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A fantasy sport (also known as rotisserie, roto, or fairy-tale sport; or owner simulation) is a game where fantasy owners build a team that competes against other fantasy owners based on the statistics generated by individual players or teams of a professional sport. Probably the most common variant converts statistical performance into points that are compiled and totaled according to a roster selected by a manager that makes up a fantasy team. These point systems are typically simple enough to be manually calculated by a "league commissioner." More complex variants use computer modeling of actual games based on statistical input generated by professional sports. In fantasy sports there is the ability to trade, cut, and sign players, like a real sports owner.

It's estimated by the Fantasy Sports Trade Association that 16 million adults in the U.S., age 18 to 55, play fantasy sports. Fantasy sports is also popular throughout the world with leagues for football, cricket and other non-U.S. based sports.

History

The first fantasy baseball league was called the Rotisserie League, founded by Daniel Okrent. The name was taken from the name of the restaurant where the league was organized, La Rotisserie Francaise. There is some evidence that this leage was an evolution of a much simpler game created 20 years earlier by noted sociologist William A. Gamson.[1]

Popular sports

Associations

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association was formed in 1999 to represent the growing industry. The Fantasy Sports Writers Association was formed in 2004 to represent the growing numbers of journalists covering fantasy sports exclusively.

Criticism

Some sports writers criticize fantasy sports, especially those involving team sports, of focusing too much on statistics.^{[citation needed]} A player on a real team might be a team player and help his/her team win championships, but in fantasy sports that team play may not matter as much as having good individual statistics.

There was a bill presented before Congress in 1999 that would have prevented public fantasy sports businesses, the contention being that fantasy sports is in fact a form of sports gambling. That bill failed, and eventually a 'carve-out' was created for the fantasy sports business.^{[citation needed]} In 2006, the United States congress passed the "Security Port Act", which prohibits credit card transactions and other electronic transfers to online gambling operators; the bill includes an exemption for fantasy sports.^{[citation needed]}

External links

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 ==External links==
+* [http://www.SportsBuffPub.com/ Fantasy Football, Baseball, and Hoops in a Pub Setting]
 * [http://www.rotonation.com/ RotoNation: Fantasy Sports News]
 * [http://dmoz.org/Sports/Fantasy/ Fantasy Sports at the Open Directory Project]