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Ontario Proposes Banning Athletes & Celebrities From Sportsbook Ads

BSM Staff
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Ontario Proposes Banning Athletes & Celebrities From Sportsbook Ads

Athletes and celebrities participating in endorsements for sportsbooks operating in Ontario will no longer be legally allowed to do so if the province’s Alcohol and Gaming Commission gets its way.

Ontario doesn’t measure total wagers and gaming revenue for sports betting specifically. According to reporting by CBC, sports wagering numbers are factored in along with mobile casino games and peer-to-peer poker.

Sports betting became legal in Ontario in 2022, and in the first year, combined with the casino and poker operators, there was $35.6 billion CAD (around $26.35 billion USD) in total wagers and $1.4 billion CAD (about $1.03 billion USD) in total gaming revenue.

Betting ads in Ontario, like in the US, are plentiful and feature some of Canada’s biggest sports stars like Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers and Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Those players, along with legend Wayne Gretzky, have appeared in spots for BetMGM which is an official sportsbook partner of the NHL.

The proposed rule changes would no longer allow athletes and any celebrity or figure of influence on minors to be featured in ads.

“The AGCO has identified advertising and marketing approaches that strongly appeal to persons who are under the legal gaming age through the use of celebrities and/or athletes,” the commission said in a statement last week.

Charles Barkley: I Tried to Get TNT to do an NHL Deal 10 Years Ago

BSM Staff
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Charles Barkley: I Tried to Get TNT to do an NHL Deal 10 Years Ago

TNT will cap off its second year as an NHL rightsholder soon by broadcasting the 2023 Stanley Cup Finals on the network. Inside the NBA analyst Charles Barkley is thrilled that the network is one of the TV homes to hockey in America.

The league and Warner Bros. Discovery, still Turner Sports at the time, combined with ESPN reached a deal on a seven-year rights contract in 2021. Barkley, in an interview on Barstool’s Spittin’ Chiclets, said if executives at the network had listened to him, they would’ve had NHL rights 10 years ago.

“Our boss was like, ‘Nobody’s watching hockey.’ I said ‘You don’t understand. They don’t watch hockey during the regular season, but they’ll watch the Stanley Cup Playoffs,'” Barkley told his boss. “And then they went to some shit network like the outdoor channel if I remember correctly.”

The NHL, when it returned after the 2004-05 lockout season, did air games in the United States on OLN, which rebranded from being known as the Outdoor Life Network. The network soon morphed into Versus, which then became NBCSN before NBCUniversal ended the network at the end of 2021.

As Barkley recalled, those were tough times as an American hockey fan. OLN didn’t appear on his cable lineup.

“I was like, ‘Hey man, I’m rich and got cable, and I can’t find OLN,'” Barkley joked. “Finally they got all these great televisions and you can f–king just push a button and say, ‘Hey, OLN.'”

Barkley said he became a hockey fan when he was drafted to the Philadelphia 76ers in 1984. He remembered following the Flyers and befriending several former players like Ron Hextall and Eric Lindros.

Charles at one point during TNT’s coverage of the NBA Playoffs, joked on the air that the basketball game they were watching was too boring, so he was paying more attention to the Stanley Cup Playoff games happening at the same time.

Barkley also said TNT leaders recruited him to talk legend Wayne Gretzky into becoming a studio analyst. After that conversation, Rick Tocchet reached out to Barkley to discuss how he too could get on TNT’s radar.

Charles was over the moon when it all worked out and TNT got NHL rights.

“I’m really excited that we got hockey, man,” he said. “It’s been awesome.”

The Stanley Cup Final will be on TNT again in 2025 and 2027. As part of the media rights deal, ABC will get Stanley Cup coverage in 2024, 2026 and 2028.

Brent Musburger Shares Stories of Jim Brown’s Visits to The NFL Today on 92.3 The Fan

BSM Staff
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Legendary NFL running back Jim Brown passed away last Friday at the age of 87, and Brent Musburger was able to share some of his fondest memories of the former Cleveland Brown.

