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00:00Thanks for tuning in here in the new year.
00:02Again, happy new year to all of you.
00:03Certainly a good new year for the Indiana Hoosiers.
00:07Wow, did they show up yesterday and take care of business
00:11against the Alabama Crimson Tide,
00:13an absolute blowout at the Rose Bowl
00:17as they now move on to the semifinals.
00:20They very much look like the very best team
00:22in college football.
00:23Fernando Mendoza, nearly perfect against Alabama
00:28despite the wet conditions early in this game.
00:30It didn't seem to affect Indiana at all.
00:32In fact, kind of wondering if the Crimson Tide will look back
00:36and say, why did we even kick that field goal?
00:38They got crushed.
00:40A 35-point win for the Hoosiers.
00:43Kurt Signetti said it's just been like this all season
00:45as they head toward the semifinals.
00:48I thought our mindset was really good.
00:50I liked our prep for the most part
00:53once we knew who the opponent was.
00:55And it was a hard-fought game early in the game.
00:57Alabama made some plays.
00:58They had a soft bounce offensively.
01:00They had a new all-up blitz.
01:03But we were able to kind of make the plays when we needed to
01:06and take it over in the second half.
01:07And, you know, it's a great win for our football program.
01:11I'm proud of our players, our coaches, and everyone.
01:14Again, you know, a big win against a team
01:16that's got great tradition like that and history.
01:19And, you know, a lot of good players
01:21is a great head football coach.
01:23You know, hard to look them in the eye
01:25because the emotions that go through me
01:27when I think about what they've given to me
01:29and given to this program every single day,
01:32everything they've got.
01:33And so our guys, you know, going back to a year ago,
01:36we're all in.
01:37And they, you know, committed to each other.
01:40They committed to, you know, this season.
01:43And, you know, it showed up in the actions.
01:46It wasn't just actions that happened this fall.
01:47It happened every single day going back to early January.
01:51So, again, you know, frustrated, upset.
01:54And, you know, it doesn't sit well with us.
01:57But, you know, after today, all we can do is move on.
02:02Meanwhile, Mississippi is also moving on to the semifinals.
02:06They'll play Miami.
02:07More on the Hurricanes in just a minute.
02:09A late victory for Mississippi, including a field goal
02:12and also including a fantastic performance by Rebels quarterback Trinidad Chambliss.
02:19Remember, Pete Golding is now the head coach at Mississippi.
02:22And they took care of Georgia pretty easily in the end in this one,
02:26although a safety did give Georgia one final opportunity
02:30at the end of the game here.
02:31But it is the Rebels moving on to the semifinals.
02:34Who had that one?
02:35Here's Pete Golding on his team's inspirational victory.
02:38Just super excited for our players.
02:40I thought they responded the right way.
02:43Definitely didn't play our cleanest football in the first half
02:46on either side of the ball.
02:47And kind of challenged them at halftime and said, you know, look,
02:50we were up nine on these guys going into the fourth quarter last time.
02:53I said, let's play 30 minutes of football and out-physical them and execute.
02:56And they responded like they have all year.
02:58It's a super tough group.
03:00They've got a lot of grit.
03:01And they love playing football.
03:02And, you know, they're not tired of it.
03:04So just really, really proud of the group
03:05and the effort that took place tonight.
03:07And their quarterback is just incredible.
03:09I mean, he does an unbelievable job of not giving up sacks
03:13and making plays with his legs.
03:14And they made, you know, more plays than we did.
03:17And I've got to be honest, that's part of football.
03:20They made more and out-executed us, out-coached us, out-played us.
03:25But I enjoyed that game and that atmosphere.
03:28I am proud of our team.
03:30I'm sick that we lost.
03:32And there's things I would love to go back and do differently.
03:34But I'm just so proud of the way our guys competed when down 10.
03:38And just didn't finish it.
03:41Meanwhile, here in South Florida, the weather was cool.
03:44And the performance from Texas Tech was ice cold.
03:47Wow.
03:47Oregon in the Orange Bowl showed up and shut out.
03:51Texas Tech, they are Orange Bowl champions.
03:54And now Oregon moves on to the semifinals.
03:57It was an open and shut case pretty early on in this one.
04:00Game started at noon.
04:01Texas Tech didn't wake up until the game ended.
04:03Here's Dan Lanning on his team going through a lot of different road appearances.
04:08Coming up big.
04:09Yeah, unbelievable game.
04:12A lot of fun.
04:13We've talked to our guys about being battle-tested all year and having to win in different ways.
