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00:00So let's get started here with some of the headlines on the show.
00:07And for those of you who were watching football last night, you missed a great baseball game.
00:11And for those of you who were watching baseball last night, you missed a great football game.
00:14That's just kind of the way that it worked last night.
00:16Regardless, we're going to start with baseball today, because I think that we got one of
00:19the big postseason home runs that we've seen maybe in a decade, Pete Alonso with the game-winning
00:24home run for the New York Mets off all-star closer Devin Williams in the ninth inning,
00:30gave the Mets a 3-2 lead.
00:32They go on to win the game by a final of 4-2.
00:37It was certainly one of the more incredible scenes that we have seen in the postseason
00:40in a long time.
00:41Some people feel like it was the biggest home run maybe in 15 years in Major League Baseball.
00:46But needless to say, Alonso knew right away when he hit it.
00:49He went opposite field.
00:50As you can see there, it just went over the fence.
00:53And Alonso, the polar bear with a pumpkin in hand, talked about the big win last night.
00:58I mean, I was just looking for something out over the plate.
01:01And yeah, I just really wanted to hit something hard through the big part of the field.
01:08And I'm really happy I capitalized.
01:10Really happy that I capitalized.
01:11I know Devo's got great stuff.
01:15I mean, I've seen him pitch a ton.
01:17We were teammates in the WBC.
01:19And yeah, he's a tough A.B.
01:22So yeah, I mean, I'm just really happy I was able to capitalize on something out over
01:27the plate.
01:28Yeah, I mean, it's just been such a great ride all year.
01:32And I'm just happy I could come through for my team right there.
01:35It's a really special moment.
01:37And L.E.'s showdown coming this weekend in the Vision Series between the New York Mets
01:42and Philadelphia Phillies.
01:43They'll begin that series in Philadelphia this weekend.
01:46All right.
01:47So if you had your eyes on the baseball game, you may have missed the football game.
01:50Although the end was live when the baseball game ended, it was a wild one back and forth
01:54between Tampa Bay and Atlanta.
01:57This game flew over the total.
01:59If you bet on that early, you had a good feeling you were going to hit it, and you did.
02:02An overtime touchdown from Kirk Cousins in the end is the difference.
02:06And Cousins threw a career high over 500 yards passing in the matchup with Tampa Bay.
02:14So Atlanta now square back in the middle of thick of things after a disappointing start
02:18to the season.
02:20The Falcons are feeling really good about themselves.
02:22And Raheem Morris, the head coach of the, of course, Atlanta Falcons, also feeling like
02:27a lot of credit goes in the way of the coaching staff and the offensive game plan.
02:32I think these guys go out there and they play well together.
02:34They play for each other.
02:37And I can't say enough about their coordinator.
02:39I can't say enough about the players.
02:40I can't say enough about the offensive staff.
02:42I can't say enough good things about our organization and what they do for us, our coach that was
02:46built around here.
02:47And it didn't start with me.
02:48It's been going on for a long time, and I'm extremely excited to be a part of it.
02:52And this game is all about confidence.
02:54This game is going out there getting better and better every single week.
02:57And that's what he's been doing since he's been back.
02:59You know, he's coming off a significant injury, and I've watched him get better every single
03:02week.
03:03And we kind of talked about it.
03:04Where he went from Pittsburgh to he went to all throughout the games, and every single
03:06week has been better.
03:07Whether it's been explosives, whether it's been execution, whether it's just a rhythm
03:10and routine with him and Zach and our offensive staff.
03:13I mean, it's just getting better and better.
03:14That's what happened today.
03:16Every conversation in the offseason with Atlanta was surrounded with Michael Pennix,
03:20Jr.
03:21You don't hear his name anymore.
03:22Kirk Cousins is there to stay without a doubt.
03:24All right, now let's get to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers side.
03:26They played well, too.
03:27Just came up short.
03:28Baker Mayfield with a nice game, but after the game said he's not interested in his numbers.
03:32I mean, all I care about is wins.
03:34That's it.
03:35So got to find a way to finish that game out on offense.
03:40You know, I'm thinking about the first half missing that shot to Shep.
03:45Should have been a touchdown.
