Late Monday night, it was reported that Russell Westbrook, the 9x all-star and former MVP who was shipped away from the Lakers just a few weeks ago, would be joining the Los Angeles Clippers after the Jazz plan to buy out the rest of his contract.
What’s crazy: The Jazz, who acquired Westbrook in the trade but never had him play, will pay him $47 million to part ways.
What’s crazier (to us): The Lakers and Clippers share the same arena with different locker rooms, so Russ is basically just moving all of his stuff down the hall.
Today’s Rundown:
Headlines: Michigan State gets an incredible win in their first game back
The continued push to move the Oakland A’s to Las Vegas
PENN’s Acquisition of Barstool Sports
Sports to watch this week, Standings, Best Bets & More
Est. Read Time: 7 minutes
Headlines
Trending
Michigan State Upsets Ranked Indiana at Home in Emotional Return: In MSU’s first game back in East Lansing since the school suspended athletics from their mass shooting, the unranked Spartans beat #17 Indiana by 15 points in front of their student body.
Atlanta Hawks Fire Head Coach With Hopes of Salvaging Season: Nate McMillan is out in Atlanta after 2 seasons and a 99-80 record. The Hawks currently have a 29-30 record and narrowly hold a spot in the East’s playoff picture in 8th place.
Conor McDavid Joins Elite Company After Reaching 800 Points: The NHL’s MVP favorite and current goals & points leader became the fifth-fastest player in league history to reach the milestone, joining Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy & Peter Stastny.
Conversation Starters
Formula 1 President Says League Will “Never Go Fully Electric”: Despite automakers’ moves towards electric vehicles and future plans for sustainability, F1’s president says there’s no way they will go fully electric and that they need to utilize fuel.
NBA Teams Drawing Interest from Sovereign Wealth Funds: After the league voted this year to allow 20% of team stakes to be purchased from sovereign nations, they have already received significant interest from the wealth funds of Qatar and Abu Dhabi. The New York Knicks are a team rumored to be in the mix.
NBA Commissioner Debuts Crazy New NBA Fan App: Adam Silver showed all-star spectators what the future of NBA streaming looks like as fans can scan themselves into games and move like their favorite players.
MLB’s Athletics Move to Las Vegas Picking Up
The league’s new “focus”
Long has it been known that the MLB has been eying to put a team in Las Vegas, and a team at the top of the rumor mill for the past 2 years has been the Oakland Athletics.
It’s been a bit of a back-and-forth and “he said, she said” between the MLB and Athletics over the years, with both parties seeming to never have been aligned on the move. Now, with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred calling the move “the focus” and the city of Las Vegas identifying potential new stadiums, it seems like it’s really picking up steam.
Why move? Las Vegas is becoming one of the most sought-after homes for sports franchises in the nation. Plus, their infrastructure presents significantly fewer threshold issues than the city of Oakland, which also lost the Raiders in 2020 as the NFL got a head start on leveraging Sin City for league growth. More city support, a brand-new stadium, more population, more tourists, etc. It all gets back to one thing: more money.
If the team were to stay in Oakland, it would be costly. The city negotiated a framework in which the A’s would have to pay for the new ballpark and surrounding housing, parks, retail & office— which would cost a whopping $12 billion.
There’s a very obvious gap in major league baseball between the big spenders (Yankees, Mets, Dodgers) and the small-market clubs, like the Athletics, who had the lowest payroll in baseball last year at $49 million— about $215 million less than the Dodgers. The hope for a move like this, from the Athletics and for any MLB team, is to boost team financials and invest more into your club so that you’re not already considered out of the running by Opening Day just because of $$$. A Moneyball story can only happen so often…
What’s next? Commissioner Manfred said that he and Athletics majority owner, John Fisher, have prioritized this over the past 3 months. The MLB has already stated that it will waive any relocation fee associated with moving franchise locations (which can be pretty hefty) in support of the team heading to Vegas.
Two locations as possible stadium sites have already been identified: Bally’s owned Tropicana and the Las Vegas festival grounds. The Athletics are not blessed with a comfy timeline, also. Their current lease at the Coliseum ends in 2024, so they’re hoping to figure out their plans soon.
