T0mShane Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 The Jets were playing the Steelers a few years ago and the line was Pittsburgh -6 and I normally don’t gamble but this was too good to be true. The Jets were in a huge skid and had just given up 40 to the Bills, so I woke up and Googled where I could lay $50 and settled on Bovada because it’s a name I’d heard. So I go through the whole thing and put my card number in an hit “Enter” and my iPhone and iPad and laptop all go buck wild with notifications. Chase bank fraud monitoring emailed me, pinged me, texted me, and was calling me all at the same time. The woman on the phone told me that my card was being charged by a “textile company in China” and that i needed to freeze the transactions, etc etc. I explained what I had done and she said, basically, that I was a complete dumbass. I emailed Bovada to verify that their transactions route through this “textile company” and I ultimately got back a one-line response, in broken English, basically telling me not to contact them again. The best part? The Jets beat the Steelers anyway. Cool story, Tom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TuscanyTile2 Posted May 15, 2018 Author Share Posted May 15, 2018 8 hours ago, slats said: Mark Cuban said yesterday that if you're an owner of a major sports team, you just saw the value of your team double. Legal gambling will drive TV viewership, which is where these leagues (especially the NFL) make the bulk of their revenue. I heard talk on the news today in passing of the leagues actually getting a piece of the gambling pie themselves. Maybe just 1 or 2%, but still. If billionaires are benefitting, it'll be here to stay. Fully agree with the entire post but especially that last line. I still don't understand the sudden change of direction in the law. I understand it was a SCOTUS vote but realistically we know that this stuff is all about lobbying politicians and that type of thing. Owners have a lot of money and influence so why would they not have pushed for legalized gambling in the first place? I feel like we will eventually learn more about this story. Do you have any theories? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larz Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 Gambling and the NFL go way back. A few of the owners were crooked Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larz Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 How He Got Rich: Bidwill inherited the Cardinals from his father, Charles. Charles was a wealthy Chicago lawyer, and according to the book From Sandlots to the Super Bowl: The National Football League, 1920-1967, he had connections to Al Capone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larz Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 How They Got Rich: The Maras' fortune started with the Giants’ original owner, Tim Mara. Tim was a bookkeeper in the horse racing circuit and bought the Giants for $500 in 1925. Story has it that Mara’s buddy, a boxing promoter, was offered the team but passed it along to him. Mara didn’t know much about football, but he ponied up the five hundred bucks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larz Posted May 15, 2018 Share Posted May 15, 2018 How He Got Rich: Lore has it that Art Rooney, Dan’s father, got the $2500 needed to purchase Pittsburgh an NFL franchise in 1933 after he won a parlay at the horse track. There is some dispute over the validity of this story, but no matter how he earned the money, Art managed to turn the Steelers into one of the NFL’s wealthiest franchises. Gambling never left the family’s blood, eitherDan Rooney’s brothers own various horse and greyhound tracks across the country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TuscanyTile2 Posted May 15, 2018 Author Share Posted May 15, 2018 16 minutes ago, Larz said: How They Got Rich: The Maras' fortune started with the Giants’ original owner, Tim Mara. Tim was a bookkeeper in the horse racing circuit and bought the Giants for $500 in 1925. Story has it that Mara’s buddy, a boxing promoter, was offered the team but passed it along to him. Mara didn’t know much about football, but he ponied up the five hundred bucks I realize inflation and all but buying the Giants for $500?!?!?!?! The Carolina Panthers just got sold for over $2 billion. Can you imagine what the Giants are worth today?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TuscanyTile2 Posted May 16, 2018 Author Share Posted May 16, 2018 On the Rich Eisen podcast, the following question (which I think is interesting) was raised: Could you see the difference of state by state gambling differences becoming a bargaining chip to entice the leagues to send a team to a certain city if states can offer the league a bigger cut of the gambling revenue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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