KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee offensive lineman Trey Smith was dealing with blood clots in his lungs when he missed spring practice.
Tennessee athletic department spokesman Zach Stipe confirmed Smith’s issue Tuesday. ESPN first reported that Smith was diagnosed in February with blood clots in his lungs.
The ESPN report says Smith has been cleared to play this season but will be held out of contact until he comes off blood-thinning medication, likely sometime around mid-August. Volunteers coach Jeremy Pruitt already had said during Southeastern Conference media days two weeks ago that Smith would be ready to play this fall.
When Smith missed spring practice, Pruitt cited a medical issue without going into specifics.
Tennessee opens preseason practice Friday.
Smith earned second-team Associated Press all-SEC honors as a freshman last season.
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More AP college football: http://collegefootball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
The English Premiere League begins Friday, August 10th and the season runs until May 12th. For those unfamiliar, the point scoring in the EPL works like this: Wins = 3 points, Ties = 1 and Losses = 0. The winning team almost always finishes with over 80 points and in spectacular seasons can reach 90. Relegation for clubs usually falls somewhere in the 30 point range. With that being said, here are all the odds for the final point totals for every club in the EPL:
In what National Basketball Association commissioner Adam Silver and MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren hailed as a historic partnership, the professional sports league and major international gaming and hospitality company have struck an agreement on sports betting data and intellectual property, the first relationship of its kind.
The pair made the announcement at a press conference at the St. Regis New York Hotel in New York City on Tuesday. The deal will permit MGM and its properties offering sports betting to use official NBA league data as well as NBA logos and marks in conjunction with its sports betting products.
This agreement makes MGM the “official gaming partner” of the NBA, but this deal is not exclusive to MGM. In fact, eliciting a laugh from Murren and the audience, Silver invited more deals of this kind with other gaming entities.
NBA Sports Betting Deal With MGM Ushers In ‘A Whole New World For Us’ and Positions MGM to ‘Win’ as Number of US Sports Betting States Expected to Grow
Silver (L) and Murren (R)
It’s a 3-year-deal, of which the financials were not disclosed, will allow both sides to test the waters in what Silver called “a whole new world for us.”
“NBA’s three-year deal does not include rights to allow MGM to stream live NBA games on a mobile app that allows gamblers to bet on that app at the same time,” reported ESPN’s Darren Rovell. “That, many believe, is where the big money is.”
Silver indicated that the NBA recognized that their aggressive lobbying campaign in at least two dozen states with respect to sports betting legislation was an “uphill battle.” The league saw that states were resisting their preferred legislation, and further that a federal framework was not in the works.
But Silver indicated that the state-level battle is one that’s far from over as so far only six states have legalized (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Mississippi, West Virginia) or expanded their sports wagering offerings (Delaware). But so far, no state has passed legislation mandating the use official league data, or requiring operators or state lotteries to pay the league an “integrity fee” or royalty in any amount. New York came close.
In response to a question about the origin of the official league data — used to grade wagers — from Sportradar, Silver said that their Sportradar deal does not govern its data in the U.S. With respect to data for MGM and other potential partners, he said “The official data feed will come directly from the leagues operation center, or from a partner yet to be named by the NBA.”
Big Week for MGM.
Murren was pleased to have the MGM become the first to test these waters. MGM has now set the market rate for the cost of doing business of this kind directly with a professional sports league.
It’s been quite a week in MGM announcements, with news of its joint venture with the announced formation on Monday of a sports betting and online gaming joint venture with British betting group GVC Holdings Plc, owner of the Coral, Ladbrokes and Sportingbet brands.
Further on Monday, MGM and Boyd Gaming announced a new partnership on Monday that will expand MGM’s portfolio into states likely to offer sports betting and/or online gaming in the coming months or years. The partnership has an eye toward jurisdictions where either Boyd Gaming or MGM operates physical casino resorts and should be able to obtain licenses to operate online.
