Goodell, owners clash on Raiders’ Vegas move; oddsmakers value Prescott, Romo the same

Twice weekly, we’ll comb through as many articles, tweets and podcasts as we can find related to the world of sports betting and daily fantasy sports, and publish the good stuff here. 

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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated his anti-sports betting stance at the NFL owners meeting in Houston this week. The league was discussing the Oakland Raiders potential move to Las Vegas.

 

The NFL owners who were interviewed took a much more progressive approach.

“Las Vegas has changed over the years,” Houston Texans owner Bob McNair said. “It’s a more family orientated destination now as opposed to just the gaming. It has made a lot of progress changing its image. This is a fluid situation. Once we nail it down and see the entire package and analyze it, then we can make a decision at that point.”

 

The most influential of the group, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, supports the Raiders relocating to Las Vegas.

“Jerry always comes to the table with such good ideas,” said ESPN analyst John Clayton. “He looks at the big picture and how to make the most money. Is it too much money sometimes? It’s never too much for owners.

“In the end, Jerry would win (a battle about Las Vegas) over Roger. I think it eventually happens. They might have to smooth over six or seven owners who might have reservations, but when you have a stadium deal that includes $750 million in (public financing) and have the chance to triple or quadruple the revenues owners would see from a team (in Las Vegas), you have to give it strong consideration.”


Las Vegas oddmakers said that there would be no adjustment in point spreads between Cowboys quarterbacks Dak Prescott and Tony Romo.

“Prescott is doing fine, and adds a new dimension to the offense anyway,” Westgate Las Vegas Superbook manager Jeff Sherman says. “It could rock the boat with their performance on the field not to keep him in there, and I’d surely expect Romo to get hurt anyway, because it’s happened so often.”


The Arkansas Supreme Court rejected a proposed amendment that would have authorized three casinos in the state because it failed to communicate that federal law prohibits states from authorizing sports betting.

Todd Wooten, an attorney for Arkansas Wins 2016 and Arkansas Winning Initiative, said in his request that the law only applied to legislative attempts to legalize sports betting. Because the amendment gives the General Assembly the option to legalize several types of casino gambling — including sports betting — the potential for conflicting laws is not significant enough to strike the amendment, he said.

The federal law does not restrict gambling on animal racing or the sport of jai alai.

“The amendment’s language clearly conflicts with federal law that prohibits sports gambling in Arkansas,” Justice Karen Baker wrote in the court’s Thursday opinion, referring to the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992.


FIFA has partnered with a sportsbook to help monitor the integrity of the game.

Unibet has signed a co-operation agreement with a subsidiary of Fifa called Early Warning System (EWS), under which the gambling firm will “exchange information with EWS and will co-operate on efforts to improve prevention measures and education in the field of sports betting integrity.”


As of today, AlphaDraft will no longer offer fantasy eSports.

AlphaDraft made the announcement via an email to customers: “As we continue to evaluate the eSports landscape, we are announcing today that we have made the difficult decision to stop offering fantasy eSports contests on AlphaDraft as of Friday, 21 October, at the conclusion of the League of Legends World Championship. You can continue to play contests until this time.”