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00:00But the big news in sports, of course, happened last night as we inch closer to the college football playoff.
00:06Some more clarity as far as the top 12 teams in the playoff are concerned as the rankings were revealed yesterday.
00:13Although this doesn't give a full indication because we have conference championships this week.
00:17Here is the top 12 and the potential matchups.
00:22Teams that appear to be in the college football playoffs are 1 through 9.
00:26So that would be Ohio State, Indiana, Georgia.
00:30Texas Tech inside the top four, they would get a bye.
00:33That's followed by Oregon, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Alabama.
00:39Those nine spots appear to be secure in the college football playoff.
00:44Now on the outside looking in, at least for the time being, we have Notre Dame, BYU, and Miami.
00:49It is expected that all three of those teams will not make the college football playoff again.
00:54Because we have conference championships and teams are going to qualify for that automatically.
00:58Also on the outside looking in, Texas with a remote chance to get into the college football playoff.
01:04Vanderbilt as well.
01:05Utah and USC will round out the top 16.
01:09So obviously, Friday night there will be some better indication because we've got some championship
01:14college football games.
01:15And then after Saturday, we will indeed know all of the college football playoff matchups.
01:19And then we will have it going into next week.
01:23As far as the bracket is concerned, Oregon would face Tulane.
01:26Ole Miss against Virginia from the ACC should they qualify.
01:30Texas A&M would play Notre Dame.
01:32And Oklahoma, Alabama seems to be a matchup that we will not be able to avoid at this point.
01:37College football playoffs begin later this month.
01:40Now, USF has a new college football coach here in the state of Florida.
01:45And Brian Hartline appears to be in line for the gig.
01:49He's been an assistant coach with the Ohio State Buckeyes.
01:54He'll now become the head coach at USF immediately after the college football playoffs are over.
01:58Helani Satake is staying with BYU.
02:01Despite the interest from Penn State, no one seems to want the Nittany Lions job at this point.
02:06They'll have to hire somebody soon to replace James Franklin.
02:10And also, Lane Kiffin is allowing offensive coordinator Charlie Weiss to return to Mississippi
02:16to play in the college football playoff.
02:19Kiffin says that it will help with their rankings and just securing the fact that they get a good matchup
02:23in the first round of the college football playoffs.
02:26Will the NFL's postseason include the Pittsburgh Steelers?
02:32Still remains to be seen.
02:34They're on a losing streak yet again.
02:35Fans are booing the Steelers, given their offensive output and outcome.
02:40Still have a chance to get in, though.
02:41Got to take care of business against the Ravens this weekend.
02:44A very candid Mike Tomlin says fans should be upset.
02:49It's an entertainment business, and the Steelers are entertaining no one.
02:53You know, in general, I agree with them from this perspective.
03:00Football is our game.
03:02We're in the sport entertainment business.
03:03And so, if you root for the Steelers, entertaining them is winning.
03:09And so, when you're not winning, it's not entertaining.
03:12And if you've been in this business, you understand that.
03:15And so, I respect it.
03:17I share frustrations.
03:19I understand what makes this thing go.
03:21And winning is what makes this thing go.
03:23Will you make any adjustments to the responsibilities of your coaching staff?
03:28Not anything that merits discussion in this setting, no.
03:32Steelers also make a move on offense.
03:35They add Adam Thielen to their wide receiving core.
03:39Thielen is playing his final season.
03:41He stated in the NFL he'd like to play for a winner.
03:43Steelers are his choice.
03:44Darius Slay was also let go.
03:46Meanwhile, the New York Giants struggling once again, having a tough year.
03:50Lots of close games, we will say, for the Giants.
03:52Lots of close losses.
03:53Joe Shane spoke with the media, their general manager, saying it all starts with him.
03:59Let me start off with, you know, two wins is not where we want to be right now.
04:02It's not good enough.
04:03I understand the frustration from fans, ownership, you know, the people inside the building.
04:09And nobody's more frustrated than myself.
04:12And it starts with me.
04:14And I'm tasked with trying to get this organization going back in, you know, the proper direction.
04:20And the standard is to compete, you know, for championships year in and year out.
04:23And that's the plan moving forward.
04:26So, you know, we're going to look at everything, you know, whether it's free agency, draft, coaching,
04:30finishing, execution on the field, whatever it may be.
