Like Ilitch, Atlanta Braves owner wants to retain MLB Team & gambling enterprise; an on line sports betting information Website.

Published on: 02/23/07

MLB looking into Liberty betting site

By TIM TUCKER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Prospective Braves buyer Liberty Media's ownership of a sports betting-information Web site has drawn the attention of Major League Baseball.

"Our people are looking into it," MLB spokesman Rich Levin told The Journal-Constitution on Thursday. "They are aware of it and are reviewing it."

Liberty last year bought a 51 percent stake in Toronto-based Fun Technologies, whose holdings include a Web site called DonBest.com. The site, which doesn't accept or make wagers, provides gambling lines and extensive picks from "expert" handicappers.

Levin said MLB's "basic rule is that an owner or anybody can't have any direct involvement in any kind of gambling enterprise." He said he did not want to "make a judgment" about whether Liberty's Web site would be found to violate that rule.

If MLB does deem the Web site a problem, it could ask Liberty to divest that business, which is a tiny part of the company's overall holdings, as a condition of being approved as Braves owner.

Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei said at an investment conference in Colorado that the Web site should not present a problem with MLB.

"It does no more, no less than USA Today or lots of other people who provide much more information in much more detail," Maffei told The Rocky Mountain News after a speech at the "Venture Capital in the Rockies" conference in Beaver Creek, Colo. "I don't see it as an issue."

Steve Greenberg, the investment banker representing Time Warner on the Braves deal, declined comment when asked if he expects the Web site to be an issue with MLB.

Time Warner and Colorado-based Liberty last week agreed on a tax-free stock swap under which Liberty would acquire the Braves. The deal was forwarded to MLB for what is expected to be a lengthy examination; the process typically includes looking at a buyer's businesses. Approval is required from 75 percent of owners.

Issues of ownership ties to gambling-related entities have surfaced twice recently in baseball. MLB blessed an arrangement under which Marian Ilitch, wife of Detroit Tigers owner Michael Ilitch, owns MotorCity Casino in Detroit. And Steve Swindal, a managing general partner of the New York Yankees and son-in-law of principal owner George Steinbrenner, was quoted by the New York Times in December as saying he got permission from baseball commissioner Bud Selig to participate in a group bidding for three New York horse racing tracks, one of which would operate slot machines.

According to a recent press release, the Don Best site "provides subscription services for live odds, major line-move alerts, injury reports, statistical reports and offers customized information-

delivery services."

At the conference, Maffei also addressed speculation Liberty would quickly re-sell the Braves, saying, according to the Rocky Mountain News, that the company intends to be "long-term owners."

The paper reported that he told the gathering of venture capitalists that there are "lots of reasons" to hold on to the team, one being that "you're not going to make a lot of friends" in MLB by quickly flipping it. Also, he noted the IRS would treat the deal more favorably if Liberty keeps the team.

But it was not clear what Maffei meant by "long-term" — the two or three years experts have said Liberty must hold the Braves to preserve the deal's tax-free status, or something significantly longer. He could not be reached for further comment.

Boston Globe weighs in on Baseball and Slot Machines

02.04.07
Hill Climber in Chicago



Don't bet on Swindal's inclusion


Pull the lever, line up three A-Rods, and you win $252 million.

Far-fetched? Of course it is, but if commissioner Bud Selig doesn't rule against Yankees president Steve Swindal's interest in Excelsior, which is vying for control of three New York racetracks and eyeing the inclusion of video slot machines, you might as well allow slots at the new Yankee Stadium...

...Baseball doesn't mind its owners having stakes in horses or racetracks, and we're well aware of [Steve] Swindal's father-in-law, George Steinbrenner, and his love of horses. Gambling is the problem.

The commissioner's office has long indicated it will evaluate potential ties to gambling on a case-by-case basis, but as of Friday Major League Baseball spokesman Patrick Courtney said Selig had not yet ruled.

In October, Robert Nutting, a Pittsburgh Pirates partner, removed slots from consideration at his Seven Springs Mountain resort in the Catskills when told Selig would not have approved. But apparently there is a way around it, and Detroit Tigers owner Mike Ilitch has learned it -- have your wife own the casino. In that case, Marian Ilitch is owner of the Motor City Casino. Nutting, however, wasn't able to pull it off because it would have created a major structural change in his stake of the Pirates.


Our most educated guess is that Swindal doesn't have a chance of being part of this. But who knows?

Baseball and Casinos Don’t Mix, or Do They?

What’s good for the goose is supposed to be good for the gander, but in this case, who is the goose and who is the gander?

12.19.09
The New York Times

by MURRAY CHASS

Steve Swindal, a managing general partner of the Yankees, has other business interests outside of baseball. That’s where the slot machines come in... Swindal...George Steinbrenner’s son-in-law...Marian Ilitch...listed as an owner in the team’s media guide...first five years of the family’s ownership...name disappeared from the guide when the Ilitch casino was on the horizon... arrangement has raised some eyebrows among some baseball people, but Selig has sanctioned it. (FULL STORY)

You may also want to review these posts:

The Verifiable Truth: Detroit Tigers owner doubled his net worth gambling on casinos
The Verifiable Truth: New York Times sports writer recognizes conflicts in Ilitch casino ownership

Owners of Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates drop Ilitch-like casino bid

Ilitch ownership model acceptable in Detroit doesn't satisfy PA state regulators

The Nutting Family, owners of Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates, had recently purchased a western Pennsylvannia ski resort hoping to win one of two casino resort licenses available in the state. They had already designed and unveiled plans for a multi-million dollar casino at their existing Seven Springs Mountain Resort which had been expected to bring 300 new jobs to the area.

The undisclosed loopholes in MLB's gaming prohibitions that allow the Ilitch Family (Mike and Marian Ilitch) to own the Detroit Tigers and Detroit's MotorCity Casino, plus have additional financial interests in gaming ventures proved impossible for the Nuttings.

According to Robert Nutting, President and CEO of his family-owned Ogden Newspapers, Inc., the scheme worked out between the Ilitch Family and MLB in Detroit could not satisfy Pennsylvannia state gaming regulators.

12.05.06
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

". . . They also had a rough blueprint of how to go about owning a casino and a baseball team at the same time. In Detroit, the Ilitch family, headed by Mike and Marian Ilitch, purchased the Tigers baseball franchise in 1992. The patriarch keeps his name on the baseball team, while the matriarch now runs the Motor City Casino. But that wasn't doable in this case, said Mr. Nutting, because of the unique provisions of the state's 2004 gaming law.

"The main sticking point was that the law prohibits the casino and the umbrella resort from having different owners, which rules out any kind of arrangement by which the Nuttings could parcel out the casino to a different, but related, ownership outfit.

"I think the reason that was not doable is that the [resort license rules] are so unusual and so specific; they simply didn't have a lot of flexibility or latitude," Mr. Nutting said. Pursuing a divestiture similar to the one that was drawn up by the Ilitch family, and approved by Major League Baseball, would have required a full overhaul of the Pirates' ownership structure.

"The only other option would have been to keep the casino and sell its stake in the ball team, but that's something the Nutting family had no interest in doing . . ."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/pp/06176/701101.stm