Fantasy football (association)
Fantasy football (less commonly referred to as fantasy association football worldwide but known as fantasy soccer in the United States) is a game in which participants assemble an imaginary team of real life footballers and score points based on those players' actual statistical performance or their perceived contribution on the field of play. Usually players are selected from one specific division in a particular country, although there are many variations. The original game was created in England by Bernie Donnelly on Saturday 14 August 1971 and is still going strong 45 years later. Fantasy football has evolved in recent years from a simple recreational activity into a significant business due to exposure via the internet.
Fantasy football (American)
The rise of popularity of Fantasy football has led to the growth of companies such as Fanduel and Draftkings. Draftkings has reported in net $304 million in entry fees in 2014. This rise has also been coupled with a rise of interest in applying higher level mathematics and computer science into the fantasy industry. Scientists with advanced degrees in mathematics, statistics, computer science apply algorithms, optimizations, and advanced statistics in order to hypothesize the best lineup and create the best outcome. This has led to companies exclusively with this purpose in mind, specializing in this sports analytics.