Tag Archives: NFL

SUPER BOWL TO GENERATE $1 BILLION IN LEGAL BETS

(LAS VEGAS) — Bettors could place $1 billion usd in wagers on Super Bowl LVI at legal online and retail sportsbooks across the country, according to projections by PlayUSA, which provides news and analysis of the U.S. gaming industry. If sportsbooks reach those estimates it would roughly double last year’s estimated Super Bowl handle of more than $500 million, a product of the continued proliferation of legal sports betting.

NFL Bets, 2022 Pro Bowl NFL Betting Lines | Vegas Super Bowl Odds NFL

“It would have seemed impossible just a few years ago to reach such heights, but with the expansion of sports betting over the last year it is inevitable that legal wagering will soar.”

https://www.thesilo.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Super-Bowl-fact-sheet-2022.pdf

The Super Bowl is the most-wagered-on single sporting event in the U.S. In 2021, the American Gaming Association estimated that Americans & North Americans bet $4.3 billion usd on Super Bowl LV, both legally and illegally. PlayUSA estimates that more than $500 million usd was wagered at legal online or retail sportsbooks for last year’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, still a small chunk of the more than $50 billion usd in legal wagers placed across the country throughout 2021.

When the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals meet for the Super Bowl on Feb. 13, sports betting in some form will be legal in 30 states and Washington D.C. Those jurisdictions represent more than 166.9 million people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau estimates for 2021. By contrast, 120 million people lived in 21 legal sports betting jurisdictions for last year’s Super Bowl.

For this year’s game:

  • Sports betting is legal in at least some form in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, Washington D.C., West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
  • New York, which was limited to retail sportsbooks last year, launched online betting in early January. New York is already on pace to shatter the U.S. record for monthly handle, which New Jersey set in October with $1.3 billion usd in bets.
  • Arizona, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming did not offer any form of legal sports betting for last year’s Super Bowl.
  • Even with legal sports betting in 30 states and Washington, D.C., no team from a state with legal sportsbooks has ever played in the Super Bowl. That will continue this year as Ohio awaits launch sometime over the next year and California lawmakers debate legalization.

“The sports betting landscape has changed dramatically since last year’s game,” said Eric Ramsey, data analyst for PlayUSA. “More than half of all Americans now live in a legal jurisdiction, and even well-established markets such as New Jersey and Nevada have grown significantly over the last year as mobile betting gains in popularity.”

PlayUSA projects that Nevada, which was the second-largest market in 2021 and historically the top Super Bowl market, will produce the largest Super Bowl handle with $175 million usd. New York could generate $160 million usd. If those estimates come to fruition, that would be more betting volume than every legal sportsbook in the U.S. combined to tally for the 2019 game.

New Jersey ($130 million usd), Illinois ($75 million usd), Pennsylvania ($70 million usd), Arizona ($55 million usd), Michigan ($45 million usd), Indiana ($40 million usd), Colorado ($35 million usd) Louisiana ($35 million usd), Virginia ($35 million usd), and Tennessee ($30 million usd) will follow Nevada and New York, according to PlayUSA estimates.

“Americans & North Americans have become increasingly comfortable with online betting in general and the less conventional bets it facilitates, such as in-game wagering,” Ramsey said. “This should really help boost Super Bowl betting, which for years has enticed bettors with fun prop bets and other unconventional wagers. The big difference this year is those types of bets are easier than ever to make in more places than ever before.” For The Silo, Zack Hall.

NFL to Outlaw Taunting in Crackdown on Near-the-Knuckle Play

When you spend your afternoon/evening running into people at full pace, attempting to put them on the deck, it kind of goes without saying that your blood will start to pump a little more aggressively. 

That can manifest itself in all manner of ways and, in the NFL, one of the most common is for steam to be let off as part of post-touchdown celebration and taunting. 

From the sublime to the ridiculous, taunting is part of the theater of football. From a tackler running their mouth when they have sacked a quarterback, to a TD scorer letting their opponents know how much they enjoyed crossing the line, this part celebration, part tribalism is an inherent part of the game. 

And so it has been met with much frustration that NFL officials, as part of their rule change and points of emphasis framework for the 2021-22 season, have decreed that they will be stamping out taunting in all its various forms. 

The NFL's annual rule change and points of emphasis video notes game officials have been instructed to strictly enforce taunting rules in 2021. Two violations results in automatic ejection, with fines and even suspensions (!!) in play, too.

https://twitter.com/TomPelissero/status/1425150371190788098?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Going forward, a taunting offense will see the team in question hit with a 15-yard penalty, while two taunting violations in a game will be punishable with fines and/or automatic ejection.  