04:17You know, that game went back and forth in a lot of ways.
04:19You know, we struggled at times to go score points.
04:21And our defense did an unbelievable job getting the ball back.
04:25And then our offense showed up when it mattered most there at the end of the game.
04:27I think we out-physicaled our opponent at the end.
04:28But a lot of respect for Coach McGuire and the team that he's had.
04:32They shouldn't discredit him.
04:33I remember this feeling last year, right?
04:35When you have a really good team, you play a really good football year, and then it comes
04:37to an end.
04:38And that's the way it is for every team but one.
04:40You know, the one thing that I told them, and I truly believe it.
04:45Like, when you do something that nobody's ever done, nobody's ever done what these guys
04:50did wearing this uniform ever.
04:53And so then the standard's set.
04:57And, you know, that's where you start building something really special.
05:00And so I can't thank them enough.
05:02And this is going to hurt for a long time.
05:06I know these guys are hurting right now, but can't be more proud of my football team.
05:12And in case you missed it on New Year's Eve, the University of Miami pulled off one of
05:17the biggest upsets thus far in the playoff as they beat Ohio State, and they will move
05:23on to play Mississippi on Thursday night in the Fiesta Bowl.
05:26The Hurricanes defense just way too much for Ohio State early and often in this game.
05:30Close game in the end, but the Hurricanes, who almost didn't make the playoff, are moving
05:35on.
05:35Meanwhile, Saturday night and Sunday, we've got some National Football League action, some win
05:40and in situations, including the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday night, as they will take
05:45on the Pittsburgh Steelers for the Battle of the AFC North.
05:49And it appears Lamar Jackson will be around for that one.
05:51He did not play last week.
05:52Tyler Huntley played in his absence, but they're saying all the right things that Jackson could
05:57play this week.
05:57Meanwhile, Jordan Love cleared concussion protocol.
06:00He's going to sit week 18 along with Justin Herbert.
06:03It looks like Josh Allen will also sit for Buffalo.
06:05How about this news yesterday?
06:07Troy Aikman of Monday Night Football and former, of course, Hall of Fame quarterback,
06:13going to advise the Dolphins on their next general manager search and see that one coming.
06:17The Giants are casting a wide net for that before for a new head coaching search.
06:21You could have Mike McCarthy, Antonio Pierce, and some others.
06:24And then the big news in the hot stove from baseball was over the weekend.
06:28The Japanese pitcher who was coming over is supposed to get $150, $200 million, three-year,
06:33$63 million contract with the Houston Astros.
06:36That's Imai.
06:37Signed that contract with some opt-outs, so naturally he didn't get the money that he wanted.
06:41At least he can go back on the market at the end of the season if he has a good one.
06:45Last night in the NBA, Norman Powell had his best game of the season for the Miami Heat.
06:49He put up 36 points.
06:50The Heat beat the Pistons 118 to 112, one of the bigger wins for Miami as well, as the Pistons
06:55were four-and-a-half-point favorites.
06:57It was really the offense coming through for Miami in a different way.
07:01They've been scoring 130, 140 points a game recently, but only 118 yesterday.
07:05So Eric Spolstra said it was all about the defense.
07:07But there were some great defensive possessions before that, particularly as they were trying
07:14to get back into the game.
07:16We had some good deflections, a couple stops, tough rebounds.
07:22You know, it's just a good start to 2026.
07:27We'll take it.
07:28You know, that's a very good team.
07:30You know, obviously, they're coming off a West Coast trip.
07:32You know, this is the NBA.
07:35You know, so, you know, we will definitely take it.
07:39Yeah, I mean, I love the way our guys play.
07:42I love the way they compete.
07:43I love how resilient they are.
07:44You know, things weren't going our way most of the night, but they stayed with it, figured
07:50out a way to put ourselves back in the game.
07:53You know, just down the stretch, they made, you know, tough shot over the top of us that
07:57kind of gave them a little bit of cushion.
07:58But again, I thought our guys did a heck of a job just staying with it, staying together
08:02and competing through it.
08:03You know, being down bodies and all that, but give our guys a ton of credit for that.
08:10Also on New Year's Day, NBA basketball, the Celtics beat the Kings 120-106.
08:1576ers beat the Mavericks 123-108.
08:19Hottest player going in the NBA right now.
08:20Guess who?
08:21Kawhi Leonard, 45 points again.
08:24The Clippers beat the Jazz 118-101.
08:28Kawhi had 20 points in the fourth quarter.
