Category Archives: Gambling

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Cyberwar and the Future of Cybersecurity

Today's security threats have expanded in scope and seriousness. There can now be millions -- or even billions -- of dollars at risk when information security isn't handled properly.

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Since the summer of 2019, a group of professional Chinese hackers has been targeting and hacking into companies that run online gambling and online betting websites.

According to reports published this week by cyber-security firms Talent-Jump and Trend Micro, hacks have been officially confirmed at gambling companies located in Southeast Asia, while unconfirmed rumors of additional hacks have also come from Europe and the Middle East.

Talent-Jump and Trend Micro say hackers appear to have stolen company databases and source code, but not money, suggesting the attacks were espionage-focused, rather than cybercrime motivated.

The two security firms said the attacks had been carried out by a group they called DRBControl.

Trend Micro said the group's malware and operational tactics overlap with similar tools and tactics used by Winnti and Emissary Panda, two hacking groups that have conducted attacks over the past decade in the interests of the Chinese government.

Currently, it is unclear if DRBControl is carrying out attacks on behalf of Beijing. Most likely not. In August 2019, cyber-security firm FireEye reported that some Chinese state-sponsored hacking groups are now carrying out cyber-attacks on the side, in their free time, for their own gains and interests, separate from their normal state-sponsored operations.

The recent DRBControl attacks are neither complex or unique in regards to the tactics being used to infect victims and steal their data.

Attacks start with a spear-phishing link sent to targets. Employees who fall for the emails and open the documents they received are infected with backdoor trojans.

These backdoor trojans are somewhat different from other backdoors because they heavily rely on the Dropbox file hosting and file sharing service, which they use as a command-and-control (C&C) service and as a storage medium for second-stage payloads and stolen data -- hence the group's name of DRopBox Control.

Typically, the Chinese hackers will use the backdoors to download other hacking tools and malware that they'll use to move laterally through a company's network until they find databases and source code repositories from where they can steal data.

Tools DRBControl has been seen downloading and using include:

Talent-Jump says they've been able to keep a close eye on the group's operations between July and September 2019.

During the respective interval, the hackers have infected and kept track of around 200 computers through one Dropbox account, and another 80 through a second.

Attacks are ongoing, and the two security firms have published indicators of compromise (IOCs) in their reports [1, 2] that organizations can use to detect suspicious activity or DRBControl's malware.

These are not the first attacks on online betting and gambling sites. In 2018, cyber-security ESET reported that North Korean state-backed hackers had hit at least one online casino in Central America from where they're believed to have attempted to steal funds.

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Chinese hackers have breached online betting and gambling sites - ZDNet

Spains consumer protection minister Alberto Garzon has said that the government will most likely seek to limit 80% of all online advertisement.

Spain is once again discussing gambling and specifically gambling advertisement after Unidos Podemos, the countrys left-wing party, brought up the issue that the industry is harming youths and leading to an uptick in gambling addiction.

Together with the Socialist Party, Unidas Podemos have the legal majority to target and change gambling advertisement rules if they deem it necessary. This comes at a time when gambling, including online sports betting and iGaming, are flourishing across the country, marking an all-time high in terms of revenue.

Video terminals and lottery games have been giving rapid ground to the new-found appetite of Spaniards for gambling products.

Spains consumer protection minister Alberto Garzon raised the issue on Friday, February 21, arguing that new regulation ought to be sought to curb the rising numbers of addiction across the country. According to Garzon, the regulation should be similar to how tobacco is taxed.

More importantly, the minister noted, the country will be trying to regulate a sector that has a direct impact on citizens health. Spain is also considering to introduce a ban on specific advertisement policies designed to incentivize people into placing a wager, such as free bets to new customers.

Sweden, one of the most heavily regulated and fairest markets in the world, already has these measures in place. Garzon has also cited the fact that the amount staked online has grown three-fold since 2014 to $19.2 billion in 2018, coinciding with the FIFA World Cup.

According to Reuters, Spaniards are losing some $10.85 billion to gambling activities, citing data from the Spanish gambling lobby.

Cracking down on advertisement practices might have a positive effect for the levels of addiction, but it must not come at the cost of neutering a flourishing business. Italy has already done so under the Five-Star Movement government, a far-right party that promised to remove gambling from public spaces as part of its electoral campaign.