Officials are keen to instil a sense of ‘respect’ back into the game, with the competition committee chairman, Rich McKay, stating: “We saw an increase in actions that clearly are not within the spirit and intent of this rule, [and] is not representative of the respect to opponents and others on the field.” 

One of the prime examples of taunting last season came in the clash between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Chiefs’ Tyreek Hill gesticulated at the Bucs defenders as he crossed the line for a touchdown, leaving them rather incensed. As Tampa closed in on a revenge victory in the Super Bowl, their safety Antoine Winfield Jr flashed the same gesture right in the face of Hill. 

According to the NFL odds on bet365 for the Super Bowl, those two franchises are on a collision course to meet in the championship game next February once again, and so will Hill, Winfield, or anyone else for that matter, be tempted to taunt an opponent despite the punishments available? 

The Numbers Game 

Every year, there’s a raft of rule changes ahead of the new NFL season – some important and attention-grabbing, others less so. 

Whether you will care that the restrictions on some jersey numbers have been lifted may just depend on whether you plan on buying a replica shirt or not. 

Nothing riles up NFL fans more than seeing what jersey numbers their favorite players are donning each season. However, in the case of Mac Jones, his number may be met with some confusion.

https://twitter.com/sportingnews/status/1424925964660731910?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

But a regulatory change will now see a wider pool of players being able allowed to wear single-digit numbers, as well as those between 80-89. That includes running backs, tight ends and wide receivers alongside the traditional quarterbacks and kickers. 

Defensive backs can now also choose any number between 1 and 49, while linebackers can opt for 1-59 or 90-99, but linesmen still have the slimmer pickings of 50-79 or 90-99 to select from. 

Whether that leads to a huge sea-change in the numbers that established NFL stars wear remains to be seen, but it could certainly give the new season a different look and feel.  For the Silo, Carlos Cruz.

NFL’er Designed A Sink Tray For Small Bathroom Space

Whether you live in a dorm room, small apartment or a family home, counter space around the bathroom sink can be limited. A unique product designed and patented by an NFL Super Bowl Champion solves that problem. The Smart Sink Tray, by Style Pro 31, is a convenient, portable, lightweight foldout tray that fits over most pedestal and traditional sinks that provides additional surface area and counter space (up to 288 square inches). This affordable tray organizes the clutter that surrounds sinks and expands usable space by allowing objects to be placed directly on it—even with running water.
The tray also promotes bathroom safety by keeping electric appliances like blow dryers, curling and flat irons and shavers—and their cords—out of the sink and away from water hazards. The Smart Sink Tray is heat resistant and dishwasher safe.
Similar to a food tray, The Smart Sink Tray allows users to carry their items all together to and from the bathroom, making it easier to store and pack their essentials and make room for others. When not in use the tray’s collapsible design and drawstring bag allows it to be easily stored and transported.
Smart Sink Features
The Smart Sink Tray is designed for use in homes, apartments, dorm rooms, and anywhere space is limited.  For those who travel frequently, The Smart Sink Tray is indispensable and easy to pack.
The Smart Sink Tray is the brainchild of Super Bowl champion and veteran Strong Safety, Bernard Pollard. Pollard came up with the concept in 2012 when he realized a problem in need of a solution: more space and organization while getting ready in the bathroom. Like most travelers, Pollard himself suffered hotel sink areas that were often dysfunctional, not proffering nearly enough space to accommodate all of his personal items. In addition, observing his wife and family Pollard recognized the potential hazard to many corded appliances around the sink posed and made his concept a reality by forming Style Pro 31 and patenting his product.
BernardPollardSafetyNFLDesignerofSmartSinkAs an NFL player, Bernard Pollard made one of the most critical plays in the Baltimore Ravens amazing 2011 playoff run and led the Tennessee Titans in tackles in 2013. Along with successfully performing on the field and developing his entrepreneur career, Pollard and his family actively help community families and churches. His Helping Hand partners with food banks and other organizations to provide families with groceries or holiday meals. The Smart Sink Tray sells for $24.99USD and is available at Amazon. For more info contact: marketingdirector@thesilo.ca for ordering information.

Click to view on I-tunes
Click to view on I-tunes

Should Fantasy Sports Be Classed As Gambling?

What Fantasy Sports Are PlayedOnline fantasy sport games are becoming increasingly popular in the modern era, with more and more variations on traditional fantasy games. There are now fantasy games for most sports, including but not limited to American football, soccer and rugby union. In particular, companies have latched onto major sporting competitions and offer fantasy games for those events. Most recently, there have been plenty of fantasy games created for the Rugby World Cup, which took place in England and Wales throughout September and October a few years ago.

