Fantasy football was invented by Wilfred “Bill” Winkenbach in the early 1960s.

Quick Scoop: Who invented fantasy football?

  • The widely credited inventor of fantasy football (American gridiron) is Bill Winkenbach , an Oakland, California businessman and minority Oakland Raiders owner.
  • He developed the first version of the game in 1962 with Raiders PR man Bill Tunnell and reporter Scotty “Scotty” Stirling during a Raiders road trip in New York.
  • Their original league was called the Greater Oakland Professional Pigskin Prediction League (GOPPPL), and the first season was played in 1963.
  • In 1969, bar owner Andy Mousalimas helped take the idea public by running leagues out of his Oakland bar, helping fantasy football start spreading beyond that original circle.

There is also a separate “fantasy football” origin on the soccer side: the Italian journalist Riccardo Albini created the fantasy game Fantacalcio (association football version) in 1990, inspired by American fantasy baseball.

TL;DR:

  • Gridiron (NFL-style) fantasy football: invented by Bill Winkenbach in 1962–63 with colleagues Bill Tunnell and Scotty Stirling.
  • Soccer/association fantasy football (Fantacalcio): created by Riccardo Albini in 1990.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.