History

  • Late 1950s

    Wilfred Winkenbach devises fantasy golf, in which each player selected a team of professional golfers and the person with the lowest combined total of strokes at the end of the tournament would win.

  • 1960

    Harvard University sociologist William Gamson started the "Baseball Seminar " where colleagues would form rosters that earned points on the players' final standings in batting average, RBI, ERA and wins.

  • 1980

    The landmark "Rotisserie League " is founded by Daniel Okrent. Members would draft teams from the list of active Major League Baseball players and would follow their statistics during the ongoing season to compile their scores.

  • 1998

    The Fantasy Sports Trade Association is born! While meeting to discuss legislative issues and other industry topics, representatives from CDM Fantasy Sports, Fantasy Insights, EA Sports, The Sporting News, and USFANS created an official organization to help promote fantasy sports.

  • 1999

    The new FSTA held its first official conference, and has been serving the industry ever since.

  • 2003

    More than 15 million people play fantasy sports.

  • 2015

    More than 50 million people play fantasy sports.

  • 2019

    17% of all Americans play fantasy sports and 20% participate in sports betting.

  • 2019

    The FSTA becomes the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association, expanding its scope to include all the new markets emerging in sports: sports betting, games of skills and non-sports contests.