Relay Insights: The Reality of Fantasy Sports Participation

The start of the 2009 NFL season also marks the start of fantasy football season, which for some devoted fans is the highlight of their football experience.

The Fantasy Sports Trade Association estimates that nearly 30 million people are playing fantasy sports across North America – scanning the waiver wire, analyzing injury reports, watching six games at once and cheering for fourth-quarter scores by teams down by 28 points.

Most marketers may assume fantasy participants are the stereotypical 18-24, beer-guzzling, jersey-wearing, single male, and this perception may be causing many brands to miss out on what is actually a much broader and passionate audience.

Based on research provided by our friends at Scarborough Sports Marketing, marketers may want to take a deeper look at engaging more with fantasy sports participants after all.

According to Scarborough, 83.9% of fantasy participants are male; however, women have increasingly become more interested in fantasy sports, with a 36% increase since 2007 – bringing females to 16.1% of participants in 2009. And though 84.2% are white, Hispanics have been the fastest growing ethnic group, increasing 27% since 2007.

If those figures aren’t surprising enough, 37.4% of fantasy participants have a household income over $100,000 (61% more likely than a member of the general population = 161 index), 38% have a college degree (147 index), most own their own home (73.2%) and 59.2% of participants are married.

And while 50% of participants are ages 18-34 (164 index), the fastest growing age demographic is the 60+ group who has increased 28% since 2007.

Meanwhile, what markets are the hotbeds for fantasy activity? The top 5 DMAs for fantasy sports participants (in order) might surprise you: Milwaukee, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati.

So, if you are evaluating if fantasy participants are an attractive audience for your brand, consider ways to go beyond online ad units to engage this audience. The power of fantasy sports is in the connections within the thousands of communities who play. Create ways to help them get together, interact and share statistics and information, and you can score big for your brand.