In the case of Italy, partnerships between sports organizations and betting companies have been less frequent due to the Dignity Decree passed in 2018. Many of Spains LaLiga soccer clubs have partnerships with sports betting partners.

This includes big names as Real Madrid and Barcelona. Yet, these partnerships have not gone unnoticed and they have been heavily criticized. The government is also planning to ban teams from selling children merchandise carrying the logos of betting brands.

According to Garzon, the country will aim to ban at least 80% of all online advertisements. Meanwhile, the state-operated SELA and ONCE lotteries will have to be submitted to the same regulations as private operators.

The only difference is they will have more leeway in choosing when to broadcast advertisements. Private business has protested against the double-standards with some arguing that the lotteries have already been known to sell tickets to youths, even though not on purpose.

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Spain Says 80% of Online Gambling Advertisement Has to Go - GamblingNews.com

Warm, Sunny Sunday With Temperatures Around 50CBS 2 Meteorologist Robb Ellis has the 5 p.m. forecast for Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020.

Woman Fatally Shot In Head In South Shore NeighborhoodChicago police are searching for the gunman who shot and killed a woman Saturday afternoon in the South Shore neighborhood.

Stabbing Leaves One Dead At Richard's Bar In Fulton River DistrictA 23-year-old man was fatally stabbed late Friday night, after being involved in a verbal dispute with a 30-year-old man inside of a Fulton River District bar.

60 Elite Plungers Making Multiple Jumps Into Lake Michigan For Special OlympicsPeople will be braving the frigid water to help the Special Olympics, the world's largest sports program for kids and adults with intellectual and physical disabilities.

Man Stabbed To Death After Fight Outside Fulton River District BarA 23-year-old man was fatally stabbed late Friday night, after being involved in a verbal dispute with a 30-year-old man inside of a Fulton River District bar.

Sunny Weekend Ahead Of Rain And Snow This WeekCBS 2 Meteorologist Ed Curran has the 5 a.m. forecast for Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020.

Report Of Stabbing In Oak LawnOne student suffered minor injuries trying to break up a fight.

Woman Falls Into Manhole, City Denies Injury ClaimA woman walking to the train, fell into a manhole, got hurt and filed a claim with the city to help pay her medical bills, but was denied. CBS 2's Charlie DeMar reports

Chester Weger's First Day Out After 60 Years Behind BarsThe prison doors opened Friday for "the Starved Rock Killer." CBS 2 's Tara Molina reports.

Three Men Hit By Car In West LoopThe friends were getting ready to walk to the United Center to watch the Blackhawks. CBS 2's Jermont Terry reports

Chicago Weather: Shot At 50 On SundayThe RealTime forecast with Mary Kay Kleist

Starved Rock Killer Chester Weger Arrives In ChicagoCBS 2 News at 6:00 p.m.

Real ID Causing Real Confusion For MotoristsCBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports on the long lines and questions people have regard a new form of identification people will need in order to fly.

'Starved Rock Killer' Goes FreeCBS 2's Chris Tye the man who served 60 years for the murder of three women is now out of prison and in a halfway house.

Super Polar Plunge In EvanstonMary Pocuis will be taking a dip in the icy waters off Lake Michigan in Evanstonnot just once, but once an hour for 24 hours. CBS 2's Marissa Parra reports.

Dan Ryan, Kennedy Closures Over WeekendMore work on Jane Byrne Interchange. CBS 2 News at 6:00 p.m.

Chicago Police Taking Aim At Spike In Citywide Carjackings,A spike in the number of carjackings so far this year is leaving residents rattled, and prompting Chicago Police to re-convene a special taskforce to try to stop it. CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey reports.

SUV Crashes, Slams Into Pedestrians In West LoopThree pedestrians were injured when they were hit by a speeding car Friday afternoon in the West Loop. CBS 2's Jermont Terry reports.

Chicago Weather: Warm Temps Stick Around Through TuesdayCBS 2 meteorologist Mary Kay Kleist has a look at the extended forecast.

Speeding SUV Hits 3 Pedestrians In West Loop; Driver Also HurtThree pedestrians were injured when they were hit by a speeding car Friday afternoon in the West Loop.

