- 5/24/2025
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SportsTranscript
00:00Let's begin with the National Basketball Association. It took seven games for Oklahoma City to get through Denver, but they did it as they've been doing all along. Either Oklahoma City wins big or they lose. That's kind of been the story in this series against the Denver Nuggets. So what did they do yesterday? They won not just big, but really big.
00:19125-93 to advance to the Western Conference Finals. It begins tomorrow. Nuggets actually had an 11-point lead very early on in the game, but then it was just all Shea Gilgis-Alexander who had 35 points, hitting his shots, hitting his free throws as he always does too. And so as expected, they're headed to the Western Conference Finals. Here's head coach Mark Dagno on the opportunity after beating the Nuggets in a very tough series.
00:46Just that we were who we are, you know, that's the biggest thing. That's enough with this team. I mean, if we just bet on who we are individually and collectively, we're a really hard team to beat.
00:59And I just thought we stayed in character. We got off to a rough start. You know, we didn't panic. We just played the 48 and we tapped into who we are.
01:07You know, and that's the thing that I'm most, you know, satisfied with is I would hate to play a game seven like this, an elimination game and leave anything on the table.
01:18You know, you can live with the result and when you are who you are. And that's what we did today.
01:22It means a lot, specifically for the city. They've been so good all year. They've been behind us through good, through bad.
01:31Like it doesn't feel like it feels like like no team in the league has home court advantage like we do.
01:35And that's all due to them with the T-shirts, the cheering, the screaming, the chance.
01:40They they really give us like energy out there. And we've been a better team because of them and having them behind us.
01:47And to know that if we didn't bring it tonight, it could be over for them as well.
01:51Wasn't fair. And we we we we wanted to play for them as well.
01:55Good luck getting tickets to the Eastern Conference Finals, especially at Madison Square Garden.
02:00Those are going to be impossible as the Knicks took care of the Celtics over the weekend.
02:04119 to 81. The Knicks are on the doorstep of the NBA Finals.
02:09Wow, that seems crazy. First time Knicks have made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, by the way, since 2000.
02:14Thousand. That was a really, really long time ago.
02:18Knicks had four players score 20 plus points.
02:21Naturally, the MVP of the series.
02:24I don't think they give one in a series like this, but it would be Jalen Brunson.
02:27He has been so good for them all season long.
02:30Now, Tom Thibodeau has his work cut out for him against Indiana.
02:34Here's Thibodeau talking about how gritty and tough the Knicks were down the stretch.
02:39Yeah, you know, and again, it's like it's how you respond to the challenge that's in front of you.
02:44And so, you know, we can't get carried away.
02:49Obviously, it's a great win and we advance and, you know, you look at that, but you also understand you have to get ready for the next series.
02:59And we know that Indiana is a terrific team and we're going to have to be ready.
03:04Yeah, good question.
03:04I mean, I think you have to have, there's a perspective.
03:07At the end of the day, we set a goal out.
03:09We didn't achieve that goal.
03:12But shouldn't take away, you know, for me, from the mindset and the effort that the players put in.
03:18So, you know, we have a responsibility and ownership.
03:21We didn't do it, but the approach, the process to it, you can't ask for any more from the guys.
03:27So I thought they gave it everything they had throughout the season.
03:29You know, obviously, we didn't achieve that, but you can't take away from what they did.
03:36And, you know, this is the price you pay for trying to go after something.
03:39And that's how it goes.
03:40But I'm really just thankful to the guys, you know, for who they are as people and what they've done as players, what they've done as a team.
03:47Nobody playing better in the world at golf the last couple of years than Scotty Scheffler, folks.
03:54He won the PGA Championship.
03:55This guy is out of control.
03:57He finished 11 under par.
03:59Late on Sunday, John Rahm made a nice run.
04:02Rahm missed some tough putts.
04:0311 under par gives Scotty the PGA Championship.
04:06If you were following, by the way, over the weekend, historical, too, on Thursday and into Friday, Jonathan Vegas from Venezuela was leading.
