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00:00So let's get right to it. We'll start off with our first sports betting story of the day and really good news for one of the more popular sports betting companies here in the United States. That is, of course, DraftKings. If you're not familiar with the story, recently they've come under some fire, as they have previously as well, but this is a new one.
00:15In New York, they've dismissed a class action lawsuit against DraftKings that accused the company of deceptive advertising over $1,000 deposit bonus. One of the judges ruled that the plaintiff failed to present a valid legal argument, noting that DraftKings clearly and prominently disclosed the terms of the offer.
00:32Court found that a reasonable consumer would understand that the bonus of 20% of the deposited amount requiring a $5,000 bonus and $25,000 in wagers to receive the full bonus. So essentially bonus practices handed out by DraftKings are legal, at least in this case, in the state of New York.
00:49Meanwhile, the D.C. Council has effectively shut down a lawsuit that's seeking over $300 million in restitution for gambling losses incurred by sports bettors since the legality of sports betting in 2019.
01:00This lawsuit basically says if you bet on sports and you lose, it's your own fault. Not going to get the money back. And the bottom line is, in this case, in D.C., it's not going to be happening. Stay tuned for how this works in other states as well. Bottom line, folks, is if you bet on sports, bet responsibly, and these sort of things won't happen.
01:19Responsibility of the Cincinnati Bengals is probably to keep around Trey Hendrickson. Good news for them. Finally, he's reporting to Bengals camp. He's ending his holdout. He's no closer to a deal than he was two days ago.
01:30Or even yesterday, but at least he won't get fined. $50,000, folks, per day. Let me say that again. $50,000 per day is the fine for the Bengals. If you don't show up, he's hoping for some good faith negotiations. We'll see if that happens for Cincinnati.
01:45Meanwhile, very talented tight end for the Baltimore Ravens, Isaiah Likely. He has a fractured foot. He's going to have surgery and going to miss four to six weeks. He still could possibly be available for the first week of the season, but you know that's optimism coming from the club. More likely, you will not see him for the first couple weeks of the season.
02:03Also, the Cincinnati Bengals have released Zach Moss. They signed him to a two-year deal last year. He rushed for 242 yards. Chase Brown took over and never looked back. How about the Miami Dolphins and their defensive backs? They lose another one.
02:15Cater Cahoyu is going to miss the entire season. He was injured in a practice on Saturday with a knee injury. The Dolphins' defensive backs already feeling it without Jalen Ramsey. Now Cahoyu is out for the season.
02:29Also, Martin Emerson Jr. carted off with a Achilles injury with the Cleveland Browns, and he is going to likely miss the entire season for Cleveland.
02:38All right, now let's go over to Major League Baseball and get to the very latest. Small deals happening in baseball, but no large deals just yet.
02:45Probably going to have to wait until tomorrow, 6 p.m., right around that time to get those done.
02:48Let's get to the Brewers-Cubs showdown again last night. Andrew Vaughn, a star again for the Brewers. What a great pickup he was from the White Sox.
02:55Six runs driven in, and they beat the Cubs 9-3. Now Milwaukee has a two-game lead in the National League Central.
03:02Here's Craig Council after the game on the difficult pitching performance and shutting down the Brew crew.
03:09Craig, when it comes to run prevention, what's it out tonight about the pitching and defense?
03:13Yeah, I mean, we just, you know, from the pitching side, you know, couldn't make big pitches, and we gave them some extra outs, and that always makes it hard.
03:27It's something that we've been really good at not doing, really, you know, creating outs we've done a good job of.
03:32So, you know, you put that together, and it, you know, it's nine runs.
03:38So, yeah, and then offensively, we, you know, we created some opportunities and didn't cash in early in the game.
03:46And so, you know, at some point, at one point, it was 5-2.
03:50We, you know, had three opportunities, men on third, and less than two outs, and didn't get any of those runs in.
03:57And so, it just kept the gap, kept the gap a little big, and they obviously had a big swing.
04:05San Diego's surge continues last night.
04:08The Padres seemed to be getting hot at the right time, especially with the bats.
04:12Manny Machado had a three-run home run.
04:15San Diego beats the New York Mets by a final of 7-1.
04:18And some bad news for the Mets in this one is Juan Soto fouled the ball off his back foot.
04:24But Carlos Mendoza discussed the injury.
04:27It does seem, for the time being, to be just day-to-day.
04:30Carlos, what's the concern for Soto right now?
