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a ha! It’s smarter to be on sports. Good morning. Welcome to News Wire here on Sports Grid. Happy Friday. Thanks for tuning in to the show as we have plenty to discuss, including a Stanley Cup Finals. That is a rematch from a year ago. We’ll get to that in just a few minutes. Danny Burke will preview today’s afternoon and evening baseball slate. Of course, we will have Sam McQuillan on from Legal Sports Report. And also, Adam Kaufman joins us with the latest in the National Basketball Association, which includes another game in the playoffs this weekend. We’ll have a preview of that game as well. But first, let’s get started. And yes, on Wednesday night, the puck will drop in Edmonton for the second consecutive year in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Edmonton Oilers, not favored at any point to go back or even win any series over the last two. They beat the stars 6 to 3, and they’re back in the championship with the rematch against the Florida Panthers, the Oilers went up two nothing early, and the stars pulled their goaltender, Jake Oettinger, only seven minutes into the game. The stars cut the lead 4 to 3 in the third period, and the Oilers answered back with two goals themselves. So needless to say, it was a team effort for the Oilers. Getting back to the finals again. Here’s Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid on the win. You know, it’s ironic you two guys are up here, but it was a team. Both goalies got six wins. You’ve used nine defensemen. You got 14 forwards now that have scored. You got 11 guys with three or more goals. Just a thought on the amount of depth and how many good players you have that contributed to you guys going on this 12 and two run last 14 games? Yeah, I mean it’s that’s what’s been winning US hockey games. And you need that this time of year. We knew we were going to need everybody. Both goalies have given up given us a chance every night. And our depth has been incredible. And we’ve been playing good hockey good solid hockey throughout the entire lineup. And obviously this time of year you need that. And I think so far we’ve done a great job of that. Well, I think we were better off or better for going through last year. You know. It was a great learning experience. And it’s really driven us all year. I think this run has felt different than last year. It’s felt very normal. It’s felt very. I don’t want to say boring because it’s not boring at all, but just a little, you know, it hasn’t been as emotional. You know, we haven’t had the highs and we haven’t had the lows just kind of been steady, you know. And I think that that’s put us in a good position. You know those games can be emotionally draining. We’re not drained. As Bob referenced. We’ve got lots of depth. You know we’ve got a good a chance as they do. Yeah. Meanwhile, a controversial decision for Dallas Stars head coach Petr DeBoer, who ends up pulling his goaltender after they went down a couple of goals early in this one. Here is DeBoer on that decision. Well, anytime you pull a goalie, you know, there’s the reasoning is always to try and spark your group. So that was the number one reason. You know, we had talked endlessly in this series about trying to play with the lead. And obviously we’re in a two nothing hole right away. And you know what? I didn’t take that lightly. And I didn’t blame it all on Jake. But you know, the reality is, is if you go back to last year’s playoffs, you know, he’s lost 6 or 7 games to Edmonton. And we gave up two shots on on two goals in a, you know, an elimination game. So you know it was partly to spark our team and wake them up and partly, you know, knowing that, you know, status quo had not been working. You know and that’s that’s a pretty big sample size. As we head to the Stanley Cup Finals, we’re going to be in for a heck of a series. Folks, look at the odds on the FanDuel sports book. Flip your coin. Oilers and Panthers. Just about even Oilers, ever so slight favorites in the series, and they have the home home ice advantage -113. Should be a great series. Total games by the way. Over five and a half. Yeah I agree. I think we’re headed toward a 6 or 7 game series. All right. Meanwhile back to the NBA. We go. The series is not over. The Newk Knicks have extended it to at least one more game back in Indianapolis. 111 to 94 New York beats Indiana. That’s the final Jalen Brunson in the first quarter really was the difference. He had 14 points. Pacers had a hard time hitting threes and had a hard time getting Tyrese Haliburton going. He had eight points and only attempted seven shots. And this thing did not come down to the wire. Meanwhile, Tom Thibodeau, Jalen Brunson certainly happy to get the win and getting back to Madison Square Garden where who knows anything goes. Coach, can we talk about the job you guys did on Haliburton tonight holding them to the points. Yeah. You know sometimes you know it’s probably a combination of him missing some shots he normally makes. But I thought our guys were tied together and trying to make him work for everything. And you know that’s what you have to do. We have to fight to win every possession. How much is working on the offensive end of the floor play into that, making him more. It seemed like you guys were more intentional about trying to get him into action tonight. No, it’s basically the same. But sometimes you have opportunities to attack different ways, you know? But there wasn’t a big change offensively. Just the way we responded honestly and. Yeah, we just we came out and we had some energy and the way we played and very proud of what we did, and we just got to replicate it in the first quarter of next game and then continue to continue to build on that. Meanwhile, the Indiana Pacers head back home where they can still close out the Knicks. Tyrese Haliburton, who had probably his worst game of the NBA playoffs this year, seemingly in good spirits, essentially saying they just couldn’t get anything going from the jump. Yeah, we weren’t great as a group. I thought we you know, we lost the margin battle today. You know, I thought they did a better job in the margins. You know we turned the ball over too much. Didn’t rebound to our ability like we have shown this series. And when you do those two things against these guys in a game that comes down to, you know, so, so many possessions, it’s tough. It’s tough. So we’ve got to be better as a group. I think our pace has to be better. And that starts with me. I got to be better there. And yeah, as a group we’ve shown that we can have some success. You know, this this playoffs. And it was a rough showing for us tonight. So you know we’ll watch the film, see where we can get better and be prepared for game six. And it’s always been us against the world. And I don’t expect it to change. And it’s something that I always told my teammates like, yeah, like we we’re here and nobody wants us here, but we’re here. And you know, we broke the like we any any barrier barrier that was there, we broke that. And we got here