The History of Fantasy Sports: And the Stories of the People Who Made It Happen

by Larry Schechter

Fantasy sports have become as ingrained in American culture as baseball and apple pie. And they have spread worldwide. There are versions of these games for football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, cricket, bull riding, bass fishing, Iditarod and many more. It is one of the most popular forms of entertainment today.

But the millions who play mostly have no idea about the people and events that created this phenomenon. The History of Fantasy Sports provides the first complete telling of how we got from the spontaneous ideas for games years ago, to the multi-billion-dollar industry of today.

Larry Schechter spent 18 months researching and interviewing dozens of key players, pioneers, and entrepreneurs to uncover their stories. This reader-friendly book is ready to take its place alongside some of the best in sports history. You will be entertained and inspired by these stories of humble beginnings turned multi-million-dollar enterprises. Schechter does a great job of capturing the passion, obsession, and love of the game behind these businesses.


"Exhaustively researched, this is the most detailed history of the fantasy sports industry. Despite spending my entire career in the industry, I was enlightened by all the interviews and countless stories throughout the book." PAUL CHARCHIAN, President of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, 2009-2020

“This is the definitive history of fantasy sports, capturing the personal stories and business trajectories of the many competing startups and eventual power players. Larry Schechter brings remarkable detail to the then-and-now dynamic of fantasy, from the bootstrapped early years to the multi-billion dollar industry it is today.” JOE LEMIRE, Sports Business Journal

“Larry regales us with colorful accounts, many of them direct from the source. This is a must-read for any passionate fantasy sports fan.” TRISTAN COCKCROFT, ESPN.com Senior Fantasy Sports Writer

“The History of Fantasy Sports is a fun look back at how fantasy sports has grown from its infancy into the absolute monster that it is today.” MICHAEL FABIANO, Senior Fantasy Analyst for Sports Illustrated.

“Larry craftily guides readers through fantasy’s ascension in vivid detail. The History of Fantasy Sports is a comprehensive breakdown of the movers, shakers and deal makers in a hobby that’s transcended sports.” BRAD EVANS, Co-Founder of The Gaming Juice and long time Yahoo senior fantasy writer

Contents
Preface
1. In the Beginning
2. The Origins of Fantasy Baseball
3. The Origins of Fantasy Football
4. The First Commercial Games
5. Newspaper Games
6. CDM Sports and the Landmark Legal Case
7. First Fantasy Sports Publications
8. First Fantasy Sports Books
9. Advanced Metrics
10. Commissioner Services
11. Fantasy Radio and TV Shows
12. News Services
13. First Football Websites
14. High-Stakes Games
15. Major Media Companies
16. The Fantasy Sports Trade Association
17. Legal Battles and Legislation
18. Injury Experts
19. Innovative Entrepreneurs
20. Experts Leagues
21. Daily Fantasy Sports
22. Fantasy Sports Worldwide
Epilogue
Bibliography

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction

320 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 3, 2024

Reviews

[Sharon Orlopp · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book interested me because my husband, brother, father, and son have played and continue to play on fantasy sports teams. I've also known some engineers who have worked in the fantasy sports industry. The History of Fantasy Sports: And the Stories of the People Who Made It Happen is incredibly well researched to provide the decades long fantasy sports arena.....long before everything was available electronically.

There are terrific entrepreneurial stories where men and women dropped out of their careers and swung for the fences to create fantasy sports for hundreds of thousands of sports enthusiasts. And of course, there was litigation. The litigation chapters were directly out of David vs Goliath and to everyone's surprise, the "little guy" won.

The true meaning of fantasy sports are the long standing relationships. Many leagues have been in existence for over 30 and 40 years with very few team members leaving their league. It's an amazing story about friendship, sports, business, and passion.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Barry S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t believe that even though tens of millions of people play fantasy sports, no one had written a detailed history of the industry until now. I think that the author himself has the answer as to why this was the case when he explains how much work it was for him to write this book. Schechter covers many tangents of the fantasy realm that make the book even more interesting than if it had just been about who started which leagues when. For example, there are chapters about the history of radio and tv shows, legal battles and legislation, injury experts, daily fantasy sports… and many more. The book is extremely readable and well written. It’s also impressive to me that one of the most successful fantasy players in the country is also such a great writer. But at any rate, this book will likely become the Bible for anyone interested in all aspects of the history of the fantasy sports world.

