I’d like to say that I want to at least get in the spirit of the World Cup football excitement but frankly the only way I could possibly register that it’s happening is every single bleedin’ news programme keeps telling me so. Apparently the England team has arrived in wherever it is. Apparently this is news.

But while the existence of the World Cup has been bludgeoned into my head and before I manage to shake it out again with the very greatest of ease, I did come across this. Fantasy Football costs America billions of dollars in lost productivity.

I know what you’re thinking. They have fantasies about football?

In a recent study, it was found that fantasy football players are costing employers more than $1.1 billion in productivity every week, during the National Football League season. This statistic was brought out by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. The attraction towards fantasy football is immense because of the lucrative payout that it offers. This is a billion dollar business, which involves 24.3 million players according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.

However, with so much interest in fantasy football, how much of time is being devoted to real work? According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc about 22.3 million employed people spend half an hour of work time every week on managing their rosters and other fantasy football related activities.

The Impact of Fantasy Football Teams on Productivity – Careerealism

That article is dated 2013 and it sits in a website more replete with ads that I am generally comfortable directing you to. Maybe my infectious enthusiasm for football is enough to persuade you to go read the whole tedious piece, I don’t know.