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00:00But first, let's begin. Crypto.com has decided to pull their prediction markets,
00:05aka event contracts in multiple states, under some pressure in the state-by-state legislation.
00:12Right now, Crypto.com is not live with sports markets in Arizona, Michigan, Maryland,
00:17Massachusetts, Illinois, New Jersey, Nevada, and Ohio. Each of those states in some way
00:23has decided that sports prediction markets is illegal gambling without a sports wagering
00:29license. Crypto.com has obliged by getting out of those markets, at least for the time being.
00:35The National Football League has seen a very big quarterback change this morning.
00:39The Miami Dolphins, who extended Tua Tungavailoa just a year ago and guaranteed him more than $50
00:46million, have made a change. Quinn Ewers is going to start this Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.
00:53If they cut Tua, it'll be $99 million in dead money, which Dolphins almost certainly are going
00:59to have to do after the season. After June 1st, it would be $67 million, but the Tua era appears
01:04to be over. In Miami, Quinn Ewers, former Texas quarterback, will start against the Cincinnati
01:10Bengals. Meanwhile, Thursday night football seemingly up in the air for a Pro Bowl wide receiver.
01:16Devontae Adams, who has over 780 yards and 14 touchdowns this season, was injured this past
01:22week in the game with an injured hamstring. Sean McVay gave us a status update going into the game
01:28tomorrow night against Seattle. Can you give us an update on Devontae Adams, what he's dealing with
01:35and what his status is? It's the hamstring like we saw. The two guys that'll be DNPs that we're going
01:42to give them every chance that they've got would be, you know, Devontae with the hamstring
01:46and Fisk, you know, came out of the game with a little bit of soreness in his ankle, kind
01:51of got banged up. So, you know, we'll take it a day at a time with those guys. And, you
01:56know, those, because of the, you know, it'll just be a practice projection. So they'll both
02:00be DNPs, you know, but we'll take it all the way up to game time and see where they're
02:05at.
02:06So at this point, you're not ruling Devontae out of the game?
02:09I'm not ruling anyone out.
02:12In the Veterans Bowl, college football. Wow, what a fun one this was. Jacksonville State
02:17beat Troy. Did you catch it? 17 to 13. I didn't either. All right, the NBA Cup last night,
02:22it goes to the New York Knicks. Congratulations as they raised the cup in Las Vegas. New York
02:27114, San Antonio 103. Jalen Brunson is your NBA Cup MVP. He had 25 points and eight assists,
02:34as you see there. Very impressive win by the Knicks. Wemby only played 24 minutes, so maybe
02:41I was right. Maybe he is still hurt yesterday if he caught that show. Screwed up there. 18
02:45points and six rebounds. LeBron James, Giannis, and Brunson are your NBA MVPs of this mid-season
02:54cup that they decided to do several years ago. Congrats to Mike Brown and Jalen Brunson, who
02:59were, as you saw there, raising the confetti afterward. Here's Brown on the win.
03:03And so, you know, I feel like our staff and our players, our organization, start with Mr.
03:11Dolan going down. Everybody has a competitive spirit. Even Derek does, too. I mean, you should
03:18see him after my interview sometimes and after the game. He's just like, yes, yes, you know.
03:23So that competitive spirit exists throughout the organization. And then, you know, having a guy
03:29like Jalen as your leader who embraces the work, embraces the process, more importantly embraces
03:39the details of what you need to do to go out there and win. Jalen, both semifinal games the
03:45other day were very competitive. How much do you think the NBA layering in multiple days
03:49of rest has led to the high level of compete?
03:51I think it helps. And obviously gets the East Coast teams adjusted a little bit, too. But
04:00yeah, it was very competitive. And it's a credit to the teams that are playing as well. And so
04:08guys are going out there competing, wanting to win, trying to give their team the best
04:12opportunity to do so. And so it's a credit to the teams as well.
