I have read and thought about the fact Fidelity fired four employees for playing fantasy football. A lot of people in the industry have been upset about this as it sets a bad precedent, Andy Behrens at Yahoo! actually toldFidelity employees to stop reading his column for fear of losing their jobs, and the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) even responded to the firings. It seems everyone in the industry is busy throwing stones at Fidelity. Honestly, the Fidelity case is inconsequential to the bigger issue. Fantasy sports has an image problem, and it is being perceived as gambling.

Having a piece of legislation may make the reality of a fantasy industry a legal possibility, but does not do a lot to fight the perception. Perception of fantasy sports is what gets them banned, not the reality. If we, as an industry, do not want to be treated as part of the gambling industry, we need to find ways to proactively get that message.

Merely saying “there’s a law that says we are” is not going to cut it. Fidelity is not the only company to ban fantasy sports in the office, but how many of the Human Resources departments are actually aware of the legality of fantasy sports? Very few I would bet. Have we every made a concerted effort to reach out to them? Probably not. These are the people that set policy. Remember, if 30M people play fantasy sports, that means 270M do not play fantasy sports. That is nine out of ten people who do not play fantasy. The people who are setting policy about fantasy sports probably do not know much about fantasy sports. They need to be educated.

Next, the fantasy industry needs to police itself a whole lot better. Off the top of my head, I can name three sites that had significant issues with or failed to pay its players (Turf War, AFFL, and Fantasy Jungle). The industry’s general reaction was “that’s a shame, come play our games because that will not happen here.” Nothing was done to make sure it did not happen again. Preventing such things are hard, but the industry needs to be squeaky clean if it wants a better image.

Trade organizations are a start, but it means nothing if anyone who pays can join. Perhaps, if you want to be a member and are a games site, you have to provide verification that all prize funds are available and in an escrow account? Then, these companies can market the daylights out of the fact that money is already put aside and secure. This could also be achieved by a third party (read: non-fantasy) certification. Perhaps requiring member sites that deal with prizes to get something like Better Business Bureau OnLine accreditation. The industry needs that trusted brand that helps establish them as a legit industry in the eyes of big business.

There are countless other things that can and need to be done to clean up this perception. It will not happen overnight, but until the industry is proactive, events like the Fidelity firings will continue to happen.

This is a hot topic, so please let me know your thoughts.