04:14He was the first Venezuelan player ever to lead and even be as close as he was going into Sunday.
04:19But naturally, Scotty Scheffler is the winner yet again.
04:22This guy just wins major after major and seemingly says that winning never gets old.
04:28Well, kind of what I remind myself of the turn was I had a bite to eat.
04:31And I told myself, if I keep making good swings, I'm not going to continue to hit the ball left every time, statistically speaking.
04:38And so, you know, I just tried to get up there on number 10 and hit a good shot.
04:43And that's really all I was thinking about.
04:44I was just trying to get the ball in the fairway.
04:45And, you know, I knew I needed nine really good holes.
04:48And I hit a good tee shot on 10, good approach shot.
04:50And, you know, I executed.
04:52I mean, from then on, I mean, fairway on 11, really good iron shot.
04:56Fairway on 12, really good iron shot.
04:58Good iron shot on 13.
04:59Good tee ball on 14.
05:01You know, good birdie there.
05:03Two great shots on 15.
05:04I mean, I just from 10 through 15, I felt like I executed as good as I had almost all week.
05:08And, you know, that was a very important time in the tournament.
05:11And, you know, I'm definitely proud of that kind of fight we showed there in that little stretch.
05:17In Major League Baseball over the weekend, a couple of big news and notes in case you missed it.
05:21The Baltimore Orioles were swept yesterday by the Washington Nationals.
05:28And Brandon Hyde was fired before the weekend games.
05:31He went 421 and 495 in seven years with Baltimore.
05:35They also DFA'd one of their free agent signings, Kyle Gibson, a starting pitcher.
05:41It has been one of the worst Orioles seasons in recent memory.
05:44And they were supposed to be good going in.
05:45And also the Yankees take the Subway Series in case you missed that one.
05:49As Cody Bellinger hit a grand slam last night on Sunday Night Baseball.
05:52As the Yankees win, they beat the Mets.
05:54And Juan Soto's return to the Bronx didn't necessarily go as planned.
05:59In fact, Soto, if I'm not mistaken, went one for 10 with four walks and three strikeouts.
06:03And only a Yankees fan who's a producer would put those stats in there for me to read on the show because he's jealous that he's not a Yankee anymore.
06:10The Florida Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games.
06:13They took a big league early and went on to win.
06:15The defending champions got a shot to go back and play Edmonton again, seemingly.
06:19They win 6-1.
06:21The Toronto Maple Leafs fans are disgusted, distraught, but they've been here before.
06:25So they advance to the conference finals.
06:27All six goals were scored by different players on the Panthers.
06:31Brad Marchand had a huge hand in some of the goals.
06:34He was the player that they acquired at the trade deadline.
06:37Here's Paul Maurice after the game, ecstatic about how his team played throughout the series, especially this game after the first period.
06:45That was seven games, and we played well.
06:49I didn't like our first period in game one.
06:51We played well in the two losses.
06:53We played well in game six and got beat.
06:59That's how tight it is.
07:01So that's how I feel about it.
07:02I mean, the margin for error is small, right?
07:08Before the puck dropped tonight, there were five teams in the NHL left.
07:12Five.
07:13All of them capable of winning.
07:16Puck went our way tonight.
07:18That's it.
07:18Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid.
07:21Pat Evans is with us from Legal Sports Report, and he's got some new stories, by the way, some interesting stories here, too, to bring to us here on the table.
07:29Let's bring Pat in to get started.
07:31Pat, I hope you had a great weekend.
07:33Thanks again for coming on the show.
07:34All the pleasantries now out of the way.
07:35All right.
07:36So let's start off with this new article that you guys have up over at Legal Sports Report.
07:41We're hearing a lot in the early part of the year and now second quarter of the year, too, that a lot of the different states around the country are trying to find new inventive ways to make more money off sports betting, as they should.
07:52They see a lot of money coming in.