04:34We're going to look at all avenues in order to get this franchise back to where it belongs.
04:39And meanwhile, the college football and pro football news continues with the Indianapolis Colts.
04:46You may remember Michael Badgley, who kicked at the University of Miami.
04:50He's been around the league a bunch and then found a home with the Indianapolis Colts.
04:53Well, they waived him yesterday.
04:55They actually worked out former kicker Justin Tucker.
04:58They did not sign him.
04:59And they signed Blake Groupie, who will kick for them, kicked for the Saints earlier this season.
05:04So, sort of a round table of kickers going all around the league.
05:07Everyone's kicking for everybody these days.
05:09All right, college basketball.
05:10Let's get to it.
05:11Looks like Duke's going to move up in the top 25 next week.
05:13Very big win for them last night.
05:15They beat the Florida Gators 67-66.
05:18In the ACC-SEC Challenge, Cameron Boozer had 29 points.
05:22Isaiah Evans, with the game winner, John Shire, afterward, talked about just a huge victory against, of course, the reigning national champions.
05:32That was a big-time game.
05:34Hats off to Florida.
05:35They got winning DNA.
05:38They're tough.
05:39They made a great run.
05:40You know they're going to make a run at some time.
05:41I think you go back to, you know, our defense in the first half, I thought was terrific.
05:46So, the second half, we didn't quite come out the way that you need to in a game like that.
05:50I thought our guys just battled.
05:52You know, I'm really proud of them.
05:53It's a great win.
05:54I think I can help them way more.
05:56I think there's things for us we're still figuring out with our group.
05:59But, end of the day, they're competitors, and you've got to find a way to make key stops in those moments.
06:05Very low-scoring game, meanwhile, in Lawrence, Kansas.
06:08Number 5, UConn, beats number 21, Kansas, in the second half to rally and win 61-56.
06:15Solo ball for UConn at 17 points.
06:19Dan Hurley likes where his team is headed, especially after their last game.
06:23Just the pain of the Arizona game, you know, just that, because it was the same team.
06:28And, you know, maybe Arizona's got, like, a little bit more size, you know, maybe, like, slightly more size, you know, than these guys.
06:38So, I just think it was, you know, the pain and the realization that we lost that game in large part because we got out-rebounded by 20 and got crushed with paint points.
06:47And I think you could see the growth with the team today.
06:50We knew, even though they made some early threes, that they were a team that hurt you in the paint.
06:53And so, you know, to keep them to 20 paint points and five second-chance points is why we won the game.
07:01Over to the NBA, the Los Angeles Clippers, five wins, 16 losses.
07:05They part ways with future Hall of Famer Chris Paul, who said that after this season, he will retire.
07:11We'll see if he links up with someone else.
07:13Meanwhile, the red-hot Oklahoma City Thunder, 20-1 on the season, on pace for more than 70 wins.
07:20They beat the Warriors last night, 124-112.
07:23Shea Gilgis-Alexander had 38 points.
07:25No Steph Curry, of course.
07:27In this one, Mark Dagno, with a great record coaching, OKC, but still not satisfied.
07:32Yeah, we had to do it against Portland on Sunday, too, where we just weren't playing our best.
07:38But there's still time left on the clock and time left in the game.
07:41And you have an opportunity to course-correct at that point.
07:44And I thought, in both games, we did that.
07:46It is an important skill.
07:48It's not a position we want to put ourselves in as a habit, but I thought the group to start
07:53the fourth quarter did a nice job of stabilizing the game, playing our way.
07:58We didn't get much separation there, but it kind of got the game back under control, made
08:04them earn everything that they got, and then we were able to outlast them.
08:07But that should be a good lesson for us.
08:10Draymond, do you take any moral victory from the game?
08:13No, no.
08:15Nope.
08:15When you study the league, and you obviously know how good teams are, how good is that
08:20team over there?
08:21They're a really good team.
08:23You know, that's why they are champions.
08:27With an opportunity to repeat, and they see her at 21-1.
08:30You know, a great team.
08:34But there are no moral victories.
08:36There what?
08:36We're still 11-11, so we didn't get a win.
08:42No moral victories for Draymond Green.
08:44Celtics beat the Knicks 123-117.
08:47Anthony Edwards, 44 points.
08:48Minnesota beats New Orleans 149-142.
08:52Back to Newswire here on Sports Grid.
