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.

One of the most intriguing things to come out of last week’s FSTA conference in Las Vegas wasn’t necessarily part of the agenda.

Actually, I suppose it technically was, as the first instance came when IPSOS’ Aaron Amic presented some data from a Fantasy Sports Association-backed international study his company had done.

“It” is the prospect of more collaboration between the FSA and the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.

Although some companies have joined both and plenty of industry folks attend the conferences of each, the FSA and FSTA have operated basically independent of each other. It would be good to see that change, and Vegas provided some evidence that it just might.

In addition to Amic’s research, FSA chairman Rick Wolf took the FSTA podium at one point to formally announce the upcoming Interactive Sports Conference that the FSA will be sponsoring in Las Vegas and offer $50 discounts on registration to FSTA members.

“The FSA understands the value that FSTA brings to the fantasy industry,” Wolf told FSB.com. “Our focus on advertisers, sponsors, brands, their agencies and outside industries is complimentary so it makes perfect sense to work together to maximize revenues and growth in fantasy sports.”

Attempting to fully describe the value that each organization would bring to such a partnership would require speculation well beyond my actual scope of knowledge regarding the associations.

On the surface, though, the FSTA membership and leadership carries a wealth of experience in the fantasy sports industry. It comprises a large number of companies of various sizes, styles and ages. The FSA also brings plenty of industry knowledge — led by co-founder and president Greg Ambrosius — and adds a list of big-name members with ties to major sponsors and advertisers, which one can glean from the agendas of the annual Sports Media Conferences.

“I’ve been trying to work on more collaboration for a long time. Rick Wolf, has too,” FSTA president Paul Charchian told FSB.com. “The FSTA continues to welcome opportunities to work with the FSA.”

Here’s hoping that the work can produce the outcome that both leaders desire, which would benefit all of us who are trying to make a living in this industry.

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).

Thursday’s Fantasy Sports Trade Association conference sessions began with the presentation of the association’s official definition of “fantasy sports.”

Presented by Jeff Thomas — my boss, FSTA board member and former president — the FSTA defines “fantasy sports” as …

1. A skill-based competition involving the selection of a team of real-life performers or athletes that will produce the best future statistics based on a defined scoring system, and

2. The scoring system awards points based on real-life performances and statistical results of the performers or athletes, and

3. The competition encompasses multiple, real-life events or games.

Why is this important? As “fantasy” continues to grow in popularity, more sites, businesses, etc., will seek to leverage the term to draw users to concepts that may reside on fantasy’s fringes or not even in the fantasy realm at all. Particularly in light of the UIGEA, which outlaws sports gambling online but specifically carves out fantasy sports as acceptable, differentiation matters.

Others, of course, might just genuinely not know what “fantasy” technically encompasses. For them, such a definition can be helpful.

The main question in the room at the conference, though, is whether the definition and other practices limit the industry. What about pick ‘em or bracket games, for instance? Well, they’re not fantasy. Whether you want to lump them in so that you can report a larger consumer base kind of depends on what you want.

The larger audience that could be claimed if you count NCAA pool participants could certainly look more attractive to advertisers, but it would also be a bit disingenuous. Rick Wolf, NBC Sports director of business development and Fantasy Sports Association chairman, pointed out that it would also present a less attractive consumer — one without the large average income and consumption stats that have been revealed in fantasy sports consumer research.

Beyond that, what about non-sports fantasy games? It’s a growing market and an issue that will bear further discussion among the board and the association. On one hand, it would be unwise to cut out a group of potential FSTA members (and dues payers). On the other, “sports” is part of the association’s name. How much do they need to stick to that?

Thomas did present a “fantasy model” to accompany the “fantasy sports” definition, but it’s clear that plenty remains to discuss.