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00:00But let's get started here.
00:01We'll start off with,
00:02remember the month of March
00:03was Sports Wagering Awareness Month,
00:05making sure that responsible gambling was done.
00:08And look at this story coming out of Maryland.
00:09The mayor and city council of Baltimore
00:12have filed a lawsuit against the companies
00:14that you may be most familiar with
00:15in the sports betting space.
00:16It's FanDuel and DraftKings.
00:18They believe that they're in violation
00:20of a city's consumer protection ordinance,
00:22taking aim at these two companies
00:24for what they describe as a two-pronged scheme.
00:27Pretty strong words to take advantage
00:29of Maryland sports bettors
00:31and their customers that have gambling addictions,
00:35talking about, quote, bonus bets
00:38and things of that nature,
00:39targeting people to bet more,
00:41targeting people to use bonuses.
00:43Needless to say, it's really interesting
00:44because this could be a landmark case
00:46if they end up winning.
00:47Talk a lot about responsible gaming.
00:50We'll see if this leads to more of that around the country.
00:52Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Raiders made a trade recently
00:55for a new quarterback, Gino Smith.
00:57You may remember him, bounced around the league a lot
00:59and then revitalized his career in Seattle.
01:01Well, he's getting paid very handsomely in Las Vegas,
01:04two years, $75 million of contract incentives
01:08that could push to a total of 85.5 million
01:11and include $66.5 million in guaranteed money.
01:15Gino is now contractually tied to Las Vegas
01:18through the 2027 season.
01:20Also a new contract extension for a tight end,
01:23arguably the best in the National Football League.
01:25Trey McBride signs a four-year,
01:27$76 million contract extension,
01:30111 receptions, over 1,100 yards
01:33and two touchdowns last season.
01:35In the NBA last night, the Golden State Warriors
01:38beat the Lakers 123 to 116.
01:41Steph Curry's fantastic season continues.
01:44He had 37 points and six assists.
01:46LeBron James, 33 points, nine rebounds,
01:49five or nine assists, five rebounds in the game.
01:51The Warriors are 19 and two
01:53with Steph and Jimmy both playing at the same time.
01:56Needless to say, they're heading into the playoffs
01:58with that tandem and are gonna be tough to beat.
02:00After the game last night,
02:01Steve Kerr and Luka on both sides
02:04talking about that legendary showdown
02:06between Steph and LeBron.
02:08Steph and LeBron performing again at the top level.
02:11Just what's it like to be a part of these matchups
02:12for the last 10 years now?
02:14Pretty special to watch those guys,
02:17you know, and watching them this summer as teammates
02:20gave me an even greater appreciation
02:22for their greatness and really how much alike they are
02:26in terms of their work ethic, passion for the game,
02:30respect for the game, and respect for each other.
02:33So these are pretty incredible matchups
02:37and we should all savor them while they're still happening.
02:40Their switches, we had part of this conversation before.
02:43What did you see from Golden State
02:45and what did you feel like you guys maybe weren't doing
02:47that you then cleaned up in the second half?
02:50I think they were playing good defense.
02:52I think we didn't play with enough trust,
02:56especially me, so that performance for me
02:58is unacceptable, you know.
03:00When I play like that, it makes for the team harder to win,
03:03so just gotta figure that out.
03:07All right, now in the NBA last night,
03:08we may wanna follow this story here
03:10because Ja Morant of the Memphis Grizzlies
03:13had one of his best shots of the season.
03:15It was a game-winning shot in Miami against the Heat,
03:18but along the lines of that,
03:20what's going on with him on the court
03:22with these gestures that have been going on?
03:25Ja Morant has been warned, Buddy Heald has been warned
03:28about these finger gun gestures
03:31that are going on on the court.
03:33Now basically, Morant formed imaginary guns
03:36with the fingers on both hands,
03:38pointing them to the Warriors bench in a game.
03:42And then if you watched the game last night,
03:45you would probably have seen that he may have done it again
03:49against the Miami Heat.
03:50So that celebration did come back.
03:53The Grizzlies win the game, 110 to 108,
03:57but it seems like, at least for the time being,
03:59Ja Morant ain't gonna be listening
04:01to any sort of rules going on here.
04:04Hard to figure with what's going on here in the NBA,
04:07but needless to say,
04:08let's give Ja credit for the big shot.
04:10The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Miami Heat.
04:11Final score last night, 110 to 108.
04:15Giannis makes NBA history as well.
04:16He's the first player in NBA history to have,
04:19get this, 35 points, 17 rebounds, and 20 assists.
04:24Giannis is the third player this season
04:26to have 30 points and 20 assists in the game.
04:29Nikola Jokic, Trey Young, they are the others.
04:32The Knicks get some good news.
04:34They're gonna get Jalen Brunson back this weekend
04:36as they charge toward the playoffs.
04:37They're eight and six without him.
