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The latest gambling scandal to rock the NBA is about a real-world event that normal people would never have noticed. In March 2023, the 35-37 New Orleans Pelicans coasted to a 115-89 win over the Charlotte Hornets, who would go on to finish the year with a record of 27-55. The Pelicans never trailed in the game thanks largely to the play of Brandon Ingram, who notched the first triple-double of his career. The ninth paragraph of the recap on ESPN mentions one other factor that may have contributed to the decisive margin of victory: Hornets guard Terry Rozier left the game early, complaining of a sore right foot, and did not return. As alleged by federal prosecutors in New York, this was not a coincidence. Before the game, they say, Rozier told a childhood friend that he intended to fake an injury, thus allowing that friend to place sure-thing wagers on Roziers propsa type of bet that allows users to gamble on whether a player will accumulate more (over) or less (under) than a sportsbook-supplied total in a given statistical category. Roziers friend then sold this information to an uncertain-but-significant number of other bettors, who collectively bet hundreds of thousands of dollars that Terry Rozier, a serviceable-but-not-spectacular guard playing in a late-season game between two perennially forgettable teams, would just happen to have an off night. Sure enough, Rozier checked out after scoring just five points in less than ten minutes of playing time, which meant that, as promised, those under bets hit. A few days later, the bettors convened in Philadelphia to settle up. Roziers friend then drove to Roziers home in Charlotte, where they counted their cash together, according to the indictment. Prop betsbets that a given event will or will not occur in a gameare not the only variety of cheating alleged in this scandal, which involves a cast of characters that includes current and former NBA players, enterprising sports gamblers, and Mafia associates running rigged poker games that will almost certainly be portrayed in a Netflix limited series sometime next year. But player props are at the heart of this story nonetheless, because player props will likely be at the heart of every sports betting scandal for the foreseeable future. Props are the betting industrys single greatest threat to the legitimacy of the games fans watch, and to the public trust the leagues spent decades building. Yet because their availability makes so much money for everyone involvednot bettors, of course, but the leagues and their official sportsbook partnersno one in a position of power has much of an incentive to do anything about it. Among bettors, props are popular because they are fun: They give casual viewers a reason to root for players they otherwise wouldnt care about, and take advantage of armchair quarterbacks fervent belief that they understand their favorite teams tendencies better than some oddsmaker ever could. But from an integrity-of-the-game standpoint, the problems with these bets are pretty intuitive. First, in many cases, the outcome is easily manipulable by one person. A player in Roziers shoes cant guarantee that hell score a certain number of points, and he certainly cant guarantee that the Hornets will win (or lose) the game. But he can guarantee that he scores less than a certain number of points. All he has to do is remember what that number is, and to grasp at his foot and wince a little before he reaches it. Second, the outcomes of prop bets are often inconsequential to the final score, which is what most non-bettor fans pay attention to and care about. Earlier this year, for example, regulators flagged that bettors in Ohio, New York, and New Jersey seemed unusually confident that Cleveland Guardians pitcher Luis Ortiz, in two specific games and in two specific innings, would throw a ball or hit the batter with his first pitch. Sure enough, in both instances, Ortizs deliveries were outside and in the dirt; one skipped by the catcher altogether. Major League Baseball placed Ortiz on leave, and its investigation is ongoing. But if Ortiz was colluding with friendly bettors whom he tipped off beforehand, it is easy to see how they might have settled on this particular moneymaking strategy, which hinges on the results of a single pitch, thrown when nobody is on base, while fans who went to get beers during the break are still making their way back to their seats. Again, by himself, a player like Ortiz cant control whether his team wins a nine-inning game. But he can control whether his first pitch of the third inning is anywhere close to the strike zone, or gets all the way to the backstop. In the past year or so, the leagues have begun to understand the dangers that the proliferation of prop bets poses to their respective enterprises. Over the most recent MLB All-Star Break, Commissioner Rob Manfred criticized prop bets as unnecessary and particularly vulnerable to manipulation. At the NFLs request, Illinois regulators banned props on made kicks, incomplete passes, and other events where the outcome is 100% determinable by one person in one play. The NCAA has asked Congress to ban player props in college athletics; in Ohio, Governor Mike DeWine has pushed for a total ban on props in both college and pro sports, calling the market for these bets an experiment that has failed badly. The NBA had the chance to address props last year, when Toronto Raptors reserve Jontay Porter was implicated in a Rozier-style scheme in which he removed himself from a game to ensure his under bets would hit. Shortly afterwards, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver asked sportsbooks to stop offering props on players who are, like Porter, signed to two-way or ten-day contracts, reasoning that fringe players making the least money are the most susceptible to pressure to try and supplement their incomes while they still have the chance. But the Rozier scandal reveals the flaws inherent in trying to regulate a multibillion-dollar industry by reacting to the most recent scandal. First, the unavailability of props for players of Porters caliber would not have affected Rozier, a ten-year veteran who, when he