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00:00So on Tuesday, they move forward with this, getting out of bankruptcy with a Chapter 11 reorganization.
00:07A representative for Diamond Sports, they run the regional sports network under the name Bally,
00:13says the company hopes to file a reorganization plan that will allow confirmation of hearings at some point within the first half of November.
00:21Now, Bally did get out of their deals with the Mavericks and the Pelicans,
00:26because basically they can't afford to pay the rights fees for there.
00:29But the saga goes on because Major League Baseball is unhappy with this new agreement
00:35and are basically stating that there will be uncertainty as to when opening day begins on April the 1st of next year.
00:41So they're not happy. They want basically either the money or out of this deal.
00:45And a bankruptcy court says that they're going to take Major League Baseball's claims very seriously
00:50and going to meet again in October to see if there's more validity to it.
00:54So do we have an answer on Diamond? No, we do not.
00:57But it does appear that at least the national basketball games that you watch on your local affiliate on your RSN
01:02and your hockey games that you watch on your local affiliate on RSN,
01:05it looks like those are going to be broadcast in different markets across the country.
01:09All right, now let's get to the American Gaming Association and some news there.
01:12Seems like they're pretty unhappy with this report that was released by the University of Bristol in England,
01:18basically finding that 75% of the non-sponsored social media content that's put out by the four major sportsbooks,
01:25they're saying that BetMGM, DraftKings, ESPN, Bet and FanDuel don't comply with the AGA's Responsible Gaming Code.
01:32The AGA says, no, we are doing that, and this is a irresponsible misinterpretation of the code.
01:39So needless to say, responsible gaming still enforced here in the United States,
01:45but there are countries that are saying that we're not doing a good job of it. We will see.
01:49New AP Top 25 poll. One of the favorites to get into the college football playoff was from the ACC.
01:54FSU, no longer the case. FSU now out of the Top 25 poll.
01:59Georgia still the number one team in the country. As you see, Texas is there at number three.
02:03Guess who they play this week? They play Michigan.
02:05So one of those two teams is going to move up or down after the week.
02:08Friday night is the opening night of the NFL in Brazil.
02:11Devin White, their linebacker on the Philadelphia Eagles, he's not going to play in this game.
02:15He has been deemed out by the Eagles with their injury report that came out this morning,
02:19so he will not play on Friday night.
02:21Cam Hayward, defensive lineman for the Pittsburgh Steelers, signs a contract extension.
02:25Three years, $45 million. It is extension season.
02:28The Jets have extended Michael Carter the second.
02:31He got a three-year, $30.75 million contract with the New York Jets.
02:35Bill Belichick is making his way through the media.
02:38He signs on with another media company to open the season.
02:41He is now working with the 33rd team as strategic advisor.
02:46In addition, he's with the CW, also ESPN, and underdog as well.
02:50The 49ers are set to start their season.
02:52Trent Williams, although they're putting the ink on that contract and finality,
02:56looks like he's going to be able to play on Monday night.
02:58Brandon Ayuk also in tow. Christian McCaffrey practiced this week as well.
03:03And naturally speaking, Brandon Ayuk and Trent Williams talked about their contracts
03:08getting done, very excited to be back with the team.
03:10I think, I'm not going to lie, I made it a little bit more difficult than it needed to at the end.
03:17But, yeah, I mean, it was like that for me from, I'm not going to say the whole entire time,
03:23but for about the past month, I think we were pretty good.
03:27We had conversations. I didn't, obviously, I didn't think that it would get this drawn out.
03:35But, you know, it's a tough business, and this was a very intricate contract.
03:43I wouldn't call it a dispute, but restructure.
03:46So it took time to make, to get to where both sides feel like we've, it's a win-win.
03:54And so, you know, we had discussions in minicamp and kind of knew that it could draw a little bit
04:02just because there was other people on the table that, you know, obviously, a lot of pressing needs.
04:09So, you know, I didn't, obviously, I didn't think it would go this long, but, you know, it is what it is.
04:16We actually retained a really good rapport during the whole time I was away.
04:23Williams did say that once Ricky Pearsall was shot, their wide receiver, he wanted to be with him,
04:28and that's one of the reasons why he rejoined the 49ers.
04:31All right, let's get to some college football news here and some notes here.
04:35Victoria Bowles, she survived that fatal car wreck that killed a University of Georgia football player
04:40back in January of 2023.
04:42She settled her claims against the school, but she's keeping her lawsuit against Philadelphia Eagles
04:48defensive lineman Jalen Carter alive for the time being.
04:52Jaden Ott probable going into the weekend for Cal.
