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00:00We will recap what was a dull game in football and an exciting game in baseball at the end
00:11of September.
00:12I mean, who would have thought that?
00:13We'd be here at the end of September without the postseason and baseball would steer the
00:17headlines today.
00:18That is where we are at here on the show.
00:20Now, naturally, we'll get to football here in just a minute, but let's start off with
00:24the biggest story in sports this morning, which was Shohei Otani reaching the 50-50
00:29milestone, putting together one of the best days in Major League Baseball history.
00:33I mean, he went six for six, he drove in 10 runs, he stole two bases, he hit home run
00:41number 49, home run number 50, and then he hit home run number 51 off a position player.
00:48Not sure how that happened, by the way, at the end of the game, but regardless, Otani
00:52had the single best offensive game and maybe best game that I've ever seen play, and it
00:56happened to happen in my own backyard as well.
01:00A little bit later in the show, we'll get into what happened with the historic baseball,
01:04still to be determined there, but naturally, this is the greatest player that we have seen
01:10play on a baseball field.
01:11I just don't think it comes particularly close.
01:13So congrats to Shohei Otani, amazing watching that thing go down yesterday.
01:18All right, basketball, we've got a mega contract extension.
01:22This feels like one of the richest of all time.
01:24Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers have reached a contract extension.
01:28It's being reported by Shams this morning with Woj being retired.
01:33Three years, $192 million, over three years for Joel Embiid.
01:41So now with his contract, with this money through 28-29, his deal is over $514 million.
01:49That's the fourth highest in the NBA behind LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Paul George.
01:5528 points per game over the course of his career, Embiid now looks like, barring something
02:01unforeseen, that he'll finish his career in Philadelphia.
02:05Meanwhile, it's pretty apparent that Aaron Rodgers will finish his career in New York,
02:10but the hope was he would finish on a high note, and if last night's game is any indication,
02:14the Jets are certainly on their way.
02:16They shut down the New England Patriots from start to finish.
02:19This was not a competitive game at all.
02:2124-3, final score there.
02:24Brees Hall scored a touchdown, Rodgers threw a touchdown, and certainly at this point it
02:29does appear that the Patriots are headed back to maybe who we thought they would be at the
02:33beginning of the season, which is one of the worst teams in the NFL.
02:35But give them credit, they played competitive through two games, it just appeared as though
02:39the short week was not enough to keep them going.
02:42Here is Aaron Rodgers, who basically says week by week he's getting closer to who he
02:47needs to be.
02:48Yeah, I feel great.
02:49I was, you know, feeling real good out there.
02:51I felt good pre-game, and, you know, I've been progressing.
02:54I said to you guys after week one, you know, it's going to be a process of continuing to
02:58extend plays once I feel more comfortable, and this was kind of the first step in playing
03:04like I know I'm capable of playing.
03:05I felt like I was, you know, myself.
03:08After the first session, I felt good, you know.
03:11I felt like we had a lot of good drives, you know.
03:12We backed up a number of times and switched the field position, and then, you know, got
03:19points out of drives.
03:20I wish, you know, maybe I'd thrown that ball to Mike slightly more outside, but, you know,
03:25that would have been nice to get to 28-3, but, man, I'm proud of our guys.
03:30You know, we've been improving, but it, you know, hasn't been good enough for some people
03:36outside the room.
03:37So to have a performance like tonight, I don't have any yards to finish with, but it feels
03:41really good.
03:42Yeah, I think well said by Aaron Rodgers.
03:44I mean, the Jets, you know, did not play great the first two games.
03:47You have nothing negative to say if you're a Jets fan this morning.
03:50They dominated the Patriots from start to finish.
03:52That did not make the head coach of the New England Patriots happy.
03:54Gerard Mayo basically says the game was more or less a failure on their part.
03:58Look, not good in any phase of the game.
04:00Felt like we had a good game, X's, no's, Y's.
04:04We just didn't go out there and execute, and that's what it comes down to every Sunday.
04:07I told the guys, this is NFL football.
04:09This is what it is, and we just have to be better.
