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00:00We got an announcement yesterday on a starting quarterback in the NFL. It is now official.
00:08These are the words of Antonio Pierce, not mine. Gardner Minshew, another team, another
00:12starting role. He has earned the job. He beat Kevin O'Connell for the, or Aiden O'Connell
00:17for the starting gig. And now he will be starting for the Raiders at least to start the season.
00:24Now both quarterbacks did not have a great preseason, but even after Saturday night's
00:29game, it seems like Pierce and the hierarchy at the Raiders had to sit down and make a
00:34final decision before they go into week three. And then of course into the season. But Pierce
00:39told the media yesterday that it wasn't as much about the preseason results as some of
00:44the intangibles that Minshew brings.
00:46We, uh, Gardner Minshew is going to be the starting quarterback this 2024 season. Uh,
00:52myself, Telesco, and Luke Getze discussed it this morning. A lot of things went into
00:58it. It wasn't based off of last night. There's a lot of factors. So, uh, we feel like Gardner
01:04gives us the best opportunity to get off to a fast start and that's what we're going with.
01:07We support them. Our team's behind it. Our staff's behind it. Our organization's behind
01:11it. You know, experience, um, the operation, the processing, um, just everything we saw
01:18in practice. Some of it showed up in the games. A lot of stuff we can get better at. I don't
01:22think anything here is a, uh, a finished product, but based off of where we want to go in the
01:27first quarter of the season, we feel like Gardner gives us the best opportunity.
01:32Yeah, certainly Minshew has had his chances in the past. He's made the most of some of
01:36them. Inevitably, it does seem like every team gives him the chance and then takes away
01:41the starting role for him at some point. We'll see if it's the same thing with Minshew. All
01:44right. Exciting golf tournament over the weekend. Hideki Matsuyama ends up taking the St. Jude
01:49Championship as he ends up beating Xander Shoffley and Joffrey finished second place
01:55in the tournament. But, uh, yeah, a phenomenal tournament, I would say his 10th win on the
02:01PGA tour and, uh, ahead of the cup playoffs, really a fantastic finish for him, by the
02:06way, two strokes ahead of Xander to win, followed by Victor Hovland, Scotty Scheffler, and
02:11then Sam Burns right behind him, 13 under par. Congrats to Hideki. And there he is lifting
02:16the trophy. A couple of NFL preseason games last night, including the Denver Broncos who
02:21have made the most of this preseason. That's for sure. So has Bo Nix. They beat the Packers
02:25by a final of 27 to 2 yesterday. And Nix thus far has looked the part of a starting
02:31quarterback in the NFL. Again, it is just a preseason, but Sean Payton has given him the
02:36chance to succeed. And Nix has said, like every other quarterback says, executing the
02:40plays that he's asked to execute has been the key.
02:43Yeah, it felt really good. I thought we started off really well. Defense got a huge stop,
02:47flipped the field for us, and we were able to walk away with points. You'd like to get
02:51a touchdown in that situation, but then we were able to turn back around, go down and
02:55get a touchdown. So I thought we executed well. We stayed in front of the chains, even
03:00though we got behind on, on that one, we were able to get a chunk play and get back in,
03:04in the red zone and get a first down. So that was really good. You like to see what, you
03:09know, those guys can do. And tonight they made plays and you got Tim Cortland, you know,
03:15all those guys that were out there and making plays and, you know, executing the play. So
03:20nothing that was crazy. I mean, we see it every day, but those guys just went out there
03:24and put it on film.
