesses to survive in the industry.
Effect of Pandemic on Fantasy Sports Businesses
Fantasy sports businesses are completely subjected to the sports events and leagues and COVID-19 crisis has put the businesses to halt. The fantasy sports startups that have recently put their step in the industry as well as the well established ones are facing severe troubles due to sports league cancellations & postponement. The engagement of users and the revenue generation of fantasy sports businesses are getting declined. Thus businesses have commenced evaluating adverse situation and are planning to alter their offerings. Businesses are optimistic that the crisis will end soon and the world will get back to normality soon.Though businesses are majorly affected but fantasy sports enthusiasts remain undeterred. The home locked gaming enthusiasts are seeking new and innovative ways to fulfill their gaming desires. Witnessing the rapidly growing online gaming appetite, businesses must look for alternatives and should commence unique game formats which enable their audiences to compete and win the lucrative prizes in comfort of their homes.
Sports Leagues which are Still on or Rescheduled After COVID-19 Crisis
The COVID-19 outbreak has forced people to self impose house arrest on themselves and follow social distancing to stay safe and healthy. Witnessing the situations, sports leagues and events also got suspended which led to a huge crisis all around the world. But, as the situation is getting somewhat stabilized, some of the leagues are getting resumed or rescheduled in the upcoming months. Here is the list of some of those sports leagues or events:-
| Sport Event/League | Estimated Start Dates |
| NBA | July 31 (Rescheduled) |
| NFL | Sep 10 (No Change) |
| MLS | July 8 (Rescheduled) |
| La Liga | June 11 (Rescheduled) |
| Bundesliga | 2020 (No Change) |
| US Open | Aug 31- Sep 13 (No Change) |
| French Open | Sep 27 – Oct 11 (Rescheduled) |
| PGA | Resumed |
| NASCAR | Resumed |
| AFL | June 11 (Rescheduled) |
How Businesses can Cope up with the Situation?
On account of the outbreak of coronavirus, all the sports events and leagues all over the globe are in abeyance and the fans are dealing with the live sports vacuum. Despite the absence of the live events, there are certain ways for fans to stay connected with the online fantasy gaming. Fantasy sports businesses must adopt new strategies that can help them keep their audience engaged and streamline their revenue generation. Here are some of the DIY suggestions for fantasy sports businesses that can help them survive in the industry post coronaconomy:-
- Research about the trending & innovative game types and formats
- Opt for reliable software providers to integrate those trending game types
- Engage your audiences with lucrative bonuses and prizes
- Enhance your promotion strategies for improved engagement
- Stay updated about the rescheduling and resuming of the sports leagues
- Enrich your platform with non-sports categories in fantasy gaming.
New Game Types to be Adopted in Coronaconomy
Here are some of the new and innovative game types that can be integrated in fantasy sports platform for increasing users engagement and driving more traffic to the platform:-
- Esports
Esports is one of the most popular and engaging online gaming options and when it comes in fusion with fantasy sports, it turns out to be an enticing and unique gaming option for users. Fantasy esports involve the same fantasy gaming features such as team drafting, game formats, player cards, etc but on the esports tournaments including CS-GO, DOTA-2, League of Legends, PUBG, Arena of Valor, Fortnite, Call of Duty and many more esports game categories. It enables the players to get the combined feel of fantasy gaming and esports on a single platform. As we all know about the cancellation of major sports leagues due to pandemic but esports gaming is still an engaging option for users and players are finding it enticing to play esports in their home’s comfort. Thus adopting fantasy esports as a game type in your fantasy sports platform can help you regain the engagement of users on your platform. - Politics
Doing fantasy gaming on the political events such as any political debates, major political decisions, elections, etc is termed as fantasy politics. It can be an interesting gaming option for the political junkies who have great interest in politics. The winning depends upon the performance and actions of your selected political player or politician in campaign. For example, appearing on a talk show, insulting an opponent, wins the discussion and many more.Such political events seem to be exciting for the people and thus they get more drive towards the fantasy gaming option involving politics. It is also gaining much popularity in the time when there is no sports league or matches for fantasy gaming and users are getting more inclined towards non-sports options for fantasy gaming. - Celebrity Leagues