04:12So the guys will be off the next few days, told them to, you know, get their minds right,
04:16get their bodies right, and then come back and be ready to work.
04:18Got a bonus Monday, got another good team that we're going to go against next week.
04:24Just got to be better.
04:25The first thing, I got to look at myself in the mirror and make sure that, you know, I
04:28did everything I could to get the guys ready to go.
04:31And based on the score today, I need to do more.
04:34So going back to what I said earlier, just got to hit the reset button.
04:37It's NFL football, and we have to get better.
04:40And the Patriots, of course, have a young quarterback named Drake May who's going to
04:44play eventually.
04:45I don't know if that'll happen next week.
04:46We'll see.
04:47All right, let's talk about Jeremiah Smith.
04:48Do you know Jeremiah Smith's name?
04:50Well, you will now, because he has signed an NIL deal, first ever deal with the company
04:55Red Bull.
04:56It's the first college football athlete to ever land a deal with the company.
04:59He's 18 years old.
05:00He plays on the Ohio State Buckeyes.
05:01He caught six passes for 92 yards against Akron.
05:05He also had five receptions for 119 yards and a 70-yard score last week.
05:10He's a good player, and Red Bull now has their NIL sponsor.
05:15In the NFL, the San Francisco 49ers are banged up.
05:19So are the Los Angeles Rams.
05:21They're playing each other this week.
05:22Will George Kittle play for San Francisco?
05:25Not really sure.
05:26He left last week's game.
05:27They said it was just cramps, but now the 49ers say he has a hamstring injury.
05:31These injury reports with the 49ers are kind of curious this year, to say the least.
05:34Javarius Ward also mispracticed.
05:37Nick Bosa has been limited.
05:38The 49ers are down to six-and-a-half-point favorites against the Rams, who won't have
05:43Puka Nakua or Cooper Cup or a couple defensive players in that one.
05:46Meanwhile, Justin Jefferson says that he is playing against the Texans this week, saying,
05:51oh, yeah, for sure, so we'll trust him there.
05:54Teehagan's back on the field for the Cincinnati Bengals, but he is limited with a hamstring
05:58injury.
05:59We're not sure if he's going to play on Monday night against Washington.
06:02More fantasy football discussion coming your way tomorrow morning with me and George Kurtz,
06:057 a.m.
06:06Eastern, exclusively here on SportsGrid.
06:08New quarterback for the Texas Longhorns, Quinn Ewers, is still out.
06:12Arch Manning, for the time being, is taking over.
06:15We saw him play at a high level last week.
06:17Ewers is recovering from an oblique injury, and Texas plays Saturday night against Louisiana
06:25Monroe.
06:26So this should be an easy matchup for him before Texas gets serious in the SEC.
06:30Meanwhile, the Gators' Eugene Wilson went to undergo knee surgery, underwent knee surgery.
06:38Thirteen receptions, 191 yards and two touchdowns, he's out for the season.
06:42Appalachian State last night, as a big underdog, beat South Alabama 41-19.
06:51The underdog season continues in college football.
06:54Meanwhile, tonight, Illinois takes on Nebraska with the Huskers, 7.5-point favorites.
07:00Stanford is at Syracuse, 8.5-point favorites are Syracuse.
07:04And then San Jose State is at Washington State, with Washington State being 12.5-point favorites
07:09in that game.
07:10Amongst other news in Major League Baseball, not named Shohei Otani, Yankee fans are holding
07:15their breath for Juan Soto.
07:17He had a scary slide into the wall last night, went to get x-rays.
07:21We'll see if Otani is in the lineup at all this weekend.
07:24We'll see what the injury exactly is.
07:27The Baltimore Orioles finally get a win.
07:29They walked off the Giants last night.
07:31They're now within four games of the American League East.
07:34The Cleveland Guardians have clinched a playoff spot.
07:37Great season for them.
07:38They end up beating the Twins.
07:40The Twins are now tied with the Tigers for the final wildcard spot in the American League.
07:45And the Mets scored double-digit runs for the third game in a row, as they're trying
07:49to chase down the wildcard spot in the National League as well.