and we up three two in the series. And we have an opportunity to go back home and you know, and show what we’re made of. And, and you know, I have no doubt in my teammates and I have so much faith in them. And you know, I know that we’re going to we’re we’re going to give everything we got. And yeah. So we’ll see what happens on Saturday night. Meanwhile, let’s get over to some Major League Baseball news doubleheader being played in Philadelphia between the Phillies and Braves. And they end up splitting it. Phillies win the first 5 to 4. Braves win the second, 9 to 3. Chris Sales pitched great again, six scoreless innings in game two. Hey, how about the Washington Nationals setting a franchise record in an extra inning? Josh Bell homered in the national seven run 10th inning, 9 to 3 win over the Seattle Mariners. Manager Dave Martinez talked about the extra frame, including a great at bat from Dylan Cruz. It took it took us a minute, but I think it all really started with Dylan’s fly ball, you know, to have that sac fly and get us going a little bit there. But towards the end we started hitting the ball. You know, even even in the ninth inning, we started swinging the bats well or excuse me, the eighth inning, but you know, took it took us a minute. But you know, we’ve been hit the last couple days. We’ve been hitting the ball really well. So as I said, you know Josh Bell, you know, once he gets going I seen him do those kind of things, you know. So it’s awesome to see him swing the bat the way he is. I think right now the key for the Sacramento almot Oakland Athletics is trying to win any game they can. They’ve lost three straight. They’ve lost 14 of 15. They’ve been outscored 117 to 44. They lost again yesterday. The Blue Jays hit four home runs. It was an eight run second inning and 12 to nothing was the final. Come on. A’s got to get it going. Also the junior Caminero show continued for the rays six RBIs. They beat the Astros 13 to 3. Adam Hawkins. Face is the new face. New face of. What the hell are you talking about? Like, seriously? Oh, there’s a new face in the NBA. Anthony. Yeah, okay. You know what I mean? Like, really? Guys got two shots. You know, face of the NBA. Slow down. He’s a good player. I’ve always thought the whole face of the NBA thing was comical. You you want him to be the face of the NBA because you don’t like it. That all the other faces in the NBA are American sports rage tonight only on sports grid. If you go through cat, that means cat at 11 to 1 could be Eastern Conference Finals MVP. The worst team in the WNBA is the Chicago Sky. They have no perimeter play. They’re playing too many minutes. And Angel Reese doesn’t have the help she needs. Betting above the rim. Only on sports grid. I already heard yesterday that he’s got no shot to win the Cy Young. Because it’s going to Skubal again. Skubal is winning the Cy Young. No shot for free. They’re both terrific. They both have incredible numbers and credentials and stats and strikeouts and ERA and everything. Like every single category. Freed is right there with him. Farrell. Coast to coast. Only on sports grid. We’re going to go through every single thing. And I’ve got a great team behind me that’s going to help me get the job done. I want this to be the place that people come to. There is going to be an energy to game time decision that you will feel night in and night out. We are going to hit every single one of those markets that you need to know about. We will have everything at our disposal and we will use that to our advantage. There is not going to be a better place, I promise you, than game time decisions. I’m Kevin Walsh. Tune into game time decisions weekdays on Sports Grid. For me and Adam Kaufman, the key last night wasn’t necessarily a Knicks win. It’s giving us a lot more to talk about this weekend. Adam on in game live me on shows of course next week. Adam, thanks for coming on the show. You know, neither of us really care if the Knicks win or lose. Doesn’t matter to us. But the Knicks did win, Adam. They ended up covering the spread. And so for people like us in the media, very selfishly go Knicks. Right. And then, you know at this point I’m good with whatever happens. Right. They gave us an extra game. No one wants to see a five game East finals. No, I mean, it’s I guess there are multiple tiers, right? I mean, I do care as an Indiana backer, but obviously I don’t have any fan rooting interest in either of these two teams, that’s for sure. But as someone that as you know, because I’ve said it multiple times on this show, very pro pacers at plus money going into the series, you and I looked looking at the odds when everything opened. Both acknowledged that that plus money number. It didn’t feel right. It didn’t seem right. We like the Pacers going into this thing. And sure enough yes it’s three two. But it is Indiana that is in front. But selfishly of course I wanted there to be a game six just so that Brady Cannon and I have something to talk about on in Game Live Saturday night and follow in real time, versus having to wait until the NBA finals start on Thursday. Too long a layoff, man. So I’m completely with you. And you know, I would have thought we’d get more of a game though out of the Pacers last night. You mentioned Jalen Brunson in the opening segment. As a guy who was a bit of a game changer, and certainly in clearing his point total and going for 30 plus. He was g, especially early on. But for me, the difference in this game and one of the major handicaps going into this game was what were we going to see out of, pardon me, Karl Anthony Towns, who obviously entered the game with that bruised knee. There were questions as to whether he was going to play. Winds up getting out there and really from the jump was awesome. Double double at halftime continued to thrive in the second half. The biggest discrepancy in the 17 point win for the Knicks was when you look at points in the paint, it was, I believe, 60 to 34, in favor of New York. And most of that is towns, you know, New York doubling up Indiana in that category coupled with, as you noted, Tyrese Haliburton never got going. The role players for Indiana outside of Bennedict Mathurin generally never got going. This was a dominant Knicks performance in a game they never trailed. I think so. And you know the other part of this Adam, you know we could talk about Brunson all day. So Frank’s going to get mad at me but I’m going to skip him I want to talk about Haliburton here for a minute. Eight points six assists on two of seven shooting. And you know Adam being in this long enough now not going to pretend that I know what’s going on in full in the NBA. You’re going to be a lot more educated than me on the picks and what’s going on. But I am good with people and I’m good with watching post game. It’s I really liked Haliburton’s post game and watching some of the clips. It seems to me that Indiana sort of been through it. They played a lot of these close games and he jut didn’t seem to be affected at all. Post game at least. Body language to me tells me, look, I