“We needeto have great brands, which we have at MGM. We needed the right market access in the U.S. We have that. … we also need the best in-game betting experience which we get with GVC, and now we have tremendous data,” Murren summed it up.
He remarked that all of these pieces has MGM primed to “win” in the expanding U.S. sports betting market.
There was some news for New Jersey sportes betting tucked at the end of the presser, too. Said Murren: “At the end of this week we’ll be taking mobile bets from The Borgata via the Play MGM app.”
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IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa safety Brandon Snyder is leaving the program as a graduate transfer and lineman Tristan Wirfs will be suspended for the season opener after getting charged with intoxicated driving.
Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz announced both moves on Tuesday.
Snyder spent most of the past two years working his way back onto the field after twice tearing the ACL in his left knee. Snyder returned last season to return an interception 89 yards for a score against Illinois, but he re-injured his knee in the same game.
Snyder was then suspended for last season’s Pinstripe Bowl after being charged with drunken driving.
Wirfs, a sophomore who’s expected to start at right tackle, was arrested over the weekend and charged with driving a scooter while intoxicated.
As the calendar turns to August, we’l soon see the rollout of legal Mississippi sports betting at several of the dozen-plus properties that have applied for a license. MGM’s Beau Rivage in Biloxi and the Gold Strike in Tunica will go first, following the company’s announcement on Monday of a August 1 launch (Wednesday).
In mid-August, Gold Strike’s next door neighbor, The Horseshoe Tunica Hotel & Casino (a Caesars Entertainment property), will be off and running.
The Horseshoe’s Race & Sportsbook manager Chris McConnell has spent the last 20 years working in sports betting and racing operations or organizations. Sports Handle caught up with McConnell recently for a glimpse into preparations and some words about the wagering menu, the physical property, and an approximate opening.
Mississippi Sports Betting August Rollout: Caesars’ Horseshoe Tunica to Introduce ‘The Book,’ With Regional Props to Come
The Caesars Palace Race & Sports Book in Las Vegas
Sports Handle (SH): Can you tell us what patrons can expect of physical sportsbook space?
CM: First of all, it’s temporary space a right now, and we’re calling it ‘The Book.’ It’s constructed adjacent to our World Series of Poker Bar and our poker room. It’s going have 12 large screen TVs, sized from about 65 to to 75 inches.
And we’ll also have three large screen TVs for updated odds on sporting events. Basically our data wall. And one of them, one of the things that we are going to be doing that’s a little bit different, because we are in SEC country, we’re probably going to do some regional proposition wagers, just for our property here. Within The Book, there’s going to be five [betting] windows presently. One of them is an ADA window.
SH: On or about what date do you expect The Book will open?
CM: We don’t have a hard date on that. I would say somewhere around mid-August. And I suspect when we go to do a launch, we’ll try to do it, a super soft launch like on a Monday. We’re not gonna open up on a weekend. We’re trying to do it the right way for the customers, but also make sure people are properly trained.
What Caesars did here was seek people internally that had some background in that to alleviate downtime and to increase the training right off the bat. Anything they have in Vegas, we’re working on bringing it into The Book.
SH: What can patrons expect of betting menu and odds?
CM: The Book and Caesars sportsbooks will coordinate across the country, so we’re going to be integrated. From a waginerg standpoint, we can take larger wagers if we want to based upon pooling and everything. We’re going to emphasize regional sports and wagering.
We understand that it’s a new experience for a lot of people and we have a lot of tips and handicapping things and a lot more information to hand out for people that don’t know what the lines mean and how to wager. We cater to everyone. Newbies, we have it set up that we’ll have training to assist new people as well as the experienced better.
SH: Any sense of how much appetite there is now for sports betting in Mississippi based on people coming by and asking or calling in?
