- today
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Let's start off with the latest in sports betting and start off in the state of Illinois, where taxes have been the hot topic in terms of the state taxing more money to bet on sports.
00:09Circa Sports is one of the 10 licensed sports betting operators there.
00:12They have not yet decided if they're going to counteract the state's recently imposed per bet fee.
00:18The director of operations for Circa Sports, his name is Jeffrey Benson, told a website called Sports Betting Dime that the operator is going to evaluate the Illinois sports market as it moves forward.
00:28But right now, it does not have any plans to institute a betting fee like DraftKings and FanDuel for betting minimums on customers.
00:36Meanwhile, as I mentioned, this fascinating story and sad story in the end, in the sports memorabilia world, there's a gentleman who lives in the state of Indiana who claims to have forged and sold $350 million of sports memorabilia and admitted to it by basically using the Fanatics
00:56and several other authentication logos by recreating them and using an auto pen to forge autographs like Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Judge through the years claiming that everything you see on the current market is fake.
01:10And he ended up producing them, wrote this manifesto on a website, and then was found dead by authorities in the state of Indiana.
01:20My goodness, a crazy story that seems to be evolving, and it does put the memorabilia business on its head a little bit, wondering if anything that you're buying these days is real or fake.
01:29Real money going to TJ Watt yet again.
01:33He's now the highest-paid non-quarterback in history, $123 million with an AAV of $41 million.
01:44Watt leads the NFL with 73.5 sacks the past five seasons.
01:49Rashi Rice is waiting to get paid by the Kansas City Chiefs.
01:52He's going to have to wait.
01:53It looks like he's headed for a suspension.
01:55He was sentenced to 30 days in jail yesterday and five years probation for his role in a multi-car crash last year.
02:03The NFL now could impose a suspension.
02:07ESPN is speculating it could be multiple games, but we'll wait to see the outcome of that with the Chiefs' preseason set to begin next month.
02:14Meanwhile, Jordan Addison, wide receiver of the Minnesota Vikings, pled to a lesser charge in a DUI case.
02:20No contest to resolve a 2024 DUI citation.
02:24It still leaves him subject to NFL discipline as well.
02:29Coach Mike Elko says Shamar Stewart is not returning to Texas A&M.
02:33He is the unsigned draft pick by the Cincinnati Bengals.
02:36Some claims were made that he could return and get a new NIL deal with A&M and go back for another season.
02:42It appears that's not going to be the case.
02:44Quarterback Anthony Richardson of the Indianapolis Colts set to report to training camp.
02:48Shoulder believed to be in good shape as he tries to fight it out with Daniel Jones for the starting gig in Indianapolis.
02:53Mike Williams returned to the Los Angeles Chargers after playing with the Jets last season.
02:58That's a short-lived return.
02:59He's decided to retire, according to ESPN.
03:04Meanwhile, in the National Basketball Association, Damian Lillard's time away from Portland was short.
03:09He's headed back to them after his contract was bought out.
03:12Three years, $42 million, he'll play with the Trailblazers, although this first year he'll be paid to not play.
03:18He's expected to miss the entire season.
03:21At the Open Championship, folks, we've got some very big long shots leading the way at the moment.
03:27United States' Brian Harmon is eight under par.
03:30He leads the field, plus 650 to win.
03:34Ha-Tong Lee, nowhere near the top of the odds, is in second place at seven under par.
03:40Matt Fitzpatrick, who's had a nice little run here on the tour, is six under, followed by Robert McIntyre.
03:46Scotty Scheffler is just a couple of strokes back, as you see there.
03:49He is still the favorite to win the Open Championship.
03:52He's currently two to one as they get ready to wrap up day two.
03:57As far as Sunday Night Baseball is concerned, we've got a bunch of great matchups coming up in Major League Baseball.
04:04Those would include the Cubs and Red Sox here on this Friday afternoon.
04:08But on Sunday Night Baseball, ESPN, Apple, and NBC are all trying to jump into the mix with ESPN's contract officially coming to an end.
04:16You may remember they had the Home Run Derby this past week, but they are done broadcasting games, it would appear, as soon as next season.
04:24Also, former All-Star Kyle Gibson, who signed a contract with the Orioles in the offseason, has retired after playing 13 seasons in the big leagues.
04:32And as I mentioned, this afternoon at 2.20 Eastern, the Red Sox will take on the Chicago Cubs.
04:38That's the first of all games scheduled today.
04:41Every team in Major League Baseball will be in action this weekend.
04:47Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid.
04:48Sam McQuillan is with us from Legal Sports Board to go over the very latest in sports betting around the country.
