New data from YouGov Profiles shows that fantasy sports fans admit to impulsive shopping and too much gambling
Last month, New York state deemed daily fantasy sports sites legal again after initially closing them last March for appearing too much like online games of chance instead of games of skill. Since the NFL season was about a month away from debuting, this decision came at an opportune time for industry leaders DraftKings and FanDuel.
Using tracking technology to monitor the online behavior of consumers, YouGov Profiles can pinpoint the individuals who "like" DraftKings or FanDuel on Facebook and visit each company's homepage on their desktop or laptop at least once per month. At 84%, this group of fantasy sports fans is overwhelmingly male. They're also young: 76% fall in the 18-49 age range.
Unfortunately for them, the data also indicates that this particular group of young men could use some coaching when it comes to managing their money. 56% admit to impulsive shopping, compared to just 37% of all US adults. Furthermore, a full third of fantasy sports fans confess they gamble too much and should probably cut down.
Even when strictly compared to males aged 18-49 in general, fans of DraftKings and FanDuel still rank higher regarding their tendency to make impulsive purchases (56% to 41%) and gamble more than they should (34% to 17%).
On the other hand, one group that demonstrates remarkably similar patterns to fantasy sports fans in this regard is poker players. Indeed, data reveals that 57% of people who play an offline game of poker at least once per month admit to making impulsive purchases, while 33% say they should gamble less often.