CM: Well, let me tell you, as soon as we actually put up a few signs right around it, coming soon, you know, Horseshoe Tunica ‘The Book’ … we are literally quite adjacent to the World Series of Poker Room. Tons of people have been asking the poker supervisors and the staff over there. When is it coming? I met with Lisa, who’s the GM over at the poker room and she goes, ‘We must get 20, 30 when is it gonna open?’ questions a day. It’s not so much what’s the offering — they know what it is, but when’s it coming.
(Editor’s note: McConnell noted that Harrah’s Gulf Coast will be opening around the same time, too.):
SH: Will you guys be offering at some point on-premises mobile wagering, which is allowed under the existing regulations as you know?
CM: Yes, but we want to get the live retail stuff going first and then do that. It comes geo-fencing with the property. Well, does that mean like in our property including The Roadhouse? So, define property. Is it the physical location of The Horseshoe? Or does it include our property which is basically next door?
SH: What about the possibility in the future of mobile betting opening up outside the property, which is big in Nevada and for offshores?
CM: We have a long history of working closely with Mississippi Gaming Commission and regulators to bring the latest technology and innovation that is beneficial to our customers and the Mississippi gaming industry to our operations. We will continue to work closely with regulators to improve our operations and customer experience.
SH: To what extent are you guys working with a Nevada-based team to assist in preparations?
CM: The Nevada team will be doing all of our odds. So, that helps us here. Like with MGM, you set your own lines and stuff like that. We don’t have to worry about that. Our thing is customer care — taking care of the customer. Our lines are coming from a team of experts that have been doing it in Las Vegas for years. So, it works very well for the customers. They’re getting the best lines, but the people out here don’t have to worry about moving lines back and forth.
SH: Can you give example of the kind of regional prop you expect to offer?
CM: You could do two Mississippi teams and we could say something like which team will score the most offensive points this week? Like a head-to-head matchup. We can also do same thing with individual quarterbacks or something like that or running backs. So we can do team props, player props, points or scoring. Which team will score the most points in the first half.
Not only for, pro football, we can also do it for college football and things like that. We can keep the regional nature of it if we want to or if people have an appetite for those type of wagers, we can do that also.
So, we can have a little bit different wagers than what is being offered in Las Vegas, even that. It won’t be a whole wall of it. I’ll be three to five easy each weekend type of stuff or each, you know, maybe a Saturday, Sunday, it might be different.
SH: What are you most excited about as you prepare to roll this out?
CM: I think it’s good for the overall industry. I’m in the industry, so I think it’s a good thing in whatever state. I hope more states do adopt it and do it. Will it impact Las Vegas? Las Vegas is so big, people that went to Vegas to bet sports, they go up for a week or else they move there.
We’ve added more people here. We’ve hired more people. We’ve talked about doing it that way. It’s like if they want music or a band or something, well they want sports betting. Once they said we were going to get it, everyone was excited. And once we start putting up those curtains, man, the temperature shot up a thousand degrees because now it’s the reality of it.
So, it’s a good thing that it’s happening in the industry. It’s good for our property and it’s good for the people here. We’re so close to Memphis, we appreciate the people taking the ride down. It’s a little bit different dynamic than say Vegas. These people choose to come here to have fun, to wager responsibly. And so the thing for me, from managing the racing and sports, I want to give them the best that I can. You know, they made the effort, we gotta make the effort times ten back to them.
I first became aware of @Berryhorse when a few friends alerted me to his Twitter page. He’s gained quite a following thanks to his willingness to share his Major League Baseball betting model in an open Google spreadsheet, plus he provides insight into the model and his picks. Given his success this season, his profile on Twitter and Reddit has steadily grown.
According to his tracking, Berryhorse – whose real name is Kierian – is 166-138 (54.5%) on the season , +524.2 units and +22.45% ROI. (Note: We did not contemporaneously track or verify these MLB wagers/positions, but there is no shortage of followers who can attest to his success and are willing to make donations, which he has declined to accept and instead has referred them to charities.)