04:33Well, I mean, he's pretty sore, but we did some x-rays, and they were negative.
04:37So, that's good news there.
04:40So, he's day-to-day.
04:41We'll see where we are for tomorrow, if he's going to be available for the lineup or a player during the game at some point.
04:46I know that occasionally you take an x-ray, and then a couple days later, after swelling goes down, you've got to check it again.
04:52Are you guys confident that this is a negative x-ray, or could that be a situation like that?
04:57Yeah.
04:57I was just talking to the trainers, and I asked the same questions.
05:00We're planning on, you know, doing some more imaging, and as of right now, the answer is no.
05:05You know, x-rays, and let's see how he progresses day-to-day.
05:10So, yeah, that's what we got so far.
05:13What about Pete?
05:14How's Pete doing?
05:16Alonso, his knee?
05:18Yeah, he's fine.
05:19He's fine.
05:19How much of a scare is that, just with Soto, obviously, is important?
05:24Yeah, not a good feeling, you know, especially when you watch him go down like that, and he looks like he's got a lot of pain there.
05:32Then, you know, he hits that ball, and he looks uncomfortable running down the line.
05:37First thing the trainer's telling me, like, I got to go out there, and I got to take x-rays here.
05:41So, you're kind of just holding your breath there.
05:44And then once I got the news, you know, obviously a sense of relief there, but day-to-day.
05:50Dodgers beat the Reds yesterday 5-4.
05:53Will Smith with an RBI double.
05:54Freddie Freeman also had three hits.
05:56It seems like the Dodgers are getting Tyler Glass now back in a good place ahead of their postseason run.
06:02Here he is on his performance afterward.
06:04Tyler, when you look at your outing, just kind of how things started, you were excellent,
06:07and then kind of seen a little later into your outing, things kind of tapered off.
06:10What were you feeling, I guess, in this one?
06:12Yeah, I felt good early, and then I just kind of lost feel towards the end.
06:17I'm not quite sure what it was.
06:19Just kind of wasn't executing in the zone.
06:22Those two home runs, is that kind of the execution you're talking about right there?
06:25Or it's just that was missing in those moments?
06:26Yeah, like very hittable pitches.
06:30Not really getting on it properly, and just very hittable pitches, yeah.
06:33Was the slider in particular that was kind of giving trouble later as well?
06:36Yeah, I think there's just not a lot of sharpness to it.
06:39Just left it up in the zone a lot, and it kind of just spun.
06:41It was almost like a bad heater, so.
06:45Is it tougher to command just with the weather and the humidity out there?
06:48Oh, I don't know.
06:48I just think it was just a bad slider.
06:52And then kind of predictability at the end, like not throwing other stuff for a strike
06:57other than a heater and just leaving stuff on the plate.
07:01One final out west to bring you.
07:03The Mariners beat the A's, beat the Mariners 6-1, as Logan Evans, who's done such a nice
07:09job for Seattle, got hit six earned runs, four and one-third innings pitched.
07:13All right, now over in the American League East, the Yankees battling the Rays.
07:16Max Freed went six and two-thirds.
07:18He gave up two earned runs, and New York beats Tampa Bay by a final of 7-5.
07:23Cody Bellinger also hit a three-run home run.
07:25Max Freed pitched well in this one.
07:28The Red Sox even up their series with the Twins at two apiece, and they'll decide that
07:32series coming up today at approximately 1-10 Eastern, so that's one hour from now.
07:38Yesterday, the Baltimore Orioles swept a doubleheader, which is rare, and they did it over the first
07:42place Toronto Blue Jays game one final, 16-4, and they also won game two by a final of 3-2.
07:50Great to have Sam McQuillan back from Legal Sports Report in the house.
07:52Let's dive into the very latest on sports betting.
07:54We've got some news on BetMGM, and also we say goodbye to another sports betting operator,
07:59but Sam, do we say hello to the state of Georgia?
08:03Man, I feel like I've been teased by Georgia.
08:05I feel like I've been down this road before, and it is in the South where it's much harder
08:10to get sports betting legalized than in some other places, but again, thanks for coming
08:14on the show.
08:14Is Georgia a real possibility here over the next year?
08:19It's definitely a possibility, Craig, but how big of a possibility is kind of the question
08:24that remains to be seen.
08:25You mentioned we've talked about Georgia a lot over the past couple of years, and that's
08:29because they've flirted with the idea of sports betting, but never really got a deal done.
