The Importance of Big Data in Fantasy Football
Joe Johnson
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Things and activities that attract a lot of people tend to have a life on their own sooner or later, taking somewhat unexpected turns sometimes. Such is the case with the game of fantasy football, which has become much more than an entertainment since it gained huge popularity in recent years. And though it is a nice way of spending time and healthy competition among friends, it requires a lot of attention if we want to be serious about it.
Plenty of football fans love the opportunity to turn into virtual managers and form dream teams, hoping they will do well in real life. People live for the game, likely because it is a lot of fun and because it is the closest thing to feel the real emotions without being in the game. Increased interests result in higher stakes. The competition then becomes fiercer and more intense. So too is the satisfaction of being the best. Either way, it means that to win, something special is necessary like the use of big data.
The power of information influences the development of almost every industry and niche. It could ultimately be what decides between failure and success. As such, it impacts the way we look at certain things, including sports. Big data, which focuses on such things as team combinations, players’ performances or past game scores, could in the future change how we play games altogether. The growing rate of insightful predictions requires the proper handling of the data and a significant amount of analytic effort but could potentially bare some serious implications. That’s especially true in the gaming world. If the game itself should alter so much, what will happen if we wanted to have some fun with it as spectators? Would there be a point in starting a fantasy league or betting money on the outcome?
In fantasy football, dedicated players commit to the cause. They put time and effort into planning drafts, setting up perfect rosters, studying websites and experts’ analysis, following the sports news, etc. They do this to try and find the edge when the season starts and to equip themselves with the knowledge to make educated decisions. It is essentially what big data is all about, and football has various data subsets to target to make informed evaluations about something so complicated.