08:31Welcome back to Newswire.
08:33Here on Sports Grid.
08:34Happy New Year to all of you.
08:36Also, Happy New Year to Sam McQuillan, who joins us now from Legal Sports Report to go
08:40over the latest in sports betting.
08:41And we'll, of course, hit on prediction markets, as we always do, Sam.
08:44But let's start off here.
08:46What's going on in Chicago?
08:48I mean, there's been some stories over the last few weeks that are seemingly pointing
08:52toward a maybe potential shutdown of sports betting.
08:55Of course, money always involved here.
08:58Licensing involved as well.
08:59But money is the real story here.
09:01What what's the discourse here with the operators and the state of Illinois?
09:07What's going on?
09:08Yeah, you had several major sports books represented by this group called the Sports Betting
09:14Alliance in Chicago, which is FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, Bet365, and Fanatics as well, had threatened
09:23to leave the city of Chicago if its new budget went into effect on January 1st, which was
09:30yesterday, and they have not left the state because the budget, what it did was created
09:37a new licensing requirement for these sports books.
09:39It would require that they wouldn't only be licensed by the state, which they already have
09:44been for several years.
09:45It would require that they now are licensed by Chicago.
09:48And there was nothing else in the budget which gave any language around when those license
09:52would be issued.
09:53What would even go into issuing those licenses?
09:57So the sports books responded with a lawsuit saying that we'll have to leave the state if
10:01we are unlicensed in Chicago when this new requirement takes effect, because that could
10:06impact our licenses in other jurisdictions.
10:08We've seen in the past, if you are deemed a bad actor in one state or not complying with
10:13rules in a certain other jurisdiction, sometimes other states will take that into account and
10:18can penalize sports books for that or even not allow them to be in their states.
10:22But those licenses were issued yesterday without much fanfare.
10:26It seemed like they were pretty much just given as soon as the budget passed.
10:29And also in the new budget, the real thing is that it creates a new 10.25% tax rate on
10:37these sports books.
10:37That's really what they wanted to stop with the lawsuit, which is still ongoing, because
10:42they don't want to be taxed on top of already the 20 to 40% rate that they have to pay in
10:47the state, as well as the 50 cent per bet fee that was added last year.
10:52So now they have to pay upwards of 40% tax rate, plus the per bet fee, and now plus the
10:5810.25% rate in Chicago.
11:00It's the first city to pass its own sports betting tax on top of it.
11:05So sports books are going to, in the meantime, be paying that tax and staying in the state.
11:09We'll have to see if anything else happens as a result.
11:13This past year, when that new Illinois tax was put in place, they passed that extra tax
11:18down to the customer.
11:20Sports books like FanDuel and DraftKings now have a 50 cent fee added on to bets placed
11:25in the states to effectively kind of move that money down to the customer.
11:29So we'll see if they try anything similar with Chicago.
11:32Now what they're kind of weighing is a bill in the legislature, which would prevent the
11:36city from doing this extra tax on top of the state tax.
11:40Illinois lawmakers have been very vocal against Chicago kind of acting on its own, adding its
11:44new tax.
11:45There's also a bill that would reduce the amount of revenue that Chicago can get from
11:50the state sports betting tax rate as a result.
11:52So a big shakeup in Chicago for the meantime, these sports books are going to keep operating.
11:57And if they're successful, if Chicago is successful keeping this tax, you know, you have
12:01to think about then what happens with other states and other cities that always want to
12:05capture more tax revenue if they can.
12:07We'll see what happens with Chicago.
12:09Be watching it all 2026.
12:10It'll be one of the few non-prediction market related topics that really will have some
12:15attention this year.
12:16As we wrapped up 2025, some of the topics from a salacious nature in sports betting surrounded
12:23some of the live betting opportunities that involved some allegations of prop betting with
12:31the NBA and also Major League Baseball.
12:33And Sam, it looks like the state of New York is taking a close look at this and asking
12:37the question, do we really need to have live betting during games with all of the other
12:43opportunities that people have to bet before the game?
12:46I think it's probably a fair question.
12:48I don't know if that ends up happening and it gets banned, but certainly I could see some
12:52maximum bets coming on this stuff soon, too.
12:54All right.
12:56Definitely interesting that this question is now being floated in the biggest legal sports
13:01betting market in New York, where, like you mentioned, Craig, there's now a bill that
13:05has been proposed by Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal that would effectively ban live betting
13:10on all games, which, as we know, is a huge portion of the money that sports books take
13:16on the games.
