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.
Stumble upon something you think we should include? Email [email protected].
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A European man bet against a soccer team’s stock and then bombed its bus while attempting to disguise the bombing as an islamic terrorist attack.
W. had taken out a loan of “several tens of thousands of euros” days before the attack and bought a large number of so-called put options, betting on a drop in Dortmund’s share price, she said.
“A significant share price drop could have been expected if a player had been seriously injured or even killed as a result of the attack,” according to prosecutors, though Koehler said the precise profit W. might have expected was still being calculated.
Ralf Jaeger, the top security official in North Rhine-Westphalia state, said the suspect had hoped to earn millions.
“The man appears to have wanted to commit murder out of greed,” Jaeger said.
Investigators found notes at the scene claiming responsibility on behalf of Islamic extremists, which Germany’s top security official, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, said was a “particularly perfidious way to toy with people’s fears.”
As Texas prepares to wrap up its legislative session in May, daily fantasy sports appears to have the most momentum out of all proposed gambling legislation.
There’s a bill in the Legislature that says playing and profiting from fantasy sports is not the same as illegal gambling.
This comes after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last year issued a nonbinding ruling stating that online fantasy sports is exactly that — illegal betting.
But state Rep. Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, and state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, say online fantasy sports is legal because it’s a skill-based contest where sports fans pay an entry fee, create teams in the sport of their choice and then gain points for their “team’s” performance, such as yards gained in football or runs scored in baseball. Those with the highest scores can receive money on a weekly basis.
Last week, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said Las Vegas would be on the list of possible expansion cities if the league were to expand.
Manfred says Major League Baseball will keep a close eye on how well the Golden Knights and Raiders fare in the city, and whether there’s an adequate fanbase to support the franchises. The Raiders will be the bigger challenge for Las Vegas, as its planned $1.9 billion, 65,000-seat stadium will require great support from locals and visitors.
An editorial published by a New Hampshire newspaper suggests the state should seek more solid data on the number of daily fantasy sports players before the state’s Senate Finance Committee approves a bill the senate passed last week.
HB 580 would allow sites like FanDuel and DraftKings to operate in New Hampshire under the eye of the Lottery Commission. They would pay five percent of their gross profits to the state, based on the number of players from New Hampshire. The tax would come from the company’s cut of each transaction, not from the total amount bet.
This tax would be credited against New Hampshire business taxes.
Since we don’t know how many fantasy players are from New Hampshire, we have no idea how much money is at stake. Senators should demand to see some real numbers before approving this fantasy bill.