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00:00So stick around as we got a lot to cover here on the program and we will start off with
00:08very big news in the world of sponsorships and RSNs and sports wagering because guess
00:14who is taking over Diamond Sports' sponsorship package?
00:18It is going to be FanDuel.
00:21So what does this mean?
00:22Diamond Sports currently owns several of the regional sports networks, although they have
00:28decided to part ways with several of them, but any that are currently named Bally Sports,
00:34as you see there, are going to turn over to FanDuel Sports according to a court legislation
00:41hearing that was done yesterday.
00:43In fact, this could happen as soon as next week.
00:45So those of you who have these RSNs named Bally Sports, look out.
00:49They're going to be called FanDuel starting next week.
00:53Very interesting development there.
00:55Now let's get to some Major League Baseball action.
00:58Yesterday the Los Angeles Dodgers spoiled the return of playoff baseball to Citi Field.
01:03In fact, Kike Hernandez hit a home run and so did Shohei Otani.
01:08The game was not even close.
01:09Walker Buehler did his best job and did his, what, 2019 impression, 8-0 the final as the
01:16right now Dodgers have a 2-1 series lead.
01:20They play another game today and it feels like an important one for the Mets.
01:25They're going to be up against it certainly with the Dodgers pitching staff now getting
01:28a little bit stronger and their top pitcher going later today.
01:31But first, let's go back to last night as Kike Hernandez delivered the early shot that
01:36put the Mets down several runs and the Dodgers rolled from there.
01:39Here's Kike.
01:40As far as my homer, I knew that I hit it and I thought it was going to be way gone and
01:45I saw Nemo try to jump for it and I kind of panicked for half a second and I don't care
01:52if it was inside the park or a homer to homer, you know, as hitting ninth is a little bit
01:57different than hitting eighth or seventh or eighth with that guy behind me.
02:03We've all seen the difference of the at-bats with runners on base and nobody on so, yeah,
02:10first two bats I was pretty, you know, kind of upset that I didn't, I wasn't able to get
02:14on for him and third at-bat, the whole mentality was to try and get on base and especially
02:19after two strikes, I was trying to battle it to, you know, to put myself in a position
02:25to either get on, like, walk or get a hit.
02:28I swung at a pitch that was probably head high and was able to foul it off and I told
02:33myself to slow down because I caught myself in swing mode and very next pitch he hung
02:39a split and, you know, I was able to get enough on it.
02:43Eight to nothing, the final in the game yesterday, but that game is now gone because the next
02:47game is tonight at 8.08 Eastern time and Carlos Mendoza, the manager of the Mets, certainly
02:52knows how important this one will be at home tonight, although he's got to face off with
02:57Yoshinobu Yamamoto this evening.
02:59Well, we're facing Yamamoto, as far as I know, right?
03:02I think they announced it and when you look at his numbers, he's split and he's pretty
03:05much reversed.
03:06He's been a lot better against lefty, so I would anticipate our righties to be in the
03:10lineup tomorrow.
03:11So those guys that are in there got us to this point, you know, and I'm pretty confident
03:16that they'll come through, you know, and yeah, you're playing playoff and when you're
03:21facing a pitching staff like that, it's going to be hard at times.
03:24We're creating traffic, you know, I like the fact that, you know, we're getting guys on
03:28base, just haven't been able to come up with a big hit, but I'll continue to take my chances
03:35with our guys here and as long as we continue to create traffic, somebody's going to come
03:40up and get the big one for us.
03:42For sure, especially when you're facing a team like this, that's what makes this team
03:45such a really, you know, such a good team offensively because they control the strike
03:49zone, they're not going to chase as much, they don't have guys there that chase as much
03:53and then they can hit the ball out of the ballpark, they can get on base.
03:59So yes, we got to not only get ahead, but we got to continue to stay on the attack and
04:03execute pitches.
04:04If we get behind in counts, they're going to make us pay.
04:07And Jose Quintana will start the game for the Mets.
04:09Then at 5-0-8 Eastern, which is the first game of the two, we find the Cleveland Guardians
04:15with their first home game of the American League Championship Series down 0-2 to the
04:19New York Yankees.
04:20Right now on FanDuel, the Yankees are approximately a minus 120 favorite, so more or less even
04:26the Guardians just plus 100.
04:28Clark Schmidt, Matthew Boyd, that is the matchup today.
04:31You can catch all the action in terms of sports betting and information on it later today
04:36on Pharrell Coast to Coast.
04:38Last night, the WNBA Finals heated up with maybe one of the biggest shots that we have
04:42seen in the WNBA Finals in a long time.