08:34And what happened this week is they restarted that whole process yet again because, you
08:38know, the legislature meets every year, considers something, doesn't do it, but it keeps getting
08:42put before its desk.
08:43It's going to be a huge state.
08:45If it ever does go online, it would be about the fifth largest active sports betting market.
08:50So there's a lot of care from the sports betting companies to keep doing this and keep trying.
08:54This week, lawmakers met with what's called the House Study Committee on Gaming.
09:01It was mostly a general discussion on gambling in the state of Georgia, which is pretty restricted
09:06in general, but sports betting was also on the table as part of what's expected to be
09:10a months-long process to study, you know, how we do this, how many licenses we might give
09:16out, which companies might be involved.
09:19So the committee is going to meet through the fall and has all the way up until December 1st
09:23to make recommendations for a bill that would create the framework of sports betting.
09:27So it is still a very long road ahead.
09:29We're not even talking about a bill being made yet.
09:32We're talking about legislators coming together, but that is good news considering that, you
09:36know, there's a lot of time out in the calendar to get this whole thing through and that they're
09:41being so thoughtful in this part of the process about it.
09:44You know, again, Georgia's a huge untapped market.
09:47You got crazy football fan bases there.
09:49You got pro teams and pretty much every major sport and a lot of Georgians who are into betting
09:55are driving across state lines.
09:57There was actually a hundred percent increase in Georgians trying to access legal sports
10:02books, which of course they're not able to do in Georgia.
10:05But this company, GeoComply, tracked that they were trying to access it from within the
10:10state of Georgia.
10:11So I wouldn't hold your breath here.
10:13This is sort of like lawmakers finally setting a meeting to plan a meeting for how sports
10:18betting might look.
10:19So it's very not far along in the process at all.
10:22The real question is going to be whether they can all get on the same page.
10:25In the past, they've agreed that gambling should happen.
10:28It's happening anyway.
10:29They need to regulate it, but they haven't agreed on how exactly to do that.
10:33There's religious groups, of course, which are very strong in the Georgia legislature, which
10:38have opposed legislation in the past.
10:40So they're going to have to all figure out how to get on the same page here.
10:43But it's getting late early for Georgia.
10:45They're one of only 11 states that doesn't have sports betting.
10:48So they really need to figure this out sooner rather than later.
10:51Yeah, it does feel like we hear a lot about Georgia, maybe Texas, you know, as possibilities.
10:55But until it actually, you know, takes some steps forward, it doesn't feel like we've
10:59made a lot of progress over the last year with that.
11:01All right, now let's get to some good news here for BetMGM, you know, certainly one of the
11:06companies that seems to be at least, you know, fighting to stay within that three, top
11:10three, top four sports betting operator range.
11:13And they get some good news here, which you could read about a legal sports report, but
11:16I don't want to ruin the story.
11:17So I'll let you tell us more.
11:19Yeah, BetMGM, like you point out, Craig, is definitely hanging on, hovering right behind
11:24the FanDuel's and DraftKings of the world, which are just at such a competitive advantage
11:28right now.
11:29You can't really get in that group, but they're right there with the Caesars and ESPN
11:33bet is below them.
11:34So they're in a decent spot.
11:35They actually had a really great quarter this past quarter, and they're crediting what
11:40they're calling a smarter approach to sports betting and player quality, not just being,
11:45you know, lucky and being on the winning side of more bets.
11:47Of course, the past two quarters have been really bad for sports books, which just got
11:51hammered in the NFL playoffs.
11:53And then that continued into March badness.
11:55But it looks like Q2 is shaping up to be much better for them.
11:59BetMGM saw a 56% jump in sports betting revenue, and they did that while cutting marketing expenses.
12:05And their CEO kind of talked about that, saying that, you know, we're attracting more quality
12:10players and filtering out the ones that maybe aren't necessarily as valuable to us and perhaps
12:15diluting numbers a little bit.
12:17So they intentionally tried to cut out some of that active player base that is low value
12:21and maybe not cross-selling over to some of their more, you know, premium, higher margin
12:25products, such as Parlays, which actually jumped 5% as a percentage of all bets.
12:31You know, sports books really want you to bet those high margin bets.
12:33So that's one of the reasons that they saw progress there.
12:37And, you know, it helped them achieve $86 million in earnings before debt and other tax
12:42and other expenses we talk about, which is just a massive jump from 2024 when they had
12:48only $8 million.