don’t know what that’s going to mean in the next game, but I can almost guarantee you this guy is going to have a much bigger effort in the next one. Well, he also sounded like a guy whose team is up three two, not down three two. Right? So they know they’ve got a little bit of breathing room. Just have to win one out of the next two. They’re not you know obviously you’d like to take care of it. If you’re the Pacers in Indiana. Take the game seven out of it. Take the travel going on the road going MSG, all that stuff. But psychologically there’s no fear of if this does go to a game seven. This is what I keep hearing from the Talking Heads post game this morning is oh man, you know Knicks are going to whoop the Pacers. If this thing comes back to MSG for a game seven. If you’re Indiana, you had better win game six. Your season is dependent upon game six because you got no chance. You’re going to say what you just saw tonight in front of Ben Stiller and Timothee Chalamet and Miles teller and all these celebrities that were in attendance. You’re going to get that again tenfold in game seven. And so you had better be ready. And if I’m Haliburton if I’m the Pacers I’m listening to all that going I mean we won games one and two here of this series, including a huge comeback in dramatic win with of course that giant Haliburton shot that he thought won it but forced overtime choke sign out of the gate a la Reggie Miller there in game one. And oh by the way, just go back to the playoffs last year when these two teams matched up. And yes, the Knicks were severely hampered by injuries. But Indiana won game seven in New York. They don’t care. There’s no intimidation there on the part of the Pacers. And I think Haliburton to your point knows he was bad last night. Knows he didn’t do enough. Taking seven shots wasn’t enough didn’t facilitate nearly enough. You know the it’s not like he had this big turnover issue. He didn’t turn the ball over once. He just wasn’t good in his 32 minutes in this game. Felt like it was pretty well in hand. Even at halftime. New York was just that dominant in this game. And so to a certain degree, you just kind of shrug it off and you move on. And the Pacers, it’s not hard to handicap this team with respect to like we spent a lot of time talking about totals and team totals. This team lost one game. You know it’s two gentlemen sweeps so far going into the series. Lost one game to Milwaukee. Lost one game to Cleveland. The common denominator so far throughout. What’s it been six 1515 games so far. This team has played in the playoffs. If they score more than 105 points, they win. If they score less than that they lose. You know so it’s the if the offense doesn’t get going, you know relatively early. And I don’t mean these 45 point first quarters, but you can’t have 45 points in the first half like what we saw last night. You kno, if they just play respectable brand of basketball, their brand of basketball fast paced is Haliburton talked about earlier in the clip you played and scored your 110 points. If they so typically score, they’re going to win because New York can’t keep up with that. Okay, so make your pick three and a half total 218 go. I will go over on the total. Although I would still rather take the Pacers team total and avoid the game total over because I just I have more faith in Indy as far as the spread. I, I, I guess I would lay it with Indy. No, I mean I, I, I would lean toward laying it with Indy. I believe that the Pacers win this game. I just, you know, couldn’t like we saw with OKC and Minnesota could it fall inside the number at you know a three point spread becomes a two point win that kind of thing I would rather just take Indy on the money line pair it with something else. Get a little bit better as hell, take Indy with the money line and put it with Brunson 25 plus points or 20 plus points and do it that way. Gotcha okay. All right Adam great stuff as always. Maybe just maybe we’ll be talking game seven next week I don’t know, we’ll see what happens. I’m with you. Yeah, I’m with you. I even if we’re not, we’re still talking about an OKC finals win. This is these two teams are just playing toward the inevitable. Anyhow. It’s so true. It’s so true. I mean, either these two teams were lucky to win two games. All right Adam, thanks again for coming on Danny Burks up next with some baseball. Don’t go away. Face the new face. New face of. What the hell are you talking about? Is he, like, seriously? Oh, there’s a new face of the NBA, Anthony. Yeah, okay. You know what I mean. Like, really? Guys got two shots face in the NBA. Slow down. He’s a good player. I’ve always thought the whole face of the NBA thing was comical. You want him to be the face of the NBA because you don’t like it. That all the other faces in the NBA aren’t American sports rage tonight only on sports grid. If you go through cat, that means cat at 11 to 1 could be Eastern Conference Finals MVP. The worst team in the WNBA is the Chicago Sky. They have no perimeter play. They’re playing too many minutes. And Angel Reese doesn’t have the help she needs. Betting above the rim. Only on sports grid. I already heard yesterday that he’s got no shot to win the Cy Young. Because it’s going to Skubal again. Skubal is winning the Cy Young. No shot for free. They’re both terrific. They both have incredible numbers and credentials and stats and strikeouts and ERA and everything. Like every single category. Freed is right there with him. Farrell. Coast to coast. Only on sports grid. We’re going to go through every single thing. And I’ve got a great team behind me that’s going to help me get the job done. I want this to be the place that people come to. There is going to be an energy to game time decision that you will feel night in and night out. We are going to hit every single one of those markets that you need to know about. We will have everything at our disposal and we will use that to our advantage. There is not going to be a better place, I promise you, than game time decisions. I’m Kevin Walsh. Tune in to game time decisions weekdays on Sports Grid. Very rare to get a World Series rematch this early in a baseball season, especially when you’re talking about these juggernauts between the Yankees and Dodgers. So we had to bring in Danny Burke to get an opinion on the series this weekend. As much as it pains me to do Yankees Talk for six minutes here on the show, so I’ll try to get through it. Danny, thanks for coming on on Newswire. I mean, it’s as simple as that. Here is that we got overloaded in the World Series, and it definitely was fun to see these two teams playing against each other. What do you think we get this weekend? You know, I mean, a little I think the fact that the games are nationally televised and, you know, you’re coming off a World Series, I think you’ll get a little more juice normally than you would get in a, let’s say, May 30th series. Yeah, without a doubt. And I mean, anytime you get these teams going against each other, regardless of if they were meeting in the World Series a season prior or