Online Poker Bill Passes House Committee

Earlier this week, HR 2267, the bill which will repeal UIEGA, the Unlawful Interstate Enforcement Gambling Act and permit, regulate and tax online gaming.  The gaming allowed is primarily poker - sports betting is specifically excluded thanks to the lobbying efforts of the NCAA, NFL  and the major professional leagues. 

One should not get too excited about this milestone, however, as there is still a long road to passage through the whole Congress.  Even should it manage to get through the House, there is still the Senate to contend with and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is from Nevada, particularly susceptible to the entreaties of the lobbyists of Las Vegas' casinos.  So far those casinos have lined up in opposition to the bill, which I believe is the wrong approach.  They should be actively encouraging the passage of the bill with a tought regulatory scheme written to favor licenses going to existing land based casinos rather than existing online gaming operations. 

As it exists in its current form, should it become law, the winners will be the online gaming sites and the shakeout in that space has already begun.  Party Gaming announced an agreement to merge with Bwin and form a $3.3 billion company.

Friday's Links

Here are a few links for your weekend reading pleasure.  What else are you reading this weekend? 

Jaguars sell naming rights to  Jacksonville stadium to EverBank for relatively cheap $16.6 million over 5 years (Times-Union) video of announcement here

Could this be why A-Rod is having trouble hitting number 600?

Is rebranding the Pac-10/12, of which this new logo is a part,  just a prelude to an attempt to form a Pac10/12 Network in 2011 when its current media contracts expire?

Tim Tebow follows up his Focus on the Family ad with an endorsement deal with Jockey underwear, oh, and not to be left out signs his Broncos contract for good measure.

IMG Buy ISP; Moves to Control Collegiate Sports Marketing

If you are a college sports fan, you have probably paid money to IMG sometime in the past year, likely without realizing it.  IMG, which is more commonly thought of as a large sports and entertainment management firm, representing Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer and Roger Federer, among others. However, it began a push into college sports in 2007.  If you bought any officially licensed clothing of your or paraphernalia of your alma mater, then you paid IMG, as IMG bought Collegiate Sports Licensing back in 2007.  That purchase marked the beginning of its assault on the collegiate sports marketing dollar.

Later in 2007, IMG acquired Host Communications which held multimedia contracts with Kentucky, Arizona, Michigan, Kansas and Texas among others. In 2008, CBS chooses IMG to market corporate sponsorships for all of the NCAA championships. Throughout 2008 and 2009, IMG College, the former Host Communications, continues to add colleges to it roster list. 

 Then, this week it announces it has reached an agreement to acquire ISP, its major rival in the business of marketing collegiate athletic programs.  Terms of the acquistion have not been announced and the deal is subject to regulatory approval.  That approval may not be automatic.  If the deal is done, the combined entity will represent 80 schools including 34 out of 65 in the six BCS conferences, plus it will also represent Notre Dame.

 There are also significant conflict of interest concerns that are raised by IMG's client roster.  It represents both the NCAA and its most prominent member schools.  What happens when those schools are brought before the NCAA for rules violations that may affect their marketability. Will IMG have any influence on the ultimate penalties handed down?  Will IMG influence the NCAA basketball committee when it makes its at large selections for the NCAA basketball tournament, a tournament whose corporate sponsorships it marketed and many of whose participants and would be participant's multimedia rights it also holds.  The possible conflicts here are endless and I don't have the energy or time to list them all.  It is something the regulators will look at together with market share.  It is also something the NCAA needs to consider, as dispassionately as it can, given it is in the middle of many of the conflicts.

Cardinals Knock Red Sox from Cable TV Lead

There must be at least a dozen different ways to gauge the popularity of a major league sports franchise. If we're talking about a European soccer team, the easiest way may be to look at the value of its jersey deal - how much is it getting paid to wear its sponsor's name on the front of its jersey.  With the exception of Major League Soccer, that idea has yet to catch on in the US so we must look at other metrics.  In the case of baseball due to its long season and deep involvement in regional sports networks, one of way is to look at the viewership of games on those networks. 

Fortunately, the good folks at Sports Business Journal are around to provide us with the numbers.  For the first time since 2003, the Red Sox do not lead the majors in ratings for local cable networks, drawing a rating of 6.25 on NESN, down nearly 36% from last year.  That was good for only fifth place this year behind the resurgent Cardinals, with a 9.7 on Fox Sports Midwest, the Twins (7.85 FS North), the Phillies (7.2 on CSN Philadelphia) and the newly Reds (6.52 on FS Ohio).  It's no coincidence that each of those teams is locked in a tight race for a division lead, while the Red Sox are 8 games out of first in the AL East and had a very slow start.  

