Fantasy football really took off when online sites started providing all the management tools needed for leagues and teams. I used to do it when we had to track all that stuff by hand and it was fun, but a pretty small thing with little money involved.

Now, I know tons of people who care way, way more about their fantasy team than they do about the NFL or any particular team. In fact, I'd say that is true for most of my friends and the main reason I stopped doing fantasy: I'm a sports fan first and foremost and I didn't want my gambling to take precedence.

Now, with so many people involved and already used to doing everything online, in steps DraftKings and FanDuel and a thousand other sites.


As this segment in 60 Minutes notes, it was a federal court decision in 2018 that really cracked open the floodgates.

And it's young people who are already addicted to their smartphones that seem to be the target of all the ads. I bet we are soon going to learn that a ton of college kids are getting themselves into deep trouble.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDsLu0CWcgk