03:46Ended up with three points, and I'm just replaying that one over in my head that maybe shouldn't
03:52have even been in an overtime situation.
03:53So have to make the plays when they're there, and then in the second half, just got to take
04:00care of the football, and then got to finish on offense.
04:02You know, obviously every time we got the ball back in the fourth quarter, trying to
04:06hit the mindset and tell the guys, you know, we need to finish with this, finish the right
04:09way, end with points, and put this game away.
04:11And then once they're driving fourth quarter, just realizing that we need to hit the reset
04:16button, get ready for overtime.
04:18Obviously not getting a chance to go out there just based on the rules, but yeah, not ideal
04:23for us.
04:24Yeah.
04:25Tampa Bay picking up the pieces after a loss in Atlanta in overtime.
04:28Meanwhile, if Antonio Pierce wants to return to college from the NFL, may have a little
04:33bit of an issue.
04:34The head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders has been slapped with an eight-year show cause
04:37order because of violations that occurred when he was an assistant coach at Arizona
04:41State University, the NCAA announced on Thursday.
04:44Most of the violations were related to what the NCAA referred to as a scheme or orchestrated
04:49by Pierce to circumvent restrictions that were in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
04:55He facilitated impermissible recruiting contact with 35 prospects, tryouts, football facility
05:01tours, and entertainment.
05:03If he decides to return to college, he would be suspended for his first football season
05:09and would have no contact with the program's coaches or players during that period.
05:13So Pierce probably sticking with the NFL, I would guess for now.
05:16Meanwhile, lots of news in Major League Baseball as well.
05:19Yesterday, a new manager for the Cincinnati Reds, which we'll get to here in just a minute,
05:22but also the general manager of the Minnesota Twins is stepping down after eight years with
05:26the organization.
05:27Thad Levine this morning says that he is pursuing interests in baseball and also outside of
05:32the organization.
05:33Derek Falvey is the president there.
05:35Thad is the GM, no longer in Minnesota.
05:38The Kansas City Chiefs are looking forward to their game coming up over the next week,
05:43but Rasheed Rice will not be part of that equation.
05:46As of right now, he's undergoing further testing.
05:48Of course, he was injured in last week's game against the Chargers.
05:50He goes on injured reserve.
05:52Another key wide receiver in the NFL, that's Khalil Shakir of the Buffalo Bills had an
05:57ankle injury on Sunday night.
05:59He didn't practice Wednesday.
06:00He didn't practice Thursday.
06:01He'll need to practice today, probably in order to play.
06:04Derek Carr, amidst rumors of a potential trade for Devontae Adams, says that he would love
06:10to have Adams on his team.
06:11Of course, anybody would, and he says, quote, I think all 32 quarterbacks would like to
06:15play with Devontae Adams.
06:16We know the Jets are heavily involved, but these are just rumors on this Friday as well.
06:21No trade imminent, Adams not expected to play anytime soon.
06:24Les Miles, former coach of LSU, is moving forward from this federal to state court case.
06:32He's got a lawsuit against the LSU and the NCAA over a decision to vacate 37 of his team's
06:36victories from 2012 to 2015.
06:39He initially sued in June in a court in Baton Rouge, alleging that LSU never gave him a
06:44chance to be heard before altering his career record.
06:47Basically, Miles wants to still be in the record books.
06:49As of right now, he is not.
06:51Wisconsin's leading rusher, Chez Malusi, is stepping away from football as he continues
06:55to battle back from a multitude of injuries.
06:58He's entering his sixth college season, 232 yards and three touchdowns this year.
07:03Also in college football, we have some nice games tonight.
07:05Some teams ranked in the top 10 playing.
07:07Number six, Oregon, 23 and a half home favorites against Michigan State.
07:11The wacky schedule right now in the Big Ten continues.
07:13Michigan State traveling cross country, Oregon State, also Syracuse, travels, yes, across
07:18the country to number 25 UNLV.
07:21Rebels are six and a half point favorites, total is 58 and a half in that game.
07:24All right, back to baseball we go.
07:26All division series now officially set with the Mets taking care of business in Milwaukee
07:31yesterday.