08:53It was a banner week in the state of Missouri, where a large portion of the state seemingly
09:00interested in betting on sports.
09:02Sam McQuillen joins us here now.
09:03And by large, Sam, I mean, to me, I read this article in this column that you posted here
09:09on social media.
09:10My gosh.
09:11Like, I never would expect more than 1% of the state to be downloading apps and betting.
09:16But it's a lot higher than that.
09:18People were really salivating at the opportunity.
09:20And tell us about the numbers and where they stand.
09:25Right.
09:26Again, this has been a really interesting launch because it's the first state we've had launch
09:31a live sports betting market in over a year.
09:34You know, we're now at about 39 states with legal sports betting.
09:38So we're far away from those days where we were launching, you know, one after the other.
09:43It kind of seemed like there'd be like four or five a year.
09:45So it's interesting to look at Missouri here, where you have 250,000 active accounts on day
09:51one, which, as you alluded to, Craig, is 6.4% of the state's population over 21.
09:57Now, of course, that doesn't mean that 6.4% of people in Missouri are betting.
10:03You can have multiple accounts.
10:04You know, the average sports bettor, I think, has one to two accounts.
10:07But it's still a large sample size, especially when you talk about not having a state launch
10:13in a long time.
10:14And another really interesting thing was about 75% of those accounts were pre-registered
10:19in November before the state went live with sports betting on December 1st, which has
10:24been a big thing that states are now doing where they can have people sign up and have
10:28the books, you know, issue promotions even before launch day.
10:31So there's already an immediate ramp up.
10:34You had, obviously, the Monday night football game between the Patriots and the Giants was
10:40kind of the big first game that people were betting on.
10:43And there were about 2.6 million geolocation checks, which means anytime you're on a sports
10:49betting app or logging in or logging back in during the game.
10:53So big numbers there.
10:54LSR is projecting about $625 million in handle just in the first month, which would be about
11:01$60 million in revenue, which is largely fueled by, you know, the outsized promos that are
11:06being spent in the state.
11:08You know, I'm in a state like New York where we've had sports betting for a long time now.
11:12We don't have the same promos that a new state like Missouri is getting.
11:15And of course, we expect it again to be a two-horse race between DraftKings and FanDuel as kind
11:20of the whole sports betting story has been so far.
11:23But Missouri seems to be off to a hot start.
11:26They're certainly doing good numbers according to their size.
11:29They're surrounded by other legal states, which I think has helped as well kind of project
11:33they're going to be around similar to Maryland, which makes sense because it's around the
11:37same size, around the same population.
11:39So it's something we're going to keep monitoring throughout the year and going to be really
11:43interesting when we talk about sports books and their approach to next year.
11:46Because again, Missouri is really the only new state that will be impacting their promo
11:50spend and kind of what they do with their dollars and business decisions.
11:54So something we'll keep watching, but off to a hot start for Missouri.
11:57Yeah, definitely so.
11:58And 6%, a big number of that state getting involved.
12:01Okay, so for those folks who like to download apps, it's very easy to find the information that
12:07Sam and I are going to deliver now to you, really more Sam than me, over in the App Store.
12:11If you go and you search apps, I mean, it's sort of incredible that a sports betting app
12:17would be the number one app in the country, Sam, but here we are.
12:22And it's not a, I probably misstated that, it's not a sports betting app, right?
12:26It's a prediction app, as they say.
12:29But I mean, Sam, it's just the stories keep writing themselves here.
12:33And certainly there are people in California and I'm going to guess Texas and wherever
12:37sports betting is not legal, they're finding their ways around it and their way around
12:41that is which app?
12:44Yeah, it's Polymarket, Craig, which is, as you said, it's not technically a sports betting
12:50app, but currently the only thing you can do on it in the US is actually trade on sports
12:55and you have a number of states and a number of tribal groups and a whole host of people
12:59who say that actually is sports betting.
13:01But ahead of its full return to the US, it's actually already number one in sports apps
13:06on the app store.
13:08It had been banned a couple of years ago under the Biden administration.
13:12It reached a settlement with the administration.
13:15But then this year, as sports prediction markets have really boomed, the Department of Justice
13:19lifted the ban, allowing Polymarket to reenter the US.
13:22Now, it's not fully back in the US yet yet, which is kind of what makes this even more
13:27impressive that it's already number one in the sports section in the app store.
