Washington — Congress on Wednesday launched a fact-finding mission into the loosely regulated, multibillion-dollar world of fantasy sports games — a multibillion-dollar business that seemingly advertised everywhere during the pro football season.

Lawmakers at a House hearing were generally supportive of the industry as they explored whether federal safeguards are needed to protect players in daily fantasy leagues. Most players ending up losing at the hands of better-informed players who often have a technological edge.

States are beginning to enact a patchwork of laws regulating the industry and its dominant companies, DraftKings and FanDuel.

Fantasy games long have been a rec room favorite of friends played out over entire seasons, with the best teams determining shares of a jackpot.

But daily fantasy sports works at a much faster pace, permitting gambling every day or weekend, either in head-to-head matchups against other players or at tournaments offering the promise of bigger payouts. The companies generally make their profits by “raking” a percentage of entry fees.

The explosive growth of commercial fantasy sports games has meant greater scrutiny — of multimillion-dollar ad campaigns, of allegations of insider trading of information, and of the widespread losses by casual players at the hands of “sharks” armed with sophisticated computer analyses.

Tennis Federer Wins After Last-Minute Decision to Play

Rome — Roger Federer put his full array of shots on display in a 6-3, 7-5 win over Alexander Zverev on Wednesday in the second round of the Italian Open, an encouraging performance considering he only decided to play moments before stepping onto the court. Federer has been having problems with his back.

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and seven-time Rome champion Rafael Nadal also advanced in straight sets on the red clay courts at the Foro Italico.

Soccer Sunderland Survives; Newcastle, Norwich Down

Manchester, England — Sunderland completed its latest escape from relegation in the English Premier League on Wednesday — and consigned bitter northeast rival Newcastle to the second tier in the process.

A 3-0 win over Everton guaranteed safety for Sunderland with a game to spare this season, justifying its decision to hire survival specialist Sam Allardyce as manager in October. Allardyce has yet to be relegated from the English top flight in 25 years as a manager.

Newcastle — much to Sunderland’s delight — and Norwich were demoted instead, joining already-relegated Aston Villa in going down just as the Premier League begins its new domestic and international TV deals worth $12 billion over the next three years.

College Basketball

UVM Hires Women’s Coach

Burlington — University of Pennsylvania assistant coach Chris Day was hired as University of Vermont coach.

Day has been an assistant coach for the Penn women’s program for the last three seasons (2013-16). He helped guide the Quakers to the 2014 and ’16 Ivy League Championships, earning NCAA Tournament berths both seasons, and helped lead the program to the 2015 WNIT postseason tournament.

Auto Racing Kyle Busch’s Crew Chief Suspended

Charlotte, n.c. — NASCAR suspended Kyle Busch’s crew chief and tire changer for one race for violating the lug nut policy during the team’s win at Kansas last weekend.

Adam Stevens was also fined $20,000 and placed on probation through the end of the year. Front tire changer Josh Leslie is on probation until Dec. 31.

NASCAR said after Saturday night’s race that all teams had passed the inspection of lug nuts. It was not clear Wednesday what changed regarding Busch’s winning car.

Lug nuts have been an issue in NASCAR since the series stopped policing whether teams were applying all five on each tire during pit stops.

By using less than five, a team would have a faster pit stop and gain track position.

NFL Football

Bills to Retire Legend’s Number

Orchard Park, n.y. — No one had as many sacks as Bruce Smith, and no one will ever wear his No. 78 jersey with the Buffalo Bills again.

The Bills announced Wednesday that they will be retiring Smith’s number at halftime during the team’s prime-time home-opener against the New York Jets on Sept. 15.

Selected by Buffalo with the No. 1 pick in the 1985 draft out of Virginia Tech, Smith became the NFL’s premier pass-rusher during a 19-year career.

Hockey

Maine Gets ECHL Team

Portland, Maine — Officials with the Portland Pirates said a new team bearing the same name will start playing in the ECHL in 2017.

The Pirates announced earlier this month that the team would leave Portland after 23 seasons. The team plans to play in Springfield, Mass. in the 2016-17 season.

WCSH-TV reported former Pirates owner Godfrey Wood and former player and team official Brad Church will bring the new team to Portland.

The ECHL is one tier below the AHL in hockey players’ progression to the NHL.

Springfield wants a new team to fill the void expected to be left by another moving AHL franchise, the Springfield Falcons. That team intends to move to Tucson, Ariz.