04:45Sabrina Ionescu, 80-77, final score, a 28-foot game-winning three with just one second left
04:55as the Liberty now take a 2-1 series lead over the Lynx.
04:59And in this five-game series, are one game away from winning it all.
05:02The Lynx had a 15-point lead and ended up blowing it.
05:06But Ionescu knew that that was the big shot that won the game and talked about the winner
05:11last night.
05:12Yeah, I mean, I don't, I didn't even really remember it.
05:14I had to go look at the video really quickly to see, like, how far I was.
05:19But I mean, you know, in the timeout, Sandy kind of was just like, you're going to shoot
05:24the shot.
05:25And, you know, I feel like I was able to get a little separation in range and get a really
05:32good shot to go, obviously wanting to let the shot clock wind down and kind of got the
05:37space that I needed to be able to get my feet under me and feel comfortable taking that
05:42shot.
05:43And sometimes it goes in.
05:44Sometimes it doesn't.
05:45But I've practiced that shot a thousand times in my head, on the court, and, you know, I
05:53feel like that's just something that, as athletes, you put yourself in that position to want
05:57to be able to make a shot.
05:58And obviously, like, we don't win this game without Stewie.
06:01I mean, what she was able to do, just continue to chip away.
06:04Obviously, she'll speak.
06:05But I mean, yeah, there's nothing I can say.
06:10That shot's nice, but that doesn't go against what she's been able to do for us tonight
06:15and how she was able to just will us back into that game.
06:18Liberty, one game away from winning it all.
06:21Tonight, Thursday Night Football features two teams that are struggling on offense with
06:26a total of 36.5 in the NFL.
06:29On Thursday Night Football, it is the Broncos and Saints, Denver, two and a half point road
06:34favorites.
06:37It's been a struggle for both teams offensively.
06:39We'll see if they get it going tonight, especially for the new Orleans Saints, who will be without
06:44Chris Olave, their wide receiver.
06:47Also without Rasheed Shaheed, who ended up having surgery.
06:50So get ready to learn some new names tonight for the New Orleans Saints.
06:54One of them may be Bub Means.
06:57Their starting wide receiver tonight played well last week.
06:59Jets interim head coach Jeff Olbrich expects Devontae Adams to play against the Steelers.
07:03No surprise there.
07:05Maybe a little bit of a surprise for the Steelers, who practiced Russell Wilson with their first
07:09team in practice yesterday.
07:11Could Wilson start against the Jets on Sunday?
07:13We will see.
07:14And Malik Nabors back on the practice field, the great rookie wide receiver for the Giants.
07:17He could end up playing this week as well.
07:20Now in college football, the weekday games have just been filled with upsets, and that
07:24was the case again yesterday.
07:26How about UTEP?
07:28University of Texas El Paso defeats FIU 30 to 21.
07:32They were six and a half point underdogs.
07:34Also Western Kentucky beat Sam Houston State in a blowout 31 to 14.
07:38They were getting a point and a half.
07:40Tonight, the BC Eagles and Bill O'Brien, seven and a half point road underdogs against Virginia
07:44Tech with a total of 48 and a half.
07:46Marshall taking on Georgia State after their crushing loss last week.
07:51Their total is 51 and a half in the game.
07:53And also Arizona State has to start a new quarterback this week because Sam Levitt is
07:57out.
07:58Jeff Sims will start for them.
08:00In the National Hockey League, a very big historical moment for Sidney Crosby.
08:04He scored his 500th career goal.
08:07Excuse me, Malkin scored his 500th career goal.
08:09Crosby had 1,600 career points.
08:13Two big moments for Crosby and Malkin, who've been with the team for a decade last night.
08:17Also the Thunder's Isaiah Hartenstein suffered a small non-displaced fracture in his left
08:22hand.
08:23He is going to be out five to six weeks.
08:24Just signed a contract extension with the Thunder.
08:27Also a really strong fall yesterday for Jared McLean.
08:30Hit the court on the ground really hard and was evaluated last night in the game.
08:36And apparently he's going to be okay.
08:37But we will see.
08:38He was the 16th pick in the draft.
08:39Luka Doncic did return to practice.
08:41Still unknown if he's going to play next week for the Mavericks when they open up the season.
08:46Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid.
08:47Let's bring in Sam McQuillan from Legal Sports Report.
08:50He was just a G2E in Las Vegas.
08:51Joins us yet again here on the show.
08:53We'll dive into some sports betting news.
08:55Shaquille O'Neal news as well.
08:56Always like talking about Shaq.
08:57What's going on, Sam?
08:58Thanks for coming on Newswire.
