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Is Fantasy Football a Dying Trend? (1 Viewer)

in what age range are you?

  • under 16

    Votes: 1 0.2%
  • 16-20

    Votes: 5 1.1%
  • 21-25

    Votes: 17 3.6%
  • 26-30

    Votes: 56 11.9%
  • 31-35

    Votes: 83 17.7%
  • 36-40

    Votes: 99 21.1%
  • 41-45

    Votes: 107 22.8%
  • 46-50

    Votes: 53 11.3%
  • 51+

    Votes: 49 10.4%

  • Total voters
    470

LawFitz

Footballguy
I was having this debate with my younger brother last night. I'm 35 and he's 27 yet often it feels like we are an entire generation apart. He was telling me that NONE of his friends play fantasy football. That a few did but quit years ago. He argued that FF is a relic of gen X and that gen Y is just not into it.

I couldn't really find any stats to support or refute his hypothesis, but it did make me wonder if his claim has any merit. So I figured I'd check with the die hards and do a poll to see how old we are in the Sharkpool. Would you mind indulging me for a minute by answering the poll question and/or chiming in with any thoughts or insight you might have? TIA

 
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No. Fantasy football is as big and popular now as it's ever been. 15 years ago, there weren't shows on ESPN dedicated solely to it. Every stations that shows games frequently gives players' stats on the crawl at the bottom, because they know how huge fantasy football is.

 
Perhaps the casual FF player is dwindling and that's a good thing. Maybe it will reduce the guys who throw a hundred bucks at a league and the only time you see them is at draft time and on Sunday. Maybe more trades will be responded to. Maybe guys will answer their emails to vote on a referendum.

 
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I don't see that at all. I am 39 and last year played in a league with my cousins (18 and 22) and their friends. My age may be the sweet spot for diehards, but I see and hear about plenty of younger guys that play.

 
Fantasy Football has been on a steady decline for a few years. The die hards are less likely to accept this as 1) they are not prone to interact with the casual players and 2) people don't like to admit something they love isn't as popular as it used to be.

 
Fantasy Football has been on a steady decline for a few years. The die hards are less likely to accept this as 1) they are not prone to interact with the casual players and 2) people don't like to admit something they love isn't as popular as it used to be.
Hell, I still collect electric football boards and men and I'm ok to admit that. If you like something you do it, regardless of the masses.

 
I think so which is fine with me. Kids ten years younger than me at work (25) think I'm from another planet, they act like chicks.

 
Fantasy Football has been on a steady decline for a few years. The die hards are less likely to accept this as 1) they are not prone to interact with the casual players and 2) people don't like to admit something they love isn't as popular as it used to be.
Hell, I still collect electric football boards and men and I'm ok to admit that. If you like something you do it, regardless of the masses.
That's a fantastic nugget of information but I'm not Dr Phil and don't care how your inside nerd has a need to come out.

 
I think the demographic at FBG is a little older on average but overall I don't think FF is a dying trend.

 
My 19 year old sister doesn't play FF. she's only concerned about doing her nails and being in college. So yes. It's dying.

 
Unless someone here has already done research all any of us have is anecdotal evidence. It's not something I have noticed, but I admit to having spent no time thinking about it.

The poll should be interesting, but it also speaks to the demographic of football guys as much as the demographic of the hobby,

I wouldn't mind if interest in the hobby regressed a little. The market is flooded and a lot of the "info" out there is irrelevant, wrong or redundant.

 
I was having this debate with my younger brother last night. I'm 35 and he's 27 yet often it feels like we are an entire generation apart. He was telling me that NONE of his friends play fantasy football. That a few did but quit years ago. He argued that FF is a relic of gen X and that gen Y is just not into it.

I couldn't really find any stats to support or refute his hypothesis, but it did make me wonder if his claim has any merit. So I figured I'd check with the die hards and do a poll to see how old we are in the Sharkpool. Would you mind indulging me for a minute by answering the poll question and/or chiming in with any thoughts or insight you might have? TIA
your brother doesn't seem very fun.Does he wear skinny jeans?

 
Fantasy Football has been on a steady decline for a few years. The die hards are less likely to accept this as 1) they are not prone to interact with the casual players and 2) people don't like to admit something they love isn't as popular as it used to be.
It's not a bad thing that there are less people playing.

