Insurance Comes to Fantasy Sports
A new innovation has hit the fantasy sports world. An article in the Wall Street Journal by Nando Di Fino details the debut this year of Fantasy Sports Insurance (FSI) which “offers the fantasy owner the ability to recoup league fees and all other related costs if one of their star players falls to an injury and misses the bulk of the season.”
FSI is starting off this year with football, but has plans to expand to other fantasy sports, including baseball.
The idea began with last year’s Week One injury to Tom Brady, one of the first players picked in fantasy football drafts in 2008. Brady was out for the remainder of the season and his injury sunk the hopes of many fantasy teams. For 2009, FSI (with the help of Lloyd’s of London) is offering insurance for the top 50 players in the NFL.
Owners have three options on how to insure their players. Two of these involve coverage on one person while a third choice offers protection if three players combine to miss 15 games.
The cost of the coverage depends mainly on entry fees and transaction fees for the individual league, although other expenses factor into the equation.
Most people who I have talked with about this idea have had the same reaction, which basically amounts to, “Wish I had thought of it first!”
It seems like an idea perfectly tailored for fantasy football, where season-ending injuries early in the season seem like an annual occurrence. But will it transfer to fantasy baseball? Plenty of season-ending injuries happen in baseball, but most of those happen later in the season.
Also, as fantasy players, do we really want another dilemma? It is hard enough with the fantasy team versus real team conflict that we all face. Our fantasy team pitcher is going up against our favorite team – which side are we on?
If the fantasy insurance idea takes off, we will be faced with the possibility of rooting for an injured player to not make it back. Instead of checking RotoTimes for news of rehab assignments, we will instead be hoping for visits to see Dr. James Andrews, which will enable us to cash an insurance check and salvage our entrance fee.
Do you think the FSI idea is a good one or bad one? Do you see it succeeding in fantasy baseball? Would you consider purchasing it for any particular player? Please weigh in with your thoughts in the comments section.
Print This Post
Sounds pretty interesting. One thing that came to mind was insurance regulations. I’m no lawyer but I believe its illegal to buy insurance on unrelated persons without their consent. I realize that for smaller buy-in leagues a $50 insurance policy doesn’t sound like a big deal, but larger leagues you’d have unrelated person buying $10,000 insurance policies on players without the player’s consent or knowledge. Does not seem like this would end up being legal.
The original article stated that FSI offers claims up to $1,000 so that is probably an attempt to avoid the issue you bring up.
It seems like I remember seeing this a year or so ago. It must have been in one of the fantasy football magazines and I thought it was very humorous. I know I will partake in this. It seems like it will take away some of the fun involved. Part of the fun of fantasy sports is losing because when you finally do when one it makes it that much better.
I’m positive I’d hate to administer this type of insurance. What happens when you insure David Wright but trade him a month later?
Nothing happens. They’re not going to monitor your league. This isn’t “insurance”, it’s just billed as such. It’s just you betting that a certain player is going to get hurt.
$10,000 buy-in leagues and player insurance? It sounds like y’all are getting way too serious about something as dumb as fastasy football.
An interesting concept, though it seems like there would be a lot of loopholes (i.e. Johnny Tuttle’s comment). Fantasy sports is based on strategy, yes, but it is still a game of chance. I for one am not going to invest more money on another game of chance (the insurance game) than I already would have on a money league. It’s just not for me.
From the WSJ article:
“And for the cost of a pizza and a pitcher of beer on draft day, you no longer have to lose sleep about your best player lying in a heap.”
I think I’d rather have the pizza and beer.
The biggest problem with baseball is that in any league less than say 16 players, the replacement level is usually good enough to keep a team afloat. For example, I have a 1st place team in a 14 team categories H-H league and lead by 8.5 games with a .635 win%. My first round pick was Jose Reyes at 8th overall (and I thought I was so lucky to get him there), but lo and behold, due to his early struggles, I was able to snag Ben Zobrist from the waiver wire when Aki Iwamura went down with injury. I also snagged BJ Upton who somehow fell to the 3rd round, but again I was able to cheaply insure Upton with my 21st round pick Adam Jones, who I later sold high for C Bills just as his hot start began to cool.
My point is simple. A good fantasy manager can manage his way around a key injury in baseball. If you draft Tom Brady 1st overall and he gets hurt week 1, you’re basically screwed (unless you were able to snag someone like Kurt Warner).
Also, I think ranking injury risk is an important part of drafting. I drafted 4 leagues last year and Albert Pujols went as early as 10th overall and as late as the mid 20’s due to concern over that elbow of his. I think that’s one of the best parts of fantasy baseball. Whoever took that gamble got huge returns on their investment. At other times, gambles don’t pay off.
I guaratee!! that I will NEVER EVER EVER!! play in any league in which this sort of FARCE is allowed. What a freaking joke!!!
I’ll personally offer insurance as league commissioner. I’ll use weighted O-Rank and player days lost.
From reading the article, I understand that this insurance is completely independent of the leagues involved. In fact, you do not actually have to play in any leagues to buy insurance. Or you could insure players not even on your fantasy team.
They only take into account the player and the amount insured, with the amount insured limited to about $1000.
You could try to make money from this, but that is like trying to make money playing a game at a casino against the house. The odds are in favor of the house.
I agree with the A team in terms of replacement levels in baseball. Apart from rare, rare players, your team can recover (not fully, but somewhat at least) from even a lost early pick. The Pujols owners don’t even want me to make the analogy here–too scary–but it’s moderately true.
In football, there are usually 2-3 elite options at the front of a draft that truly are irreplaceable, and if you have that level (say LDT a few years back) or the next tier down at RB in the first and he goes down, you are just done. The FA RBs or handcuffs just don’t cut it like adding Pineiros to cover Peavys can.
insurance companies are scam artists
What’s the point? In the long run you’ll lose money, in the short term you’ll usually lose even more.
Any person who does this is a sucker who really shouldn’t be putting any money into gambling/fantasy sports and certainly shouldn’t be adding to these losses by paying for insurance.
bounty hunters