not, you’re getting each coast in two premier organizations. So yeah, no doubt about it. There’s going to be a lot of excitement surrounding these teams, which we know begins tonight, and it’s going to be a fun matchup with Tony Gonsolin and Max fried. I mean, on the side of Max fried, the dude has been one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball up to this point, but how good can he be against this offense in the Los Angeles Dodgers? That’s what we’re going to have to wait and see unfold. And for Gonsolin on the other side, well, we know that he’s capable of producing a quality outing here and there, but some of his numbers are a tad bit concerning, especially when you’re going up against the Bronx Bombers who have been living up to the hype of that name. So we see this total at about nine. Craig. And I think that draws some interest. And I think with these teams, most people tend to want to bet the over, but I’m putting a bit more stock into Tony Gonsolin here because let’s be honest, Max fried should be able to hold his own if he can pitch somewhat similar to how he’s been performing throughout the course of this early stage of the season. And then with Tony Gonsolin on the other side, despite A46 ERA, is hovering around that four flat spot. His skill interactive E.R.A. AKA his Sierra is sub four, so I’m thinking we could get at least a good enough outing from Tony Gonsolin to keep this total under nine. It’s going to be a closely contested game in my mind. You can trust both bullpens, so hopefully this series starts out on a slower note. I haven’t necessarily bet it myself, but I think that would be a very strong lead for me. And then probably if you’re getting a little bit of plus money on the side of Los Angeles, I think would be worth a look. I mean, basically anytime these teams are going up against each other, it’s a coin flip. So if you’re getting value in the pitchers, not that bad on your side. I think that’s worth a stab in this area as well. Good assessment there. All right. So you know big picture here for both the Red Sox and Braves is honestly Danny I mean they’re going through it. The Red Sox are losing a million close games. I mean are we really back to another season where the Braves can’t keep anybody healthy? I mean, AJ Smith goes down yesterday and that does not seem like an injury. That’s going to be a couple of weeks. And I mean he was the favorite to win rookie of the year. But tonight Grant Holmes I mean another another guy who’s come up and done a good job for them. He’s -160. Hopefully they can keep him healthy I’m not sure. Red Sox plus 136 tonight. Danny I guess my theory on the Red Sox is the next 60 games are going to look better than the first 60, because they’re just been really bad luck when you lose so many one run games. So my tendency is to kind of back them a little bit, but I’m just not sure that I really like them either. Make up tonight’s game. Yeah, no. And that’s a great way to look about it I completely agree, I still think the Boston Red Sox are going to turn this around. I mean, the fact that they keep losing these games in painful fashion by one run, as you alluded to it, it’s got to flip and kind of regress to the mean at some point you would figure. But I don’t hate the idea of looking at the plus money with them in this spot. I mean, like you said, the Braves just keep getting banged up. Can’t be great for the morale around this team, but they do keep finding a way. It’s just the price is really egregious to lay over -160. I know Holmes has been a solid pitcher, and I don’t love the idea of trusting Giolito, but I get the attraction toward Boston, especially with Atlanta coming off that double header. But the way that I am betting this Craig is, I’m taking over nine runs, got -124 at FanDuel for the flat nine. And again you know you look at Holmes and his numbers are good. But the wind is blowing at about 13mph to left center field. I think Boston’s bats can come alive in this situation. And the bullpen may be a bit depleted for Atlanta following that double header. Giolito’s numbers are always concerning and I always look for an avenue to fade him in. Atlanta’s bats have been good enough to be able to just pummel him today, especially with that wind blowing out. So I think it’s going to be higher scoring rather than trusting teams. That’s the way that I’m going to approach this handicap. All right. Finally Danny, real quick here. You know the Royals are going to be up for this series tonight. They want to show that they can fight with the Tigers. I’m not sure that they can, but the matchup is great on paper. Casey Mize has been awesome. Seth Lugo has been awesome as well. Total eight and a half. Who are they going to get to? Eight and a half runs here. I don’t know. That’s my first thought here looking at this. Yeah. Good question I, I’m hoping it comes from the side of Detroit because Lugo’s era. Great at 302 is X era those 4.71 and a 455. So there are those underlying concerns with him. And I am going to bat Casey Mize who’s got a bit more steady stat line across the board here, laying a slight price here with the Tigers. But I like them in this game. Thanks, Danny. Have a great weekend. Face is the new face. New face of what the hell are you talking about? Is he, like, seriously? Oh, there’s new face of the NBA. Anthony. Yeah, okay, you know what I mean. Like, really? Guys got two shots here. Face of the NBA. Slow down. He’s a good player. I’ve always thought the whole face of the NBA thing was comical. You want him to be the face of the NBA because you don’t like it. That all the other faces the NBA aren’t American sports rage tonight only on sports grid. If you go through cat, that means cat at 11 to 1 could be Eastern Conference Finals MVP. The worst team in the WNBA is te Chicago Sky. They have no perimeter play. They’re playing too many minutes. And Angel Reese doesn’t have the help she needs. Betting above the rim. Only on sports grid. I already heard yesterday that he’s got no shot to win the Cy Young. Because it’s going to school again. Skubal is winning the Cy Young. No shot for free. They’re both terrific. They both have incredible numbers and credentials and stats and strikeouts and ERA and everything. Like every single category. Freed is right there with him. Farrell. Coast to coast. Only on sports grid. We’re going to go through every single thing. And I’ve got a great team behind me that’s going to help me get the job done. I want this to be the place that people come to. There is going to be an energy to game time decision that you will feel night in and night out. We are going to hit every single one of those markets that you need to know about. We will have everything at our disposal and we will use that to our advantage. There is not going to be a better place, I promise you, than game time decisions. I’m Kevin Walsh. Tune into game time decisions weekdays on Sports Grid. So we have two people on this show that are happy that the Knicks are playing on Saturday. One is Frank, our producer. The second is Sam McQuillan. I don’t know, maybe somebody else will appear on the show later, but we’re not going to be able to bother Sam on Saturday. What time is this game, guys? Saturday. What time is the game? I think that’d be night. I think it’s at noon. I haven’t checked noon. I’ve been. Yeah, I’ve been so. Yeah, I’ve been so just overwhelmed by last night I haven’t looked. 