Former Senate candidate is advising DraftKings

The embattled fantasy sports site DraftKings has hired Martha Coakley, a former Massachusetts attorney general and candidate for governor and U.S. Senate, as a consultant, a representative said on Tuesday morning.

Coakley will advise the Boston-based company on regulatory and legislative matters as the daily sports industry faces questions from regulators and lawmakers about its business model, which allows users to form virtual teams on a daily basis instead of once a season. Her role was first reported on Monday night by the Boston Globe.

{mosads}DraftKings and its main rival, FanDuel, are at the center of a controversy that stems from concerns that a DraftKings employee may have used data from the company to gain an advantage in a contest on the other site.

A law firm hired by DraftKings concluded that the employee, a content manager, had not had access to the data until after he was no longer allowed to change his virtual lineup. Both companies have since permanently banned their employees from playing fantasy sports on other websites.

But the sites are still confronting a surfeit of questions from policymakers at the state and federal levels, who wonder whether the sites facilitate gambling rather than the games of skill that are permitted under the law.

The House Judiciary and Energy and Commerce Committees are looking into the industry. Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who chairs the energy and commerce panel, has said that a hearing on the topic is likely.

Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and Rep. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) have also called for a Federal Trade Commission investigation into daily fantasy sports.

The daily fantasy sports industry is also reportedly the subject of an investigation by the Department of Justice.

Coakley is a former Massachusetts attorney general who gained national prominence when she ran against Scott Brown, then a state legislator, in the 2010 special election for the seat formerly held by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). She lost that race, upending the original Democratic strategy for passing ObamaCare.

Now in private practice, Coakley was also defeated when she ran for governor last year.

Coakley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.