The Closing Line Podcast

I am not a lawyer, but I like to talk to lawyers to get smarter and so they can say stuff that I don’t want to. So with me this week on the podcast is Peter Hammon, who is Senior Of Counsel at Vela Wood, and is uniquely positioned in today’s world of gambling and prediction markets.(Our conversation happened before Kalshi’s loss in the Sixth Circuit.)Fun fact: Peter wrote something at Legal Sports Report a decade ago when I was at the site!Sponsor’s message...Trusted Voices: Conversations About Betting is designed to equip adults, including parents and coaches, with tools and resources to talk to young people about gambling, including information on warning signs, risks and proxy betting. The program is led by retired professional basketball player Randy Livingston and his wife, basketball agent Anita Smith, who share their personal stories related to problem gambling, with the hope of preventing others from experiencing similar harms. Learn more and join the conversation here.Some things rattling around in my brain this week about the gambling industry after recent news and developments:1. Responsible and problem gambling are having a moment, for better or worseLet’s start here…having more discussion about responsible gambling is good, no matter the circumstances. It is after all, Responsible Gaming Education Month.DraftKings had two pretty negative stories about how it deals with RG, one in the New York Times, and the other by Pro Publica (see below). The head of the National Council on Problem Gambling resigned after blowback from its stance on prediction markets and relationship with Kalshi.The American Gaming Association commissioned a study about the financial literacy and math skills of gamblers and non-gamblers.Even if it’s painful and negative for the industry, discussion and data related to RG is badly needed, alongside more funding and better policies.2. What will September look like for sportsbooks?I don’t want to read too much into the data from the weekly New York reports. But, I think we’d be silly to ignore them.Handle for the first two full weeks of football (NFL weeks 1 and 2), is up significantly from last year. This year, the first two weeks generated about $1.2 billion in handle vs. about $1.06 billion last year.If you are looking for evidence of prediction markets taking share away from sportsbooks, you are not going to find any in the early September New York numbers.Will that continue in other states, and into the fall? Stay tuned!3. Here comes G2EI will be at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas this week, and it’s undoubtedly a weird time in the gambling industry. Prediction markets are disrupting everything, after all. Some people will be at SBC Lisbon going on at the same time, but a lot of the industry will get together and talk it out in Vegas. I will be fascinated to see what the conversations are like with everything going on right now. Get full access to The Closing Line at closingline.substack.com/subscribe

Bloomberg Reporter Kit Chellel joined the podcast to discuss his recent book, Lucky Devils: The True Story of Three Rebel Gamblers Who Beat the Odds and Changed the Game. Plus my thoughts on recent news in gambling in The Wrap. Get full access to The Closing Line at closingline.substack.com/subscribe

The former head of the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States has no shortage of opinions on prediction markets and online gambling. I sat down with West Virginia Delegate Shawn Fluharty to hear them!I also talk about the big issues in gambling right now at the end of this week’s podcast. Get full access to The Closing Line at closingline.substack.com/subscribe

Joshua Kirschner — a partner at Holland & Knight — stops by The Closing Line podcast to talk about legal issues in prediction markets, including how it intersects with the gaming industry.Plus a rundown of recent news and trends in the US gambling industry from Dustin Gouker. Get full access to The Closing Line at closingline.substack.com/subscribe

What if you rooted for fumbles and bad defense instead of touchdowns and yards? Loserball is fantasy football reimagined; I talked with founder Jonathan Gruber about his startup on this week’s Closing Line podcast.You can find the company on social media as @PlayLoserball, including on Twitter. Get full access to The Closing Line at closingline.substack.com/subscribe

The World Cup is underway, and it is a huge opportunity for sports betting in the United States, which is one of the hosts of the event. How big is that opportunity and what should we watch over the next month? I spoke with Brian Josephs, who is vice president of the Americas for sports data and technology company Sportradar.For context:The World Cup will likely be the biggest gambling event in history (CNBC): “The 2026 FIFA World Cup is expected to be the biggest betting event in history — and the first to test the U.S. sports-wagering market at full scale. … Analysts predict the betting opportunities could reshape customer acquisition for sportsbooks, prediction markets and the sports-data companies that power them. Global wagers on the 2026 World Cup could top $50 billion, up from more than $35 billion during the 2022 tournament according to Macquarie analyst Chad Beynon.” Get full access to The Closing Line at closingline.substack.com/subscribe

