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00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid.
00:07A landmark ruling today by the Supreme Court stating that the Seminole Tribe of Florida
00:11will continue to be able to operate sports betting as the sole operator in the state
00:17of Florida through 2051.
00:20So this West Flagler group that has been petitioning and filing and spending as we bring in Mike
00:27Mazzio looks like it was all much ado about nothing.
00:30All this money that they spent, at least for the time being, looks like it was money poorly
00:34spent.
00:35Now, Mike, the only thing is, is that we don't know really where this money was coming from
00:38anyway from West Flagler.
00:39There's a lot of speculation on that, by the way, from other entities in the state, so
00:44to speak, that didn't want even gambling at all in Florida.
00:49But needless to say, the ruling does mean that the Hard Rock app's not going away any
00:54time soon.
00:55And I think what was really more interesting for me to see some of the things that came
00:58out of it, which is iGaming in 2026, and even a potential framework for the state of California
01:05in the future as well.
01:06So once again, thanks for coming on the show to talk about this pretty big ruling today.
01:10Yeah, Craig, thank you for having me.
01:13Like you said, a lot of legal experts we talked to leading up to this Supreme Court ruling
01:18had thought all along that West Flagler's petition was going to be denied, which was
01:22the case.
01:23We saw Justice Kavanaugh.
01:24He would have granted it.
01:25He had talked about that equal protection argument.
01:28So obviously that's what he would have gone on.
01:31Obviously his contemporaries in the Supreme Court did not agree.
01:35And so this West Flagler challenge, which has been what, years, months, feels like forever,
01:41is coming to an end.
01:42Perhaps they find another route to try to challenge it.
01:44But for now, this 30-year seminal compact through 2051 is in place.
01:51And so if you're in Florida, which you are, Craig, you can make that online sports bet
01:55through your phone, and then it goes through servers that are based in tribal land.
01:59That was the challenge by West Flagler.
02:01That's now over.
02:02So Hard Rock has this monopoly on Florida sports betting through 2051.
02:07What's next in terms of potentially adding more operators?
02:09We talked to Jim Allen, I believe in April, in Atlantic City.
02:13And his sentiment was, I haven't said no to FanDuel, DraftKings, Caesars, and MGM potentially
02:19joining the market.
02:20Could there be some sort of revenue-sharing agreement, which is obviously what the seminals
02:23have with the state?
02:24And a state like New York, 51% you pay to the state government.
02:30Would you pay the seminals a certain portion of your revenue?
02:34That certainly could be the case in Florida here.
02:36So we'll see what happens.
02:38Like you said, is iGaming coming?
02:39Are there other states that could jump in on this?
02:42We haven't done enough reporting on California.
02:44Certainly that does make sense.
02:46We'll kind of see what stakeholders and tribes have to say about that, Craig.
02:49Like you said, that's the next step is, can other states use this framework for online
02:53gaming or sports betting?
02:55Yeah.
02:56I think what's fascinating is that my guess is, is you're going to hear that FanDuel and
03:00DraftKings are not interested in paying any fee to the seminal tribe because they want
03:04to have their own involvement in it.
03:07And then all of a sudden, Mike, I have a feeling someone is going to end up paying the tribe.
03:12I don't know what that percentage is going to be.
03:14And boy, will that be a precedent for all these other states that are looking at the
03:17tax rate as to what they end up paying.
03:20So a slippery slope, I think, for the future there.
03:23But needless to say, for Florida and for people who like to bet on sports, you have legalized
03:27sports betting.
03:28That is good news.
03:29That will continue.
03:30All right.
03:31Major League Baseball last week announced that one of their umpires, and by the way,
03:33a very good one, Pat Hoberg, is appealing a discipline issue for violating a betting
03:39policy that happened during spring training.
03:42Now I don't know more than you do, just to be clear on this, Mike.
03:45But what I saw in the release was appealing a discipline, and it wasn't specific here.
03:53So to me, using that word as opposed to like a suspension or a fine or anything else tells
03:58me that this potentially was very minor.
04:02But I suppose Hoberg just wants his name cleared completely of this.
04:06Is there any more color that you can add to what you see?
04:09I mean, this is reading between the lines a little bit to figure out exactly what's
04:13going on.
04:14Yeah, Craig.
04:15I think the one thing that they didn't say was that he did not bet on baseball, right?
04:19That kind of was the one thing that was not in this release.
04:22It seemed like the games he umpired, he did so with the utmost integrity.
04:27As you know, Craig, Pat Hoberg is the umpire that called a perfect game.
04:30The umpires, home plate umpires version of a perfect game in the 2022 World Series did
04:35miss a ball or strike call the entire game, which in this age with the robo ops and the
04:40tracker is almost unfathomable given we saw Angel Hernandez, all these other umps that
04:45always get grief, understandably for missing calls.
04:48Here's one of the best umpires in the game potentially being in trouble.
