Five years after the US Supreme Court overturned the federal ban on sports betting, nearly 40 states have jumped on the sports betting bandwagon. However, Florida remains an outlier.

Daniel Wallach, a South Florida gaming attorney and adjunct professor at the University of Miami, explained that the status quo almost shifted in 2021. That year, Governor Ron Desantis entered into an exclusive gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, granting them the sole right to conduct sports wagering activities within the state.

“2021 compact which gave the Seminole Tribe statewide control over all sports wagering, including online sports betting, I mean, they knew a lawsuit was coming,�� Wallach said.

And a lawsuit did indeed emerge. West Flagler Associates, the former owners of Miami’s Magic City Casino until February, argued that this compact violated federal laws, which were understood to restrict such agreements to tribal territories. They contended that online domains were beyond these confines.

“At that point, the tribe had already been operating online sports betting for just over a month, which led to a halt in their operations,�� Wallach said.

Fast-tracking to today, Wallach announced, “The federal court judge in Washington DC handed a victory, at this stage, to the Seminole Tribe.”

Barring an appeal from West Flagler Associates at the state level or even to the Supreme Court, the Seminoles are set to rake in significant gains.

“Their expected revenues on online sports betting will be in the billions annually,�� Wallach said.

��No other state of comparable size has a single operator governing all of sports betting.”

Regarding the prospect of the case reaching the US Supreme Court, which takes fewer than 4% of cases, Wallach said that the odds might be higher in this instance. This belief stems from the multiple conflicting rulings in lower federal courts on the scope of federal power in state negotiations with tribes over online gaming compacts.

The Seminole Tribe, while refraining from commenting on their future plans for sports betting or esports betting, expressed satisfaction with the court’s verdict.

Esports betting has slowly become more accepted across the states that have legalised sports betting in the USA, with specific legislation addressing it in many places.

This acceptance has come with some caveats and push back, with some worried that the young demographic of esports, will combine poorly with online betting and promote problem gambling.

Many of the most popular esports games are played by people in their teens, with some of the world’s best players still underage.

Florida has pro teams based there in games like Overwatch and Call of Duty.

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Both Elisa and ENCE have stated that their respective organizations intend to collaborate on the production of content while also investing in esports competitions and regional scenes in Finland.

There was no disclosure of either the financial intricacies or the duration of the partnership.

��Elisa��s long-term investment into the Finnish esports landscape has been an inspiration to ENCE, especially regarding the CS:GO Academy programme,” ENCE��s CEO Mika Kuusisto said.

��We want to continue pioneering and developing the esports ecosystem along with other parties, which has made the collaboration with Elisa a natural fit. ��

The two parties only declared that they are going to focus on strengthening the overall ecosystem and scene of esports in Finland. Neither of them involved in the collaboration disclosed any additional details regarding the alliance.

In addition to being one of the most well-known telecommunications companies in Finland, Elisa is well-known for its support of esports on a local, regional, and even international level. ESL Gaming, GRID, and Relog Media are just a few of the well-known esports organizations that have collaborated with this company in the past.

Elisa also organizes and runs its very own competition, known as the Elisa Esports Masters Espoo, which is scheduled to take place later this year. This tournament will serve in an official capacity as an affiliate event for the ESL Pro Tour.

The Elisa Masters ’22 tournament will feature 12 famed teams from all over the world competing for a prize pool of $200,000. This will be a big milestone, serving as the largest esports event ever held in Finland.

The top team will not only take home the $200,000 in prize money but they will also be given a spot in the Play-In Stage of the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Katowice 2023 tournament. The event will take place from the 18th through the 20th of November 2022 at the Espoo Metro Arena.

ENCE is a European esports organization that is most well-known for its achievements in the games Counter Strike: Global Offensive and Starcraft. Serral, one of the team’s Starcraft 2 players, is presently considered to be amongst the most successful players in the industry. In addition, the ENCE CS: GO team is now regarded as the 10th best CS:GO roster worldwide, although the organization just made major changes to the roster.

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The changes include the addition of former ENCE captain Joonas “doto” Forss, former FunPlux Phoenix rifler Jesse “zehN” Linjala, up-and-coming sniper Jarkko “Spargo” Rahja and veteran Mikko “xartE” V?limaa as the new head coach of the all-Finnish CS:GO team.

In a bid to rebuild the team around riflers Jani “Aerial” Jussila and Sami “xseveN” Laasanen, HAVU benched Joona “Sm1llee” Holmstr?m, Otto “ottoNd” Sihvo, and Olli “sLowi” Pitk?nen a few weeks ago, to create room for the new signings.

After experiencing consistently poor performances in the first half of 2022, the Finnish organization hopes the additions will raise the quality level of the squad during competitions.

Welcome @spargoCS @dotocsgo @zehncsgo @xarteCSGO

https://t.co/YZUbVRPikW pic.twitter.com/VsAtHjW6wu

— HAVU (@HAVUgaming) July 28, 2022

Both zehN and doto are reunited with HAVU as a result of the move. Doto joined the franchise in 2019 and represented its CS:GO esports team until the end of 2020 when he left to join fellow Finnish franchise, ENCE.

With his experience and the leadership skilla, the 26-year old has been made the in-game leader.

While the former FPX rifle, zehN represented HAVU for less than a year from May 3, 2018, to January 17, 2019. After his time with HAVU, he has since played for four different franchises.

Spargo joined the franchise after two years with KOVA Esports. Prior to KOVA, he had represented two other franchises, Team Viral and hREDS (formerly known as Helsinki Reds).

Reacting to re-signing with HAVU Gaming, Zehn spoke highly of the franchise. He shared his long-time desire to play alongside Aerial and xseveN, as he looks forward to raising the level of the Finnish CS:GO scene.

��I get to play in many maps the same roles that I played with international teams,�� zehN said.

��In some maps, however, my roles have changed and it gives more power in terms of learning. The first trainings have gone well and I have enjoyed playing. Returning to Finnish CS has been refreshing and I’ve always wanted to play with Aerial and XSEVEN anyway. I believe that we have a great package to raise Finnish CS to a new level.��

Spargo, who happens to be the youngest player on the roster, said:

��With a very good feeling, I go to play with such experienced teammates. I want to learn new things, but also bring my own thoughts to the team’s play. Expectations are of course high, but I try to focus only on my own performance. I feel that we have the potential all the way to the top.��

HAVU has been the best CS:GO team in Finland since ENCE went into international space. Last year, Aerial and xseveN helped get the squad to a new height, attaining the 14th place position in the world according to the HLTV rankings, after winning Snow Sweet Snow Two in April 2021.

HAVU, on the other hand, was unable to replicate those results and thus failed to make the list of qualified teams for the PGL Stockholm Major in 2021 as well as this year’s PGL Antwerp Major.

It is expected that zehN, doto, Spargo, and coach xartE will make their HAVU debuts in August at the Assembly Summer 2022 LAN tournament in Finland.

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