On Tuesday, May 10^th, 2022 Liverpool’s football club has enabled the English Premier League’s thrilling championship title race will expand into into the final week of the 2021 – 2022 European football season.

Liverpool’s come – from – behind 2 to 1 win at Aston Villa was cemented in the 65^th – minute header – goal by Sadio Mane which just so happened to show Liverpool’s heart for the fight as the Liverpool football club moved – on as Jürgen Klopp’s team managed to level the playing field on points with Manchester City for 1^st – place in the highly – contested English Premier League last Tuesday.

“It’s about digging in, keeping going and finding a way to win,” the captain of Liverpool’s football club, Jordan Henderson, explained.

Manchester City still leads the English Premier League thanks to their superior goal differential of 3 in accordance to Liverpool’s. The defending champions in Liverpool play their game in hand versus Wolverhampton on Wednesday, May 11^th, 2022 after which those 2 – title rivals will have just 2 – more league matches to play. Things are certainly getting interesting now.

The fastest that Manchester City could now clinch the English Premier League is on Tuesday, when Liverpool plays their next EPL game versus Southampton. Before that, Manchester City plays two – times, once against Wolves then against West Ham on Sunday, May 15, 2022.

“We cannot do more than win,” the head coach of Liverpool, Jürgen Klopp, stated. “A lot of people thought this could be a banana skin, that it could be a struggle for us, and how the boys sorted that was absolutely outstanding.”

The Reds just so happened to draw 1 to 1 with Tottenham Hotspur on the previous Saturday, May 7^th, 2022 as they avoided having their championship title bid even more disrupted by an Aston Villa team managed by one of their greatest players.

Steven Gerrard, who is a boyhood Liverpool fan as well as a former star midfielder for their club, claimed his focus was entirely on winning the game for Aston Villa and they watched their midfielder Douglas Luiz, who was once on Manchester City’s roster, give his squad the lead during the 3^rd – minute of game action. The Brazilian – native was able to force the football in from close range following his original header that was only deflected out by the Liverpool goal – keeper in Alisson Becker.

Aston Villa kept the lead of this match for just less than 3 – minutes, with Joel Matip scoring the equalizing goal by putting the ball into an un – minded empty – net following the work of his center – back Virgil van Dijk who managed to get off a shot that was saved by goal – keeper Emi Martinez.

Liverpool lost control of Fabinho during the 30^th – minute to a hamstring injury that could possibly orchestrate the holding midfielder out of the FA Cup final versus Chelsea on Saturday, May 14^th, 2022.

This recent injury may have actually helped Liverpool. Fabinho had been struggling up to that point, and he was lucky to have avoided receiving a yellow – card for repeated penalties, and his replacement, Henderson, used his veteran experience to calm the match down.

Liverpool has now regained the control by the time Mane broke his neck in order to meet a cross – kick from the left by Luis Diaz, with a nasty header into the bottom corner of the net.

Now playing more like a central striker after Diaz’s arrival, Mane has become a momentous player in recent months for coach Klopp, who gave the Senegal international a huge hug following the full – time whistle that just so happened to come as Liverpool’s away – crowd supporters sang the club’s anthem, “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

“He’s a machine. A massive player,” Klopp goes on to say about Mane. “When everyone has yards in their legs, you can’t see it with him.”

Ahead of the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium, coach Klopp decided to leave out left – back Andrew Robertson from the football squad completely, and he chose to begin with Mohamed Salah and Thiago Alcantara both on the bench.

Liverpool now finishes their English Premier League campaign with matches versus both Southampton as well as Wolverhampton next week.

As for Manchester City, Pep Guardiola’s coached squad may have to claim the need to gain 7 – points from their outstanding 3 – contests in order to win a 6^th – championship title in approximately 11 – years. The last game will be versus Aston Villa on the last day of the English Premier League season, so that Gerrard can still manage to have a huge say in the title race, but as of now by serving his old football club.

“In terms of commitment, heart and application, the lads gave me all I could ask for,” the head coach of Aston Villa, Steven Gerrard, mentioned. “Against one of the top sides in the league, we’ve been done in moments.”