07:52In the WNBA, they're showing up in droves to see Kaitlyn Clark, a new record crowd,
07:57to see her as the Fever lost the season finale against the Washington Mystics.
08:0292-91 was the final in that game.
08:05Tina Charles set two records as the Dream clinched the final playoff spot, 78-67 over
08:10the New York Liberty.
08:11Atlanta is in.
08:12Also news from Live Golf.
08:14Players are allowed on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, the PGA of America said yesterday.
08:18And in the National Hockey League, as training camp is opening, the Detroit Red Wings signed
08:23defenseman Moritz Seider to a seven-year deal, $60 million.
08:27He was the sixth overall pick by Detroit back in 2019.
08:32Welcome back to News 4 here on Sports Grid.
08:34Today we have Jim Ghazali from Legal Sports Report in the house.
08:36We're going to cover the latest on Bet365.
08:39Seems like they've been in the news a ton for changing odds in different ways.
08:43We're going to get to that.
08:44We'll get to fanatics as well.
08:46But Jim, welcome back to the show.
08:47It is great to catch up with you.
08:49And I know we're going to dive in here.
08:50You know, I kind of, I got to be honest, I kind of miscalculated this story a little
08:54bit.
08:55I honestly thought that Bovada, the offshore sports betting company who has been around
09:00for a really long period of time, way before sports betting was legal, you know, I thought
09:04that these threats that these different states were making to them to shut down operations
09:09in legal states, I thought they wouldn't take it seriously and just proceed as usual because
09:14they've sort of proceeded under their own auspices for many, many years.
09:19But now they're restricted in 14 different states.
09:21And quite frankly, Jim, I'm a little surprised.
09:24I was wrong.
09:25I thought they would just keep rolling and not listen to anyone.
09:28Yeah, certainly, Craig.
09:30And I think what we've seen over the last handful of months, you know, really going
09:34back to the early parts of this year where a bunch of states had been sending these cease
09:41and desist letters to Bovada.
09:44It does seem, though, at least this year, that they are sort of heeding that warning
09:49and restricting access in those states where they do receive that cease and desist letter.
09:55So what we saw over the last couple of weeks and months, Kansas, Louisiana and Pennsylvania
10:03being added to that list of restricted U.S. sports betting markets for Bovada, Kansas,
10:10Louisiana and Pennsylvania, all sending their own separate cease and desist letters within
10:15the last couple of months.
10:16You know, Kansas, I believe, sent theirs in July and Louisiana and Pennsylvania sent theirs
10:23last month in August.
10:26We've seen, like I said off the top, a handful of states take this action.
10:31So far this year, Michigan, Connecticut, Colorado and Ohio did the same.
10:37And all of those states as well included in those 14 restricted markets.
10:43Massachusetts, interestingly enough, they do have one of the most public and outspoken
10:50band of sports betting regulators.
10:53They like to do a lot of public facing things in terms of meetings and rulemaking and whatnot.
11:00I spoke to some people over there the other day and they told me that they'll have an
11:04update on their actions against Bovada coming up at a committee meeting, a gaming
11:12commission meeting coming up in the next several weeks, though they have not yet sent a
11:18cease and desist letter to Bovada or any illegal offshore bookmaker for that matter.
11:24And, you know, of course, Craig, like like we all know, the offshore sports books, very
11:32limited, if any, customer protections, unregulated, untaxed, you know, in direct contrast to the
11:41legal betting markets, the legal sports books that are heavily regulated in the U.S., you
11:49know, of course, with with varying regulations across different states, but now 14 restricted
11:54markets for Bovada in the U.S.
11:57OK, fair enough.
11:58And, you know, we'll see if this means less of a future for some of the other offshore
12:03sports books as well.
12:04All right. A couple of Monday nights ago, you know, Jim, it was a big story how bet
12:08three, six, five, you know, essentially like everybody else thought Christian McCaffrey
12:13was going to be playing on Monday night.
12:14He did not. And so Jordan Mason played.
12:17Mason had a huge game for the San Francisco 49ers.
