It's Official: McCann is a "Top NBA Mind"

Finally, sports lawyers are getting their due. A few months ago I declared 2012 the "Summer of Sports Law."  With no end to the NHL lockout in sight, the O'Bannon v NCAA case growing steam and national attention, and the power of Roger Goodell being litigated on a daily basis, the demand for insight from sports lawyers is growing—although for some reason our pay isn’t.

Anyways, The Sporting Charts (www.sportingcharts.com) just posted a list of the Top 50 NBA Minds to Follow on Twitter here.  Not surprisingly, our own Michael McCann (@McCannSportsLaw) was listed.  Join me in congratulating Mike on continuing to help grow this important field—and if you don’t follow him on Twitter, consider this your wake-up-call.

[Of course since my account (shameless plug @WarrenKZola) was noticeably absent I’m sure there some sort of accounting error for which I'll definitely sue.]  Seriously...congrats Mike!

Two Updates on the Sports Gambling Front

The past several weeks have saw a number of developments on the sports gambling front.  First, the federal lawsuit filed by the NCAA and the four major North American team sports leagues (NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL) challenging New Jersey's move towards regulated sports betting continues to move forward.  The most recent news involves depositions being scheduled for the league commissioners and the NCAA president.  For more background on the legal and corruption aspects of sports gambling, here is a link to a paper Tassos Kaburakis and I co-authored that was recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Legal Aspect of Sport.  Also, for a comprehensive history of gambling-related federal legislation since 2000, we wrote a piece that was just published in Gambling Law Review and Economics.

Second, authorities in New York and Nevada (working in concert with the FBI, it appears) made a number of arrests earlier this week in connection with an 18 month illegal sports gambling investigation.  The DA's press release alludes to several offshore sports books.  A recent Las Vegas Review-Journal article provides more detail on the sting operation.  For a copy of the full 259 page indictment, click here.