04:17Meanwhile, the Spurs take the L in the cup. Here's Mitch Johnson, the head coach, on their
04:23team fighting to the end, but coming up short.
04:25Mitch, even if it didn't end like you wanted it to, what do you think the guys got out of
04:29this whole experience?
04:31Probably that word more than anything, the experience. Second game, all together, playing
04:39really competitive games against really, really good teams, seasoned, experienced teams
04:44that have been in similar situations. I'm not sure about all the cup experience of all
04:50the teams. But, you know, be able to feel those games, work those games, be in the moment in those
04:57games, I think is a valuable experience.
04:59You know, my answer is simply going to be that, you know, in modern basketball, we see a lot
05:04of brands of basketball that don't offer much variety in the dangers they're opposed to the
05:13opponents. Lots of isolation, ball, and sometimes kind of forced basketball. And we try to propose
05:25a brand of basketball that can be described as more old school sometimes, the Spurs way
05:31as well. So it's tactically more correct basketball, in my opinion.
05:40Connecticut wins another game on the hardcore number five team in the country, takes care of
05:43Butler. They were big favorites, 15 and a half points to be exact. Solo ball had 26 points,
05:4979 to 60, the final. UConn now, by the way, has never lost to Butler. That's interesting. 12 and 0. Here's
05:54Dan Hurley on the blowout win. Obviously, the 15 turnovers are concerning. This is back-to-back
06:00games with that. And, you know, so that's an area that we've obviously got to clean up,
06:05especially when you're shooting 51% from the field. You know, just the 15 turnovers is,
06:12you know, very discouraging. But I was happy that we finally showed some teeth on the glass,
06:18especially in the first half. And then, you know, I just wish there was more killer instinct,
06:27killer, put a team down, bury a team. We had chances to do it. And then it would, you know,
06:33go from 23 to 11 or, you know, up to 18, back to 14. I mean, we just, you know, this team's got
06:41to get a killer, a killer instinct. One by 19. I don't know how much more Hurley was looking for
06:48there. All right. St. John's creeping back into the top 25. They're 22nd in the country,
06:53taking care of DePaul, 79 to 66. Dylan Darling had 17 points off the bench. They're now seven and three
07:02on the season. So Rick Pitino will take that win to the bank. You know, when you can,
07:06when you have your three guys that have been the rock of our team, Zuby Bryce and Dylan Mitchell
07:17not play well, and your defense is there against a very tough basketball team.
07:25And your point guard, who was a little shaky with his confidence prior to yesterday,
07:31totally dominates the game. It's an amazing feeling. And I'm so proud of Dylan. I told Joe
07:39some before the game, man, I need you to rebound. He got us nine rebounds. So the two of these guys
07:44played terrific on a night when the other guys didn't have it. But what I said to guys in the
07:50locker room, you know, certain nights you may not have it, but your defense has got to win it for you.
07:55And it did. And this young man just took over the game at the point guard position.
08:00Tennessee takes care of Louisville. Number 20 beats number 11, 93 to 62. The balls are 6-0 this
08:08season at home. In baseball's hot stove, we have Brad Keller, relief pitcher, signing a two-year
08:14contract for over $20 million, according to Robert Murray. And the New York Post reports that
08:20former now Yankees bullpen arm Luke Weaver looks to be signing with, or at least close to signing
08:26with the New York Mets. So that's the latest in the hot stove today. Welcome back to Newswire here
08:31on Sports Grid. Happy holidays to my friend Sam McQuillan from Legal Sports Report, who joins us
08:36here on this Wednesday to go over the very latest in the sports betting landscape. Of course,
08:40the prediction markets landscape, which is generally what we talk about a lot here on the show.
08:45Sam, let's talk about Arizona. The state of Arizona, along with many others,
08:49seem to be now finally having some pushback against these prediction markets. So naturally,
08:54if you're going to operate in a state where the state feels that it is illegal, it needs to be
08:58regulated, and you need to pay taxes, then you're going to have to stop operating. And that indeed
09:02is coming from one non-sports betting operator, ironically, a daily fantasy peer-to-peer operator.
