Good morning.
Welcome to Newswire here on Sports Grid.
I'm Craig Mish and boy, do we have some big
stories to start off on the show here today.
We'll get to that in just a second.
Matt Letovsky is going to join us from Sporting News.
Also, we'll go over the latest in football, little fantasy
football, also with George Kurtz.
And of course, we've got a guest contributor from Legal
Sports Report today.
Jim Ghazali is in the house and he'll talk about
everything happening in the world of sports betting.
But folks, about 30 minutes ago, we got some breaking
news in the National Football League.
The first coach has been fired in the NFL this
season and it is Robert Sala of the New York
Jets.
Didn't even get it to the halfway point of the
year and he is out.
And it's been a tough time for him in New
York, to say the least.
They come off some back-to-back, very disappointing losses, 1 to
the Vikings week before the Broncos.
And Sala's out.
Former defensive coordinator of the 49ers, spent Four Seasons with
The Jets.
And the bottom line, folks, is the record and the
record for Salah as head coach.
Twenty wins, 36 losses, and that is not going to
endear you to anyone in the organization.
There's a lot of people pointing fingers today, Aaron Rodgers
maybe as the quarterback, who really knows in the end.
And truthfully, you know, Salah didn't have good quarterback play
for four years, so I don't know if it's necessarily
his fault either.
But Needless to say, for the time being, The Jets
will look for a new head coach.
Now.
They play Monday night, by the way, against the Buffalo
Bills, currently a 2 1/2 point underdog.
And Jeff Oberick has been named the interim head coach
there.
He was Solids defensive coordinator, although Solid did call most
of the defensive plays he'll coach on Monday night.
That'll be the big story in the NFL going into
Monday night as well.
Neela.
Meanwhile, last night, Monday Night Football didn't necessarily have a
ton of drama.
The Chiefs more or less dominated this game start to
finish.
Saints got their way back into the game after Kansas
City threw a very untimely interception in Patrick Mahomes, but
final score 26 to 13.
Right now, the big issue coming out of this game
is an injury to quarterback David Carr.
Derek Carr, who left the game in the fourth quarter
with a couple possessions to go with a hip issue
and they called it an oblique, did not return to
the game.
He's having tests and my guess is before the day
is done, we'll find out more about that.
But Needless to say, one of the highlights of the
game was Travis Kelsey with yet another lateral to accomplish
more things offensively.
This is something that the Chiefs have been doing quite
a bit.
And who knew?
Andy Reid, the head coach, said that Kelsey has been
practicing that lateral each and every week in practice.
Yeah, no, we do it every we do every day
and he does a great job.
You know, the decision to do that or not do
it, if he doesn't do well with it, I don't
don't come back to the bench.
I mean, right now the Chiefs right now, I mean,
when you look at it in the way that they've
played has not been great.
I mean, even last night they didn't play fantastic, but
they still keep winning somehow.
Also, they've had a lot of injuries.
Let's give them credit.
Isaiah Pacheco hasn't played.
Rashi Rice hasn't played.
Patrick Mahomes has been throwing to different players, including Juju
Smith, Schuster, who had his best game as a Chief.
He talked about the other contributors in the game last
night.
I think it's credit to not only the guys and
how hard they work, but Coach Reed and just knowing
their skill sets and how to put them in great
positions.
And I mean, Korean just runs extremely hard.
He gets every yard out there, catches the ball, does
whatever it takes in order to go out there and
win.
And then Juju, even when he wasn't getting as many
reps, he was he was in the playbook.
He was learning the things that he had lost over
one year.
But I mean, y'all saw him two years ago.
I mean, he fits in well in this offense and
so he did a great job today.
So it was cool to get those guys going and
then the step up, and it's going to be like
that until we start getting some of these guys back.
It's going to be everybody's going to step up and
make plays.
Meanwhile, the New Orleans Saints started off the season 2.
And oh, and if you watched a lot of shows
covering the NFL, they were the favorites to win the
division.
And they were a surprise, scoring 40 points a game.
And now, oh, my gosh, have they gone the other
way and may not have their quarterback this week as
Derek Carr, as we mentioned, suffered an oblique injury.
He's going to have an MRI today.
Their backup is Jake Haner, who looked a little capable
when he came in the game last night, but let's
be real, it's not the same as having car.
Meanwhile, Devante Adams, we got an update on him, which
is not really one at all.
Pulled out of media appearances.
I guess today when there's something to tell you more
about Adams, we'll let you know.
It doesn't look like he's gonna play for the Raiders,
but will he play for anyone else?
Remains to be seen.
Bear safety Jaquan Brisker in concussion protocol did not travel
to London for their upcoming game this weekend.
And also Deshaun Watson.
The beat goes on for him legally.
A lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault and battery has
been resolved.
His attorney, Rusty Hardin, said that the case has been
resolved and that there is some sort of settlement that
is confidential.
Who knows?
A lot of stuff happening with Watson.
All right, Malachi Moore, let's get to this.
It was a tough week for Alabama, but good news
at least for them today, that Moore is not going
to be suspended for his outburst on Saturday.
He was throwing a tantrum on the field and his
reactions went viral.