12:20Bet three, six, five, tried to walk back some potential odds on Mason and then did a
12:26second walk back and say, OK, we'll pay out everybody, even though these were not the
12:30correct odds. You know, they're in the news a lot for this, unfortunately.
12:34And now another fine coming in the state of New Jersey.
12:37So what do you think, Jim, does bet three, six, five sort of not have a handle on this
12:41stuff here? I know that they're mostly overseas and involved in soccer and some of the
12:45other sports, but this is just not really a great look for them in September.
12:48Yeah, and it does seem like these fines have been for or similar things where they are
12:55just unilaterally changing odds without getting approval from New Jersey sports betting
13:02regulators, which is required by law in New Jersey.
13:05Of course, some other states don't have that requirement.
13:09And sportsbooks are allowed to to change these sort of glaring errors, let's call them.
13:15So this latest fine actually came before that Monday night odds change and comes on the
13:22heels of a five hundred thousand dollar fine that bet three sixty five got in New Jersey
13:27in July for, again, changing odds without approval.
13:32So the fines came down in August and this spanned from February of twenty twenty two
13:38through January of twenty twenty three.
13:41There are a variety of different issues, almost two hundred and sixty thousand dollars in
13:47bets that had to be voided and refunded across a variety of of errors, really, where either
13:57the the game or the match that they were taking bets on had already finished or in one
14:05instance, a college basketball game tip off got moved up by an hour.
14:09So the game was already underway.
14:11They they being bet three sixty five did not adjust the time, the start time in their app.
14:19So the the pregame odds were still available while the game was going on.
14:23And then again, they just automatically changed the odds without approval.
14:28A variety of other things where there were there were MMA fights on tape delay that were a
14:36week old that they were accepting wagers on.
14:39And obviously somebody somewhere would have knowledge of of who won that match.
14:45So, of course, that is not allowed.
14:47And they also did take some bets on Rutgers football, which in New Jersey you can't bet on
14:53in-state college teams or athletes.
14:56So overall, a variety of different mishaps and errors on bet three sixty five parts.
15:02So New Jersey regular regulators again hit them with another thirty three thousand dollar
15:08fine in August, which, like I said, came on the heels of that five hundred thousand dollar
15:12fine from July and just prior to the Jordan Mason fiasco that we saw on Monday night, a
15:20few days after this fine got announced by regulators in New Jersey.
15:26Yeah, I feel like this has got some attention, but if it happens one more time on the big
15:30stage, I feel like it's going to get a massive amount of attention.
15:33All right, let's end with some good news in sports betting.
15:35Let's head over to Massachusetts, where they've had a number of different operators come in
15:40and out of there. Let's get to the latest on Fanatics.
15:42They opened up shop this year in Massachusetts.
15:45What are the numbers say?
15:46Yeah, I thought Fanatics had a pretty decent August.
15:51They had their highest volume ever in a single month in Massachusetts, nearly twenty six
15:57million dollars. Their previous high was just shy of twenty four million dollars earlier
16:02this year in March.
16:03So I reached out to Fanatics to see what what they thought might be contributing to this
16:08boost in handle for them in Massachusetts.
16:11And the spokesperson there told me that customers are really responding well to some app
16:19enhancements, namely their parlay hub, which, Craig, as you know, we've we've spoken a lot
16:24about the different tech behind a lot of these parlay products.
16:28And that is where a lot of these sports books seem to find a point of difference amongst
16:36a crowded field of sports books.
16:38So for Fanatics, they enhance that parlay product.
16:41Customers are really responding well to that.
16:45They also increase their their betting market.
16:47So, again, trying to compete with the fan duels and draft kings of the world where you
16:52could seemingly bet on anything that you could think of.
16:56Fanatics has has enhanced their the number of markets that they offer across sports, and
17:02that has helped contribute to their highest volume month ever in Massachusetts at nearly
17:08twenty six million dollars in August.
17:12All right, big numbers there for Fanatics.
17:14Jim, good luck in your fantasy matchups this week.
17:17I know you're all into that. We'll talk again next week.
17:19You're on Newswatch. All right.
17:21Thanks, Craig.