[Greg Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've played fantasy football and baseball for many years and never knew hardly anything mentioned in this book. There are dozens of stories about what people did to invent games, start magazines, commissioner services, news services, high stakes games, daily fantasy and all the rest of it. And most of the stories are directly from the people who did it, as the author conducted numerous interviews. (The bibliography is massive.)

Very interesting stories, easy to read book, glad we now have something that documents how this industry and phenomenon came to be.

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book. Schechter strikes a great balance between telling the facts and figures and events that occurred to document the history of fantasy sports, while also incorporating stories of the people involved, which makes it an easy read, with fascinating stories and humor. And it captures the essence of what makes fantasy sports so special that millions of people all over the world now play various games.

I have played fantasy football and baseball for many years and hardly knew any of this information.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

The canonical history of fantasy sports, from barroom leagues in the 1960s through whatever app you put a DFS lineup in on today. If you've ever chased two-start weeks, debated the merits of streaming defenses, or had to make a tough keeper decision, you have to read this book. It is for fantasy what Alan Schwarz's The Numbers Game was for baseball statistics.

[Tyler Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

My friend Clay gave me this book for helping him install a dishwasher

[Ian Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Larry Schechter has put together a book detailing the history of fantasy sports. He spent a year and a half interviewing most of the key figures in the growth of fantasy football over the last 60-plus years.

He sent out a copy, I’ve worked my through it, and it’s impressive.

He’s a thorough researcher and interviewer. He spoke with me (in a Zoom interview) and checked back a half dozen times to ensure he got everything right. (The book includes about five pages on the formation and development of Fantasy Football Index.)

The History of Fantasy Sports isn’t a traditional book. There isn’t a plot, with the story traveling from Point A to Point B. It’s more of a reference book, with a short recap of essentially everyone who’s played a notable role in the growth of the hobby.

There are 21 chapters in the 300 pages, covering all of the notable subsections of fantasy: books, magazines, commissioner services, major media companies, first commercial games, radio shows, high-stakes games, injury experts, experts league, origins of the game, daily fantasy sports, the development of a trade assocation and the notable CDM Sports lawsuit about 20 years ago.

I have met most of the key fantasy figures of the last 40 years, but I learned new things about almost all of them while reading this book – what caused them to get into the industry, and some of the key decisions they made along the way.

Recommended for those who want to learn more about how this game became a notable part of American culture.

[Joe Mirakian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the only comprehensive account of the history of fantasy sports on the market, and for that alone Mr. Schechter should be commended. As such, there is a wealth of information to be gained from this book that those interested would struggle to find elsewhere, especially in one place. I enjoyed many parts of it and would recommend it to anyone with a borderline-fanatical interest in fantasy sports and/or analytics.
Unfortunately, this book suffers from some poor organizational choices and a degree of over-inclusivity. Chapters are split by concept (e.g. "Newspaper Games," "Commissioner Services," "Radio and TV Shows"), leading to a segmented feel that also makes the author's narrative prone to repetition. There is a rough chronology to the book, but it would likely have flowed better with a more streamlined organizational style. This feeds off of the other problem, being that most chapters read more like encyclopedia entries on every relevant fantasy newspaper game that emerged between the 80's and 90's than a true historical account. Some chapters are more focused on one subject, and those are where the book's potential really shines (the chapter on the legal battle between CDM Sports and MLB over whether statistics were intellectual property was a particular standout.)
Overall, this book does its job as a catalogue of many of the individuals and businesses that contributed to the creation of the fantasy sports industry, but it may be better as a reference book than a complete cover-to-cover read.

[Mike Heenan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book is an incredibly detailed history of fantasy sports - from the early beginnings in the 1960s to the boom of the late 80s up to today. The amount of research that must have gone into this book is impressive and I felt that the content was exclusive - nothing was missing.

Although the content at times can read like a (well-researched) Wikipedia article, some sections, including the important legal cases, were very interesting and new information to me. I also appreciated that the author covered all sports worldwide and not just the most commonly played fantasy sports. I came into fantasy sports in the mid-2000s and had no idea of all the challenges that came before it - including the difficulty many had to find a way to make money off of it.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has played fantasy sports - to really appreciate what happened to lead up to where we are today.

[Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The History of Fantasy Sports dives into how a few fun, spontaneous game ideas turned into a massive, global industry. Author Larry Schechter spent 18 months talking to the key players behind the scenes, uncovering the passion, quirks, and hustle that built today’s fantasy sports world. It’s an entertaining, behind-the-scenes look at how a hobby became big business.

There is so much knowledge in this book, but written in a way that a new fantasy sports player like me can appreciate it. But I'm sure there is a lot more nuance to people who have grown up playing and watching sports. I was a history major and love reading non-fiction, this book may be slightly too dry for some, but I enjoyed it.

Thank you for the ARC via netgalley.

[Andrew Langert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had to be a very difficult book to write. The author did an absolutely valiant job of piecing together a history that has never been systematically documented. He covers a lot of ground, going back almost 100 years, tracing the roots of fantasy sports to table and board games and doing it for many sports, but especially baseball and football.

Having been a StratoMatic baseball player for 50+ years, I have come to know or know of many of the people instrumental in the growth of fantasy sports. The author could not possibly find all of the more influential ones, but he got most of them.

This brought back a lot of memories. The creation of today’s wildly popular fantasy sports scene has been a long and winding road.

[Scott Melesky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a sports journalist for 30 years and have contributed to 10 published books as an author. I have been fortunate to work with great writers and read great book in my career. I highly recommend The History of Fantasy Sports by Larry Schechter. I have played Fantasy Sports for many years, and this is the Definitive Book on Fantasy Sports. It is thoroughly well researched and very well-written. It tells the stories in great detail of the people who created Fantasy Sports and the successes that they have had in it.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schechter is the first to write a history of this fun hobby, and he does a determined job of cataloging every person who had some impact on the industry over four decades. Schechter is not a great writer and the book needs a copy editor, but all the information is here.

The book has a strange organizing principle in that it is not chronological but rather is split up into chapters that each cover a segment (or seminal event) of the industry, and there is of course some overlap.

[Maranda Thornton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, easy to read...fascinating stories...tells everything about how fantasy games were invented, spread, and the industry came to be with web sites, news services, analysts and everything else.

[Jason Wippich · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who has been playing fantasy sports since Jim Kelly and the Bills and Kenny Lofton of the formally named Indians, it was nice to see how this all started by people just like me. I’ve written for a few sites over my years but never tried to make it a full time passion.

[Gregory Kellogg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Larry’s depth of knowledge about fantasy sports is astounding. The stories he tells make his book a great read for anyone who wants to learn about fantasy sports!

[Mark Mariani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Larry Schechter's "The History of Fantasy Sports" is more than just a book; it is a seminal journey through the evolution of a phenomenon that has shaped not just sports but the fabric of competition and camaraderie across the globe. As someone who has been immersed in fantasy football for nearly half a century, I found Schechter's narrative enlightening and deeply personal, as it echoed many of my own experiences and the seismic shifts I've observed in the landscape of fantasy sports.

From humble beginnings to today's high-stakes, digitally-driven battlegrounds, Schechter masterfully charts the rise of fantasy sports through meticulous research, engaging stories, and a clear passion for the subject. What sets this book apart is its ability to bridge the gap between historical data and the human elements of the fantasy sports community. Schechter brings to life the pioneers, the landmark moments, and the underlying strategies that have defined the genre.

The book serves as a comprehensive guide for newcomers eager to understand the origins of their weekend hobby and as a treasure trove of nostalgia for veterans like myself. Each page resonates with the thrill of drafting a sleeper pick, the agony of a last-minute injury, and the glory of clinching a championship against all odds.

Moreover, "The History of Fantasy Sports" does not merely recount facts but delves into fantasy sports' cultural impact, examining how it has influenced media, reshaped fan engagement, and fostered a unique global community. Schechter's analysis of the statistical revolution and its implications on fantasy decision-making is compelling, offering insights that even seasoned players will find invaluable.

In celebrating the 45th year of my fantasy football journey, Larry Schechter's book reminds us why we invest our hearts and minds in this virtual competition. It's about more than just playing; it's about being part of a history that continues evolving and exciting. Whether you're a die-hard enthusiast or a casual player, "The History of Fantasy Sports" is an essential addition to your library, offering a well-rounded appreciation of this beloved pastime.

Rating: ★★★★★ —This is a must-read that captures the essence of fantasy sports with the reverence and depth it deserves.

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative read. I learned a lot about a subject I'm already passionate and knowledgeable about. Very well-researched by one of the industry's best minds.