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00:00Let's begin with a sports betting story that I have a feeling is going to take a hold of
00:04all of college basketball, given the fact that this story was reported yesterday.
00:08Federal authorities are currently investigating a player in college basketball for alleged
00:14point shaving.
00:15We haven't heard this in 20, 30 years.
00:16In fact, I remember when I was in college the last time this came up, but this is legit
00:22in terms of the reporting.
00:23If indeed this comes to pass, Temple men's basketball player Heiser Miller, this is the
00:29key name to keep an eye on in the future, bet on his own games and manipulated the outcome
00:33of games when he was playing for the Temple Owls, according to sources with direct knowledge
00:39of the situation in this reporting from Pete Fammel.
00:42Miller, who is Temple's leading scorer last season, transferred to Virginia Tech during
00:47the offseason, but he was dismissed last month by the Hokies because of this investigation
00:52and inquiry into Temple's games.
00:54A regular season Temple game drew attention for unusual betting activity last March.
01:00So let's keep an eye on this story.
01:02Naturally, these are not the ones that we want to hear with sports betting in all of
01:05college or pro sports, but this will be the first big one in college basketball, at the
01:10very least for this year.
01:12All right, last night, it was a fun game to watch.
01:15I understand it wasn't the best offense and the players were struggling and the weather
01:18definitely affected things, but my gosh, it was a snow game on Amazon Prime where the
01:23Cleveland Browns end up beating the Pittsburgh Steelers despite almost giving the game away
01:28late 24 to 19 the final.
01:31So the Browns win is an outright dog of three and a half and the game did indeed go over
01:35the total yesterday.
01:37Jameis Winston ended up rushing for a touchdown.
01:40That was the key moment in the game.
01:42So they end up picking up the win and also a couple of touchdowns from Nick Chubb was
01:47the key to this one as well.
01:49If the weather was better, maybe the Steelers would have had better fate, but you can't
01:52look back.
01:53You can only look forward.
01:54Jameis Winston, quarterback of the Cleveland Browns after the game, asking fans to drive
01:59home safely.
02:00How fun was that?
02:01That was beautiful.
02:04It was beautiful for these fans, man.
02:06I appreciate everybody that came out here in these conditions and I just pray that everyone
02:12gets home safely.
02:13All right, please celebrate.
02:14All right, but please get home safely.
02:15Jameis, on your touchdown, how close were they to getting in?
02:16What did you see?
02:17I saw the end zone, I felt great protection and I just was moving forward and we found
02:32a way to get in there.
02:33Jameis, what's the mindset after a couple of turnovers in the fourth quarter?
02:34They take the lead.
02:35You guys obviously need to score early.
02:36What's going through your head today?
02:37Well, every time I come up here, I say one play at a time, one play at a time.
02:47And that is so important and we exemplified that.
02:50That is one play at a time.
02:52We stick together, we fight for each other and we found a way.
02:54Yeah, Winston may have earned a backup job again in the NFL next season, maybe even a
02:59starting job.
03:00Who knows which direction the Browns are going to go?
03:02All right.
03:03Also, the flip side of that was certainly the play of the Pittsburgh Steelers offense.
03:07Russell Wilson, not his best game, probably a quarterback of the Steelers, so much so
03:11that Mike Tomlin went to Justin Fields a couple of different times during that game.
03:16Let's hear from Russell Wilson after the game, talking about his performance and also
03:19George Pickens, wide receiver of the Steelers, apparently not all that impressed with the
03:23Browns.
03:24You know, I think that we all as a team, you know, we're trying to make plays, we're trying
03:29to do different things.
03:30Obviously, we have trust in Justin too and what he can do and what he's capable of and
03:34everybody.
03:35You know, listen, I always want to be in there, that's just the competitor in me.
03:40But at the same time, you know, I think that, you know, like I said, we have great trust
03:44in Justin and our team and our coaches and everything we were doing.
03:47So we should have won that game.
03:49We felt like we battled, we fought our butts off and, you know, it was a tough environment.
03:57Obviously, we wanted to win this one.
03:59Unfortunately, we came up short.
04:00You guys try to take away from this loss, what's the message in the locker room?
04:05Just keep grinding.
04:06Like I said, conditions played a huge, huge part in today's game.
04:11I don't really think the Cleveland Browns are a good team at all.
04:14I think the conditions kind of saved them today.
04:17Well, those two teams are going to play against each other again in a couple of weeks.
04:22We'll see how the Browns respond to that.
