Collaboration Loop, September 06, 2006

By Irwin Lazar, Principal Analyst & Program Director, Collaboration & Convergence, Nemertes Research, Inc.

ImageIt’s football season here in the United States (for those of you reading this from outside the U.S., I’m talking about the kind played with the oblong ball and guys wearing lots of pads). That means one thing: fantasy football leagues are forming at a record rate. According to a recent Business Week article, over 15 million people now participate in fantasy sports leagues, and 90% of those play fantasy football. The article also notes that web sites supporting fantasy football leagues have grown 20-25% a year for the last five years -- an astounding rate. Fantasy sports are big business, estimated at generating between $1 and $2 billion in revenues annually.

So why bring up fantasy sports in the context of collaboration? Simple, much in the way the adult film industry drove growth of technologies such as video tapes and the Internet, I’m convinced that fantasy sports will drive the growth of online collaboration.