Fantasy celebrity leagues include fantasy gaming on the different shows or events involving actors, TV stars, masterchefs, sports personalities, reality TV actors and many more famous celebrities whose actions and real life events are so closely monitored and seem interesting for the people. Major fantasy celebrity leagues include fantasy reality TV leagues, fantasy movie star leagues, fantasy award leagues, fantasy economists leagues. The winning of users depends upon the performance or act of their chosen player or celebrity in the particular league they are participating in. It is also a preferred choice of fantasy gaming enthusiasts during the void of live sports. - Stocks & Forex
Fantasy gaming on stocks and forex are an interesting and exclusive option for the people who are keen towards stock markets and forex and have profound knowledge regarding the same. In this game type, the fantasy gaming is done on the basis of statistics of the stock markets and forex and the performing player is the particular stock chosen by the user & the winning depends upon that stock’s performance. Cancellation of live sports leagues has also driven people towards such unique fantasy gaming concepts. - Open Prediction Games & Quiz
Unique and independent game categories such as open predictions and quizzes can be provided to users that involve testing knowledge in fields such as science, sports, politics, entertainment, etc. Players win coins or bonuses on correct answers within pre pre-defined time frame. These can offer a thrilling and engaging experience to your users and help you to keep them enticed and enhance their retention rate on your platform. Building a loyal customer base can be leveraged by you when sports leagues get back to track and things get normalized.
Future Scope of Fantasy Sports Industry in 2020-21
As we all know that sports have always proved to be the purest entertainment form that keeps people connected throughout the world. The fantasy sports industry is a highly popular part of the sports world and the sports enthusiasts always found it an engaging choice to fulfill their sports fanaticism. But a sudden halt on sports leagues due to pandemic has disturbed the entire fantasy sports industry. Still there are certain rays of hopes to recover from the economics crisis and bring your fantasy sports business to life :-
- Some of the sports leagues are getting rescheduled and resumed slowly
- New non-sports options are gaining popularity in fantasy gaming world
- Businesses can utilize this time to redefine and improvise their strategies.
- You can keep yourself ready with an ultra modern fantasy sports platform integrated with popular non-sports categories.
- Fantasy sports industry is expected to grow by $9.34 billion USD during 2020-24 at 10% CAGR.
How to Choose a Reliable Fantasy Sports Software Provider?
To get feature rich fantasy sports solutions integrated with unique and engaging game types such as esports, fantasy celebrity leagues, fantasy stocks, etc, you need to stay quite mindful and make a right choice of the fantasy sports software provider :-
- Research about the top providers in the industry
- Check their portfolio to and previous fantasy sports works
- Ensure that they possess expert and experienced team of professionals
- Check their proficiency level about fantasy sports industry trends
- Stay assured about their offerings including game types, features, etc
- They must be connected with reliable third party providers such as payment gateway, data feed, etc.
How GammaStack can be Helpful for Fantasy Sports Businesses?
GammaStack strongly believes that this is the perfect time for the fantasy sports businesses to strengthen and improve their product along with enhancing their customer relationships. We can be your perfect helping hands for leveraging this opportunity and introducing new and innovative gamification experiences for your users by offering them exclusive and trending game types. We can do integration of unique game formats such as non-sports categories including esports, TV reality shows, politics, stocks, etc that can help you engage new audiences as well as retain the existing clientele for your fantasy sports platform. We have an experienced and skilled team of professionals who have profound knowledge about the fantasy sports industry and are thus capable of offering you a feature rich and ultra modern fantasy sports website development solutions integrated with exciting features and trending game types.
The crucial thing we all need to realize at this time is that sports leagues will get back to track at some point and the world filled with enthusiasm of victory & agony of defeats will be back. We just need to stay calm and focus on boosting ourselves and keeping our users enlightened through our new and trending offerings that keep their love for fantasy sports alive !!
Sources:-
https://www.espn.in/espn/story/_/id/29011029/coronavirus-impacted-schedules
https://betting-sites.me.uk/unstoppable-growth-fantasy-sports-infographic/#gref
https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/fantasy-sports-market
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