08:59Hey, Craig.
09:00Feeling good.
09:01Good to be back.
09:02All right.
09:03So let's get into this.
09:04I know a big hot topic out at G2E has been these sweepstakes and the potential of a lot
09:09of different operators getting into it.
09:11So let's start off there.
09:13Some of these casinos trying to get involved.
09:15There's some legality involved in it.
09:17Maybe you can dive in a little bit more, explain what this is all about.
09:20Yeah, sure thing.
09:22It's a complicated topic with these sweepstakes casinos, which essentially are the social sports
09:29books or social casinos you see on the App Store that operate in a lot of states where
09:34sports betting or online gaming has not expressly been made legal.
09:39They do so using this model where you can play for free if you write in and ask for
09:45a certain free currency.
09:47So essentially using this old sweepstakes law to kind of skirt around a lot of the regulation
09:53that sports books like FanDuel, DraftKings have to deal with.
09:57So those companies have been pretty angry about that.
10:00And that anger has been growing.
10:02It was a hot topic at G2E.
10:03But now what I think is one of the most significant developments in this space or what could end
10:07up being one of the most significant developments is you have the native tribes starting to
10:13pay attention, starting to weigh in and actually announcing their intention to coordinate a
10:17multi-state effort along with the commercial gaming operators to essentially crack down
10:23on these sweepstakes casinos, get regulators to pass regulations that explicitly prohibit
10:29them, get lawmakers, if needed, to pass laws that would explicitly prohibit them.
10:36So yesterday, these tribal leaders met on this podcast where a lot of tribal gaming
10:43issues are discussed.
10:44It's hosted by Victor Rocha, who is a member of the National Indian Gaming Association.
10:49And he had guests on from the California Indian Gaming Association talking about this
10:54is now brought to our attention.
10:55We're going to try to get the commercial operators on board.
10:59And that's pretty notable considering how powerful tribes have been.
11:03They were the driving force that stopped California from legalizing sports betting.
11:08It was the most expensive ballot campaign in U.S. history, with $150 million being spent
11:13by the DraftKings, by MGMs of the world, the commercial operators.
11:17And it only got 18 percent of the vote.
11:19It was the first state where sports betting was brought to the ballot where people voted
11:22against it.
11:23So that's no small feat, especially in a state as large as California.
11:26And they also prevented sports betting from getting to the ballot in the first place in
11:30Florida.
11:31So these are very powerful tribes in terms of their influence on allowing gaming to happen,
11:37allowing it not to happen.
11:38But it's sort of an unlikely alliance here.
11:41There's an old proverb, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, where the tribes were the ones
11:46fighting the commercial operators.
11:48But now they could be uniting on this issue.
11:50I caught up with the American Gaming Association, who is the industry lobby for the commercial
11:54operators, and they said they'd be more than pleased to work with the tribes together on
11:59this issue to crack down on sweepstakes and other forms of fantasy sports that some states
12:04have determined blur the line with sports betting.
12:07The Sports Betting Alliance, which was behind the California initiative, they didn't commit
12:12to working with the tribes, but they said they're happy to see more attention brought
12:16in this space as well.
12:18Meanwhile, the sweepstakes themselves, they're forming new groups trying to argue that we
12:26need regulation that clarifies we are okay, the law is not being interpreted right by
12:30these groups.
12:31So they're on the other side of this issue.
12:34Tribes obviously don't want their exclusive gaming rights infringed upon and the sports
12:38books want their competitors in this space to pay their fair share.
12:42So I think it's one of the most significant developments in this space.
12:44We'll have to see what this multi-state effort looks like with them coming together with
12:49the commercial operators working with the tribes.
12:51But these are groups that have historically been opposed.
12:54So maybe this can lead to some more work on some more issues as well.
12:57I know FanDuel and DraftKings have been working to mend their relationship with the tribes
13:01as well.
13:02So perhaps California sports betting, perhaps Florida, we'll have to see.
13:06Yeah.
13:07And speaking of FanDuel, I mean, some big numbers coming in in terms of downloads from
13:11them as they're leading the way, getting the most downloads this NFL season for people
13:16betting on sports.
13:17I don't think that's a huge surprise because DraftKings, Sam, is very close.
13:20But I was surprised to see that the third most app downloaded was HardRock.
13:25And with the limited availability that you can bet on the HardRock app, it tells me how
13:30valuable that commodity is here in Florida.
13:33Yeah, definitely, Craig.
13:35The big note there is HardRock jumping all the way up to third place behind FanDuel and
13:39DraftKings.