 
Fantasy Football has been on a steady decline for a few years. The die hards are less likely to accept this as 1) they are not prone to interact with the casual players and 2) people don't like to admit something they love isn't as popular as it used to be.
Hell, I still collect electric football boards and men and I'm ok to admit that. If you like something you do it, regardless of the masses.
That's a fantastic nugget of information but I'm not Dr Phil and don't care how your inside nerd has a need to come out.
:lol: at a fantasy football guy calling a guy who likes electric football a nerd.

 
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Fantasy Football has been on a steady decline for a few years. The die hards are less likely to accept this as 1) they are not prone to interact with the casual players and 2) people don't like to admit something they love isn't as popular as it used to be.
Hell, I still collect electric football boards and men and I'm ok to admit that. If you like something you do it, regardless of the masses.
That's a fantastic nugget of information but I'm not Dr Phil and don't care how your inside nerd has a need to come out.
:lol: at a fantasy football guy calling a guy who likes electric football a nerd.
I like when the guys do little pirouettes aimlessly. Almost as awesome as rock em sock em robots.

The younger generation has video games for that.

 
I'm 24 and I'm quite sure my generation is still going strong. It's only anecdotal of course (like the OP), but I know tons of people who play, some of which who are only really getting into it this year. Even if it's not fantasy football, I also know quite a few people who play fantasy hockey, basketball, baseball and even soccer.

Also, advertising for fantasy football is everywhere. Even stuff like fanduel.com has commercials now. I doubt people are just throwing cash around for ads unless the market is real, growing and statistically proven to be lucrative.

 
I'll be 22 in less than a month and I can slowly see some of my friends get out of fantasy football. I personally don't see how they can let it go because I absolutely love it. I do this stuff year round with my research and scouting, but not as detailed as some of the members here. There hasn't been reasons for some of my friends not being interested but all they say is just boredom with it. Same thing year after year, which is why I've been trying to get them to switch to dynasty and different leagues, yet they still leave it behind. Not exactly sure why, but I expect I'll be doing this for a while.

 
Fantasy Football has been on a steady decline for a few years. The die hards are less likely to accept this as 1) they are not prone to interact with the casual players and 2) people don't like to admit something they love isn't as popular as it used to be.
Hell, I still collect electric football boards and men and I'm ok to admit that. If you like something you do it, regardless of the masses.
That's a fantastic nugget of information but I'm not Dr Phil and don't care how your inside nerd has a need to come out.
:lol: at a fantasy football guy calling a guy who likes electric football a nerd.
Where does Strat-O-Matic put me in the hierarchy of football nerdiness?

 
Still just anecdotal but I am a 21 year old college student and have a league with my friends who are between 18-22 my friends older brother has three other leagues from 20-27. I think there are a lot more factors than age. (Upbringing, are they into tech, tweeter feeds, following football trends)? Were they exposed to football in a way in which made them want to participate more than just casually observing? Do they like gambling?

 
I think it is, and I'm losing interest myself. I've been running dynasty leagues since '97 (16 years) and I've recently thought about the reasons why my interest in fantasy football is waning (dynasty leagues, especially):

1) The death of the bell cow RB. It used to be that you could obsess about the draft, sell your soul to trade up, pick a RB, and live or die with him for many years on a fantasy roster. Now it seems players (especially RBs) are rotating through careers or as part of a RB committee so frequently that the sense of ownership/accomplishment you got from drafting them just isn't there anymore. Now we have 3rd down RBs. We have goal-line RBs. We have situational RBs...

If all NFL teams did this, then it would even out. But as we know, there are still some NFL teams that have that bell cow RB who never has to share, like your Adrian Peterson, and having guys like that on a fantasy team is such an incredible advantage while other teams are forced to fill 2-3 roster spots just to add up to one "starting" RB. It really has become an unbalanced affair, which brings me to my next point...

2) ...rules for most fantasy leagues rarely remain flexible enough to adapt to a changing NFL. I don't know about you, but I've found it near impossible to get even the smallest rules tweaked within the various leagues I'm in. You're generally required to have a high percentage of owner support for rules modification, but I've always found there to be 2-4 owners who refuse to change. At all. Ever. No matter how silly not changing is.

