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 sport
The fantasy sports hobby has also moved beyond the U.S. Fantasy leagues for soccer, cricket and other sports have come up. For example, according to a 2008 study by Paris, France research company Ipsos, the number of British fantasy sports players aged 16–64 is estimated to range between 5.5 and 7.5 million. Of those, 80 percent of these players participate in fantasy soccer. The current leading fantasy sports provider in the UK is the English Premier League, which tallied more than 4 million users for the 2016/17 season. In comparison to the United States, the UK has roughly 5% of the population participating, whereas the U.S. has about 10% of its population playing fantasy sports.