Why Your Children Should Play Fantasy Sports

The following diatribe about why your children should play fantasy sports, specifically fantasy baseball arises from a conversation with a friend. His youngest son is playing Fantasy EPL for the first time. As the conversation flowed it dawned on me that the boy was being exposed to some valuable life lessons by way of Fantasy EPL which I would like to discuss in the ensuing passages. 

Lesson One: Budgeting

Many fantasy sports games require you to build a roster with a strict budget. For a young child, this may be the first experience they can get in budgeting and building a fantasy roster with a strict budget is quite the science. Some fantasy players will spend top dollar for the top names and be left with little money to fill the remaining roster spots which may be the majority of the spots. As a result, the team has two or three elite players but lacks depth because they have blown so much of their money already so they must fill the remaining spots with weaker players. A more sophisticated player knows that to build a strong, deep roster requires being able to spot undervalued talent and be able to stretch a budget as far as it can go. 

Similarly, in life one must learn to stretch a dollar as far as a dollar can go. That involves prudently allocating resources to get the most out of whatever money you make. Bills, food, clothing etc. can pile up and can become overwhelming if you have no notion of how to find deals. Those who are financially solvent are so because they know where they can afford to withhold money because there will inevitably be more needs and wants later on. The successful fantasy sports player knows that they need not have every $12M player. With that they can get two solid $6M players and fill two needs and maybe those players turn out to be comparable talent. He knows financial flexibility matters and that sometimes two needs can be filled for the price of one. A young one will find that this mentality can also hold true in other, more serious facets of life later on.

Lesson Two: Contingency Planning

Life almost never goes as planned. Ditto for fantasy sports. I can attest that injures, suspensions and poor form can derail even a seemingly strong squad. This means that when building a squad in fantasy one must be able to account for those possibilities. The concept of depth that I mentioned before is key here. Is there adequate coverage in case of injury? What if one player is suspended? Can I adjust my lineup easily to compensate? Successful fantasy players know how to build a malleable squad with many possible lineup options to cover for different possible events or matchups. 

In much the same way, life throws curveballs at us. When we set goals we set (I hope) action plans towards meeting those goals. Most people know this but what many fail to do is hedge their bets and plan contingencies as needed. And so, when adversity arrives they find themselves trapped and improvising an exit strategy (often a bad one) from their situation. One needs to ask, what if I need more money, what if task “x” gets delayed and so forth. Fantasy sports teaches that. Those who learn do well and have an important new behavior to apply elsewhere in life. 

Lesson Three: Research Skills

What does a certain stat measure? Who did each team sign that can be the next big thing? Which player is grossly undervalued? Which is overvalued? These are not questions that can be answered through ignorance of the sport you’re playing fantasy in. Research is required. Knowledge in fantasy is power like it is elsewhere in life. Informed players make better decisions, can plan better for contingency and have more success and therefore more fun. Like in anything else knowledge enriches the experience and gives you a new appreciation for the game and how those immersed in it need to think. Fantasy sports is a game for the thinking man as is life in general and thinking is difficult if you lack the knowledge base from which to do so. 

Lesson Four: Adversity

Anybody who has ever managed a fantasy team will tell you that the season never really goes to plan. Players get injured, they underperform, they are suspended etc. A good fantasy sports manager will find ways to manage adversity and this goes back to my whole point on contingency planning. But just generally speaking, life is about foiled plans, frustrations, and yes, a fair share of losing. Children should not be sheltered from failure and failure is common in fantasy sports. Children will learn that you can plan everything right and still fail or plan badly and get lucky. 

Lesson Five: Social Skills 

Succeeding in fantasy rarely comes without shrewd transactions. Pulling this off requires the social skills to build a convincing case around a trade. This means understanding the other player's wants and needs versus your own as well as his or her personality and tailoring your communication and negotiation tactics accordingly. Success also comes from the trades you don't make and so it is important to resist pressure tactics or charm offensives. Children learning this through a fun environment like fantasy sports will find these bits of social acumen useful in more serious contexts later on. 

Conclusion

There are plenty of good reasons to allow your kid to play fantasy sports even beyond what I have listed here. The one caveat from me would be that they should not play in pools where money is involved. Free leagues should be totally fine though. Win the league or finish last, there are important opportunities to learn new things and grow their interest in a specific sport. Just as importantly, fantasy sports are fun and children should have fun while they learn something whenever that is possible.