|
One of the most compelling things about the rise of fantasy sports over the last few decades has been how it extends beyond the games to a social activity. By that, we mean when you walk into a bar and see a group of friends discussing their strategies, creating their own leagues, even making their own drafts. Of course, on social media, there are many FS communities, both niche and general. In a sense, it’s not all about winning.
With technology, the games have evolved, too. You can play with the traditional rules or experience new types of fantasy-sports-style games on online platforms like SportsMillions. Of course, technology can also help with strategy; we all have that one friend who pulls out the spreadsheet for their team. And now, with the rise of artificial intelligence, it is ostensibly going to help even more.
AI has long been used in fantasy sports
AI, as it stands, remains imperfect. And we should start by cautioning you about the glut of advertisements you’ll now see online offering AI fantasy picks and sports betting tips; treat them with skepticism. Yet, the technology is well-suited for fantasy sports analysis. We know this because IBM has been using its WATSON supercomputer for fantasy sports years before the current AI boom was ushered in by the launch of ChatGPT.
Yet, rather than talk about the aptitude of AI for being successful with fantasy sports, let’s look at if from another angle: Will the technology suck the all the fun out of fantasy sports? The obvious point is that it will provide the tools for deep statistical analysis; basically, click a button and you’ll end up with your fantasy team optimized by statistics. With that, any argument of (human) skill or the fun of going with a gut feeling is gone.
Another drawback is homogenization. If you consider what AI is – functionally speaking – it is a data analyzer. The technology doesn’t think or reason, despite what proponents say. It cannot make that human leap that we term “ingenuity,” and that means there is a uniformity to its answers. In short, everyone could end up with fantasy teams that look much the same. Where’s the fun in that?
The human element makes it fun
If you roll back what it means to play fantasy sports, it is fundamentally a game. It might be a competition with a potential monetary prize, but the game part depends on human interaction. Consider the argument of how it feels to participate in a soccer match. Gamers also get a not dissimilar satisfaction by playing games like those in the FIFA series/EA Sports FC. Now think of the fans who enjoy watching soccer matches. Would they enjoy watching a soccer video game should it have computers playing against each other rather than people? It’s doubtful.
|
The point, as such, is that the fun part of playing fantasy sports is putting your intuition up against that of other humans, often your friends. You want to be smiling smugly because you knew that Jayden McDaniels would have a rookie season for the ages based on nothing more than a gut feeling, whereas all your buddies decided to go with Caleb Williams instead. That’s the satisfying part.
Unfortunately, where money is concerned, we are likely to get a situation where FS players – at least some – go all-in on AI tools. Perhaps they will mix up their strategy with some human input into their decisions. Yet, something will surely be lost for the players who enjoy these games for fun. As we stressed, current AI models remain flawed when it comes to sports predictions. Most notably, the models struggle with unquantifiable data (the stuff you can’t put in a spreadsheet), but it is early, early days, and the technology will improve. For fantasy sports, that’s a looming existential threat.