Sources:

The Associated Press News Services. “Liverpool beats Villa 2 – 1, level on points with City in EPL”. The Associated Press. May 10, 2022.

ESPN News Services. “English Premier League Table 2021 – 22”. ESPN. May 10, 2022.

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On Wednesday, May 11^th, 2022 the NBA announced the Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic won the 2021 – 2022 NBA MVP for 2^nd – consecutive season helping NBA grow internationally. Jokic made it four straight MVPs for foreign – born players of the National Basketball Association.

The Runners – Up in NBA MVP Voting

The native of Serbia superstar and multi-talented big – man managed to narrowly beat out the 2 – time NBA MVP award winner in Giannis Antetokounmpo of Greece who is also the reigning NBA champion from the Milwaukee Bucks as well as the Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid from Cameroon to mark another first in the National Basketball Association in the fact that never before have the top 3 in NBA MVP voting have all been international basketball players (not from the United States of America).

The 2022 NBA playoffs are absolutely loaded and stocked with international talent that is constantly showcased on basketball’s biggest stage. Players such as the Dallas Mavericks incredible guard Luka Doncic, the 2019 rookie of the year and Euro League champion from Slovenia.

Former NBA Commissioner David Stern had a Dream for the League

The eventual and progressive increase of international talent was former Commissioner of the National Basketball Association, David Stern’s, ultimate vision for the NBA. He saw the NBA as a global entity, and he always insisted that the NBA be a true driving force in growing the game of basketball internationally.

“It’s David Stern’s dream,” the Philadelphia 76ers head coach, Doc Rivers, confirmed. “Everybody else is good. It’s a world game. It’s no longer just ‘us,’ whatever us means. It’s a world game and that’s a good thing.”

The ripple effect of international ball players extends well beyond the United States of America.

For the basketball – dominated countries of Serbia and Greece, the continued success of Jokic and Antetokounmpo provides them with constant bragging rights. Antetokounmpo has won back – to – back NBA MVP awards (2018 – 2019, 2019 – 2020), and now the pride of Sombor, Serbia, has matched that by doing the same thing right after Giannis did it.

“We are a country of basketball. This is more proof that we are the best,” the man who trained a teenage Nikola Jokic as his strength and conditioning coach at Belgrade club Mega, Marko ?osi?, stated. “It is not easy for a country like Serbia with 7 million people to compete with the rest of the world.”

?osi? who is now a professor at the University of Belgrade, explains Jokic’s style of play by saying, “Is really poetry… he’s an artist.” The 27 – year – old Jokic averaged 27.1 – points, 13.8 – rebounds, and 7.9 – assists throughout the 2021 – 2022 NBA regular season.

According to the National Basketball Association…

Across NBA Europe’s social media channels, content featuring Antetokounmpo gets 100 % better results than the average post. Jokic content does 10 % better than average due to his country of origin.

Subscriber growth for NBA League Pass shows a 17 % increase in Serbia, 14 % in Slovenia, and 9 % in Greece over the course of the current NBA season over last season. It was up 40 % in Africa as a whole, though the NBA does not release the actual total number of subscribers to the general public as of now.

NBA Preseason Games to be Played in Abu Dhabi

The NBA has recently scheduled the Milwaukee Bucks as well as the Atlanta Hawks to play 2 – upcoming preseason games at Abu Dhabi in October of 2022 which will mark the National Basketball Association’s first ever games in the United Arab Emirates and the Arabian Gulf as well too.

Greece and Giannis

It’s impossible to overestimate the overwhelming impact that Giannis Antetokounmpo has had on Greece, both as an outstanding ball player and as a great person. He was born to immigrant Nigerian parents and only acquired a Greek passport shortly before being drafted way back in 2013.

“Giannis is a hero. He’s a good image of Greece. He’s an ambassador of Greece worldwide,” Vassilis Skountis, a broadcaster for NBA games on Cosmote TV, Vassilis Skountis, said.