07:32Here is the schedule.
07:33Tigers play the Guardians first up Saturday at one, Mets at Phillies at four, Royals and
07:39Yankees at 630, Padres and Dodgers at 830 Eastern.
07:44That is the Saturday schedule.
07:46Meanwhile, one year ago, Terry Francona retired as manager in Major League Baseball from the
07:52Cleveland Guardians.
07:54And he's back yet again.
07:56As MLB.com reported last night, Francona is back and managing the team that he used to
08:01play for, the Cincinnati Reds.
08:03As soon as like press conferences like coming imminently, you didn't see this coming.
08:07I don't even know if Cincinnati interviewed anybody else, but needless to say, they were
08:10not going to make that announcement during the game.
08:12It happened immediately after the Mets-Brewers game ended last night.
08:15Diamondbacks also making some changes to their staff.
08:18Former World Series champion pitching coach with the Houston Astros, Brent Strom, has
08:22been let go.
08:23Assistant Dan Carlson and Mike Fedders also not there as well.
08:27And the Dodgers have announced their game one starter.
08:29It is going to be a Shinobu Yamamoto.
08:32He will make the start coming up this weekend against the Padres.
08:35Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid.
08:37We've got Jim Ghazali in the house from legalsportreport.com.
08:40All of the topics we discuss on this show can also be discovered, read, analyzed over
08:44at legalsportreport.com as well.
08:46Jim, great to have you back here on Newswire.
08:49I hope you have a fun weekend ahead, but thanks for spending some time with me first.
08:53Yeah, of course.
08:54Thanks for having me, Craig.
08:55All right.
08:56So, let's get started here.
08:57The state of Massachusetts coming down here a little bit on BetMGM facing some noncompliance
09:02issues.
09:03Why don't you tell us more about what the story is and how they'll be affected?
09:08Yeah.
09:09So, BetMGM came under the microscope in Massachusetts in recent weeks for allowing a ton, 15,000
09:18in fact, 15,000 unapproved bets on college football player props.
09:26And, you know, Craig, as you know, over the last several months, really, the college football
09:32betting, college sports betting in general, especially the player prop side of it has
09:38come under a bunch of scrutiny.
09:41Several states have outlawed it, not allowed in Massachusetts, but BetMGM was accepting
09:47bets on college football player props, 15,000 of them, like I said, for upwards of $200,000
09:55in bets.
09:56And obviously, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission didn't like that all that much.
10:02In addition to that, there were some bets that BetMGM took in Massachusetts on soccer
10:10matches, prop bets around the number of penalty cards that would be issued in a match.
10:17And if that sounded familiar, that's because it happened to BetMGM in Tennessee a handful
10:24of months ago, and they got hit with a pretty sizable fine in Tennessee for doing the same
10:30thing.
10:31So, a lot of this went undetected at first on the part of BetMGM.
10:37So they ended up hiring an outside company to come in and audit some of their practices,
10:45some of their policies, and they uncovered a handful of other noncompliance issues.
10:52Now, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission did say at a meeting in the last couple of weeks
10:58that they'll be reviewing this matter even further.
11:02They'll bring it up at a future meeting.
11:05And as you know, too, Craig, the MGC is probably one of, if not the most publicly out there,
11:13if you will, when it comes to a lot of their regulations and all of their meetings are
11:18streamed online live publicly.
11:21So the public constituents, reporters like myself, can get eyes and ears on everything
11:27that they're discussing.
11:28So this BetMGM noncompliance issue will come up at a meeting in the not too distant future,
11:35I'm sure.
11:36Yeah.
11:37And again, got to be extremely careful with some of these college props going on across
11:41the country.
11:42There's a lot of focus on that moving forward.
11:44All right.
11:45Now, let's get to the state of Colorado.
11:46And, you know, certainly right now, the primary goal is to get as much attention for Coach
11:51Prime, Deion Sanders.
11:52I kind of have a feeling, Jim, that maybe some of the numbers that are hiked up here
11:58a little bit in sports betting in Colorado may be thanks to him as well, because I know
12:03it ain't the Broncos, it definitely ain't the Rockies, and the Nuggets don't start here
12:07for about a month.
