Fantasy Football has almost become a sport unto its own, because it offers fans the chance to organize their own dream team of players, coach them and follow their progress, all based on real life NFL action. So, how does it work? First, you join a league and then prepare for the draft by scouting out players, as done in real life. On the day of the draft you either select players via the snake path or enter the auction draft. The snake path gives every fantasy owner a chance to pick a player in a set order until all players have been chosen, while the auction draft allows each owner to bid on a player of their choice.

Now comes the fun part, as the real life NFL teams compete each week, their stats are converted to the fantasy teams. The fantasy team with the most accumulated points wins that week’s game with the goal of winning as many games as possible to get to the playoffs and championship.

Let the Betting Begin

While only a quarter of sports fantasy players are in it for the big bucks, it should be noted that the US federal government has not included fantasy football on the list of illegal gambling games. This means that it is perfectly legal to bet on fantasy sports from the perspective of the feds. However, they have turned it into a states’ rights issue, which means that states like Alabama, Delaware and Washington among ten others have banned DFS websites (daily fantasy sports) like DraftKings & FanDuel from allowing state residents to register. In order to get into the league you must register via these websites, so it is important to check with your state regulations before starting.

In 2005, 888casino ran a comprehensive article about the world of fantasy sports, including Fantasy Football.  It should be understood that fantasy sports is not really gambling, because of the amount of skill involved in picking the right players on both the offensive and defensive lines. Furthermore, 57% of players have a college degree with over 45% making over 75K a year. We are talking about a well-educated and informed players. So, what do you need to take into account to create and manage a winning team?

The Drive to Win

With thousands of publications on the web that aim to keep fantasy players up to date it can be hard to know where to start. The key to managing a winning team is much more in depth than simply understanding statistics and how to read the charts. There are a number of issues to take into account like home vs away performance, various styles of coaching, the impact of injuries and how different players perform under diverse weather conditions.

As a result, it would be hard to define this sport, as gambling (in the strict sense of the word) because gambling involves three aspects; wager, prize and chance. Unlike poker, where the players are dealt cards at random, here you choose your players and make decisions based what is happening in the field. True, there will always be factors that will be impossible to take into consideration like your star quarterback getting injured in the middle of the game, but there is still a strong correlation between skilled and unskilled players.

Get out and Win!

Now that you have an understanding of how to enter the game and build and manage your team, the only thing left to do is win!