Berryhorse’s relatively new Twitter account has grown to nearly 8,500 followers. He updates his followers with his daily wagers and new information. We caught up with Berryhorse and he explained his background, his thinking and intentions with the model, and what’s to come for football season. But first, here’s a thread that he wants every follower to read.
Sports Handle (SH): To start, will you tell us a bit about your background?
Berryhorse (BH): I’ve been playing sports and watching sports for essentially my whole life. Basketball, football, golf, baseball and more. At the same time I’ve also always been a huge science and math nerd. I got into computer science my senior year of high school and majored in Computer Engineering and Computer Science in college. While at school I worked for an NBA analytics company, which was my introduction to machine learning and data science. Learning about this in the context of sports was awesome and eventually it became clear to me that it was possible to build predictive models to beat the sports betting markets.
Like most people I enjoy sports betting because of the money I earn, but by far my favorite part about it is that it quenches my thirst for competition. I love competing and winning and really enjoy that element of sports betting more than any other. I also love how it’s such a pure meritocracy. If you’re a winner, you’re a winner.
Over the long run you can put your money where your mouth is and prove your edge over the market. Of course the industry is full of scams and gimmicks but success in the actual betting market is purely based on merit. My favorite sport to bet on is baseball – highest volume of games, and when betting money lines the team’s incentives are always aligned with you as a bettor, unlike spread betting.
SH: Can you explain how the MLB model works?
BH: First, I have to give a lot of credit to Joe Peta, the author of “Trading Bases.” Much of how the model works is based on his principles. As simply as possible, the model prices each team against one another by projecting how good each team is at run production and run prevention.
There is no simulation of pitches or at bats or innings, it just says “team A is this good and team B is this good.” Once it has that information it can calculate a probability of one team winning the game and compare it with the Vegas line. When there’s a large disagreement between the two, it’s probably worth betting.
SH: How big a factor is the starting pitcher within the equation for each game?
BH: Starting pitchers matter as much as the specific starting pitcher matters. The run prevention number for the team obviously relies heavily on the starter and this is accounted for. Basically it calculates the RA number for the team if that starter pitched every game for them.
SH: What’s the most memorable cover you’ve had this baseball season? Wild ending, walk-off, or otherwise?
BH: The most memorable cover was the White Sox beating Cincinnati in CIN a few weeks ago. Lucas Giolito got rocked for 4 or 5 runs in the first and after spoiling a bunch of chances in extras, CHW eventually won in 12 by a few runs (and covered the run line). Most memorable loss: recently Kris Davis hit a 2-run shot with 2 outs and 2 strikes to win by one. That hurt. The most painful/memorable loss is always the most recent.
SH: Why do you keep the spreadsheet open? Are you interested in the conversation/discussion?
BH: I’m sharing all of this for a few reasons:
#1 and most importantly is I think my process of betting can be helpful for people and encourage them to think more analytically and reject some flawed ideas/myths in sports betting.
#2 I think I can help people win money.
#3 least important, and selfishly, I think it’s a good idea to build a reputation in sports because a lot of my long-term goals are in this space.
SH: What do you have in store for football season? Expect to focus on NFL or CFB or both?
BH: Football: I have models for both college football and NFL but I do not currently plan on making either public. I will share as much as I possibly can though.
(Note: In June, Kieran and his college roommate Jerry launched the podcast “Sports Thoughts” in iTunes (some words about the football model in Episode 7.)
SH: What’s the biggest lesson or takeaway, mathematical or otherwise, you’ve learned from the MLB season wagering?
BH: Biggest takeaway: Really the biggest takeaway is just simply the legitimacy of this model. I was expecting it to do well, but was not at all confident we’d see any season like I’ve enjoyed thus far.
SH: Can you offer some advice for beginners?
BH: I think one common mistake of beginners is not understanding the uncertainty of sporting events. In general, novice bettors are far too confident in their opinions and need to understand that sports are inherently very random and volatile. Typically this means new bettors skew towards betting a disproportionate amount of favorites.