Eventually, you just get tired of dealing with them.

3) Fantasy football is not interactive enough to the new generation of fans. Pretty controversial opinion here, but there is scientific data to support there being fundamental differences in thoughts/interests/personalities between the various generations (Baby boomers vs Gen X'ers, vs Gen Y, etc). The current generation of younger football fan (teens/early twenties) is used to flashy Xbox, immediate feedback reinforcement and constant gadget interruption that staring at a list of players and stats and a draft board for something that will reward over the course of several months just doesn't "do it" for them.

I also don't think the NFL does enough to promote fantasy football to the younger audience, but that's a topic for another day.

4) The invention of the DVR. I used to watch football live and keep track of my players between commercials. However after using a DVR for several years, I've found that I just can't watch commercials anymore and there are few things on TV with more ads than an NFL game. Now, I generally record the first hour of a game, then start watching so I can fast forward through the gauntlet of ads. Because of this, I now don't have the added excitement of realtime player stats, as the stats I'd be getting would not match up to my current football watching timeline. So... checking player performance has now become something I do toward the end of the afternoon. Therefore, the excitement of game day has really been taken out of the picture.

5) I'm getting older, and my priorities have shifted. Self-explanatory.

 
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Unless someone here has already done research all any of us have is anecdotal evidence. It's not something I have noticed, but I admit to having spent no time thinking about it.

The poll should be interesting, but it also speaks to the demographic of football guys as much as the demographic of the hobby,

I wouldn't mind if interest in the hobby regressed a little. The market is flooded and a lot of the "info" out there is irrelevant, wrong or redundant.
Like anyone, I can only speak from what I've seen so take this however you will. Working in the restaurant/bar industry, I've seen less and less interest in the past few years. Whether that be people coming in for the games and discussing fantasy or groups using bars for live drafts. There's been discussion with people who we know play/have played fantasy and they all seem to have the same sort of replies...people drifted away from it, less time for the game, not as much interest, other new interests/fads to keep up with.

 
Fantasy Football has been on a steady decline for a few years. The die hards are less likely to accept this as 1) they are not prone to interact with the casual players and 2) people don't like to admit something they love isn't as popular as it used to be.
Hell, I still collect electric football boards and men and I'm ok to admit that. If you like something you do it, regardless of the masses.
That's a fantastic nugget of information but I'm not Dr Phil and don't care how your inside nerd has a need to come out.
:lol: at a fantasy football guy calling a guy who likes electric football a nerd.
Where does Strat-O-Matic put me in the hierarchy of football nerdiness?
Right square in the middle of the Electric Football guys, along with Fantasy Football guys.

 
Fantasy Football has been on a steady decline for a few years. The die hards are less likely to accept this as 1) they are not prone to interact with the casual players and 2) people don't like to admit something they love isn't as popular as it used to be.
Hell, I still collect electric football boards and men and I'm ok to admit that. If you like something you do it, regardless of the masses.
That's a fantastic nugget of information but I'm not Dr Phil and don't care how your inside nerd has a need to come out.
:lol: at a fantasy football guy calling a guy who likes electric football a nerd.
Where does Strat-O-Matic put me in the hierarchy of football nerdiness?
I would say at least 2nd tier. Though some might disagree.

 
More anecdotal evidence: Three years ago we had a waiting list to get into my main local league. This year one of our original members quit because he just wasn't enjoying fantasy football anymore, and it was difficult for me to find a replacement.

Fantasy Football has a bit of the "poker boom" feel to it. No one wants to keep getting their ### kicked every year, and it takes a lot of work to stay on top against good competition.

 
I'm 24 and I'm quite sure my generation is still going strong. It's only anecdotal of course (like the OP), but I know tons of people who play, some of which who are only really getting into it this year. Even if it's not fantasy football, I also know quite a few people who play fantasy hockey, basketball, baseball and even soccer.

Also, advertising for fantasy football is everywhere. Even stuff like fanduel.com has commercials now. I doubt people are just throwing cash around for ads unless the market is real, growing and statistically proven to be lucrative.
I actually like fanduel type stuff as an interesting and still vital alternative to traditional FF. You still get lots of room for creativity and independent thought in those one-offers.

