Nowadays, online gambling comes in many shapes and forms. New verticals that are constantly emerging have brought another dimension to the whole experience.
One of them is certainly fantasy sports betting, which has taken both the sports and the betting world by storm. Namely, the 2019 figures show that around 20% of people engage in fantasy sports. This is quite a rise compared to 2014 when only 13% of sports fans enjoyed this activity.
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If you are one of those bettors who would like to try their luck with this type of betting today, check out this article, as we will explain how fantasy sports betting works and how you can create your own DFS betting account.
What Is Fantasy Sports Betting?
If you are a sports fan, then you have probably dreamed about making your own team, adding or removing players from the squad, and creating a roster that you think would perform best. Well, fantasy sports allow you to do just that. In DFS, you have an opportunity to come up with the team of your choice and compete against your friends, colleagues, or any number of online players through tournaments and competitions.
At the beginning of each season, you need to choose a set of players for your team. You have to pay attention to your salary cap though, as you mustn’t go over it. Naturally, you will be drawn to the best players. You should be careful, though, as they are likely to be the most expensive. So if you buy a few of them, you won’t have enough money to fill out the rest of your roster.
Of course, daily fantasy sports (DFS) allow you to make adjustments to your team every day or every week, which makes these competitions even more exciting. It’s literally like creating a team in real life, as you have to think about the money and strategy at all times.
Although the concept of fantasy sports has been around for quite a while, fantasy sports betting is relatively new. Online operators started to include it in their betting markets when they realized the potential it has. As a result, if the players on your fantasy team perform well, you will have a chance to earn more than just bragging rights. Naturally, the success of your team will lead to successful bets as well.
DFS is available for a number of sports, the most popular in the US being football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey and, in the UK, Premier League football. In theory, though, fantasy sports betting can be utilized for any team sport, which is why we can expect other variants to emerge as well.
The Market Potential of Fantasy Sports Betting
As we’ve mentioned already, the interest in fantasy sports has been on the rise since 2014.
At the same time, online sports betting has become more popular as well, given the fact that many US states have finally legalised this form of gambling in the last several years. Considering the fact that around three-quarters of all DFS players frequently bet on sports, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the two have merged into fantasy sports betting.
Unsurprisingly, the most popular fantasy sport Americans like to bet on is football, with around 78% of fans interested in it. The second most favorite is baseball, followed by basketball and ice hockey. Of course, there is a lot of potential for many other sports, such as soccer, to be included in the fantasy betting format, as well.
Still, we can’t ignore the fact that this betting vertical has been negatively impacted by the ongoing COVID19 pandemic. Even though sports organizations and leagues are certainly doing their best to keep the competitions rolling, many games have already been postponed due to players and, in some cases, entire teams getting infected. So, if sporting events get shut down again, betting on fantasy sports will have to be canceled too.
How to Start Your Own Fantasy Sports Betting Site
Regardless of the unfortunate circumstances that the whole world is facing right now, once everything goes back to normal, the sports betting industry is likely to continue to develop according to its projected path. So setting up your own fantasy sports betting site would definitely be a good business decision, seeing that the interest in fantasy sports betting is at an all-time high.
Luckily, this entire process is not as complicated as it used to be. There are plenty of companies that will be more than glad to offer you a helping hand and provide expert advice on how to develop your fantasy sports betting startup.
Still, before doing anything else, you should run things past your legal advisors to be 100% sure that everything that you’re doing is allowed. Even though fantasy sports betting is legal in most jurisdictions, you can’t be too careful.
Once you’ve checked this, the biggest obstacle you could face while setting up your site could be getting a proper gambling license. In order to operate legally, you will have to pick reputable gambling jurisdictions and meet their requirements. Additionally, you will need to reach an agreement with various payment providers so that you can process different payment methods on your website.
Nevertheless, if you already have a licensed online gambling website, you will have an easy time setting everything up. Namely, you will just need to update the functions of your betting platform so that it supports fantasy sports betting.
How to Start Betting on Fantasy Sports
If you’re only interested in betting on fantasy sports, you can do so on one of the sportsbook websites that have already recognized the potential this betting market has.
Once you have settled on the operator of your choice, simply create an account, make a deposit using one of the available payment options, and start playing. If you need any help with this process, the operator’s customer support will be at your service.
Fantasy sports betting works slightly differently than regular sports betting, as you need to place wagers on the teams you’ve created personally. If you’ve never played fantasy sports before, we suggest that you start from there, and move on to the betting sites only when you’ve mastered your managerial skills. Although, if that sounds daunting, you could also start with a site that includes a betting exchange for the premier league, where your odds might be better with a peer-to-peer scale.
Final Thoughts
Fantasy sports betting might never be as popular as regular sports betting. Nevertheless, its popularity is on the rise, and, consequently, it is slowly getting incorporated into the online gambling world.
Since it is evident that the demand for this kind of betting exists not only in the US but also in the entire world, an increasing number of betting operators are expected to start offering fantasy sports betting in the following period.