Online fantasy sport games are becoming increasingly popular in the modern era, with more and more variations on traditional fantasy games. There are now fantasy games for most sports, including but not limited to American football, soccer and rugby union. In particular, companies have latched onto major sporting competitions and offer fantasy games for those events. Most recently, there have been plenty of fantasy games created for the Rugby World Cup, which took place in England and Wales throughout September and October a few years ago.

Traditionally, fantasy sport games have been created purely for entertainment reasons. However, in recent years, a number of fantasy games have been created that require people to pay in order to enter the leagues. DraftKings is perhaps the most famous and widely advertised, and they offer DAILY fantasy leagues on a number of sports, mainly baseball, American football and ice hockey. To enter these fantasy leagues, you need an account and can stake money in order to win funds, which you can in turn choose to withdraw or restake.

It’s a little confusing for the fantasy novice and even more so for those who have been playing old-school free fantasy games for decades. But this new system appears to work, although the amount of skill and ability needed certainly makes it close to gambling. For example, you need skill to play online casino games like Blackjack by 32Red. This is widely recognized as gambling, so why should it be any different simply because it’s linked to an online fantasy game? Many people believe it shouldn’t. Both take up a reasonable level of talent to play, and require funds – in a way, they are incredibly similar.

Furthermore, quite a few people have compared staking money on fantasy football to placing a bet on players to score in real-life sporting events. For example, you can place wagers on Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins on DraftKings but you can also stake money on Hopkins to score a touchdown, rack up ‘x’ amount of receiving yards and other markets at a range of both online and offline bookmakers.

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However, many fantasy games are free to enter and don’t require additional funds. The NFL fantasy football game allows players to play free of charge, and users are able to compete in either NFL-managed leagues or custom-made leagues with friends and family members. For American football fans, this is the perfect fantasy game for those players who are more concerned about the enjoyment and having fun rather than winning money – even the NFL teams understand the need for the public to play. It’s a relatively simple website and they also have a downloadable app that can send reminders for changing and setting your line-up.

Most importantly, you don’t have to pay anything. You say have because there is the option to open a league with a prize fund. However, that is a season-long thing and certainly shouldn’t be considered as gambling. There aren’t any fantasy options at websites like 32Red, blackjackballroom, or caesarscasino but you can stake money on real-life American football matches and build accumulators. Fantasy football is an incredibly popular game across the world and free versions will always be welcomed by those who aren’t too concerned about winning money and those who play purely for the enjoyment and excitement of competing against others.

Moreover, soccer fans can access the Premier League’s official fantasy game free of charge, too. Football is one of the greatest sports on the planet and millions of people keep up to date with all of the latest injury news and transfers in the sporting world. The Premier League version could branch out to allow those wanting to stake funds the opportunity to do so, but for now it remains a free game for the masses. As soccer is so universally followed, many have called for the Premier League’s fantasy football game to offer a paid version and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see this in the future.

Are paid fantasy games gambling? Well, it depends on a number of key variables and external factors. If you’re staking on a daily basis, playing more because you’re addicted and focused on winning money than for the sheer enjoyment of fantasy sports, then that’s a worry. However, the majority of fantasy users aren’t like that and enjoy placing simple stakes, quite like many of the same people who enjoy playing online casino games such as Blackjack and Roulette. For the time being, there isn’t a huge need to classify fantasy sports as gambling but that could change if fantasy games adopt a similar stance as DraftKings and they all become ‘pay-to-play’ games in the future.