09:10Yeah, the Arizona Department of Gaming this week sent underdog a notice of violation and intent to
09:17revoke its fantasy sports license. Arizona, one of the number of states underdog, has conducted fantasy
09:23sports business in for a number of years. Some states require a license, some states don't.
09:29If you recall anything about the prediction market landscape, a lot of states are really upset.
09:34They believe that sports prediction markets are essentially bypassing their state laws
09:38and kind of lying about being under federal oversight instead. There's a bunch of lawsuits going on
09:44right now. But underdog actually has a partnership with crypto.com, which is one of these big sports
09:50prediction market platforms. And under that partnership, it hosts crypto.com sports prediction
09:56markets on its website. That website actually isn't available in Arizona. Underdog is not offering
10:02prediction markets in Arizona. But the Department of Gaming is saying, because you're partnering with
10:07crypto.com, which is also offering its prediction markets in Arizona and elsewhere,
10:12you're essentially aiding and abetting what they're calling is an illegal practice and illegal gaming
10:17operation, legitimizing them. And they're saying that, you know, as a licensee of Arizona,
10:23they're not going to tolerate them allowing basically an enemy of the state to do business and benefit from
10:31that business. So Arizona, immediately you cannot do underdog fantasy products there right now. The
10:38popular pick them games they have, of course, as well as a host of other fantasy formats. But underdog
10:44actually has about 30 days to appeal the notice, which is when they're going to kind of prepare
10:50arguments that have been made a lot in federal and state courts recently, where the same kind of
10:55battles between prediction markets and states and other gaming regulators are playing out, where on one
11:01side, you have prediction markets like crypto.com and its partners saying, you know, these are subject to
11:06CFTC oversight. These are federally regulated. And then states on the other side saying that's not
11:11true. It was never intended that way. This is de facto sports gaming. So we'll see what shakes out
11:17with that appeal. I wouldn't hold your breath for underdog winning the appeal because they'll be making
11:23the argument before the regulators themselves, basically telling them why they shouldn't have
11:28oversight over this thing. So it'll be pretty interesting to see kind of if other states follow,
11:34obviously, a number have taken action against prediction markets, as well as companies like
11:39underdog, which have traditionally been fantasy operators or sports betting operators and are now
11:43doing prediction markets themselves. You have Fanatics recently doing it. And then any day now,
11:48I'm told FanDuel and DraftKings are going to do their own. So you already have one state taking action
11:53against a licensee. It'll be interesting to see when the other licensees inevitably kind of break their
11:59laws, what will happen next. Yeah. Meanwhile, the prediction markets around the country, Sam,
12:04facing some scrutiny now here, and it appears, as we discussed earlier in the show, crypto.com is going
12:10to pull out of some states because they're getting some pushback as well. And so, you know, naturally,
12:16Sam, I think you knew, and everyone else knew that eventually, eventually, there was going to be
12:23some significant questions surrounding this. It just comes down to eventually maybe how the Supreme
12:28Court or someone else views these prediction markets. But for the time being, I think smart move
12:34for these markets that don't fully support it to at least pull out for the time being, unlike some
12:40others, where they still continue to operate until they're told, no, you're doing this illegally.
12:45Yeah, it's definitely been a game of how long can we kind of get away with this before
12:49the courts catch up. As you know, like when you talk about something going to the Supreme Court,
12:54which it sounds like in this case is increasingly likely, that takes a long time. It has to go
12:59through the lower courts first, which take their own long times. And then eventually that has to get
13:04appealed, whatever the decision is there. And eventually it would make its way to the Supreme
13:08Court. So we're talking not for, you know, the next couple of years at kind of the earliest.
13:13And meanwhile, prediction markets, most of them aren't pulling out of states.
