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00:00Let's get started with a couple of sports betting stories, and unfortunately, we'll begin in the
00:03state of Georgia, where it does not appear any progress is going to be made toward legalizing
00:07sports betting this year. We could put this thing to bed. Discussions come to an end for 2025.
00:13No sports betting bills were called to the House floor, so the House or Senate have not passed
00:17sports betting in Georgia. The only time that this could potentially come to pass would be now 2026
00:23in the next legislature. So in 2026, it could happen, but Georgia will not be one state to
00:29legalize sports betting this year. Meanwhile, an interesting story coming here from FanDuel,
00:33as there are some concerns with these prediction market operators. I guess that's a fair way to
00:39say it, not necessarily sportsbooks. And this is surrounding this company called CalShi,
00:43which is a prediction betting business. And I don't even know if you would call it betting,
00:47they call it prediction. But needless to say, essentially, you are trying to predict the outcome
00:52of something. CalShi, very popular as a company for somewhere where you can actually try to
00:57predict the presidency of the United States and a lot of other things as well. You know,
01:01different award ceremonies, the amount of people watching certain things on television. FanDuel
01:06seems to have a pretty big problem with this because they have a report that basically says
01:10they're scrutinizing the markets. Nevada regulators took a big step against the sites with cease and
01:15desist in Nevada on Wednesday. FanDuel is also saying similar that they don't really know how
01:19this is going to end and will it even end well. Here is their statement on the prediction market
01:25business such as CalShi. While we believe that they are well positioned to compete
01:29with new entrants in the sports betting and gaming markets, our online betting and gaming offerings,
01:33the dynamic is evolving and we can't assure you that the results of operations will be adversely
01:37affected by the expansion of legalized online gaming and betting. Prediction markets are a
01:45little bit dicey and a little bit different because they're not necessarily based on the
01:49outcomes of actual games. I think that's why this is in play. So stay tuned. We'll see if
01:53these things continue or not. One thing that is continuing, that is the success of the Los Angeles
01:57Lakers. They win again last night. 113 to 109 in overtime over the Knicks. The Lakers have won
02:02eight straight games. This trade for Luka has worked out in a big way for them. He had 32 points
02:06last night. LeBron James had 31. The Knicks basically have had a great season but they can't
02:11beat anybody good. They're 40 and 22. Just keep losing against teams like Cleveland, Oklahoma
02:16City, Boston and LA. Meanwhile, needless to say, J.J. Redick after the game talked about the great
02:21defensive effort and the effort from not just his stars on the Lakers but the secondary players
02:26as well. A night like tonight when it felt like a lot of things didn't go our way and it wasn't easy.
02:38It often can come from your non-stars and you know I thought Jackson's defense in the second half,
02:45uh, game shot making was huge. I mean, the game doesn't make those four degrees,
02:52you know, we're not even in the game. I think for the group overall,
02:57once we reached their level of effort and how hard they were playing,
03:07we were right there and we all felt that in the second half. Again, it goes back to the poise
03:12thing. You make a run, you get it to eight, they go back up to ten or eleven. You make a run,
03:19you get it to seven, it goes back up. Our guys just stayed the course and refused to give in
03:26and let go of the rope. It seemed like Brunson had an answer for everything and he was fantastic
03:34tonight and our guys, what felt like a playoff game at times, really just got it out of the way.
03:43The Steph Curry road tour continued in Brooklyn and my gosh has this been a great road trip for
03:49him. Curry had 40 points again last night. The Warriors finished their road trip four and one
03:56and they beat the Nets 121-19. Jimmy Butler also stepped up in a big way. He had 25 points. In case
04:04you're keeping tabs, the Warriors are 10-2 since Butler entered the starting lineup back on
04:10February the 8th. But naturally, it has been the Curry show and Steve Kerr, the head coach
04:17of the Warriors, talked about how dominant he has been on the road. Steph just had an incredible trip.