13:32It's only being offered to a limited number of users, people who sign up for the so-called
13:38beta testing on the app.
13:39The app has had a number of updates in the past couple of weeks, which kind of makes us
13:43think that it's going to launch pretty much any day now before the end of the year, I
13:47would expect.
13:48And it comes at a time when its long rival, Kalshi, which also does prediction markets
13:52and also has really been making waves in sports.
13:55They've already done $11 billion in sports trades since September, which is obviously when
14:00football season started, and now 95% of their volume is tied up in sports.
14:05Polymarket, when it was in the US, was not a sports app.
14:08It was only trading on elections, trading on the weather, other pop culture events.
14:14But now it comes back to a market which is dominated by sports.
14:18One of the reasons you're seeing it on the sports category in the app store, even though,
14:22again, not technically a sports book.
14:24And it also comes at a time when, you know, founder Shane Copeland just did an interview
14:29with 60 Minutes, kind of positioning the app for its launch to the US.
14:32It just got a big investment from the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.
14:36So it's really ramping things up and going to return at any time.
14:40Meanwhile, DraftKings and FanDuel are getting ready to launch their own prediction market.
14:44So Polymarket will be coming back at a time when, you know, the competitive landscape is
14:49dominated by Kalshi.
14:50And soon it's going to have FanDuel and DraftKings in there as well, which I'm really
14:54eager to see what their products look like and how the timing kind of impacts the use
14:59of Polymarket.
15:00Will it be number one in the app store for the next couple of months?
15:03Who knows?
15:04Will it fall once FanDuel and DraftKings start offering their sports products to California
15:09and Texas?
15:10All of this will be really interesting to watch, especially with, you know, the huge amounts
15:14of investments pouring in.
15:16This is now a company valued at around $15 billion.
15:18And it's not even technically back in the U.S. yet.
15:21So got to imagine there'll be a lot of more interesting stuff to come when it is fully
15:25back.
15:26Finally, let's get to the National Basketball Association.
15:29Of course, their big signature day coming up on Christmas Day.
15:33And maybe we'll see more of this, a new sports betting feature that has been added.
15:37And tell us more about this, Sam.
15:39Yeah, FanDuel Sports Network, which took over the Bally Sports Regional Networks about a
15:47year ago now, it broadcasts most of the local games in about 15 to 20 markets.
15:53It hosts 300 NBA and WNBA games a year.
15:57So if you're watching on League Pass or if you're watching in a local market where there's
16:00FanDuel Sports Network, you're watching on this network.
16:03Now it's going to feature this new advertising feature under a partnership with Genius Sports,
16:08which essentially allows advertising buyers, people who do ads during the game, to buy specific
16:15moments that happen in the game as opposed to actual space that happens during a timeout
16:21or something like that.
16:22They can now buy a moment that's integrated from what actually happened on the court.
16:27It's going to use AI to record plays in real time, shot probability, distance from the
16:32basket, defender proximity, who took the shot.
16:34And they're going to create kind of ads around this featured in game and during timeouts when
16:40those advertisements are on.
16:42But both want to make sure they're not overwhelming the broadcast.
16:45It's going to be a small kind of bottom on screen bar to start with clean visuals.
16:49But it gives FanDuel a really new, interesting way to monetize advertising and betting technology
16:56and the betting data that they have where, you know, they can charge different rates versus
17:01a 30 minute, 30 second time slot.
17:03They can charge different rates now based on, you know, what player did something.
17:07So it's really interesting.
17:08That's kind of the first step we have in a nationwide deployment of like this live AI,
17:14you know, data powered advertising inventory that's going to be on a sports broadcast.
17:19And it's starting with a betting company.
17:20So it'll be really interesting to see how successful it is if it goes to other sports
17:25after doing well with the NBA, NWNBA, or if, you know, other broadcasters like NBC and
17:31Amazon Prime, everyone else is in this really competitive sports rights landscape right now.
17:36Take a page out of this book and figure out, hey, this is a really new, good revenue stream
17:40we can monetize, you know, beyond just the sports product as well.
17:44So I'm really eager to see how this one looks, Craig.
17:46All right.
17:47Great stuff, Sam, as always.
17:49Thanks for coming on Newswire.
17:49We'll catch up again later in the week.
17:51Appreciate it.
17:53Thanks.
17:53You too, Craig.
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