Beginners should also be calculated with their risk allocation and bankroll management. There should be some element of betting more when they are more confident but still the maximum amount they bet should be a small portion of their overall bankroll. It is crucial to preserve and protect the sanctity of future earnings by never risking too much of their bankroll.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Dabo Swinney has built Clemson into an every-year power with regular College Football Playoff appearances and a recent national championship. None of that could’ve happened without first asserting unquestioned control of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Tigers open practice this week as the overwhelming favorite to become the first team to win four straight ACC titles since Florida State’s romp through the 1990s. They also could become only the second power-conference team to win four straight league championship games.
“I didn’t sit back and say, ‘Well we’re Clemson and we’re going to go out there and everybody’s going to try to catch us,'” Swinney said during the ACC Kickoff preseason media days. “But I definitely envisioned Clemson being one of the best programs in the country, and I envisioned this league growing and becoming one of the most dominant leagues in the country.”
Indeed, the Tigers’ rise helped the ACC climb onto level footing with its touted Southeastern Conference neighbor.
It wasn’t long ago that Clemson was chasing Florida State in the ACC’s power-heavy Atlantic Division . The Seminoles won three straight ACC titles from 2012-14 while going 26-1 against league teams — 3-0 against Clemson — and winning a national championship in the final BCS season of 2013. But the Tigers followed that with their own impressive run, giving the league a sustained stretch of top-flight success while putting the ACC alongside the SEC as the only leagues to reach all four playoffs.
Clemson is 25-2 against ACC teams in the past three seasons, with 18 wins by double-digit margins. The losses at home against Pittsburgh in 2016 and at Syracuse last year came by a combined four points. And last year’s 38-3 rout of then-No. 7 Miami made Clemson only the fifth team to win at least three straight power-conference championship games since the SEC held the first in 1992, a group featuring FSU, Alabama in the SEC (2014-16) and Oklahoma in the Big 12 (2006-08).
Another December crown in Charlotte would allow Clemson to join Steve Spurrier’s Florida teams in the SEC (1993-96) as the only power-conference schools to win four straight league title games.
“It all goes together: their budgets are elite, their facilities are elite and they’re able to recruit and attract the elite players,” said Boston College coach Steve Addazio, whose Eagles face the Tigers annually in the Atlantic. “So they’re a ‘Have’ — that’s the best way I can say it.”
Clemson is on the verge of the ACC’s longest reign since Bobby Bowden’s Seminoles arrived in 1992 and won at least a share of the title for nine straight seasons, going 70-2 in the nine-team league.
John Swofford got a close look at those Seminoles, first as a competitor as North Carolina’s athletics director before becoming ACC commissioner in 1997. He told The Associated Press that Clemson’s run “does compare favorably” because today’s 14-team league “is considerably better.”
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a league having a dominant team when that dominant team is without question a premier team nationally,” Swofford said. “And that’s exactly what we have in Clemson.”
Yet offensive lineman Mitch Hyatt and defensive lineman Clelin Ferrell dismissed questions about a gap between Clemson and everyone else.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Ferrell said. “You can talk about that as far as the past years, it might be a big gap. … This 2018 team hasn’t done anything. There’s not really a gap as far as what we’ve done.”
Besides, Hyatt noted, there have been close calls. There was a hang-on-for-dear-life home win against Louisville and eventual Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson in 2016. There were one-possession margins in ACC title games against North Carolina in 2015 and Virginia Tech in 2016. And North Carolina State played Clemson within a touchdown the past two years, including a 2016 overtime road loss after missing a short winning field goal at regulation’s end.
“It’s just executing in the final 2 minutes of the game,” Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren said. “We missed a kick two years ago and had a couple of penalties (last year), and that’s us, that’s not them. So we’ve got to execute under pressure better — period.”