Traditionally, fantasy sport games have been created purely for entertainment reasons. However, in recent years, a number of fantasy games have been created that require people to pay in order to enter the leagues. DraftKings is perhaps the most famous and widely advertised, and they offer DAILY fantasy leagues on a number of sports, mainly baseball, American football and ice hockey. To enter these fantasy leagues, you need an account and can stake money in order to win funds, which you can in turn choose to withdraw or restake.

It’s a little confusing for the fantasy novice and even more so for those who have been playing old-school free fantasy games for decades. But this new system appears to work, although the amount of skill and ability needed certainly makes it close to gambling. For example, you need skill to play online casino games like Blackjack by 32Red. This is widely recognized as gambling, so why should it be any different simply because it’s linked to an online fantasy game? Many people believe it shouldn’t. Both take up a reasonable level of talent to play, and require funds – in a way, they are incredibly similar.

Furthermore, quite a few people have compared staking money on fantasy football to placing a bet on players to score in real-life sporting events. For example, you can place wagers on Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins on DraftKings but you can also stake money on Hopkins to score a touchdown, rack up ‘x’ amount of receiving yards and other markets at a range of both online and offline bookmakers.

However, many fantasy games are free to enter and don’t require additional funds. The NFL fantasy football game allows players to play free of charge, and users are able to compete in either NFL-managed leagues or custom-made leagues with friends and family members. For American football fans, this is the perfect fantasy game for those players who are more concerned about the enjoyment and having fun rather than winning money – even the NFL teams understand the need for the public to play. It’s a relatively simple website and they also have a downloadable app that can send reminders for changing and setting your line-up.

Most importantly, you don’t have to pay anything. You say have because there is the option to open a league with a prize fund. However, that is a season-long thing and certainly shouldn’t be considered as gambling. There aren’t any fantasy options at websites like 32Red, blackjackballroom, or caesarscasino but you can stake money on real-life American football matches and build accumulators. Fantasy football is an incredibly popular game across the world and free versions will always be welcomed by those who aren’t too concerned about winning money and those who play purely for the enjoyment and excitement of competing against others.

Moreover, soccer fans can access the Premier League’s official fantasy game free of charge, too. Football is one of the greatest sports on the planet and millions of people keep up to date with all of the latest injury news and transfers in the sporting world. The Premier League version could branch out to allow those wanting to stake funds the opportunity to do so, but for now it remains a free game for the masses. As soccer is so universally followed, many have called for the Premier League’s fantasy football game to offer a paid version and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see this in the future.

Are paid fantasy games gambling? Well, it depends on a number of key variables and external factors. If you’re staking on a daily basis, playing more because you’re addicted and focused on winning money than for the sheer enjoyment of fantasy sports, then that’s a worry. However, the majority of fantasy users aren’t like that and enjoy placing simple stakes, quite like many of the same people who enjoy playing online casino games such as Blackjack and Roulette. For the time being, there isn’t a huge need to classify fantasy sports as gambling but that could change if fantasy games adopt a similar stance as DraftKings and they all become ‘pay-to-play’ games in the future.


In The United Kingdom, Toronto Blue Jays Makes Canada Tourist Target

In the era of social media, it only takes a few seconds for a picture to change the world. Photographs shared on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest can shape public opinion in seconds, which has huge implications for politics, marketing, and social campaigning.

Last week, amongst the many iconic images doing the rounds on people’s timelines and newsfeeds, one from the world of sport stood out: the shots of Jose Bautista tossing his bat after hitting a game-winning home run in the Toronto Blue Jays’ 6-3 win over Texas Rangers.

The image at the top of this article summed up the passion and emotion that are hallmarks of Bautista’s style of play, and drew attention to the fantastic entertainment that the Blue Jays’ campaign in the American League Championship Series has provided for millions of loyal fans.

Anyone who glimpsed the photos and dug a little deeper into the backstory would have learned of Bautista’s brilliant performance in a do-or-die game for the Jays. The contest was full of drama and controversy, disputed calls, crucial errors, and brilliant baseball.

In countries like the UK, where baseball barely registers on the radar of most sports fans, moments like this can be pivotal. All of a sudden, legions of sports fans sit up and take notice of what’s happening overseas, and some of them fall head over heels in love.

image: tsn.ca
image: tsn.ca

All it takes is a performance like Bautista’s to send sports fans into action. Some of them will be slow burners, taking note of the Blue Jays’ progress over the years before gradually developing into full-blown fans. Some will use their newfound interest in baseball as part of their sports betting strategy. Sports betting is huge in Europe, and many avid gamblers relish the opportunity to gain an advantage over bookmakers and place bets on the less-talked-about sports at online destinations like Bet365 and others.