pulled himself from that game back in March 2023, was in the first year of a four-year contract worth $96 million. And second all Silver could do was ask the sportsbooks for help, because the league only has so much control over the bets its partners do and dont take. As a result, according to NBC News, even after the Porter scandal, the league had to make the business case to the sportsbooks that prop bets on bit players like him were not lucrative enough to continue to offer. It is true that leagues, sportsbooks, and regulators have procedures in place to try and ferret out cheating. Hours before the game from which Rozier removed himself, many sportsbooks stopped taking bets on his props after a third-party monitoring firm flagged unusual betting activity on his unders, including one bettor at one casino who wagered more than $13,000 across 30 separate bets in 46 minutes. But the fact that these systems have caught some cheating only raises the question in fans minds of how much cheating is actually going on. If Roziers friend had been a little more circumspect about placing his betsor, at the very least, if he hadnt passed it on to God knows how many people who flooded gambling apps and casino floors, looking to get in on the actionperhaps no one would have found out. And even if (a big if, but stay with me) these systems are as effective as leagues would like you to believe, perception is as important as reality. The more often that bettors read about scandals like this one in the news, the more often their lost wagers and bad beats will start to feel like the results of corruption that the leagues must have missed. Already, players across sports endure harassment and receive death threats from bettors angry about a leg of their parlay that didnt hit. If you search X for the name of any underperforming player in any given game, you will get a deluge of irate all-caps tweets concluding that the fix must be in, and snitch-tagging the FBI to beg Kash Patel to open an investigation immediately. To date, the leagues havepardon the phrasebet that the billions of dollars they make from legal gambling will make the occasional embarrassing scandal worth the trouble. (Silver recently described the NBA as learning as we go.) For now, thats probably still true, but at some point, if betting and non-betting fans no longer trust the on-field, on-court, or on-ice product, it wont be. The question is whether the leagues will give up some of this easy money to protect what remains of their credibility, or whether they are willing to risk losing it for good.
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Apple has become the third company to see its market capitalization top $4 trillion, underscoring its role as one of the leading publicly traded tech companies and making it the second most valuable company in the world. Shares of the company briefly topped $269.53 soon after trading began on Tuesday, putting it above the milestone. Apple was the first company to top $1 trillion, $2 trillion, and $3 trillion in market capitalization. But Nvidia beat it to the $4 trillion mark, on the back of surging investor interest in artificial intelligence. That company’s staggering chip sales have boosted its stock more than 400% since October 2023. Apples march to $4 trillion began in earnest on Oct. 20, when Loop Capital upgraded its rating from hold to buy, citing improving demand for the iPhone. In a note to investors, the firm wrote: “we are NOW at the front end of AAPLs long-anticipated adoption cycle that suggests ongoing iPhone shipment expansion through CY2027.” The stock hit an all-time high following that upgrade. Nvidia seems to be the new market leader and on path to be the first to reach $5 trillion. But from the dizzying heights of Big Tech, things shift quickly. Microsoft, for example, was the second company to hit a market cap of $4 trillion, topping it on July 30, following a strong earnings beat. But it lost ground, sending its market cap lower than Apples for a period of time. (Microsoft surged above the milestone once more Tuesday as well.) Trillion-dollar milestones don’t have any specific value in and of themselves. They’re visible indicators, however, of which companies are growing at impressive rates (assuming those companies maintain the levels). The first company to ever be worth $1 trillion was Petrochina, which reached the valuation briefly on its first day of trading following its 2007 IPO. But that peak coincided with a Chinese stock-market bubble and was short lived. Today, PetroChina is worth roughly one quarter of that. Apple’s ascent to the $4 trillion club is a notable turnaround from earlier this year, when analysts were less bullish as the company struggled to keep up with its competitors. Apple also faced tariff-based manufacturing issues in China and India. Year to date, the company’s stock has climbed nearly 10%, however. And demand for the most recent iPhone showed that, despite the economic froth of this year, pervasive recessionary threats and tariff concerns, consumers are still willing to buy top-tier devices. (The high-end iPhone 17 Pro now starts at $1,099, $100 more than the previous year’s model.) Additionally, the base model of the iPhone 17 has been selling well in China, while the iPhone Air sold out when it went on sale in that country. Lead times for iPhone 17 orders are longer than they were a year ago as well, underscoring strong, continued consumer demand. What’s perhaps most remarkable about Apple making it into the $4-trillion club is that it has done so without a real artificial intelligence play. (Its AI efforts have, so far, not impressed anyone, including the company.) In January, Apple suspended its news summary notifications from Apple Intelligence, after users called out for making repeated mistakes. The company is expected to roll out a long-delayed AI-enhanced Siri in the spring of 2026, assuming it meets the company’s standards. That could be another catalyst for investors that gives Apple’s stock (and market cap) another boost. The takeaway of Apple crossing this milestone, though, is that, for investors and consumers, new hardware and improved features are, at the moment, even more important than AI.
