Fantasy sports and daily fantasy sports have seen a significant rise in popularity among fans because it gives fans a reason to become more invested in the success of players from reasons such as winning money or more importantly, bragging rights over other members in your league.

In particular, daily fantasy sports and sites that offer competition have become more popular since it was deemed a game of skill by the U.S. government and legal to play for money. In 2014, it’s been estimated that fantasy sports has become a billion dollar industry with over 43 million players scattered between season and daily leagues.

It’s not difficult to see why fantasy sports have been heavily promoted by professional leagues and seen very little opposition from anyone; it’s another way to tap more revenue out of the enormous cash cow that comes from professional and college sports. It gets fans from just watching their own favorite teams and watching games they would not normally watch.

TV companies have also benefited greatly from the rise of fantasy sports as season long passes that allow access to every game have seen a rise in subscriptions, simultaneously with the rise of daily fantasy sites like Fanduel and Draft Kings.

This year in particular, daily fantasy sites have made their way of becoming accepted by professional organizations. New York based Fanduel struck a partnership with the Brooklyn Nets, while Draft Kings has partnerships with the New England Patriots and the MLB. These steps only further solidify the future of fantasy sports and the fact that they won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

Interestingly enough, offensive production in professional leagues––which is the primary side of all leagues that is measure in fantasy––has seen a big rise in statistical production in the past ten years. Particularly in football and basketball, fans have gravitated towards wanting more offensive numbers and in the NBA and NFL, they have actually changed rules that favor offensive players. More offense has been good for popularity in professional sports leagues and fantasy has played a significant part in adopting that mindset.

So whether or not one plays daily fantasy sports for fun, for money or for bragging rights, there are several strategies that are applicable to every sport and any kind of league to play in.

One: Find ways to get value out of low-cost players.

The way daily fantasy leagues work is it gives fantasy players a $60,000 salary cap to spend on nine different players in whatever means they want to. So while it might seem like a smart idea to immediately select LeBron James and Anthony Davis right off the bat, it’s important to realize the limited amount of resources a player has to work with and what it would take to fill the other seven spots with good picks.

Two: Do the research on players before your draft.

In no league format, whether it be season or daily, should you be guessing on a pick or have no clue why you’re drafting that player, you should know why John Wall against the Memphis Grizzlies’ defense is not a good pick in a daily league and why Wall against the Lakers’ defense is an excellent one; or the risks in taking Dwyane Wade in a season long league as he’s prone to miss a lot of time over

the course of the season due to injuries or getting games off to rest. Having a good understanding in your draft about who to select and why will lead to success more often than not.

Three: Do not be afraid to make moves (or stay put) with your season long team

This is often one of the most tricky decisions fantasy owners have to make during the course of a season, especially if a team starts off slow in the initial first few weeks. Every person who plays fantasy has horror stories about how the second they traded a player who struggled, he immediately became great again. Trusting in your initial research of players can pay off in the long run, but also have fun with making trades and taking risks with deals. It makes the league more exciting and more fun to be apart of.

For better or for worse, fantasy leagues have changed and will continue to change the way we view the sports world moving forward. They give us a reason to keep watching when our favorite team is down by 15 points, because the Darren Collison plays point guard and we want him to keep contributing to the weekly or daily total.

Fantasy leagues have given new life to watching and participating in the sports culture and offered a chance for fans to become more knowledgeable about sports in general. In no way will that be a bad thing for the future of sports moving forward and the popularity of these leagues will continue to soar.