SportsHandle: the week that was in US sports betting

SportsHandle and friends deliver another round-up of the week’s big developments in US sports betting.
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SportsHandle and friends deliver another round-up of the week’s big developments in US sports betting.

Strange Bedfellows: Buddhism, Betting, And Becoming A Better Person

As far as hypotheses go, “becoming a good gambler will lead to you becoming a better person” is, admittedly, pretty far out there.

But it was a thought that struck me when listening to Adam Levitan’s “Solo Pod” segment on the podcast Establish the Run (which is also the name of the popular DFS website he co-founded). Levitan, who has been a gambler his entire adult life — first at the poker tables in Atlantic City and later as a DFS player and sports bettor — mentioned that gambling had ruined his emotional teeter-totter, in that there was no longer any teetering or tottering.

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DraftKings CEO Jason Robins Says Things That Make Me Go ‘Hmmm’

Last November at the Canaccord Genuity Digital Gaming Summit, DraftKings founder and CEO Jason Robins had this to say about sports betting, which sent gambling Twitter into a frenzy: “This is an entertainment activity. People who are doing this for profit are not the players we want.”

To paraphrase Britney Spears: Oops, he did it again, this time at the Goldman Sachs Travel and Leisure Conference.

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Several PGA Sportsbook Partners Accepting Bets On Saudi-Backed LIV Tour Debut

The launch of the LIV Golf Invitational Series has unleashed a maelstrom in global professional golf unlike any during Phil Mickelson’s three decades playing on the PGA Tour.

On Monday, Mickelson ended his four-month sabbatical from the sport when he signed a lucrative deal with the Saudi Arabian-backed tour for a reported sum of around $200 million

Mickelson said he used the time off for a period of reflection, during which an unauthorized biography about the six-time major winner was published chronicling his lengthy history of heavy gambling — both on the course through high-stakes practice rounds and at the window through large wagers on the NFL.

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California Tribes ‘Fearmongering’ Against Operators In Ads About Children

In the newest squabble over a potential expansion of gambling, a familiar tactic is being deployed in California, the current battleground over legalized sports betting.

There’s a social media ad with a youth staring down at a cellphone — not exactly a novel depiction — and a TV spot with similar imagery. The words of the voiceover hammer the point home.

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Have A TheScore Bet Account? Here’s What To Expect As Operations Wind Down

On June 1, theScore Bet announced it would be discontinuing its U.S. sports betting operations as of July 1. Penn National Gaming bought the Canada-based company eight months ago and has been moving steadily toward using its Barstool Sportsbook platform as its U.S. brand and theScore Bet as its Canadian brand.
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