But Doeren’s observation underlines another way the Tigers are equipped to fend off challengers. There’s a big-game-tested core from playoff routs of Oklahoma and Ohio State along with unforgettable title-game thrillers against Alabama, with the Crimson Tide winning in 2015 and the Tigers claiming the rematch before Alabama won Round 3 in last year’s semifinals.
Swinney isn’t changing his “you get what you earn” approach, either, even as the Tigers keep bringing trophies home to Death Valley.
“A big thing is Coach Swinney told us not to beat ourselves,” Hyatt said. “We have the talent to win. We have the players, we have the coaches — we have everything we need to win.”
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More AP college football: http://collegefootball.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP_Top25
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Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aaronbeardap
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Scott Frost’s championship rings and other items reported stolen from his home have been found.
Police said the new Nebraska coach located them in his garage Monday, although some other memorabilia he reported stolen is still missing.
Frost had reported Sunday night that burglars entered an unlocked garage door over the weekend and stole memorabilia originally estimated at more than $100,000.
Frost and his family don’t live in the home yet because it is under renovation. The theft occurred between Friday at 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. Sunday, according to a police report.
Originally reported missing were two Nebraska championship rings, 10 Oregon championship rings, two Central Florida championship rings, five pairs of Air Jordan shoes, football helmets and a gaming console. Also, a gun safe electronic keypad was ripped off.
Lincoln Police Capt. Todd Kocian said Monday night that Frost found all of his championship rings, the gaming console and one Central Florida football helmet.
Still missing were the shoes, five other football helmets and photographs.
Kocian said he had no details about how Frost came to find the items reported stolen.
“The incident that occurred at our home is obviously very disappointing and discouraging,” Frost said in a statement earlier Monday. “All of our belongings were gone through and it will take some time to determine exactly what is missing and the value of those items.
“I would like to clarify that some items initially reported as missing have been found, including some of the rings listed on the police report. Also, the value of what we believe to actually be missing is lower than what has been publicly reported.”
Nebraska spokesman Keith Mann said he had no information beyond what Frost said in the statement.
No arrests have been made and there were no suspects, Kocian said.
Before Monday night’s development, police had listed the value of the items at $172,600.
The burglary was reported less than a week before Nebraska begins preseason practice.
Frost, who signed a seven-year contract that pays him $5 million this year, was The Associated Press national coach of the year after leading Central Florida to a 13-0 record last season.
Frost grew up 90 minutes west of Lincoln, in Wood River, and won a share of the 1997 national championship as the Cornhuskers’ quarterback. Nebraska hired him in December to take over a program that went 4-8 last season and hasn’t won a conference championship since 1999.
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More AP college football: https://collegefootball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Latest on the theft of memorabilia from the home of Nebraska coach Scott Frost (all times local):
6:45 p.m.
Scott Frost’s championship rings and other items reported stolen from his home have been found.
Police say the new Nebraska coach located them in his garage Monday.
Frost had reported Sunday night that burglars entered an unlocked garage door over the weekend and stole memorabilia originally estimated at more than $100,000.
Frost and his family don’t live in the home yet because it is under renovation. The theft occurred between Friday at 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. Sunday, according to a police report.
Originally reported missing were two Nebraska championship rings, 10 Oregon championship rings, two Central Florida championship rings, five pairs of Air Jordan shoes, football helmets and a gaming console. Also, a gun safe electronic keypad was ripped off.
Lincoln Police Capt. Todd Kocian said Monday night that Frost found all of his championship rings, the gaming console and one Central Florida football helmet.
Still missing were the shoes, five other football helmets and photographs.
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4:00 p.m.
Burglars entered the unlocked garage at the home of new Nebraska football coach Scott Frost over the weekend and stole memorabilia originally estimated at more than $100,000.
The theft at Frost’s southwest Lincoln home occurred between Friday at 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. Sunday, Lincoln Police Capt. Danny Reitan said. Frost and his family don’t live in the home yet because it is under renovation. Reitan said he didn’t know whether Frost was in Lincoln over the weekend.
