A recent study published in Simulation & Gaming explores the mental health effects of playing Fantasy Football, with mixed results. The researchers found that higher levels of engagement, frequent team comparisons, and constant performance monitoring were linked to increased mental health concerns, such as anxiety, stress, and negative mood. However, these same behaviors were also associated with a greater sense of positive mood among highly involved players, indicating a complex emotional experience when engaging with the game.
Fantasy Football is an increasingly popular form of sports engagement, blending competition, strategy, and sometimes financial stakes. The new study aimed to explore how this level of involvement might affect players’ mental health, particularly given the significant emotional investment that participants make in their teams.
Previous research on sports fandom has shown that deep emotional connections with teams and players can affect mood and well-being. However, the impact of Fantasy Football, where players are more directly engaged in decision-making and competition, has been less explored. The researchers sought to fill this gap by examining both the negative and positive mental health outcomes linked to Fantasy Football.
“I have been playing Fantasy Football for about 10 years myself, and I’m quite an invested player, so a major factor in doing this research was a personal interest in the potential effects that playing Fantasy Football may have on a player’s mood and mental health,” said study author Gary Ian Britton, a lecturer in psychology at Queen Mary University of London.
“In my first few years of playing Fantasy Football, if my team did badly in any given game week, it would affect my mood negatively. I wasn’t crying or hitting a wall or anything, but it certainly put me in a worse mood than I otherwise would have been in. I assumed that if my Fantasy Football team performing badly was affecting my mood negatively, perhaps more vulnerable and/or more invested players in the game would be affected more severely, and that was my main motivation for conducting the study.”
The study involved 635 participants, 96% of whom identified as male, with an average age of 34. Participants were recruited through social media and Fantasy Football websites. They were asked to complete a questionnaire that measured several aspects of mental health, including anxiety, depression, stress, positive mood, negative mood, and functional impairment. Participants also provided information about their Fantasy Football behaviors, such as the number of leagues they played in, the time spent on the game, and the frequency with which they compared their team to others.
To assess mental health, the researchers adapted established scales, such as the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), to make them relevant to Fantasy Football. Positive and negative mood was measured using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), also modified to address the Fantasy Football context. Additionally, the study used the Problematic Online Gaming Questionnaire (POGQ-S) to measure problematic behavior in the game and the Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS) to assess how the game affected daily functioning.
The study found that players who reported higher levels of engagement with Fantasy Football—whether through the time spent on the game or the frequency of social comparisons—were more likely to experience mental health challenges. Specifically, players who spent more time thinking about the game, researching player statistics, and comparing their team’s performance to others reported higher levels of stress, anxiety, and negative mood. These players also tended to engage in more problematic behaviors related to Fantasy Football, such as feeling preoccupied with the game or allowing it to interfere with other areas of their life.
Interestingly, the study also found that highly engaged players experienced higher levels of positive mood. Despite the mental health challenges, these players also reported that playing Fantasy Football provided moments of excitement and joy.
The results suggest “that Fantasy Football can affect your mood and mental health, especially if you are a player who is very invested in the game, or if you are a player who invests money into the game,” Britton told PsyPost. “A key finding of the study is that Fantasy Football can also positively affect your mood if your team does well, especially if you are a very invested player, or a player who invests money into the game.”
“Like most things in life, if you do well at something, that makes you feel good, but if you don’t do well, that makes you feel bad. The key difference between Fantasy Football and many other hobbies is that you have no control over the outcome of Fantasy football once you have set your team up for the game week and the deadline has passed. For example, you personally have no control over whether Erling Haaland scores a hat trick vs West Ham, or if he gets sent off in the first minute of the game but, if he is in your team, the outcome of Haaland’s performance is probably going to affect your mood in some capacity, especially if you are an invested Fantasy Football player.”
Britton was surprised to find “that more experienced players Fantasy Football players seemed to experience similar levels of negative mood if their Fantasy Football team performed badly, compared to less experienced players. Past research would have suggested that more experienced players should be more protected from experiencing negative mood as a result of Fantasy Football compared to less experienced players, possibly as they have developed coping mechanisms over the years of playing the game to help them cope with bad game weeks. However, this study suggests that this may not always be the case.”
But the study, like all research, has some limitations. The cross-sectional nature of the study—where data is collected at a single point in time—makes it difficult to establish causality. It remains unclear whether high engagement in Fantasy Football leads to mental health issues, or whether individuals with pre-existing mental health challenges are more likely to become deeply engaged in the game.
Future research could address these limitations by employing a longitudinal design, tracking players’ engagement with Fantasy Football and their mental health over an entire season. This approach would allow researchers to observe how fluctuations in game performance, team rankings, and social comparisons impact players’ mental health over time. It may also be useful to explore other factors that could influence players’ experiences, such as their employment status or financial resources, which may shape how much time and emotional energy they can invest in the game.
“We did recruit our participants via specialist, independent Fantasy Football websites, and therefore most of the people taking part in our study probably were probably somewhat ‘invested’ in Fantasy Football, at least at the time they took part in the study,” Britton noted. “The results of the study therefore may not be applicable to players Fantasy Football players who have very little to no real investment in the game.”
He hopes the research will help “make people aware of the potential negative effects of playing Fantasy Football. The aim is certainly not to discourage people from playing Fantasy Football; I love the game myself! Rather, the aim is to make people aware of the potential negative effects Fantasy Football can have on their mood/mental health, especially if a player becomes very invested in the game, be that in terms of their time, or in terms of financial investment.”
The study, “Exploring Fantasy Football Involvement and Mental Health through Player Experience, Engagement Levels, Social Comparisons, and Financial Incentives,” was authored by Luke Wilkins, Jamie Churchyard, Ross Dowsett, and Gary Britton.
