{"id":34437,"date":"2024-12-19T20:06:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T20:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/behemoth-of-fantasy-sports\/"},"modified":"2024-12-19T20:06:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T20:06:00","slug":"behemoth-of-fantasy-sports","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/behemoth-of-fantasy-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"The Behemoth of Fantasy Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How&#39;s your fantasy team shaping up? A recent <em>Statista<\/em> article takes stock of the United States&#39; growing fantasy sports phenomenon. ESPN, DraftKings, and Yahoo, have spearheaded the growth of the online market, with the overall number of fantasy sports platforms increasing to 651 in 2023.<\/p>\n\n<p>Between 2015 and 2022, the number of fantasy sports players in the US grew steadily. As of 2022, the total number of US fantasy sports players reached 50.4 million who spent $9.48 billion US dollars.<\/p>\n\n<p>All that money goes to a booming fantasy industry&mdash;filled with scouting reports, insider magazines, draft conventions, and even entire cable channels dedicated to the pastime. Think for a moment of the sheer magnitude of this collected time, energy, research, and money. Cumulatively, there are entire human lifetimes&mdash;incalculable hours and moments&mdash;and <em>vast<\/em> fortunes going toward a particularly abstract form of entertainment.<\/p>\n\n<p>Stats like these are a powerful reminder that our lives are supposed to be about more than dreaming about imaginary draft picks. What could we do if we directed all that energy in a more productive direction? What does it say about our sense of collective stewardship? What does our entertainment say about our hearts?<\/p>\n\n<p><em>(Editor&rsquo;s Note: Stats are the most current available as of 10\/24)<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[410,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[433],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3453,3861,3869,4441,4442,4708,4748,5066,5077,5079,5080,5159,5160],"tax_ctp_topics":[392,396,401],"class_list":["post-34437","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-attention","tax_ctp_tags-emptiness","tax_ctp_tags-entertainment","tax_ctp_tags-meaning","tax_ctp_tags-meaning-of-life","tax_ctp_tags-priorities","tax_ctp_tags-purpose","tax_ctp_tags-sports","tax_ctp_tags-stewardship","tax_ctp_tags-stewardship-of-money","tax_ctp_tags-stewardship-of-time","tax_ctp_tags-time","tax_ctp_tags-time-management"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Behemoth of Fantasy Sports - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/behemoth-of-fantasy-sports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Behemoth of Fantasy Sports - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How&#039;s your fantasy team shaping up? A recent Statista article takes stock of the United States&#039; growing fantasy sports phenomenon. ESPN, DraftKings, and Yahoo, have spearheaded the growth of the online market, with the overall number of fantasy sports platforms increasing to 651 in 2023. Between 2015 and 2022, the number of fantasy sports players Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/behemoth-of-fantasy-sports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/behemoth-of-fantasy-sports\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/behemoth-of-fantasy-sports\/\",\"name\":\"The Behemoth of Fantasy Sports - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-12-19T20:06:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-19T20:06:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/behemoth-of-fantasy-sports\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/behemoth-of-fantasy-sports\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/behemoth-of-fantasy-sports\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Behemoth of Fantasy Sports\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Behemoth of Fantasy Sports - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/behemoth-of-fantasy-sports\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Behemoth of Fantasy Sports - CT Pastors","og_description":"How&#39;s your fantasy team shaping up? 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