04:53Sam, when you were with us a year ago, we were talking about maybe the state of California and the tribes getting together to implement sports betting for the future.
05:02Not only have we not had that happen, it feels like we're going backwards in California.
05:06No sweepstakes.
05:07Maybe no Daily Fantasy.
05:09Underdog, who does so much business in the state, is looking to basically change the way that they operate in order to stay in business there.
05:15Man, disappointing results here for that state.
05:17Yeah, there's a lot going on in California right now with respect to sports betting, with respect to sweepstakes games, with respect to prediction markets, and most recently, Daily Fantasy Sports, which famously is in the news now because the attorney general just declared that Daily Fantasy Sports are not legal in the state.
05:42I want to be clear that he didn't say anything about regular fantasy sports with your fantasy football team or something like that.
05:48It's daily fantasy sports, specifically the games offered by companies like Underdog and PrizePix, which have really made a killing in California, which doesn't have legal sports betting.
05:59So people only, if you want to kind of bet, the only real option you have is to play these pick'em style games, which are pretty much just player prop parlays.
06:09You know, you stake money and you get a bigger outcome if you're right, and you lose the money if you're wrong.
06:13It's something that a lot of states have identified as, hey, this is sports betting.
06:17And in response, Underdog, in about 20 states now, has converted how those games work from being player versus the house, where I put in $10, and if my parlay hits or my pick'em combination hits, I get $100 back from Underdog.
06:33They've now changed that mechanism to be peer-to-peer.
06:36So think of the $10 I was betting as now an entry fee, and all the entry fees that players put on a particular game or a particular night get pooled into the prize outcome.
06:48So then if I win, my money comes from that pool.
06:51It's effectively the same exact game, except the prizes are no longer fixed.
06:56They depend on how much money everyone's putting together.
06:59So if you are a fan of these games, you'll be happy that it's basically staying the same, just under a different name.
07:05It's not called Underdog Champions.
07:07But is this going to stay for long is kind of the big question.
07:11Underdog had filed a lawsuit to stop this opinion from coming out.
07:16They ended up losing that, and the opinion came out.
07:18But in doing so, they actually got the judge to say something that was really important for Underdog and a big win for these companies.
07:24The judge said that the opinion is legally non-binding, and the AG doesn't really have any enforcement to change the law or put this kind of in place.
07:35So in Underdog's mind and in PrizePix's mind, which has also changed, they're kind of saying, okay, I guess the opinion doesn't really matter.
07:42Now, the opinion could influence policy decisions.
07:45The office could try to act, but then there'd probably be a lawsuit to challenge that.
07:49The opinion was on the attorney general's desk for several years.
07:54So he only just now issued it.
07:56So the timing is really interesting as well.
07:59You've got to wonder why this is happening now.
08:01We'll have to keep seeing what, you know, we're going to keep monitoring the situation and see what's going to go on here.
08:05But California is not a state like Wyoming where you, if you're a fantasy sports operator, you just want to, you know, pack up shop and, okay, that's fine.
08:12We don't want to piss anybody off.
08:13It's estimated to be a $3 billion market, and there's no legal sports betting options right now.
08:19So Underdog is going to try to stay there for as long as they can, whether it's through this, you know, new format or whether it's through a lawsuit down the line.
08:26But it will be really interesting to see kind of what happens next.
08:29As you mentioned, Craig, we've been talking about California a lot, so definitely won't be the last time.
08:32Now, the prediction markets are the other hot topic of the year here, with Calci and many others stating that they're not sports betting companies, and they're doing things differently, and they should be allowed to compete with some of these other companies in the space.
08:47And, Sam, I think what's most fascinating is they keep winning in a lot of states, and they're able to operate in a lot of states.
08:54And it feels like the sports betting operators have caught eye of this and said, well, look, if they're going to be allowed to operate, why not get a little piece of the pie?
09:02And it feels like that's what's next for DraftKings here.
09:05Yeah, I think you're spot on with that assessment, Craig.
09:08Originally, it was kind of just, oh, wait, these prediction markets are offering sports?
09:12That looks very much like sports betting, and that would probably get cracked down on.
09:16And, of course, we had, I think, seven states filed lawsuits, Nevada, New Jersey, to stop this.
09:21Basically, the regulators in those states saying, hey, this is sports betting.
09:25You need to get a license.
09:26You can't just open up shop here.
09:28And notably, they're in states where there is no sports betting, like California as well.
09:31But like you mentioned, those lawsuits, they were all allowed to, there was preliminary injunctions which were issued, which basically allowed these companies to keep operating while the lawsuits play out.