03:25Yeah. Good look for Denver yesterday. True story. Last night, I thought, because I saw
03:31a social media post of Tom Brady at the 49ers game. I thought for some reason he was calling
03:36the game on Fox because I was like, Oh, he must be getting some practice time in like
03:40all the other announcers. So I tuned it in and he ain't doing the game. And so then I
03:44just tuned it right out, but I knew we'd be talking about it here on the show today. 49ers,
03:481610, the final score there, by the way, Josh Dobbs again. I mean, every team this guy plays
03:53on, he ends up helping them and he'll probably help the 49ers at some point this season,
03:5716 to 10, the final there. There's a picture of Dobbs in a 49ers uniform. Hey, Randy
04:02Gregory, boy, this saga continues this time. The Buccaneers released him, never showed
04:05up to camp. They never knew why, didn't report. He's played with the Broncos and the Cowboys
04:10and you know, he certainly had some personal issues in the past. So we wish him the best
04:15if this is the end of the line, but needless to say, it's been a lot of drama over the
04:18course of Gregory's career. Not so much for Stefan Gilmore, always playing at a high level,
04:22surprisingly unsigned. The Viking did sign him to a one-year contract, $10 million, $7
04:27million of that is guaranteed. All right. Week zero is here. College football is this
04:31Saturday and we'll be previewing the games all week long, including live programming
04:35coming up Saturday morning with college football. Today, Florida state will open up the season
04:40against Georgia tech. That's the first game. Boise state made an announcement yesterday.
04:44A little surprising Maddox Madsen is their starting quarterback beating out Malakai Nelson
04:49for the starting job. And so this is a little bit of a surprise here. Some people thought
04:54Nelson would be the starter for the Broncos. Louisville has lost their wide receiver, Collin
04:58Lacy to a broken collarbone. He was one of the top players to sign in the transfer portal.
05:04It was expected to be either their wide receiver one or two going into the season. And also
05:08you may remember the individual that was on the coaching staff at the University of Michigan
05:13that was being accused of going to other places and wearing mustaches and glasses and trying
05:16to steal signs and do some other things. And they may have 30 for 30 about it. I haven't
05:20seen it yet, but it's going to come out. Connor Stallions. He's been hired as defensive
05:24coordinator at Mumford High School. Congratulations to Connor Stallions. All right. Last night,
05:29fun game at Williamsport between the Tigers and the Yankees. It was the Tigers taking
05:33the win there in front of a lot of kids. A great scene, without a doubt, three to two
05:37the final as the Tigers win. And the Yankees basically decided at the trade deadline to
05:43not attack the bullpen, not get anybody extra. And boy, Clay Holmes blew it again. Tenth
05:48save blown in Major League Baseball this season. That of course leads Major League
05:52Baseball. By the way, next year when they do this game in Williamsport once again, it's
05:56going to be the New York Mets and Seattle Mariners. So that will be the next one. And
06:00it will be August 17th, 2025. How about the Tampa Bay Rays? They trade everybody away
06:06and they just keep winning. They beat the Diamondbacks not once, not twice, but three
06:10times this weekend swept and Cattell Marte re-aggravated his sprained ankle. We'll see
06:16what happens with him. Diamondbacks first three game skid since June. So we won't hold
06:20them completely accountable. They've been playing great baseball since the all-star
06:23break. Austin Riley, by the way, yesterday, another injury to the Atlanta Braves. He was
06:27hit in the hand with a 97 mile an hour fastball. As they head back to Atlanta, they're going
06:31to do some imaging to see if they can get more results. As of right now, no word how
06:36much time he will miss. And the Braves have been missing everybody this season, fair to
06:40say. All right. Caitlin Clark, another big game for her yesterday. The Fever beat the
06:44Storm 92-75. Caitlin Clark on the sidelines yelling at the other sidelines saying to
06:50stop crying. I don't know if you guys saw that yesterday. She's feeling herself right
06:54now and they're playing much better. Aja Wilson broke her own record in the Aces victory 87-71
06:59over the Sparks. She had 34 points and 13 rebounds. 17th game with 20 points and 10
07:05plus rebounds. And they end up winning by 16, although the LA Sparks are horrible. They've
07:10been getting crushed almost every single game. Also, Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammond
07:15is standing firm on this case with the Erika Hamby. Hamby filed a federal lawsuit on Monday
07:21alleging that because of her pregnancy, she was subject to repeated acts of intimidation
07:25and discrimination on the Aces. And meanwhile, the Philadelphia 76ers have agreed to a one
07:32year $2.1 million contract with a forward named Gershon Yabusele. A 2016 first round
07:40pick from the Celtics. He was playing for France and helped them a lot in the Olympics.