Then, there are the sports fans who will take drastic action when they discover a new sport that they enjoy. These are the superfans who will go straight to the Blue Jays’ online store, immediately buy themselves a jersey, and then book themselves on the next available flight to Toronto in time to catch the very next game taking place at Rogers Centre.

Sports tourism is a huge industry, and was cited as the fastest growing sector in the global travel and tourism industry back in 2008, accounting for $600 billion – or 10 per cent – of the international travel tourism market.

Sports clubs and franchises have cottoned on to this, and are employing marketing managers who are wise to the power of social media to gain new fans overseas and bring them flocking to the stadiums and stores where they will spend their money and contribute to the club’s coffers.

Baseball is some way behind sports like football, which have been successfully exported to Europe through initiatives like the International Series, which sees a number of NFL games played in London each season.

Europe lacks the stadiums and infrastructure to support a similar export of baseball, but that certainly won’t stop clubs like the Blue Jays from reaping the benefits of the new fans who will support the club from afar if they continue to send powerful messages around the world via the web. For the Silo, Keith Allison 

1,969 Words on Having Experienced Domestic Abuse

Dear Silo,

In light of the [RayNFL domestic abuse controversy, I decided to write to you about my experience of domestic abuse.

My abuser was my husband. We had children. We had good jobs. People told us how happy we looked.

I had to look happy. He demanded my loyalty. He demanded I speak publicly, often at church, about how much I loved him and was grateful to him for providing for me and the children.

I was raped constantly. Not by knife, though, and not by physical restraints. He ruled my brain and body, he told me. As his wife, it was demanded that I have sex with him whenever he wanted. If I said no, he would be angry for days, calling me names, telling me that no other man would ever want me, that if I didn’t give it to him, he would take the children and never give them back. He would email me at work to continue the fight during the day. He would text me at night if I wasn’t with him.

When I came home from work one day to find all of my belongings on the front yard, I believed he was telling me the truth. I felt like an ungrateful woman who treated her husband horribly. My church leaders even told me that a husband could not rape his wife. One did tell me to leave, but I wasn’t strong enough then.

He took the air out of my tires so I couldn’t go out with a girlfriend. One of our children witnessed it.

I finally turned to the police. They wrote our episodes up as domestic disputes, which didn’t break the Canada’s Criminal Code (I have the reports, highly redacted). My husband was too smart to do something for which he could be charged.

Neighbours called the Police on him. My family also called the Police, afraid he was going to kill me because of a status on Facebook they thought was directed at me. The OPP showed up, questioned him, but did nothing when he said he would never harm me.

He kept a knife under his pillow. Why? He told our children that he felt I was going to kill him in his sleep and he had to be protected from me.

I was accused of many affairs. I was unfaithful to him even if I talked with a girlfriend on the phone. I was told that when I was home, I was to only spend time with family, but he meant with him. I couldn’t watch tv with the kids because he demanded that I stay with him.

On nights when I chose to get away from him to watch tv with them, he would bombard me with texts, telling me how horrible I was, keeping my attention on him, not the kids. On really bad days, he would charge into the room where I was with the kids to yell at me there, making sure they knew I was horrible, too.

He told me for 6 years that he wanted a divorce, to keep me in fear of breaking up the family. He would tell me that no man would want to be with a mom of so many kids. He also said that if I ever found someone to be with me, he would make sure he told him about the kinky sex I liked (true or not). I was damaged goods. No one would want me.

For years, I thought that was all I was worth.

That changed. Five years ago, I started planning to get out. It took that long because I had to convince myself that, even if I stayed single, the children and I deserved to not live on egg shells anymore.\

I had to find the strength to be a single mom.

Five years of getting my ducks in a row. Five years of emotionally divorcing him in my head.

When I told him I wanted a divorce, he begged to stay. He told the oldest children without me in the room that I asked for the divorce, that I was kicking him out. My kids hated me.

Then, he played the cancer card. He told the oldest children that the doctors suspected he had cancer and I was still kicking him out of the house. The day he before he was to have his scope, I asked him why he wasn’t clearing out his colon, like I had to do when I had mine scoped. He yelled at me, told me I didn’t know what I was talking about and went to our room.

Well, by then, it was his room alone. I was kicked out.

He told the kids he was moving east on a Friday. With our youngest away for the weekend at a camp with me, she kept asking if her dad was going to be home when she got there. When was he leaving? She was in knots all weekend. He didn’t tell her that he chose to stay. We found out when we got home.