This particular edition of the BoSox has simply failed to ignite the usual passion, despite the sellout of every home game, that is normally associated with Red Sox nation and how much is attributable to the slow start is anyone's guess.   My guess is that Sox fans have become spoiled and that early season troubles made them apathetic.  They will still go to home games since it is as much a social event as a baseball game but they're too apathetic to watch a game on TV.  The cure is simple - win enough to catch the hated Yankees and all will be forgiven - even if that means staying home in October.

Sunday Links

Here are some links to kick off your week:

Real Mallorca, co-owned by Rafael Nadal, barred from the Europa Cup due to finances (Guardian)

Competitive cheerleading held not to be a sport for Title IX purposes by US District Court in Conn. (NYTimes)

Despite dropping $9 million due to his "troubles", Tiger still leads the US athlete money list by a whopping $30 million over Mickelson (SI.com

Rafa be the new tennis number one, but Federer tops the foreign money list for the first time, by more than $15 million over Lionel Messi; Nadal comes in ninth (SI.com)

Manchester United tops Forbes list of the 50 most valuable teams in sports, clocking in at $1.83 billion, the Cowboys are second at $1.65 billion (Forbes)

Interesting assesment of the state of college basketball from coaches in the big six conferences (espn.com)

The most dominant athlete in his sport ever pitches...horseshoes? (NYTimes)

Latest Reatlity Show: American Footy Star

Were you one of the thousands who couldn't sleep at night and tuned into ESPN's late night live broadcasts from Down Under of Aussie Rules Football?  Ever thought you could play it if given the chance?  Now is your opportunity, thanks to the creative mind of one Miro Gladovic, Melbourne native, former Footy player, and FIFA player agent.  In conjunction with the Australian Football League, Gladovic is putting together a reality show, American Footy Star, which will guarantee the winner a spot in the AFL rookie tryout camp.  A camp will be held in Dallas sometime in August to help prepare and then select participants for the show.  If you're between the ages of 16-24, you can register here.

Here's a short interview with Gladovic from the launch party talking about tryouts:

Iroquois Unable to Play in World Lacrosse Championship

The 2010 World Lacrosse Championship is currently talking place in England and the Iroqouis Nationals, a team composed of members of the Native American tribes that make up the Iroquois Confederacy whom are credited with inventing the sport, have been denied entry to the UK in a passport dispute.  The Nationals travel on passports issued by the Iroquois which the UK refuse to recognize, citing among other reasons the lack of holographic and other enhancement put into travel documents following 9/11.  The UK has demanded that the members of the Nationals also carry US or Canadian passports. 

The US, at first unwilling to recognize the Iroquois passport, came around after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton granted the team a one time waiver in an attempt to meet the UK's initial condition that the Nationals demonstrate the ability to get back into the US.  Once that condition was met however the UK then refused to admit the team with only their tribal passports under any circumstances.  

What needs to be done to avoid circumstances like this in the future is for the State Department to sit down with representatives of the National Congress of American Indians, an umbrella body of tribes, and hammer out the requirements for tribal passports that are necessary for US and worldwide recognition and then allow the tribes to implement those requirements, with technical assistance from the US State Department's passport service to the extent necessary.

Here's a video report on the situation:

Senate Candidate Gets His Action Figure

In what surely must be one of the biggest surprises of this or any other year, unemployed Army and Air Force veteran and virtual unknown Alvin Greene captured the Democratic primary for election to the US Senate from South Carolina.  Greene had spent little money, had not campaigned at all and trumped the Democratic Party's preferred candidate retired judge Vic Rawl, who spent $250,000 by 100,000 votes.  So, why do I bring this up on a sports business blog?  

Well, a couple of weeks ago, Greene was quoted in an interview published in the Guardian, of all places, that one element of his economic revival plan is to make action dolls of himself, putting South Carolinians to work:  "Another thing we can do for jobs is make toys of me, especially for the holidays. Little dolls. Me. Like maybe little action dolls. "

Mike Veeck, a chip off the old block if there ever was one, the President of the Charleston RiverDogs, a Class A affiliate of the Yankees, immediately sensed a promotional opportunity and on Saturday, the RiverDogs will proudly be giving away 1,000 Alvin Greene action figures.  The ball club will even set up an economic stimulus station at the stadium hiring special workers just to assist with the promotion.

Espana Campeones Del Mundo

It was a well-deserved and historic win for Spain, even if the game was not one of the more artistic World Cup finals on record. For that we have to thank both the Dutch with their non-stop running at Spanish legs and the English referee who handed out yellow cards like candy. I suppose he could have handed out several more red cards and been totally justified but then Spain would have been playing 11 on 8 and who would have wanted to see that.

Nevertheless, it was a great vindication for La Furia Roja and its large contingent of FC Barcelona players who have had to live down the label of can't win the big ones despite their Euro 2008 win and Barca's success in the Champions League. Now, all is forgotten and forgiven thanks to a glorious late strike from Andres Iniesta.

