The Fantasy Sports Trade Association created a new self-regulatory group aimed at providing oversight to the entire fantasy sports industry. The Fantasy Sports Control Agency will be led by Seth Harris, the former acting U.S. Secretary of Labor who now works for Dentons, a public policy and legal advisory group that has worked with the FSTA previously. Harris and the new FSCA will be independent and have the full authority to create a new system of industry standards, controls, auditing policies and enforcement measures. The effort is not specifically tied to the daily fantasy industry, and rather is designed for all facets of the business. But the creation of the self-regulatory group nonetheless arrives on the heels of quickly mounting legal and regulatory scrutiny on the daily fantasy business.
"The FSTA board of directors … will give Secretary Harris and the FSCA the autonomy and control to evaluate our industry and create an effective and transparent monitoring and enforcement program," said FSTA President Paul Charchian in a statement. The creation of the new group is also designed to help counteract a potentially damaging level of government regulation. "We are confident that an independent control agency can prevent any unethical, dishonest, or unfair behavior," Harris said. "In the process, we can save lawmakers and regulators the cost and effort of intervening so that they can expend their limited resources on bigger and more societally important challenges."