8 p.m. Sam. What are you, nuts? Come on, man. Noon. I was praying for an early. For an early start. I can’t take it anymore. Come on, man. Noon for biggest game of the season in the NBA. The NBA, the NBA is going to NBA, man. Yeah, not in this case, man. They’re going to get that right. All right. Let’s get into the latest here. Go to Legal Sports report.com for the latest on this column. Sam’s got it here. A new recommended practices for some of these VIP programs responsible gaming. We’ve seen some of the sports betting operators being sued. You know whether or not these these clients who are suing are actually going to win anything still remains to be seen. But even if they lose Sam and they don’t get a penny out of this, what it’s doing is it’s causing the companies to probably take a step back and say, hey, look, we got to do I, you know, honestly, Sam, I hate to say it, I’m not even sure that they’re really going to put more things in action to, you know, curb this as opposed to just, hey, we don’t want any bad press trying to have this appearance that we don’t care. I mean, to me, a sad to say, but I think that that’s part of it. Well, I admire your skepticism, Craig. I think this could be a win win in this case. You know, even if it does accomplish something, it also, like you say, does give a good kind of PR positioning move of, hey, we’re trying to get out here and address this. Of course, we’re talking about the Responsible Online Gaming Association, which was this group founded by eight operators, eight sportsbooks like FanDuel, DraftKings, which represent about 90% of the entire US market. They formed this group last year to essentially pool together all the resources, get every one of the major sportsbooks on the same page, because when a lawsuit happens against one of these companies, it doesn’t just affect that company, it affects the entire industry. And what they did yesterday was release these guidelines for how they’re going to operate their VIP programs under the principles of responsible gaming, which we know has been, if nothing else, a big messaging thing for these companies as of late. VIP programs, of course, are the most essential part, really, of any sportsbook, any casinos business. It is the program that these companies dedicate to keeping, retaining, making sure their best, highest paying customers continue to bet with them and are happy with them. It often involves, you know, having, you know, your own personal VIP host that checks in on you, offers you free credit. Sometimes, you know, tickets to different sporting events, other incentives to keep you from betting with that book and going to another place. So Roga, which is responsible online Gaming Association, implemented these practices. They say they want all their members to adopt on a commercially reasonable timetable. These are standardized practice for how you’re going to train each VIP host, making sure that there’s a confirmation that your VIPs know that they’re responsible gaming tools available to them, making sure that you are using the data points that every sportsbook collects to monitor their activity. Really just kind of trying to make this process better. And I think one of the ways they’re trying to do that, even if they’re not reinventing the wheel here, they want to make sure everyone’s on the same page. And we know that’s really hard to do. You know, just to get two companies kind of in the same room together. When you talk about eight, they want to share as much as possible. You know, we talked about FanDuel a couple of weeks ago, implementing that real time deposit monitoring tool, which was going to automatically alert you if, hey, you bet, you know, ten times your normal amount or you made, you know, 100 deposits in the last hour compared to your normal rate. These companies want to share that technology with each other. Of course, it’s, you know, easier said than done. It’s going to take a while for them probably to implement this, but it does come at a time. You’re right, Craig, when you know FanDuel is being sued by the Jacksonville Jaguars employee that stole $20 million from the team, he alleges that their VIP host incentivized him to keep spending on his daily fantasy sports account with, you know, $1 million of credits with prizes, even saying that, hey, I know what we’re doing is illegal, but we want you to keep playing. That case is still wrapped up in court. I don’t see it really going anywhere. And then DraftKings is also dealing with a similar case. So it definitely comes at a time when this VIP programs are being brought into light. We’re thinking about how do we discern high value players from the problematic ones. I think that all of that is fair. You know, again, you know, call me cynical and, you know, playing the other side of it. Fair enough. Okay, so this is a big story in my world here. You know, for several years, Sam, I worked at the same radio station here in South Florida for, I believe, almost ten years with Dan Lebatard, who is now, of course, gone on to an incredible media career both at ESPN and now hosting his own show, which is with Meadowlark Media and now sponsored by DraftKings. Over the last few years again. And there’s a new partnership with Meadowlark Media and DraftKings. So it seems like they’re diving into the future here. I’m sort of familiar with this because, again, being in South Florida and that whole group is from South Florida to maybe you want to expand a little bit more as to what it necessarily means, if there’s any wrinkles or anything different than the previous agreement that they had several years ago. Yeah, certainly. Craig Meadowlark Media was, you know, one of the original DraftKings content partnerships back in 2021 when Lebatard founded the company with John Skipper, who was the former president of ESPN. DraftKings was actually one of the original investors, and this agreement just renews the same partnership they’ve had for, you know, several more years. Financial details haven’t been disclosed, but the last agreement was about three years and $50 million, I believe. So I have to imagine it’s similar figures, if not better. But I think the really interesting thing here is it comes at a time when DraftKings specifically has been very vocal about not getting a lot of value out of these kind of partnerships. You know, if you listen to any of their earnings calls, or CEO Jason Robins will talk about one of the ways the company plans to make and save money is having these partnerships fall off and not renew them. So the fact that they did renew this partnership, I think speaks a lot to just how benefit doing, you know, with their venture, but how beneficial these partnerships can still have for a company