The long history of fantasy sports is certainly interesting and has many variations, depending on who you’re asking. If you happen to ask a baseball fantasy sports fan, you are going to hear a different version of history compared to the one that a football fantasy sports fan is going to tell you. But in reality, both of the stories that you will hear from each set of sports fan respectively is going to be true. And we’re talking here about true sports fans, not just those interested in betting.
In reality, the first noted fantasy sports game ever was all the way back in 1962. Wilfred Winkenbach and a few other people from the Oakland Raiders Organization drew out basic rules for what is now known as fantasy football. And all of this happened in the Milford Plaza Hotel in New York City.
It was a year later, in 1963, when the first ever draft for a fantasy football league was made. This league was known as the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prognosticators League, or the GOPPPL. During this time, fantasy sports did exist, but very loosely comparable to what we consider to be fantasy sports today.
One of the biggest steps in the world of fantasy sports was taken in 1969 when the first public fantasy league was brought into existence. This was done by none other than the original founder of the GOPPPL, Andy Mousalimas.
In the next 44 years, fantasy sports would evolve and become so popular that over 41,5 million US and Canadian citizens play fantasy sports these days.
To learn more about the immense growth of fantasy sports, take a look at the infographic below.
