SUNDAY, AUGUST 2 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 D3
BY RICK MAESEWith American sports stirring
back to life, sports gambling in
the nation’s capital entered a
new phase Friday with the open-
ing of the District’s first sports-
book.
William Hill, a British book-
maker, opened a temporary
sportsbook at Capital One Arena,
making it the first professional
sports arena or stadium in the
country to host a full-service
sports betting operation.
The gambling conglomerate is
working on a permanent sports-
book in the space formerly occu-
pied by the Greene Turtle Sports
Bar and Grille, but construction
was delayed by complications
related to the novel coronavirus
pandemic.
With the return of live sports,
though, William Hill and Monu-
mental Sports and Entertain-
ment, which owns the arena,
wanted to get a sportsbook up
and running quickly. So they
converted the arena’s ticket box
office area, dormant in the ab-
sence of Wizards and Capitals
games this spring, into a tempo-
rary betting site.
Ticket windows will be used to
place sports wagers, and nine
electronic kiosks will also be
spread across the space. The
sportsbook will be open seven
days a week, from 11 a.m. until
11 p.m. The space opened Friday
afternoon, just hours after the
company secured its licensing
from city officials and shortly
before the Wizards tipped off
their first game of the NBA’s
restarted season in Florida.
“It was really driven by the
announcement of when sports
would resume,” Joe Asher, Wil-
liam Hill’s chief executive, said in
a phone interview this week.
“Baseball just started up, and the
NBA and NHL are starting again.... And so with sports back, we
wanted to try to get a temporary
facility open as soon as we
could.”
The sportsbook becomes the
first dedicated gambling destina-
tion in the city since sports
betting was legalized in Decem-
ber 2018. The city contracted
with Intralot, a Greek gaming
company that also operates the
District’s lottery, to run a city-
wide sports betting operation.
Intralot’s online betting plat-
form, GambetDC, began accept-
ing bets in late May.
The city’s sports-betting law
also allows Monumental, as well
as the Nationals and D.C. United,
to host large-scale sportsbooks
near their respective stadiums.
D .C. United struck a deal with
Caesars Entertainment in Febru-
ary but has yet to announce any
plans for a sportsbook at Audi
Field. The Nationals, meanwhile,
hope to build a 35,000-square-
foot entertainment venue at-
tached to their ballpark but also
have not released any details
about sports-betting plans.
Monumental announced
plans last October for William
Hill to operate the Las Vegas-
style sportsbook at Capital One
Arena. Ted Leonsis, head of Mon-umental and a major proponent
of sports gambling, has likened
the relationship to that of a
landlord and tenant, stressing
that Monumental and its sports
teams will be far removed from
the betting activity.
“We think it’s certainly an
exciting moment for us, and we
think it’s a really great engage-
ment opportunity for our fans,”
said Jim Van Stone, president of
business operations for Monu-
mental Sports. “Our fans are
passionate about sports, and al-
though we can’t host events at
the current time, their ability to
come down here and potentially
place a bet on one of their
favorite teams is a great engage-
ment opportunity for us.”
Asher said the sportsbook will
follow city health regulations
and guidelines set forth by the
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. Bettors will be re-
quired to socially distance and
wear masks inside the sports-
book. The kiosks will be regular-
ly sanitized as well, Asher said.William Hill operates
169 sportsbooks across the coun-
try, mostly in Las Vegas, and was
eager to launch in the Washing-
ton market. Asher said the past
few weeks have shown the grow-
ing appetite for wagering from
fans who have been subsisting
off a paltry sports diet these past
four months.
When the sports world effec-
tively shut down in March, gam-
bling ground to a halt. As events
slowly started up — the UFC,
NASCAR and golf, for starters —
the bookmaker saw huge spikes.
In the first week of major league
baseball, betting was up 50 to
100 percent over the same period
last year at William Hill betting
sites across the country.
“So we’re clearly seeing a
bunch of pent-up demand,” Ash-
er said.
Capital One Arena will offer
William Hill’s full complement of
wagers, though Asher said there
probably will be an emphasis on
betting lines involving D.C.
teams and athletes.“But broadly speaking, it’ll be
similar to what you’d get in Las
Vegas,” he said.
While the D.C. law allows the
company to offer mobile betting
in the facility or in the immedi-
ate vicinity of the arena, Asher
said only in-person betting will
be offered immediately.
William Hill still hopes to
open its glitzy Vegas-style
sportsbook this year, replete
with flat-screen televisions, food
and drinks. He said permitting
and construction were delayed
by coronavirus concerns but
that demolition is now com-
plete. Asher is targeting a fall
opening.