07:46And there is some thought process that because of that performance at the Olympics, he has
07:49earned himself a new contract. So congratulations to him. Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports
07:55Grid. Time to dive in with our guest contributor from Legal Sports Report. You can read about
07:59all of the things that we discuss over at legalsportsreport.com. Today's contributor
08:03is Jim Ghazali to hit on the very latest on sports betting in Indiana, Kentucky. And we'll
08:07start off with the latest earnings from a FanDuel. Jim, great to have you back here
08:11on Newswire.
08:12Hey, Craig. Thanks for having me as always.
08:15Let's get started here. And the numbers are in from July for FanDuel. And boy, what a
08:21huge number here. A lot of parlays, I'm guessing, Jim, being played here. Am I seeing one billion
08:26with a B for July? Is that accurate?
08:29Yeah, one billion with a B for July in New York. And it's the first July that New York
08:36sports betting handle has eclipsed that one billion dollar threshold. If you look back
08:43in July 2022, almost $801 million, $23 million, $962 million. And then last month, $1.26
08:55billion bet in New York. It's the 12th consecutive month now that New York sports bettors have
09:03sent in over a billion dollars. That market just seems to continue to be growing as large
09:10as it is with those massive dollar amounts. It does seem to be growing and it'll be interesting
09:16to see what happens here in the next couple of weeks and months as football season gets
09:21underway.
09:22FanDuel, the big winner, I guess you could say in July in New York, $482.5 million in
09:32handle, $59.3 million in revenue. They continue to set the pace in this market. And like you
09:40said off the top, Craig, parlays, I'm sure has a lot to do with that nearly $60 million
09:47in winnings from July. Unfortunately, we don't get a per bet or bet style, per sport, whatever
09:56you want to call it, breakdown. So, you know, we can't exactly say for sure if and how much
10:04of that was due to parlays. But as we've seen in other markets across the country, I'm sure
10:10it was a large percentage of their winnings.
10:14One other interesting note coming out of New York in July was Fanatics, nearly $9 million
10:20in winnings for Fanatics. And that was the highest total, the highest monthly total for
10:26Fanatics. They've only been active in New York for a handful of months now as they took
10:31over for points bet. But even going back to the points bets days, that $8.9 million in
10:40revenue from July is the best when you're looking at Fanatics or even points bet going
10:46back to when that market opened in January of 2022, Craig.
10:51Got it. All right. So July is a big month for FanDuel. And what I'm seeing here from
10:55Churchill Downs and some of the other horse racing entities, especially for people who
11:00are interested on betting on horse racing, is that, Jim, really no demise for any sports
11:06betting. In fact, not just small percentage rises in sports betting, but pretty significant
11:10rises across a lot of the major operators like DraftKings and FanDuel. I mean, Jim,
11:16sometimes we could do a story and paint a narrative if this was only 5 or 10 percent.
11:20But I mean, I'm looking at these numbers. This is 30, 40 percent revenue.
11:24Yeah. So the Kentucky market has been been solid since they launched there in September.
11:32In June, $145.7 million that was bet. And that pushed that total market past that $2
11:40billion mark in total handle since September. And if you recall, the retail sports books
11:47opened up on that that opening night of the NFL season last September.
11:53And then the online sports books, the sports betting apps, they followed a couple of weeks
11:57later towards the end of September. But all in all, over $2 billion bet in Kentucky from September
12:06through June. And those percentages there were the market share that each of the operators has.
