The meteoric growth in fantasy sports participation has essentially ground to a halt, according to new research from the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. But despite continued legal and legislative turbulence in daily fantasy sports, the number of players in the U.S. and Canada again has reached a new high.
The association, working with Ipsos Public Affairs on its annual study of the fantasy sports landscape, found the number of players in the U.S. and Canada grew to a record 57.4 million over the past year. The figure is up 1 percent from the 56.8 million found in the same study last year.
That growth rate is down dramatically from a 39 percent rise in participants seen between 2014 and 2015 as daily fantasy sports assumed mainstream industry prominence. The increase also is substantially less than the double-digit percentage growth seen in many other years this decade.
But after daily fantasy has battled regulatory challenges around the country in the past nine months, and the number of states where it cannot be played with money has nearly doubled to nine, the association is pleased 2015’s growth was not surrendered.
“While it’s certainly been tumultuous for us inside the industry, what this data tells us is that consumers just want to play and remain highly engaged with fantasy,” association President Paul Charchian said. “Fantasy is still growing, and consumers are still willing to spend.”
Also helping boost the association’s participation figures was 50 percent growth in fantasy soccer from last year and 10 percent growth in fantasy baseball.
The new research figures will be formally announced this week at the association’s Summer Conference in New York. Survey data for the study was compiled in January and February, before more recent developments in daily fantasy, including DraftKings and FanDuel agreeing to shut down operations in New York as part of a settlement with the state attorney general’s office.
A bill that would legalize daily fantasy in New York, one of the industry’s largest and most important markets, last week received state Senate committee approval and will be sent to both houses of the state Legislature. Crucially for the fantasy sports industry, the legislation as written designates daily fantasy as a game of skill as opposed to one of chance, a key legal distinction in the debate. Fantasy sports advocates are seeking to have the bill passed before the state’s legislative session concludes Thursday.
Debate around daily fantasy intensified last fall after reports of insiders gaining improper access to non-public information around specific games. That soon became a larger battle as to whether daily fantasy represented a form of gambling.
