Fantasy football is sometimes jokingly referred to as Dungeons and Dragons for the guys who in high school used to torment the guys who played Dungeons and Dragons. Whatever the case, it is big business in the North American market.
According to the Fantasy Sports and Gaming Association, over 59 million people engaged in fantasy games across the U.S. and Canada. This number is projected to accelerate rapidly in the near future due to the rapid launch of user-friendly fantasy gaming applications and rising internet penetration. With major sporting powerhouses such as Yahoo, ESPN, DraftKings and FanDuel all heavily entrenched in fantasy football, the appetite for these games is only going to grow to be insatiable.
In Canada, the majority of Canadian fantasy football players engage in NFL fantasy football, because that’s the most popular football league in the world and NFL fantasy football platforms are made readily available by software developers. That isn’t the case when it comes to the CFL. While it’s easier than ever today to watch the CFL in Canada, playing CFL fantasy football has always proven to be a challenging pursuit for fans of the three-down game.
Crossing The Goal Line
The developers at Goal Line Software are intent on changing that dynamic. Goal Line Software specializes in customized fantasy football league sites for "non-major" leagues, such as the XFL, CFL, and Indoor Football League, where there is currently no league manager site available.
If there are players out there seeking to organize a CFL fantasy football league, the Goal Line developers are ready to design whatever type of league set up is desired. In order to make it happen, simply give them the rules for the proposed league and they will do everything they can to set up a site that meets those specifications.
They promise to work closely with CFL fantasy football players to make sure the rules of their league are set up properly and that the site functions the way it should. Suggestions for improvements are always welcomed.
The Goal Line Software League Manager will tally scores and help tabulate the standings, providing each league with detailed box scores. It will offer access to schedules for each fantasy league and the professional league that the players are playing with. Each fantasy football franchise owner will be given a password to make lineup changes and free agent requests, and they will be locked from lineup changes at game time for each player. No more posting lineups to a message board that owners can edit after the deadline. In the case of each league, participants can add their own stories to their league home page, or they can use the message board provided for them by the Goal Line Software League Manager. There’s even a prototype of a Fantasy Canadian Football League set up posted on their web page.
Fantasy football only figures to keep growing. Rising internet penetration among the young population, the emergence of next-generation technology (5G), and the quick adoption of smartphones are expected to fuel online fantasy sports gaming. The growing use of fantasy sports gaming apps for brand promotion is also projected to positively impact the market.
The proprietors at Goal Line Software are quick to point out that like the CFL, they aren’t the major players in the football world. They aren’t promoting themselves as the next ESPN Fantasy or Yahoo! Fantasy site. Those major-league sites have a lot of features that Goal Line just can't offer. They are simply providing a site for owners who wish to play a more non-traditional fantasy game, one that the big boys don't support.
Big Time Players Taking Notice
TSN operated a CFL daily fantasy league during the 2019 season, the last one in which the CFL was active. The league was shut down in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CFL included weekly CFL fantasy football stories and a CFL fantasy football podcast as part of the coverage on the league’s official website. Both were generated by DailyRoto.com. DailyRoto is a community of DFS players, analysts, and media personalities dedicated to influencing the Daily Fantasy Sports industry. However, these weren’t relatable to the type of season-long CFL fantasy football leagues that Goal Line Software League Manager has developed and are prepared to deliver to CFL fans seeking to operate a season-long CFL fantasy football league.
Top comments (1)