Study: Fantasy football costing employers $14 billion
By Sam Richmond
Everyone knows that fantasy football is incredibly popular and can consume the daily lives of its players. But what is the cost of all the time spent by football fans researching who to start and who to sit or which players to target in trades? Well, for employers at least, that cost is nearing an absurd $14 billion per season, according to a study by Challenger, Gray and Christmas.
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The study came to this total by using the number of middle-aged working Americans playing fantasy football ($18.3 million) and the average hourly salary of workers on private nonfarm payrolls ($24.45).
"So, for each hour those 18.3 million people spend on fantasy football during the workday, it costs employers $447.4 million (18.3 million X $24.45). How much time is wasted on fantasy football at work is unclear, however. According to the FSTA, the average player spends three hours per week just managing his or her team. Players spend up to nine hours per week reading or watching something about fantasy sports.Assuming conservatively that players spend just two hours per week managing team or reading about fantasy sports while on the job, that amounts to almost $895 million. Multiply that out over the typical 15-week fantasy football schedule and the cost soars to $13.4 billion."
As the company would surely admit, it’s impossible to determine just how much fantasy football actually costs employers. But the fact that it’s possible such a number could be over $13 billion is truly incredible.
Still, before employers get all up in arms about fantasy football because of this study, the company did suggest that there are positives of actually allowing fantasy football in the workplace.
"“Companies that not only allow workers to enjoy fantasy football, but actually encourage it by organizing a company leagues are likely to see significant benefits in morale, which, in turn leads to an overall boost in productivity as well as employee retention,” said Challenger."
The NFL (and fantasy season) begins on Sept. 4 with the Green Bay Packers facing the Seattle Seahawks.