How Much Money Does Fantasy Football Cost Employers

How Much Money Does Fantasy Football Cost Employers It’s almost fall, which means football season is about to literally and figuratively kick off. And according to new research from executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray Christmas, it also launches a nearly $17 billion productivity drain for American companies, thanks to the growing popularity of fantasy football and fans’ tendencies to devote workday time to prepping for their fantasy draft. According to estimates, anywhere from 57 million to 75 million Americans participate in fantasy football. Roughly two-thirds of them also hold down jobs â€" jobs that can get pushed to the back burner when a fantasy draft deadline is looming. Read next: What Fantasy Football Can Teach You About Investing Challenger crunched the numbers and determined that, across the country, every hour those fans spend revising their draft picks, researching stats, or engaging in other fantasy football activities cost employers nearly $990 million collectively. Over the course of the year, that number piles upâ€"just like the fantasy football stats your co-workers are poring over instead of doing their jobsâ€"to the tune of $16.8 billion. That might even be on the low side, since Challenger, Gray Christmas used a conservative estimate in its determination of how many people participate in fantasy football, and it assumed players only slack off for an hour a week at work. Video Player is loading.Play VideoPlayMuteCurrent Time  0:00/Duration  0:00Loaded: 0%Stream Type  LIVESeek to live, currently playing liveLIVERemaining Time  -0:00  SharePlayback Rate1xChaptersChaptersDescriptionsdescriptions off, selectedCaptionscaptions settings, opens captions settings dialogcaptions off, selectedAudio TrackFullscreenThis is a modal window. This video is either unavailable or not supported in this browser Error Code: MEDIA_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED Technical details : No compatible source was found for this media. Session ID: 2019-12-31:c0ef46beb290b11392aa79f4 Player Element ID: jumpstart_video_1 OK Close Modal DialogBeginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.TextColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentBackgroundColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparentWindowColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanTransparencyTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaqueFont Size50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%Text Edge StyleNoneRaisedDepressedUniformDropshadowFont FamilyProportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall CapsReset restore all settings to the default valuesDoneClose Modal DialogEnd of dialog window.PlayMuteCurrent Time  0:00/Duration  0:00Loaded: 0%Stream Type  LIVESeek to live, currently playing liveLIVERemaining Time  -0:00  Playback Rate1xFullscreenClose Modal DialogThis is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.Close Modal DialogThis is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button. Still, CEO John Challenger said it would be a mistake for companies to launch a crackdown on all of these virtual leagues; that is, if they could even identify the scofflaws, thanks to the always-on expectation in many fast-paced workplaces. “With more and more jobs in the service and information sectors, where mobile technology and high-speed internet access long ago blurred the lines between our personal and work lives, it is difficult to measure productivity in the traditional sense,” he said in a statement. So even if the guy in the next cube over is fiddling with his roster over the course of the day, there’s no way to tell if he’s making that time up later, fielding emails from the sidelines of his kids’ (real-life) football game, or addressing the concerns of a client several time zones away. Read next: 10 Amazing Things You Didn’t Know About College Football Ticket Prices Challenger also said that fantasy football can have a positive effect on the morale of workers who play it, giving them a little bit of short-term, well, fantasy escapism that can break up the monotony of what for many can feel like a perpetual workday. “These types of distractions can keep our creative juices flowing,” Challenger argued. “For these reasons, employers may not only want to avoid clamping down on fantasy football but may want to encourage it within the office,” he said. What’s more, Challenger, Gray Christmas also found that fantasy football’s net effect on the economy is actually positive: Because each player spends an average of a little over $550 a year in various league dues and membership fees, research costs and the like, the hobby pumps nearly $32 billion into the economy â€" almost twice the amount lost to workday fantasy football distractions.