09:43Now, the CFTC, which is supposed to regulate prediction markets, really has done nothing.
09:48They've kind of just kept their hands free.
09:50And I think, yeah, now you have sports betting operators who maybe in the past were, you know, afraid to piss off a state, piss off a regulator, you know, kind of work in bad faith if they don't want to jeopardize their business elsewhere.
10:03Now they're starting to say, okay, maybe this is a huge way for us to get in these states instead of spending, I don't know, billions of dollars in California to try to get it legalized.
10:13And signing a deal with the tribes to give away 50% of your revenue.
10:18Why don't we just launch a prediction market and start taking business there?
10:21That certainly seems to be kind of where the breadcrumbs are leading us.
10:25There was a report this week that DraftKings is in talks to acquire RailBird, which is a CFTC regulated prediction market.
10:31It actually just got its regulation about a month ago.
10:35So the timing is really interesting.
10:36It just became a thing.
10:38And, you know, DraftKings apparently is already going after it.
10:41DraftKings had actually previously filed to run its own prediction market in April called DraftKings Predict.
10:47But all of a sudden they pulled their application.
10:49That happened a few weeks before there was supposed to be this big roundtable, which the CFTC called their first step in kind of figuring out what's going on with these prediction markets.
10:59You have states, you have gaming companies, you have lawmakers angry at them saying, hey, this is sports betting.
11:05You've got to crack down on it.
11:06And then they suddenly just pulled the roundtable.
11:09It's not happening.
11:10There's no reschedule date.
11:11So I think that is also maybe one of those hints that a company like DraftKings took and says, okay, maybe, you know, this is going to be allowed.
11:18Maybe there is no crazy crackdown.
11:20So, you know, if DraftKings gets involved, if they buy this, if they go in a state like California where there is no legal sports betting, that would certainly have a lot of ramifications.
11:29FanDuel hasn't ruled out doing something like this.
11:31I imagine they would follow right after DraftKings.
11:34Of course, they are in talks with the tribes.
11:36They're actually closer to a deal than they've ever been to get sports betting legalized.
11:40But the tribes really do not like sports prediction markets because they view them as sports betting.
11:44So if DraftKings starts doing that, it would probably piss them off.
11:49And then maybe you have sports betting fall apart in California.
11:52It never becomes legal.
11:53There's so many different kind of ramifications here and kind of consequences of this whole thing.
11:57And kind of the overarching shadow behind it is it feels like something will come eventually that declares what Kyle Sheehy, what, you know, Robin Hood, what predicted, what this company Railbird, what they're doing.
12:10It feels like something will come to declare that as sports betting and not okay.
12:16We just don't know when.
12:17And I think, you know, for DraftKings, they want to jump in if there's, you know, uncertainty around it.
12:22Yeah, as they should.
12:23I mean, if they're able to operate, why not jump in as well?
12:26All right, everyone will be jumping in in Missouri.
12:28Now, a very odd, I think, start to sports betting, Sam, on December the 1st, not October or November.
12:34Usually a lot of these states have sort of opened up sports betting around some sort of event.
12:39But December 1st is the date that they chose.
12:43And we're finding out which sports betting operators are going to go live on that date as well.
12:48It's a landmark and really the only, as far as I understand here, and I'm thinking through it, I think it's the only state this year, this calendar year, to have sports betting legalized.
12:58Yeah, we're running out of states, Craig.
13:00We've got 37 now.
13:01It's going to be 38 soon with legal sports betting.
13:04So that's kind of the story of the industry.
13:06You know, there was a while where we were hearing about every state legalizing.
13:10And, you know, now there's just not that many left.
13:12But Missouri will definitely be a big one for operators.
13:15FanDuel, DraftKings, Circus Sports just applied to do business there December 1st.
13:20As you mentioned, kind of a weird date.
13:24It is in the middle of the NFL playoffs, which should generate some good buzz.
13:27But actually legally written into the law, that was kind of the last day that they were given to be able to do it.
13:33And it had to happen by that date before the new year, which is a good thing.
13:37A lot of the times you've had states like Maryland where there was no deadline for it to actually launch.
13:42And we were waiting like three or four years for something to happen.
13:45But this should give DraftKings, Circa, plenty of time to get in.
13:48And it's going to be a big state.
13:50So it's nice to have another one off the board here.
13:52It feels like forever since we've talked about a state sports betting launch.
13:55Hopefully 2026 brings us something.
13:58Feels like we're running out of time for the year.
13:59Sam, great to catch up with you again.
14:01Have a great weekend.
14:03You too.
14:03Thanks, Greg.
Recommended
0:29
|
Up next
2:27