*By Max Godnick*
The Supreme Court's decision to let states decide whether to legalize sports betting has professional leagues on notice, but there doesn't seem to be much consensus on how teams and leagues will approach gambling.
"Each league has a different opinion on it and a different approach as to how they're going to address this," said Kelly Cheeseman, the chief operating officer of the L.A. Kings of the National Hockey League.
The Court ruled 6-3 this week to overturn a 1992 federal prohibition on sports gambling. That law was supported by the NCAA, NFL, and NBA, but now some leagues are changing their tune on the matter.
"Maybe it creates opportunity here," said Cheeseman in an interview Wednesday with Cheddar, adding he wouldn't get ahead of the NHL on the matter. "We're going to follow what the league wants to do here and then be able to bounce off of that," he said.
The NHL responded to the Supreme Court's decision in a statement that acknowledged an "entirely different landscape," but it also said there would be "no immediate impact on existing League rules relating to sports wagering."
It's a very different tone than the one set by Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, who said in a statement that his league supports a federal framework for legalized gambling in the states that permit it.
"Each league has a different opinion on it and a different approach on how they're going to address this," said Cheeseman, who is also the COO of AEG Sports, a unit of Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns the Kings.
"As an owner and a team, we're going to follow what the league ultimately does here," said Cheeseman. "But it's still really too early to be able to see what the total impact is here."
The Kings were knocked out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Las Vegas Golden Knights last month. That's more relevant for him than the potential of sports gambling.
"It's really not a factor for us, we focus on winning games, and gambling is not something we think about," he said.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/new-technology-makes-sports-venues-more-eco-friendly).
Five women have been named to the U.S. short-track speedskating team for the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Among those five, there was only one returning Olympian of the group, Maame Biney, who competed in the 2018 Olympics as the first African-American woman to ever qualify for the U.S. short-track speedskating team. JD sat down with Biney to discuss how she's preparing for the games.
Eric Mitchell, Sports Analyst and President & CEO of LifeFlip Media, breaks down the updated rules around testing in the NFL and outlines how vaccinated players are impacted by new return-to-play guidelines.
Carlo and Baker kick off the weirdest week of the year with all the news you missed over the holiday weekend, including calls for the CDC to shorten its isolation window as Omicron sweeps through the country.
The 2022 Winter Olympics will be without some of hockey's biggest players. The NHL and the NHL Player's Association have agreed to not participate in the men's hockey tournament at the Games in Beijing next year. The league has been forced to postpone some games because of a rise in COVID-19 cases among players. Washington Post sports reporter Samantha Pell joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss what this could mean for the Winter Olympics and the sport of hockey.
Former professional tennis player Patrick McEnroe joined Cheddar to discuss the troubling issues surrounding player Peng Shuai who appeared potentially to have been silenced following her social media post accusing former Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual assault. Shuai's subsequent disappearance, reappearance, and apparent retraction of the accusation in an interview only added to worries. "When this happened, all of us in the tennis community were very concerned. And, by the way, another thing Peng said in this interview was that she doesn't speak very good English," McEnroe noted. "Well I can assure you, she speaks darn good English, 'cause I spoke to her on many occasions over the last 15 years."
Carlo and Baker cover the heartening news on the Covid front ahead of the holiday, plus President Biden punting student loan repayments again, a new space telescope and Love, Hate, Ate: Christmas Eve Eve Edition!
The boys discuss President Biden's plans to send out free rapid tests as the testing supply chain starts to buckle ahead of the holidays. Also, why aren't Americans having more babies, and The Matrix returns.
Cam Rogers, host of 'Lock It In with Cam Rogers,' and betting analyst at the Bleav Podcast Network, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he breaks down how sportsbooks - and bettors - need to adapt to changes to sporting events due to the spread of the Omicron variant.
