The beginning of the 2025–26 NBA season has been marred by an off-court scandal.

On Thursday, three current and former NBA players, including Heat guard Terry Rozier and Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups, were arrested as part of two separate gambling-related federal investigations. One of the cases involves the use of insider information to place fraudulent bets on NBA games.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver even had to address the sports betting allegations Friday during the Knicks vs. Celtics game, the league’s first regular-season game streamed on Amazon Prime Video.

“I guess I wouldn’t have predicted that my first interview on Amazon would be about sports betting, but I accept that. … I apologize to our fans that we are all dealing with now this situation,” Silver said.

Unfortunately for the league, the investigations have shifted the focus away from an exciting start to the season, including record-setting opening-night ratings, and what looks to be the new era of Victor Wembanyama.

In the first three games, the 7-foot-4 French star is averaging 33 points, 13 rebounds, and 6 blocks to lead the Spurs to a 3–0 start. And he’s producing highlight reels in every game that have gone viral.

According to the NBA, the 21-year-old Wembanyama has driven more than 203 million views across NBA social media accounts, the most among all NBA players through the first six days of the season. Steph Curry was second at 193 million.

“It’s like playing against your dad in the driveway when you’re eight years old,” Jay Bilas said about Wembanyama during San Antonio’s season opener against the Mavericks.

Wembanyama’s emergence may be the solution to a problem the league has faced for the last several years: Who is the next face of the NBA?

The NBA’s most famous stars—LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Curry—are at least 37 years old and expected to retire in the coming years. The league’s new crop of stars, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić, and Giannis Antetokounmpo, have yet to show that they can pull in the same TV audience.

Shohei Ohtani has built the model for Wembanyama and the NBA: an international star with a skill set that has never been seen in the history of the sport. Ohtani has turned into the face of MLB, and he’s brought  improved U.S. ratings and historic international buzz.

The timing of Wembanyama’s rise also mirrors that of James when he carried that mantle left by Michael Jordan.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the NBA battled similar questions about who would take over as its next star as Jordan was on his way out and ratings started to dip. Kobe Bryant helped bridge the gap before James claimed the crown.

James’s popularity surged in the 2010s, when he won two championships with the Heat and then another with the Cavaliers. But his real ascent began in his third year, the 2005–06 season. That was when he carried the Cavaliers to the playoffs for the first time in his career and placed second in MVP voting—and emerged as the next face of the league. 

This year is Wembanyama’s third season, and he has the opportunity to lead the Spurs to the playoffs for the first time in his career. 

Five and a half months remain in the NBA regular season, so there’s plenty of time left for the NBA to hope the betting investigations are put on the back burner and for Wembanyama to take over headlines. But the scandal’s timing is clearly not ideal for the NBA.

LOS ANGELES — The largest chunk of what could be another record-setting pool of postseason player compensation in Major League Baseball is about to be generated this week at Dodger Stadium.

As the World Series shifts to California for Games 3–5 of the World Series between the Blue Jays and Dodgers, MLB’s largest facility is set to be a major financial engine to generate revenue for players competing in the postseason. Depending on the final numbers, that revenue could once again be arriving at historic levels.

MLB player contracts cover their performance during the regular season, but those competing in the postseason are then paid through a separate pool. That pool is created from 60% of the gate receipts from the first four games of the World Series and each league championship series, and the first three games of each division series, and then 50% of the receipts from the first two games of each wild-card series. 

As a result, the postseason player pool often exists as a function of the ballpark capacities of the competing teams. No team fuels that more than the Dodgers, playing at home in the 56,000-capacity Dodger Stadium and MLB’s perennial attendance leader. Games 3 and 4 of the World Series, meanwhile, will blend that big facility size with face-value ticket prices in Los Angeles starting at nearly $900, including fees. 

With the Dodgers winning last year’s championship, the player pool reached a record $129.1 million, shattering the prior record by more than $21 million, with Los Angeles claiming $46.47 million of that. The World Series winner gets 36% of the pool, the other league champion receives 24%, the league championship losers share 24%, the four division series losers split 13%, and the four wild-card losers divide 3%.

This year’s 12-team MLB postseason field had five new teams compared to last year, most notably the Blue Jays and the Mariners, with Seattle playing in MLB’s third-largest stadium in T-Mobile Park. Overall, the mix of competing playoff teams this year have slightly larger ballparks, suggesting that another record player pool is on the way. 