04:25Put on a show in every city. What he does, it's amazing. Just the show that he puts on,
04:35the joy that he brings to so many fans who are coming to see him play in all these different
04:40cities. Every fan base loves Steph and there's a reason. He's an incredible performer.
04:49Your record usually indicates a good team. The style being
04:58dominant on both ends of the floor in different ways. There's all type of data that's indicative
05:05of if you're like top 10 in both offense and defense, you're usually in that contender category
05:11and we have been since the trade. So that's positive, but you take all of that but you just
05:22have a belief every night that you can win and then you just keep doing that over and over and
05:26over again. And then when you get in a playoff series, which we hope to be in, you just commit
05:34to winning. I think everybody's on the same page. The biggest thing is just understanding your role
05:39and what you do and how it impacts winning and everybody.
05:43The Warriors right now, one of those teams nobody's going to want to play in the NBA playoffs. Same
05:47could also be said of course for the Boston Celtics. They beat the 76ers pretty handily
05:51last night. 123-105 Jason Tatum had 35 points in this game. Peyton Pritchard has been a really
05:58solid player for Boston this season. He had 19 points as well. The story of the game though
06:01was Derek Whitey had 12 points, but it came after getting his teeth knocked out during the game.
06:08I don't think they'll grow back. Here's Derek White.
06:39You knew right away. Yeah, luckily they were like right there and I picked them up.
06:46Then we went to the back and I was trying to debate how I was going to go back and then
06:54got some glue and I put the mouthpiece on and we're good to go.
07:01Did all of them come out?
07:03How many teeth?
07:07So these four are like connected. It's like a bridge. I think it's what the dentist people
07:13call it. Shout out Boston Dental. I'll see y'all tomorrow by the way. And so that fell out.
07:23Well, I guess in some way Derek White's got to figure out his teeth moving forward. All right,
07:28Cincinnati Bengals have a lot of contracts to give out this offseason. We know Jamar Chase
07:32maybe T. Higgins is another. I guess they've decided to trade and is the one that they're
07:36going to have to part ways with. He is seeking a trade. Bengals are going to let it happen. He's
07:40one of the best offensive rushers in the NFL. He had 17 and a half sacks last season. He's looking
07:45for an extension. Probably not going to get one given what Cincinnati has to do. So look for
07:49Hendrickson to potentially get traded. Dan Lanning has reached a new six-year deal. He's going to
07:53continue to coach the Oregon Ducks. Mitch Morse has retired after playing 10 seasons in the NFL.
07:58He recently played with the Jaguars. And now the Jaguars have decided not to release Christian
08:03Kirk. Instead, they're going to trade him to the Houston Texans. Meanwhile, Bobby Wagner has signed
08:08a one-year deal with the Washington Commanders. He's made the proposal 11 times. The Browns have
08:12restructured Deshaun Watson's deal. They cleared $36 million in cap space. Okay. And the Browns
08:20owner, by the way, has said he's not going to meet with Miles Garrett. So who knows if he'll get
08:23traded or not. Grapefruit League action coming your way in Major League Baseball. One o'clock
08:26Eastern, we'll see Vladimir Guerrero Jr. back on the field for the Jays. He recently told ESPN
08:31Sportist that he rejected a $600 million contract extension. All right. Sam McQuillan is with us
08:38from Legal Sports Report. Actually, a pretty big surprise from one of the bigger sports betting
08:41companies, BetMGM. We're going to get to that here in a minute. But first, let's touch on the very
08:46latest on John Tay Porter, who's known Sam for only one thing, and that is betting his own props.
