Fantasy Football is incredibly popular. Last season, over 8m people participated in the
Premier League’s official game alone, along with hundreds of thousands of others who play
across the variants found in British newspapers and online across the world
It’s fun and it’s simple, but it’s under-evolved, and while recent innovations have added some
gloss to the long-standing format, it remains primitive in comparison to its American cousins,
which are more complex, more serious and often much more absorbing as a result.
Yes, Fantasy Football is a guilty pleasure for most of us – and a very serious pursuit
for others - but it can be better and Tifo has a few ideas as to how.
A lot of fantasy teams feature the same core of elite players.
With the new Premier League season soon to begin, the usual trends are appearing. 56%
of the sides currently registered include Liverpool full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold.
43.7% have spent the £11.5m required to sign Kevin De Bruyne. And 38.8% are hoping that
Chelsea’s Timo Werner enjoys a prolific start to life in English football. This year’s
fashionable budget option has already been identified, too, with over 30% of users having
picked Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrovic.
It’s natural. Those who play Fantasy Football pick in accordance with what is, ultimately,
a very narrow scoring system. Its currencies are goals, assists, clean sheets and appearances.
But this is a habit encouraged by the way players are priced: on a scale from £4m to
£12m, not only do the league’s superstars cost too little, but the valuations are too
generalised.
If that were to change, so would the texture and complexity of the challenge.
The official game has 15 spots to fill with a £100m budget. With the most expensive players
only costing £12m, fantasy managers can afford to pick a star with very little sacrifice.
For instance, selecting Mohamed Salah would leave 14 spots to fill and £88m to spend,
which is an average allowance of £6.3m per player.
In other words, a team of Kyle Walkers, Alissons, Tanguy Ndombeles and Jordan Ayews, Together,
a very able supporting cast for Salah, and an easy decision to make.
However, if the Egyptian were to cost £18m instead, that average across the rest of the
team would fall to £5.5m. Your Kyle Walker is suddenly a David Luiz, your Alisson is
a more risky Kasper Schmeichel, and your Ndombele and Ayew would be replaced by Jeffrey Schlupp
and Patrick Bamford.
Salah would look different in that light. No longer a reflexive, must-have item to be
shared among millions of different managers, but rather a luxury good commanding resources
which might be better spent elsewhere and.- crucially – in many more ways.
It would create a different proposition. It would also, by way of the variation between
valuations, allow for a fantasy world in which there wasn’t just £1m difference between
Phil Jones and Bukayo Saka, or £500,000 between Takumi Minamino and Wilfried Zaha.
it would better reflect the sport, which is another area of traditional weakness.
Historically, one of fantasy football’s biggest issues has been its inability to reward
certain types of player – the sort who are invaluable to their side, but who lack the
tangible production to be a virtual commodity.
It’s telling, for instance, that only 1.1% of registered users have selected Liverpool’s
Fabinho, or that just 2.7% have picked Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante. It’s the age-old problem:
how to make the importance of deeper-lying midfielders more commensurate with their actual
function.
Any solution has to respect an important reality: Fantasy Football is a simple game and that
simplicity is a big part of its appeal. Complicated analytics and nebulous statistics are at odds
with the culture and potentially prohibitive to mass participation. Any new metrics must
be relatively easy to calculate, so that fantasy managers can watch their points accumulate
in real time.
It calls for a solution in three parts: firstly, deep-lying midfielders would become their
own positional category. Secondly, they would be awarded a single point for surpassing specific
thresholds in the tackles completed, interceptions, and passing accuracy categories (to be clarified
with illustration). And, finally, those tallies would be subject to a multiplier determined
by the game’s outcome.
One for a defeat, two for a draw, three for a win. Then divide the total by the number
of goals the team concedes, creating a rough sum for generalised, midfield contribution.
As they are in real life, those players would not only become amongst the most valuable
in the game, their selection would be vital.
As should be the picking of a manager. While some Fantasy variations do include a spot
for a head-coach, it’s unusual – and, in any case, tends to privilege the select
few by way of its scoring dynamic.
Rewarding managers for victories or goals scored doesn’t work; it just creates a pointlessly
simple choice between the obvious two or three candidates. Instead, what if there were a
more egalitarian dynamic, with managers earning points for their ability to actually change
games?
Six points any time one of their substitutes scored a goal. And, under Tifo’s rules,
a hefty bonus for winning a game after being behind at half-time.
Or, being creative, how about points as reward for goals scored from corners and free-kicks.
Manchester City and Liverpool dominated that category as well last season, finishing joint-top
with 17 set-piece goals each, but Dean Smith (15), Eddie Howe (15) and Steve Bruce (14)
would all have been assets, too, thanks to their work on the training ground.
The mechanics of the game are important. And so is chemistry within a side. If two players
on the same fantasy team combine to score a goal, there should be a bonus on offer and
– ultimately – another way of checking the power of the big names.
Goals from outside the box should also count double, clearly, and goalkeepers and defenders
shouldn’t just subsist on cleansheets, but earn points for crosses caught and clearances
made. One for every five, perhaps, and then two for ten.
Fantasy Football does a lot right. It’s easy to play, but impossible to master. If
nothing else, it will also always be a conversational ice breaker and reliable source of benign
sporting small talk.
Do you care who somebody else has got in their fantasy football team?
No, probably not, but you might do if it were a little more descriptive and allowed a few
more avenues for expression.