Fantasy sports 2027: GEOs, sports, market players

Publication date: 6 April 2023

In 2023, the global fantasy sports market grew to $28.96 billion. Compared to 2022, when the market reached $25.44 billion, the growth was 13.9%.

ReportLinker experts have estimated that it will grow even more significantly to $40.88 billion by 2027. In other words, the average annual growth will be around 9%.

What are fantasy sports? It is a type of eSports where competitions in traditional sports (football, baseball, basketball, hockey, cricket) take place. The user acts as a manager of a team which is formed from virtual players who have “counterparts” in real life. The productivity of such a team member depends on his statistics and his performance in the live games.

The major players in the fantasy sports market are DraftKings, Fan Duel, Fantrax, Nfl Fantasy, Dream Sports, Yahoo Fantasy, Bovada, Fox Sports Fantasy Football, Fantasy Pros, Good Gamer Corporation, Draft Team Fantasy Sports, 11Wickets, Battlefy, Mobile Premier League (MPL), Sportito and Winview Games.

As a reminder, DraftKings, which focuses on fantasy sports betting, has been ranked as one of the top 10 largest gaming companies in the world at the end of 2022.

In 2022, the largest GEO for fantasy sports development was North America. Asia Pacific is expected to show the highest growth and development by 2027.

Major factors for the development of fantasy sports market 2027

Growing youth population is contributing to the growth of the fantasy sports market. According to the World Youth Report 2020, there are 1.2 billion young people between the ages of 15-24, representing 16% of the global population. By 2030, the world’s youth population is expected to increase by 7% reaching 1.3 billion. Thus, the growing youth population is stimulating the growth of the fantasy sports market.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a key trend gaining popularity in the fantasy sports market. It can help the player focus on important choices, such as who to start the competition with and which players to trade with. AI technology has also been the focus of major market players in the fantasy sports sector. The new features help reduce trading issues in fantasy sports and make it more accessible and interesting.

In March 2023, analysts also gave their prediction on the gambling sector’s growth by 2027. Several factors are expected to drive growth in the sector, including growing demand for mobile gambling, the rise of eSports betting and a reduction in the stringency of government regulation.