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Fantasy football has led to calls for sites to add warning signs because of the impact it can have on players’ mental health.
Fantasy football is a sport in which players choose a fictional team from players in a league and earn points based on the players’ real-life performance.
People who put a lot of effort and money into gaming may have poorer mental health than those who spend less time on gaming, a new study suggests.
Research has shown that experienced players experience less anxiety than inexperienced players, but how much they engage with the game, how much money they spend and how much they compare their team to others can lead to increased mental health concerns.
The researchers found that players who spent more time comparing their fantasy football teams to other players’ teams reported poorer mental health, and players who checked their team’s performance more frequently reported poorer mental health than players who checked it less often.
But experts have found that it may have a positive effect on the mood of people attending games, especially if their team is doing well.
Dr Gary Ian Britton, from Queen Mary, University of London, who led the study, said: “On the one hand the findings may seem worrying, but on the other hand all highly involved groups reported feeling more positive as a result of playing fantasy football compared to those with lower gaming involvement.”
“If your fantasy football team is doing poorly, if you have a lot of money invested in the game, or just in the game in general, you’re more likely to feel depressed.
“But equally, if a fantasy football team performs well in a given week, it will likely boost the mood of a more engaged fantasy football player more positively than a less engaged player.”
Dr Britton said the Premier League should include a warning on its website about the potential negative effects of fantasy football if players invest too much in the game “both financially and in terms of time”.
The new study, published in the journal Simulation and Gaming, involved 635 participants.
Most of them (96%) were men and were typically aged 34 years.
Participants were recruited via social media and two popular fantasy football websites.
Questions assessed how much time they spent on fantasy football, how much money they spent, whether their participation made them feel anxious or stressed, and whether they had trouble settling down.
Other questions included how often fantasy football made them feel excited or upset, how often they argued with their parents or partner because of fantasy football, and whether they thought their obsession with the game interfered with their work.
