00:00You know, we did go through a period last year of a year where we were thinking to ourselves
00:04with all of the stuff happening with the Cleveland Guardians and in the NBA,
00:07is there a chance that we could lose the opportunity as sports bettors to bet on,
00:13to lose betting on prop bets?
00:15And it seems like the state of Colorado is stepping in here, Sam, and saying,
00:19hey, look, there are so many different options that you have out there.
00:23Why have to bet on these individual props?
00:25Is this something you think that goes through their legislature and comes to reality?
00:30Yeah, it's an unfortunate reality right now that we're dealing with states that legalized sports betting
00:36pretty easily in the past, now coming back to the drawing board,
00:39which when you think about what lawmakers, how they treat laws,
00:42usually once they get something like sports betting over and done with,
00:46they want to move over on to the next thing.
00:47But it hasn't been the case with all these scandals recently.
00:50You mentioned the Cleveland Guardians.
00:51There was a bunch of NBA college scandals recently as well.
00:55That doesn't even count the football and the stuff before that.
00:59It already kind of feels like it was so long ago.
01:02But the fact of the matter is you have a bunch of these recent scandals popping up,
01:06a lot of them involving prop bets.
01:08And Colorado is one of those states that's saying, hey,
01:10maybe we should just get rid of prop bets altogether.
01:12That's certainly what this bill that a couple lawmakers are pushing would do.
01:16Not only would it ban prop bets so you can bet on things like a player's points in the game
01:22or rebounds or passing yards, but it would also limit how many deposits a sports bettor can make
01:27in one day to five and restrict the kind of ads that sports betting brands push out in the state,
01:34which would probably be pretty hard to enforce.
01:36But it goes to show that the prop bet thing isn't just about getting rid of those bet types.
01:42Lawmakers are thinking about how do we make gambling safer in general.
01:46And that's when you get to kind of this crossroads between the industry and then lawmakers trying to help their
01:52constituents
01:53and make sure that bad things don't happen gambling-wise in the state.
01:58So if prop bets were lost, though, it would cost companies like DraftKings maybe 45%, 50% of their revenue
02:07because not only does that kill a huge portion of the bets they take,
02:11it also kind of makes same-game parlays and parlays in general.
02:15It really limits them or neuters them.
02:17I'm not sure, Craig, if you've ever tried to place a same-game parlay in a state on a college
02:23game
02:23where there's no props.
02:25You can't really bet on much.
02:26It's pretty much the total, the spread, and maybe one or two other things,
02:30but it would just really hurt those kind of bets.
02:33So it's being proposed right now in Colorado.
02:36You certainly have a lot of the industry there pushing back on it as best they can.
02:41But, again, it comes at a time when the sports betting industry has a lot else on its plate.
02:45It's split over this prediction market stuff right now.
02:48It's trying to get iGaming passed in other states.
02:51It's fighting against sweepstakes, casinos, and a host of other issues,
02:55let alone trying to get other states to legalize sports betting.
02:58So I kind of wonder, maybe is there a chance that something crazy like this does pass in a state
03:03at a time when the sports betting industry is so occupied?
03:05I really hope it doesn't because, you know, it would really just push a lot of the activity offshore
03:12and, you know, would be kind of one of those bills where it might look good on the surface,
03:15but in practice it might make things even worse in the sports betting environment.
03:20And, of course, other states pick up what other states do.
03:22So you hope it doesn't spread there.
03:24But, yeah, I hope the industry comes out really hard against this.
03:27I'm sure they'll continue to.
03:28But right now, Bill's still alive and well in Colorado.
03:31We'll be watching until the end of session, which is in May.
03:34So it could take some crazy turns, but we'll keep following and seeing how it goes.
