Andrew Wainstein, creator of Fantasy Football League, tells us the fascinating story of a simple idea that went global
This week, our guest on the 'Creative Legends' podcast is Andrew Wainstein, founder of Fantasy Football League.
![](https://www.creativemoment.co/images/uploads/general/Andrew-Wainstein-Image-Small.jpg)
Andrew is behind the hugely successful Fantasy Football League, which launched in 1991 and over the years has developed a loyal, cult following.
Many of those who played the game at its inception still play today!
Fantasy Football League is a great example of a creative idea that started in the pre-internet age, that has evolved and despite being copied, it has retained its individual popularity.
It is, essentially, the fascinating story of a simple idea that went global.
Here is a summary of what Graham and Andrew discuss:
- The concept of the game and how it works
- How Andrew came up with the idea
- How the formula is still basically the same as it was when it began 30 years ago
- How Fantasy Football League began as a game to play with mates in the pub and grew into a global phenomenon with a following of 6 million
- How Andrew, with his knowledge and background in computing, started Fantasy Football pre-internet, pre-Sky Sports and pre-Premier League
- How Andrew used the postal system to update players on their team's performances every week!
- Andrew talks about the issues surrounding IP, how he feels about protecting ideas and how, for him, it is about moving on to new ideas
- How Fantasy Football League became part of the 'data revolution' in sport that we are so familiar with today
- How Andrew's background as a 'geek' in computing helped with crunching the numbers
- How the business developed with newspapers The Telegraph and The Sun
- And how the TV programme “Fantasy Football” with Skinner and Baddiel helped make it a global success.
This podcast series is called 'Creative Legends', hosted by a good friend of Creative Moment, Graham Goodkind.
![](https://www.creativemoment.co/images/uploads/general/Fantasy-Football-Logo-from-Twitter.png)