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00:00So let's get started. And we begin with a new partnership, not a team or organization
00:07with a prediction market company, but an individual. And this is Bryson DeChambeau,
00:12who's currently on the Live Golf Tour, officially announces a partnership with Calci.
00:18It's a endorsement deal, which includes TV commercials, social media posts, live appearances,
00:24and the launch of market events that he plays in. Remember, DeChambeau currently not on the
00:29PGA Tour. And they, of course, have partnerships with sports betting operations, Live Golf sort of
00:34operating independently. And so prediction markets now moving to individuals and different sanctions
00:39as well. We'll see if Live Golf has something to say about this or whether or not they just simply
00:44accept it in the end. Yesterday, after we got off the air, did not expect to see this piece of news,
00:49which is the hot topic in all of sports right now. The Pittsburgh Steelers, for the first time in two
00:53decades, are looking for a new head coach. A third of the league looking for a new head coach, by the
00:58way. Mike Tomlin, after being eliminated from the playoffs, says that he has had enough. 19 seasons
01:03is done in Pittsburgh. Never had a losing season. Eight-time AFC North champion. And as of right now,
01:12no statement as to where Tomlin may end up. There are some that are speculating that he could go to TV.
01:18Others speculate maybe he just leaves for a couple of years. We honestly have no idea, but the money will
01:23be out there for him if he decides to pursue another head coaching gig. No surprise in Philadelphia,
01:29Nick Ceriani had to make the tough decision of dismissing his offensive coordinator. And the
01:34Eagles have had a new offensive coordinator for six straight years. This time it's Kevin Petullo
01:38being dismissed as offensive coordinator. They had a really rough season on offense. Ravens owner
01:44Steve Biscotti wants a new contract for Lamar Jackson by March. We don't know if he's going to end up
01:51getting it. He also mentioned that it's unlikely Tomlin would be the next head coach in Baltimore.
01:56Kind of a funny question there. Also, Marcus Freeman. We knew this kind of a month ago, but he's going
02:01to stay at Notre Dame despite interest from the National Football League. So Freeman staying at
02:05Notre Dame. All right. In the NBA last night, finally, Jay Gilgis-Alexander and the Oklahoma City
02:10Thunder figured out how to beat the San Antonio Spurs. It took all season. They finally did it.
02:14119-98 the final. SGA had 34 points. The Thunder were eight and a half point favorites. Not only did
02:20they cover the spread, it was a blowout. As I said, OKC had lost to the Spurs four straight games.
02:29They finally got a win in this one dating back to last year. Here's Shea Gilgis-Alexander after the
02:35win talking about playing good defense and getting the W. We did a good job of like keeping them in front
02:42of us. Like whether it would be in transition, whether it be in half court. Like, just like keeping our body
02:49in between their body as they drive and make plays and try to create for each other. And then they
02:55have to score over top of us. That's always a good recipe defensively.
03:00You guys sort of not, I guess, staying disciplined towards executing the game plan. What specifically did he
03:09mean there? So that was our strength. On the previous three games we played against them
03:16and we didn't, we couldn't repeat today. Even though, of course, they came prepared, but I don't
03:22think they changed too many things. They trusted their own identity, you know. And specifically what he
03:28means is I'm not going to get into too many details, but like early communication, you know, being clear with
03:37our intentions, our placement. So I guess you could, uh, you could say we were a little bit.
03:46I don't know. I mean, we didn't respect the game plan.
03:4929 points from Bam out of bio. The Miami Heat needed a big win. They got it yesterday against
03:53the Suns, 127 to 101. It's been a, uh, 121, excuse me. It's been a tough go for Eric Spolster and company.
04:01So he naturally feels a little relieved to get a win. Forced us to show our resolve collectively.
04:06And I thought Bam was, uh, uh, a massive part of that. Um, he forced those two turnovers and we were
04:12kind of stuck in the mud. And that was like a, uh, a defensive player of the year type performance
04:17throughout the course of the game. He was doing everything on pick and roll, whether he was zoning on
04:22pick and rolls, staying in the basket or switching, um, sometimes not switching, getting guys through.