Real ID Requests Turing Into Real Headache For Those Signing Up For The CardCBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports on the confusion over the need for a Real ID card. Who needs one? Who doesn't?

'Starved Rock Killer' Freed After Decades Long SentenceCBS 2's Chris Tye reports the longest serving Illinois inmate has been paroled and will now spend time in a halfway house.

SWAT Officers To Soon Cover CTA Stops, Trains After String Of Violent CrimesCBS 2's Dana Kozlov reports on plans from the city's interim police superintendent to curb crime on the CTA after several violent incidents on trains and platforms, including one person shot to death.

Chicago Weather: Nice Warmup For Your WeekendMary Kay Kleist has your ReatTime weather forecast.

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Casey Urlacher, 9 Others Charged In Gambling Operation - CBS Chicago

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NAB is providing new ways for customers to take greater control over their finances, becoming the first Australian bank to offer the option to block gambling transactions via its app.

All retail banking customers with NAB Visa Credit or NAB Visa Debit cards can now restrict most gambling transactions with immediate effect with just one touch.

The gambling block capability was first implemented via iOS devices in December 2019, and has now been expanded to Android devices. NAB also remains the only major Australian bank to offer a restriction option on debit cards.

NAB Chief Customer Experience Officer Rachel Slade said the new app feature would support Australians in controlling their financial future. In December, the latest annualAustralian Gambling Statisticsreport revealed almost $25 billion of gambling expenditure in 2017-18, with this figure rising by around 5 per cent on the year prior.

Its very easy to place a bet, so theres real value in giving people the option to plan ahead and control their spending. This tool is designed to put the choice in the hands of our customers, Ms Slade said.

Since commencing the roll-out in December we have seen more than 10,000 customers turn on the restriction, highlighting the importance of offering easy-to-use tools for customers to manage their finances.

The new app capability comes as Australians continue to face significant budgeting challenges, with theNAB Australian Wellbeing Survey, released Wednesday, revealing rising financial anxiety and one in four Australians experiencing some form of financial stress or hardship over the past three months.

Were making it easier for customers to take greater control over their money, Ms Slade said.

We also recognise problem gambling remains a major challenge affecting the community, and one that requires organisations, governments, and the community to work together to effectively address.

NAB will continue to offer new opportunities for customers to improve their financial health and wellbeing, with other recent actions including offering a freecredit health checkfor all Australians, launchingMy Goalsto track progress on personal savings ambitions and providingSMS remindersfor credit card payments.

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Gambling Business Group deliver powerful industry insight to UK government department - European Gaming Industry News

Argentinas online gambling prospects are once again on the rise after the city of Buenos Aires published new regulations governing online play.

On Friday, the Loteria de la Ciudad (LOTBA) in the autonomous city of Buenos Aires published details of its plan to start vetting online sports betting and casino operators who want to offer services to the citys roughly 3m residents by the final quarter of this year.

Its worth noting that these operations would be confined to the autonomous city, although hopes are high that, should this effort prove successful, it could invigorate efforts to regulate online gambling at both the provincial and national levels.

The Instituto Provincial de Lotera y Casinos (IPLyC), which oversees gambling in the province of Buenos Aires a separate legal entity from the city announced plans last spring to issue seven online gambling licenses. Sadly, these plans were put on hold following changes in the provincial governments lineup last August.

LOTBA is proposing to authorize an unlimited number of Online Gaming Agencies that would be allowed to offer online sports betting, virtual betting, non-sports betting, slots, roulette, blackjack, punto banco baccarat, poker and lottery games. While there will be no competitive tender, there are a few hurdles operators will need to clear.

Companies interested in becoming an Agency would need to pay an upfront fee of US$30k, prove that theyve been in business for two years, have annual revenue of ARS100m (US$1.6m) and demonstrate a net worth of $25m.

Licenses would be valid for an initial five-year term, extendable for an additional five years. Agencies would pay an annual license fee of $100k and 10% tax on their online revenue.

They also have to submit a Guarantee of Compliance in the sum of $2m, although this will be reduced to $1m following accreditation of the final technical certification report. Customer account balances must be kept in a separate city bank account that LOTBA will control.