Alabama head coach Caitlyn Dubois said he apologized to the
team and will not be suspended for his actions.
Meanwhile, Quinn Ewords is returning for #1 Texas This week.
They got that big showdown against Oklahoma.
Although Arch Manning has played great in his absence.
Alabama's defensive tackle Jehem Otis has decided to red shirt
and will transfer over playing time.
And also an antitrust settlement granted preliminary approval on Monday
gets Division One athletes closer to being paid directly by
schools as opposed to being paid through NIL deals.
In baseball.
Yesterday, a scintillating game with not a lot of scoring
between the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians.
This one in favor of the Tigers.
And it all came in the 8th inning.
A3 run, home run from Carrie Carpenter off Guess who
closer Emmanuel Class A first time ever Class A has
given up a three run home run in his career.
Some bad timing there.
Good timing for Carrie Carpenter who talked about hitting the
game winner.
I don't know if I can describe it, but yeah,
I knew it was gone and and it was just
an amazing feeling being able to come through for this
team because our pitchers are keeping us in these games
like crazy.
And it's amazing to be able to come through for
our pitching staff, especially school ball that's brisky.
These guys are just like laying it all out there
for us and to be able to come through for
them and I mean, they doing a shutout today, it's
incredible.
So that was that was kind of my emotion is
like I wanted to go celebrate with everybody on the
team.
When you talk about a rarity to have the manual
Class A give up any home run, especially late in
a game, it's just something that hasn't happened all season.
He was the best closer in baseball.
Stephen Vogt, the head coach, the manager of the Guardians,
acknowledges just how rare it was to see that happen.
I mean, we've lost games like this before as well.
Maybe not this exact game, but you know, we're resilient.
We're going to fight.
We're going to fight right back on Wednesday.
You know, it was such a great baseball game tonight.
That was a lot of fun pitching on both sides
and they just got the big hit and we didn't.
Right now, no big hits for the Yankees.
Should this be a surprise?
How many post seasons in a row do we have
to see this happen?
Yesterday, the Kansas City Royals beat the Yankees in the
Bronx.
Four to two series is tied heading back to Kansas
City.
Some big struggles offensively.
For New York.
It's been the story year after year after year.
The story for the Royals right now has been Salvador
Perez has been coming up with some really big hits
as his manager.
Matt Cartero, yeah, it's enormous.
You cannot put in put a number on what he
does out there for us in every aspect, whether that's,
you know, in the clubhouse, on the field, you know,
clearly as as a player.
But yeah, he's got a great feel for the game.
He understands the moment.
He understands when he needs to say something, when he
doesn't need to say something.
He and I have grown our relationship tremendously.
It's it's a real joy to be around him on
an everyday basis.
Good season for the Royals in Quartaro as they head
back to Missouri.
Meanwhile, Aaron Boone, feeling the pressure, no question knows that
the season and the series is on the line in
game three.
We gotta win two more.
So I mean, as crucial as that.
So, I mean, I mean, it's playoffs.
Every day is crucial, so hopefully we, you know, regroup
tomorrow and and go take care of game three.
That's the next, next.
That's the next thing in front of us.
It'll be a very compelling finish to that series.
No question about that.
Are you ready for some NHL action?
The season is back and it officially in the US
begins tonight.
The Utah Hockey Club will make its debut.
They'll take on, of course, a fantastic group of fans
who are going to be there this evening.
They're formerly the Arizona Coyotes.
The WNBA semifinals winner go home.
The Sun battle the Lynx in Game 5.
MLS has set a regular season record with 11,000,000 fans
this season.
Welcome back to NEWSWIRE here on SPORTS GRID.
Guest contributor from Legal Sports report today is Jim Ghazali.
You can read all of his work over at legalsportsreport.com
as Jim will join us in just a few minutes.
But first, let's go back and take a look at
all of our breaking news from today.
It came fast and furious.
And there's a new coach right now for the New
York Jets, at least on the interim side.
In case you missed it earlier in the show, Jeff
Albrecht is the interim coach as Robert Sala is out
as head coach of the New York Jets.
Four years in, just didn't get enough wins.
Twenty wins, 36 losses.
Right now, The Jets play Monday Night Football against the
Buffalo Bills.
Now let's bring Jim back in.
And so maybe people want to bet on The Jets
Monday, Jim, in New York, that's for sure.
I think that there's going to be a lot of
people backing that little coach bounce that usually happens.
Coach gets fired.
All of a sudden people bet on that team.
But advertising is going to be our focus as we
begin this morning.
Thanks for coming on the show.
Yeah, thanks.
And as a a Jets and Yankees fan myself in
a bit of a blender here, obviously over the over
the last handful of hours, the technology not necessarily cooperating
either.
But like you said, Craig, some advertising changes, maybe if
that's what you want to call it, happening in New
York.
Governor Kathy Hochul signing a bill into law last week,
really codifying a lot of the sports betting advertising rules
into state law last week with this bill signing.
And what this ultimately means is that it just takes
the sports betting advertising regulations and essentially makes them permanent.
So the sports books were already following all of these
rules.
Everybody has been in compliance with these for forever really
since since mobile sports betting launched in January of 2022.