In Greek sports media, there’s soccer, basketball, and then there is Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Antetokounmpo essentially is his own category of news in Greece. There’s live coverage of games, no matter the hour in Greece, and analysis of his performances.

Greek parents love him while their children want to be just like him. He is a true hero.

“He’s Greek, he’s very spectacular, he’s very strong, he dunks, he wins championships, he’s playing with the national team,” Skountis goes on to say. “The kids here in Greece, everybody wants to be like Giannis.”

Africa and Embiid

In Cameroon and all around the large continent of Africa, where soccer definitely dominates, Embiid is a budding role model, as is Giannis.

“These kids coming from abroad … they end up working twice as hard,” the associate technical director at NBA Academy Africa, Joe Touomou, explained. “When it’s time to compete, you see the result of that hard work. That’s why you see those three foreign guys at the top.”

The National Basketball Association is helping develop the sport of basketball in Africa, opening an academy and partnering with FIBA to run a Champions League – style competition for the club teams there.

Doc Rivers has seen it, and he rants and raves about it!

“I went over to Africa a couple years ago, to Dakar, and it’s amazing. It really is,” says Rivers. “The academy that the NBA runs in Africa is like no other.”

Basketball Without Borders plays a pivotal role, as they provide annual camps every year to showcase great young phenom prospects as well as exposing them to players of the National Basketball Association and NBA coaching.

Joel Embiid was a shy and skinny camper way back in 2011, and look how far he has progressed as he continues to help expand the reach of the NBA globally.

“Quite frankly, Joel was not the best prospect that we had,” Touomou expressed. “But he was fearless.”

Embiid is apparently interested in gaining French citizenship, and that would potentially make him eligible to play for the French national team as soon as the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games.

In the basketball hotbeds of the continent of Europe, winning medals for their country is just as important as NBA success and even possibly more significant.

Jokic led Serbia to win the silver medal in basketball at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics although he decided to sit out the Tokyo Games qualifiers last summer as he said that he was simply too tired following his first NBA MVP season. Serbia hosted that qualifying tournament, but Serbia eventually lost to Italy in the decisive final game.

“Whatever issues he has playing for the Serbian team, all parties — the Serbian team, the basketball association and him — they need to work together to try to resolve it,” the basketball – loving Serb who lives in London, Andrija Pavlovic, said. “We need him. We’ve had great success in the past. It’s a tradition we’re looking to extend.”

Nikola Jokic’s Basketball Career Achievements, Honor, & Awards

• 2 – Time NBA Most Valuable Player Award Winner (2021, 2022)
• 4 – Time NBA All – Star Selection (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)
• 2 – Time All – NBA First Team (2019, 2021)
• All – NBA Second Team (2020)
• NBA All – Rookie First Team (2016)
• 2 – Time Serbian Player of the Year Award Winner (2018, 2021)
• ABA League MVP Award Winner (2015)
• ABA League Top Prospect (2015)

Sources:

Maguire, Ken. “Jokic’s NBA MVP a win for hoops – crazed nations outside US”. The Associated Press. May 11, 2022.

Basketball Reference News Services. “Nikola Jokic”. Basketball Reference. May12, 2022.

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On Wednesday, May 11, 2022 Inter Milan will play Juventus in the Italian Cup final which could be the first of 2 – championship trophies for Inter Milan.

Inter Milan will play a strong Juventus football club at the legendary and historic Stadio Olimpico Stadium in Rome, Italy, and then they have 2 – league games in the Italian Serie A League, where the competition is locked – up at an interesting and fascinating title fight with the city rival of AC Milan vs. Inter Milan.

The defending champion, Inter Milan, is just 2 – points in back of AC Milan who also holds the better head – to – head record in the Italian Serie A League which is the 1^st – tie – breaker in the Italian Serie A League if it comes down to that.