Talking to Nick Wilson and Dustin Fox on 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland on Friday, Musburger remembered Brown as a truly one-of-a-kind person.

“I found him to be one of the most interesting men that I’ve ever been around,” Musburger said. “And that goes beyond his unbelievable athletic talent.”

When Musburger worked at CBS and hosted The NFL Today, Brent said he thought it was funny to talk to Brown and hear him talk about other running backs who were making headlines during that era.

“He would always complain about Franco Harris, who was a star at the time,” Musburger said. “He said ‘Franco, he runs out of bounds too often. He doesn’t take on the safeties. Now a running back I really admire is Walter Payton!'”

Of Brown’s athletic ability and being a hard-nosed runner not afraid to take on defenders head-on, Musburger said there weren’t too many instances he could recall in which Jim was on the losing end of a 1-on-1 situation.

“The first person would usually fall away from bringing him down,” he said. “I can’t remember many times when just one guy in an open field was able to take the great Jim Brown down.”

“They don’t realize how tough he was,” Musburger later added. “He didn’t miss games, I mean he wasn’t limping off the field or anything.”

Musburger considered Brown the greatest running back of all time ahead of Walter Payton. But Brent made sure to touch on some of the other ventures Brown was successful in after football, including having a career in Hollywood. More importantly, Brent made sure to speak about Brown’s role as a civil rights leader.

Musburger said Brown and NBA legend Bill Russell were examples of athletes during the civil rights movement who weren’t afraid to talk openly about the treatment of Black people in America at that time.

“A lot of the athletes they were timid and they didn’t like to speak out about it. But Jim Brown, no. He would take it on head-on,” he said. “I think his leadership in other areas need to be remembered too.”

John Kincade Reveals Plans for Chemotherapy, Return to 97.5 The Fanatic

BSM Staff
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John Kincade Reveals Plans for Chemotherapy, Return to 97.5 The Fanatic

John Kincade offered his own Friday news dump this week. He took to Twitter to update his fans on his condition following surgery to address a colon cancer diagnosis.

He was all smiles as he revealed that doctors believe they removed all of the cancer from his colon. However, he did share the disappointing news that he has been diagnosed with stage 3 cancer and that it spread to his lymph nodes.

“Yeah, that sounds really bad,” he said, “but in reality, I think it’s a really good prognosis.”

He revealed that the cancer was only found in one lymph node of the 29 that were sampled. He will undergo chemotherapy. 

There will be 12 treatments starting in mid-June. They will go on every other week into December.

“I feel very optimistic about it,” Kincade said. “It is going to be a very positive prognosis if I do everything that I’m supposed to do. It’s going to be a bit of a battle. I’m going to be able to continue to work, though there will be days where I’m going to need to step away from the microphone and just try to rest up and recover.”

While he is not ready to return to work quite yet, Kincade said the day is coming soon. He intends to return to the show on May 30, and added that anyone that told him they were saying a prayer for him should know it worked.

“I appreciate the support of everybody at 97.5 The Fanatic and the Beasley Broadcasting Family, and I appreciate every single one of you out there in the listening audience who has sent your well-wishes, sent your support. I love you for it. Everything is going to be great.”

Sports Media Reacts To Death of Jim Brown

BSM Staff
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Jim Brown died on Thursday. He was 87 years old.

Brown is remembered as the single greatest icon of the Cleveland Browns franchise. Many still consider him the best running back to ever play in the NFL. He will also be remembered as a civil rights activist and an actor.

Monique Brown, his wife, shared the news on Twitter on Friday afternoon.

It did not take long for members of the sports media to take over social media with memories and tributes to Jim Brown.

https://twitter.com/JamieErdahl/status/1659649294717124608?s=20

Dan Bongino: Fox News Thought I Was ‘A Little Aggravating to Work With’

BNM Staff
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Last month, Dan Bongino announced he was ending his television program with Fox News. Speculation ran rampant for reasons why he was departing, and he has now commented on what ultimately led to his departure.

During an appearance on The Megyn Kelly Show, Bongino shared the timing was both right for him to end the program while also noting that it was what was best for his situation personally.

