Fantasy football puts mental health at risk: study

Auctions, players to be deployed and games to be followed with the utmost attention. Fantasy football is loved by everyone, young and old, who every year improvise as coaches and, day after day, try to win their championship. Nothing strange, at least up to here. A recent academic study (conducted by Nottingham Trent University, published in the journal Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies and then by the Guardian), in fact, stated that this game can lead to mental health risks (mainly related to mood), with worsening more consistent based on time spent playing.

Fantasy football: the study –

The research involved around 1,995 players from 96 different countries with an average age of 33 (almost 96% are male). A quarter of respondents (24.6%) said gambling caused their mood to worsen slightly. Given that it doubles in the “hardened” players, that is, those who dedicate more time to fantasy football (and which correspond to 20.8% of the total).

They spent over 45 minutes playing, over 60 minutes researching, and over 120 minutes thinking about fantasy football every day. 34% said they felt at least mild “anxiety,” while 37% said gambling disrupted their lives, causing what the researchers called a “functional deficit.” Even the role of social media and the web did not should be neglected. According to the researchers, their impact adds a “myriad of complex cognitive, psychological and social processes that can have a negative impact on mental health.”

Fantasy football: the author of the study –

“Fantasy football is impossible for the vast majority of those who play it to win and it is possible that the more a person is hit, the more he will be negatively affected when he loses. Our study highlights the general positives that the game can bring, but it also warns of potential negatives and justifies the idea that more should be done to monitor the amount of time devoted to this game, “commented Dr. Luke Wilkins, the principal investigator of the study.