There are also detailed boundaries on advertising and marketing communications, responsible gambling and free-to-play games, all of which suggests that LOTBA has been contemplating this move for some time, or at least since their provincial counterparts dropped the ball.

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City of Buenos Aires to issue online gambling, betting licenses - CalvinAyre.com

Whenever they start talking about the 'housing issue', I start thinking about the 'gambling issue'.

ousing is difficult, with many vested interests and conflicting opinions to negotiate before you start shelling out the money in vast quantities.

There is even an ideological problem, whereby governments in this country (and most other countries) are pathologically opposed to doing anything that they believe can be done more efficiently by our old friends, the "private sector".

Indeed this belief persists, even when it has been clearly shown that these things can't be done more efficiently by the private sector - and in some cases they can't be done at all.

With all these issues in play, and when you throw in the natural torpor of an institutional culture, the last Government hardly even noticed the tremendous anger that had been building for a long time.

They seemed frozen, putting out these graphs and numbers and projections about the greatness of the economy in general, seemingly oblivious to the better kind of evidence which has been emerging - such as the fact that so many people are finding themselves broke before the end of the month.

This sense of creeping inertia is partly just a function of the way things are done, and the inability of those on large six-figure salaries to imagine what life is like for those less fortunate than themselves - which is almost everyone.

And yes, housing is difficult, and would be difficult even if everyone was doing the right thing and thinking the right way all the time.

With all these other obstacles, it can take an insanely long time to get something done that is in the public interest, and not actually against it - such a long time, that inertia ceases to be a mere malfunction, and becomes a policy.

So when they talk of housing, I think of gambling, which had a bill drafted in 2013, under the then minister Alan Shatter - a man whose lawyerly skills have never been in doubt, a man who was not in the habit of sending bills out into the world in an unfit state, and certainly not to the extent that it would take at least seven years (and counting) for them to be enacted.

No, there wasn't much wrong with that bill at the time, and there still isn't much wrong with it - so you'd think that was a good start. And yet seven years later - considerably longer than World War II - several parties were able to declare in manifestos that they'd be treating the introduction of gambling legislation as a matter of urgency, because whatever attitudes the last Government had to it, urgency was not among them.

Yes there will be a regulator, perhaps before the end of this year. But there has been a regulator in Britain for some time now, dishing out enormous fines to betting corporations for stuff that their Irish branches could be doing all day long, without hindrance - taking money from punters for example, that turns out to be stolen, without performing adequate checks on where it came from.

And meanwhile, the bankruptcies and the break-ups and the jail sentences and the suicides will continue, as they have done for the past seven years and beyond, while legislation in this area has been sitting there as if there was nothing to get excited about - like this was just some esoteric issue pertaining to the preservation of certain forms of wildlife, the sort of thing that would never demand your immediate attention.

Not that attention wasn't being paid to it, in another sense. If there is lobbying on behalf of powerful interests in the area of housing, you may be sure that with gambling legislation the corporate bookies have not been slow out of the traps either, with their fine presentations.

Despite the jolly facades, they are ruthless people - and not just in their ceaseless quest to acquire all the territory they can before the marshal (as it were) arrives in Dodge City.

In Britain, there has been a facility whereby bookies can make a voluntary contribution to a "social fund" for the treatment of problem gamblers, to which one bookmaker contributed the sum of 50 - yes, that's fifty pounds sterling.

In Ireland's proposed legislation the "social fund" should be mandatory, and perhaps this will happen under the benign stewardship of the kind which Fianna Fail or Sinn Fein or Labour are promising. But dear God, it has taken such a very long time already. And like the housing problem, gambling has many crazy stories. For example it is not uncommon now for drug dealers to be paid not in cash on street corners, but by addicts going into betting offices where they can lodge money to the dealer's online account.

But none of this was considered urgent enough during the past seven years to push the legislation through - "push" in this case being a somewhat relaxed form of pushing.

And you wanted them to build a load of houses, right now?

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Democratic front-runner Bernie Sanders. Photo: REUTERS/Mike Segar

REUTERS

I get that Bernie Sanders is a Commie and all that, and that Joe Sixpack will never vote for a Commie - but I would not agree with all these "responsible" pundits who warn that Bernie going up against Trump is as unelectable as Jeremy Corbyn.