Press release to accompany this week's podcast:NEW YORK – June 8, 2026 – EDGE Markets, a financial services company that creates products for alternative financial markets in the gaming, crypto and prediction markets’ space, announced today that it closed a $29.2 million Series A round. CoinFund led the round, alongside Indicator Ventures, Mantis VC, Stepstone Group, and Bullpen Capital. With this funding, EDGE Markets is expanding its offerings to introduce EDGE Pro, the first high throughput deposit accounts for market makers that enable seamless, real-time deposits into all CFTC regulated exchanges. EDGE Pro solves the two largest friction points for institutional capital to scale: multi-liquidity pool post-execution settlement and margin.  To enable this solution, EDGE Markets is actively pursuing both an Introducing Broker and Future Commission Merchant registrations with the National Futures Association. These registrations will allow EDGE Pro users to execute orders directly through their EDGE Pro accounts and conduct post-execution settlement across various liquidity pools to dramatically amplify capital efficiencies vs. the current model where all trading accounts need to be prefunded and fully collateralized. Finally, EDGE Pro users will be able to plug and play existing margin from third party prime brokerages. To sign up for early access to EDGE Pro, market makers can visit www.edgemarkets.io/pro.“The core vision of EDGE Markets has always been to decrease friction for capital to flow in regulated markets.  With the high velocity growth of prediction markets, we are excited to build and support the core infrastructure for traders to efficiently scale their activity.  There are many talented groups building exchanges, but we’re building the base station for capital allocation, to address their real needs,” said Seni Thomas, Founder and CEO, EDGE Markets. The new funding will also go towards launching EDGE Connect; the industry’s first purpose built payment rail, engineered specifically for the regulated gaming and prediction market ecosystems. EDGE Connect will replace traditional consumer rails with a real-time network that will deliver significantly lower transaction costs for operators by only charging a fee on Net New Deposits over a 24-48 hour period. EDGE Connect significantly reduces churn costs, eliminates chargebacks, and provides users with a faster, more secure experience. Back testing with major operators has shown a 70%+ cost reduction in payment processing fees. EDGE Connect also supports high throughput Real Time Payments (RTP) at no cost for EDGE users or operators to push funds into their accounts 24/7/365.  RTP is supported by the majority of banks in the US and requires no integration from operators. To support the early growth of the prediction market ecosystem, both EDGE Connect for operators and EDGE Pro for market makers will be provided at no cost for all early users and operators in 2026. “The biggest moments in gaming and prediction markets happen on nights and weekends, exactly when the banking system slows to a crawl. EDGE built the rails to match that reality. And, as institutions start to participate in these markets seriously, the ability to move capital in size, in real time, any day of the week, stops being a nice-to-have and becomes table stakes. We think EDGE becomes the default settlement layer for an entirely new category of financial markets,” said Alex Felix, Co-Founder, Managing Partner and CIO of CoinFund. Since its launch a year ago, EDGE Markets’ VISA debit program, EDGE Boost, has processed over two billion in transactions to date, making it one of the fastest growing debit cards in the history of VISA. The company has also partnered with ZeroHash to introduce a compliant crypto-to-USD conversion path for users, ensuring a seamless ability to access funds. As the only banking platform dedicated to the gaming and prediction market industries, EDGE Boost offers instant access to funds with no hidden fees, or pain points associated with gaming and traditional banks. EDGE Boost separates these funds from every day finances and gives users tools to track and control their spending across multiple operators. Proprietary research conducted by EDGE Boost in partnership with Betting Hero found that 85% of high-value gaming users expressed interest in a financial product tailored specifically to gaming. About EDGE Markets EDGE Markets is a U.S. banking solution that empowers users with financial transparency, supporting emerging verticals such as betting, gaming, and casinos. Its original product, EDGE Boost, is the first responsible financial platform for smart bettors. It is the first betting-only debit card account that is FDIC insured up to $250,000*. As a neutral, third-party, EDGE Boost provides financial segmentation and a holistic view to bettors for all their financial betting data, with custom tools, like personalized spending limitations and cashback incentives, available to help all bettors be more responsible. Customers experience frictionless and instant betting that is compatible with almost any online or physical betting platform.  Get full access to The Closing Line at closingline.substack.com/subscribe

BetHog — a company started by FanDuel founder Nigel Eccles — announced a $10 million Series A financing round. As part of the raise, BetHog also launched Sentient Studios, which is “a new B2B provider that enables casino operators to deploy AI-powered dealers across their live online casino offerings.”I had Eccles on the podcast to talk about the raise and where the cryptocurrency casino, sportsbook, and new studio are headed.Eccles and I also talked about what he learned from his time at FanDuel, disruption in online gambling in the United States, and, of course, everyone’s favorite topic of prediction markets. Get full access to The Closing Line at closingline.substack.com/subscribe

ROGA: https://www.responsibleonlinegaming.org Get full access to The Closing Line at closingline.substack.com/subscribe

Anita's book came out this week, not on March 3, which you can check out here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1068480645More about Randy's issues with gambling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMFC5z4oPocAnd the post I referenced in the open: https://howgamblingworks.substack.com/p/who-wants-to-bet-on-the-oscars Get full access to The Closing Line at closingline.substack.com/subscribe