FF has become little more than endless hordes all touting exactly the same cheatsheets as FF gospel. Cheatsheets which in turn all seem to do very little but regurgitate the previous year's stats.

If there's a slow death happening in FF, I think that's why. As a hobby, there was something intellectual, time-consuming, and skill-based about it, while it has morphed by and large into an exercise in cut and paste. That makes it easier for lots of people, but minimizes the reward.

The feeling around the FF community to me is a lot like the feel in the online poker community after the explosion of HUDs and trackers. The game was still fun, but when anyone willing to dump a few bucks could get a better read on me in an instant than Stu Ungar would have been able to in an hour, it lost a lot of its appeal in trying to get better.

Why put in the effort to know every fact about every team when the compiled data you're going to end up with after six months' of research will give you no edge at all over the guy who does nothing but open a window to an ADP aggregator at the draft table. :shrug: The only way to get an edge now is to be so eccentric as to seem almost loony to the cheatsheeters. Otherwise, it's almost an exercise in probability. This game is still fun too, but there's not much sense in trying to get better. And that doesn't lend itself to a lifetime of hobbyism.

I see why it's drying up a little.

 
My interest hasn't changed yet but I feel it's on the way. I used to love competing against 11 other guys with 11 other opinions. Now at least 8-9 guys show up to the draft with a draft list from here, ESPN, or a similar site and don't do any homework at all. It's become more boring because of that to me.

Even in a lot of my dynasty leagues they can't have a rookie draft without Bloom's 100 or Waldman's input.

I'm leaning more toward finding auctions to play in because these sites don't cover auction strategy very much. People have to do their own homework there and there is no magic list to print out that will tell you who will get drafted at what spot in what round because every auction is different.

 
To get back to the poll:

I work in the hotel business. A bunch of young guys work there (valet, mostly). We have a league there. The age range is from 23 to 30. I'd say there's a pretty good mix of demographics there. We have the club-rats, a DJ at a popular club downtown, the bar flies, jocks, hipsters, etc. FF still seems to thrive with the young crowd here in Denver - at least from what I've seen. It's a redraft league, though.

From my experience, Dynasty/Keeper Leagues have an older crowd. My main league has guys in the 28-42 range. But I don't know if that's because those types of leagues aren't as popular or if it's actually that "redrafters" who really like FF eventually graduate to Dynasty/Keeper Leagues as time passes.

 
My dynasty league mates are losing interest. 28-36, many have gotten married, half have kids, careers, etc. We stay because it's fun and it's dynasty, so turnover is more complicated. Plus it gives us all a reason to stay in touch with one another.

 
I think that fantasy football became saturated and losing some is good for the hobby. I would like it to become more where every member of my dynasty leagues are interested in the league rather than disappear for months. and getting rid of the casual players will go a long way to helping that. I think casual players should only play in redraft leagues, not dynasty leagues.

 
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In my town there are a bunch of dorks who dress up in tunics and go to the park and whack each other with foam rubber bats. That seems like a viable long term hobby that won't get watered down by information overload. Maybe I'll plug into that. There's got to be drinking involved.

 
You have no idea how disappointed I am that this is an actual thing and not just quirky local oddballs.

ETA: in ref. to the "lightning bolt" youtube clip. Quotefail.

 
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I think that fantasy football became saturated and losing some is good for the hobby. I would like it to become more where every member of my dynasty leagues are interested in the league rather than disappear for months. and getting rid of the casual players will go a long way to helping that. I think casual players should only play in redraft leagues, not dynasty leagues.
I've always wanted to merge the 6 good owners from one dynasty with the 6 good owners from the other. Instead we just carry dead weight and find short-lived replacements every other year.

 
Lovers spat.

Fantasy Football like any trend ebbs and flows. I think were at a low point now but expect it to trend upwards, fish can only donate for so long before they find something else to do.

 
Dying? No. Declining? Easily. I don't think there's any doubt that FF became a fad for a while and peaked quite a few years ago. Hell, there's a tv show comedy devoted to it in like its 5th season. Just like there were a million "Flip This House" shows in 2007 and stock trading tv shows in 2001, that's a huge sign of peaking as a fad/trend usually. There was a huge thread on here not that along ago about the decline of the Shark Pool and just think back to the tons of poker threads that used to be in the FFA. It's a natural cycle, but FF will continue on as long as football is popular. Maybe downsized a bit but the old timers will rotate out with some young blood. Lots of people still love football and will continue to do so.

