College athletes have been getting a raw deal for a long time. The NCAA built a multi-billion-dollar industry on their backs while hiding behind the fiction of amateurism. So when Senators Maria Cantwell and Ted Cruz announced the Protect College Sports Act, the Sports Fans Coalition read it carefully and found somethings genuinely worth praising. Then we kept reading.

The Music Artists Coalition, an Irving Azoff-aligned group with documented ties to Live Nation and NIVA’s Fix the Tix lobbying coalition, released a national poll this month claiming that voters are demanding sweeping restrictions on ticket resale markets. The headline writes itself: fans hate scalpers, artists deserve control, lawmakers should act. 

But a close reading of the data actually tells a much different story than the one Live Nation’s favorite artist group is promoting. In fact, the data show that Americans believe ticket resale gives consumers real choice and that resale price caps are among their least-preferred ticket-industry reforms. 

Sports prediction markets are growing fast and the rules governing them will determine whether fans are protected or left exposed. Today, Sports Fans Coalition filed formal comments with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in response to the agency's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on prediction markets. Our message: regulate these products comprehensively, with fans' interests at the center.