The mood overall was lighthearted in the Nerazzurri camp after they defeated AC Milan with the final tally of 3 to 0 last month in order to reach the Italian Cup finals. Inter Milan was still behind in the league, but they had a single game in hand and for several months they had been pointing – out to their postponed contest at Bologna as the opportunity to gain some ground in the Italian Serie A title race. They just so happened to lose that game with a final score of 2 to 1.

The nerves have had a chance now to settle in since then and that could be obviously witnessed in the initial 25 – minutes of game play when Inter Milan played versus Empoli, where even the head coach, Simone Inzaghi, mentioned that his players were experiencing the pressures as they happened to give up 2 – goals prior to a miraculous recovery in which they managed somehow to win that match with the final tally of 4 to 2.

As a matter of fact, the Inter Milan CEO, Giuseppe Marotta, wants his football club to put their title thoughts on the back – burner of their minds and just focus on the Italian Cup finals that is taking place on Wednesday, May 11^th, 2022.

“It’s normal that they’re also thinking of the title. This week we’re playing for two important goals that represent above all a season dedicated to sacrifice by the whole club,” the CEO of Inter Milan, Giuseppe Marotta, said. “We want to pick up something but it’s also important to know that Wednesday we can achieve our first goal, so we’re concentrated on that.

“From Thursday on, we’ll see what we can do. Zero distractions. It’s great to have this kind of pressure for those who do sport, to have two important aims simultaneously.”

For Juventus, the Italian Cup final is debatably much more important. Massimiliano Allegri has returned to the football club last year following a disappointing season under Andrea Pirlo that witnessed their run of 9 – consecutive league titles stopped by Inter Milan, although they did eventually win the Italian Cup.

But Juventus once again looks ready to finish in the top 4 of the Italian Serie A League, and with a 1 – point tally less than last season where they were once again knocked out of the Champions League in the knock – out round of 16 of the tournament. The club also lost to Inter Milan during the Italian Super Cup.

Juventus will be able to take pride from their positive record in the Italian Cup, but the Bianconeri have won the championship trophy an amazing record of 20 – times which includes 5 of the past 7 – times.

Both squads will be looking forward in depending upon their superstar forwards / strikers to get the job at hand done.

Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martínez went through a little drought at the beginning of 2022, but he has now scored a spectacular 11 – goals throughout his last 11 – games in order to take his totaling tally to 23 – goals scored for the season which is a new personal high for the Argentinian – born star footballer.

Martínez’s international teammate now, and potentially also at the club level next season, will drive Juventus’ offensive attack. Paulo Dybala gave an impressive performance at Genoa on Friday, May 6^th, 2022 as he scored the goal that apparently had his club on their way to a nice victory prior to 2 – late goals conceded by Juventus in their 2 to 1 loss on that occasion.

Dybala seems ready to leave the Juventus Italian football club at the end of this season following 7 – years with Juve, and Inter Milan is most likely his new destination unfortunately for Juventus.

Sources:

Matar, Daniella. “Inter Milan takes on Juventus in Italian Cup final”. The Associated Press. May 10, 2022.

ESPN News Services. “Italian Serie A Table 2021 – 22”. ESPN. May 11, 2022.

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The Illinois sports wagering market will soon welcome one of the industry’s fastest-growing players with the arrival of Circa Sports.

Las Vegas-based Circa Sports is entering Illinois through an agreement with regional casino operator Full House Resorts (NASDAQ:FLL). In releasing first-quarter results today, Full House said it broke ground on a temporary casino in Waukegan, Ill. at the eventual site of the company’s American Place gaming venue. Circa is using one of Full House’s skins in Illinois.

In exchange for such rights, the Company received a market access fee of $5 million in May 2022 and will also receive payments totaling at least $5 million per year, on an annualized basis, once Circa Sports launches its mobile sports skin in Illinois,” according to a statement issued by the regional casino firm.

The initial term of the accord is eight years, with rights for Circa to sign two four-year extensions. Circa’s entry into Illinois will be at The Temporary by American Place, where it will also operate a retail sportsbook.

Circa Illinois Interest

Illinois marks the fourth state in which Circa Sports will offer mobile sports wagering, joining Colorado, Iowa, and Nevada.