Though they are both Commies, Bernie is a very different kind of man to Corbs, who for all his socialist zeal, is actually quite posh - he and his equally posh chums at the top of the Labour Party who have exposed the British working class to the catastrophe of Brexit, are never really angry about anything. They try so hard, but it's just not in them.

Bernie's rage is real, and people can identify with that. Indeed, they probably can't remember the last time anyone stood in front of them asking for a vote, who had anything real about them.

So Bernie has a chance there, and when they call him a Commie he can say that Trump is a Commie too, except he only believes in socialism for billionaires.

But the main reason I distrust much of this Anyone But Bernie commentary, is that it tends to come with a recommendation that Joe Biden is the reasonable alternative. That Joe is electable.

My friends, Joe is not electable. Not on this planet anyway, to which it seems he is an increasingly infrequent visitor.

Indeed there is something quite troubling going on here, with pundits still pretending that Joe is on his game, while the results of the primaries deliver a very different diagnosis.

But Joe is showing us something - in time his candidacy may be held up as an illustration of how difficult it can be, for a man and his family and friends to face the sadness of his decline.

Jimmy Greaves, who was 80 last week, was a phenomenal footballer and unusual in that he didn't really like football that much - he said he had "an interest" in it, rather than a passion, though he loved playing it.

And it was perhaps this detachment from the game that made him such a great goalscorer, enabling him to get over the disappointments of the missed chances because he wasn't all that disappointed anyway.

John Giles revered him, recalling how he would see Greaves for Spurs bearing down on the Leeds goal and know for sure that Greaves was going to score - he had that striker's gift of making the goal seem a mile wide.

But he was also brilliant in speaking about his alcoholism, insisting it wasn't just a result of his being injured when England won the World Cup.

He spoke about it at a time when public figures, especially sportsmen, were not so forthcoming about their addictions.

He made that - and staying sober - look easy too.

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Gambling is probably the toughest addiction of them all - and yet it remains virtually unregulated - Independent.ie

The Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement says officers conducted two gambling raids Wednesday in Easton, resulting in the seizure of video gambling machines and a hefty sum of money from two bars.

Enforcement officers around 10 a.m. Wednesday raided Easton Caf Inc. at 125 Northampton St. and Citizens Hose Co. at 839 Line St., state police said in news releases Friday.

From Easton Caf, officers reportedly seized two video gambling devices and $163. At Citizens Hose Co., officers took three video gambling devices and $47,996.52, police said.

Easton Caf did not wish to comment Saturday morning. Leadership of the nonprofit Citizens Hose Co. could not be reached immediately for comment.

Pennsylvania lawmakers and Gov. Tom Wolf in fall 2017 legalized some video gambling outside casinos, in an effort to close a multi-billion-dollar budget deficit, but limited the machines only to qualifying truck stops. Other components of the expansion included online gambling, iLottery games and sports betting.

State police in 2004 seized six video poker machines from Citizens Hose, along with $6,577 cash, months after The Order of Fleas also on South Side Easton agreed to forfeit $534,000 in assets and pay $168,000 in back taxes for an illegal gambling scheme at the Fleas Club that took in $100 million over 10 years.

Connor Lagore may be reached at clagore@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ConnorLagore. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.

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2 Easton bars busted for gambling, with nearly $50K seized from 1, police say - lehighvalleylive.com

A quickly arranged full Washington state House floor vote on a bill to allow sports gambling in the states tribal casinos was overwhelmingly approved Thursday night and paved the way for possible passage into law by this spring.

Now, a companion bill needs to pass in the Senate before it can reach Gov. Jay Inslees desk and potentially become law.

The 83-14 vote on HB-2638 on Thursday night came just two days after a House Appropriations Committee agreed to forward it onward.

The bills sponsor, Rep. Strom Peterson, D-Edmonds, said Tuesday he had hoped to get a floor vote as early as next week so the vote on the Senate bill could occur before a March 13 deadline and enable the proposed legislation to reach Inslees desk by spring. Peterson did even better than that, getting the vote to occur within 48 hours along with an emergency amendment that blocks it from being subjected to a statewide referendum.