04:38And the Cincinnati Reds somehow have been shut out again.
04:4229 scoreless inning.
04:44They're the first team since 1960 to lose one nothing
04:47three games in a row.
04:48Yesterday, it was Nestor Cortez shutting them down.
04:52The Reds may wanna grab a few torpedo bats
04:55if that seems to work.
04:57I don't know.
04:58I think this torpedo bat thing may be going away quickly.
05:00All right, Red Sox and Orioles.
05:01It was a limited slate yesterday.
05:03The Red Sox end up winning this one.
05:05Tanner Houck, four innings pitched, five hits,
05:07three yard runs.
05:08Raphael Devers did get a hit.
05:10Home run for Alex Bregman.
05:12His first one as a member of the Boston Red Sox.
05:14Christian Campbell, Tristan Casas, also homered.
05:17And the Red Sox take the series by a final score
05:20of eight to four.
05:21After the game, Alex Cora talking about
05:24how the offense eventually will get going.
05:26No, I mean, we will hit.
05:28We will hit.
05:29It's just a matter of time.
05:31You know, when you see Rafi getting locked in,
05:34Alex hit the ball in the air to the poolside.
05:36You know, KC and then Casas.
05:39You know, it's a tough group, you know?
05:41And we hit some balls hard throughout the night.
05:44We struck out a lot too.
05:45But, you know, overall, it was a good game.
05:48Yeah, you know what?
05:49I was watching the Rangers
05:50and they threw two shutouts in Cincinnati.
05:52So let's give him credit, you know,
05:53for what they did against us.
05:55They do a good job over there.
05:56But here, little by little, the at bats were better.
05:59JD didn't cash in, but hit the ball hard to left center.
06:03Carlos put some good at bats.
06:04So overall, a good one.
06:07We came here, won the series, and now we go home.
06:10And we got to play good baseball over there.
06:13It's opening weekend in a lot of different cities.
06:15The cold weather cities played on the road last week.
06:17They're going to be back at home this week.
06:19All right, Yankees end up beating
06:21the Arizona Diamondbacks nine to seven.
06:23It was not Zach Allen,
06:24so they seem to do well against Merrill Kelly.
06:26Aaron Judge ended up homering.
06:27He had four runs driven in.
06:29Jazz Chisholm's also off to a great start.
06:31He homered as well for the Yankees.
06:33And Jazz, after the game, talking about the MVP.
06:36Aaron Judge, what's left to be said at this point?
06:39Is this type of great performance?
06:42Aaron Judge.
06:43That's my answer to it, Aaron Judge, you know?
06:45Like I said, he's showing everybody why he's MVP
06:49and one of the best baseball players to ever play, man.
06:52Think of last year, you did, what, 58?
06:55Or something like that?
06:57And had a bad first month?
06:59So imagine right now what he's about to do, you know?
07:02I'm just trying to keep up.
07:04Jazz said he told you he wants to be you when he grows up.
07:07What is your answer to that?
07:08Well, I told him I was going to catch him
07:09and stole him bases this year.
07:11So I think we're both trying to be each other,
07:13but it's going to be a good year.
07:14You know, we're going to go out there
07:15and continue to push each other.
07:16I think everybody in this whole clubhouse, you know,
07:18is striving to be great, you know,
07:20especially after the last season
07:21where we weren't able to finish the job.
07:23Just guys are motivated to go out there
07:25and do something special and it starts every game you play.
07:29It starts in that first at bat and you gotta do something.
07:33Yankees back on track.
07:34Not as much offense in a game
07:36that we expected a lot of yesterday
07:37between Colorado and Philadelphia,
07:39but it ended up being a pitcher's matchup
07:41with Antonio Sensatella and Tyjuan Walker.
07:44It was Walker that threw six scoreless innings
07:46as the Phillies win three to one
07:48and they have swept the Rockies in Philly, by the way,
07:50off to one of their best starts in franchise history.
07:53Also yesterday, the Houston Astros
07:54saw their new free agent signing come through.
07:57Christian Walker homered as the Orioles win in Minnesota.
08:00It was the twins' first game of the season at home.
08:03Welcome back to Newswire.
08:04Sam McQuillan is with us from Legal Sports Report.
08:06We'll dive into the latest in the NCAA tournament.
08:09A lot of favorites winning,
08:10what that means for sports bettors,
08:11and also will we ever see sports betting legalized
08:14or even come close in the state of California?
08:16Sam, welcome back here to Newswire.
08:18Let's start off with our biggest story of the day,
08:20which emerges from the state of Maryland.
08:22We know that March was Responsible Gaming Month
08:24around the country and it seems like
08:26we have a story percolating from this,
08:27which by the way, you can read about
08:28over at legalsportsreport.com.