04:29Uh, he was kind of just orchestrating our whole defense and then coming back to rebound. Um, and
04:35then of course, you know, the big threes, uh, down the stretch, the, the ball, uh, found the right karma.
04:42You know, I thought he, he earned it, you know, to have
04:46a great night. He just really did. Um, how he was just pouring so much of his effort and intensity
04:54into the game. Uh, and he had those two clutch threes. Um, and it was just awesome to see it.
05:02Maybe a sign of the thing of the future for the Los Angeles Lakers was noting that they were big
05:07underdogs in the early afternoon yesterday. There was speculation that maybe Luca or LeBron would not
05:12play both guys played yesterday and both guys had big games. LA beats Atlanta 141 to 116. LeBron 31
05:20points, 10 assists, nine rebounds, arguably his biggest game of the season and said father time
05:24can keep calling, but he seems to not be answering. I would never disrespect the basketball gods.
05:33I understand that it's a real thing. And, uh, you know, I would never disrespect the basketball
05:38guys when it comes to playing this game. So I'll put the time and the effort and the commitment
05:42in it mentally, physically, spiritually, you know, every time I hit the floor or I might have
05:46practiced or whatever the case may be trying to set the example for my teammates and the younger
05:50generation that's watching me or watching throughout my career. I mean, my son is right over there.
05:54So I can't afford to cheat the game ever. And I would never do that. And I got to set an example
05:59for him over there too. So, you know, as Jay Z will say, um, if you can't respect that,
06:05your whole perspective is whack. Maybe you'll love me when I fade to black.
06:10All right. Fair enough, LeBron. Thanks. Minnesota beats Milwaukee 139 to 106. It's been a rough year
06:16for Giannis and the Bucs. Giannis seen booing the fans yesterday. Oddly enough,
06:21we'll talk about that later in the show. All right. UConn gets a big win. They've been one of
06:25the best teams in the country this season, beating Seton Hall by a final of 69 to 64.
06:30They're now 17 and one on this early part of the season as conference play is underway.
06:36And Terrace Reed is playing great basketball, 21 points, nine rebounds for Reed in this one. Dan Hurley,
06:42certainly happy that his team is on the right foot. We got a good press conference from him,
06:47which is unusual last night. I mean, you know, we shot, that's a top 10 defense in the country.
06:52So, I mean, we're, you know, you know, we came in here, we shot 51% from the field. Obviously,
06:58we had some trouble, you know, versus their pressure because their pressure is hard to deal with over
07:06the course of a 40 minute game. So, you know, you just try to just try to stay positive because you
07:12just, you knew it was going to be a, it was going to be a battle, you know, but we did a, you know,
07:18we did a good job of building a big enough of a cushion by the level that we played at,
07:23you know, that we're able to take care of the ball well enough, make free throws and,
07:28you know, just get out of here with a, with a really good road win.
07:33Michigan State blows out Indiana final score 81 to 60 Kansas beats number two, Iowa State 84 to 63,
07:42the final significant win for Kansas, Iowa State, one of the best teams in the country this season,
07:47also one trade in Major League Baseball yesterday. If you were following me on social media, you may
07:52have seen me break it. The Yankees and Marlins agree to a deal that sends Ryan Weathers starting
07:57pitcher left-handed from Miami to New York. And in return, the Marlins get four prospects back,
08:04including Dylan Lewis, a young outfielder who the Marlins certainly have high hopes for,
08:08three other players that the Marlins will be seeing in the future as the Major League Baseball
08:13offseason continues to trickle in. Maybe we'll get some signings this week or next.
08:17Welcome back to Newswire here on SportsCrit. Always great to catch up with our friend,
08:20Sam McQuillan from Legal Sports Report, who joins us now to talk about the latest in sports betting,
08:25news notes and information. And we don't start off with prediction markets for a change, but we do
08:30start off with this recurring story that just keeps popping up every year. And I don't get it, Sam.
08:36It is the state of Mississippi. I believe I said Missouri in the last segment, made a mistake there,
08:42Mississippi. So Sam, when Mississippi legalized sports betting, it was a novelty. It was one of
08:48the very first in-person retail shops that you could go bet on sports outside of Las Vegas, Nevada.