12:13DraftKings has the largest market share of handle there with 39 percent.
12:19BetMGM and Bet365 keep going back and forth for that third and fourth position
12:24with roughly 6 percent of the market. ESPN bet a couple of a couple of percentage points below
12:31that with four and a half percent. And what we've seen from Bet365 and some of these other markets,
12:37especially in the Midwest, like Ohio, where they're they're really starting to cement
12:42themselves as that third or fourth player in those markets, obviously behind those top two
12:49FanDuel and DraftKings like we see in just about every single market across the country.
12:55But in these markets, these, you know, we'll call them smaller markets.
12:59Bet365 does seem to be growing in popularity. Churchill Downs on the retail side, the most
13:08popular retail in-person sports book in Kentucky, $32.1 million in bets at Churchill Downs.
13:17And I found that interesting mostly because they do shut that sports book down at points
13:24throughout the year when they have these marquee horse racing events, I recall,
13:28around the Kentucky Derby in the lead up to the Derby and even a few days past the Derby
13:33with all of the preparations and all of the luxury seating that they have there.
13:38That sports book was was closed for at least two weeks, if not more. So for them to still be
13:45tops in the retail market there, Churchill Downs is in Kentucky.
13:50I thought that was pretty impressive, Craig.
13:52Yeah, definitely so. And I would say that if that's not one of the big stories of the year
13:56of success, it has to be Indiana and their sports betting success as well, because as we're closing
14:01out the summer and moving into the fall here, it appears as though this market is one of the nice
14:07success stories of the year, rising in popularity and revenue across the board.
14:12Yeah, perhaps I'm the only one that seems mostly interested in in this Indiana market, but,
14:20you know, tracking it over the last year and a half or so and seeing how they felt a little bit
14:26of a pinch last year with Ohio coming online at the beginning of 2023 in January. And then you had,
14:36like we just talked about, the Kentucky market coming on in September. The numbers did seem to
14:43shrink a little bit with that added competition. So this year so far, we've seen Indiana return to
14:51those 2022 figures like we've talked about a bunch here, Craig. We've talked about it for a handful
14:57of months consecutively now. And the Indiana sportsbooks in July, they won more than 11 percent.
15:05They kept more than 11 percent of the sports betting dollars there. And that 11.3 percent
15:11win rate in July was the highest so far this year and even going back to last July. So when we
15:18typically see the volume of betting, the betting handle come down June, July in the summer months
15:27when a lot of the the major sports aren't in action. It's baseball. And, you know, of course,
15:33we had the Olympics this year, but, you know, it doesn't have the power that the NFL obviously has
15:39or the NBA obviously has. So we tend to see those those handle figures come down. But it is a
15:46positive sign to see that the sportsbooks are, you know, at least for them, maybe not necessarily for
15:51the betters, but it is a positive sign on the revenue end for the sportsbooks to see that
15:57double digit hold. And again, the revenue, twenty nine, nearly twenty nine and a half million dollars
16:05in July in Indiana. That's up. Twenty twenty two numbers and the handle two hundred and sixty one
16:12point one million in July, also up over twenty twenty two numbers in July. So a positive trend
16:20in the right direction for Indiana kind of shaking off those two states, Ohio and Kentucky,
16:25that legalized sports betting last year. Yeah. And I would say that that's one of the states
16:30to keep an eye on. But real quick, let's get to Nebraska before we end any resolution yet here
16:36on this, Jim, or we're still going to have to wait. Yeah, we're still waiting. Tracking it.
16:41The legislature in that special session, they they opened up and quickly adjourned this morning.
16:48Sports hasn't come up just yet. Maybe not. Most likely not. But we'll keep tracking it and see
16:56if there's a resolution soon here in the next couple of days. All right. Thanks, Jim. We are
17:00watching to see, by the way, what I'm alluding to is Nebraska legalizing online sports betting
17:04potentially this week. All right, Jim. Thanks a lot.