Fantasy Football: Study finds owners spend 8 hours per week on teams

Sept. 11 (UPI) -- A new study surveyed 500 fantasy football team owners and found the real cost of playing the cyber-sport.

The poll was commissioned by LendEDU and conducted by Pollfish. It was conducted Aug. 29.

Of those surveyed, 39 percent play season-long style fantasy football, while 24 percent participate in daily fantasy football.

About 37 percent of those surveyed play in both formats.

The poll found that those owners spent an average of $280 out of pocket on season-long leagues this season while they spent $272.52 on daily leagues.

Nearly 90 percent of those polled expected a positive return on investment in season-long leagues while about 92 percent expected revenue on the daily front. About 84 percent of those surveyed from both formats said that they have had positive returns in the past while playing fantasy football.

Fans of the game in both formats said they favored the fun of fantasy sports over the money.

Those polled said they spent an average of about 8 hours per week (7.94) on their fantasy teams. The owners spent an average of 4.3 hours per week on fantasy teams while at work.

LendEDU used the median wage of U.S. workers ($44,148) and assumed fantasy team owners spent about 13 weeks researching players and playing the sport to find that owners lose $1,186 in productivity while at work.

According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, fantasy sports are worth $7.22 billion and about 60 million people play in the United States.