10 Things You Didn't Know About Fantasy Football

Fantasy football has been around for decades, with many of us sports stat geeks playing it since the 90's or earlier. The product and tools have evolved greatly over the years and where fantasy began as something football people held their nose up at, it is now widely embraced and even embedded into the actual gameday presentation.

While football purists still have their issues with our little geeky hobby, the numbers prove that fantasy football has made its way into the mainstream.

Here are a few facts and stats that help show just how big fantasy football has become....

Year that fantasy football started:

1962

(Tweet this stat)

---

Number of people who play fantasy football:

approximately 25.8 million in 2013

(Tweet this stat)

---

Average age of a fantasy sports player:

34

(Tweet this stat)

---

Percentage of fantasy sports players that are men:

80%

(Tweet this stat)

---

Percentage of fantasy sports players that are not married:

78.1%

(Tweet this stat)

---

Percentage of fantasy sport players that consider football their favorite game:

69.4%

(Tweet this stat)

---

Estimated amount that fantasy football costs employers in lost productivity:

$13.4 billion

(Tweet this stat)

---

Average amount of time spent by workers researching fantasy football in the office:

2 hours per week

(Tweet this stat)

---

Number of results returned on a search of "fantasy football tips" in Google:

about 14 million

(Tweet this stat)

---

Estimated value of the fantasy football market:

$11 billion

(Tweet this stat)

Photo by Tom Newby Photography