After two years of development, testing, research, and a lot of hard work alongside some incredible teachers, students, and partners, Fantasy Sports Math League Phase II is complete.
This milestone marks the end of our ED/IES Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant, and we couldn’t be more proud of what this project became. Take a few minutes to watch the overview video below — then read on for the full story.
Where We Started
When dfusion first received Phase I SBIR funding, Fantasy Sports Math League was an idea built on a simple but powerful insight: middle schoolers are deeply engaged by fantasy sports, and fantasy sports is made entirely of math.
The Phase I prototype proved the concept worked. In a 2023 pilot with approximately 100 sixth and seventh graders, students who played FSML showed statistically significant improvements in equation knowledge, math confidence, and math anxiety — with large effect sizes. Girls showed gains equal to boys.
Those results told us we were onto something real. Phase II was our chance to build it out properly.
What We Built in Phase II
Phase II wasn’t just about polishing what already existed — it was about turning a strong prototype into a complete, research-backed product that teachers can use in their classrooms with confidence.
Here’s what we built and improved:
For Teachers:
- A digital lesson plan bank with beginner, intermediate, and advanced lessons mapped to NCTM standards, so teachers can tie FSML directly to what they’re teaching each week
- Expanded scoring formula progressions — integers, decimals, and fractions at multiple difficulty levels — giving teachers the flexibility to differentiate for the whole class
- An advanced teacher dashboard with real-time student progress monitoring and downloadable reports
For Students:
- A fantasy football draft using real NFL players and live stats, where students build and manage their own team all season long
- Weekly scoring using real box score data — students calculate their team’s points each week using the math formula their teacher has set, whether that’s standard or advanced decimals, or fractions
- An interactive graph feature where students visualize their team’s performance over time and practice data interpretation
- League leaderboards that tracks both fantasy points and math accuracy separately — so the most careful mathematician has just as much to play for as the student with the best players
- Team customization — mascots, helmets, team names — that students consistently told us made the game feel like their game
- Video tutorials for key math concepts and gameplay, so students can get up to speed independently
- The ability to re-draft the team mid-season for deeper strategic decision-making
And the big new addition — March Mathness: Based on overwhelming enthusiasm from teachers and students during beta testing, we added a brand-new booster component built around the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournament. March Mathness gives students a chance to revisit and extend their math skills in the spring — calculating scores, building brackets, tracking real-time data, and making week-by-week predictions.
The Research Behind It
Phase II wasn’t just product development — it was a full research program, conducted in partnership with Arroyo Research Services, an independent research organization with deep expertise in education evaluation.
The research team led our beta testing feedback, evaluated our curriculum for alignment to grade-level standards, and conducted a quasi-experimental design (QED) pilot study.
The study involved over 200 6th and 7th grade students across six classrooms. Students completed pre- and post-assessments of math knowledge, math anxiety, and math engagement. The study was designed to give us rigorous evidence about FSML’s effectiveness — not just enthusiasm from teachers who liked the game, but data on whether it moved the needle for students. Participation in FSML was associated with math post-test scores 13 percentage points higher than the comparison group, a statistically significant result (p = .004) even after accounting for prior performance and demographic differences.
What Teachers Told Us
Throughout Phase II, we heard directly from teachers in beta tests, interviews, and surveys. A few things stood out consistently:
Teachers told us the game met students where they were — including students who weren’t typically engaged in math class. One teacher shared:
“FSML helped engage the kids more in their learning. The kids were all in, even the kids who weren’t as good at math because of how fun it was.”
They also told us that the ability to connect the game to their specific curriculum was essential. So we built the lesson plan bank. They told us they needed to be able to differentiate for students at different levels. So we built the formula progressions. Building this product in close collaboration with educators — not just for them — made a difference in the game.
Thank You
A project like this doesn’t happen without a lot of people.
Thank you to the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences for funding this work through the SBIR program — and for believing in the idea that innovative, research-backed ed-tech deserves investment.
Thank you to Arroyo Research Services, for bringing rigor, expertise, and care to the evaluation side of this project.
Thank you to our expert advisors, Dr. Amy Loya, Dr. Jill Denner, Dr. John Drazan, and Dr. Krysten Martens who provided insights and feedback and support throughout the project.
Thank you to every teacher and student who beta tested, gave feedback, filled out surveys, sat through interviews, and told us what was working and what wasn’t. This product is better because of you.
And thank you to the dfusion team — the developers, curriculum designers, content creators, and advisors who brought this to life.
What’s Next
FSML is available now at fantasysportsmathleague.com. If you’re a teacher, administrator, or after-school program looking to bring a research-backed, standards-aligned math game into your setting — we’d love to hear from you.
The game supports 6th–8th grade students, runs on any laptop, desktop, or Chromebook, requires no installation, and is COPPA and FERPA compliant. Schools can start with a free trial.
The work funded by this grant is complete — but the work of getting FSML into the hands of more students is just beginning.
Fantasy Sports Math League was developed by dfusion, Inc. with support from the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Learn more at fantasysportsmathleague.com.
About the Authors: BA Laris, Principal Investigator and Mia Barrett, Project Director are driven to bring real-world relevance and fun to learning through innovative ed tech solutions. Neither one of us were “math people” in middle school – but we are now thanks to discovering new ways to engage in learning!