“For us, in the long term,
getting people back in the build-
ing once we get through this
pandemic situation is something
we’re all truly excited about,” Van
Stone said. “We think comple-
tion of the sportsbook, once it’s
fully operational come the latter
part of the fall, is really going to
be a game-changer for us.”
[email protected]D.C.’s first sportsbook opens at the dormant box o∞ce in Capital One Arena
found the meeting “productive”
and asked for another, which
Vincent said the conference will
schedule.
After this story published on-
line, the SEC issued a statement
that said: “The SEC hosts video-
conferences with the SEC Foot-
ball Student-Athlete Leadership
Council to engage in candid con-
versation, share information and
develop greater understanding
of issues important to our stu-
dent-athletes.... The informa-
tion we gather while engaging
with student-athletes helps in-
form Conference decisions and
provides an opportunity to share
information with our campus
leaders to further enhance our
continuing support of the stu-
dent-athlete experience.”
During the call, Sankey, the
commissioner, also relayed a
conversation he had with his two
daughters about how they
should continue their lives dur-
ing this pandemic by taking per-
sonal responsibility and encour-
aging others to do the same.
“My advice is you’re going to
have to go live your life in this
environment,” the commissioner
said. “I think that’s the challenge
that we’re trying to meet.”
[email protected]
[email protected]Kevin B. Blackistone contributed to
this report.then, describing how young med-
ical residents at her hospital who
have contracted the virus have
complained of being exhausted
for four to six weeks. If that
happened to college football
players, she pointed out, it could
affect their performance.
“Even though we’re saying
you’re great because you’re not
hospitalized,” O’Neal said, “it’s
going to take something out of
you.”
O’Neal did not return a re-
quest for comment Friday. Nor
did Crowther or Gibbs.
Another player, who was not
identified on the call, asked the
medical experts plainly: “If we
were your kids, would y’all let us
play in this same football season
with the same protocols and
uncertainty?”
“One of my sons has played
baseball for the last five, six
weeks,” said one official, who
didn’t identify himself. “And I
can tell you, I have a couple of
kids that have played soccer over
the last four weeks. I don’t have
great concerns about them con-
tracting it during play.
“We can’t be 100 percent,” he
went on. “We’re never going to be
100 percent.”
Several players who partici-
pated did not respond to re-
quests for comment or could not
be reached. The SEC spokesman,
Herb Vincent, said the playersthing that you can’t control.”
Sankey highlighted how much
decision-makers in sports have
learned in the past four months
and how they will continue to
adapt. He said the SEC and
member schools are committed
to creating the “best environ-
ment possible in this new reali-
ty.”
Another athlete, who did not
identify himself, sought more
information about the effects of
the virus itself: “What informa-
tion do you have about the last-
ing effects on players who may
contract covid?”
The moderator promptly di-
rected the question to Shawn G.
Gibbs, dean of Texas A&M’s
School of Public Health. Gibbs
promptly punted. “Remember,”
he said. “I’m an industrial hy-
gienist, so I’m not the medical
person here.”
Marshall Crowther, a sports
medicine physician at Mississip-
pi, stepped in. “The problem is a
lot of this we don’t know,”
Crowther said. Most people, he
said, seem not to have lasting
effects. He acknowledged the
growing concerns among medi-
cal experts about how the virus
affects people’s hearts but said
there has not been enough time
to conduct long-term studies.
Catherine O’Neal, a professor
of medicine who specializes in
infectious diseases, chimed inwhat we’ve done on campus. I’m
concerned about what happens
from 5 p.m. until 5 a.m.”
Sanogo kept pushing. “How
can y’all help us?” he asked. He
referenced bubbles, the insular
playing environments employed
by the NBA, the WNBA and the
NHL, and compared them with
his bustling campus. Another
member of the task force told
him that his mask would offer
protection and he could be a role
model for others to wear one. She
told him to sit at the back of
classrooms and not engage in
close conversations.
The officials’ uncertainty was
not lost on Keeath Magee II, a
Texas A&M linebacker, who won-
dered aloud whether starting the
season with so many unan-
swered questions would be
something the officials would
come to regret.
“You guys have answered a lot
of questions the best way that
you guys could, and we really
appreciate it. But as much as you
guys don’t know... it’s just kind
of not good enough,” he said. “We
want to play. We want to see
football. We want to return to
normal as much as possible. But
it’s just that with all this uncer-
tainty, all this stuff that’s still
circulating in the air, y’all know it
kind of leaves some of us still
scratching my head.... I feel like
the college campus is the onethe call why his school planned
to bring thousands of students to
campus for fall classes. Sanogo
said he has four classes per week
and he fears some of those class-
mates will go to bars and parties
at night, then unknowingly in-
fect football players during class.
