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Behaviours, motives and perceptions of daily fantasy football players What this research is about Traditional fantasy sports (TFS) are played over the What you need to know course of the season. They are games in which This study revealed that daily fantasy football players form virtual teams of real people of a players’ behaviors, motives, and perceptions professional sport. The teams then compete based on differed by gambling severity. High risk gamblers actual performances during the season. In recent preferred daily over traditional, season long play. years, daily fantasy sports (DFS) have become These gamblers also displayed chasing behaviour popular. This type of fantasy sport is more flexible, such as entering more daily fantasy football involves less commitment, and has faster payouts. lineups per week. High risk gamblers were motivated by social interaction, competition, and DFS allows players to bet on multiple lineups per financial gain. week. This kind of behavior can lead to chasing losses. Chasing losses involves continued gambling to These results suggest that DFS players exhibit make up for any financial losses. Research has shown similar problem gambling behavior as players of that chasing losses is associated with problem other online gambling activities. Thus, DFS gambling. Problem gambling is defined as continuous regulations should be considered. More research gambling behavior that leads to negative is needed to determine whether DFS is a game or consequences. Consequences can include personal skill or chance, the impact of advertising on and financial distress. behaviour, and differences between fantasy sports (e.g., football versus hockey). Currently, DFS is unregulated in many states in the USA. The fantasy sport industry has lobbied that DFS Demographics included age, sex, ethnicity, education is not gambling because it is skill-based. However, and income. Gambling behaviors included the few studies have examined DFS and if DFS is number of hours spent doing research or watching associated with problem gambling. The aim of this NFL games. Other behaviors included the number of study was to explore the behaviors, motives and lineups entered, money spent, and average amount perceptions of DFS players who play fantasy football. of money won or lost per week. Motives included if What the researchers did participants played for social interaction, financial gain, competition, and entertainment or escape. Qualtrics, a market research design company, was Perceptions included attachment to NFL football, used to recruit participants for the study. Participants amount of skill or chance participants thought was included 546 daily fantasy football players who involved in DFS, how competitive they would get, and resided in the United States. Each participant if they preferred TFS or DFS. completed an online survey. The survey assessed demographics, gambling behavior related to DFS, The researchers grouped the participants based on gambling severity, motive for playing DFS, and how severe their gambling problems were. The perceptions about playing DFS. groups included non-problem, low, moderate, and high risk gamblers. The researchers compared the More research is needed to determine whether DFS is four groups, and examined factors that could predict a game of skill or chance, and the impact of problem gambling among the participants. advertising on the behavior of DFS players. Research is also needed to examine fantasy sports other than What the researchers found football (e.g. baseball, hockey). Out of the 546 DFS players, 144 were non-problem gamblers and 194 were low risk gamblers. Less than About the researchers half of the DFS players were moderate (133) or high Brendan Dwyer is affiliated with Virginia risk gamblers (75). The behaviors, motives and Commonwealth University in Virginia, Richmond, perceptions of these DFS players differed significantly USA. Stephen L. Shapiro is affiliated with the depending on their gambling severity. University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina, USA. Joris Drayer is affiliated with Temple Behaviors University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. For Compared to non-problem and low risk groups, high more information about this study, please contact risk gamblers spent more time per week doing Brendan Dwyer at [email protected]. research on DFS. They entered more lineups and Citation spent more money per week playing DFS. High risk gamblers also reported winning more money per Dwyer, B., Shapiro, S. L., & Drayer, J. (2017). Daily week. The number of hours spent watching NFL fantasy football and self-reported problem behavior games did not differ between groups. in the United States. Journal of Gambling Studies. Advance online publication. Motives https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-017-9720-4 High risk gamblers were more likely to be motivated Keywords to play DFS for social reasons, for competition, and for financial gain. Playing for entertainment or escape Problem gambling, fantasy sports, motivation, did not differ significantly between groups. regulation Perceptions Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (GREO) High risk gamblers preferred DFS compared to TFS. Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (GREO) has They also perceived more competition was involved partnered with the Knowledge Mobilization Unit at in DFS than the other groups. Attachment to football York University to produce Research Snapshots. GREO and what they thought about the amount of skill or is an independent knowledge translation and chance involved did not differ across groups. exchange organization that aims to eliminate harm DFS players with more severe gambling problems from gambling. Our goal is to support evidence- were more likely to be motivated by financial gain, informed decision making in responsible gambling get competitive, enter more lineups per week, and policies, standards and practices. The work we do is report more win per week. DFS players who played intended for researchers, policy makers, gambling for entertainment/escape reason were less likely to regulators and operators, and treatment and have severe gambling problems. prevention service providers. How you can use this research Learn more about GREO by visiting greo.ca or emailing [email protected]. This study showed that high risk gamblers exhibited problem gambling behavior similar to players of other gambling activities (e.g., poker). Policy analysts should consider the regulation of DFS in the United States. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 2017 Canada License. .

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