13:40And DraftKings and FanDuel has about 28% of the market you see there on your screen with
13:441.5 million downloads this season, DraftKings not far behind.
13:48But HardRock jumping in right after they obviously went live last year in Florida.
13:55So it's been a huge state for them.
13:57They've been open to working with other brands in the space.
14:00So it just goes to show you how valuable it's been.
14:03But then you have the other apps like Fanatics, like ESPN, Bet the Newcomers, sort of struggling
14:09to kind of break into that top five.
14:11Pretty notable that Caesars has dropped all the way down to eighth place.
14:15So it's going to be an interesting rest of the season.
14:18It's kind of just FanDuel and DraftKings leading the way right now.
14:21But the good news for the industry overall is that downloads are up 16% on the year.
14:28And they were up 16% last week for the season as well.
14:31So it's really interesting to see more people downloading the apps, even with states not
14:36legalizing.
14:39We haven't had a new state launch in a while, California, or I'm sorry, North Carolina was
14:43the last one.
14:44There's none really on the horizon.
14:46Maybe you have Missouri in the future, maybe South Carolina, but those are years away and
14:50who really knows.
14:51So you're seeing the sports books now focus on making sure their customers are more profitable.
14:57You're seeing that with a ton of parlays being marketed towards them.
15:01And you're also seeing it with the promotional spend.
15:03I think it's really notable that you still have all this growth, right?
15:06When the promos are actually dropping off and they're not giving out the huge $5,000
15:11deposit matches like they did in years past, FanDuel actually talked about that.
15:16In their recent investor day, it's about sending promos to sort of the right people, figuring
15:21out which customers promos are a really good return on investment on and figuring out who
15:27not to send them to someone who maybe goes and downloads the app and, okay, now I'm done
15:32with that.
15:33I'm going to move on to the next book.
15:34Interesting to see all this growth despite the states slowing, despite the promos falling
15:39off and all the newcomers in the space sort of shaking it up as well.
15:43So it'll be really interesting to see throughout this football season, it's obviously the biggest
15:47time of year for the sports books.
15:50Kind of where this goes, I'd imagine FanDuel and DraftKings stay on the top and then you
15:54have these other sort of hard rocks, fanatics, ESPN bet, trying to gain more of a foothold
15:58as the year goes on.
16:00It's definitely fascinating to see, I think, Hard Rock being third there.
16:05I just never would have guessed that ahead of some of these sports betting operators,
16:08but it just shows you the interest level, I think, in Florida and the appetite for it
16:13in sports betting.
16:14All right, a player that used to play in Florida for many years of the NBA, Shaquille O'Neal
16:18with the Magic, Shaquille O'Neal with the Heat, also played for the Lakers, of course.
16:21I think he played for Boston, maybe Cleveland, too, at the end of his career.
16:24I don't remember.
16:25Played on a lot of teams.
16:26NBA season starting and Shaquille O'Neal is now a partner for DraftKings.
16:31I guess this really shouldn't surprise anybody going into the season, because anybody who's
16:35popular who can engage and get more people going, and Shaq definitely, with a lot of
16:39his followers on social media, is definitely one of those.
16:42Yeah, definitely.
16:44It's no surprise that DraftKings, obviously a company with a lot of money, we just talked
16:47about how well they're doing, throwing more money at a big media personality.
16:51What I think is really interesting here is, so Shaq works for inside the NBA, right?
16:56And they have their own contract with FanDuel to promote the FanDuel sportsbook on the show.
17:01Shaq, I mean, you see him in a ton of commercials.
17:04You just listed all the teams he played on.
17:05I think he played on Phoenix as well.
17:07Obviously, he's very well known, but his big platform is on that show.
17:11So you have another case of where there's this guy working for DraftKings, but also
17:15kind of promoting FanDuel's product.
17:18You've seen the same thing with Stephen A. Smith with ESPN, that he does the commercials,
17:22you see his face on a cab, and then you go over to his own show he has, and he's talking
17:25about prize pick selections.
17:27So it's another kind of development in this weird space where all these sportsbooks are
17:31throwing money.
17:32I wouldn't be surprised if eventually down the road, we have it sort of written into
17:36these contracts where, hey, you can't have your own kind of sports betting partner if
17:40we have our own.
17:41It'd be like if I hopped up on the show wearing a different network shirt, it's just kind
17:45of a weird thing.
17:46So we'll have to keep kind of seeing what happens in this space if the sportsbooks become
17:50more keen to this sort of relationship or not.
17:53Yeah, they do.
17:54All right, Sam.
17:55Great to catch up.
17:56Thanks again.
17:57Yep.
17:58Thanks, Greg.