like DraftKings. Of course, if they’re working out the right way. DraftKings just sold Vsin, the Vegas Sports Information Network, back to its original founders after owning it for about four years. So we see, you know, while one deal goes, this deal is renewed. And, you know, meanwhile, companies like BetMGM and Caesars have been fine with letting their media deals drop off. They’ve looked at that as a way to save money and, you know, inch towards profitability. Then on the flip side, you have FanDuel, which has really gone the other way and invested in their own network. DraftKings, it doesn’t seem like wants to have their own television network, their own media empire, maybe yet. So maybe one of the ways they’re going to keep kind of trying to expand the space is through deals like this. And you have to think that it’s working out really well for them. If they renewed it, especially at a time when they’re letting everything roll off. All right, let’s wrap it up. Another sweepstakes operator pulling out of a market happens to be New York. This time, unpredictable is the word to use that I would use Sam this year. Some markets, you know, getting more of the sweepstakes, some, you know, pulling out of the sweepstakes. Hard to keep up. Honestly. It’s just basically every state is the wild, wild West. They just choose to do whatever they want to do. Yeah. If you play sweepstakes in New York, you have until August 1st to pull out your cash or your winnings. VW, which is one of the largest sweepstakes operators in the country. It runs companies like Chumba Casino, Lucky Land Slots and Global Poker. They’re leaving New York before New York actually even passed a bill to make them leave. There’s mounting pressure in Albany right now. They’re considering a bill which would ban these kind of games. These, of course, are, you know, games that look like sports betting or look like casinos, but they don’t want to operate under that banner. They use a legal loophole to kind of get through that. And the fact that New York is even considering a bill and making the largest operator leave already, I think, really speaks Miles to just the mounting pressure they’re facing and kind of where it’s headed overall. You know, these are companies that have launched in states like California, Texas without sports betting options. And now they’re already leaving a state like New York without them, actually, you know, physically passing the bill. And I think we’ll have a ripple effect across the country. You know, as a New Yorker, we like to think that we set trends. But when you look at New York and what they’ve done with sports betting, you know, they’ve raised taxes, they’ve cracked down on fantasy sports, and other states have adopted it. So I wouldn’t be surprised if you start seeing these companies exit other other states as they consider similar bills. All right. Fair enough Sam, good luck on Saturday. When I see you next week, we’ll see what we got for the NBA finals. Thanks again for coming on. Thanks a lot, Craig. All right. We’ll be back with Mike Claiborne. Up next, the Saint Louis Cardinals are having a surprising start to their season. This is sustainable play all the way from the West. Face is the new face. New face of. What the hell are you talking about? Like, seriously? Oh, there’s a new face in the NBA, Anthony. Yeah, okay. You know what I mean? Like, really? Guys got two shots face in the NBA. Slow down. He’s a good player. I’ve always thought the whole face of the NBA thing was comical. You want him to be the face of the NBA because you don’t like it. That all the other faces in the NBA aren’t American sports rage tonight only on sports grid. If you go through cat, that means cat at 11 to 1 could be Eastern Conference Finals MVP, the worst team in the WNBA is the Chicago Sky. They have no perimeter play. They’re playing too many minutes. And Angel Reese doesn’t have the help she needs. Betting above the rim only on sports Grid. I already heard yesterday that he’s got no shot to win the Cy Young, because it’s going to Skubal again. Skubal is winning the Cy Young. No shot for free. They’re both terrific. They both have incredible numbers and credentials and stats and strikeouts and ERA and everything. Like every single category, freed is right there with him. Farrell coast to coast only on sports grid. We’re going to go through every single thing and I’ve got a great team behind me that’s going to help me get the job done. I want this to be the place that people come to. There is going to be an energy to game time decisions that you will feel night in and night out. We are going to hit every single one of those markets that you need to know about. We will have everything at our disposal and we will use that to our advantage. There is not going to be a better place, I promise you, than game time decisions. I’m Kevin Walsh. Tune in to game time decisions weekdays on Sports Grid. All right. Welcome back to News Wire here on Sports Grid. For those of you who are on social media, you may be interested in checking me out at Craig mish, just to interesting report. I don’t know if you saw this story earlier in the week, but the Marlins, you know who I will be on the pregame show tonight for, by the way, ended up designating for assignment a couple of players today. One is Matt Mervis, who was our first baseman. The other one is Ronny Simon. If you’re not familiar with him, he was the player that committed three errors and left the game the other day was, you know, very upset, emotional at the end of the game. And he has been dfa’d. So what that means is potentially the last game that he plays in Major League Baseball may have been the game that we saw the other day, but you know, this is the way baseball is. You know, statistically speaking, really hasn’t been a big contributor to the club. So they went in a different direction. Designated for assignment means that some other team can claim him and then automatically goes into their system, may even get another shot. But I think we all would agree that we got to hope that he gets another opportunity to play in the big leagues and not have that game be his last game in the major leagues. But that just happened about 10 or 15 minutes ago, in fact, while we were on with Sam. So check it out on social media, all the coverage that we have here, my coverage here for you guys at Sports Grid doing Major League Baseball and also separately covering the Marlins as well. Alright, so that’s the latest in baseball, by the way. There are some big baseball games tonight which I will get to in a minute. Want to preview a few of those on the schedule? But first let’s give you the latest in the National Basketball Association. We’re going to have another game in the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals. It will be tomorrow night in Indianapolis between the Knicks and Pacers. And the reason why is because the Knicks took care of business in a big way last night. The final was 111 to 94, and now the series has been cut to 3 to 2. So the Knicks definitely back alive. As you can