Fantasy Football (Soccer) Playing and Internet Addiction Among Online Fantasy Football Participants: A Descriptive Surve
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Fantasy Football (Soccer) Playing and Internet Addiction Among Online Fantasy Football Participants: A Descriptive Survey Study David Columb 1,2 & Mark D. Griffiths 3
& Colin O’Gara
2,4
Accepted: 11 November 2020/ # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract
The aim of the present study was to ascertain the levels of possible internet addiction within fantasy football (FF) (soccer) participants and the characteristics of the participants within this group. An online survey of questions regarding characteristics of regular FF participants and consumption of FF-related content was posted on FF internet forums (Reddit and Boards.ie). Self-selecting participants (N = 684) completed the survey containing questions on FF (time spent during weekdays/weekend on FF, gambling on FF, devices used to access FF), internet use (time spent on internet on weekdays/weekends) and an internet addiction screening questionnaire (Chen Internet Addiction Scale). Subgroup analysis was performed on each variable by nationality (Irish, UK and worldwide). Of the 684 participants, 17.5% (diagnostic) and 24.9% (screening) participants met criteria for internet addiction, above the expected level in the general population. The most frequent time spent on FF during weekdays was 30–60 min per day (32.2%) and 1– 2 h per day on weekends (29.1%). Over half of participants (50.6%) gambled on FF with the majority (61.3%) gambling once per year and 74.3% of participants gambling less than €50 per year on FF. Avid FF participants demonstrated an increased likelihood of internet addiction compared prevalence rates of previous epidemiological studies among different cohorts. This may be due to FF itself and the increased consumption of FFrelated content. Further large-scale nationally representative studies are required to compare regular and casual participants of FF in relation to possible internet addiction. Keywords Internet use disorder . Internet addiction . Fantasy football . Fantasy sports . Behavioural addiction
* David Columb [email protected] * Mark D. Griffiths [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction
Problematic internet use and internet addiction has become an emerging major health concern with the widespread use of the internet in everyday life (Kuss and Lopez-Fernandez 2016). There is a large variance in the prevalence of internet addiction, with studies reporting prevalence rates in the USA of 0.3 to 8.1% (Alimoradi et al. 2019), in Europe between 2 and 18.3% (Alimoradi et al. 2019) and up to 30.1% among medical students (Zhang et al. 2018). Internet addiction is associated with comorbid psychiatric symptoms such as depression and anxiety (Kuss and Lopez-Fernandez 2016), substance misuse (Widyanto and Griffiths 2006), fatigue and sleep disturbance (Bener et al. 2019). There is ongoing controversy within scientific literature about what constitutes internet addiction (Pontes and Griffiths 2014; Ryding and Kaye 2018). Initial research on
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