Currently, Circa’s most famous retail sportsbook — the world’s largest — is located at its namesake integrated resort in downtown Las Vegas. While more details are forthcoming regarding the Sparks sportsbook, it’s clear the operator is aiming high in Illinois.

“The Temporary will include a dedicated wagering area with betting kiosks, physical ticket windows, and digital boards with real-time odds.  Bettors can catch all the sports action on 36 televisions, ranging from 60” to 80” screens,” according to a statement issued by Circa Sports.

American Place Allure

Analysts covering Full House are already enthusiastic about the American Place project, with some noting it could generate 2023 and 2024 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $38 million and $50 million.

Adding to the appeal of the venue for both Circa Sports and Full House is the point that Waukegan, Ill. — home of the gaming property — is in the most affluent county in the state, and that the casino will be the closest to 1.2 million Illinois residents.

“The permanent American Place facility is slated to include a world-class casino with a state-of-the-art sports book; a premium boutique hotel comprised of 20 luxurious villas, each ranging from 1,500 to 2,500 square feet with full butler service; a 1,500-seat live entertainment venue; a gourmet restaurant that will rival the finest restaurants in Chicago,” notes Full House.

Separately, Full House noted a sports betting partner in Colorado and Indiana is ending its agreement with the company, and Full House is now looking for other operators to buy those skins. The casino operator didn’t confirm as much, but the firm ending the Colorado and Indiana pacts is likely Wynn Resorts (NASDAQ:WYNN).

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Two Montana women were arraigned recently in federal court for allegedly committing an armed robbery on March 20 at Billings’ Magic Diamond Casino. One then fired a gun into the air, and they led cops on a high-speed chase on the streets of Billings, federal authorities revealed in a statement released on Friday.

The women stole several bottles of whiskey from the small gaming venue and adjacent liquor store, authorities said. One allegedly pulled out the firearm and pointed it at two casino workers. Police did not say if the pair stole money, too, and the amount, if any.

But a short time later, the car was spotted by Yellowstone County deputies. The car came to a stop when it was driven into a fence at the Ponderosa Elementary School in Billings. The school is located 6.2 miles south of the gaming venue.

A woman later identified as Makyla Shayd Fetter, 27, of Harlem, allegedly jumped out of the car and ran away. Within a few minutes, she was apprehended. While at the school, Fetter allegedly tossed the firearm away.

She was believed to have been the suspect who fired the weapon. Both bandits were dressed in black sweatshirts while at the casino. Hoods covered their faces.

Child Finds Loaded Gun

On March 21, a kindergarten student at the elementary school saw, and scooped up, a loaded handgun on the school’s playground, the Billings Gazette, a local newspaper, reported. A teacher became aware of the weapon, took it from the student, and handed it over to the school’s principal. It is now seized as evidence in the casino robbery case.

The second suspect, Taliah Jeneane Ramirez, 22, of Billings, also was later apprehended.

Last month, each was charged with three federal counts after an FBI investigation. The charges include robbery affecting interstate commerce, possession of firearm during a crime of violence, and possession of a firearm in a school zone, according to the Montana US Attorney’s Office.

The two appeared before Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Cavan on April 26. The case was continued to next month.

Ramirez remains in the Yellowstone County Detention Facility on a federal prisoner hold as of today (May 5), according to online jail records.

Fetter initially was also booked into the same jail, the Gazette reported. But she either was released on bond or was transferred to another correctional facility.

Late last year, Billings saw several casino robberies. There is no indication those cases are linked to Fetter or Ramirez.

Additional Charges

Fetter was also charged by local county prosecutors for the Magic Diamond Casino robbery, the Gazette reported. Some of the charges are robbery, criminal endangerment, and tampering with physical evidence, KULR, a local TV station, reported.

It is unclear if Ramirez will face local charges, too.

The Gazette further reported that both defendants have prior charges pending in Yellowstone County.

Ramirez was charged with possession of narcotics with intent to distribute and child endangerment, the report adds. She also allegedly had meth in her possession.

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