Comparing League Ownership Rates
Yesterday, I mentioned some hitters’ ownership rates. I planned on referencing this previous article which applies ownership rates for different leagues sizes and host website. Then, I noticed it was from 2010. It’s time for an update.
Sadly, there will little-to-no analysis today. I’m dumping data after spending too much time scouring several websites for the needed information. I was tempted to submit his article with just the graph but I better add some “words” so it’s an “article”.
Simply, I collected the top 550 ownership rates from four major sites, ESPN, Yahoo, CBS, and Fantrax. With these values, I created this graph.
And for reference, this table contains the values at 50 intervals.
| Ownership Rank | ESPN | Yahoo | CBS | Fantrax |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 98% | 97% | 99% | 99% |
| 100 | 93% | 90% | 97% | 98% |
| 150 | 80% | 80% | 93% | 95% |
| 200 | 60% | 64% | 80% | 86% |
| 250 | 44% | 49% | 66% | 77% |
| 300 | 25% | 32% | 51% | 66% |
| 350 | 14% | 20% | 35% | 53% |
| 400 | 8% | 11% | 26% | 44% |
| 450 | 5% | 8% | 17% | 32% |
| 500 | 3% | 4% | 12% | 26% |
| 550 | 2% | 2% | 8% | 21% |
Here’s a quick example of how to use the information. Assume a 12-team ESPN league with 30 roster spots for a total of 360 rostered players. An owner in this league needs to pay attention when 15% to 20% ESPN ownership rates are discussed. The value will be higher for other hosting sites.
One other item to understand is the differences. ESPN and Yahoo have smaller leagues and their ownership rates drop quickly. CBS leagues are on average bigger while Fantrax, who hosts quite a few 50-team draft-and-hold leagues, has the highest comparable ownership rate. When owners read or hear about different rates, they will at least have some idea if the rate is applicable.
That’s it. Move onto another great (and longer) RotoGraphs article.
Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.
“I’m dumping data after spending a too much scouring several websites for the need information.”
This looks like what I’d write after pulling an over-nighter trying to finish a paper. I feel your pain! Thank you for the words.
Truth
Would it be so hard for these sites to list the ownership %s just for leagues with the same number of teams as mine? That seems like it would be much more useful information.
NFBC does this, I’m pretty sure. In fact my Auction Championship team and Satellite team each show different ownership rates even though both have the same league and roster sizes. Auction Championship might include DC Auctions to mess things up, or something.
Quality over Quantity. Give me a Jeff Zimmerman table + chart >> just about any other content out there.
Thank you very much for this article. I have struggled for years with this when hearing about our “shallow” 10 team league but our rosters are 36 deep… Not a 15 team league but you get the point… Thanks again.
i hope this was inspired by Rotoworld calling every player a ‘decent NL-only option.’
Even the AL players.
admit that i’m probably being super dumb, but what do you mean by “start paying attention?”
I’m in a 20 team league with 20 man rosters, so 400 players, on ESPN. My number when i need to start paying attention is 8%.
What should i do when paying attention?
As I understand it, if you see an article where it talks about a player whose ownership rate is 8% on ESPN, that’s a guy who has a reasonable chance to be on your WW and might be worth a pickup. If the article gives a Yahoo ownership rate, 11% is where you can think about checking your WW.
thank you!
Why do you guys at fangraphs neglect to reference ottoneu in most of your articles? Isn’t it part of you?