04:56They play at Auburn.
04:57Auburn 13-point favorites.
04:59Iowa State's Caleb Bacon is out following surgery, and he is going to miss some time,
05:05and there's a chance he could return later in the season.
05:08Welcome back to Newswire.
05:09Time for us to head over to the library in Michigan to join our friend Pat Evans from Legal Sports Report.
05:15He's back with us for another round of sports betting talk, legalization talk,
05:19and got some news on an offshore sports book as well.
05:22Pat, great to catch up with you here again, and great to see you.
05:25Thanks for coming back on the show.
05:27Great as always to be back.
05:28It's never adult time with you, Craig.
05:31No, it isn't.
05:32It is never adult time.
05:33It looks like more books, by the way.
05:34Are you adding books to that library, Pat?
05:36Yes.
05:38You'll notice right over here there's even more.
05:41My wife and I like to read.
05:43Some might say it's a problem, but I don't because I write for a living.
05:47An understatement of the year you like to read, understatement of the year looking there.
05:52But let's not indict him for that.
05:54I mean, it's great to read.
05:55I agree with that sentiment.
05:57All right, Pat, well, I read your column over at Legal Sports Report last week.
06:00What is going on here in Missouri?
06:01I mean, this is like it feels like we get closer, we get further away from the legalizing sports betting here,
06:07and we know that there are some people that do not want sports betting there,
06:10but it does feel like the push continues, but there is a lawsuit that is currently in the way of some of this.
06:16Tell us more about it.
06:17I don't want to ruin the story before.
06:18Yeah, of course.
06:19To set the tone of it, I mean, we have to remember that the last three years there's been legislative pushes
06:25to get sports betting over the finish line and legalized in Missouri, and it just hasn't happened,
06:31largely because of one senator, Denny Hoskins, who's wanted to tie video lottery terminals to the legislation,
06:38and nobody else wanted to do that.
06:39So it fell short.
06:40Well, Bill DeWitt III from the St. Louis Cardinals was like, we've got to do it a different way.
06:45He started, with all the other professional sports teams in the state,
06:48a giant ballot petition to get it on the ballot less than two months away.
06:53Well, here we are, two months away again, as I just said,
06:56and we've got a lawsuit challenging the certification process of that ballot petition,
07:03and it's kind of a mystery of who's behind this.
07:06We know there's two Democratic consultants who are the plaintiffs in this case,
07:12but they're backed and led by a Republican attorney.
07:17He's the chair of the Republican Lawyers Association, National Lawyers Association.
07:22So that's a strange bedfellows.
07:25He's done a lot with the Missouri Gaming Association, which represents the casinos in the state,
07:31which has been kind of quiet in terms of this whole ballot petition.
07:35And now this lawsuit, it has not issued a statement around either of them.
07:40And so this is just a kind of a big question of who's actually behind this,
07:44because there's some kind of interesting bedfellows here.
07:47The hearing is tomorrow, the first hearing, at least.
07:51Maybe there could be more or it could be settled tomorrow.
07:53We'll find out.
07:55And we'll go from there.
07:56I mean, there has been industry talk before the lawsuit.
08:00Multiple sources had told me that Caesars and Penn Entertainment weren't very happy
08:05with how the ballot language was set up because rather than how it was in the legislation,
08:11where each casino gets a couple skins, now only the casino operator gets one skin.
08:18And that's interesting because Penn and Caesars both have three casinos in the state.
08:23And then you look at there's two standalone licenses,
08:26which you have to assume would probably go to DraftKings and FanDuel.
08:29So you're taking away the tethering.
08:31And that's a whole thing.
08:32But there's no connection between them and the lawsuit, at least as of yet.
08:36It would be completely unfair to them to say they are at this point.
08:41So anyway, it's going to be a very interesting day tomorrow and potentially the next two months
08:45as we get to see who's going to vote or if Missourians will get to vote at all,
08:50because if they don't win it, then it'll go off the ballot.
08:53Right. Yeah, I mean, that's really the key.
08:55But it does feel like at least on a follow-up to your story, as far as the polling is concerned,
08:59this is the strongest support that the polls have shown.
09:03We've seen previous polls from people in Missouri, you know,
09:06more than 50 percent of people wanting sports betting there.
09:09But it seems like that number is climbing as we continue to talk about it.
09:13Yeah, it's been fairly kind of 50-50 the whole time.
09:16But the latest poll is very strong in terms of that 50 percent.
09:2050 percent fully support it.
09:23Then another 21 are kind of undecided.
09:26And it was kind of an interesting go to the story at Legal Sports Report.