07:54So generally what we see is a lot of these proposals for tax hikes, meaning that if the state regulators are taxing 20 percent or 30 percent, they want to increase to 40 or 50.
08:04But in the state of Ohio, they're not exactly doing that, but they are asking for a bigger cut.
08:10How are they trying to get this done?
08:12Yeah, Ohio's been an interesting state to follow in that sense this year.
08:16I mean, to your point earlier this year, Governor Mike DeWine said, hey, let's double the tax rate in his proposed budget from 20 percent to 40 percent.
08:26And that's, of course, after in 2023, he went ahead and doubled it from the original 10 percent in legislation to 20 percent.
08:33And last year, people lawmakers said, well, that was a little premature.
08:37Let's not do that.
08:37And then he comes out this year to say, double it again.
08:40Lawmakers, of course, largely said, no, let's not do that and stripped it out of the budget.
08:45And so now you're kind of seeing different ways pop up.
08:48And this one is kind of a unique situation is you've got a proposed two percent tax rate on the handle, overall handle.
08:58Generally, the tax rate is on the gross revenue from sportsbook operators.
09:03And that's generally, you know, between anywhere from, you know, 10 percent to 51 percent New York or, you know, all the states get to put it at different rates.
09:12This two percent is interesting because there's only other one other market that taxes the handle.
09:18And of course, that's just what's bet, not what these sportsbooks are making.
09:21And that's Tennessee.
09:23And Tennessee has been an interesting market regulatorily to watch and see that.
09:28And what's interesting here, though, is if it's replacing, which isn't fully clear yet, the 20 percent revenue tax, it really doesn't bring in that much more money.
09:40And it's about the same if it's on top, it effectively doubles the overall taxes that the operators will pay.
09:48Interestingly, our Eric Ramsey, our analyst over at Legal Sports Report, has kind of dove into the numbers a little bit and was like only a couple of operators.
09:57Yes, including FanDuel, because of the way they make the money on same game parlays and the like.
10:05So it is an interesting way that the Ohio legislators may be looking to kind of increase their tax rate a little bit, ultimately, based on the governor's proposed tax increase not going through.
10:20Also, being talked about in Ohio, and it may have a streamline to the finish line, possibly, is an online casino bill, which kind of would also do the same thing of achieving a lot more tax revenue.
10:35And so, yeah, that's going to be interesting to kind of watch this.
10:37Of course, gaming is a, you know, very scrutinized subject in Ohio.
10:42You know, there was that report that I just mentioned last year that said, you know, online casino would be a good way to bring in more revenue.
10:50The tax, the sports betting tax rate was premature.
10:53So there's all sorts of things to be talked about.
10:55Well, so we'll, I'll keep an eye on it, of course, and keep you informed, Craig, on what's happening in Ohio.
11:00All right.
11:01So now let's move to Ontario.
11:02And a topic that we really haven't hit on a lot this year, and that's probably a good thing, are the offshores, the sports betting markets outside of the United States and Canada.
11:13And apparently, a really good idea, by the way, Ontario, in particular, looking for people like us to make people aware of what is legal and what is not legal.
11:24Does that make sense?
11:25Yeah, I think you know best when I come on here.
11:28I talk a lot about, you know, U.S. regulators saying no to offshore and black market operators.
11:34And now we're looking at Ontario.
11:35I mean, Ontario, when they launched single event sports wagering and are legalized in August 2021, one of their main goals was to shut down the gray market.
11:45And that's particularly in Ontario, where they opened commercial operators and now have 40 plus regulated licensed sports betting operators.
11:54That gray market, which existed because it wasn't explicitly illegal, it just wasn't regulated, that is now illegal.
12:02So once they launched the commercial market, they said, OK, we'll give these, you know, unlicensed operators until October to withdraw.
12:10So that was October 2022.
12:11They were pretty happy with it.
12:13You know, quite a few operators, including Bet365, Betway, these major European operators were in that gray market that were not illegal.
12:21They just weren't regulated.
