Quote Originally Posted by Pete View Post
There was a recent court ruling that Fantasy Football is not gambling and that's when all these sites got set up and how millions now funnel their league through them. It also moved from something only real diehard football fans did to seemingly everyone everywhere having a team or 10.

Now, they have all your data and habits and can target you and others specifically with AI that will draw out your money.

I've seen a huge shift among my friends from people who used to pull for a specific team to now only caring about 'their' team. And that's 100% the mindset of a gambler, not a sports fan. All these sites have caused this shift and most people don't even realize it.
The draft kings and fan duel style weekly fantasy football (where you pick a new team every week and play in huge leagues) has recently become more popular but people my age and almost literally every guy I know 5-10 years younger and older than me have been playing standard fantasy football with 2-5 teams since high school/college. It might be growing in popularity but it’s been fairly popular and available online for 20+ years with apps starting up as soon as the App Store became available on the iPhone 3G. Several of us, me included, care more about our fantasy football team than any one professional team primarily because OK doesn’t have one and we’re sick of watching the Cowboys suck or just cheering for whatever team Baker Mayfield plays for. We all just enjoy playing in leagues with our friends and talking crap to each other every Sunday more than we care about any one team anymore. Sure, you win a little money if you win the league or in some of them, get a payout if you have the highest score during a week…but it isn’t nearly enough money to be the driving force behind all the time we spend messing with it.

All of that to say, I think you’re making some major generalizations based on your experience and your friend group (or maybe we just have different definitions of “fantasy football”). I don’t necessarily love dedicated online betting platforms (in an ideal world, I’d rather it be restricted to sports books in casinos that the state profits from and aren’t as easily accessed) but standard fantasy football and sports betting are not really the same thing.