08:30It appears that the state of Maryland,
08:32not too happy with some of the advertisements
08:34or maybe in just saying it another way,
08:36the pushing of sports bettors onto their site,
08:39at least in their eyes.
08:41Yeah, this lawsuit comes from actually
08:43the city of Baltimore,
08:44so separated from the state of Maryland,
08:46which legalized sports betting a few years ago
08:49and it's been one of the biggest states
08:50where sports betting has happened.
08:51They get a lot of money there,
08:52but it comes from the city of Baltimore.
08:54The mayor as well as the city council
08:56filed this lawsuit yesterday,
08:58which kind of came as a surprise
08:59to pretty much the whole industry as far as I know,
09:03alleging that FanDuel and DraftKings
09:05had been engaging in deceptive and unfair practices
09:09under the city's consumer protection ordinance.
09:11The suit targets these two sports books specifically
09:14saying that they knowingly exploited vulnerable residents
09:19that deal with gambling disorders.
09:20It essentially outlined a two-pronged plan
09:22where they will issue bonus bets and promotions
09:25out to different users.
09:26And then the other part of the plan
09:28is collect about 186 data points about their activity,
09:32about how likely allegedly they are
09:34to become problem gamblers and then how to exploit them.
09:38So this is some serious stuff.
09:40It's the first city we've ever seen
09:41file this kind of lawsuit.
09:44It's very interesting that it only targets
09:45FanDuel and DraftKings.
09:47The people who filed the suit said
09:49that that won't necessarily be the case,
09:51but you're kind of the victim of success sometimes.
09:54These are the two biggest faces in the space.
09:57They certainly dominate in Maryland
09:58like they do in the rest of the country.
10:00So they're the target of this lawsuit.
10:02It comes at a strange time.
10:03You have the Federal Safe Bet Act
10:05has been floated about in Congress a little bit,
10:07which would kind of address some of the complaints
10:10in this lawsuit, some of the use of AI
10:13to track certain aspects of how it better works
10:16and target them.
10:17The suit also alleges that Flutter, which owns FanDuel,
10:21has a ton of consumer protections in the UK
10:24that they don't use in the US.
10:25And it's kind of saying, why don't you use that here?
10:27They want more protections for their constituents.
10:30It seeks undisclosed monetary value.
10:32So we don't know how much money
10:33they would really be trying to recoup
10:36for not only the practices,
10:37but also sort of back pay in doing it as well.
10:39FanDuel and DraftKings have not put out a comment yet.
10:42As far as I understand, they're caught off guard.
10:45They're still trying to figure out how to respond to this,
10:47but it's definitely big news.
10:48We'll see what happens going forward.
10:50It could lead to maybe some other cities following suit
10:52or it could go nowhere.
10:53That's always the case with this stuff.
10:55Yeah, and I think so.
10:56And again, it's just a matter of seeing
10:58if there's any teeth behind this sort of thing
11:01that the city of Baltimore is doing
11:02and how far they're willing to push the other way.
11:04Meanwhile, we're trying to push things going here
11:06in the state of California to get sports betting legal.
11:08We know that this is gonna be a major issue
11:11in the next few years, Sam,
11:12because again, you also have the tribes involved.
11:14I'm still optimistic eventually this will happen
11:16and they'll get it together.
11:16I mean, if Florida can get their act together, Sam,
11:18with the tribes, I believe that California can too.
11:21Any progress there?
11:23Yeah, California has been one of those states
11:25that everyone's been waiting on and hoping for forever.
11:28A couple of years ago,
11:29you had the failed ballot initiatives
11:31where both sides spent over $400 million on a campaign.
11:34They got about 16% of the vote,
11:36which was just embarrassing, frankly,
11:38if you have the industry.
11:39So since then, the sports books have been trying
11:42to negotiate with these tribes.
11:43And California is a really interesting case
11:46because there's over a hundred tribes in the state
11:48and they don't often come together and agree on things.
11:51So not only do you need to get to agree with the tribes,
11:54you need to get them all to agree with each other.
11:56But there was some significant progress made this week
11:59at a Indian gaming trade show in San Diego
12:03where representatives
12:04from the Sports Betting Alliance Tribal Advisory Council,
12:07which is comprised of some key tribal members in the state
12:11representing sports books like FanDuel, DraftKings,
12:14BetMGM, and Fanatics, they met with tribal leaders
12:18to discuss a framework of a plan
12:20that would legalize sports betting in California.
12:23It would be fully and totally tribally owned,
12:25which is a big, big component here.
12:27The tribes have control of gaming.
12:29So they have basically been the roadblock
12:31to letting it happen.
12:32They won't let sports betting happen
12:34unless they have full control.
12:35So that's a big part of it.
12:36And it would also be fully commercially funded.
12:38So the $400 million that the sports books forked over
12:42on their failed ballot campaign,
12:43they would be funding all the money in this case as well,
12:46trying to get this back on the ballot,
12:48this time under an agreement with the tribes
12:50that doesn't cut them out.
