Each Friday, 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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Following the NHL and NFL, the WNBA became the third major professional sports league to announce placing a team in Las Vegas.
“Las Vegas has been on our radar screen for some time,” Lisa Borders, the W.N.B.A. president, said in a phone interview. “We’ve had conversations with the MGM family, executive team. They are bringing live sports to Las Vegas.”
The W.N.B.A. team will follow the N.H.L.’s Golden Knights as a second major professional team in Las Vegas — with the N.F.L.’s Raiders soon to follow. The Stars begin play next season with home games at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Bill Laimbeer, who coached the Liberty the past five seasons, will be the team’s president of basketball operations and coach.
The move has been in the works since the Stars’ ownership group told the league they were interested in selling the team. Borders said she approached MGM about purchasing the team.
“I’ve been working on this for so long, it’s been a few months for sure,” Borders said.
She added: “Our responsibility is that our teams are all doing well. We have a responsibility to the players and fans that the league is healthy, finding a great spot for that team to land. That’s what we’ve done in Las Vegas.”
The NBA season kicked off earlier this week and the Golden State Warriors opened as odds-on favorites for the second straight year.
The last team, other than the Warriors, to be an odds-on favorite to start the season was the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls, led by Michael Jordan. That Bulls team was coming off a then-record 72-win season and was around a -125 favorite to win the championship the following year, according to oddsmakers.
This year’s Warriors are around -240 favorites to win their third title in four years.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are next at 4-1. No other team has odds in the single digits at the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas.
A think tank released a report that suggests legal sports betting should be a decision made by states and not by the federal government.
Minton’s report argues that the 10th Amendment assures that states are empowered to address issues not governed by the federal government. She also says PASPA violates the equal sovereignty doctrine by allowing Nevada a privilege other states can’t enjoy.
Repealing PASPA has been one of the key issues undertaken by the American Gaming Association, and it has mobilized a special committee to work with lawmakers to introduce bills that would strike it down if the Supreme Court ruling doesn’t effectively change policy.
Minton also calls for legislative action if the court upholds the appeal.
“Regardless of how the Supreme Court rules in Christie v. NCAA, Congress should act to repeal PASPA and all other federal gambling laws that threaten the sovereignty of the states and put representative government that is accountable to individual citizens at risk,” she said.
With the United States not qualifying for the 2018 World Cup, Nevada sportsbooks are expecting a decline in betting handle for the event.
Nevada sportsbooks are expecting a 15-30 percent decrease in betting handle on the 2018 World Cup, with the United States men’s national team failing to qualify for next year’s tournament.
Some books are afraid the drop-off could be more severe.
“It’s going to be crickets,” said Jay Rood, vice president of race and sports for MGM. “I just think the overall awareness is going to be way down.”
Aaron Rodgers’ injury has had a major effect on the Green Bay Packers’ odds this season.
The Packers were 6.5-point favorites over the Saints last week in an early line available at the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas. When the Westgate reposted the line Sunday night, after Rodgers’ injury, New Orleans was a 3.5-point favorite.