Two weeks later, he said he was moving again. He actually packed the car this time. He said his good-byes before they left for school. He got as far as Quebec when he begged to come back. I refused.

He lived in his car. He lived in a cheap hotel. He told the kids I put him on the street. He emailed or texted me constantly to 1) let him back in, promising he’d change or 2) he’d make sure the kids knew it was all my fault. He told them he’d do anything to let him back in but I refused to forgive him.

Forgiveness was never an issue for me. It was a refusal to live under fear and anger any longer.

The kids and I didn’t have stress in our house anymore after he moved out. It only took a few days of him being away before they told me the house felt so much better without him there, without him yelling anymore.

Then he did something which put the fear back into my heart, fear that he could really hurt us this time. Until then, he had never done anything physical.

When I called the OPP to report it, they put everything back on me. I was told to stop slinging mud at him. They said I was never afraid for my safety before, so this episode was nothing. I was just trying to get him in trouble.

What do you do when the people you most trust to protect you, don’t? The church and the OPP did nothing to help. He was (is) a charmer and manipulator, he had everyone believing he was innocent of everything. Remember, a wife can’t say no to her husband.

I was not perfect. No one is. I was diagnosed with PTSD not long after he moved out.

But people have to stop blaming the victims of abuse for the abuse. We don’t ask for it. He was mad at me by my daily living, why would I do something deliberately to piss him off? No one deserves name-calling, harassment, manipulated into actions they don’t want to do, to walk on egg shells to keep him happy.

I stayed because there was no way in hell I would let him have custody of the kids. I stayed because for years, I believed I was worthless and that no man would ever want me. I was damaged goods. It took me years to get that thinking out of my brain. I am well educated. I have a great career. Abuse doesn’t care.

Abuse doesn’t infect any social status of people more than any other. Abuse infects the minds of women and children who are raised to believe it is the only way to live. Abused people believe they are worthless. Abused people don’t think they deserve any better.

On average it takes women 7-10 attempts to get out of that situation to follow through. Why? It is because they keep getting pulled back in with apologies, gifts. Grand gestures are made in front of children to make the woman look bad.

Example: the first time I said I wanted a divorce (years beforehand), he proposed to me again (with ring) in front of the children, promising things would be different. He gave me diamond earrings, too (he used the mortgage money to pay for them). I didn’t have the strength then to say no. The kids were counting on me to keep the family together. The kids were counting on me to protect them from him.

I failed more times than I care to count.

He came to my workplace once, after using my GPS location at a lawyer’s office, asked me in front of co-workers for a moment to speak to me, put me in his car and screamed at me for wanting a divorce. How dare I try to ruin our family!! I was allowed to leave the car, went back to my desk and cried. My officemate patted my shoulder and asked if I wanted to talk. I couldn’t. How could I let her know I was so badly abused by him and was terrified to leave?

Oh, he also hacked into my digital journal. Private thoughts were no longer private. They became tools to be used against me.

I thought I was strong enough to get out then. He beat me back down verbally, psychologically, financially, emotionally, sexually – yet he never broke the law. He had asked me for years for a divorce. Suddenly, following through with his wishes, I was bad – bad because I was actually pursuing it.

Last week, he used the ‘cancer card’ again, this time on our youngest children. The only thing they know of cancer was watching it slowly kill his dad years ago. It killed his mom, too. He told the kids that doctors thought he had cancer and that he was getting tested. He told them alone in the car, without even his girlfriend to even hear. Manipulative, conniving control freak. He played the pity card to keep them close. He didn’t care about what the news did to them. He only wants control. He demands loyalty.

Laws in this country, and many other countries, need to change. Why does it take a punch to the head to get the police to act? What kind of proof is needed for harassment via texting? I printed out the texts he sent to me at all hours of the night and brought them to the OPP. Nothing was done. Because nothing was done, he continued until I blocked his number. Email is now the only safe way to communicate. I have kept every one for the past 10 years. Plus, screen captures of texts.

Will it make a difference? I don’t know.

Getting a divorce is complicated. And expensive. My ex said he’d pay all court costs. Really? He’ll pay court costs but not child support?

The process is worse when you are divorcing a control freak who refuses to cooperate. He dropped out of mediation. He dropped out of counselling. He only wants divorce on his terms. That is not going to happen. I am levelling off this power struggle.

I don’t know what the future holds with the divorce. What I do know is that when the children are with me, they live in a home without fear, a home where they are trusted, a home where they can tell me whatever they want, even if it hurts my feelings. They can’t do the same with him.

They are the other victims of spousal abuse.

To be continued….

Information has been changed or deleted for fear of retribution.