04:24All right, let's get to college basketball last night.
04:27One of the most exciting games we've seen thus far in the first few weeks of the college
04:30basketball season, a game between St. John's and Baylor.
04:34In case you missed it, Jeremy Roach is the hero for the Bears.
04:37He hit a game-winning three-pointer with no time left to end up beating St. John's
04:43in double overtime.
04:45St. John's was up by two with under five seconds left, but missed a couple of free throws.
04:52Scott Drew used a football reference as to how they ended up winning that game in the end.
04:56Yeah, we came up with the blitz package when we saw that football lineup.
05:00So, no, it's a great, great way to get the ball in bounds and our guys executed what
05:07we wanted done and we wanted to get a trap, wanted to get a steal, didn't get it, but
05:11obviously got the foul.
05:13And then the big thing was getting a shot up and, I mean, Jeremy's a winner.
05:22We got a culture of joy, Jesus, others, yourself, and as he stated up here, players trust him,
05:27we trust him.
05:28Make or miss, I'm proud that we battled back to have that chance because when it was six
05:35or four or six, whatever it was in that double OT, I mean, we could have gone away at that
05:40point and Vijay hit a huge three and then from there executed well.
05:51The future of the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg already in doubt, can't play there next year
05:56because of the damage that was done by the hurricane.
06:00Will they get a new stadium built?
06:01That seems to be in doubt as well.
06:03Yesterday, the city council approved $23 million to repair the Tropicana roof, but
06:08then the president of the Rays said that the deal for a future stadium is dead and no longer
06:13makes economic sense for the team.
06:15And they also said that they didn't know if repairs for the trap made sense either, considering
06:20they're trying to build a new stadium.
06:22Then all of a sudden they did a reversal on the money saying they're no longer taking
06:25the loans to repair the trap.
06:27At this point, the future of the Rays in the area in serious doubt, old stadium, new stadium,
06:33all in doubt going into next year.
06:36No doubt who the MVPs were in the American League and National League.
06:39It was Shohei Ohtani in the NL, Aaron Judge got the winner award in the AL, unanimous
06:45for Shohei Ohtani.
06:47So congratulations to him and Aaron Judge wins his second MVP.
06:50No surprise there in the AL and NL as award season comes to an end.
06:54The National Football League is alerting players to be on the lookout for burglars.
06:59A lot of burglaries going on lately, especially in Kansas City to, of course, Patrick Mahomes
07:04and Travis Kelsey, Brock Purdy, we're going to have to keep an eye on him this week against
07:07Green Bay.
07:08He's missed some practice time this week.
07:10He did practice yesterday late, limited, but he has a sore shoulder.
07:14We'll keep an eye on him going into Sunday and also Jair Alexander could miss more time
07:18with a torn PCL, probably not going to play against the 49ers on Sunday.
07:22Boston Celtics sales seems to be moving forward, lots of interest in selling the team.
07:26We've been hearing about this approximately for a year, hasn't got done yet.
07:30Paul George going to miss two games with a bone bruise.
07:34Sixers have just two wins on the season.
07:36Cade Cunningham exited a loss yesterday.
07:39The Pistons lost 123-121.
07:40He has a hip injury, his status in doubt for the weekend and also Franz Wagner hit a game-winning
07:47three-pointer with two and a half seconds left as the Magic beat the Lakers 119-118.
07:52Recruiting season, of course, going underway in college football.
07:56We have a couple of flips to tell you about from yesterday.
07:58Number one recruit, Bryce Underwood, is now going to Michigan.
08:02He was supposed to go to LSU, 6'4", 210-pound passer.
08:07Five-star quarterback Julian Lewis is going to play for Coach Prime in Colorado.
08:12Aaron Philo goes for an 18-yard touchdown, 22 seconds left, very exciting college football
08:16game last night.
08:17Georgia Tech defeats NC State 30-29.
08:22Purdue 13.5-point underdogs to Michigan State tonight.
08:26That's one of several college football games before we get to some of the big ones tomorrow.
08:30All right, welcome back to Newswire.
08:31We got Sam McQuillan from Legal Sports Report in the house.
08:33If you want to learn more about all of the topics we discussed, go to legalsportsreport.com
08:38and you can check all the info out there.
08:40Let's bring in Sam.
08:41And hey, Sam, we know we had this huge betting scandal in the NBA with this player Jontay
08:46Porter surrounding some of his betting props.
08:49I hate to see this though in college sports, specifically college basketball with allegedly
08:55a player shaving points on a major university.