 
Dying? No. Declining? Easily. I don't think there's any doubt that FF became a fad for a while and peaked quite a few years ago. Hell, there's a tv show comedy devoted to it in like its 5th season. Just like there were a million "Flip This House" shows in 2007 and stock trading tv shows in 2001, that's a huge sign of peaking as a fad/trend usually. There was a huge thread on here not that along ago about the decline of the Shark Pool and just think back to the tons of poker threads that used to be in the FFA. It's a natural cycle, but FF will continue on as long as football is popular. Maybe downsized a bit but the old timers will rotate out with some young blood. Lots of people still love football and will continue to do so.
So does that mean I just need to wait a little bit longer and bridge will make a resurgence? I'm 42 and tired of people telling me how nice it is to see young people like me taking up the game.

 
For whatever it's worth (not much), I'm a Millennial who plays in leagues with a dozen other Millenials. Also for whatever it's worth (also not much), from what I remember about the subscriber contest, I'm pretty sure that FBGs has never had fewer subscribers one year than they had the year before. Neither anecdote is representative of the industry, of course, but in the absence of any real data, they're what I have. It doesn't seem to me like fantasy football is dying, although from where I'm positioned, I doubt I'd notice immediately if it was.

 
I was having this debate with my younger brother last night. I'm 35 and he's 27 yet often it feels like we are an entire generation apart. He was telling me that NONE of his friends play fantasy football. That a few did but quit years ago. He argued that FF is a relic of gen X and that gen Y is just not into it.

I couldn't really find any stats to support or refute his hypothesis, but it did make me wonder if his claim has any merit. So I figured I'd check with the die hards and do a poll to see how old we are in the Sharkpool. Would you mind indulging me for a minute by answering the poll question and/or chiming in with any thoughts or insight you might have? TIA
I think FF is more popular than ever (and there are studies to prove it) ... BUT the vote you get here has nothing to do with age group splits of those playing

From the last group you have broken out

 
I think it is, and I'm losing interest myself. I've been running dynasty leagues since '97 (16 years) and I've recently thought about the reasons why my interest in fantasy football is waning (dynasty leagues, especially):

1) The death of the bell cow RB. It used to be that you could obsess about the draft, sell your soul to trade up, pick a RB, and live or die with him for many years on a fantasy roster. Now it seems players (especially RBs) are rotating through careers or as part of a RB committee so frequently that the sense of ownership/accomplishment you got from drafting them just isn't there anymore. Now we have 3rd down RBs. We have goal-line RBs. We have situational RBs...

If all NFL teams did this, then it would even out. But as we know, there are still some NFL teams that have that bell cow RB who never has to share, like your Adrian Peterson, and having guys like that on a fantasy team is such an incredible advantage while other teams are forced to fill 2-3 roster spots just to add up to one "starting" RB. It really has become an unbalanced affair, which brings me to my next point...

2) ...rules for most fantasy leagues rarely remain flexible enough to adapt to a changing NFL. I don't know about you, but I've found it near impossible to get even the smallest rules tweaked within the various leagues I'm in. You're generally required to have a high percentage of owner support for rules modification, but I've always found there to be 2-4 owners who refuse to change. At all. Ever. No matter how silly not changing is.

Eventually, you just get tired of dealing with them.

3) Fantasy football is not interactive enough to the new generation of fans. Pretty controversial opinion here, but there is scientific data to support there being fundamental differences in thoughts/interests/personalities between the various generations (Baby boomers vs Gen X'ers, vs Gen Y, etc). The current generation of younger football fan (teens/early twenties) is used to flashy Xbox, immediate feedback reinforcement and constant gadget interruption that staring at a list of players and stats and a draft board for something that will reward over the course of several months just doesn't "do it" for them.

I also don't think the NFL does enough to promote fantasy football to the younger audience, but that's a topic for another day.

