VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Chances are your kids, your spouse, or someone you know plays fantasy sports. According to the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association, 19% of Americans 18 and up participate in fantasy sports.
If you aren’t familiar with how they work, let’s use fantasy football as an example.
Before the actual NFL season starts, anywhere from eight to 14 of your friends act as team managers. Everyone will "draft" real players in all the main skill positions, like quarterback, running back, wide receiver, and tight end.
Your team will end up being a mix of players from all different NFL teams. Typically, a team manager will go head-to-head with another team manager each week, and both teams earn points based on statistics from real-life games, like receiving yards, rushing yards, and touchdowns.
A new study shows that we really like fantasy sports in Hampton Roads.
Sports betting website Pickswise came out with a list of the top fantasy football cities in America, and out of the top 50 biggest cities in the U.S., Virginia Beach ranked second in fantasy football participation.
Players in the Resort City join an average of 2.9 leagues every year, stomping the 1.7 league average.
Virginia Beach also tied for first with Las Vegas when it comes to the percentage of players who host fantasy draft parties.
And players in Virginia Beach are also cashing in on all that hard work, too. When it comes to total fantasy football earnings during the season, Pickswise says players in the Resort City rake in a whopping $643 per week. That’s enough to rank Virginia Beach 5th in the country.
But hold on, it isn’t all good.
Pickswise also asked how many times a player has come in last place in their fantasy league.
Virginia Beach is home to some of the biggest fantasy losers, with the average player coming in last 2.7 times, the fourth most in the country.