The A’s have played in the Coliseum, since 1968, and it doesn’t quite have that same vintage charm you may find with an armchair that’s been around for the same amount of time.
So one thing has been made clear through this process: the Athletics need a new stadium if they are to build sustainability and grow the club, whether that’s in Oakland, Las Vegas, or some unnamed city.
PENN Entertainment Purchases Barstool Sports
A media & betting giant that’s still growing
It’s hard not to recognize Barstool Sports at this point. It’s become a household name in the world of sports reporting, pop culture podcasting, and especially gambling. But Barstool is no overnight success story. It’s been a long, grinding journey for Dave Portnoy and the early employees
The backstory: Barstool started in 2003 when the internet was still in its infancy stages. A young Dave Portnoy saw a gap in the market and began writing and distributing a short newspaper about gambling and fantasy football all around Boston. It was appropriately titled “Barstool Sports”. The newspaper gained traction quickly and Portnoy launched an online version later on in 2007. Barstool continued to expand its breadth and depth of coverage, along with its reach to younger generations across the country.
Fast forward to today, and Barstool Sports has become a staple name in sports & media. It’s also become quite a profitable business.
The deal: In 2020, Penn Entertainment, Inc (fka Penn National Gaming) took a 36% stake in Barstool for roughly $136 million. Last week, Penn paid another $388 million to acquire the remaining 64% of Barstool. The partnership has been a smashing success. Its interactive component which focuses on the Barstool Sportsbook (physical & mobile betting) has jumped 40% in the past quarter. With analysts saying that Barstool as a whole is doing roughly $200 million in annual revenue, this is an absolute steal for Penn Gaming.
While this has clearly been a long road to success, the foundation that the now-conglomerate was built on still holds tremendous value: catering to the everyday sports fan. We’ll consider ourselves experts to comment on that. The purpose of No Huddle is to bring busy sports fans their news, stories, updates, betting picks & more in an enhanced, yet digestible way. There’s so much more room for the industry to change and grow further, and we’re here for all of it.
^That’s our shameless plug in case Dave Portnoy or any of the executives at Penn stumble upon this article. Just know— we are always open to a collab and we are very much open to investment.
A Smarter Bet is a Better Bet
Together with Outlier
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Standings
📺 What to Watch This Week
🏒 NHL: With less than a month and a half until the playoffs, teams have their sights locked in. But the playoff landscape honestly hasn’t changed much. The Boston Bruins continue to be the favorite to win this year’s Stanley Cup at +500.
🏀 NBA: The NBA returns tomorrow after a week-long hiatus from the All-Star break. Keep an eye on the Grizzlies vs 76ers game on Thursday at 7:30 pm ET on TNT.
⚽️ Champions League: The first leg of matches continues from last week with a new slate of teams. Yesterday, Napoli handled Eintracht Frankfurt with ease, while Real Madrid put on an absolute show - after going down 0-2 early against Liverpool they scored 5 consecutive goals to win 5-2. Today, we’ll get to watch RB Leipzig face Manchester City, and Inter Milan take on Portuguese club, Porto FC.
⛳️ The Honda Classic: More golf? That’s right! The PGA National Resort & Spa (the Champion Course) hosts the next leg of the PGA Tour in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Round 1 tees off on Thursday and the purse is a pretty $8.4 million. Sunjae Im is your favorite to take first place with +850 odds.
💰 Best Bets
Current record: 24-23
February 22nd & 23rd
Champions League (2/22): Man City ML (-125) at RB Leipzig
Champions League (2/22): RB Leipzig vs Man City over 2.5 goals (-105)
NBA (2/23): LAL -4 (-110) vs GSW
*No Huddle is not an online sports gambling book or gambling platform of any kind. We do not advise the placing of bets or wagers on a sportsbook that is not in compliance with your current local & state laws.
Please bet responsibly. Problem? Call 1-800-Gambler.
🗓 Today in Sports History
1893 The first ever Iron Bowl; an annual football game between Auburn and Alabama that has become one of college football’s most storied rivalries. Auburn travels to Birmingham and beats Alabama 32-22 on the road.