4) The invention of the DVR. I used to watch football live and keep track of my players between commercials. However after using a DVR for several years, I've found that I just can't watch commercials anymore and there are few things on TV with more ads than an NFL game. Now, I generally record the first hour of a game, then start watching so I can fast forward through the gauntlet of ads. Because of this, I now don't have the added excitement of realtime player stats, as the stats I'd be getting would not match up to my current football watching timeline. So... checking player performance has now become something I do toward the end of the afternoon. Therefore, the excitement of game day has really been taken out of the picture.

5) I'm getting older, and my priorities have shifted. Self-explanatory.
Interesting read. I used to do re-draft with one keeper in a 16 leaguer. Rule changes were never accepted. It got stale.

Now I play salary cap at fireleague. It eliminates all the hassel and admin. With the weekly price changes it has that stock trading element that rewards you for doing you homework!

 
If there's a concern about lack of activity in younger generation of players. We'll see Father/Son style leagues develop.

I would say FF is bigger than it has been before. Due to the programming dedicated to it on NFL network, ESPN even "The League" and XM/Sirius Radio. That doesn't mean anything about demographics.

People say Facebook is dying and all the kids are on instagram. I sell ads on FB for an ad agency.

699million people logged in FB everyday in June. It's the largest website in the world. I don't know if FB will be the #1 website in the world in the future but it sure as hell is today...and I'm sure with that kind of following they'll be able to adjust to a changing marketing. Decline could mean fewer but more loyal involved players. Fortunately I haven't seen a World Series of Poker "highlight" on TV for a few years. That sh!t was everyone for a while. Are people not playing cards?

Most of us probably got recruited into a FFL through work or with old college/high school buddies.

This 20+ generation is a little weird. If there's fewer work opportunities or greater strain on budget perhaps the office dynamic has changed resulting in fewer new league opportunities. Plus they have more distractions competing for their attention. I grew up with video games...not electronic football. My games might have had fewer graphics but they were sweet as addictive as ever. I think it all depends. I'm sure the marketing experts are watching this closely. By the time these hipsters get a few extra dollars in their pockets and grow out of their skinny jeans maybe they get into a league before other priorities take over.

I don't care as long as I have my league info and NFL resources. I believe Fantasy Football is what has made the NFL the most popular sport in the world. Fantasy Baseball helped baseball I'm sure. I'd heard of that before FF. 1 game a week is way easier to manage than baseball or basketball. I don't get fantasy golf or nascar. I stick with one.

What I know is that money won is sweeter than money earned. As long as people have a chance to win money this will be attractive to a certain # of people. But it's just like 25 year old to accuse a 35 year old that they're not cool. 25yr olds are cooler but they still don't know sh!t compared to a 35 yr old. They'll find that out in about 10 years.

Good luck to everyone this season...I hope it's not our last I'm paid through FGBs until 2015.

 
Fortunately I haven't seen a World Series of Poker "highlight" on TV for a few years. That #### was everyone for a while. Are people not playing cards?
I don't know any. :shrug:

If FF suffers the same degree of attrition as poker did post-online boom, I think people will consider it dead and buried.

 
It's the typical 'craze' adoption curve. Early adopters, then the masses, then late adopters. At some point, the masses drop out in some numbers (like poker) but there is a much larger consistent community left, larger than before the craze. So poker has 'faded' but I guarantee there are substantially more people playing poker regularly now than before the 'craze' hit.

 
Speaking of dwindling interest in fantasy football, can anyone explain why the footballguys forums are significantly less active than in years past? I really only visit this website in the month or so leading up to my annual fantasy draft and I was shocked this year to see very little posts compared to last year.

Did everyone move to another website?

 
Really dont need to read any of the posts here to know that FF is definitely NOT a dying trend.

The age of people on this website is VERY irrelevant. Most of the younger people playing likely are nowhere near as serious about fantasy football as some of us older people who actually have time for this hobby, and chances are the younger FF players would not be on this website anyway..........see "serious" comment. This website, along with many others, seem to be for people that are either much more serious, or are trying to become much more serious.

There are a lot more FF sites now, and more popping up every year, so I can see why at times it may seem like it isn't growing or possibly even regressing in interest, but I think that is simply due to people moreso spreading out among the plethera of websites out there.

Lot of people doing "fanduel" also.

But no, I can't see FF on any kind of downtrend whatsoever.

 

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