The stock market is no dream these days, but that hasn’t stopped some University of Wisconsin students from mixing finance with fantasy.
When UW sophomore Eric Josephs set out to combine his interests, he came up with an innovative student organization with a growing membership.
“The purpose of the Fantasy Sports and Finance club is to encourage participation in fantasy sports leagues and as a whole teach skills in finance, mainly in the stock market,” said Josephs, who is majoring in finance.
Josephs witnessed the popularity of fantasy sports as a freshman in the dorms last year. While in the process of registering FSF with the university, Josephs looked for similar groups.
“I was shocked when I looked up on the website and there were no fantasy sports clubs,” Josephs said.
Though Fantasy Sports and Finance is only three months old, it has been received with enthusiasm from students of all types. Josephs said there are 35 people who frequent the organization’s two weekly meetings.
On Tuesdays, FSF is strictly business. Members discuss the status of different stocks and the state of the economy. The group’s stock market league downloads updates and awards weekly prizes like “Stock of the Week.” During the last half hour of the meeting, members sit back and take advice from the pros.
“We have stock brokers that come in and tell us how to pick a good stock, or what stocks to look for,” said Ben Reid, an FSF member. “That’s definitely my favorite part.”
FSF gets together on weekends to watch ESPN clips and talk about how their draft picks are performing. The principles of fantasy sports are similar to those in the stock market, Josephs said.
“Before you draft, or in this case invest in a stock, you have to know a lot about the player and you gotta know how durable they are,” Josephs said. “You gotta know how long you’re going to keep them for because you can drop a player in a week, just like you can buy a stock and sell it in a week.”
Reid said the similarities between these two seemingly different disciplines are strikingly simple.
“It’s about making good choices in the long run,” Reid said. “I’m sure one player might be good for one week, but you gotta think in the long term who will be better, what stock will be better.”
With the rocky economy, Josephs said the group has become even more relevant.
“Just because the stock market as a whole is doing poorly doesn’t mean that there aren’t that many winners out there, because there are, they just know how to spend their money wisely,” Josephs said.
FSF has met in floating locations for its first semester but will start meeting in Memorial Union as of January. The group is kicking off the spring semester with a second season of its stock market league and a fantasy baseball draft. They’d like to bring in experts in fantasy sports as guest lecturers. In addition, Josephs said, the group is working toward its first major long-term goal.
“Our goal is to hopefully become affiliated with the (Wisconsin) School of Business by the end of the year,” Josephs said.
Loren Kuzuhara, UW professor and deputy associate dean of undergraduate programs at the School of Business, said that decision ultimately comes down to other business school students. FSF must present to the Undergraduate Business Leadership Council, a student group, to be considered for recognition.
Kuzuhara said if FSF adds meaning and value to the School of Business community, it will likely be concerned for recognition.
“I don’t think they’re going to have any problem getting recognized by the School of Business,” Kuzuhara said.
If FSF becomes recognized, they would be listed on the school’s official website and have access to School of Business resources.
For now, Josephs is elated with how far FSF has come in just a short amount of time.
“It’s been really working,” Josephs said. “This is something that we’re really trying to make big, and hopefully we can.”