12:22They all switched over to the regulated market and are now paying taxes, you know, the like.
12:28But yeah, the Ontario regulars came out this month and said, hey, media partners in the province, can you stop promoting illegal operators?
12:39And that's something you see a lot.
12:40And they specifically called out Bodog.
12:42But yeah, you see, you know, even now, even in the U.S., you see relatively big name media publications sometimes still citing offshore sports books like Bovada and BetUS.
12:55And especially once you get into the social media influencer world, you kind of see some of these offshore sports books, you know, kind of slipping into the influencers.
13:04And the influencers are telling their, you know, thousands or millions of followers to go to these offshore sports books to bet.
13:12And, you know, that's one of the reasons you need you want to regulate is to bring it into the light, make sure it's consumer safety and everything is in place.
13:20And so it's interesting that Ontario comes out and says, hey, media partners, can you stop doing this?
13:26And to your point, I think we do a pretty good job of making sure we're only highlighting legal operators that are guaranteed to be safe for consumers.
13:38Finally, let's get to the state that you know best, Michigan, and the topic that we know best, prediction markets, right?
13:46It's like hand in hand here.
13:47All right.
13:48So what's the latest in Michigan?
13:49I mean, Pat, you know, the cease and desists, it's just so bizarre to me that some states are like, yeah, no problem.
13:57Just, you know, operate however you want.
13:58Other states are like, nah.
13:59I mean, it feels like this is like a national regulation coming at some point.
14:03I think, I mean, so that's where we're in a weird spot is there is the federal regulated CFTC who's saying it's okay.
14:11And that's where you're seeing the Kelsey's and the like say, hey, Nevada, you can't tell us to leave.
14:17New Jersey, you can't tell us to leave.
14:18We're suing for the right to be here.
14:20So those are all ongoing in courts at the moment.
14:23Michigan is one of those states that I talk about ad nauseum of seasoned assist letters and being very strict in regulating their market, which is, again, one of the reasons to regulate a market.
14:34They've sent nearly 50 seasoned assist letters to a variety of sports, offshore sports books, online casino, sweepstake operators, and the like.
14:44And now, you know, we're seeing they are interested in the prediction markets.
14:50They're not exactly saying you can't operate.
14:52They haven't sent seasoned assist letters yet.
14:54They've seen what Kelsey is doing to Nevada and New Jersey and Maryland who have all said, hey, get out.
15:01And the courts so far are ruling with Kelsey.
15:04But they did send a letter to CFTC saying they do have concerns.
15:08And, you know, we were supposed to have a CFTC hearing on these sports prediction markets, which has generated a lot of interest, a lot of handle in states like California and Texas, where sports betting isn't illegal through sports books.
15:21And so it is a lot of interest in it.
15:25And the CFTC said, wait a second.
15:27No, we're not going to hold this.
15:29And so it's to be determined whether or not they're actually going to hold this and actually have more scrutiny in the prediction markets and how state regulators are saying this isn't OK with us.
15:39So how is it OK at a federal level?
15:42It's a lot happening.
15:43It's a lot that's going to continue to shape out as we've seen multiple kind of sectors of the sports betting industry shape up, whether it's the sweepstakes or DFS 2.0 or now the sports prediction markets.
15:55A lot of different entries, not just your FanDuel's and DraftKings.
16:00And by the way, Pat, you know, since we last talked, we found out Missouri was launching sports betting on December the 1st.
16:06Does that seem to be on track with you?
16:08Yeah, I confirmed it last week with the Missouri Gaming Commission.
16:11And hey, at least we have a date.
16:14You know, it's been years of talking about this with you of when Missouri might go live.
16:19And finally, we have a date of December 1st.
16:21So Missourians will soon, relatively soon, have legal sports betting.
16:26And they'll be very full after Thanksgiving.
16:29Thanks again, Pat, for coming on the show.
16:30Really appreciate it.
16:31We'll talk again later this week.
16:33Thanks.
16:33Thanks as always, Craig.
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