12:08Yeah, you're absolutely right.
12:10And what we saw in August was a pretty sizable increase in college football betting.
12:17And ultimately, it does have a lot to do with Coach Prime.
12:22The Colorado Buffaloes played their first regular season game that final weekend in
12:28August.
12:29So that played a role, obviously.
12:30And the Colorado State Rams also played their first regular season game that final weekend
12:36in August.
12:37So that certainly played a role as well.
12:41And just a lot of the national hype around Coach Prime at the University of Colorado,
12:48certainly driving a lot of bets, especially inside the state.
12:52So $14 million, just about, bet on college football in August, which was noticeably more
12:59than August from last year, when $6 million was bet on college football.
13:05A lot of that season-long future bets from last year coming in on the Colorado Buffaloes,
13:14thanks in large part, because of the attention that Deion Sanders was bringing to that football
13:20program.
13:21They didn't play a game in August last year, but they did this year.
13:26And I think that is why we saw such a sizable increase to that college football handle.
13:32Like you said off the top there, too, Craig, the Rockies haven't really been doing much,
13:37I don't think, to influence baseball betting in Colorado.
13:42Baseball betting was down in August by a couple of million dollars.
13:46I think it was about $103 million for the month, which was down from $105 million August
13:54of last year, which was even down further from August two years ago.
13:59So baseball betting in the thick of summer seems to be on a little bit of a downward
14:04trend in Colorado.
14:06Now on the basketball side, like you mentioned, too, we have seen over the years that basketball,
14:12you know, once it's all said and done and we get a 12-month snapshot, basketball betting
14:18tends to be the most popular sport for Colorado.
14:22I obviously think that that has a lot to do with the success of the Nuggets in recent
14:26years.
14:27But when we do get a full 12-year picture, which includes the NBA season and ultimately
14:33the playoffs, usually, as we've seen the last couple of years, basketball betting is certainly
14:39tops on the list, even ahead of NFL betting when it's all said and done in Colorado, Craig.
14:44Yeah.
14:45And again, Colorado played great last week against Central Florida.
14:48Maybe that will continue.
14:49Maybe more betting comes in.
14:50All right.
14:51Let's close it out, Jim, for the week here and hit on Bet365.
14:55You know, great success around the world, limited success, I would say, fair to say,
14:59with their footprint here in the United States.
15:01But in the state of Ohio, it does seem as though they've done a really good job at least
15:05making some hay there.
15:07Yeah.
15:08And certainly that footprint is growing, like we've seen.
15:13And I think Ohio is a perfect example of that.
15:17They've cemented themselves as the number three option in Ohio, really, in about the
15:25last 10, 11, 12 months even.
15:29They're really holding on to that third overall spot in Ohio behind FanDuel and DraftKings.
15:36We've seen them start to grow their revenue share in New Jersey as well.
15:43Looking at some Kentucky figures that came in just yesterday from August, they're the
15:47third most popular sports betting app in Kentucky.
15:51So we're seeing Bet365 start to really grow that footprint in these various markets around
16:03the country.
16:04Now, of course, they're not available in New York at the moment.
16:08Like I said, they are available in New Jersey and starting to grow that footprint there.
16:11But really, I think what we've seen over the last half of a year to a full year is
16:17really that Ohio market, they're really digging their heels in there and showing some really
16:24positive signs of success.
16:27In my opinion, I think it's one of the more interesting stories that we've seen really
16:32from the start of 2024 carrying now through into the fall.
16:39And those summer months really had them really cementing themselves as that third option
16:43behind the DraftKings and FanDuel.
16:46So it'll be interesting to see, again, as they get another football season under their
16:49belt here in the next couple to see how they perform, if they can really distance themselves
16:58from the other operators in the state and really lock in that third overall spot.
17:05Over the last couple of months, we've really seen Bet365 do a really solid job of gaining
17:10market share, both on the handle side and the revenue side, especially in Ohio, Craig.
17:16Yeah, great stuff as always, Jim.
17:17Thanks for bringing it to the table.
17:18We'll catch up again next week.
17:20Have a good weekend.
17:21Thanks, Craig.
17:22You too.