08:51It's the only thing this guy is ever going to be known for for the rest of his life. Sorry to say,
08:56made a very big mistake. He's going to get sentenced at some point. I wonder what the delay
08:59is here, though. Like, don't they have enough evidence here? I mean, they just still, I mean,
09:03it seems like there's other stories that are not about John Tay Porter, but some of the same
09:08individuals in this sort of betting ring. Maybe that's what's holding it up. Yeah, it's a really
09:13sad story, especially given the fact that his brother is Michael Porter Jr. And if he hadn't
09:18done this, he probably would have just been known as Michael Porter Jr.'s brother, who barely played
09:23in the NBA, bounced around in a few teams. But sentencing for former Toronto Raptors center,
09:30John Tay Porter was delayed this week again. It was actually supposed to happen last December.
09:36He was supposed to be sentenced for admitting to fixing these two games or manipulating his
09:41performance on these two games, alerting essentially this ring of illicit bettors
09:47that he was going to fake an injury, bet my unders on all my player props. It'll cash.
09:51It did cash. It got caught pretty quickly when the sports books say that he's the most bet guy,
09:58somebody you never heard of. It's going to set off some red flags. But this is the second time
10:02a sentencing has been delayed. And to your point, Craig, we don't really know why. It could be a
10:06number of things. Originally, when it came out, it's the only thing that we knew was that he was
10:13involved in these two games and, you know, this illicit betting happened. But now we've had this
10:18recent string of college scandals. It's been about nine games so far in the past two months that
10:25federal authorities have flagged as also potentially part of this gambling ring that
10:29Porter was involved in. So while Porter's already admitted to doing this, this could be a case where
10:34they want to gather more information about more individuals involved now that it seems to be a
10:39much bigger operation than we originally knew. And we're still apparently there's still going to be
10:45more college games to come that have been involved in this kind of big scheme. Whether
10:49Porter was involved in the college games that I don't think that would be likely, but he might
10:53have more information about these people who were involved. This could also just be a procedural
10:58delay. You know, it's no secret that the wheels of justice grind very slowly in America, and it can
11:05take a long time to get things done. The NCAA is still doing their investigation with the federal
11:10authorities. So Porter right now is just waiting. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison for this
11:16crime. You know, obviously, the NBA has made an example out of him banning him for life. But I
11:21would be surprised if he got 20 years, I think two, two and a half, three and a half years is more
11:27more likely in this case, but definitely a warning story for any athlete who, you know, thinks about
11:33doing this kind of thing. And we keep hearing about the possibilities of some of these things
11:37happening in college basketball now as well. Okay, so there's a story up on Legal Sports Report
11:43about BetMGM and their company laying off employees in New Jersey. If I'm not mistaken, Sam,
11:50there was a story that we talked about earlier in the week with a potential tax hike in New Jersey
11:56as well. So I'm sort of reading between the lines here. And I guess you could tell me if I'm wrong.
12:00Are they just not happy with the revenue that's coming in in New Jersey? And did they just take a
12:05big hit when New York legalized sports betting? Because I just thought that there was enough money
12:08to go around here. But it certainly seems like the market is changing in the Garden State.
12:15Yeah, you're not you're not completely far off. But it's not in it's not so direct in terms of
12:20hey, New Jersey is thinking about hiking up their tax rate. So we're going to lay off people there.
12:25It's sort of symptomatic of what every state is doing. It's not just New Jersey who's talking
12:29about raising their tax, the whole overall environment of sports betting is becoming
12:34increasingly more and more expensive. And to compete with the top players, you have to spend
12:39a lot of money. And the taxes are certainly involved in that a lot of companies are advising
12:44that we're going to have an impact from the possible tax rates in Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey next
12:49year. But this past year was a year of investment for a bet MGM, they have about 6.5% of the market,
12:55which is third place in the country. But it's really nothing compared to FanDuel and DraftKings,
12:59which have 77%. And their mission is to compete with FanDuel and DraftKings. So in order to do
13:04that, this past year, they spent almost $300 million on purchasing technology that would
13:10essentially make their product better to try to compete with those sportsbooks. They spent a lot
13:14of money on rolling out more features in Nevada, as well as across the country. And also, you know,
13:19we've talked about it a bunch of times before, it was a really bad NFL season for the sportsbook.
