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00:00And we begin with the state of Massachusetts and some new requirements.
00:04Of course, legislation changing as fast as we can keep up with in sports betting.
00:08And the Massachusetts Gaming Commission has now approved a new requirement that says that sports books must notify sports bettors
00:16who are limited and provide an explanation as to why.
00:20This will start in June.
00:22A user must be notified within 48 hours of being limited by a sports book.
00:27And actually, this has just happened in the past.
00:29You don't know why you can't bet as much as you did.
00:31Were you winning too much?
00:32Was it something with your credit card?
00:34State of Massachusetts is going to let you know.
00:36Also, the transfer portal could be changing as we know it right now.
00:40Talk about an emerging landscape.
00:42The NCAA Football Oversight Committee has recommended legislation to protect the transfer portal window by issuing penalties for schools and
00:50coaches who circumvent the rules.
00:52The committee proposed penalizing schools and players who did not make their interest in transferring during the January transfer portal
00:58window public.
00:59And there could be penalties for the head coach.
01:02And that also includes team meetings, circumventing those as well, and losing 20% of the budget.
01:10If that happens and you try and circumvent the rules with this transfer portal, naturally, they don't want kids who
01:17are transferring all 12 months out of the year.
01:19Creating a little window to be able to do it seems to be the secret sauce.
01:23All right.
01:23Paramount is set to purchase Warner Brothers.
01:25This is coming to an end, and they're going to get TNT Sports and find themselves combined with CBS Sports,
01:32combining a wide-ranging sports portfolio that includes the National Football League, college football, playoff games, and the entirety of
01:38March Madness.
01:39If you're unfamiliar with Paramount, what they own, it's CBS Sports.
01:43So certainly this is now going to go through, and now Netflix apparently is out.
01:47The NBA's MVP, still favorite on the FanDuel Sportsbook, probably going to get a little more juice.
01:52Shea Gilgis-Alexander has been cleared to return to the NBA.
01:56They said it would happen this week.
01:57It could happen this weekend.
01:58He missed the last nine games due to abdominal strain.
02:01He's not on the injury report.
02:03And what a showdown tonight against the Denver Nuggets.
02:06We'll have a preview of that game coming up for you a little bit later in the show.
02:09All right.
02:10In college hoops last night, Michigan State beats Purdue.
02:12Exciting affair.
02:1376-74.
02:15Jeremy Fears had 12 points but hit some big ones down the stretch.
02:18Purdue was 7.5-point favorite, so if you took the points or even took the money line,
02:22you came out on top.
02:24Izzo's season is coming.
02:26March is almost here.
02:27And here he is after the game on the win.
02:29And of course, Jeremy, you know, played really well.
02:33I mean, it was a matchup with two point guards.
02:36Brayden Smith, there's a reason he's the player of the year candidate.
02:41And I thought we did a decent job on him, but he's a hell of a player.
02:45And they got a hell of a team.
02:47It was just our night.
02:48They made threes.
02:49We weathered the storm of all those threes.
02:51To do that on the road in Mackey Arena, I think, was – I'll give my team some credit on
02:56that.
02:57Of every area, I thought the difference in this game was, you know, we only turned the ball over nine
03:03times.
03:03They were better than us, and they turned over six.
03:05But they turned those nine turnovers into 19 points.
03:08That was a big piece of the game.
03:11And not to say that they couldn't score them in the half court, but you got to, you know, you'd
03:17rather have them earn them that way than us turning the basketball over.
03:20And then, you know, getting 19 points on nine turnovers, that's huge.
03:25That's huge.
03:25Like, if they go get a two every single time, that's 18 points.
03:30I mean, that's off-the-chart numbers right there.
03:36In the NBA last night, the Phoenix Suns defeated the L.A. Lakers 113-110.
03:41L.A. was five-and-a-half-point favorites.
03:43Reason why?
03:44Devin Booker out.
03:45Dylan Brooks out.
03:47Suns still win.
03:48Royce O'Neal hit the game winner.
03:50It was a three with less than a second to go.
03:53Lakers had a chance to tie.
03:54They could not.
03:55Luka had 41 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists.
03:58But those stats don't mean anything when you lose.
04:01Just ask J.J. Redick.
04:03I thought, you know, in the second half, we did a good job of getting the right guys onto the
04:07basketball and then running offense.
04:09Got some good stuff, you know, out of ATOs, despite the fact that we botched three straight to start the
04:16game in the first half.
04:19And, you know, I think that lineup that we played tonight, which I don't know if it was our first
04:25time playing it, but, you know, it was something we talked about pregame was letting Luka and A.R. play
04:31longer together, letting LeBron play on his own for a little bit.
