We all love a bit of fantasy football – well apart from when your captain blanks and Pep Guardiola rotates out your star player.
But a new study suggests taking that Fantasy Premier League competition at work too seriously or obsessing over which bargain basement defender is best suited to sit on your bench could be seriously harming your mental health – especially if there’s cash riding on the outcome.
A new study suggests that experienced players have less anxiety than novices, but players who spend more time and money on the game overall were also found to have more mental health concerns.
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Dr Gary Ian Britton, from Queen Mary University of London, said, via The Times: “While the results of the study might seem worrying, all of these involved/engaged groups also reported more positive mood as a result of playing fantasy football.
“When your fantasy football team does badly you are more likely to feel down if you are more financially invested in the game, or if you are just invested in the game more generally.
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“But equally, if your fantasy football team performs well in any given week, this is going to positively boost the mood of an engaged fantasy football player more than it would the mood of a less engaged player.”
Fantasy football allows players to pick a team from a particular league or competition and score points – for goals, assists and clean sheets – according their chosen players. However, players who check their team more than others have a reported poorer mental health.
Dr Britton added that fantasy football websites should add a warning onto their websites about the potential negative effects if one is to become overly invested in the game “be that financially or just in terms of their time”.
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The study, published in the journal Simulation and Gaming, involved 635 people from two popular leagues, almost all of whom were men and typically aged 34. One question asked whether their involvement caused arguments with their partners.
Mental health has been spoken about in the fantasy football community with one player admitting, via FantasyFootballHub: “Fantasy Football affects us more than we would care to admit!
“If we lose all of our enjoyment and humour it might be time to step back.”