The reality of insurance in fantasy football

Fantasy football seems like a relatively simple — though nerdy — game: Draft a team; follow your player’s stats; trade; wheel and deal … and have your general manager dreams fufilled.

If you’re a serious fantasy player, there something you ought to know about: FantasyPlayerProtect.com. You can buy real insurance for the players on your make believe team.

“We’ve been die-hard fantasy gamers for a real long time,” explains Joe LaGiglia, one of the founders. “It was just one of those things that was built out of necessity. My brother and I just happened to  always draft the guys that got injured on our fantasy team, and we decided to do something business-wise with it.”

It’s a real insurance product — backed by an A-rated insurance company — and you pay a premium to protect your investment in the fantasy football league in the event that your player gets injured. The insurance can cover up to $1,000.

Feel like make-believe?

“Thirty-five million* gamers can’t be wrong,” retorts LaGiglia. “If you talk to any gamers out there, there’s a huge passion in — fantasy or not — there’s a lot of people who believe this is a real fun hobby that has gone mainstream.”

*CORRECTION: The original version of this article incorrectly quoted Joe LaGiglia’s estimate of the number of people playing fantasy football. The text has been corrected.