13:16You have companies like CalShe, Crypto.com and others ramping up their partnerships, partnering
13:22with more places to legitimize them, places like CNN, getting big investments, and kind of sort of
13:29becoming too big to fail all while the legal system catches up. You have those myriad of state lawsuits
13:34playing out. In some cases, companies have won favor with the judges, allowing them to keep offering
13:40these sports prediction markets while the cases play out. In other cases, like in Arizona,
13:45that has not been the case. But meanwhile, you have kind of Congress starting to at least become
13:51aware of the issue. There was a reauthorization hearing held by the House Committee on Agriculture
13:56this week, which was designed really just to see what was going on with the CFTC, which has been
14:01really understaffed and underfunded for years now. But it quickly became a hearing that was focused on,
14:09can the CFTC even regulate this stuff? Should it regulate this stuff? Do we have to modify the
14:14Commodities Exchange Act, which essentially gave the CFTC purview over event contracts before we even
14:22knew sports event contracts would be a thing? So they had a number of experts and former commissioners
14:27and general counsel testifying, saying that the CFTC really cannot handle this kind of stuff unless you
14:33give it more resources, or maybe Congress members and senators have to propose legislation that would
14:39change the law. So we'll see what happens there. No legislation was proposed immediately. But it's
14:46definitely going to be an issue we keep watching as this crazy prediction markets landscape keeps unfolding.
14:51And you can read more about these stories and more over at legalsportsreport.com. Sam McQuillan is with
14:57us to discuss. Sports betting, supremely popular. When PASPA was overturned, I still think there is an
15:04appetite for it, Sam. There's no question shows like ours keep people informed on the landscape and
15:11where things have headed. But the general public, I think, you know, sometimes can be a little bit
15:16wary of sports betting. You know, we've had a lot of athlete scandals. There's a lot of advertising
15:21going on. And look, I think when the dust settles, there'll be some pullback on that as well. But for the
15:28time being, I know that you found a poll that essentially said that there are some folks who are just
15:33getting a little bit worn out by seeing all the ads and everything else.
15:38Yeah, that's definitely been the case. It's an interesting time in the sports betting landscape
15:43where you have 39 states where it's legal now. And we're talking about all these new entrants and
15:48prediction markets. And as you mentioned, recent scandals in the MLB and NBA, which have caused
15:53Congress to actually look at those leagues betting rules and safety integrity cards. But the Washington
15:59Post and the University of Maryland came out this week with a combined poll that found that 36%
16:05of Americans they interviewed randomly on the phone and online said that they view sports betting
16:11expansion as a negative thing. That 36% number was up from 23% in 2022, with about half saying they
16:19kind of view it neutrally and don't have a stance. So it signals that Americans are at least growing a
16:25little bit more wary than they were of sports betting. Now, their reasons differ. Most of them
16:30center on being concerned about addiction concerns, whether or not games are being fixed or it's
16:37incentivizing athletes to be fixed. All issues which require a lot of nuance when we talk about
16:42legalizing sports gambling versus keeping it kind of in the dark in the shadows. I think to sports
16:48betting's credit, it's done a lot right in bringing these things to the surface. These scandals,
16:52addiction issues that sports betting companies say they're committed to combating that we wouldn't
16:57be hearing about if sports betting was illegal and not all in our face with advertisements and in
17:03the news constantly and certainly a big part of how we discuss sports now. So it's kind of, you know,
17:09a little bit of both sides, whether or not, you know, this is a good thing that it's more legal,
17:14we're paying more attention to it now. But with that comes more scrutiny and certainly more polls and
17:18more public scrutiny. So yeah, you know, we almost have 50 states that are legal now. Interesting to
17:25see in the next couple of years what Americans think. Who knows what will happen between them,
17:28between scandals and sports books and, you know, how the industry is just changing pretty much every
17:33day. Agreed, Sam. Should be the story of the year, I think, in 2026. Thanks again for coming on the
17:39show. Happy holidays. We'll catch up again later in the week. Thanks for coming on.
17:42Yeah. Happy holidays. You too, Craig.
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