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00:00On the heels of, as we know, the Florida Panthers winning back-to-back in the NHL,
00:05the winter sports are now done. The champs have been determined, with OKC
00:09really feeling validated, I would imagine. Sam Presti, of course, the general manager of that
00:16team, and the stockpiling of draft picks over the last decade-plus in his nearly two decades,
00:22with the organization dating back to the time in Seattle, obviously, has built, rebuilt,
00:28retooled along the way, and everything finally comes to fruition with what was, including
00:35playoffs, an 84-win season for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and led by the man you're looking at on
00:42your screen, SGA, Shea Gilders-Alexander, who is only the fourth player in NBA history to win
00:49all of these things in the same season. We're talking NBA Finals MVP, regular season MVP,
00:56Western Conference Finals MVP, and oh, by the way, if that wasn't enough, the scoring champion
01:02as well. He joins, of course, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, elite company,
01:11and he is in disbelief. This team, led by, of course, SGA, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren,
01:18so on and so forth. Mark Dagnall, the head coach, a great group. SGA and Dagnall, they are just,
01:26again, the key word is feeling validated.
01:30So much stress relieved. Like, no matter what, like, you go into every night wanting to win,
01:38and sometimes it just doesn't go your way. And tonight could have been one of those nights,
01:42but we found a way. I'm so proud of this group. I wouldn't have rather done it with any other group
01:47in the world. It feels good to be a champion.
01:50I'm just so happy for the guys. I mean, this is an uncommon team. This is a great team. You know,
01:57all the boxes that this team checked this season, it's a historic team. But there's no guarantee that
02:04you end it the way that we did. And so I just wanted it so bad for them. And I was just so
02:11thrilled that we were able to get that done and they get to experience this because they deserve
02:16it. You know, the way they approach it, the professionalism, competitiveness, team first nature.
02:23I just, like I said, I wanted it so bad for them.
02:27On the one side for Oklahoma City, jubilation. On the other for Indiana,
02:31what ifs that are going to follow that organization for years and years to come.
02:36That is because Tyrese Halliburton, the superstar of the Pacers, who got off to such a hot start to
02:42game seven with nine points in only seven minutes, went down writhing in pain. You could see watching
02:49the game, the imagery of the calf popping and Achilles injury, the third significant Achilles injury
02:57here in this postseason. Damian Lillard first to the Bucs, then Jason Tatum of the Celtics and now
03:03Halliburton. In a game, the Pacers somehow found a way to stay composed, to stay locked in, to stay
03:10eye on the prize, even led this game by a point at halftime in OKC before a third quarter that was
03:17just debilitating. Eight turnovers in that quarter alone for the Pacers leading to almost 20 points
03:24off of turnovers. The Thunder opened it up and essentially never looked back. Even still,
03:31that organization, Rick Carlisle, the head coach, Pascal Siakam, the other star on that team, just
03:37gutted by the Halliburton injury.
03:40What happened with Tyrese is
03:41just all of our hearts dropped, but he will be back. I don't have any medical information about
03:54what may or may not have happened, but he'll be back in time and I believe he'll make a full recovery.
04:04So, he authored one of the great individual playoff runs in the history of the NBA.
04:14I mean, I think that's amazing and obviously, I think because of the way we do it and, you know,
04:22it's not the most popular way, you know, in the NBA where, you know, it's all about stars and,
04:26you know, teams can, the team concept can get kind of put to the side and, you know, we kind of show
04:33that you can be a team, you know, and go out there and fight and everyone play together and you have
04:39an opportunity to win. Obviously, we didn't do it. We didn't finish it. And again, there's no more
04:44victory, like, but I can say that, you know, like, we are happy that, you know, there's some people
04:51that can look at us and be like, yeah, we like team and we hope that that can set a trend for,
04:56you know, the days coming forward. And again, yeah, shout out China.
05:00We are very much in the parody era of the NBA. This is nine different championships in a dozen
05:06years since Adam Silver became commissioner. Just to contrast that, David Stearns, 30 years,
05:12three decades, and yet we saw only eight champions. Just consider that for a moment. Who will it be next
05:18year? Maybe the Houston Rockets. Kevin Durant, again, is now a member of the Rockets. He was
05:24actually traded in the middle of the Fanatics Fan Fest yesterday and took interviews on the spot.
05:30You look at the breaking news from Sham Sharani from ESPN, that tweet on your screen and the details.
