July 20th, 2010

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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