State lawmakers had worried that opposition from Nevada-based Maverick Gaming LLC which wanted sports gambling extended beyond tribal casinos to card rooms it controls would slow momentum to getting the bill passed before the end of this years shortened session and delay further proceedings until next January.

Incredibly proud of the strong 83-14 bipartisan vote, Peterson said. We have found a good middle path that supports our tribal partners, allows adults to safely access sports betting and protects our youth.

But the emergency amendment preventing a referendum seems destined to be challenged in court.

Maverick Gaming released a legal opinion Thursday night that it had sought from former State Senator and Washington Supreme Court Judge Philip A. Talmadge, who concluded there was no basis in deeming HB-2638 or SB-6394 an emergency for the state, namely because it will derive no direct tax revenue from the tribal casino activities. As such, Talmadge added there was no immediate threat to public peace, health or safety that warranted such an amendment.

An emergency clause to this legislation, claiming that either bill is necessary for the immediate preservation of public peace, health, or safety is highly suspect and will only ensure lengthy litigation testing such a legislative assertion, Talmadge wrote.

For now, the legislation would limit any sports gambling within tribal casinos, of which there are 29 operating within the state. Washington has some of the nations toughest anti-gambling laws and online betting of any kind is a Class C felony.

But HB-2638 does have an online component to it, allowing such betting only within the tribal casino confines.

Maverick had wanted that extended to smaller card-room casinos which allow limited gambling in card games such as blackjack played against the house and not individuals. Within the past year, Maverick has bought up 19 of the states 44 card rooms.

But lawmakers favored the more conservative option of the tribal casinos, saying their decades of experience at running gambling establishments would make sports gaming easier to regulate.

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A sports-gambling bill passed in the state House last night. Heres how close it is to becoming law in Washington. - Seattle Times

Atlanta Falcons CEO Rich McKay remembers sitting in an NFL meeting recently, talking about the Oakland Raiders impending move to Las Vegas. Its a city that was once off-limits for professional sports teams because of its association with gambling.

Can you imagine were talking about a stadium opening in Las Vegas, said McKay, recalling his conversation with a longtime colleague. Five years ago, we wouldnt have talked about being allowed the plane to land in Las Vegas. So times have changed.

Times have indeed changed as professional sports teams are now fully embracing gambling as a way to sustain interest from their fans.

McKay on Thursday was sitting alongside his counterparts with the Atlanta Hawks and Braves at a roundtable luncheon organized by the Atlanta Press Club. These franchises, along with Atlanta United, are pushing state lawmakers to make sports gambling legal in Georgia.

Some advocates are also pushing for casino gambling in Georgia and wagering on horse races, both of which would require a ballot referendum if passed by the legislature. These CEOs say theyre only focused on online sports gambling.

The effort to legalize sports betting in Georgia has taken a backseat during the current legislative session as lawmakers continue to work on balancing the states budget. But the legislation is still out there, and it has the full-throated support of the citys big four professional sports teams.

Gone are the days when sports teams worried about gamblers compromising the integrity of their sports.Now, all they see is upside, even though as Hawks CEO Steve Koonin notes, teams wont get a cut of the profits if sports betting is made legal.

Were doing this, not for an economic gain, in the literal sense, but to keep future fans engaged in our sport, Koonin said.

Engagement in the form of watching games on TV and attending them in person.

Braves CEO Derek Schiller said sports betting is an issue that could actually bring lawmakers from both sides of the aisle together. Schiller said Georgians are already using their phones to place bets on sporting events through out-of-state websites.

It is something that everybody can get behind, taxing something that is already ongoing and receiving those revenues to the state and allowing the politicians to determine where the dollars then go to, Schiller said.

Advocates say legalized sports betting could bring in billions of dollars at a time when Georgia is desperately seeking more revenue.

Opponents still question the morality of gambling in any form.

But Atlantas sports executives are all in.

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Atlanta's Pro Sports Teams Join Forces To Support Legalized Sports Gambling | 90.1 FM WABE - WABE 90.1 FM

Welcome to this weeks edition ofAd Age Sports Media Brief, a weekly roundup of news from every zone of the sports media spray chart, including the latest on broadcast/cable/streaming, sponsorships, endorsements, gambling and tech.