Originally reported missing were two Nebraska championship rings, 10 Oregon championship rings, two Central Florida championship rings, five pairs of Air Jordan shoes, football helmets and a gaming console. Also, a gun safe electronic keypad was ripped off.
Frost said in a statement that what occurred is “disappointing and discouraging.”
As had been rumored since the new Mississippi sports betting regulations went into effect on July 21, the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino (Biloxi, MS) and Gold Strike Casino Resort (Tunica, MS) will accept their first legal sports wagers on Wednesday, August 1 at 12 p.m. CT.
“The two Mississippi gaming resorts, both part of the MGM Resorts International portfolio, will celebrate the occasion with invited guests placing simultaneous first bets in the two locations at opposite ends of the Magnolia State,” a statement from MGM reads. “These first sports wagers will be placed on the 26th anniversary of the first casino bet made in Mississippi’s modern casino age, when the first pair of dice was rolled at the Isle of Capri in Biloxi on August 1, 1992.”
For now, wagering will be retail, or on-premises only. Mississippi’s enabling legislation in 2017 that permits sports wagering now there there’s been a change in federal law, courtesy the United States Supreme Court in May, but allows only wagering only in person and via mobile on casino premises.
Mississippi Sports Betting Will Arrive This Week in Biloxi and Tunica at MGM’s Beau Rivage and Gold Strike.
Among dignitaries and sports figures invited to place the first wagers are Willis McGahee, former NFL Pro Bowl running back (2003-2013); New Orleans native Robert Royal, former NFL tightend (2002-2010); and handicapper and sports analyst for USA TODAY, Danny Sheridan.
“It’s been exciting, it’s been busy, and we’re starting to get applications in,” said Mississippi Gaming Commission executive director Allen Godfrey in early July. “Operators are diligently preparing. It appears that the enthusiasm is high.
“We’ve had staff in Nevada, we’ve had them in New Jersey,” Godfrey continued. “We talk constantly with these other agencies and the model we are after is the Nevada model.”
Support and training from personnel in Nevada is part of why MGM will be the first to take wagers in Mississippi, and why the MGM-owned Borgata Hotel & Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey opened its doors on June 14, the day that the Garden State saw its first two licensees launch.
Over a dozen of Mississippi’s casinos, largely concentrated in Biloxi on the Gulf Coast and Tunica in the northwestern part of the state near Memphis, Tennessee, have applied for licenses.
Here's another "sign" of Mississippi sports betting.
Full details of the sportsbook at the Beau Rivage, already regarded as a cream-of-the-crop resort in Mississippi, are not available. The lounge is likely a temporary space for the time being with about 5 to 8 sports betting windows/tellers available.
Further, we anticipate a traditional sports betting menu, with straight bets, parlays, teasers, props and futures, just like the recently launched Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey. And there will be no limitation on wagering on local college teams — namely Ole Miss and Mississippi State.
Sports Handle has learned that the Golden Nugget in Biloxi will also launch sometime in August, likely before football season.
Likewise, the Horsehoe Tunica, next door neighbor of the Gold Strike, will launch “The Book” in mid-August, roughly. That opening will coincide with a sportsbook launch at Biloxi’s Harrah’s Gulf Coast Hotel & Casino — a Caesars property like the Horseshoe. Others in both Biloxi and Tunica will follow in the coming weeks.
This MGM news comes on the same day that the company disclosed further details of its $200 million joint venture with British betting group GVC. Plus — Monday brought word of its partnership with regional operator Boyd Gaming. The latter arrangement will expand MGM’s portfolio into states likely to offer sports betting and/or online gaming in the coming months or years. The partnership has an eye toward jurisdictions where either Boyd Gaming or MGM Resorts operate physical casino resorts and should be able to obtain licenses to operate online.
This sure beats a Friday news dump! Stay tuned for further coverage Mississippi sports betting launches and developments.