08:56And so I remember going there at the time thinking to myself, wow, like when they get online in a few
09:01months or a year, this could be the Mecca of the South as far as sports betting is concerned. And they
09:06got lapped by everybody. Is it these hotels that they basically don't want to see this happen?
09:12Because other than that, what is the roadblock here?
09:17Yeah. Mississippi, you know, we're, I don't know how many years into sports betting now.
09:22Like you mentioned, Craig, one of the first states to legalize sports betting,
09:25in part because it has about 30 casinos. And it used to be when, you know, states were starting to
09:31legalize sports betting that the ones with a lot of casinos, the New Jersey's of the world,
09:35the Mississippis, they were kind of the ones who embraced legalizing it because first it was done
09:39in person. It would attract a lot of people from other states, certainly around Mississippi that
09:44didn't have betting for a long time. Alabama, Georgia's obviously one, Louisiana had been a
09:49holdout for a very long time. But then once everything started to go online and the industry
09:54really started to shift from just in-person casinos and you saw how much money was being put in online
10:00sports betting, the kind of the very thing, the very reason that you had a reason to
10:05legalize sports betting in the first place, those casinos, they kind of became a roadblock
10:09in terms of, you know, now legalizing something online and having competitors. There's been a lot
10:15made in the past about, you know, whether that would steal jobs from casinos, whether people would be
10:20more inclined if sports betting is legal online to just stay home and not go to the casino. I think
10:26there's been a lot of evidence we've seen out there since those claims have been put out that
10:30that's actually not the case. And people like going to the casino in general to bet and people
10:36like being able to bet more at home. They just kind of bet more. It doesn't kind of take the activity
10:40away. But in Mississippi, I think because you have so many casinos, the big ones, the Caesars of the
10:47world, the ones that are partnered with DraftKings, they have less power. They have less sway. They're not
10:52able to influence the legislature as easily because you have smaller casinos out there which are worried if it
10:57gets legalized online. Maybe we won't get a cut of the revenue. This is now I think the sixth year
11:02that this is being tried in the state. You have a bill from Representative Jay McKnight, which would
11:07allow all the 30 casinos to partner with a sports book for a very low tax rate. It actually hasn't
11:13been hard to get this passed out of the House. Each of the last two years, a bill has progressed in
11:17the House, but it's been the Senate where we've really seen it tied up. So that would be the case again
11:21this year. If it can get through the Senate, it can probably become legal and you could have online
11:26sports betting pretty quickly in Mississippi. But again, it's been the roadblock in the Senate
11:30with their casino interests. We'll see if anything changes this time around. The farthest they've
11:35ever gotten is 2023. They passed a bill to study online sports betting and figure out how they would
11:42do it if they ever were. It's obviously been some time since then. So we'll see if just time has
11:47changed things or if it's kind of the same story as always. But one of the few states will be watching
11:51in terms of online sports betting this year, for sure. Meanwhile, not Kalshi, but Camby. People
11:56probably would get confused with this a little bit. They follow betting trends very closely,
12:01how things are going all across the country. And Sam, over at LegalSportsReport.com, you can read
12:05more about this article that Sam has posted here. What would you make of their report here about
12:11parlays and sort of where things are headed in the future, what they're tracking?
12:15Yeah, Camby is one of those betting technology companies that has worked with sports books in
12:21the past to power the actual apps that we use to bet on sports. So it's always really interesting
12:27to get a look at their report. They published their 2025 sports betting trends report, which to no
12:32surprise, as you alluded to, Greg, shows you that parlays are up. I think 83% of the most engaged
12:39bettors place at least one parlay. And then 44% of the least engaged bettors do not place a parlay.
12:46So not only are parlays an engine for sports books to become more profitable and have higher holds,
12:53because they're much higher margin bets for the sports books, we're also seeing evidence in this
12:57report that they keep people engaged, they keep people betting, they make it more of an entertainment
13:03factor. When you're talking about being glued into the game, you know, there's always that kind of
13:08narrative about being able to predict what's going to happen in the game, which you can do
13:12with parlays. And we've certainly seen parlays kind of transform sports books profit engine as well.
