Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2018 September 20

= September 20 =

Fantasy basketball
What is fantasy basketball? What's the basic idea, i.e. how does it work? The introduction is completely useless:"Fantasy basketball is sometimes kept track of stats by hand, it was popularized during the 1990s after the advent of the Internet. However, most of the time, the stats are computed by the computer itself, and not the GM. Those who play this game are sometimes referred to as general managers (GMs), who draft actual National Basketball Association (NBA) players and compute their basketball statistics. The online format of the game has been popularized by websites, such as ESPN Fantasy Sports, NBA.com, and Yahoo! Fantasy Sports."So now I know that stats is sometimes kept track of by hand, or by the computer, or even by the GM (good thing I read farther to learn what a GM is), but I don't know what it is, or how it works, or how one beats one's friends. Understanding the rest of the article isn't particularly easy without an explanation in the intro, although it sounds somewhat like you're just following certain players' statistics. And of course, a Google search finds lots of places where you can play, but none explaining the concept. Nyttend (talk) 01:00, 20 September 2018 (UTC)
 * It is no different than any other fantasy sports, so let me sort of break it down for you in simplest terms. 1) A league forms with some predetermined number of participants (say 8-10 people).  2) Those people select players from the NBA through a sort of draft, that is every person selects NBA players in succession until every participant has built a basketball team of their own out of those players.  3) Players are assigned "points" based on the stats they earn in the NBA games they play.  4) Participants in the league compete against each other based on who's roster has accumulated the most "points" depending on the rules of the league.  There are two basic league formats 1) "Rotisserie style" scoring where players accumulate points throughout the season, and the league champion is the participant whose team has the most points at the end of the season and 2) "Head-to-head" style leagues where participants teams play simulated games against each other based on their player's points (stats), and participants earn wins and losses against each other, the league champion being the one with the best win-loss record at the end of the season.  If you can imagine a sport, there are fantasy leagues based on it, from all varieties of football, baseball, golf, basketball, hockey, auto racing, etc.  I hope that makes sense, if you have any specific questions, I can try to answer them or direct you to more reading.  -- Jayron 32 01:26, 20 September 2018 (UTC)
 * And if you're wondering why it is so popular, while some people play just for fun, there is also a LOT of money in it; it has become a very lucrative form of sports gambling, with many leagues having large stakes and where the league champion stands to take home a large chunk of cash. Most leagues I have played in for money have relatively cheap stakes of a nominal $20 buy in, but having leagues where players front hundreds or thousands of dollars, or where players play dozens of $20 leagues is not unusual.  -- Jayron 32 01:31, 20 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the basic explanation. I've never understood how any of these work, so this is just what I needed.  In general, does one draft enough players to play on the field/court/etc. at once (five basketball, eleven American football, etc.), or does one draft enough for a lot of substitutes too, and does one normally draft a full roster or just enough players (do you have to pick a center, two guards, and two forwards?)?  Or in both cases is the answer "every league does it differently"?  Nyttend (talk) 11:56, 20 September 2018 (UTC)
 * It's going to vary by league and by style. If you're playing a head-to-head style game, you're definitely going to require enough players to cover substitutions, injuries, etc. Rotisserie sports leagues are available in a variety of options. Some require you to build a team (i.e. you can't just keep drafting forwards!) while others are much more lax. In some baseball fantasy leagues, you essentially just add up hits or batting average or whatever for a set number of players; I would imagine there are basketball leagues that do something similar with points. Some leagues are meant to be very casual while others are meant to involve a great deal of planning, statistics, etc. so there is going to be a lot of variety. Matt Deres (talk) 14:20, 20 September 2018 (UTC)