The answer Sanogo received
shed light on the pressure that
university presidents, who rely
on college football for prestige
and revenue, face to reopen their
campuses this fall, even as the
pandemic surges. “It’s one of
those things where if students
don’t come back to campus, then
the chances of having a football
season are almost zero,” an offi-
cial who did not identify himself
said.
The official told Sanogo that
class sizes would be smaller so
students can sit six feet apart
from one another and that face
coverings should help keep stu-
dents safe. But he admitted the
arrangement was “not fair” to
athletes, who might take every
precaution but still be infected
by the students who don’t.
He suggested that Sanogo, 21,
remind the people around him to
behave responsibly. “As un-fun as
it sounds,” the official said, “the
best thing that you can do is just
try to encourage others to act
more responsibly and not put
yourself in those kinds of situa-
tions. I’m very comfortable withlosing another family member.
Ra’Von Bonner, a reserve run-
ning back at Illinois, told The
Post the risks of playing out-
weighed the reward.
Players on the SEC call, who
were part of a student-athlete
leadership council, raised similar
concerns, with one player asking:
“For so much unknown in the air
right now, is it worth having a
football season without certain-
ty?”
Sankey, who earned a $2.5 mil-
lion salary in 2018, responded:
“Part of our work is to bring as
much certainty in the midst of
this really strange time as we can
so you can play football in the
most healthy way possible, with
the understanding there aren’t
any guarantees in life.”
The players were especially
concerned with what happens
once their universities reopen.
When they returned for work-
outs this summer, their campus-
es were largely empty. Most of
the people they interacted with
were those inside their cloistered
and regimented football pro-
grams, where regular testing and
the potential ire of their power-
ful coaches made adherence to
public health guidelines a must
for many athletes.
MoMo Sanogo, a linebacker at
Mississippi, asked the officials on
SEC FROM D1
SEC f ootball players voice safety concerns during call with conference leaders
ASSOCIATED PRESSJeff Petry scored at 13:57 of
overtime, Carey Price made
39 saves and the Montreal Cana-
diens beat the Pittsburgh Pen-
guins, 3-2, on Saturday night in
Game 1 of their best-of-five quali-
fying round series in Toronto.
Petry picked up a loose puck in
the right faceoff circle and ripped
a shot past goalie Matt Murray.
The game was played at empty
Scotiabank Arena in the NHL’s
return following a 142-day ab-
sence after the novel coronavirus
ground the sport to a halt.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Nick
Suzuki scored to give 12th-seeded
Montreal a 2-0 lead early in the
second period. The fifth-seeded
Penguins rallied midway through
the period with Sidney Crosby and
Bryan Rust connecting in a
2:39 span.
l HURRICANES 3, RANG-
ERS 2: Brady Skjei set the tone
with a big hit on the New York’s
Jesper Fast in the opening minute,
Jaccob Slavin scored on Carolina’s
first shot on net and the Hurri-
canes beat the Rangers in Game 1
of their best-of-five series in To-
ronto.
And the game wasn’t three min-
utes old before Hurricanes for-
ward Justin Williams fought Ryan
Strome.
“The lead-up to it, there’s been
so much of it. The guys were ready
to play something for real,” Hurri-
canes Coach Rod Brind’Amour
said.
“Haven’t had that opportunity
in a long, long time. Just wanted to
take advantage of it.”
Slavin, who scored 61 seconds
in, and Sebastian Aho each had a
goal and an assist in the NHL’s
opening playoff game.Martin Necas sealed the win in
a game the Hurricanes never
trailed by one-timing a shot in off
the skate of Rangers defenseman
Marc Staal with 9:09 remaining.
l ISLANDERS 2, PANTHERS
1: Semyon Varlamov stopped
27 shots, and New York o pened its
best-of-five series with a w in over
Florida in Toronto.
Anthony Beauvillier scored the
decisive goal on a power play at
3:39 of the second period. The goal
was scored a little over a minute
after Florida’s Mike Matheson was
penalized for a hit to the head on
defenseman Johnny Boychuk,
who did not return.
Coach Barry Trotz didn’t have
an update on Boychuk following
the game but was pleased with
how the Islanders not only stayed
disciplined immediately follow-
ing the hit but also capitalized on
the penalty.
“The best way to respond after a
hit or whatever is a goal on the
power play,” Trotz said.
Jonathan Huberdeau scored
23 seconds into the third period
for Florida’s lone goal.
l BLACKHAWKS 6, OILERS
4: R ookie winger Dominik Kuba-
lik scored two goals and added
three assists, leading Chicago to a
win over host Edmonton in the
opener of their best-of-five quali-
fying round series.