04:35And, you know, there was, you know, seven minutes of that Jake, Luke, A.R., Luka, Jackson lineup.
04:41And that was that was a good good lineup for us tonight.
04:45And then endgame, you know, you you.
04:50You can't get a better look than that.
04:51So, you know, we executed the guys, did a great job executing, you know, look clean coming out of his
04:57hand.
04:57I thought it was in.
05:0076ers beat the hapless heat last night.
05:02Happless couldn't barely feel the team.
05:04Eight guys, nine guys.
05:06He's having trouble.
05:07A lot of injuries there.
05:08Philly wins 124 to 117.
05:10They were two and a half point favorites.
05:12Tyrese Maxey.
05:12Congrats to him.
05:13They broke Allen Iverson 76ers record for most three-pointers made in franchise history.
05:18By the way, Joel Embiid played in this game.
05:20Looked healthy.
05:2126 points.
05:2211 rebounds.
05:23Let's hear from Nick Nurse after the game on the big game for Maxey, who also had 28 points.
05:29Yeah, I mean, I thought we played really good for about 42 minutes.
05:34I think there was about a six or eight-minute stretch in there that was not so good.
05:38Other than that, I thought we played really, really pretty good.
05:41But really, really proud that, you know, we just kind of last two and a half, three minutes defensively.
05:47You know, we just had to guard better and kind of stop switching so much.
05:51And we got through some screens and really rebounded the ball, too, at the end.
05:56So, yeah, a little bit of a roller coaster game.
05:59But I think that's kind of who we are a little bit.
06:04They ran us out of the gym in the first half.
06:06And then, you know, if they miss, they, you know, had those second chance, 14 second chance, you know, opportunities.
06:14Then, you know, it settled in.
06:15The effort changed the momentum of the game.
06:18You know, we got back into it, took a lead.
06:23And then it became possession game, you know, from there.
06:26And, you know, they made some plays, you know, down the stretch where we couldn't.
06:33The ageless wonder Kevin Durant comes up huge last night for the Houston Rockets.
06:37He had 40 as Houston beats Orlando 113-108.
06:42He becomes the sixth player in NBA history to surpass 32,000 points.
06:47Here is Durant on that after the game and the win over the Magic.
06:51How does it feel?
06:52I appreciate it.
06:53It feels incredible.
06:55I always love being mentioned with the greats of all time.
06:59They set a standard that I try to reach every day.
07:02Like I told you before, I'm just grateful for everybody invested in my career, me as a person.
07:07And I'm representing them every time I step out on the floor.
07:09So, this is major to me.
07:10I thought we beat ourselves.
07:13You know, I mean, I thought that we had a few turnovers, lapses on the defensive end.
07:20They were able to gain some momentum.
07:22You know, I mean, I thought we had them in a good spot, up 19 or so.
07:27And they go on like an 8 or 9-0 run, heading into a timeout, got a free throw coming
07:32out of the timeout.
07:34And, you know, I mean, they are who they are for a reason.
07:37You know, they got two of the best half-court players in the NBA.
07:40And we gave them life, you know.
07:42And, you know, good teams, we're better than that.
07:47And, you know, we got to bury them when we got the chance to.
07:52One more final from the NBA before we talk some NHL.
07:55The Timberwolves beat the Clippers 94-88.
07:58Anthony Edwards, 31 points in the game.
08:01Clippers did not have Kawhi Leonard in that matchup.
08:05Also, the Dallas Cowboys are placing the franchise tag on wide receiver George Pickens.
08:10So, the odds of him being traded this spring or summer would seem to be thin.
08:15Pickens likely to stay with the Dallas Cowboys next season, maybe on that one-year franchise deal.
08:20All right, welcome back to Newswire here on SportsGrid.
08:22Great to have Sam McQuillan from Legal Sports Report in the house as he appears with us each and every
08:27week.
08:27And today we focus on some of the sportsbook operators here, aside from prediction markets.
08:33Okay, I can enjoy that here for a day, a break from prediction markets.
08:37All right, so I saw a story, Sam, last week, or maybe it was early this week on the show,
08:41about some layoffs with DraftKings.
08:45I know we're not going to talk about that, but it does sort of correlate with this next story here
08:48that says, at least from some of the reporting that you're doing here, that Flutter's stock is down after quarter
08:54four.
08:54And so, you know, we're out of football season here, and I do understand that.
08:59But what would be the reasoning behind this?
