Fantasy League is such a big game nowadays, everybody seems to be playing it. Whether it is a league amongst friends, joining a celebrity’s league or competing with work colleagues. Some sites offer cash prizes, some are just for fun, so is there a morally wrong way to play Fantasy League?
Generally, the idea is to pick the players you think will get the best results, the best way to do this is to understand how points will be picked up. In my opinion, there is little point in playing defensively in fantasy team, get on some defenders who score some goals! Get attacking midfielders, not those who will pick up a bunch of yellow cards and be suspended a few games into the season. At least this is the approach I took! I’m now sitting 8th out of 20 in my work league and I’m pretty happy with that. I play more for the pride of winning, some people play merely to win cash. Obviously so much can change in a sports season that it is completely unpredictable to work out the best team in order to put yourself at the top end of the table come the end of the season. I’m still regretting my decision to put Courtois in goal after he hasn’t got me a single point due to injury..
When I say it is completely unpredictable, that is what I thought.. Recent news has come out that there has been a spot of insider trading going on within the industry. News broke that an employee at DraftKings, who had access to confidential information, won $350,000 playing fantasy team. Yes, it was on a different website, but the principle still stands that they have been competing against people who were merely using their own knowledge to build a team they thought had potential. The situation could be compared to insider trading within the stock market and market efficiency.
We could consider that general customers of these fantasy sports websites are experiencing weak-form market efficiency. Their knowledge of the sport is what everybody else knows, they have no confidential information that could give them an advantage. The guys at DraftKings, FanDuel and the like are those in the market with semi-strong efficiency. They know more than the standard player, so they automatically have a competitive advantage. Is this fair to the consumers who are paying money to be in with as equal a chance as all of their competitors?
Although there are limited regulations on this game as theoretically the game can not be calculated perfectly as it does in the end, entirely depend on how each player plays and how different teams do in the league, as well as unexpected factors such as injuries. It is considered unfair for sports professionals to be involved in betting websites as they know more about the industry, they see how different players play, how different teams train and have a more in-depth knowledge than the average customer. A sports professional can spend weeks preparing and learning about their competitions’ plays. So if a sports player is not allowed to take part in betting due to their automatic advantage, why would it be fair for someone who works at these fantasy team companies to be allowed to play the same game? After all, they spend each and every day working on the game and understanding the rules and regulations. They would be able to see ways to compete in the leagues and gain more points than their competitors.
I don’t think this is fair practice, I believe that for those members of staff at these companies, they should not be allowed to play in these games. Fair enough, play in those where there is no money involved. But there should be regulations in place which prevent them from giving a disadvantage to those customers who pay and expect fair odds on their fantasy team gaming. What do you guys think?
Is it actually unfair to ban employees of fantasy team companies from playing the game on other sites? After all, it's entirely up to the results of the game as to what happens in the fantasy league, something that employees would have no control over?
ReplyDeleteI think that it’s right to ban employees of these companies from playing on other sites. Footballers, for example, aren’t allowed to bet on matches, this is fair because they have an advantage over the general public in that they know more about the sport, the teams, the players and the tactics - giving them an unfair advantage.
DeleteFor fantasy sports, whilst the employees do not have as much of an advantage as the sports stars, it is still an advantage over a standard player. The employees work in this industry every day and see the best ways to win, they understand the best ways to score points, and so can build a team that they know are more likely to get a higher points total than a team that other players might choose. They have done more research into the game itself.
I believe it is a different issue to betting, as in betting, the gambler is against the betting company, they are not against any other players. This means that when they have an advantage in their knowledge of the subject, they are using it against the company and not decreasing any other player’s chances of winning. In fantasy team, however, it is a league table, the players are playing against each other meaning that if an employee is playing on another site, they could be decreasing another player’s chances of winning - which is definitely unfair.