Fezzik writes:
Although fantasy football has an obvious gambling aspect to it, I really feel that the vast majority of fantasy players have little or no gamble in them. My experience with fantasy leagues is that they're similar to a bowling league: The lower-tier leagues are all about camaraderie, social interaction, and maybe a bit of "practicing" -- more about not being embarrassed than about looking good. Go up in buy-ins to the mid-leagues, and the bowlers (fantasy players) get better. By the time you get to the upper-leagues, the players are maniacs, doing everything they can to perform well. But it doesn't spill over to trying to leverage their knowledge in the betting markets.
I've known fantasy football players who know every shutdown cornerback and can forecast which wide receivers are going to be up against it on a Revis-type island that week. Whatever it takes to win, these guys are on it. However, their motivation seems to be to hoist the league trophy - that's it. Those I've known have little to no interest in betting player props, and in fact, these guys wouldn't dare risk missing any sort of information, or a waiver pick-up, in favor of driving to their local casino to win $500 on a "sure thing" player prop that might blow their chances of winning the $100 top prize for the league … and more important, the trophy (priceless).
Bottom line: I don't think fantasy = gambling. To be sure, many disagree with me about the market potential for the fantasy/gambling crossover. Specifically, Cantor has its "Cantor 5" and "Cantor 7" fantasy-betting products, where players can bet ON or AGAINST a team vs. the Cantor team. The idea seems sound, but I've yet to see anyone betting it. Will Cantor's fantasy aspect catch on? Time will tell.
Meanwhile, if you're a prop player, there's definitely information to be gleaned from the fantasy players, whether it's on the dedicated websites or via radio interviews that many of the fantasy experts are doing these days.
