In a previous post, we started the grouping and categorization of the fantasy sports ecosystem.
We specified the groups of game providers and content providers. This post will look at the remaining vertical, the service provider and will also look at the horizontal topics that affect all of fantasy sports.
To recap the categorization:
- Game Providers (https://twitter.com/FantasySandbox/lists/game-providers)
- Season Leagues
- Weekly Contents
- Daily Games
- Content Providers (https://twitter.com/FantasySandbox/lists/game-providers)
- News and Stats
- Tech and Tools
- Paid Subscriptions
- Service Providers (https://twitter.com/FantasySandbox/lists/service-providers)
- Legal services
- Financial services
- Software services
Horizontals
- Industry Topics
- Demographics
- Business
- Gambling
- Technology
Service Providers
Ecosystems generally start with products and then services are built around those products. The auto industry is a classic example. You can take the car as the product and the surrounding services around it including maintenance service, repair service, auto detailing, insurance, car rentals, and car leases to name a few.
The products in this fantasy sports ecosystem are the game platforms and content providers for fantasy sports. Because of the growth of fantasy sports, new business of services have been established to support fantasy sports.
Legal Services
When their is a dispute in a league, where do league owners go? Usually the commissioner in the league or the bylaws of the league will settle most dispute. However, in the high stakes for winners and losers in fantasy sports today, there are some issues that do require third party, neutral resolutions.
There are several mediation services available today that can help league owners resolve any issue.
SportsJudge, for a small fee, will help resolve leagues disputes. The organization is staffed with real litigators and knowledgeable fantasy sports personnel to help settled those unsettled issues for league owners.
Financial Services
In order to maintain fairness for leagues, there are now financial clearinghouses available that will hold championship prize money for the leagues. Some of the more lucrative leagues will have thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars at stake. In these cases, it is necessary for all owners to settle up and to place these funds in a safe and readily available source.
LeagueSafe, will provide such a service. It has recently started to partner with other game providers to provide seamless experience for fantasy football.
Software Services
Fantasy sports didn't really hit its current growth trajectory until software was able to provide a easy to use, reliable content management system from game providers. Fantasy owners no longer had to enter calculations themselves, and the software that game providers are using today is a big factor in continuing to attract and retain fantasy players. Furthermore, the software is helping provide both mainstream and custom experiences to growing number of fantasy sports players.
Game providers have started to leverage accompany software services to the fantasy experience they provide. Some of the game providers have offered "recap" services that is a software solution that gleams through each league to provide a custom commentary to that league to provide personalization to the experience.
Content providers to are reliant on the various CMS systems to power their editorial experience. Up to the minute player news is critical to some of the content providers that provide injury updates and player performance. Website hosting and website authoring are also various software services that keep the fantasy sports content flowing.
Industry Topics
Demographic
An estimated 33 million people play fantasy sports according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. A majority of those individual are planning fantasy football. Who plays fantasy sports is an important statistic in determining the popularity of the industry and the potential growth of the sport. Fantasy sports have some of the same challenges as traditional sports in that in order to continue to grow, women will need to play a larger role in the fantasy sports industry.
Growing broad is one area that can drive growth. However, growing deep is unique to the fantasy sports industry. The industry have fantasy owners that are involved in multiple leagues. How the industry take advantage of that participation could also keep the industry growing.
Business
The fantasy sports is seen as a billion dollar business. As posted before, the ecosystem of game, content and service providers are responsible for the growth in this business. Although the growth of fantasy sports should be put in content. The business has seen growth in consecutive years. In addition, the growth has continued in one of the worst economic conditions in the history of the nation. There are questions that remain on where is the next area of growth for the industry. Is it in the daily games? Could it be on other sports such as basketball, hockey, racing and baseball.
GamblingWhen their is a dispute in a league, where do league owners go? Usually the commissioner in the league or the bylaws of the league will settle most dispute. However, in the high stakes for winners and losers in fantasy sports today, there are some issues that do require third party, neutral resolutions.
There are several mediation services available today that can help league owners resolve any issue.
SportsJudge, for a small fee, will help resolve leagues disputes. The organization is staffed with real litigators and knowledgeable fantasy sports personnel to help settled those unsettled issues for league owners.
Financial Services
In order to maintain fairness for leagues, there are now financial clearinghouses available that will hold championship prize money for the leagues. Some of the more lucrative leagues will have thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars at stake. In these cases, it is necessary for all owners to settle up and to place these funds in a safe and readily available source.
LeagueSafe, will provide such a service. It has recently started to partner with other game providers to provide seamless experience for fantasy football.
Software Services
Fantasy sports didn't really hit its current growth trajectory until software was able to provide a easy to use, reliable content management system from game providers. Fantasy owners no longer had to enter calculations themselves, and the software that game providers are using today is a big factor in continuing to attract and retain fantasy players. Furthermore, the software is helping provide both mainstream and custom experiences to growing number of fantasy sports players.
Game providers have started to leverage accompany software services to the fantasy experience they provide. Some of the game providers have offered "recap" services that is a software solution that gleams through each league to provide a custom commentary to that league to provide personalization to the experience.
Content providers to are reliant on the various CMS systems to power their editorial experience. Up to the minute player news is critical to some of the content providers that provide injury updates and player performance. Website hosting and website authoring are also various software services that keep the fantasy sports content flowing.
Industry Topics
Demographic
An estimated 33 million people play fantasy sports according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. A majority of those individual are planning fantasy football. Who plays fantasy sports is an important statistic in determining the popularity of the industry and the potential growth of the sport. Fantasy sports have some of the same challenges as traditional sports in that in order to continue to grow, women will need to play a larger role in the fantasy sports industry.
Growing broad is one area that can drive growth. However, growing deep is unique to the fantasy sports industry. The industry have fantasy owners that are involved in multiple leagues. How the industry take advantage of that participation could also keep the industry growing.
Business
The fantasy sports is seen as a billion dollar business. As posted before, the ecosystem of game, content and service providers are responsible for the growth in this business. Although the growth of fantasy sports should be put in content. The business has seen growth in consecutive years. In addition, the growth has continued in one of the worst economic conditions in the history of the nation. There are questions that remain on where is the next area of growth for the industry. Is it in the daily games? Could it be on other sports such as basketball, hockey, racing and baseball.
The issue of whether fantasy sports is considered gambling lingers over the industry. There is a growing number of games and companies that have already considered this question answered when the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 established at the federal level that fantasy sports does require skill and thus does not constitute gambling. However, at the state level there continuous to be ambiguity on this subject on enforcement of fantasy sports as gambling.
With known gambling organization becoming more involved in the industry, gambling by association and its consequences are issue that need to be tracked. Branding fantasy sports as a gambling activity would have repercussion to the addressable market and popularity of the fantasy sports.
Technology
The growth of the internet and computers played a significant role in the growth of fantasy sports. One of the new challenges that the industry is to take technology to the next level. The computing power of the human civilization grows with each second as more processing power comes online. Using this technology to make fantasy owners more efficient and more powerful will undoubtedly change the game of fantasy sports for tomorrow.
Summary
The fantasy sports industry is still a growing one and at the moment it is fantasy football that is driving the growth of the market. The ecosystem is one that features a diverse group of game providers, content providers and supporting service providers. As the the industry continues to grow, Fantasy Sandbox will be there to cover the topics that affect the fantasy sports.
