Fantasy baseball: A new way to gamble or just another game?

The controversy over whether fantasy sports should be considered a new form of gambling was investigated. The predominance rule was used to operationally define gambling. This rule states that an activity is gambling if outcomes are due more to chance than to skill. Individuals active in a fantasy baseball league (commonly referred to as "owners") and individuals who had never entered any type of fantasy league ("non-owners") participated. Perceptions of skill-to-chance ratios were assessed and a content analysis of the specific skill and chance features involved in fantasy baseball was conducted. The results showed that fantasy baseball owners and non-owners judged outcomes to be more the result of skill. In an attempt to determine whether these results were supported by actual outcomes, a second study analyzed the records of a fantasy baseball league over an extended period. The findings of this additional study also suggest that skill may predominant over chance.

Major League Baseball Attendance and the Role of Fantasy Baseball

Many explanations exist for the resurgence of the Major League Baseball (MLB) fan base following the 1994-1995 strike. The most prevalent explanations include the 1998 McGuire-Sosa homerun race and Cal Ripken Jr.’s consecutive games record. While such explanations certainly impacted fan interest in the sport, it is remiss to ignore the impact of online fantasy baseball leagues, which surfaced in 1997. This article examines the extent to which participating in a fantasy baseball league influences the MLB game attendance. The results strongly suggest that fantasy baseball participation positively influences MLB game attendance.

Fantasy Baseball with a Statistical Twist

Fantasy baseball, a game invented in 1980, allows baseball fans to become managers of pretend baseball teams. In most fantasy baseball leagues, participants choose teams consisting of major league players who they believe will do well in five offensive categories (batting average, home runs, runs batted in, stolen bases, and runs scored) or in five pitching categories. We bring a fantasy baseball activity into entry-level statistics classes. Each student drafts a team on the basis of nine offensive categories, most of which are statistical twists on the five categories above. The primary goal of this activity is to apply the material in an introductory one-semester, non-calculus-based college course in statistics. This is the type of course that AP Statistics courses are designed to emulate, so this project is appropriate for AP Statistics classes as well. Indeed, this project incorporates exploratory analysis, planning and conducting a study, probability, and statistical inference, the four major themes of an AP Statistics class (The College Board 2004).

C.B.C. Distribution and Marketing, Inc., v. Major League Baseball Advanced Media, L.P., 505 F.3d 818 (8th Cir. 2007)

CBC Distribution and Marketing, Inc. (CBC), operator of CDMsports.com (CDM), offering fantasy-sports products and services, brought this action against Major League Baseball Advanced Media, L.P. (MLBAM), to establish its right to use without license the names and, inherently crucial for fantasy-sports operators, statistical records of Major League Baseball (MLB) players. MLBAM, the interactive media and Internet company of MLB, counterclaimed that CBC’s fantasy-baseball products violated MLB players’ rights of publicity, which were licensed through the MLB Players’ Association (MLBPA) to MLBAM. The MLBPA intervened in the suit, joining in MLBAM’s claims and further asserting a breach-of-contract claim against CBC. The district court granted summary judgment to CBC—see C.B.C. Distribution and Marketing, Inc. v. Major League Baseball Advanced Media, L.P., 443 F. Supp. 2d 1077 (E.D. Mo. 2006)—and MLBAM and the MLBPA appealed.