And the requirement still remains that the problem gambling helpline
needs to be in all sorts of advertising, whether in
print, online or over the air on television, social media
as well.
And the advertisement has to have that hope line, the
the New York problem gambling hope line, as it's called,
in a legible font and, and of the right size.
So really this comes in on the heels of, I
should say, it really comes on the heels of a
lot of other states really focusing on their advertising rules.
We've seen Ohio do a lot with their advertising rules
for sports betting apps.
We've also seen Massachusetts do a lot with their advertising
rules as well.
And Even so, Craig, like we've talked about over the
last couple of months a few times, there's now federal
legislation that is putting sports betting advertisements under the microscope
with that Safe Bet Act from New York Congressman Paul
Tonko that wants to limit where sports betting ads can
be placed and at what times they can be shown
to avoid potentially avoid any underage audiences.
So certainly a not a huge change in New York,
but sports betting regulations around advertisements now made permanent in
state law, correct?
OK, well, we'll keep an eye on that of course.
And again, a very, I think noteworthy appearance here for
you, Jim, because again, if they want the graphics to
look different on the screen in terms of font, it
tells you the story.
It feels like they don't think their message is being
delivered in a way to keep people gambling responsibly.
So we'll see.
Meanwhile, this shouldn't be a huge surprise.
Football comes back, Yankees and Mets both in the postseason,
and New York's betting numbers are up.
But again, maybe we could just correlate it to the
most active sports betting time of the year.
It is football season, Jim.
I don't know how else to say it.
Yeah, I think you're absolutely right Craig, $516.8 million was
bet in New York for the week ending September 29th.
And the interesting thing that happened that week was that
ESPN bet launched in the New York market now albeit
they did not offer any promotional sign up bonus.
Now if you recall when they launched in there more
than a dozen markets initially back in November when the
ESPN Bet branding took over for the Barstool Sports book,
they were giving out promo dollars left and right.
And and Penn Entertainment CEO Jay Snowden even said at
A at an earnings call following that November launch elsewhere
that they ended up spending a lot more and giving
away a lot more than they had originally anticipated.
So ESPN BET launched in New York during that that
final week of September.
So in the three days that that ended that week,
September 2728 and 20 nine, $3,000,000 was bet on the
ESPN bet app in New York.
Now, of course, absolutely a an incredibly small snapshot that
we're seeing just that $3,000,000 as a piece of that
500 and 16500 and $17 million bet during that week.
We'll get a better picture, a better idea in the
next coming weeks and and days really even as New
York does put out that weekly report.
We'll see that late Thursday, early Friday to see how
that first, you know, full week went for ESPN bet.
But ultimately, that one singular week in the market as
a whole, one of the largest since since March when
we had March Madness, or to your point, Craig, I
think a lot of that, that big number of nearly
$517 million has a lot to do with just the
time of year.
College football's in in in full force.
The NF LS in full force.
So ESPN bet launching in the midst of that $3,000,000
bet on their app in just three days during that
final week in September.
And we'll see what the future holds for them is
we get more data coming in here in the next
couple of days and weeks.
Yeah, no.
And I and I think that New York in particular
is the one state to watch as it regards to
all of the action that's going on there.
And one that I wouldn't have anticipated having these kind
of numbers.
On the flip side, Jim, would be Kentucky, $3 billion
in their first year, including some very eye opening retail
numbers.
And that for people who are unfamiliar, that means in
person people showing up to bet in person.
Jim, gives hope for other states that, you know, maybe
you're just like dabbling with the idea of, of maybe
having an online and retail market.
This should give them some hope.
Yeah.
And certainly some, some pretty decent numbers coming out of
Kentucky that we saw through their first, you know, we'll
we'll call it their first full year of of sports
betting, $147 million bet in August.
That brought them just shy of $3 billion for those
first 12 months.
Now the retail, the in person sports betting which launched
last year on September 7th, the same day that the
NFL season kicked off Churchill Downs in Louisville, obviously big
population center in the state.
They were the most popular retail sports book with just
over $35 million in wagers.
And what was interesting about that to me at least,
was that they shut that sports book down for a
handful of weeks around the Kentucky Derby so they could,
you know, bring in some some additional paid seating options
to to the Derby weekend event.
So I'm pretty sure that that sports book was closed
for at least two weeks if not more during during
that that first 12 months.
So $35 million, a little bit more than $35 million
in bets for Churchill Downs as the most popular retail
sports book in Kentucky during those 12 months.
And then on the online side, DraftKings, they led the
online market with nearly $900 million in bets And and
as you recall Craig, the online market in Kentucky didn't
open until September 28th last year.
So really 1111 full months for for the online side,
11 months plus, we'll call it.
So we'll see.
We'll see what this this first month of September brings
with the NFL betting for them.
That first full month of NFL betting on the online
side in Kentucky, We'll see that in the next couple
of weeks.
But yeah, overall, pretty positive, close to $3 billion in
bets for that Kentucky market for their first 11-12 months
there.
Yep, horse racing, a lot of other sports being bet
in the Bluegrass State as well.
Jim, great to catch up with you and we'll see
you tomorrow here on the show.
Thanks man.