13:18Some more interesting stats from the report parlays as a percentage of pregame bets have increased over
13:24the last six straight years. So not only are the people who are more engaged and betting more doing
13:29it, it's overall just going up in general, you had about 50% of all pregame bets on last year's Super
13:36Bowl, Super Bowl 59 were parlays, which is up from 4% in 2020. So about a five year difference,
13:43but it's a huge increase and just shows you that not only have people been betting it more,
13:47but sports books have really been pushing these, these bets as well. You know, last Super Bowl,
13:50I think we might talk about it again this year, who knows who's going to play in it. But last Super
13:54Bowl, it was, you know, the favorite one and everyone thought the sports books got hammered,
13:59the over hit. And then it actually turned out because people had bet so many parlays,
14:03but the sports books actually had a really good day, some of them their best day ever. So
14:07I think it'll be more of the same story heading into 2026. The NBA, they talked about a lot in
14:12the report as well with player props really being the big differentiator. They're not just for
14:16parlays, but people who bet player props tend to bet almost three and a half times as many bets
14:22as any other better in the NBA. It's a huge sport for Canby. It's huge sport that sports books are
14:27trying to grow in general. And I think they're going to try to mirror a lot of the growth they did in
14:31football and bring it over to the NBA, where people are obviously betting parlays a lot,
14:35or player props rather. So it's how do we bet? How do we make that into more parlay packages?
14:40And how do we put keep pushing that down better throats? Because it seems like they seem to like
14:44it. I find this article curious here that you have posted illegal sports report that sports betting
14:50is expected to grow in this coming year in 2026. I guess if I was to press further, Sam,
14:57for folks that haven't read your article is in what way will sports betting grow? Because
15:04in the United States, outside of Missouri, and then more recently, North Carolina, there really have
15:09not been new markets that have opened up legally. So is this factoring in prediction markets? Is there
15:17something that I'm potentially missing here? I know that sports betting is insatiable and people are
15:21going to bet on sports. But how could there be a significant growth without a new state or a new
15:27market opening up to sports betting operators? Yeah, it's a good question. And I think the answer
15:35is honestly, despite all the hubbub about prediction markets cannibalizing sports betting, despite the
15:40worry about running out of states, we almost have 40 states where sports betting is legal, you know,
15:45at some point, you're going to get to all 50 or at least close to it. Despite all those worries,
15:49the industry is really showing no signs of slowing down, particularly when you look at the hold that
15:55sports betting operators are doing, and the handle growth as well. Handle has kind of gone up every
15:59year, it's slowed down a little bit over the past couple years. But in the meantime, while it's
16:03happened, sports betting operators have increased their margins from about historically, it used to
16:08be they would hold about 8% in all bets. Now some are holding up to 14%, 13% with goals to keep
16:15increasing it. And they've been able to show investors how they can do that and how they've
16:19been able to do that and demonstrate it over the last couple years, like we just talked about with
16:23parlays, with live betting, certainly on the rise as well. That is one segment that I think is going
16:29to be a huge driver of this growth that Truist is projecting this year, where sports betting and
16:35online gaming together are projected to go 14% up from last year. One of the big reasons I think is
16:41on as live betting, because it's it's higher margin bets for the sports book. We've seen statistically
16:48that they hold much higher on that as well. It hadn't been something that they really invested in
16:52over the last couple years, when sports betting was really all in its expansion phase and new states,
16:58like you mentioned with Missouri. Now that they have less of those to worry about, it's more about how do we
17:02hone in on the growth and squeeze more out of our customers in existing states, which is something
17:07I think the sports books have really demonstrated they've been able to do, even with, like you
17:11mentioned, the prediction markets coming in fantasy, you know, these are now companies that have their
17:16own prediction markets as well. So they don't have to worry about as much losing out in states where
17:21they can't be. And in the meantime, they'll do what they do best, which is, you know, sports betting
17:25revenue and, you know, beating beating the customer. Great stuff. As always, Sam, we'll catch up with
17:30you later in the week. Thanks for coming on Newswire. Yep. Thanks, Craig.
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