Ratings for the XFLs opening weekend were encouraging, with 22.5 million viewers sampling the wares on ABC, Fox and ESPN. According to Nielsen data, the average XFL viewer tuned in for 61 minutes, a measure that is comparable with college football consumption (69 minutes) during the 2019 season.

Whether the league manages to retain those early adoptersor, better still, expand on the opening numbersremains to be seen, but the XFLs embrace of gambling could be instrumental in boosting its popularity. According to ESPNs David Purdum, not only did Fox and ESPN announcers talk up point spreads and over/under bets during the inaugural broadcastsa practice encouraged by XFL brassbut the league actually prepped for the start of the season by consulting with bookmakers on new rules.

As Purdum reports, part of the XFLs mission is to embrace the spread, a catch phrase that XFL president Jeffrey Pollack says is indicative of the leagues determination to develop a product that aligns with the sports-betting future thats coming fast. The legal gambling boom is such an integral part of the XFLs operating philosophy that league officials went as far as to share their proposed changes to footballs established scoring rules with Vegas sportsbook operators. (One new wrinkle allows for a team to choose between attempting a one-, two-, or three-point conversion following a touchdowna modification that can make a nail-biter of even the most mundane spread or over/under bet.)

Purdum notes that while the opening-week XFL handle didnt exactly make for a windfallthe Caesars Sportsbook said that less than $10,000 was bet on the inaugural Seattle-DC gameit was more than the amount bet on many of Saturdays college basketball games and even some NBA games. Meanwhile, FanDuels New Jersey book said patrons bet 20 times more money on the first XFL game compared to the amount that was wagered on the now-defunct Alliance of American Football Leagues opener.

While the legit books were happy to take XFL wagers (naturally, setting the initial spreads and over/unders was a bit of a guessing game), many of the old-school guys wouldnt go anywhere near the action last week. When asked if he would take a bet on the St. Louis Battlehawks at plus-9.5 points, a bookie of our long-standing acquaintance recommended a 12-step program before cheerfully accepting a wager on a professional bowling tournament.

In the absence of a comprehensive audience metric, defining the scope of the Super Bowl audience remains a bit of a head-scratcher. But Fox this week got a little closer to determining an official delivery after Nielsen revealed the games out-of-home viewership.

All told, about 13 million people watched Super Bowl LIV in bars, restaurants or at a friends house, bringing the broadcast to a final tally of 113.4 million viewers,compared to CBSs year-ago average (112.7 million)a gain proportionate with the initial comparisons between the two live broadcasts.

According to Mike Mulvihill, executive VP for research and league operations at Fox Sports, the addition of the out-of-home data allows Fox and other broadcasters to get closer to the end goal of being able to capture as much consumption as we can. While the bonus eyeballs makes a hash of any attempts to compare this years Super Bowl to all the others for which out-of-home estimates werent made, recognizing the non-traditional views is a step in the direction of greater accuracy that gets as as close to the truth as possible, Mulvihill said.

Fox will begin baking in OOH estimates as part of its NFL guarantees as it begins selling its 2020 inventory of Sunday afternoon windows and the Thursday Night Football package. ESPN was the first to begin negotiating against the somewhat controversial metric, but the initiative hasnt been met with universal acceptance. (While Nielsens definition of a viable OOH impression relies on the clear transmission of the audio signal, buyers have questioned the validity of impressions delivered in noisy environments.)

All told, the OOH views accounted for a 13 percent lift versus Foxs linear deliveries, which is in keeping with the 12 percent boost such public consumption afforded the networks Sunday NFL broadcasts. Mulvihill saidFoxs Thanksgiving Day deliveries jumped 20 percent this year thanks to all the additional over-the-river-and-through-the-woods impressions.

Aside from merely boosting the overall numbers, OOH is instrumental in recapturing those hard-to-reachmillennials. Per Nielsen, out-of-home boosted the number ofadults 18-to-34 who watched Super Bowl LIV by 19 percent.

Now that the OOH data is set to be an inseparable part of the standard TV numbers issued by Nielsen every day, Mulvihill expects to see a significant change in how the networks promote their NFL broadcasts. Traditionally, we havent embraced the opportunity to have big public watch parties, because we dont get credit for those impressions, he said. When those out-of-home figures become the currency in the fall, all that will changeand that can only improve the fan experience.