13:24So when you combine that along with the tax headwinds, these companies are kind of, you know,
13:29investors are telling them, hey, maybe we were spending too much money in this past year,
13:32you got to look for ways to trim the losses. Now, bet MGM has not come out and exactly said
13:37why these employees in Jersey City are going to get eliminated. I mean, I have to feel for them,
13:43there's 83 employees at this office who are going to be eliminated, and they don't know when it's
13:47or they don't know who they are, it's going to happen in sometime in May. The only reason we
13:51know about this is because there was a filing with the Department of Labor in the state. But
13:55surprising because bet MGM again, has been one of those companies that's been able to spend so much
13:59and been able to compete because they have MGM resorts backing them, they have a lot of money.
14:03So now that we're seeing one of these very large players look for ways to trim, you know,
14:06trim losses, especially at their headquarters in New Jersey, which was a very big, very big thing
14:12when it came out in 2018. Very big office, big, you know, drum up with the state and everything.
14:16It's definitely concerning. So definitely have to feel for these employees and figure out how
14:19bet MGM is going to kind of try to reverse course going forward with all these losses.
14:24Yeah, a good point symptomatic around the country with sports betting. I mean, we've,
14:29you know, sort of topped out the amount of states and maybe, you know, in a way, the amount of
14:33employees that you could potentially have if no new clients are coming in, that could mean employees
14:37are going out. All right. Well, we've covered Sam this story over and over again, over the last few
14:42years, I guess we're going to do it again here today. Sports betting has been online in Mississippi,
14:46one of the first states to legalize it, have it in person, and they have not been able to get
14:50online sports betting going. There's been fights with the casinos. They simply put,
14:54they want people to go in there in person. Is there any change in that view? I know they keep
15:00talking, but every time it feels like it gets close, it goes the other way.
15:05Yeah, well, if we're not going to run out of states to talk about anytime soon, we're probably
15:09going to keep talking about Mississippi, keep talking about Georgia, keep talking about Minnesota
15:12for a couple of years to come. It makes reporters like myself, it gives us more to cover, more to do.
15:17But unfortunately, it's been the same story in Mississippi. Although this bill was advanced,
15:23this bill they have that would legalize online sports betting. It did make it out of a key House
15:29committee ahead of a deadline this week. So it's still alive. There's still hope for it.
15:33But it's not looking great because the changes that were made to this bill would kind of conflict
15:38with what happened in the Senate, which is already kind of rejected. So this bill has passed the
15:42House already, which is pretty far. It's a good significant milestone in terms of wanting to get
15:46online sports betting legalized. But in terms of what happened this session, it's not looking great
15:52because the Senate has been sort of so resistant to it. Mississippi, of course, was one of the
15:57first states that legalized sports betting back in 2018. But their casino industry has been very
16:03resistant to changing it from just in person to bringing it online. So you have a lot of appetite
16:09for online sports betting in Mississippi. And it's only going to keep growing every year. I
16:13think there was a poll that came out pretty recently. I think about 77% of respondents
16:18said they're in favor of legalizing online sports betting, which then the politicians take to the
16:22floor and say, hey, the people want this. But of course, they don't just serve the people.
16:27There's also a very big casino industry. So as far as states that are completely eliminated,
16:32I wouldn't put Mississippi in that category yet. There's still some time to get this done.
16:37We'll see if they can make any kind of concession with the casinos. Online sports
16:40betting is obviously only going to get bigger and bigger. The argument is it's happening anyway. You
16:44might as well legalize it. But it's not shaping up to be great for their prospects this year.
16:51We'll see if it happens maybe next year, maybe the year after that.
16:54Yeah, we never know, Sam, with Mississippi. Always keeping a close eye on them.
16:58All right, Sam, have a good weekend. And thanks again for coming on. We'll catch up again next
17:02week. Yeah, thanks, Greg. You too.