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Fantasy 101 – What the hell is NRL Fantasy?
Considering you found your way here, chances are you already know the answer to this, but in case
you got here to satiate your desire for Naughty Russian Lesbian Fantasy, then I’m sorry to
disappoint. Fantasy sports is a game where people get to build their own team of players and
compete against others based on the real life exploits of their players. A bit like gambling, it is helps
viewers engage with sports on a deeper level. NRL Fantasy is the official fantasy game of the
National Rugby League.
You’re already a league fan. The weekend is a blur of beer and pizza, abusing referees, and praying
for a shoulder charge. But, what do you do with the remaining 94 hours of your week? What about
the long, dreary weekdays? What about the dull dinner conversations and terrible episodes of
renovation reality TV? How do you get through?
Maybe you’re not a league fan, but you are just looking to bond with someone who is. Understand
why it is all so important, why the video refs are so terrible for the game or why the players are so
much softer than they were 30 years ago. Perhaps you know your partner is going to make you sit
through five games a weekend and call it quality time and you need a reason to enjoy the
experience?
You need a team.
Not some team you have no control over, but support as it lurches from one PR disaster to another.
Not a team that doesn’t have the guts to sack a struggling half or a regressed alcoholic.
You need your own team.
A team where you can hire and fire any player you like. A team that doesn’t charge $160 per jersey.
And most importantly, a team that won’t sack the coach.
You need NRL Fantasy.
In the United States and Canada, over 40 million people play some kind of fantasy sports, that’s
about 10% of their combined populations. It is big enough in the United States that professional
fantasy players can actually make a decent living from their imaginary combinations. It is a big
business and although fantasy sports doesn’t have the same foothold in Australia and New Zealand,
it is definitely still a growing market.
Back in the late 90’s I remember playing Super 12 Dream Team. You had to mail (that means using
one of those stamp things) in an entry form picking your side and a few days later you’d get back this
huge wall chart to keep track of a player's scoring. If you wanted to swap players you had to call up a
number ($1.99 a minute) and enter in some player codes to make the trade. As I went to boarding
school I had to cycle around to my grandparents to use their phone or just call my elderly
grandfather with complicated instructions on how to make the trades for me and hope he wouldn’t
muck it up.
Thankfully technology has progressed somewhat in the last 18 years and fantasy sports has been a
big winner. Live scoring allows us to track our players in real time, we can access our teams from
anywhere in the world, and we can talk trash to rivals 24/7. It is a glorious era we live in.
NRL Fantasy is the premier fantasy competition in Australasia. The best fantasy competitions have a
reasonably easy scoring system that allows a player’s on field exploits to be easily translated into
points. In NRL Fantasy, when you see your player do something good, you can be fairly confident
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