09:01Because everything that I see still seems to indicate that more people are betting sports than ever before.
09:08Yeah, so Flutter, the company that owns FanDuel, anytime there's stock a lot, it's pretty much because of FanDuel.
09:14Obviously, FanDuel is one of the biggest sportsbooks, and historically, they've been a leader in the space.
09:20But they reported their financials yesterday, their fourth quarter earnings, which, like you mentioned, Craig, the stock really took a
09:27hit because of it.
09:28It's down to its lowest price that it's ever been at since it was listed on the New York Stock
09:32Exchange two years ago.
09:34It's down 15% on the day.
09:36And the reason looks to be is because they missed some really key financial targets.
09:39You know, sports betting revenue was up about 35% in the quarter, but it was expected to be up
09:45a lot higher.
09:46And the reason that Flutter executives are saying is pretty interesting.
09:50It's because they said they did a really good job on NFL during the fourth quarter.
09:55If you remember, last year at this time, we were talking about how awful sportsbooks did on the NFL.
10:01Pretty much customers won at historic rates, never seen before.
10:05Investors were saying, you know, is this sports betting volatility going to swing the other way?
10:09It was a similar case in March Madness.
10:11It was a really bad NFL season two years ago for the sportsbooks.
10:15This NFL season, especially in quarter four with the playoffs and, you know, getting colder and more intense games, was
10:21actually really good for FanDuel.
10:22They held about 9%, which means out of all the money that's bet, all the dollars that come in, they
10:28kept about 9% of that and turned it into revenue.
10:30So that's normally a good thing.
10:32But the real factor that they talked about here was Handle.
10:36The amount that people bet only was up 3% in the quarter, which if you look at any other
10:42quarter before that historically, Handle's usually up about 40% year over year, 30%, 25%.
10:48But it has slowed down a little bit.
10:50So people are still betting more dollars every year, but it's not jumping at the rates we once saw.
10:57It's been kind of a growing concern among Wall Street, among people thinking about the outlooks of who's going to
11:02win sports betting.
11:03How is this going to be a profitable business?
11:05Obviously, they have a ton of costs.
11:06So it was really interesting to hear Flutter executives talk about kind of suffering from their own success.
11:11They said that, you know, people lost so much on the NFL this year that we saw customers more hesitant
11:17to keep betting and keep spending that money with us.
11:19They also threw their hands up and admitted that they just didn't give promos out the way that they should
11:24have.
11:24They had a couple of weeks where they held about 30% on the NFL.
11:28That's versus the average is usually about 8%, 7%.
11:31So that means customers really got hammered on a couple of weeks and they said they should have given out,
11:36given that money back to the customers and promos to keep them betting, keep the handle up.
11:40And they just didn't quite frankly.
11:42So going forward, they said they're going to focus on, you know, not doing that, on reacting better, on, you
11:48know, making their customers feel like they're going to get their money back more if they lose more.
11:52And they also talked about prediction markets.
11:54A lot of people have thought, you know, is FanDuel losing business to prediction markets?
11:58Is that a reason we're seeing the handle slow down?
12:00They said that's actually not the case.
12:02They provided some pretty good evidence, I would say, is that, you know, their Missouri launch, you know, happened right
12:08around prediction market time.
12:10People in Missouri had prediction markets.
12:12In December, FanDuel went online and it was one of their best state launches ever.
12:15So they're not quite seeing the fact that they're losing handle to prediction markets yet.
12:21They do have plans for their own prediction market to ramp up this year, about $300 million.
12:25We're going to invest over the course of this year.
12:27And they also talked about, you know, using the pricing technology, the great sports betting technology that makes FanDuel the
12:34leading sports betting app and moving that over to prediction markets and figuring out how to kind of benefit from
12:39their sports betting success into a space where, you know, it's more peer to peer.
12:43There's market makers.
12:44It works differently.
12:45So FanDuel stock at its lowest it's been pretty much ever, or Flutter stock rather.
12:50And interesting that there's kind of saying it's because they got hit, because they did so well in the NFL.
12:55That's why the handle is slowing down.
12:57But we'll have to see how they, you know, adapt the rest of this year.
13:00Obviously, we have the NBA season underway.
13:01And, you know, in just a couple of weeks, I look at the calendar, you got March Madness coming up,
13:06which is pretty much their second biggest event.
13:08So I think investors will really be keen to see, did they change their strategy?
13:11How is handle moving?
13:12But right now, that's the story is that handle growth is moving in the wrong direction.
13:16We'll see if that corrects.
13:18Yeah, I think when you look at it, you're right.