05:37Again, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, two starters for that Houston team previously going to Phoenix,
05:42the number 10 pick in the upcoming draft on Wednesday. Five future second rounders. A haul
05:50for a 37-year-old who is still admittedly one of the best players in the NBA. We are going to discuss
05:55that a little bit later on with Coach James Young, but the Rockets go from in the vicinity of 18-1 to
06:01win the championship to around 8-1 is where they sit right now. Of course, the Oklahoma City Thunder,
06:07the now defending champions, are the favorites entering next year, and it's hard to imagine
06:13that changing unless, of course, there is some monumental move for either a team like the Cleveland
06:20Cavaliers behind them or OKC. But I don't think OKC is shuffling up its roster anytime soon with what
06:26they've got going on there right now. Over at the Travelers Championship, meanwhile, as we switch over
06:32to golf, Keegan Bradley, the Ryder Cup captain, victorious. You have to continue to feel for
06:38Tommy Fleetwood. He has roughly a dozen wins under his belt, none on the PGA Tour, and it seemed like
06:46this was going to be the opportunity. He had a three-stroke lead with only four holes to play,
06:52and then we see a meltdown from Fleetwood and the win, as you see there, from Keegan Bradley,
07:00who, of course, is a past PGA Championship winner and now picks up yet another win on the tour.
07:06Some baseball notes as well. The Phillies took two of three from the struggling Mets who really
07:11cannot get out of their own way, and so with that, Philadelphia, of course, leads the National League
07:17East. We will talk more about them. Raphael Devers got his revenge against his old Boston Red Sox,
07:23homered against them over the weekend, and 9-5 winners yesterday. The Giants against Boston, led by
07:30Elliot Ramos, drove in four runs for San Francisco, so not a great trip out west for Boston, who's somehow,
07:37some ways, still in the thick of a wildcard spot in the American League, but, you know, struggling to hang on,
07:45obviously, with respect to the ALEs, still sitting five, six games behind the New York Yankees, who
07:52they rallied four-two winners against the Orioles yesterday. Jazz Chisholm with a big hit there in the
08:00eighth inning to help lead a comeback for, again, that four-two victory to take two of three out of the
08:05open. Welcome back, everyone, here on Newswire, and obviously, we've been talking a little bit of
08:11baseball, a little bit of football, lots more basketball to come, but as we always like to
08:15work in, our friends from Legal Sports Report, we bring in Pat Evans here to help us all get a
08:20little bit smarter, if we're being honest with ourselves. Pat, how are you? I'm great. How about
08:25yourself? Doing well, and let's start a little closer to my neck of the woods than yours, you being
08:32in Michigan and me being here in New England. Let's talk about what's going on in Maine with
08:36the online casino, and of course, a bill that, you know, is making strides, as you've written
08:42about, but also there are a lot of different things that could kind of torpedo this along
08:47the way. So what's the latest? Yeah, so Maine's an interesting market when it comes to gambling
08:51and online casinos specifically. It's been talked about. You know, it got shot down fully last year
08:57by both chambers. This year, the House started up the discussions, and of course, it would legalize
09:03online casino operators to partner with the four tribal nations up in Maine. Sports betting
09:10went live in 2023, and three of those tribes partnered with Caesars, and another partnered
09:15with DraftKings. So it's not a very vibrant, I mean, small population in the first place,
09:19but not a super vibrant full market in terms of operators. But the House introduced this bill
09:25earlier this session to legalize online casino through those tribes. It was tabled, so it kind
09:31of felt like nothing was going to happen. But eventually, it just kind of got picked up
09:36past the House. The Senate kind of punted it a little bit, finally said, all right, let's
09:40get it, you know, and pass it, and let's see what happens. Now, Janet Mills, the governor,
09:45is kind of a roadblock. She's kind of not super friendly to gambling issues. She let the sports
09:53betting bill pass a few years ago for different sovereignty reasons for those tribes, not because
09:59she's a fan of gambling. So her veto is the big looming thing that everybody's pointing to. But
10:06there's another small step, and that's not really a small step. Anything that has a fiscal note and
10:10contributes to the state's pockets goes to this thing called the appropriations table, where it's
10:16a small committee of members from both chambers who get to say yes or no, or make some amendments.
10:21And weirdly enough, only 10% of the bills that go to the appropriations table get off the
10:28appropriations table. So really, we're at a small chance that this is going to get through. But
10:34passing both chambers is a big step. And for a year that we've seen very little movement by any online
10:40casino legislation, this is still a pretty significant step. So it'll be interesting to see
10:45what happens on this appropriations table, and if it gets off there to see what Governor Mills does.
10:50But again, huge step for online casino this year in an otherwise pretty lackluster legislative session.
10:57Well, we see, obviously, it's happening much slower when it comes to online casino gaming in terms of
11:04the legalization across the country. Significantly slower than that of sportsbooks. But in California,
11:10obviously, it's a situation where we don't have either one at the moment. And so when it comes to
11:15California and the, I don't know, I just just the growth opportunity to potentially open up some
11:20doors for other states that are a little more hesitant that are, you know, kind of sitting back
11:24and saying, you know, a little follow the leader, we'll do what you do, given that you are obviously,
11:29you know, such an enormous state when it comes to online casino in particular, and the, you know,
11:35the tribal gaming coalition, all things involved there, when it comes to California,
11:39what do you suppose next steps are?