Team Math

Players on the playoff teams then have private meetings to divide their respective pools into full individual shares, partial shares, and cash awards, with other club personnel, such as clubhouse attendants, potentially receiving life-changing amounts of money from players. 

For young players who haven’t become eligible for arbitration or free agency, those awards can also be quite impactful financially. Based on last year’s totals, a full share for the Blue Jays will be at least $350,000, and potentially much more should they defeat the Dodgers for the World Series title.

That sum is far more than the 2025 major league salary of $57,204, prorated from the league minimum, for Toronto pitcher Trey Yesavage, who was called up from the minors for just the last two weeks of the regular season, but went on to start Game 1 of the World Series for the Blue Jays. The postseason share he’ll receive will be at least roughly half of the 2026 MLB league minimum of $780,000.

Blue Jays manager John Schneider, however, was still quick to point out the $4.17 million signing bonus the pitcher received after being drafted last year with the 20th pick.

“He’s making more money than me. He’s got more money than me,” said Schneider, whose salary is reportedly about $2.5 million. 

LOS ANGELES — The World Series has shifted to Dodger Stadium for the next three games, but history was made back in Canada for the opening set of contests.

Sportsnet said Monday that Game 1 of the World Series averaged 7 million viewers in Canada, setting a new record for the most-watched Blue Jays game ever on the network. Game 2 then averaged 6.6 million, with both games beating the 6 million for Game 7 of the American League Championship Series a week ago, which had been the record. 

For Game 1 in particular, that figure represents about 17% of the entire country, a level of penetration that exists only in the U.S. for the latter portions of the NFL playoffs. 

The gaudy viewership, while certainly expected, represents another reflection of the substantial interest Canada has in Major League Baseball, and the Blue Jays specifically—to the point that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said multiple Canadian cities could be expansion candidates.

The Sportsnet figures are also a further sign of the rising strength of Rogers Communications, the parent company of the network, the Blue Jays, and now one of the most powerful sports ownership entities in the world. 

Initial U.S. viewership of the World Series on Fox has not yet been released, but the presence of a Canadian market not rated by Nielsen in the matchup presents a fundamentally different lens to measure the event. 

The PGA Tour’s latest unexpected breakout star not only has an incredible opportunity on pro golf’s top circuit after his unlikely win Sunday, but also newfound momentum away from the course, too.

First things first: Michael Brennan more than quadrupled his prior career earnings ($247,389) by winning the Bank of Utah Championship, a fall PGA Tour event at Black Desert Resort that paid out a $1.08 million first-place prize from a $6 million purse.

Brennan, 23, was making his first PGA Tour start as a pro, after receiving a sponsor’s exemption, and is the first player to win playing on one since Nick Dunlap won The American Express as an amateur in January 2024.

The Wake Forest graduate won three times this year on the PGA Tour Americas, earning $40,500 per victory on the third-tier circuit that plays in Canada as well as Central and South America. He finished first in the season-long points race and earned a 2026 membership to the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour. But he’ll be skipping that step in his pro journey, since Sunday’s win comes with a two-year exemption onto the PGA Tour. 

While Brennan said Sunday he had not yet processed what the victory means, he has at least three important dates to bookmark for next season, as he’s now in the field for the PGA Championship, Players Championship, and RBC Heritage (one of eight $20 million PGA Tour signature events). “It’ll be all good things to learn in the future,” Brennan said. “I really haven’t thought that far.”

This is the first year that fall PGA Tour events don’t automatically earn invites to The Masters, but Brennan had moved up to No. 43 in the Official World Golf Ranking; if he’s inside the top 50 at the end of the year, he’ll lock up a tee time at Augusta National in April.

Up and Up

Brennan’s off-course portfolio is steady but expectedly light, compared to some of the sport’s top players, given his young career.

• Clubs/balls: Titleist
• Apparel: Dunning and Titleist/FootJoy
• Endorsement deals: Old National Bank and Fortinet

More off-course income is likely on the way, from Brennan’s current deals and new ones, given the vastly increased exposure he’ll receive week-to-week on the PGA Tour. He’s represented by sports agency Wasserman, which has a large presence in golf, including star clients like Jason Day, Rickie Fowler, Tony Finau, and Viktor Hovland.