Fantasy Sports Betting Online
Fantasy sports are a specific category of skill games that allows each participant to act as a sports team owner and compete against the other fantasy owners based on real-life statistics of the individual players were drafted. While the history of fantasy sports dates back to the late fifties, there’s no denying the fact that games of this kind became popular only after the internet allowed everyone to find and compile all the necessary data without the hassle of going through countless newspapers and guides. Nowadays, the real money fantasy sports sites attract millions of players from all over the world, which makes it fairly easy to take up this exciting hobby and start earning money without ever leaving the comfort of your home.
Betting Real Money on Fantasy Sports
Back in the nineties and early 2000’s, fantasy sports were pretty much all about drafting a team of your choice and sticking with it throughout the entire season. However, new sites have emerged that offer daily drafts, which means that players are free to make up their fantasy teams for a single day of fantasy action. Consequently, making a mistake does not put you out of the action for prolonged periods of time, as you can adjust your selection on a daily basis.
Joining one of these games requires the player to pay the buy-in, which can range from as low as $0.25 all the way up to $530 or even more. Each fantasy sports game has a pre-determined prize pool, which depends on the number of entrants and the size of the entry fee. The participants of those games are awarded points based on the individual performance of each player they selected – once the day is over, those points are added up to determine the overall team score and award the appropriate prizes.
Fantasy Sports Game Types and Rules
As you’d expect, drafting your fantasy team for a real money game has certain limitations in order to make things more entertaining and challenging. In most cases, the participants are required to create their fantasy lineups using a limited amount of credits, which means that you won’t be able to destroy the opposition with an almighty all-star team due to the player salary cap. In addition, most sites have a different scoring system for each fantasy sport, which means that moving from one real money fantasy sports site to another might be somewhat confusing, particularly for inexperienced fantasy sports enthusiasts.
Many fantasy sports sites allow you to choose between several game types, giving you a chance to try playing without the salary cap, advancing through a tournament bracket or drafting the players in real-time along with the other fantasy owners participating in a given match. All things considered, mastering each game type requires a lot of effort. Fortunately, most sites allow you to practice for free, so you won’t be forced to put your money at risk until you feel like you’re ready for the real deal.
Popular Fantasy Sports
Real money fantasy sports sites tend to stick to the most popular disciplines and major leagues, which means that betting real money on exotic sports might prove to be somewhat problematic. A typical selection of games includes fantasy baseball, football, hockey, golf, basketball and soccer with the participants drafting players from NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, CBB or CFB.
On a brighter note, each of the available sports can usually be played in all the available game types, which means that mastering a single discipline is very likely to provide you with hours upon hours of quality entertainment. Furthermore, being able to consistently draft winning teams requires a serious handicapping effort, so you probably shouldn’t try playing more than one or two real money fantasy sports games if you care about your long-term profitability.
Is It Legal?
Fantasy sports are skill games, which means they’re perfectly legal in most countries even if you’re playing for real money. In the United States, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act has an exemption that specifically allows fantasy sports sites to offer their real money products to US residents as long as the prizing is determined before the contest and isn’t influenced by the fees or number of participants.
However, please note that the sites that don’t follow these rules are subject to being flagged as illegal gambling operations, which would make it illegal for banks and other similar institutions to process any money transfers between them and US-based customers. Nevertheless, no US residents have been prosecuted for playing on an illegal fantasy sports site so far.
Making a Deposit and Cashing Out
Most real money fantasy sports sites support a wide range of deposit options, including e-wallet payments via services like PayPal and Neteller, as well as all the popular credit cards, such as Visa, MasterCard or American Express. Please note that many of those sites operate rather strict deposit limits – usually, you won’t be able to transfer less than $10 and more than $1,000 while funding your account. Most operators will process your deposit instantly, which means that you’ll be able to join the action as soon as you provide the site’s staff with all the necessary personal information and validate your account.
Withdrawals are usually handled via an e-wallet payment, bank wire transfer or check by courier, but keep in mind that only the first method guarantees that you will receive your money within 24-48 hours from placing your cash out request. In most cases, the minimum amount you will be allowed to withdraw will be $10 or $20.
Keep in mind that if your winnings exceed a certain amount for a calendar year, the site in question might request your social security number or other additional information before going through with your payout. Finally, it is worth pointing out that US-customers are free to use e-wallet services to manage their fantasy sports-related accounts, as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act places no restrictions on real money fantasy sports sites.