12:52This was only the first step
12:53was kind of floating this plan out there to them,
12:55but I'm told that the tribes are receptive,
12:58but the tribes are very much wanting to maintain it.
13:00They wanna go at their own pace.
13:02We will move when we move, we act differently.
13:06So one of the components here could be
13:08that accelerates things is prediction markets,
13:10which we've talked about a bunch.
13:12If those are in California
13:14and essentially sports betting is happening there anyway,
13:17the tribes kind of lose some leverage there
13:19unless something happens federally,
13:21unless the state takes action,
13:22which I don't think is likely.
13:23So that could be the case
13:24of where it's pushing them more in this direction,
13:26where they then have to work with the sports books,
13:28but it would bring a lot of money to the tribes,
13:30which is also something they really care about.
13:32It's an $8 billion market conservatively.
13:35It could be even more when it legalizes.
13:37The sports books would be sharing revenue with the tribes,
13:39essentially doing all their operations
13:41and forking over a percentage directly to the tribes,
13:44which could be life-changing for some smaller ones.
13:46They get about $1 million in federal payments right now
13:49that could balloon to $10 million a year,
13:53and for the larger tribes,
13:53even way more money we're talking about here.
13:56Yeah, you would think at some point it would happen.
13:58We're still waiting on that.
14:00All right, we got the results in from the NCAA tournament.
14:02Basically, Sam, no matter what happens the rest of the way,
14:05as we would say that this is a chalky NCAA tournament,
14:07we have all four number one seeds playing in the final four.
14:11Fair to say throughout the NCAA tournament,
14:13especially through basically the first weekend,
14:16not a lot of upsets and the favorites more or less winning.
14:19We know how that goes in the National Football League
14:22and in college football as well.
14:23When the favorites win, the public wins.
14:25Was that the case in this NCAA tournament as well?
14:29Yeah, well, first of all,
14:30I remember we talked off camera, Craig,
14:31before the tournament started
14:33and you recommended betting all underdogs.
14:35That'd be a good strategy.
14:36And normally you'd be right that normally that works,
14:39but this year, to your point, it has not.
14:42This is the first, only the second ever time
14:45we've had a final four comprised of all number one seeds.
14:48Going into the tournament,
14:49the odds for Duke, Auburn, Houston, Florida combined
14:54were all the shortest they've ever been for any final four.
14:57So it's been another historic run of favorites.
15:00They went 21 and 0 leading up to the tournament.
15:04So it's been curious for the books to handle,
15:07different than football where typically,
15:09eventually favorites will lose.
15:11In March Madness,
15:12typically the public likes to back a Cinderella,
15:14but this year there has not been a Cinderella
15:16that's really formed.
15:17So the public has just been betting on the favorites
15:19and the favorites have been winning.
15:21It's the same case right now where Duke and Florida
15:23are drawing heavy action.
15:24They represent almost 50% of all the futures bets
15:28on the NCAA title at the sports book.
15:30So they're definitely still rooting
15:32against the favorites here, but it's been difficult,
15:35especially when you're talking about coming off
15:37of an NFL season, which was historically bad.
15:40You had 10 weeks of at least 75% or more favorites winning,
15:45which in some cases it cost Fandul about $650 million.
15:48It was felt by the entire industry.
15:50So they were hoping probably
15:52for a much better March Madness.
15:54You know, college basketball is one of the biggest,
15:56it's one of the biggest times of the year
15:58to bet for the sports books.
16:00So they're gonna hope for a much better final four,
16:02but so far it's been very difficult for them,
16:04kind of just weathering the storm,
16:06but this kind of thing happens in sports betting,
16:08but it is very unusual to have such the bad NFL season
16:12followed up by what's so far shaping up
16:14to be a really bad March Madness for them as well.
16:17But when betters win more, they tend to bet more.
16:20So the books are hoping it all eventually
16:22will shake out in their favor.
16:24If not, you know, we could be talking
16:26about something else in a few months
16:27when we have the NBA playoffs and the NHL playoffs
16:30to reap a lot more money there.
16:32Yeah, the books will be fine.
16:33I guarantee you there's a lot more sports to bet on
16:37and they'll keep doing it.
16:38And by the way, I'm gonna double down.
16:40Remember this next year, Sam,
16:41when we hit the NCAA tournament again,
16:43all the money that you lost betting on the dogs,
16:46do it again, next NCAA tournament,
16:48two years in a row, unprecedented.
16:50I don't know if I'm gonna look at you, Craig.
16:52You can take somebody else's advice.
16:54That's why I'm on this show
16:55and not on some of the other shows.
16:57Sam, thanks for coming on Newswire.
16:58I really appreciate it.
16:59And we'll talk again next week.
17:01Thanks, Craig.
17:02Have a great weekend.