11:42Yeah, so California, of course, is a just a humongous market when it comes to any US state,
11:47everybody wants in. And there's this major roadblock in the tribes, the tribes there control
11:54everything, they have exclusivity and the constitution for gambling. And this is where you're
11:58finding some loophole operators. First, a couple years ago, DFS 2.0, or you know, where you get to
12:05basically use your parlay bets in the underdogs and the prize picks. You know, New York Senator
12:11Joseph Adabo has recently said, you know, these sweepstakes operators, and we'll get to New York
12:15in a second, have found loopholes around kind of, they're called gray market gaming that you get to
12:21kind of figure your way out around all the gaming regulations and still get to offer basically casino
12:27gaming. And these sweepstakes operators have been seeing a wave of action, you know, more than 16 states
12:33have sent seasoned assist letters, because they found them a ride of the gambling laws. And in
12:40California, now we've seen a bill introduced to prohibit these sweepstakes operators, which of
12:47course, are dual currency. So, you know, you've seen the ads around, including with Ryan Seacrest and
12:52Paris Hilton, that they you can play them for free with free coins, or you can eventually buy these
12:59coins and then use those game coins to bet on sports or casino gaming. And then you can exchange
13:06that for real money. And that's the loopholes that they use to get around. This bill would ban them
13:12and various payment, payment processors, financial institutions, geolocation services, and the like,
13:19from working with these sweepstakes operators and carry penalties and whatnot. The tribes in California
13:26are behind this, they've long been vocal against these sweepstakes operators and their way in.
13:31And so we'll see what happens in the legislature, but it seems like it will get plenty of discussion
13:36because of the tribal backing and kind of the way California is a major market. And you're even
13:44seeing last year, we saw the sports betting alliance and the tribes come kind of together and call for
13:50action against these sweepstakes operators. And if you know anything about California gaming, you know,
13:54those two parties don't get along. They went at it hardcore a couple of years ago in an election
13:59that saw online sports betting get voted against at the poll hugely because of the funding from the
14:07tribes. So a very interesting market to your point. And it'll, it potentially could set framework for
14:13states like Texas and Florida, Florida being a tribal sovereignty, tribal exclusive state in Texas,
14:20just having nothing like California to kind of take that. And if you include those two states and
14:25New York, that's more than 50% of the population. And so the sweepstakes operators would dearly miss
14:30those as revenue opportunities.
14:33Well, and you mentioned New York, not obviously one of the biggest states, but one of the most
14:37significant in this conversation. And when it's New York and you can bring in Louisiana, Mississippi,
14:44some of these other states that are, you know, regularly now sending out these like cease and
14:49desist letters and banning the, the online gaming and, and just all that is involved in it's sort of
14:58modeling up and slowing down the process. What is next here for, for some of these, I don't know if
15:05swing states would be the right term, but some of these states that, you know, can certainly,
15:09you know, change the conversation substantially. Yeah. New York, of course, there's nothing to
15:15sneeze at with New York city and that's a massive market for sports betting operators, which are now
15:20legal, of course. But yeah, again, entering this legislative session, Senator Joseph Adabo was very
15:27adamant about let's figure something out about these sweepstakes operators. And at the same time,
15:33he also introduced online casino language to legalize, you know, legitimate online casinos.
15:38Now the online casino language, as we mentioned in Maine has been slow, you know, that hasn't gotten
15:43any legs in New York, but this sweepstakes operator prohibition bill did gain lots of legs past both
15:50the Senate and the general assembly. And now we're waiting the governor's signature. And that just was
15:55the beginning of a bad week capped by the California legislation that also included those, uh, seasoned
16:01assist letters from, uh, the Louisiana gaming control board, which that was 40 of them. And it wasn't
16:07just to sweepstakes operators. It was to offshore sports books like Bovada and bet us and things
16:13like that. And then another 10 from Mississippi. And then, yeah, that's again, just adding to the
16:1816 or more States that have sent season to assist letters to these offshore illegal, essentially
16:23illegal operators saying, you know what, this is something we, we don't want. And that's, it's
16:28interesting because New York is now the fifth state to see a legislator pass this prohibition of it.
16:33Louisiana was one of those five governor, Jeff Landry vetoed it saying that Louisiana gaming
16:38control board has the power to enforce gaming as it is. And that's when you saw those 40, uh,
16:45seasoned assist letters come out. So yeah, this is an interesting market. You're seeing lots of
16:49headwinds against even regulated gaming. So the tightening of these unregulated gaming operators
16:54is, is no, not really a surprise. So needless to say, none of this will be resolved at all quickly.
17:00No, not at all. Yeah. It takes a lot of time. Obviously make sure you check Pat out
17:07on legal sports report. Pat is on Twitter, by the way, at Pat Evanson, you know, just continuing to
17:13unpack the legal complexities of all of this, whether it's the online gaming casino sweepstakes
17:19with obviously all that goes into DFS and sports betting and everything that these kind folks from,
17:25uh, legal sports reporter kind enough to join us on a regular basis.
17:29So Pat, thank you so much. We'll do it again soon.
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