Let me close by noting the remarkably classy move by the Dutch players following the game.  They lined up at the foot of the stairs leading from the award podium and clap the Spaniards following their receipt of their champions medal.  Very classy and very much in the soccer tradition.

Here is soon to be classic call of Iniesta's goal by the announcing of Spanish channel Telecinco:



and here is a link to a wonderful collection of videos of celebrations across Spain as the entire nation parties late into this morning.

Weekend Links

Sorry for my absence from the blog this week.  I came back to the Bluegrass from a brief visit to Chicago to visit relatives and immediately upon returning to the Ohio Valley Steamroom was felled by some ailment caused no doubt by the thick layer of ozone that has been hanging over the Valley for the last couple of weeks.  I know the Northeast got 100+ days this week, but we've had something like 25 90+ degree days since June 1 with no end in sight. The humidity has been hovering around 90% and it's not safe for man or beast out there.


Enough complaining.  I'm finally returning to some semblance of a normal life so it's back to the blog.  I know you struggled through The Decision without me but I'm sure you managed better than Dan Gilbert did.  Someone must have taken his lithium away.  Good luck to the Heat - if they don't win a championship this year, there will be hell to pay in South Beach.

I haven't been able to keep up with much this week, so here's a few links to carry you through the weekend:

Why not a seventh Canadian team for the NHL, a TSN, Globe and Mail series (TSN, Globe and Mail)

Is there a sinister bias for calling fouls in soccer? (Paul Kedrosky)

ACC lands a new media deal with ESPN for about $1.86 Billion though 2022-23. The deal should double each school's current television revenue.  (News&Observer, ACC)

Fatwa issued in UAE against  vuvuzelas above 100 decibels (The National via Bloomberg)

How different are major league baseball stadiums - at least those without roofs? (Snippets)

England's Costly World Cup Gamble Backfires as Nationwide Drops Sponsorship

Nationwide, the UK's largest building society, has been the sponsor of the English national soccer team for the last eleven years.  Prior to the World Cup, Nationwide was reportedly ready to sign a new four year 20 million pound sponsorship agreement. Inexplicably, given this era of tight sponsorship budgets and the general demoralized state of the British economy, not to mention the rest of Europe or most everywhere else for that matter, the FA rejected the deal gambling that a good showing by the Three Lions would result in a deal worth double that amount.  Sadly for the officials of the FA, the disastrous showing by England has caused Nationwide to change its mind altogether and decide not to renew its contract at all, leaving the FA scrambling to find a new sponsor.  Good luck in landing one willing to pay more than about half the original Nationwide offer.

Hot Dog Eating Update

It seems that Kobiyashi just couldn't help himself.  Just because he had become a competitive eating free agent and was no longer going to participate in the Nathan's Famous Contest didn't mean he could pass it up.  No, those competitive juices were flowing too great to miss it, so he showed up in the crowd wearing a black T-shirt with "Free Kobi" on it and slipped on stage after the contest ended (with Joey "Jaws" Chestnut earning his fourth straight championship).  The rest of the story is told in the following video, but let's just say that the 4th of July will not be Kobi's Independence Day:

Will Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest Go Off Without Kobayashi?

This week's sign of the apocalypse, with apologies to SI, is the sudden appearance of a free agency dispute in the world of competitive eating.  As today is the July 4, we celebrate not only the 234th birthday birthday of the Republic, or more accurately the 234th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, but the annual  appearance of the Nathan's Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest.

For years, six in fact, the Contest was not just won, but dominated by a rather diminutive Japanese competitve eating legend Takeru Kobayashi.  He not only won six in a row, he throughlly dominated the competition.   In fact, his competitive eating skill is such an extraordinary ability, it has served as grounds for a US visa.  Then, in 2007, American Joey Chestnut wrested away the crown and has so far refused to give it up.  The men are not friendly rivals; in fact, they are not on speaking terms.

What is unusual today is Kobayashi is doing his imitation of Lebron James.  He has refused to sign a contract with Major League Eating (got to love the name) and has been refused entry to the competition until he does.  Kobayashi won't sign because it restricts his ability to enter competitions not sanctioned by MLE and, more importantly, prohibits him from directly entering into endorsement contracts for products, appearing in television or radio commercials, or appearing on television or radio shows in exchange for compensation.  MLE wants to control all endorsements and commercials so it can a) protect its event sponsors, and b) take a cut of all the endorsement income.  Not even Jerry Jones has tried this one yet.

It's commercials like this one, that MLE wants to take a cut of:





So, Kobayashi has come to New York and awaits on the sidelines, willing to waive his entire appearance fee, for a call that is not likely to come.  The fans of Hot Dog Eating, of which there are legions if ESPN's ratings are to be believed, can only hope that MLE comes to its senses.  A contest without the match-up of Chestnut and Kobayashi just isn't worth watching.

Have a safe and happy 4th of July and take a moment to remember our troops serving in harm's way to safeguard the freedoms that this day commemorates.