“I was in a position with them where I could walk away from a show on Fox and say, ‘I’m sorry, that’s not my vision.’ And it’s different. But someone told me later that, in the end, they weren’t that eager the last few weeks to make this thing work because ‘You could be a little aggravating to work with’, and they’re not wrong,” Bongino said.

He added that the timing of the program wasn’t ideal for his situation, either.

“They wanted the show. I just had a different vision for my role at the network and that’s okay. I’m not the Saturday guy, Megyn, I’m sorry I can’t work six days a week,” he continued. “I’ve got young kids and I’m not working six days a week. And even though we recorded the show on Friday, you know, the inside baseball of Fox, what happens when there’s breaking news? Which with Trump out there is all the time — you gotta be on.”

Bongino noted that he does not have an agent and negotiates his own deals, which is why he has as much firsthand knowledge about the situation. He claimed that his departure had nothing to do with the network being now viewed anti-Trump or being apart of the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit. He said Fox News was “dying to re-up” for his weekend program, but a deal couldn’t be struck.

Al Michaels: ‘I Would End My Career if I Tried to Call Hockey Now’

BSM Staff
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Last week’s NFL schedule release caught the attention of football fans and personnel everywhere and catalyzed even more excitement for the upcoming regular season. Amazon Prime Video is embarking on its second year as the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football, and its lead play-by-play announcer Al Michaels joined The Pat McAfee Show to share his thoughts on the property’s slate of games.

“We don’t know how the games are going to play out, but the matchups on paper look great,” Michaels said. “Look at those first three games. NBC or FOX or CBS, anybody would take those. Minnesota at Philadelphia, Giants at San Francisco, and then Detroit’s kind of the ‘it’ team this year at Green Bay. That’s a hell of a way to come out of the gate.”

McAfee mentioned to Michaels how last year’s schedule was particularly disappointing throughout the season. By contrast, this year’s schedule is indicative of an investment from the league to the property grow.

“No question,” Michaels replied. “Look at it this way, Pat…If you take a typical week in the NFL and let’s say that no team has a bye, so all 32 are going to play. So, you have 16 games on a given weekend. Three or four of them will be talked about the next day by everybody.”

The law of averages applies to Amazon Prime Video and the other NFL broadcast properties, and Michaels completely understands that all of the games throughout the season will not turn out as planned.

“We had some not very good luck last year with some of those games,” Michaels acknowledged, “but then as the season progressed and we went down the line [it got better].”

Throughout the NFL offseason, Michaels has had an avidity towards the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs. On Thursday night, he was watching the four-overtime extravaganza – Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers. The game-winning goal was scored in the waning seconds of the fourth overtime period, but Michaels, who lives on the West Coast, was hoping for an eighth period of hockey so he could keep watching. Of course, Michaels called the iconic “Miracle on Ice” game last year, and while McAfee and his cast would love to see him commentate for hockey, he conveyed an inability to do it at a high level.”

“I did the game of games 43 years ago. That’s it,” Michaels said. “I would end my career by trying to do a hockey game right now – I couldn’t… You stay in your lane. My lane is not hockey. My lane is watching hockey.”

Erick Erickson: Media Lying About Disney Ending Florida Project to Hurt Ron DeSantis

BNM Staff
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The Walt Disney Company has announced it has canceled plans to invest more than a billion dollars in a central Florida project that would have moved 2,000 employees to the state. It is being framed as a decision in retaliation against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for his treatment of the company in recent months. However, Erick Erickson believes that’s not an accurate representation of the facts.

During his radio show Friday, Erickson expressed his dissatisfaction with the reporting on the matter, saying he understood why political opponents of DeSantis had framed the narrative in such a manner, but couldn’t understand why media outlets would do the same.

“I don’t mind the political opponents attacking him for it. What I do mind greatly is that the American political press, they’re not interested in the facts. They’re not interested in the truth. They’re interested in the narrative,” Erickson said. “And right now, they’re so desperate for Trump to be the nominee, they’ll do anything to stop DeSantis, including dumping this oppo out there as if DeSantis is really to blame.