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In many ways, renowned illusionist Rob Lakes entire life has been building up to his Broadway debut in Rob Lake Magic with Special Guests The Muppets, which begins previews tonight at the Broadhurst Theatre. As a child growing up in Oklahoma, his parents exposed him to theater by taking him to touring shows. The education didnt stop there. When they took me to New York, my first Broadway shows were The Secret Garden, The Will Rogers Follies, and Beauty and the Beast, ” Lake tells Fast Company. I was just so fortunate to be exposed to the arts quite often as a kid. This early education included the Muppets and their films. I wore those tapes out so many times. The Muppets Take Manhattan was my favorite, Lake explains. This is especially fitting since Lake is now essentially living the plot of the 1984 film, which revolves around Kermit the Frog and friends and their madcap efforts to mount a musical on the Great White Way. These characters, they’ve been part of my life for as long as I can remember. And I wouldn’t be in show business without them,” Lake says. “Kermit and the gang taught me what show business is, success is, how to follow your dreams and how to persevere. That’s not just a sound bite.” Where the magic happens Lake has great respect and reverence for Jim Henson and Walt Disney, childhood heroes of his. At age 10, a magic show in Branson, Missouri, would clarify his life trajectory and give him a clear goalto become a world renowned illusionist. At just 42 years old, Lake has certainly accomplished that and more. He has performed to sold-out audiences in over 60 countries and made numerous television appearances. ABC dubbed him one of the worlds top Illusionists while NBC crowned him the worlds greatest illusionist. In 2008, he became the youngest person ever to be given the Merlin Awardas International Stage Magician of the Year. This is magics highest honor, similar to an actor winning an Oscar. Beyond performing, he worked as a creative consultant on multiple Broadway productions, such as Death Becomes Her. He also worked at Sesame Street Live, Walt Disney Imagineering, and as the creative consultant and illusion designer for Adele’s Las Vegas Residency at Caesars Palace. In 2018, he competed on America’s Got Talent. One of the questionnaires where they’re trying to get your backstory asked you to name a celebrity that you’re similar to or you relate to,” Lake recalls. “And my response to that was Kermit the Frog.” Shortly after this, he met producer Joe Quenqua. (Lake, Quenqua, and Glass Half Full Productions all serve as producers on Rob Lake Magic with Special Guests The Muppets.) Quenqua, who previously worked for the Walt Disney Company, had Muppet connections. When we discussed bringing Robs show to Broadway, we spoke about his early inspirations and what drove him to be a performer,” Quenqua says. “The Muppets were at the very top of this list.” After an introduction from Quenqua, all the pieces fell into place to have Lake join forces with Kermit and the gang. The creativity and the vision and the idea for that came at the right time, the right place,” Lake says. “Just everything aligned perfectly when that happened. “Surreal and humbling” Rob Lake Magic with Special Guests The Muppets officially opens on November 6 after beginning previews tonight. It will have a limited 12-week run. Both Lake and Quenqua are acutely aware that they are fulfilling a dream that the late Jim Henson didnt live long enough to accomplish. I’d had no idea until the documentary by Ron Howard that Jim had been wanting to get this to Broadway, Lake revealed. It really struck a chord with me, because when I saw that documentary, I had already been working on my show with the Muppets, and it just really hit methe gravity and reverence of this. Quenqua called fulfilling Hensons legacy, both surreal and humbling. A good magician never reveals his tricks, especially not before opening night, but Lake was able to give some hints on what audiences may be able to expect. Lake has curated my favorite illusions, the culmination of my entire life’s work, to be able to bring my best magic to Broadway. These greatest hits represent years of work, trial and error, and perseverance. Adding the Muppets into his illusions was a fun challenge for Lake. I think I was really well prepared just because of my childhood obsession with the Muppets, he says. I had a really good understanding of how they filmed and how they operated. I was able to design illusions that could incorporate my whole life’s memories, research, and studying of the process for them. He took special care to incorporate their specific character traits into the show. “Magic is not about being tricked” Lake says his show is going to take the audience on a journey filled with peaks and valleys and highs and lows. He compared it to an orchestral piece with contrasting movements, saying Not every part of my show is light and fun, and not every part of my show is mysterious and intense.” “For me, magic is not just about being tricked,” he added. “No one likes to be tricked. No one likes to be fooled. For me, magic is about creating wonder and enchantment: a scene, a world, an emotion and experience where anything can happen.” The Broadhurst, he says, offers the perfect backdrop for this magical 90-minute theatrical event: It’s very intimate, even though it’s one of the largest theaters. Everyone will be able to see myself and Kermit really well.” When asked what he would want Jim Henson to notice about the show if he could come back and see it, Lake replied, I would just want to make sure I did him proud. I would just want to make sure I took care of the world he created. And I would want him to know that the Muppets are as beloved and cherished and celebrated as they always have been. Quenqua, meanwhile, would want Henson to know how hard Lake worked to honor his legacy: I would hope that he sees how much love and reverence Rob has for him and all he created.” I’ve been preparing for this moment my whole life,” Lake says, “before I even knew it.”
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