9781422283004

and like in an NFL stadium, one team comes out the winner. By focusing on the stats of individual players instead of the Ws put up by entire NFL teams, fans now watch every game with a new focus: How is this helping me? Some say that fantasy sports—now a billion-dol- lar industry all by itself that includes just about every pro sport you can think of—has played a huge role in making the NFL by far the largest sports league in the country and one of the biggest in the world. TV rights fees have skyrocketed in the past decade. Is that because more fans want to watch more games, even those that don’t involve their hometown heroes? Fantasy football is why a Week 15 matchup between two 3-12 teams might bring in huge ratings, just be- cause a star running back is piling up points for fan- tasy teams around the country. History Fantasy sports have been a big part of American sports in general since fantasy baseball began in the early 1980s. A group of New York sportswriters

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