04:51Like you said, we don't exactly know what he did.
04:53You hope it's not a Shane Pinto situation where the NHL suspended him for 41 games and
04:58we still don't know what he did.
04:59So like you said, more to come here on Pat Hoberg.
05:02But clearly in baseball, it feels like we're flying a little too close to the sun.
05:06We've had Shohei Otani's interpreter.
05:08We've had David Fletcher being investigated for using that same illegal bookmaker, a minor
05:12league player now was a former major league player.
05:15The four minor league players, the San Diego Padres Pittsburgh Pirates infielder that was
05:20suspended for life.
05:21So yeah, it just, it's unfortunate again, these, these leagues want to talk about integrity
05:25all the time, but they're taking sportsbook partnership money and all these things just
05:29add up to where this industry doesn't want to go, obviously, which is like federal oversight
05:34or, you know, the industry just totally shutting down because, you know, if you go to the point
05:38where there's a team wide, you know, trying to throw games or something to that extent
05:43or a star player, we have seen Calvin Ridley in the NFL, but you know, something to Shohei
05:47Otani's extent, they can't afford.
05:48Yeah.
05:49The NBA is fine.
05:50Perhaps if, if John Tay Porter is receives a lifetime ban of reserve player, but you
05:54know, you get a, a key starter and all-star involved and that's where things change.
05:58So yeah, I mean, it's just something where the education needs to continue.
06:01We know all these coaches, players, staffers are getting education and, you know, unfortunately
06:06you have thousands of staffers and you only need one to go the wrong way and the whole
06:11industry looks bad.
06:12And then you have to deal with the narrative that you no longer can control.
06:14And I think for all these sports leagues, they can't control it anymore.
06:17And you see the major networks outlets writing about this stuff and none of it's good.
06:21Yeah, no, it's, it's definitely a story that continues because this keeps happening and
06:26we keep even the small stories continue to happen in baseball.
06:29And so you just hope that there's not a larger one that's legitimate out there.
06:33All right.
06:34Now a story of the bazaar on our show today here.
06:38And I hate to say it like this, but unsurprisingly involves Bernie Kosar.
06:43Bernie's been through it through the years.
06:45So here's one.
06:47So Bernie is saying now, why do I say Bernie?
06:50Bernie of course, from South Florida, played for the Hurricanes, played for the Dolphins.
06:54Very familiar with Bernie.
06:56Filing a lawsuit that says that he was forced to place a bet $19,000 of his own money by
07:08the big play network.
07:10And because he did that, the Browns organization let him go from doing their broadcast or pre
07:16and post or whatever he was doing a couple hundred grand.
07:20I'm going to need you to, to siphon through here a little bit here, Mike, because it seems
07:26to me, I mean, gosh, Bernie, I hate to say it, that if you feel like you're not, you're
07:30doing something that you shouldn't be doing, you can probably not do it.
07:32And by the way, with your own money, this is crazy one here, Mike, you're going to have
07:35to tell me what's at, what happened here.
07:37Yeah, Craig.
07:38So at the time he placed this bet and the NFL personnel cannot bet.
07:43And I think he thought he was a contractor, so maybe he could.
07:46He apologized at the time, said if I had won this money, it was all going to charity anyway.
07:51Now all of a sudden, you know, wants to get $850,000 from this big play network in this
07:56civil suit.
07:58And we'll see here.
07:59I mean, he basically said, as part of his contract with big play, he could make this
08:02bet and he wouldn't lose any money if the bet lost.
08:05Then all of a sudden the big play executive said, you have to bet.
08:08You have to bet with your own money as part of your contract.
08:10So he did it out of goodwill.
08:12His bet lost.
08:13I think the Browns shockingly lost to the Steelers, I believe it was.
08:18And so he was out the 19,000 and he's seeking, like you said, his $200,000 radio job, which
08:23he ended up losing as a result of this.
08:26They pulled him right off the air after the bet.
08:28And again, you can't make the same mistake as Bernie here.
08:31You can't bet if you're working for a team in radio, television, you can't bet.
08:36Right.
08:37So we'll see what comes of this, Craig.
08:38Yeah.
08:39I mean, but by the way, if you think that there's a chance that this could happen, you just
08:42don't do it.
08:43Right.
08:44Like you just say no.
08:45Right.
08:46Like you take it to another level.
08:48Real quick.
08:49We got about a minute to go.
08:50Charlie Baker, the head of the NCAA, with some comments on sports betting, wishing it
08:54stayed in Las Vegas.
08:55But, you know, this is going to be on deaf ears at this point, no?
08:59Yeah, I think he was governor of Massachusetts when it passed, was getting tax revenue.
09:04Now he's not getting tax revenue.
09:06There's no sponsorship deals with the NCAA after, you know, a senator stopped that.
09:11So, yeah, I mean, I think there's money to be in one place and not money in the other
09:15place.
09:16Fair enough, Mike.
09:17Thanks for coming on.