-1.svg){kind=logo}
🏈 NFL playoffs are fast approaching. 🏀 The NBA is in full-throttle mode. Fans are glued to their screens, tracking every move, every play, every stat—because their fantasy teams are on the line.
And they’re not alone. Over 62.5 million people in the U.S. and Canada play fantasy sports, with ESPN’s Fantasy Football alone hitting a record 13 million players in 2024. Fantasy sports have revolutionized the way fans interact with their favorite teams, players, and leagues. More than just a game, fantasy sports platforms like FanDuel, DraftKings, and ESPN Fantasy Sports have transformed passive viewership into an immersive, interactive experience—fueling fan engagement, loyalty, and emotional connection like never before. They’ve created a high-stakes experience where every roster move and last-minute trade feels like life or death. The stakes? Bragging rights, cash, and the thrill of outsmarting friends (or total strangers).
But here’s the kicker—are fantasy sports platforms really delivering the ultimate experience? Are they measuring what actually matters to users, or just guessing based on outdated surveys and clicks?
🚨 Spoiler alert: Traditional feedback is broken.
If you want to know what truly drives engagement, loyalty, and emotional connection, you have to measure it in the moment—not after the fact. That’s why Immersion created Value Measurement. Powered by neuroscience and wearables, it captures real-time emotional impact while users are deep in the action.
Forget the guesswork. It’s time to level up the fantasy sports experience—for fans and the platforms that power them.
In this blog, we’ll explore:
✅ How fantasy sports create customer value through fan engagement, loyalty, and social connection
✅ Why traditional feedback methods don’t work for measuring real impact
✅ How neuroscience-backed Value Measurement reveals what users truly feel while playing fantasy sports
✅ How fantasy sports platforms can integrate real-time emotional measurement to optimize user experience
Let’s dive in! 👇
The Explosive Growth of Fantasy Sports
Fantasy sports have skyrocketed in popularity over the last two decades. According to a report of 2022 stats from Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association (FSGA):
- Nearly 62 million people in the U.S. and Canada participate in fantasy sports
- The industry is worth $22 billion globally and growing
- 78% of fantasy sports players say they watch more live sports because of their fantasy leagues
These numbers show that fantasy sports platforms are driving deep fan engagement, increasing viewership, and enhancing the overall sports experience.
But why are fantasy sports so popular?
How Fantasy Sports Create Customer Value
Fantasy sports aren’t just fun—they’re scientifically wired to keep players engaged. The way these platforms combine emotional investment, social connection, strategic thinking, and gamification activates key neural pathways linked to motivation, decision-making, and long-term loyalty. Here’s how fantasy sports deliver neurologic value and keep fans coming back for more.
1. Deeper Fan Engagement and Emotional Investment
Fantasy sports transform passive viewers into active participants by making every game personally meaningful. When fans draft and manage their own teams, they develop a deeper emotional connection to players from multiple squads, not just their hometown favorites.
From a neuroscience perspective, this activates the brain’s reward system. Winning a fantasy matchup triggers the release of dopamine, reinforcing the excitement and driving repeat engagement. This is why 90% of fantasy football players say fantasy sports make watching games more exciting. The more emotionally invested a fan is, the stronger the connection to both the sport and the platform they use—delivering neurologic value that extends beyond just entertainment.
2. Social Connection and Community Building
Fantasy sports aren’t just about competition—they’re about connection. Whether it’s a league with friends, family, or colleagues, these meaningful interactions trigger the brain’s socio-emotional valuation network, which releases oxytocin–the neurochemical responsible for trust, bonding, and long-term engagement.
This biological reward system is a key reason why 83% of fantasy football players say it helps them maintain friendships. In a previous blog, we explain that social connection accounts for nearly 50% of our happiness, making fantasy leagues more than just a game—they create meaningful, rewarding experiences that keep players engaged season after season.
The stronger the social and emotional connection, the greater the neurologic value, reinforcing player loyalty and deepening their connection to both the game and the platform.
3. Strategic Thinking and Skill Development
Fantasy sports aren’t just luck-based; they require research, strategy, and decision-making. Players analyze player stats, trends, injuries, and performance metrics to make informed decisions. This activates the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s command center for strategic thinking and long-term planning.
Similar to stock trading or poker, fantasy sports keep players in a loop of prediction, action, and reward, making the experience intellectually and emotionally engaging. The more time players invest in managing their teams, the stronger their sense of ownership—which, neurologically, strengthens their attachment to the platform itself. This leads to higher engagement, longer retention, and greater customer lifetime value.
4. Gamification: The Power of Competition and Rewards
The most successful fantasy sports platforms—FanDuel, DraftKings, and ESPN Fantasy Sports—have mastered gamification by leveraging how the brain processes motivation and rewards. But why does it work so well?
