Sports
For football fans, fantasy leagues provide one more avenue to indulge their obsessions
Fantasy Premier League, based on the English Premier League, has over 45,000 active players from Nepal in just this season.Prarambha Dahal
Sudhan Regmi follows the English Premier League like a religion. His favourite team is Chelsea, whose matches he never misses. His dedication to the game is such that he’s taken up a digital version of the game to go along with the actual plays that take place in real time.
Regmi began playing the Fantasy Premier League—an online game where participants select a team of footballers and score points based on their actual performances on the field—five seasons ago in 2014 with three of his friends. Today, he plays the game with 18 of his friends.
“Fantasy Premier League is extremely engaging,” said Regmi. “The risks of the game gives us a unique adrenaline rush similar to that of an adventure sport.”
Fantasy Premier League was introduced in Nepal only a few years after it was introduced online, according to Biva Pandey, another fantasy football enthusiast.
“Around 2004, when Nepal was still accustomed to the iconic tone of the dial-up modem, Fantasy Premier League was introduced to Nepal,” said Pandey, who has been playing the game ever since it arrived in the country. Then, the game did not offer an extravagant layout or smooth browsing, but today, the league’s features are sleeker, providing users with a better experience, according to him.
Whatever the superficial changes, the original idea behind the game remains intact: letting English Premier League fans experience what it is like to be a part of the game. In a country like Nepal, where opportunities to play international-standard football are rare, fantasy formats of such games make the sport more interactive for fans, transforming them from passive spectators in front of their televisions to active participants who can make crucial decisions, such as team selection, match strategies, formations and transfers.
Fantasy Premier League is the most popular of the fantasy football leagues, which consist of separate fantasy games for each of the most popular leagues, like the German Bundesliga or the Spanish La Liga, in addition to the English Premier League. Over 6 million players were registered on the Fantasy Premier League platform for the 2019-20 season.
In Nepal, the game has gone from a few hundred Nepalis registered in 2006 to 45,594 active players from Nepal this season alone. Many workplaces and colleges have their own league groups where participants contest to win bragging rights. There are even paid leagues, where players pay an entry fee to participate, with guaranteed weekly, monthly and end of season rewards.
Roshan Bhattarai, the co-founder of Proshore, a Kathmandu-Netherlands based Information Technology company, said that his organisation has a private fantasy football league for its employees.
“It significantly benefits communication among co-workers and improves the morale of the team as well, leading to an overall boost in productivity and employee retention,” said Bhattarai.
This only adds to the thrill of the game, converting casual viewers into die-hard fans, says Bishow Gautam, an ardent follower of the game.
“Any fan who usually watches a game or two over the weekend could possibly end up watching a couple of extra matches to analyse the performance of the teams and players involved,” said Asmita Khadka, an architecture student who has been playing Fantasy Premier League for the past three seasons.
Fantasy games are gaining popularity in India as well, where there are around 60 fantasy sports companies. These companies don’t just have fantasy platforms for football; they also run fantasy games for sports ranging from cricket to kabbadi.
Nepal, however, is not there yet. The first—and only—time a local fantasy game has been held in the country was during the third season of the Dhangadi Premier League. The fantasy game was organised by the Dhangadi league itself and saw 2,386 active participants.
Fantasy games, however, have their downsides.
“Playing such games is highly addictive. Scoring points can get us elated but bad game weeks certainly cause stress,” said Sabin Shrestha, who works in the IT department of a television company. “A lot of free time is spent on preparing teams. At times, when the team does not score above average points, we tend to grow resentful towards our friends or colleagues, with a dislike of football in general.”
Another issue with these online games is ‘private paid leagues’, where participating users usually pay a certain fee upfront with winners earning rewards. This is a problem in Nepal because any game that is played by laying a wager to gain or lose money is considered ‘gambling’ by the Gambling Act of Nepal. Despite that, there has been a rapid rise in the number of paid fantasy premier league private groups and Nepal has no law in place to monitor or curb internet gaming and betting, like in other countries. There are numerous paid leagues being organised in Nepal with some having thousands of members who pay at least Rs1,000 each just for the entrance.
Sabal Dahal, who has a fantasy team of his own, compares the sport with gambling but says that he sees no problem with it.
“Anything that you pay for to have a chance to win something bigger is always going to have a chance to be addictive,” said Dahal.
Defending their own paid private league of five childhood friends, Saksham Bhattarai said that the league is a game of skill rather than luck.
“It is more like the skill-based chess rather than luck-based ‘open flush’, as fantasy football requires immense knowledge of the game, with just a bit of luck,” said Bhattarai.
But for most of these players, the best part of the game is how it brings together people who share a love for the beautiful game.
“Despite being miles apart, across three continents and time zones, Fantasy Premier League really brings friends together,” said Bhattarai.