Fantasy sports know no gender

The battle of the sexes has a level playing field - the fantasy football field.

Women increasingly are joining the ranks of the roughly 25 million Americans participating in fantasy sports each year, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. And one of the major reasons for that is the opportunity for a fair fight.

"It is definitely a competition format that women stand absolutely equal to men," said Kim Beason, a University of Mississippi professor who conducts research for the FSTA. "These women that immerse themselves in it are going to be successful. It is enticing to them."

So enticing that the number of female fantasy sports players has increased 3 to 5 percent each year over the past five years, Beason said.

His research, which surveys mostly paying members of fantasy sports Web sites - an overwhelming majority of whom are men - puts the amount of female participation at 7 percent. Take into account the women who mooch off their husband's or boyfriend's access to draft kits, statistics and magazines and that number soars to 20 percent, he said.

Jessica Moreland, a football fan since age 10, has been taking on guys since 2003 when a friend's husband asked her to join a league. But the 28-year-old Colorado Springs resident does it on her own.

"I'll go out and buy a magazine so that I have a list (of players) in front of me, but I'm comfortable enough in who I know," she said.

Getting to that comfort level is another reason women participate in fantasy sports, Beason said.

"Because women often know less of the intricacies of the sport, women really learn sport by playing fantasy sport," he said. "... It increases their enjoyment of watching."

But the drive to play always goes back to the desire to take on the opposite sex.

"Once they play it, they're going to get hooked because they realize they can compete," Beason said. "And that's attractive."

Moreland knows the feeling.

"I love being underestimated," she said. "I shouldn't know to put in Tom Brady. I shouldn't know enough to get second place in my league. But the fact that I do makes me that much prouder."