Get a Grip: The Week in Sports Betting & Sports: SVP, G2E & New Mexico’s a ‘Go’

It’s information overload everywhere, and there’s not time enough to sleep and eat and stay fully apprised of what’s happening on this crazy blue dot of ours (two out of three ain’t bad).

Here’s the weekend Sports Handle item, “Get a Grip,” recapping the week’s top stories, and rounding up key stories in sports betting, gaming, and the world of sports at large. You may have missed them, and they are worth reading.

SVP: Legal Sports Betting Just ‘Common Sense’

ESPN personality Scott Van Pelt didn’t pussyfoot around his thoughts on sports betting at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas earlier this week. Nope, the sometimes irreverent, always hip late-night sports jock just said it like it is on why sports betting should be legal.

“Because I have common sense,” he said in answer to a question from the American Gaming Association’s Sara Slane, per CDC Gaming Reports. “I live in a state (Connecticut) where I can buy lottery tickets at a gas station, go to a casino and play blackjack, but I can’t bet on the Red Sox or the Yankees? People bet. They are adults. I’m in favor of adults doing adult things.”

Van Pelt shared his thoughts on how fast states across the nation would legalize sports betting — “Maybe six months, a year, we’ll get to a point where everyone, even grandma, is out on the dance floor.” And if that would compromise the integrity of games — “You have to be vigilant. You have to be concerned, but you just can’t listen to the conspiracy theorists and the idiots on Twitter.”

In addition, SVP plainly and he called out the pro leagues in their quest for an “integrity fee.” Here are some highlights and sparks on that front, which came during a panel involving Van Pelt, Slane and MLB’s Kenny Gersh, baseball’s Vice President of Gaming and New Business Ventures.

MLB exec says “it blows my mind” that casinos figure “yeah, we can get our data from some guy in a garage watching the game on TV” rather than buy official league data #G2E2018 #SportsBiz

— John Brennan (@BergenBrennan) October 10, 2018

.@notthefakeSVP on pro leagues wanting to sell official data: "They want to sell you what? Information I can get with my eyes? What somebody's ERA is? What I can see with my eyes? … For 1 percent, huh? Good luck with that." @G2Eshows #G2E2018

— Legal Sports Report (@LSPReport) October 10, 2018

My favorite @notthefakeSVP quote so far is addressing sports data and rights:

"I don't get it. You're gonna put a Fitbit on Tom Brady and then you have to buy that info? Which helps you do what?"

— Jessica Welman (@jesswelman) October 10, 2018

MLB exec turns to moderator Scott Van Pelt re AGA’s Sara Slane “what do I have to do to get her to stop calling it an integrity fee?”
They could take this show on the road #G2E2018

— John Brennan (@BergenBrennan) October 10, 2018

Spoiler alert: show wraps up w Kenny and Sara mostly agreeing that whatever the fee is called, maybe a deal can be worked out somehow #G2E2018

— John Brennan (@BergenBrennan) October 10, 2018

Don’t bet on any such deal on an “integrity fee.”

Read John Brennan’s full story about that panel here at US Bets.

MGM-GVC, California Tribe Announce First of Its Kind Agreement 

ICYMI at Sports Handle This Week:

More of the Most Important Stories in Sports Betting and Gaming:

HOWEVER: New Mexico Is A Go, But: No Bets On UNM and New Mexico State [ABQ]

SENSORY OVERLOAD: All About G2E: The Las Vegas Insider Meetup Where Casinos Find The Future [Forbes]

SHARK TANK: Sharks Sway Vote as Doorstop business wins G2E’s first Innovation Incubator [CDC]