Blackhawks captain Jonathan
Toews had two goals and one as-
sist. Brandon Saad added a goal
and an assist, and Dylan Strome
also scored for Chicago.
Connor McDavid, Leon Drai-
saitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
each had a goal and two assists for
Edmonton. And James Neal
scored late for the Oilers, who
trailed 6-2 after two periods.
McDavid said the Oilers first
need to review the game tape and
go from there after dropping the
series opener.
“There’s lots that needs to get
done,” McDavid said.NHL ROUNDUPMontreal gives up lead,
then swipes Game 1 win
CANADIENS 3,
PENGUINS 2 (OT)nizing everything and that the
protocols are “pretty buttoned up.”
“We’re being restricted in areas
we can go to at certain times,”
MacLellan said. “The practice
schedule, to get this many teams
in here and have them practicing
at the same rink and playing
games is a big task, and it’s gone
pretty smoothly so far.”
Note: Capitals defenseman
John Carlson participated in prac-
tice Saturday, Coach Todd Reirden
said, after the Norris Trophy final-
ist missed the team’s previous
practice Thursday following an
awkward fall in Wednesday’s exhi-
bition game.
Reirden would not commit to
Carlson being available for Mon-
day’s game against the Tampa Bay
Lightning.
[email protected]tinue to have discussions and “see
if we can work something out in
the end here.”
Regarding a possible extension
with captain Alex Ovechkin, who
will be on the final year of his
13-year, $124 million contract next
season, MacLellan said the team
will wait until after the playoffs to
make any decisions.
“I think it’s constantly been
changing the whole year,” he said.
“I don’t think anybody could have
predicted where we’re at right
now.”
Friday was the first time Ma-
cLellan spoke to reporters since
May 29, when there were still
questions regarding the NHL’s re-
start. Now, as a member of the
Capitals’ 52-man traveling party to
Toronto, MacLellan said he thinks
the league did a “great job” orga-tions last season, and it was going
to be anywhere from $83 [million]
to $88 million, and it comes in at
$81.5 [million]. Even last season
when it came in a little under what
we projected it to be, you have to
make some difficult decisions
based on that. Planning going up
to those projections is based on
probably the low end of the projec-
tion, and then it ends up coming in
lower. It’s a hard thing to manage.
But we’ll do the best we can.”
Defenseman Brenden Dillon,
another pending free agent, has
expressed that he likes the fit with
Washington and wants to remain
with the Capitals. MacLellan said
Friday that he has been speaking
to Dillon’s representatives “pretty
consistently” since the team ac-
quired the 29-year-old in mid-Feb-
ruary. MacLellan said he will con-BY SAMANTHA PELLtoronto — Washington Capitals
rookie goaltender Ilya Samsonov
did not travel to Toronto for the
NHL’s restart because he suffered
an off-ice injury in Russia during
the league’s novel coronavirus
shutdown and didn’t pass his
physical upon returning to the
Washington area, General Manag-
er Brian MacLellan said Friday.
Washington announced July 25
that Samsonov, who had not skat-
ed at all during training camp, was
injured before camp and would
not be traveling to the hub city for
the resumption of play. The team
has not disclosed the nature of the
injury or how it occurred. Samson-
ov arrived in the Washington area
in early July and was seen in social
media posts interacting with
teammates off the ice.
MacLellan reiterated Friday
that the 23-year-old Russian
should be ready for the start of the
2020-21 season.
With Samsonov not in Toronto,
the Capitals have three goalten-
ders: Braden Holtby, Vitek Van-
ecek and Pheonix Copley. Van-
ecek, who played the third period
of Washington’s 3-2 exhibition vic-
tory Wednesday over the Carolina
Hurricanes, was told he is the
team’s primary backup goaltender
for the resumption of play.
“Vitek, he’s earned a chance to
play some games.... The exhibi-
tion game, that was the first
chance we’ve had to really see him
in game action,” MacLellan said.
“[He] got put in a difficult situa-
tion at five-on-three right away,
made some good saves, looked
confident, looked aggressive. So
he made a really good showing,
and I think everybody’s pretty op-
timistic about him right now.”
Holtby, a pending unrestricted
free agent, is the clear-cut starter,
and the Capitals will rely on him
for their postseason run. Keeping
Holtby on the team next year
could prove difficult, though, and
the flat salary cap does the Capi-
tals no favors.
“We’ve been a cap team,” Ma-
cLellan said. “We did our projec-
Samsonov injured o≠ i ce in Russia, MacLellan says
JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST
C apitals goaltender Ilya Samsonov didn’t skate during training camp and didn’t travel to Toronto.