Gamification activates both the dopaminergic system and the socio-emotional valuation network, driving intrinsic motivation, competition, and emotional investment. Features like:
- Points systems based on real-life player stats
- Leaderboard rankings that create competition
- Monetary and non-monetary rewards for winning leagues
- Badges and achievements to incentivize participation
By engaging these neural circuits, fantasy sports deliver real neurologic value, keeping players emotionally invested and socially connected. Every leaderboard climb, matchup win, or perfect draft pick reinforces a neurochemical cycle of engagement, making fantasy sports as compelling as social media or video games—and just as hard to put down.
Where Traditional Feedback Falls Short
Many fantasy sports platforms still rely on outdated methods—surveys, reviews, and basic usage analytics—to gauge customer satisfaction. But here’s the problem: traditional feedback is flawed, slow, and blind to what actually matters.
- Bias and Bullsh*t – People don’t remember their real-time reactions; they recall peak moments or the end result
- Low Response Rates – Most users won’t take the time to fill out surveys, leaving platforms guessing
- No Emotional Insight – Traditional data shows what users do, but not how they feel in the moment or what truly delivers value
- Vague & Inactionable Feedback – Even when users provide input, it’s often too general to act on (“It was fun” or “Could be better”) rather than pinpointing specific moments that drive joy or frustration
If fantasy sports platforms want to create experiences that deliver maximum value to players, they need a better way to measure what’s emotionally resonating as the experience unfolds–rather than relying on after-the-fact guesswork.
How Value Measurement Reveals the True Impact of Fantasy Sports
This is where Value Measurement changes the game. Unlike outdated surveys and lagging analytics, Value Measurement by Immersion is the only agile neuroscience solution that is easy to deploy, low-cost, and capable of capturing real-time emotional impact—without disrupting the user experience.
Even more powerful? The Value and Safety Scores output from Value Measurement predict future actions with over 85% accuracy, giving fantasy sports platforms a reliable, science-backed understanding of what makes users stay engaged, return, and remain loyal.
Value Measurement is the only tool that:
✔️ Pairs 20 years of neuroscience research with everyday wearables like Oura Ring, Apple Watch, Whoop, Garmin, Fitbit, and more
✔️ Captures real-time emotional impact as users play fantasy sports and engage with fantasy sports platforms
✔️ Delivers free scores that reveal how value users are getting and how comfortable or immersed they feel in the experience
How It Works:
- Users download the SIX app and opt in to share their experience through a wearable device
- SIX converts raw biometric data into meaningful brain-based insights, using algorithms built on 20 years of neuroscience to infer oxytocin and dopamine release—the key drivers of emotional connection, future action, and recall
- Fantasy sports platforms capture real-time insights into fan engagement and emotional connection, providing the data needed to optimize features that truly matter and enhance the user experience
No more assumptions. No more post-game surveys. Just a clear, neuroscience-backed understanding of what your users love—while they’re experiencing it.
For Fantasy Sports Platforms: Measuring Value Is Free—And Easy to Integrate
Fantasy sports platforms can start measuring real emotional impact today—for free. With the Premium version of the SIX app, platforms can schedule a timed invite and send it to users, asking them to anonymously share their brain-based feedback while they complete specific activities on the platform. This gives instant insight into how users truly feel during key moments—without surveys or guesswork.
For even deeper integration, SIX’s SDKs and APIs allow platforms to seamlessly embed Value Measurement directly into their app or platform. This lets users opt-in to share data anytime they interact, capturing real emotional engagement across the entire experience.
With these tools, app creators can:
✔️ Optimize the user experience based on real emotional responses
✔️ Personalize in-app engagement to increase retention and deepen connections
✔️ Identify what features drive the most emotional impact for users
This next-level approach to Value Measurement gives fantasy sports platforms a direct line to what truly delivers value for users—allowing you to refine features, enhance player connection, and drive long-term loyalty. With seamless integration and zero friction for users, platforms can finally measure and optimize emotional impact effortlessly.
Stop Guessing. Start Measuring.
Fantasy sports have revolutionized how fans engage with their favorite teams, blending strategy, competition, and social connection into an experience that keeps millions hooked. But here’s the thing—tracking engagement isn’t enough. We need to revolutionize how we’re capturing feedback.
If platforms aren’t measuring what actually drives loyalty, excitement, and long-term value, they’re flying blind—relying on gut instinct and biased feedback while leaving billions in potential revenue on the table.
💡 Here’s the wake-up call: You wouldn’t build a fantasy roster without stats. So why run a fantasy sports platform without measuring what your users actually feel in real time?
That’s where Value Measurement and the SIX app come in—giving you the neuroscience-backed insights to finally understand what makes fans stay, play, and pay.
Time to level up!
✔️ Try measuring your experience for free with the SIX app
✔️ If you’re an app creator, reach out to info@getimmersion.com to learn how to integrate SIX’s SDKs and APIs to capture emotional engagement as it happens
Fantasy sports changed the game. Now, it’s time to change how we measure what makes it great.