see Jalen Brunson had 32 points. He had 14 points in the first quarter. And if you’re asking me was this much of a game. No. In fact, I think most of the attention last night in the NBA was honestly on what we thought may have been the final appearance for TNT’s inside the NBA crew, which was what a lot of people were talking about on social media last night with Shaquille O’Neal and Ernie Johnson and Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley, but I believe, is it on TNT Frank again tomorrow. So they’ll get another another show out of this? I think so maybe not I don’t know. Yes. So they at least get one more show. You know who gets one more show. Also Tyrese Haliburton, he only had eight points in this one on seven shots. So the Knicks took care of business and Haliburton did not. He’ll get another crack at it. We’ll hear from him in just a minute. But first, let’s hear from Tom Thibodeau on shutting down Haliburton, who was just so phenomenal in the previous game. Coach, can you talk about the job you guys did on Haliburton tonight? Hold them to the points. Yeah. You know sometimes you know it’s probably a combination of him you know missing some shots he normally makes. But I thought our guys were tied together and trying to make him work for everything. And you know that’s what you have to do. We have to fight to win every possession. How much is working on the offensive end of the floor play into that, making him work seem like you guys are more intentional about trying to get him into action tonight? No, it’s basically the same. But sometimes you have opportunities to attack different ways, you know, but there wasn’t a big change offensively. Just the way we responded honestly. . We just we came out and we had some energy and the way we played and very proud of what we did, and we just got to replicate it in the first quarter of next game and then continue to continue to build on that. And we’ll have another game tomorrow night. As we mentioned, also big games this weekend in Major League Baseball. Let’s get a preview of the latest on what’s going on with the Saint Louis Cardinals. Mike Clayborn of the Cardinals Radio network, Saint Louis Sports Hub, of course, a fantastic digital community that they have there, going every single day, Monday through Friday. If you want to talk Saint Louis sports, that’s the place to go. Clabes is with us now here clabes. And hey, great to catch up with you. I did not think that we’d be in this spot here at the end of May, with the Cardinals being eight games over 500, I don’t think the Cardinals thought they would be. I know it’s a weird question to ask, but like, are they happy with this? Like, I mean, I hate to say, but like I kind of I kind of felt like the season was going to go about 5050 most of the way. Maybe they win some, they lose some, and then the transition would come eventually to this new GM and Haim Bloom and everything else. But they are sort of telling Cardinals management we’re in it to win it. Craig, you know what? You’re right. No one thought we would be in this position. And now that they’re in it, they want more. This is a team that I think comes July or August. You would improve to a point where you say, okay, this is what we feel like, this is who we know can do what and this and that. But it happened a lot earlier. And so right now they they want more. They’re aggressive. They’re hungry. The question was going to be are they going to be buyers or sellers. I think they’re probably going to be buyers right now. I mean, and they have some assets. And I know teams were looking at early, you know, you had Ryan Helsley who had led the league in saves last year. You have some other guys who you could probably move and get something for. But right now they like what they have and they’re probably going to look to add if they continue at this pace. I think the key claims is maybe those players, specifically the pitchers, are the ones that we went into the season really not knowing what they would be, and they have definitely outperformed what we thought they would in Libertore and Fetty. Sonny Gray is kind of always who he is. He’s been okay. Miles Mikolas has had a very big rebound from his April start. And so, I mean, I don’t know if this is sustainable claims. Why would the Cardinals sell. They’re going to have to add to this. Well I agree you know I thought the key was what Miles Mikolas has done. He’s in the last year of his contract and he didn’t have a very good season last year. You can ask him and he’ll tell you the same thing. He’s giving them a chance. And this is a guy who always takes the ball every fifth day. He is a guy that is a leader in the clubhouse for a lot of different reasons, and what he’s done is given them a chance. Every night he goes out. Liberator you thought was going to be a good pitcher. You know, he was a former first round pick by Tampa and now he’s taking the ball. And he’s he pitches with such confidence. Palante was the guy who was really good in the second part of last season. So you would hope that he was going to continue that he was a guy you thought you could be good enough where you could trade him for something, because he’s in the end of his contract. So it’s been one of those situations where everybody thought that they were going to be good, but not this good. Definitely. So, well, enjoy the weekend. Of course, with the Rangers series claims, we’ll catch up again soon. Thanks for coming on Newswire. Always a pleasure, my friend. Take care. All right. Mike Claiborne joining us. Coming up next, we’ll wrap up the show with some spelling bee news. What you’ve all been waiting all week for. That’s what I got for you next. Face is the new face. New face of. What the hell are you talking about? Like, seriously? Oh, there’s new face of the NBA, Anthony. Yeah, okay. You know what I mean? Like, really? Guys got two shots face of the NBA. Slow down. He’s a good player. I’ve always thought the whole face of the NBA thing was comical. You want him to be the face of the NBA because you don’t like it. That all the other faces, the NBA aren’t American sports rage tonight only on sports grid. If you go through cat, that means cat at 11 to 1 could be Eastern Conference Finals MVP. The worst team in the WNBA is te Chicago Sky. They have no perimeter play. They’re playing too many minutes. And Angel Reese doesn’t have the help she needs. Betting above the rim only on sports Grid. I already heard yesterday that he’s got no shot to win the Cy Young, because it’s going to school again. Skubal is winning the Cy Young no shot for free. They’re both terrific. They both have incredible numbers and credentials and stats and strikeouts and ERA and everything. Like every single category, freed is right there with him. Farrell coast to coast only on sports grid. We’re going to go through every single thing and I’ve got a great team behind me that’s going to help me get the job done. I want this to be the place that people come to. There is going to be an energy to game time decision that you will feel night in and night