09:29We break it down a little bit more from the St. Louis University and YouGov poll.
09:34But, you know, overwhelming support from men.
09:39Democrats support it quite a bit more than Republicans, but not too bad.
09:43I think Republicans were about 44 percent. Democrats were 58 percent.
09:47Urban areas, Kansas City, St. Louis, very much for it.
09:52But once you get out to the rural areas and, again, the data kind of showed that people who make more money
10:01and people who are more educated are for sports betting, which was kind of an interesting takeaway for me.
10:07But, yeah, right now, the professor who was kind of behind it said this looks like it's a no-brainer.
10:13It'll get passed in November.
10:15Again, that's dependent on this hearing tomorrow potentially.
10:19But, yeah, as you said, the numbers right now are really a good situation.
10:24Yeah, stronger than they've been is fair to say.
10:27And I think that it's also fair to say as we get closer here, the more we talk about a state getting sports betting legalized
10:34as a possibility, it seems like the stronger chance there is, even if not now, but maybe for the future.
10:39All right, so let's close it out here with this story that I'll never understand.
10:43Still to this day, I don't get it. I don't understand it.
10:46You can try and explain it to me.
10:47There are offshore sports betting sites that have been around for decades.
10:53And even with the legalization of sports betting, they continue to operate illegally overseas everywhere.
11:00So there's a story that you guys have up over at Legal Sports Report.
11:03I'm trying to understand this one.
11:05Louisiana is not happy that a company called Bovada, who's been around as long as I can remember,
11:11are operating illegally in their state, as they are operating illegally in every state.
11:16So there is a cease and desist.
11:18What does this even mean?
11:20Like, okay, like they've got a cease and desist, but like none of these operators offshore ever abide by these.
11:27So what is different about this?
11:29Well, see, that's kind of the interesting part is, to your point, for a while it didn't seem like it was making any difference,
11:35that they were sending these cease and desists or telling these companies to stop operating.
11:40But this is just kind of the latest state that I think is starting to make a change in how this is happening.
11:50Earlier this year, we saw Michigan, my state, Michigan up here, send a cease and desist to Bovada
11:54and a bunch of sweepstakes companies last year, a couple other illegal operators, and they've shut down, including Bovada.
12:02Bovada now has shut down in, I think it's 11 U.S. markets, 10 states and D.C., from states, regulators,
12:10sending a cease and desist saying you can't operate here anymore.
12:13And this kind of goes back, I think it was two years ago, the American Gaming Association sent a letter to Bovada,
12:19or to the Attorney General, saying can you help us crack down on illegal sports betting or illegal gambling operators from offshore?
12:27That was followed up last year by Michigan regulators and I think seven Sinead states to the Attorney General saying the same thing.
12:36We need help. Well, then Michigan started doing it. We've seen West Virginia do it.
12:40We've seen New Jersey do it. We're seeing Massachusetts do it.
12:43Louisiana, just the latest, Charles Hebert, the new Louisiana Gaming Control Board Chairman,
12:50talked about it a little bit at his meeting last month and said, you know, we've seen a lot of states do it.
12:55It's working. We want to make sure that our consumers are protected, that our markets are protected,
13:00that we're a regulated, safe market that creates taxes and maintains consumer protections.
13:05And as of right now, we haven't seen Bovada pull out of Louisiana, but I wouldn't be fully surprised if they do.
13:11Just based on the recent activity, you know, they just pulled out of Ohio last week or last month.
13:17So, yeah, really interesting. To your point, during the commercial break, you mentioned or you said, you know,
13:23this is something we're probably going to battle for the next 20 years. It might be forever.
13:27You know, those operators continue to pop up. They find loopholes in different regulations to make it so they don't necessarily break any laws.
13:38Bovada fully is an offshore illegal market, but there's plenty of gray market, as we call them,
13:43where they're kind of fitting through the regulations.
13:46So, yeah, this is something, to your point in the break, is something we're going to be dealing with for a long time.
13:51So this is not the last story I'm sure we'll talk about CNDs.
13:54And by the way, Bovada, if I'm not mistaken, operates under Bodog outside of the United States, I think,
13:59and they could just change the V to an N, and now they're Bonada and still just operating.
14:04Honestly, like, I don't know. I get it, and I understand them trying to stop these companies,
14:08but, you know, if they're operating offshore, I don't know how you do it.
14:12I'm not trying to advocate it. I'm just saying.
14:16Anyway, all right, Pat, great to catch up with you. Good stuff. We'll catch up with you again soon.
14:20Thanks, Craig.