How Fantasy Football Can Provide Real Workplace Benefits

Forbes

2 days ago

We've all heard the expression. A team should be greater than the sum of its parts. It's one of the most fundamental concepts in sports. Each year we see it proven again—invariably, the last teams standing in the championship games boast sublime chemistry. They're teams whose players have bonded deeply over the course of a lengthy season. Each person is pulling for the next. Why? Because they know the success of the whole is more important than individual accolades.
While we know the maxim, it also begs the question: If chemistry is so fundamental to success, how does a team create it? In sports, it happens organically, play after play, game after game. In business, chemistry is built differently. There are many ways to go about it. Maybe a company-wide retreat at a serene resort does the trick. Or maybe setting certain goals helps to inspire the group. But one proven way to bring your staff together every fall is by playing fantasy football.
Each year, leaders use fantasy football as an opportunity for team bonding with employees or business partners. If you aren't familiar with the game, let me explain it here. Fantasy football is played online. A commissioner creates a league through platforms like ESPN, CBS or Yahoo! And those leagues are comprised usually of 10 to 12 teams. Each team is then populated by NFL players who owners select in a draft before the NFL season begins.
Every week your team goes head-to-head against another in the league. Your players accrue points by accumulating touchdowns or yards and whoever has the most at the end of the week wins! According to Statista Research, an estimated 29.2 million people in the U.S.played fantasy football in 2022. And according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, 46 million Americans play fantasy sports. Along with football, there are many other fantasy games, including fantasy basketball, baseball or Premier League. That number has grown over time, like a snowball racing down a mountain. It's a lucrative business that may be worth upwards of $56 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research, Inc.
There are myriad reasons anyone might enjoy playing fantasy football. It can make the games on Sundays more exciting. It's a way to follow the NFL more closely. But at the end of the day, many play so that they can enjoy a little friendly competition with people in their lives—in other words: to bond. In business, that can be a priceless tool. Between Googling defensive NFL rankings, wide receiver stats, funny fantasy football team names, catchy fantasy football team names or other info, team owners get to share something.
To build chemistry, there must be commonality. And nothing brings people together quite like fantasy football. The game can lead to swaths of emails and good-natured trash talking amongst team owners. In an age when water cooler conversation is dwindling—if for no other reason than more people work remotely in 2025 than ever before—fantasy football is a way to keep people united. By playing the game, employees can get to know one another outside of everyday business conversations.
Fantasy football can also help build inner-office tradition. Today, some leagues have been going strong for two or even three decades. In many offices, fantasy football provides a weekly event to look forward to. It can even be a way for junior employees in the office to interact with the more senior employees in a neutral environment. It takes the edge off; people can be a little less formal with one another and have a little more fun. But these aren't just anecdotal ideas—they are proven facts.
Joe Mogila, an expert on leadership and a fellow Forbes contributor, wrote that fantasy football can be a strong way to build office unity. Mogila highlighted a recent report by Yahoo Sports that surveyed 1,000 adult fantasy football players. It found that 44% of people who played the game did so with others at work, and of those, more than two-thirds said playing the game in the office helped them bond with their teammates. 'This makes sense,' wrote Mogila. 'Fantasy football is a social activity, and it encourages regular interaction over the course of many weeks.'
Not only that but the study showed that 83% of players reported fantasy football helped them to stay connected with people who they wouldn't otherwise be in touch with as often. But, you may be wondering, what is the downside to the game?
While it might seem logical to think playing fantasy football would hurt in-office productivity—what with all the stat research and smack talking emails—that actually isn't the case. In fact, fantasy football can help an office function smoother—it can even be a good learning tool. Of course, there are points of order to remember—no one should take the game too seriously and bosses shouldn't leverage their status for unfair player transactions. But that aside, fantasy football can be a fun and helpful bonding tool in the workplace.
That's a win for everyone.