08:59I thought we were going to get through the end of the year without one of these, but
09:01here we are.
09:02Yeah, just a couple of weeks into the college basketball season already with the first major
09:09scandal you've seen really in college sports in terms of sports betting.
09:14You have the former Temple basketball player, Highshear Miller, allegedly under federal
09:19investigation for an alleged point-shaving scandal that took place last year.
09:24ESPN broke this story yesterday that the feds are apparently investigating whether Miller
09:28bet on his own games and manipulated the outcome of multiple games he participated in.
09:35Miller was the leading scorer on Temple last year, but he transferred to Virginia Tech
09:39in the off season and was actually suspended before the season even started, hadn't played
09:44a game for the Hokies because of this investigation.
09:47They said it was something that happened before he was at our university.
09:50It actually leaves Virginia Tech pretty thin at point guard as the college basketball season
09:55really hits its full stride.
09:57This was, according to the ESPN story, this was first kind of alerted this company called
10:02U.S. Integrity, which is this firm that exists exactly for this reason, to monitor suspicious
10:08betting activity, works with the sportsbooks.
10:10They were alerted by several sportsbooks last year.
10:13There was a game against UAB in which the line moved from Temple minus two to Temple
10:19minus eight in like just a few hours before tip off, which is really kind of suspicious.
10:24Usually a line doesn't move by that much in college basketball unless there's huge injury
10:29news or a huge suspension that comes down.
10:31That didn't happen with that game, so a lot of sportsbooks stopped taking money on the
10:35game altogether.
10:36UAB won big 100, 272, and Miller finished with eight points on three of nine, shooting
10:42with three turnovers.
10:43The next day, Temple released a statement saying it's now reviewing suspicious betting
10:47patterns, suspicious betting activity.
10:49Temple's president came out yesterday and sent a post to the letter addressing students
10:54and faculty, acknowledging the situation, acknowledging pretty much there's something
10:58going on that involves a guy who's no longer at the school.
11:03And this investigation goes bigger than just the UAB game, according to all the reporting,
11:08though.
11:09The same bettors who placed these big bets on UAB in that game last year reportedly had
11:14been placing bets against Temple all season, mostly the first half spread, mostly the first
11:20half total.
11:22Smaller things than just a big point spread, things that maybe you can manipulate easier
11:27in college basketball.
11:28That's why you have the history of point shaving, where let's win, but let's not try to win
11:33by too much, or let's make sure we don't lose by a certain amount.
11:37And to your point, Greg, this is the first major investigation we've had in a couple
11:41of months in the sports world.
11:42You had Jonte Porter was just banned from the NBA for life for admitting to manipulating
11:48games.
11:49Last year or earlier this year, actually, you had Iowa and Iowa State baseball teams
11:53involved in sports betting scandals.
11:56So this is kind of becoming commonplace in the industry, catching these things.
11:59It's no longer the earth shattering thing we were talking about back when Calvin Ridley
12:03was getting suspended.
12:05Will this kill gambling altogether?
12:07But it's sad to see it pop up, especially in college sports when you're talking about,
12:12essentially, kids here.
12:13So we'll have to see more of what comes, but definitely not over in terms of the investigation.
12:19Yeah. And I know that Netflix did that documentary on the Arizona State basketball team from
12:241994. I'm dating myself, but I remember that vividly when that happened and hearing all
12:30about that. And you wonder, is this the biggest one since then in college basketball?
12:34Because that was absolutely huge at the time.
12:36Again, sports betting, not legal at that time either.
12:38All right. So let's get to the very latest here.
12:40Draftkings facing a fine, it would appear.
12:42Again, you can read about this over at LegalSportsReport.com, and this is surrounding a
12:46credit card funding in terms of accounts.
12:49So I know that some folks are trying to do this, and I know that this is frowned upon.
12:54So what exactly did Draftkings do wrong here?
12:58Yeah, some states allow you to fund your betting accounts with credit, with a credit card.
13:03Massachusetts doesn't. They're actually the first state to specifically pass a regulation
13:07saying we're not going to allow credit card funded bets.
13:10But people have found a way around it, especially at Draftkings.
13:14There was this hearing this week.
13:15It was last at seven hours, and the commission has really kind of become known for these
13:20lengthy hearings. It actually continued an earlier hearing talking about the same issue.