“And if you read every single story, from The New York Times, to The Washington Post, to The Wall Street Journal, to CNBC and Bloomberg, you actually can read the stories and realize this isn’t about DeSantis. But the framing always is, because who cares what the truth is, when you can tell a political story that maybe hurts a guy you’re trying to stop.”

The media encapsulation comes after Disney CEO Bob Iger asked “Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people, and pay more taxes, or not?” on an earnings call last week.

The company and governor have had a contentious relationship in recent weeks.

DeSantis ended Disney’s special governance district around its Orlando-area properties. In response, the company sued DeSantis for his role in the decision to restrict Disney’s autonomy, saying the evidence supports the Florida governor violated the company’s First Amendment rights by retaliating against it for expressing its freedom of speech.

Dan Abrams: Christiane Amanpour Showed Herself to Be ‘Self-Righteous and Overtly Liberal’

BNM Staff
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CNN’s Christiane Amanpour publicly criticized the network for its decision to hold a town hall event with former President Donald Trump while giving the commencement address to journalism students at Columbia University. NewsNation host Dan Abrams took umbrage with the statements by the well-respected journalist.

Amanpour told students she had clashed with CNN CEO Chris Licht over the network’s decision and subsequent defense of the event. However, Abrams believes she showcased her own biases in her remarks.

“She’s one of those rare journalists you really shouldn’t, you really can’t, criticize if you want to remain in the good graces of the media elite. She speaks at the most elite functions and has the highest connections in media and government. But I don’t really care about remaining in the media elite,” Abrams admitted. “I own a website that critiques media, so everyone in the media is already mad at me, and I try to call them like I see them. So while she does deserve the praise, she also has shown herself to be self-righteous and overtly liberal.

“I agree that the format was a disaster, even if you believe that CNN should have had the event with former President Trump. Then she makes it, inevitably, about her. How she was brave enough to take on the big, bad leader of CNN for this issue…oh, please. Everyone is criticizing the guy, from the left in particular. It’s not any show of bravery to confront the CNN president on this.

“But then came the self-importance, when she announced how she would have bravely stormed off the stage,” after Trump called Kaitlan Collins a “nasty person”.

The Dan Abrams Live host then took issue with Amanpour’s “I’ve been in the ring with these people for a long time” comments, saying that the encapsulation shows she believes she’s better than Collins.

“The main reasons people hate the media is what they perceive as bias and arrogance. Faking objectivity while bragging to journalism about how much bolder she would have been as the moderator is exactly why so many non-journalists despise what we do.”

Greg Kelly: Newsmax Is Benefiting From Fox News ‘Identity Crisis’

BNM Staff
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Greg Kelly: Newsmax Is Benefiting From Fox News ‘Identity Crisis’

Fox News has been losing viewers in its primetime windows after it unceremoniously fired popular host Tucker Carlson late last month. Newsmax has been the primary beneficiary of that change, and host Greg Kelly says there’s a reason for that.

During an appearance on 77 WABC’s Sid and Friends in the Morning, Kelly was asked by Sid Rosenberg about the current state of cable news television. He responded by saying it’s not something he pays close attention to, but he knows why there has been a shift.

“I’ll tell you what. I’m kind of in my silo, and I’m in there on purpose,” Kelly said. “The whole TV world, whatever they’re writing about the shuffling…who cares? It’s big in the industry, but I focus on the show. I’m doing something very special at 10 o’clock.

“To me, it doesn’t matter if it’s at 10 o’clock or 7 o’clock, or whatever. It’s the content. It is the truth. You know what? When you start talking about the truth, it’s like picking up money off the floor.”

Kelly continued by saying the situation at Fox News has ultimately been a beneficial one for the upstart news outlet.

“Fox is having an identity crisis, and we may benefit from that. I guess we are. But you gotta let the chips fall where they may and focus on the content.”

While discussing the situation with Kelly, Rosenberg argued that Kelly should be moved up in the Newsmax lineup to compete with “that amateur Kaitlan Collins” in the 9:00 PM ET window.

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