Experts reveal how Fantasy Premier League is helping football podcasts turn listeners into communities.
Football podcasts are everywhere. From former professionals sharing stories from the dressing rooms to in-depth tactical debates, they’ve become a staple of most supporters’ weekly routines.
The growth of these podcasts has been fueled by fragmented broadcasting deals, the appetite for more personality-driven football content, and a way for brands to compete with influencers who have stepped on the toes of broadcasting giants in recent years.
Heavyweights in the space like The Rest Is Football, fronted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, now sit alongside The Overlap, hosted by Gary Neville and featuring the likes of Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane, and No Tippy Tappy Football with Sam Allardyce.
These shows all offer something slightly different, but with so many on the market, the question they face is: how do you stand out and keep listeners coming back?
Turning listeners into players
The answer appears to be interactivity. More and more football podcasts are using Fantasy Premier League (FPL) as a way to deepen engagement and foster loyalty.
The Rest Is Football recently launched The Players Lounge, described as the podcast’s official fantasy football club. Announced by Lineker on air, the club is free to join and allows fans to compete against the presenters.
Members can win prizes such as signed shirts, receive a weekly newsletter filled with FPL insights and even join a private Slack community to share tactics and banter. Other shows are setting up similar initiatives, recognising the pull of FPL.
Speaking to Insider Sport, Malph Minns, Managing Director of Strive Sponsorship, explains FPL is being used as a loyalty driver due to its ability to add a layer of interest into the main product itself, stating “It provides another angle for people to consume their passion.”
“The construct also taps into people’s identity and status needs, especially men who tend to be more driven by this,” he says.
“Public, and probably more so private, leagues and rankings turn play into social currency; people share results, screenshots, and banter. I have shared a WhatsApp group with five mates that’s sole purpose is to talk about FPL and ridicule each other based on weekly results, positions, or particular features of games that affect our scores. Our conversations with each other outside of this pale in comparison. It gives us a currency to connect with.”
What is fantasy football?
Fantasy sports originated in the smoky backrooms of 1960s America, with the earliest widely recognised version called “Rotisserie League Baseball,” created in 1969 by a group of journalists and baseball enthusiasts. They would track real Major League Baseball (MLB) players’ statistics and translate them into points for a virtual team, competing against friends.
The name comes from the New York restaurant “La Rotisserie Française,” where the founders met to manage their leagues.
However, the British counterpart gained popularity in the 1990s. Before apps and live bonus points, fans would be phoning in or mailing their weekly team selections to national papers, which ran fantasy football competitions with printed league tables and prize incentives.
The Premier League’s official FPL game launched in 2002, marking a shift in accessibility and scale. What began as a niche hobby has exploded into a global phenomenon, with over 11 million players participating last season alone.
FPL’s appeal lies in its ability to combine real-world football with tactical decision-making and statistical analysis. It’s no longer just about picking your favourite players, it’s about predicting form, exploiting fixture swings and staying ahead of the curve.
Today, entire YouTube channels are dedicated to dissecting team selections and transfer strategies, while AI-powered tools now analyse historical data to offer predictive insights.
Building stronger podcast communities
When it comes to podcasts, FPL provides a natural bridge between presenter and listener. Minns explains it allows fans to connect with hosts in the same way they do their own friends, transforming the passive experience of listening into something participatory.
“Listening to podcasts is quite a personal thing and it can feel over time like you’re part of a community,” he adds. “This game layer again adds something in common between content producer and listener to build connection.”
Weekly episodes can then draw on the drama of league standings, highlight listener performances and develop running jokes that tie audiences more tightly to the show.
Danielle Ward, Marketing Sales Director and Business Lecturer at Wardaker Logic, notes to Insider Sport the value of FPL as an engagement tool.
In her experience, fantasy football can unite even people with little prior interest in the game. She recalls colleagues who joined in “not because they had to, but for fun,” with the competition creating new touchpoints inside and outside of work.
While listeners to a football podcast have more than likely heard of FPL, Ward argues that introducing it to those who haven’t played it before gives content brands an easy way to make meaningful contact with their audiences.
However, mentioning FPL in the first episode of the new season and then never again, as is the case in many casual leagues, isn’t going to cut it.
Community features such as private leagues, WhatsApp groups, or Discord servers make fantasy football “about people as much as points,” according to Minns. This is where the retention value lies in building relationships and giving fans a sense of belonging.
Minns argues distinctive positioning is key: “Be meaningfully different. Don’t just run a league, add your brand’s voice that has meaningful value to the audience. Don’t be different for different’s sake. You also don’t need to be unique, you just need to be authentically more of whatever the distinctive feature is than others.”
He also points to the importance of creating a narrative across the season, suggesting podcasts could build mini-marketing campaigns around key moments such as the opening game week, Christmas wildcard deadlines, or double gameweeks.
Gamification beyond the league table is another way to keep players engaged. Minns highlights how prizes for achievements like the highest weekly score, best captain pick, or “most improved” manager can encourage participation even among those not competing at the top.
Ward stresses that communities thrive when there is a clear purpose and values from the start. Transparency and consistency, she says, are crucial for sustaining momentum.
Monetisation and growth
Both experts agree that gamified engagement is set to expand. Minns tells Insider Sport there are opportunities for crossovers with other formats, such as watch-along shows with prediction games or TikTok challenges tied to fantasy milestones.
He also points to the value of the rich data and loyalty fantasy football generates, which is attractive to sponsors and partners.
One sector already investing heavily is betting and gambling. Despite pressure from advocacy groups to restrict such partnerships at matches, brands are using football podcasts to boost visibility.
No Tippy Tappy Football recently named BoyleSports as a partner, while The Overlap announced a renewed deal with Sky Bet.
“Given the volume of people playing in some of the leagues, and the regular level of engagement. There is an opportunity to build quite a rich understanding of individual players that would be of real value to brand partners,” says Minns.
“Additionally there could be smaller opportunities for existing leagues around merchandise and live events. People are already connecting virtually (e.g. WhatsApp groups) and so if the incentive is big enough to attend in person, I think people would be willing to pay for that too.”
He also notes a growing appetite for paid content: “We’re already seeing a market for premium content. There are a host of companion sites and some are charging fees for tactical analysis, one-to-one advice and recommendations etc.”
Ward takes a broader view, adding that while many fans may struggle to attend matches in person due to cost, digital communities can thrive. She sees the technology and creative industries as eager to fuel this growth, with marketers well positioned to shape how it develops.
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