13:16It's gone from about 50 percent of total handle they take on games to some in some cases,
13:22it's 70 or 80 percent, you know, depending on the game, depending on whether it was a
13:26big opportunity that attracts a lot of live betting or, you know, other various factors.
13:29But it's this really segment of sports betting that sports books have spent a lot of money,
13:35a lot of investment, a lot of time to grow.
13:37So if New York would ban this, that would be obviously huge news.
13:40It would be the first state to do that.
13:42And obviously, New York, a very big state with sweeping implications for other markets as well.
13:46As you alluded to, Craig, it seems to be yet another response to the blowback that we've
13:51had from the recent sports betting scandals in the NBA and in the MLB as well.
13:56You had just about a month ago the state of Ohio, which is where, you know, the Cleveland
14:02Guardians pitchers were kind of implicated in a scheme where they would pitch certain
14:09types of pitches to start innings that allegedly a group of bad actors would then take to live
14:14betting markets and bet immediately on what they would pitch.
14:17As a result of that kind of, you know, of that scandal coming to a head, the governor
14:22proposed banning all micro bets.
14:24So not live betting specifically, but all quick parts of live betting.
14:28That's like next drive in the NFL, certainly in baseball, next pitch type.
14:34What they kind of came to as a result there was the MLB agreeing to ban people from being
14:39able to bet on, you know, what the next pitch would be.
14:41So it wasn't a huge sweeping change that extended to all sports, but still pretty big.
14:46The NBA recently issued a memo saying that it was, you know, evaluating whether or not
14:51it's going to allow player prop betting to continue or whether it needs to put more restrictions
14:56on that.
14:56We've seen in the past with the Jonte Porter scandal teams now sports books now rather no
15:02longer offer player props on guys that are on 10 day contracts or two way contracts to kind
15:08of limit the scope of what could be, you know, taken advantage of by a group of bad actors.
15:12So I think this is just another example of pushback you're seeing from all these scandals,
15:17whether that actually comes to the actual proposal getting passed as it is.
15:23I would be doubtful that a state would ban live betting at this point, but it could be weaseled
15:27down or parsed down into some other sort of smaller restriction.
15:31And certainly the notion that it's being proposed and talked about is big news in and of itself,
15:35because, you know, just a year ago, the idea that someone would ban live betting totally
15:40would be something that I think most most states would scoff at.
15:44But now we're seeing a bill obviously move through the legislature and we'll continue to
15:46track its progress throughout the year.
15:49And we'll also track the progress of prediction markets, CalShe, Polymarket and others.
15:54There's a report over on the website that you guys are running, LegalSportsReport.com.
16:00You could read more about this column.
16:02Sam, it doesn't appear that the train is stopping anytime soon.
16:05It feels like prediction markets, at least temporarily, are here to stay.
16:10Yeah, it's pretty hard to believe that it hasn't even been a full year since we started talking
16:14about this.
16:15Sports prediction markets were pretty much first offered around Super Bowl 59 last February.
16:20So it's almost a year, but not quite yet, when companies like CalShe and Robinhood came
16:25out with basically what a lot of states have now sued and said this is actually sports betting.
16:30These companies have contended that, no, it's not actually sports betting.
16:33It's a financial swap, which is subject to CFTC oversight over the Commodities Exchange Act.
16:40The CFTC for the past year has not had any leadership to really make a decision on this,
16:45despite multiple state courts where these lawsuits are playing out, resulting in instances
16:50where judges are saying, listen, this is up for the CFTC to decide whether or not these
16:54are permissible event contracts or, indeed, these are not allowed and states have a right
16:59to sue under their sports betting laws.
17:01We now have a new leader of the CFTC.
17:03Michael Selig was nominated and accepted to chair it, but now that he's the leader, he has
17:09recently indicated that he will not make a decision on this and likely just leave it up
17:13to the courts.
17:14Definitely a very consequential decision either way.
17:17It looks like eventually it'll get worked out by the Supreme Court.
17:20That's kind of what everyone thinks will happen.
17:22But again, with that, it takes a lot of time.
17:24In the meantime, companies like Calci have taken $22 billion in betting volume just in
17:29the past year, which is over 100 times what they took last year, 87% on that in sports.
17:34So this sector will keep growing while we will likely have more and more uncertainty throughout
17:39the rest of the year.
17:41All right, Sam, have a great weekend.
17:42We'll catch up next week here on Newswire.
17:44Happy New Year.
17:45Thanks.
17:45Happy New Year, Craig.
17:46Thank you, too.
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