My first time playing fantasy football was in 2000. Ever since then I’ve played every year.

Honestly, before the internet, I had older family members playing but mostly working the phones making trades and meeting to draft.

Now I play in money leagues that has stricter rules than free ones and keeps the competition last longer throughout the season. Sports media has stand alone programming for fantasy fans and people hold draft parties for their league.

2017 the participation should hit or go above 80 million people. According to the New York Post, Americans spent $4.6 Billion playing fantasy football in 2014:

They are projected to spend an average of $107 each on fantasy leagues. A total of 58 percent of players expect to spend an additional average of $64 on food, while 48 percent plan to spend an average of $50 on nonalcoholic beverages and 47 percent say they’ll spend an average of $60 on booze.

So have fun this year and good luck!