12:49So they're projecting $150 million by the end of the year, again, kind of signaling that
12:53they're in a strong position to round it out.
12:55And it'll be really interesting to see, you know, heading into NFL season with these things
12:59that have worked during the slower time in the sports betting calendar.
13:03Obviously, baseball is going on, but there's not a ton else right now.
13:06And especially activity-wise, the NFL and college football as well is just a huge time.
13:12So it'll be really interesting to see how they try to swing that momentum into the NFL season.
13:17It'll be interesting to see how DraftKings and FanDuel respond to one of their competitors
13:21making headwinds, whether that leads to more, you know, better promotions, better products
13:26for people.
13:27I think those are things that are all being talked about right now.
13:29So if you're a bettor, even if you don't use BetMGM, you should benefit from the fact
13:33that they're making headwinds and the competition in general is increasing right here.
13:38So yeah, really great quarter for BetMGM.
13:41And we should hear similar stories from other operators as they report in the coming weeks.
13:45Good stuff, Sam.
13:47Finally, let's close it out with a topic that we've discussed over the last couple of years
13:51here, is that without new states legalizing sports betting, it's becoming increasingly
13:56difficult for some of those sports betting operators who do not have a big impact here
14:01in the United States to stay.
14:03Now, that's no indictment on the next company that we're going to discuss, BetFred, because
14:07they've been around for a long time outside of the U.S., Sam.
14:10But as we've seen with some other companies as well, with no new markets opening up, if
14:15they're not able to get a bigger share or a piece of the pie of sports betting in the
14:20United States, maybe it's just best to operate outside.
14:24Yeah, that's certainly what BetFred decided this week when they announced that they would
14:29be leaving Pennsylvania tomorrow, which marks its last state that's going to be exiting in
14:34the U.S. It's been here since 2020, was at one point active in over half a dozen states.
14:39But like you mentioned, Craig, it's just there's no new states.
14:42There's no new opportunity.
14:43Only so many people turn 21 every year to acquire new customers.
14:48And meanwhile, you've got DraftKings, you've got FanDuel gobbling up most of the customers.
14:53So if you're a BetFred customer, you're probably already betting with the competition as well.
14:57No new bets are being accepted at this time, but if you do have a bet in Pennsylvania on
15:02BetFred, you'll be able to cash out or settle the bet until tomorrow.
15:07And if your bet is something that isn't going to happen until after tomorrow, they're going
15:11to mail you a check as well.
15:13So don't worry about getting your money or your outstanding bets if you are in Pennsylvania.
15:17But like you mentioned, Craig, it is part of a broader trend.
15:19We've seen companies like Betway, Topico, Sports Illustrated, Sportsbook, all just in the
15:24past 18 months decide that it was too expensive to compete here.
15:29BetFront actually took a $91 million loss last year in the U.S.
15:33So it's really showing that, you know, it's just not worth the cost of admission.
15:37The year before that, interestingly enough, they're actually profitable in the U.S.
15:40So you've got to wonder what changed so quickly in that time period.
15:43I think maybe they just kind of ran out of new customers.
15:46And like you mentioned, you know, they are very strong internationally.
15:49We've seen other brands, you know, hesitant to come into the U.S.
15:53because it's so expensive, not only because you have to compete with DraftKings and Fandle
15:57and everybody, but also because states are charging ultra high tax rates, states are charging
16:01ultra high license fees.
16:03It's becoming just harder in general to do business from a money standpoint in general,
16:07let alone the competition.
16:10So, yeah, Betfred closing up shop will be gone by tomorrow.
16:14We'll see if any sportsbook fills this void.
16:16It'll mean that there's a license up for grabs in Pennsylvania, which is one of the biggest
16:20states for sports betting and is home to a lot of other operators.
16:23At this point, you know, we're getting to a time when no one's rushing into the market.
16:27Everyone's kind of exiting, leaving or selling off their business.
16:30You know, we saw PointsBet do something similar.
16:33You know, at that time we had Fanatics jump in.
16:35We had ESPN Bet jump in as well.
16:37But right now there's no players really like that who are waiting to get into the market.
16:41You got to wonder how much longer it's going to be, you know, a market we talk about with all
16:45those other books in general before it's just, you know, two or three.
16:50Great stuff, as always, Sam.
16:51And we'll read more about this over at LegalSportsReport.com.
16:53Thanks again for appearing on Newswire today.
16:55Have a great week.
16:57You too.
16:57Thanks, Craig.
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