out. We are going to hit every single one of those markets that you need to know about. We will have everything at our disposal and we will use that to our advantage. There is not going to be a better place, I promise you, than game time decisions. I’m Kevin Walsh. Tune in to game time decisions weekdays on Sports Grid. Welcome back to News Wire here on Sports Grid. Just a reminder for those of you who follow the fantasy baseball season, our fantasy content continues Saturday and Sunday morning. I’ll be on tomorrow from 8 a.m. To 10 a.m. Eastern with George Kurtz. And then Sunday morning, Joe Pisapia and Matt Striker have you also from 8 a.m. To 10 a.m. Eastern. Let’s wrap up the show with some record breakers in the WNBA. I’ll tell you who the spelling bee champion is this year, and also a nice gesture for former college football head coach Mike Leach. It’s time now for some last licks. Okay? Didn’t know this happened, so thought it was pretty interesting to bring to the show. As we wrap up the Chicago Sky franchise in the WNBA. For those of you who are unfamiliar, WNBA season currently underway not just all about Caitlin Clark, who’s not playing some other good teams as well. So Courtney Vandersloot, she has become the official Chicago Sky all time scoring leader. But what makes it really interesting is that she passed her wife, Allie Quigley, who used to play for the Chicago Sky, who is now retired. So really cool story happening there in the WNBA and of course, getting a lot of attention too. Congratulations to Courtney who passed the record yesterday. We told you earlier in the week about other records that are being passed as well. This was a big one in the WNBA for that franchise last night. Okay, for those of you who have ever participated in a spelling bee, this story is for you. Once upon a time, I was in one as well. I think I was in elementary school. If I think back here, congratulations. We want to give some credit to Faizan Zaki. Never heard of him before. He’s 13 years old. So here’s the dea. Last year far Faizan ended up coming in second at the Scripps National Spelling Bee and this year he ended up finishing in first. So justice has been served 13 years old, runner up last year, and he spelled the word correctly to win, which I don’t even know that I can pronounce. The word is eclair. Assessment. Eclair assessment Eclaircissement e. L a I r c I s s e m e n t. Did you get that? That’s the word. He beat 240 students from around the country. Congratulations to him. I always want to give kids their credit here on this show. All right. Former legendary coach in college football who passed away. His name was Mike Leach. You may remember him, of course, coached at Washington State, Mississippi State and Texas Tech. Tragically passed away a couple years ago. College Football Hall of Fame made an announcement, which I think was awesome yesterday. They’re lowering the win percentage to qualify for the College Football Hall of Fame in 2027. The number was 60. They’ve lowered it to 59.5%, which now makes Leach eligible to join the hall. Now, of course, he still has to get in and get voted in, but just one percentage point, half a percentage point away from being eligible. They’ve made him eligible, as it was reported yesterday. First by Brett McMurphy. Nice gesture. I’m going to assume that this is going to get him into the College Football Hall of Fame. Once upon a time, a great coach in college football and the Leach family, I’m sure appreciates that as well. All right. That’ll do it for our show today. Coming up next, Smiley Kaufman with the very latest at the memorial where Ben Griffin is on fire again winning the memorial after a day and a half. Wow. That’s crazy. Scott Farrell, coast to coast at 3:00 eastern front office. Sports comes your way at 6 to 630. Then from 630 to 8 it is game time decisions followed by in game live game day from 8 a.m. To 10 p.m. Or 8 p.m. To 10 p.m. Tonight. And then Gabe has sports tonight. Poor Gabe, he’s got no hockey tonight to cover because we got to wait till Wednesday for game one of the Stanley Cup Finals. And for those of you who again are streaming our show, maybe on your phone or a tablet or iPad, something like that, you can download the Sports Grid app. It’s available for both iOS and Android. Just take out your phone and scan that QR code, and you’ll be all set and watching us and streaming us throughout the day, throughout the week. Don’t forget some great programing this weekend too, with In Game Live as well. Also want to thank all of our guests here on the show for coming on. They include Mike Claiborne, appreciate him and Adam Kaufman as well as Sam McQuillan for coming on as well. And thanks to Danny Burke. Big games tonight in of course, Major League Baseball, Yankees and Dodgers. Probably the series of the year will be all set tonight with Max Freed and Tony Gonsolin. There’s the matchup there, as you can see. Pretty much a well I mean I guess the Yankees are a little bit favored there. -130 as they play the weekend in Los Angeles. We’ll cover that for you on Monday when we come back here for our next edition of Newswire. Thanks to Jake for filling in for Luke today. And of course, thanks to our producer, Frank. I’m Craig Mish. Hope you enjoy your weekend here on Sports Grid. I’ll see you back here on Monday morning for our next edition of the show. 11 a.m. Eastern, exclusively here on Newswire. Have a great weekend, everyone. I’ll see you then. The face is the new face. New face of. What the hell are you talking about? I feel like seriously? Well, there’s new face of the NBA. Anthony. Yeah, okay. You know what I mean? Like, really? Guys got two shots face in the NBA. Slow down. He’s a good player. I’ve always thought the whole face of the NBA thing was comical. You want him to be the face of the NBA because you don’t like it. That all the other faces the NBA aren’t American sports rage tonight only on sports grid. If you go through cat, that means cat at 11 to 1 could be Eastern Conference Finals MVP. The worst team in the WNBA is the Chicago Sky. Thy have no perimeter play. They’re playing too many minutes. And Angel Reese doesn’t have the help she needs. Betting above the rim only on sports grid. I already heard yesterday that he’s got no shot to win the Cy Young. Because it’s going to Skubal again. Skubal is winning the Cy Young. No shot for free. They’re both terrific. They both have incredible numbers and credentials and stats and strikeouts and ERA and everything. Like every single category. Freed is right there with him. Farrell. Coast to coast. Only on sports grid. We’re going to go through every single thing, and I’ve got a great team behind me that’s going to help me get the job done. I want this to be the place that people come to. There is going to be an energy to game time decision that you will feel night in and night out. We are going to hit every single one of those markets that you need to know about. We will have everything at our disposal and we will use that to our advantage. There is not going to be a better place, I promise you,