13:24But Draftkings came out and said this, you know, we had over a thousand bets that were
13:29funded with credit cards over the past year, about 218 accounts and $83,000 were placed
13:35with credit cards. Essentially, these people found a loophole where they would go out of
13:39Massachusetts, go to a state where you can fund your Draftkings account with a credit
13:44card, and then drive back to Massachusetts and place the bet there.
13:47DK executives came out and said, you know, we misinterpreted the regulations wrong.
13:52We didn't necessarily think that because we had to because somebody placed it in another
13:58state, we had to do something to prevent them from using it in Massachusetts.
14:01A lot of these apps have moved to kind of this one shared wallet where if you do something
14:06in one state, it interacts with the other state.
14:08So that seems to be kind of what happened here.
14:10They said that they addressed it internally, kind of closing this loophole.
14:14But then, you know, as people always do, especially with the Internet and especially with
14:17bettors, they found another way around it where they were then funding Draftkings pool
14:22contests with credit cards.
14:24It's separate from the sports book.
14:26So maybe, you know, some lack of oversight there.
14:29But they came out and said, you know, that's on us.
14:31We didn't we did.
14:32We should have given more strict protocols here to kind of prevent everything that
14:36happened. Commission, not very happy about that.
14:38Some commissioners, you know, really hammering into them.
14:41If you have a problem with the regs or you don't know how to interpret things, you need
14:44to come to us and ask.
14:46So this isn't the last we've heard of the story.
14:48You know, the commission could do pretty much whatever they want.
14:51These circumstances, they could kick Draftkings out of the state.
14:53But I don't think that's under any circumstances can be what happens here.
14:58I'm sure there are some who would like to go further, but probably what's going to this
15:02is going to result in is some requirements that they do certain oversight on this issue
15:07and then maybe a big fine sort of slap on the wrist kind of thing.
15:11But, you know, the commission has been pretty, you know, pretty hardcore, pretty gung ho
15:16in terms of regulating sports betting versus all the other states.
15:20So we'll see where they ultimately end up.
15:22But at the end of the day, probably not a huge, huge story here.
15:27OK, sneaky people going out of the state to fund with credit cards.
15:30I mean, you wouldn't think that that would happen, but I guess people will try anything to get over.
15:34OK, let's get to the very latest on sports betting handle share.
15:38And this is from quarter three.
15:39Let's take a look here.
15:40And it's and Sam, I know you sent this out yesterday on social media.
15:44Draftkings and FanDuel still very much at the top, FanDuel a little up, Draftkings a little down.
15:49I guess to me it would be super concerning for ESPN bet the fact that they're only at two percent
15:55market share here. But I guess there's good news in the silver lining that they're up one point two percent in the third quarter.
16:00But my gosh, like they have I would think that they've got to get higher than this in twenty twenty five.
16:06Yeah, it all depends how you look at it, how you want to spin it.
16:09On the one hand, ESPN that only had two percent, which was five among all operators.
16:14But on the other hand, they doubled it from the previous quarter, which probably comes because they just launched in New York.
16:20So they've expanded their market, expanded the people that they're now catering to.
16:25Now we're going to they're probably going to hope to see the bets follow that along.
16:29My big takeaway here was the Draftkings had 40 percent last quarter, which is pretty, you know, it's usually FanDuel who's leading the way.
16:35And it's usually not 40 percent.
16:37It's usually closer to thirty eight, thirty seven than neck and neck.
16:39But they're already kind of losing ground here as we see the NBA season get underway.
16:44FanDuel actually talked about this in the last earnings call that while we might have lost some ground to Draftkings in the first
16:50quarter, our NBA product is superior and we're going to make up for it.
16:54And we're already seeing that play out.
16:55We've also seen Draftkings talk about the need to, hey, we did so great with the dominance in football.
17:00Now we need to see it translate over to the NBA.
17:02So I think this could result in some more experiments, some more offerings for people who like to bet the NBA, whether it's
17:08Draftkings and FanDuel as that kind of becomes the latest battleground sport between the two top companies here.
17:14All right. Got it, Sam.
17:15Have a great weekend.
17:16Thanks again for coming on.
17:18Sounds good. Thanks, Craig.
17:20All right. Jordan Schultz reporting on social media that Daniel Jones, quarterback of the Giants, not just bench, not just
17:26third or fourth string, been released.
17:29Jones yesterday did a press conference for the media in New York thanking them for for all the things through the years,
17:35teammates, coaches, et cetera.
17:37Maybe that was a precursor.
17:39He knew he was getting cut.
17:40He did today.
17:40Jones is gone from New York.