Sports Business Dailys Ben Fischer and John Ourand this week reported that the NFL has asked teams for feedback on the prospect of radically expanding flex scheduling, including the possibility of moving games from Sunday to Monday in mid-season. In other words, the flex scheduling proviso that has allowed NBC to weed out much of the potential duds from its Sunday Night Football roster may be extended to ESPNs Monday Night Football.

While no specific plans are in placewere they to come, any changes in the current flex scheme wouldnt be made official until the zeroes turn over on the new media rights deals in 2023ESPN obviously would love to have the power to swap out late-season games between no-hopers. In 2018, the cable network carried a Christmas Eve curiosity featuring the 6-8 Denver Broncos and 3-11 Oakland Raiders, a joyless squabble that now stands as the lowest-rated MNF telecast in history (8.6 million viewers/4.5 household rating). Under a revised flex schedule, ESPN would have been given the latitude to sub in the far more compelling Houston (10-5) vs. Philadelphia (8-7) game that aired in CBSs early Sunday window.

In addition to the flex expansion, SBJ reports that ESPN has told the NFL that it plans to shift Monday Night Football back to broadcaster ABC if it retains the rights to the primetime package. (Bristols deal expires at the end of the 2021 season.) Such a scenario would likely involve some sort of MNF simulcast on ESPN, which depends on the NFL not only as a source of ratings points but as the property that buttresses its staggering affiliate fees.

In apodcast interview with Sports Illustrateds Jimmy Traina, the New York Posts Andrew Marchand suggested that money will determine whether the flex schedule comes to MNF, before adding that the real-world implications of flexing a Sunday game to Monday night may be less than ideal for the fans who travel to the games. Obviously, for TV purposes, flexing the games makes a lot of sense; it is a bit of a tougher equation for fans attending the games, Marchand said. Traina concurred. I think its a disaster for fansbut the NFL doesnt care about the fans going to the games, Traina said. They care about keeping their TV partners happy and generating ratings.

The Posts Joel Sherman reports that Major League Baseball is mulling over a series of big changes to its postseason format, one that would expand the playoff field from 10 to 14 teams and introduce a reality show twist to how the clubs are paired off in October. As Sherman explains it, the proposal would allow the runner-up in each league to select its first-round opponent. In 2019, the Yankees posted the second-best record in the American League behind those trash-can-banging "cheats"in Houston; under the expanded playoff rules, New York would have been given the option to play against the Rays, Indians or Red Sox.

Boston had the worst record of that group, Sherman wrote. Would the Yanks pick them or avoid the baggage of a series with their rival? It would create a ton of strategy and interest, and this is what MLB wants to sell.

The choices themselves would be presented on a selection special that would air on the final Sunday night of the regular season. More to the point, the addition of two teams from each league to the playoff mix would serve to reward additional postseason advertising industry to MLB media partners Fox, ESPN and TBS. Any alteration to the playoff format must be approved by the players union; as Sherman notes, the collective-bargaining agreement, like the TV deals with ESPN and Turner, expires after next season.

Not everyone is over the moon about baseballs thought experiment. On Monday, Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer tweeted a shot at the proposal and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. Your proposal is absurd for too many reasons to type on twitter and proves you have absolutely no clue about baseball, Bauer sniped. Youre a joke. Bauer expanded on his 140-character grouse with a seven-minute YouTube tirade in which he discusses how the plan would be a disaster for starting rotations before going on to suggest that Manfred doesnt have a firm grasp on media dynamics.

The outspokenBauer, who has a history of flapping his gums at theMLB boss, was fined an undisclosed amount of cashlast summer after flinging the ball from the mound over the centerfield fence inwhat ESPN characterized as atantrum. Two days after chucking the sphere into the seats, the pitcher was traded from Cleveland to Cincinnati.

Hes a Cinderella boy. Tears in his eyes, I guess, as he lines up this last shot. Hes got about 195 yards left, and hes got a, looks like hes got about an 8-iron. This crowd has gone deadly silent...Cinderella story, out of nowhere, former greens-keeper, now about to become the Masters champion. It looks like a mirac...its in the hole! Its in the hole!

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