13:21The Super Bowl is the Super Bowl for sports betting.
13:23But if there is a second Super Bowl, it is March Madness.
13:26So I think that's a good point, Sam.
13:27We'll check in on quarter two.
13:29Okay, so now let's get to Arkansas.
13:31And we're hearing a lot of news about some of the sports betting operators coming online.
13:36You can read about this over at legalsportsreport.com, by the way.
13:39But Sam will now tell us more.
13:41Who's in?
13:43Yeah, Arkansas has had a change in their sports betting law, which will allow online sports betting brands that we
13:50know to enter the state for the first time.
13:52Historically, the state's online sports betting market has been run by its three casinos.
13:57Bet Saracen is one of the big brands there.
14:00But now you have FanDuel and DraftKings just agreed to partnerships with two of the casinos in the state, not
14:06the one that Bet Saracen operates.
14:08So they'll be competing with them, at least theoretically.
14:11They were approved for these licenses just this week.
14:14And we're not sure exactly when this change is going to happen, when DraftKings and FanDuel are suddenly going to
14:19be in the state.
14:20But I'm told that it could really happen any day.
14:22So if you're in Arkansas, definitely expect FanDuel or DraftKings, the apps you know and love, to be in the
14:27state.
14:29Bet Saracen did come out this week and testified against this happening.
14:32You know, they said that this kind of changes the market.
14:35It unfairly, you know, gives revenue out of state to these companies.
14:39They talked a bit about how the model works where it's still going to be owned by the casinos.
14:45But they're pretty much just FanDuel and DraftKings are licensing their technology to them.
14:49So for all intents and purposes, you still have FanDuel and DraftKings in the state.
14:54The casinos just get over 51% of the revenue.
14:57So there's a bit of tensions in the market there.
14:59Anytime you have an older casino that's been able to operate kind of a monopoly, they don't want these companies
15:05to come in.
15:07But it's good news if you're in Arkansas, you have more options to be able to bet.
15:10And obviously, DraftKings and FanDuel, it's notable they didn't want to agree to this earlier on, kind of when this
15:17law was changed.
15:18But they said that, you know, the market dynamics have changed.
15:21It's now going to be a good opportunity for us, of course, comes after prediction markets.
15:25So you have to wonder if that's the reason they're getting it now as well.
15:28And, of course, DraftKings and FanDuel have had their own prediction markets in the state before this.
15:34So it goes to show you that I think sports betting is still really the business they want to be
15:39conducting if they can, you know, pick one or the other in a state, despite all the fees, despite everything
15:44that comes with it.
15:44Because, obviously, they're both spending about, you know, $200, $300 million each on prediction markets.
15:49They still want sports betting as their primary thing here.
15:52So, yeah, good news for Arkansas, but bad news if you're one of the casinos in the state.
15:58Yeah, it has to be.
15:59But that could be the case in a lot of other places like Mississippi, I think, in the future as
16:02well.
16:03All right.
16:03So let's get to Colorado here, Sam.
16:06And we'll end with a state that's looking to limit some props and some ads.
16:10And I think that, you know, they're being progressive about this.
16:13These things generally do come with a fight, by the way, with state legislation and also the sports betting operators
16:19as well.
16:19But given everything that's happened in the sports betting landscape, I don't think we're ever going to see a stoppage
16:26of folks trying to ban props or limit props, given what's happened in college sports and also, of course, in
16:32Major League Baseball.
16:35Yeah, there will definitely be a fight in Colorado if this bill progresses.
16:39It would actually ban all types of proposition bets, not just player props.
16:45It defines a proposition bet as a bet concerning the performance of an individual athlete participating in an event or
16:52combination of events,
16:53the outcome of which depends on the occurrence or non-occurrence of a specific act, statistics, performance, event, or circumstance,
17:02including any outcome other than the final result or score of an athletic event.
17:06So that language basically means you can't bet on the first team to score, the race to 10 points, first
17:11basket.
17:12I think what we might see is because of the lobbying fight, sports books will say, actually, you need to
17:17change this language.
17:17If you really want to limit prop bets to player props only, it has to not be so broad and
17:22interpreted this way.
17:24But beyond that, banning prop bets is something that sports books will really fight hard against.
17:29Interesting to see a state like Colorado come out and propose something kind of, you know, so vast that the
17:35sports betting industry obviously would not want.
17:37But we'll keep seeing what happens with this bill.
17:39It'll be really interesting to watch.
17:41All right, Sam, great stuff.
17:43See you next week.
17:43Thanks again.
17:45You too.
17:45Thanks, Greg.
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