Posts Tagged ‘glenn colton’

Colton’s Fantasy Work Draws WSJ

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

Veterans of the fantasy sports industry — and especially regular attendees of the FSTA conferences — have long been familiar with Glenn Colton. Now, The Wall Street Journal is spreading the word about his fantasy exploits.

The former federal prosecutor — and current partner at New York City’s Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP firm — was featured over the weekend by the Journal for his history in fantasy baseball.

“Colton is on a short list of the country’s best fantasy baseball players,” the story attributes to Rick Wolf, a college friend of Colton’s and director of business development for NBC Sports Digital. Wolf, of course, came over to NBC with the acquisition of Rotoworld.

In reference to their teaming up on teams in the LABR and Tout Wars “expert” leagues since 2002, Wolf said: “He would be a champion without me. It’s a simple as that.”

Colton has been playing fantasy since starting a league in 1988 with law school friends at NYU, skipping the NL- and AL-only formats to go the route of East divisions alone. (Back in those pre-Internet days, the group found it easier to focus on teams whose box scores would be more easily accessible on the East Coast.) Colton is the lone remainder of the founding class in a league that now includes his 17-year-old son.

“Now that the game has become a little bit more mature, people are playing with their kids,” Colton told the Journal. “It’s a serious way to connect with your kids.”

Outside of playing the games, Colton’s contributions to fantasy include a weekly column for Rotoworld — The Week that Was — and regular presentations to attendees of the Fantasy Sports Trade Association conferences. The lawyer is a staple there, providing updates to the legal issues facing the industry.

At the most recent gathering, his talk included further treatment of the state-specific payout restrictions, as well as insight into some other potentially impactful bills making the rounds at the state and federal levels.

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FSB Daily 1/6: ‘Expert’ Edition No. 1

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

It might not be the ultimate measure of who can offer you the best fantasy advice, but with so many “experts” floating around the industry these days, it’s always interesting to see how they (or we) fare in direct competition. Share your “expert” league/contest results with us, and we just might pass them along to our readership.

These items (and others) can also be found on the FSB News page.

– What did your last victory in an “expert” league (or home league, for that matter) get you? Pride? Some online publicity? A little money? Well, Sara Holladay — better known as the FF Librarian — will be heading to the Super Bowl next month thanks to her win in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bloggers League.

– Jeff Thitoff of 411Fantasy.com has put the wraps on another season of the Experts Contest that be brought from his days with The Columbus Dispatch. The 2009 title went to Thitoff’s 411Fantasy colleague and fellow Dispatch veteran Adam Conn. Although you’ll find my name tied for second in the Week 17 rankings, you’ll have to scroll down farther in the full season edition to find me at 12th. (That’s no place to boast about, but I will at least say that I know of some prominent competitors who finished lower.) A lesser man might call shenanigans on a contest won by one of the hosts. Fortunately, I’m above that.

– The fantasy football draft that opened last June’s Fantasy Sports Trade Association summer conference filled three leagues, which were won by Fantazzle’s Ryan Parr, a RotoWorld team represented by Rick Wolf and lawyer Glenn Colton and Team RapidDraft, piloted by Yours Truly (with draft help from former colleague Caitlin Morrall). The most surprising note, however, has to be that none of the three championship squads sported Tennessee’s Chris Johnson.

As always, send all of your news, job postings, stories and profile ideas to FantasySportsBusiness@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter (FSBcom).

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Fantasy Leaders React to Good News

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

With the CBS Interactive lawsuit against the NFLPA on its way to being finalized in favor of the fantasy sports industry, some significant voices are sharing their pleasure over this week’s rulings.

“This victory further cements the autonomy of fantasy sports operators from sports leagues and player unions,” new Fantasy Sports Trade Association president Paul Charchian (more on that to come) said in the FSTA’s release on the suit. “Fantasy sports provide significant advantages to the leagues and players unions, creating a wide variety of tangible and intangible benefits. As has always been the case, the FSTA welcomes the opportunity to work with each of the leagues and their players’ associations.”

Lawyer Glenn Colton, who assisted the FSTA in the CBC lawsuit against Major League Baseball called it “yet another victory for fantasy sports players and businesses, and most importantly for all of our First Amendment freedoms.

“The decision is yet another brick in the wall that will insure that the millions of fantasy sports players continue to be able to enjoy the game and the innovations and improvements that come with freedom to operate and invent without fear of players associations swooping in at the 11th hour and wresting control of the benefits of those inventions and innovations.”

Obviously, CBS is also happy with the judgment handed down this week.

“CBS is pleased that the court confirmed the use of player names, statistics and other materials in CBS’s online fantasy games is protected under the First Amendment,” CBSSports.com senior vice president and general manager Jason Kint told FSB.com in a statement. “CBSSports.com, along with the rest of the fantasy sports industry, looks forward to continuing to provide the fun and excitement of fantasy sports.”

More, no doubt, will come as the news of this ruling spreads around the industry. Stay tuned to FSB.com.

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