Fantasy football teams are highly entertaining because of the excitement and competition generated by games and the money that can be wagered in betting. According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA), there are about 30 million fantasy players in the United States alone and this number is only increasing. It has been noted that the interest in fantasy football has increased tremendously in the past two years. Actually, the number of people competing has doubled, which reflects the level of keen interest in the tournaments.
The Impact Of Fantasy Football On Workplace Productivity
Is Fantasy Football Creating Losses For Companies?
With more and more people getting into fantasy football, the big question that arises is the impact on work productivity. Are people so much into fantasy teams and games that they contribute less to their work during the football season?
It is said that fantasy football playing is costing companies a big chunk of money. In a recent study, it was found that fantasy football players are costing
employers more than $1.1 billion in productivity every week, during the National Football League season. This statistic was brought out by
Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. The attraction towards fantasy football is immense because of the lucrative payout that it offers. This is a billion dollar business, which involves 24.3 million players according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.
However, with so much interest in fantasy football, how much of time is being devoted to real work? According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc about 22.3 million employed people spend half an hour of work time every week on managing their rosters and other fantasy football related activities.
The current average hourly wage according to the American Bureau of Labor Statistics is $19.33. Spending about half an hour every week is a loss of $430.9 million worth of work per week. During the four-month football season, these losses come to a whopping $6.5 billion. This is how the game is affecting business and how much it is actually costing them. The next question that arises is if these statistics are a matter of serious concern. Are businesses going to go bust because of them? What are the short term and long term impact?
Are Businesses Losing Yards But Boosting Their Team?
Surprisingly, despite the losses turning into billions of U.S dollars, the impact on work productivity is negligible. Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc states that the impact is minimal and that the statistics that they have come out with are a very rough estimate. According to the company's CEO John Challenger, businesses will go on as usual and there is going to be no hard-hitting problem for companies due to employees indulging in fantasy football.
However, it is to be noted is that though the impact is not big on productivity, nevertheless its presence due to fantasy football is there and this must be noted. It is even argued that fantasy football can work to
boost workplace morale and productivity, creating stronger relationships between coworkers.
Companies who embrace the growing popularity of the sport can experience benefits such as employee loyalty and happiness with unaffected productivity. There are also those that have banned access to fantasy football websites or who have
fired employees for indulging in this sport during work hours. Such actions should be taken only if the interest in fantasy football games is continually and largely affecting a person's work and the employee's productivity has drastically decreased.
Taking an action to ban fantasy football playing across the company may backfire with reduced morale across the office. Employees should remember to not allow these teams and tournaments to negatively affect their work, but at the same time do their research and be ready for their up coming fantasy football draft.
Steven Doumet writes in the field of athletics. This article sheds light on fantasy sports teams and office productivity and aims to encourage continued study through an athletic administration program, for more information click here. Photo Credit: Shutterstock
