A new cycle for international football begins with the Nations League over the next three weeks as many teams enter a new era under fresh leadership.

Jurgen Klopp’s comeback is the leading story of the international break as he returns to the dugout for the first time in two years, hoping to rebuild Germany after their calamitous World Cup exit to Paraguay in the last-32.

Klopp’s maiden outing will be against Germany’s storied rivals the Netherlands, who themselves have a new figure at the helm in the form of Barcelona legend Xavi. Scotland are another nation starting fresh with Belgian coach Sebastien Pocognoli succeeding Steve Clarke, while Roberto Mancini begins his second stint as Italy manager hoping to emulate the glory of his first.

But all eyes will not be on the technical area, with a plethora of players having a point to prove in a post-World Cup landscape, whether they played in North America this summer or not.

Here are 10 players to watch during the international break:

Florian Wirtz, Germany

Off the back of an underwhelming debut campaign at Liverpool under Arne Slot, Wirtz has so far failed to kick on under Andoni Iraola, whose playstyle was supposed to suit him better. Real doubt are now creeping in whether the £100m-man will ever live up to his price tag at Anfield – and some, like Jamie Carragher, feel the influence of Jurgen Klopp might be his only hope. Can he find some form for his country before bringing it back to Merseyside?

Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal

Ronaldo, 41, is still going. The Portugal captain played what is surely his final World Cup this summer and did not win it, with the Selecao succumbing to eventual champions Spain. Lionel Messi fell to the same fate in the United States and has since called time on his international career, but Ronaldo remains in the fold, selected by new manager Jorge Jesus who he worked under at Al-Nassr. Ronaldo is desperate to prove he’s still got it on his way to 1,000 goals, but going off performances for the past couple of years, critics will feel he’s taking up a spot in the squad from someone more deserving. Under a new managerial regime, that doesn’t seem to be changing.

Trent Alexander-Arnold, England

Who saw this coming, eh? Alexander-Arnold looked like he’d been iced out of England contention by Tuchel after being snubbed for the World Cup, not even getting a sniff when right-back Tino Livramento got injured. But the Real Madrid man is back and he’s back as a right-back, with Thomas Tuchel confirming as such. There have always been concerns of Alexander-Arnold defensively but this is chance to put those to rest. “He always said he’s up to fight for his place, especially for England, so it’s on him to prove,” Tuchel said.

Jeremie Frimpong, Netherlands

From a former Liverpool right-back to the man brought in to replace him at Anfield, things haven’t gone to plan for Frimpong over the past few months. He was snubbed from Ronald Koeman’s World Cup squad after a disappointing debut season for Liverpool, and has already fallen behind loanee Ronald Araujo – a centre-back turned makeshift right-back – in the pecking order under Andoni Iraola. Yet he’s been thrown a lifeline by Xavi, who has recalled him to the Oranje setup and given him a chance to impress. Whether he’s trying to make an impression on his club, his country or other potential suitors, Frimpong desperately needs a decent showing.

Oli McBurnie, Scotland

McBurnie has earned his long-awaited recall to the Scotland squad, having not made an international cap since 2021. The Hull City striker was snubbed for the World Cup, news which emerged days before he scored the last-minute play-off final winner to send the Tigers to the Premier League. Scotland went on to be toothless up top in the tournament, while McBurnie has gone from strength to strength, trusted in the top flight by starting every league game during Hull’s remarkable early-season run. Steve Clarke’s decision to omit McBurnie in the summer is seen by some as misguided in hindsight; under Pocognoli, the striker now has the chance to prove just that.

Robbie Ure, Scotland

From a redemption story up front to a debuting prospect, Ure is one of five newcomers to the Scotland squad as Pocognoli tries to usher in a new era. The 22-year-old joined LaLiga side Sevilla in the summer after stamping his mark in Sweden with 15 goals in 15 games. As the move away from the old guard begins, Ure will be keen to become one of the faces of Scotland’s new era.

Charalampos Kostoulas, Greece

Brighton’s Kostoulas has started the new campaign in scintillating style, bagging three goals and two assists in six games across all competitions; the 19-year-old looks the real deal. His country are staring down the barrel of some mouthwatering fixtures against the Netherlands, Serbia and Germany (twice) – if he can bring his form to the international scene against that kind of opposition, suddenly we’re talking about one of the brightest young talents on the planet.

Morgan Gibbs-White, England

Gibbs-White thought he’d have to prove his point to Tuchel while playing Nottingham Forest instead of England after he was snubbed for the 26-man squad announced last Friday. Some injury misfortune for others, however, means the 26-year-old has got his call-up, which many thought he deserved in the first place. Gibbs-White has started the season positively and there was an argument that he should’ve been ahead of Marcus Rashford in the pecking order, who he’s since replaced. Now comes the job of proving his worth so that Tuchel keeps him in the fold.

Nick Woltemade, Germany

Despite being one of the most expensive German players in history, it isn’t out of the question that when Klopp next selects a squad, Woltemade is nowhere to be seen. That’s because the Newcastle man, flogged on loan to Juventus, just doesn’t seem to fit the mould for heavy-metal football. He doesn’t seem to possess the intensity that Klopp will demand from his players. But thanks to Klopp’s decision to name a 44-man squad to try and figure out what he has at his disposal, Woltemade has a chance to make his mark.

Sandro Tonali, Italy

Italy are in need of some serious inspiration as the new international cycle begins. The gut-wrenching disappointment of a third World Cup missed on the bounce will still hurt. Under returning boss Mancini, Tonali is one of the central dressing room figures – but the midfielder needs to shake off what has been an utterly appalling start to life at Tottenham. His £100m price tag is already beginning to haunt him and Spurs will be desperate he can find his feet under the familiarity of Italian football before returning to north London a rejuvenated man.

The highly-rated teeneager has asked to leave the club and has held talks with Barcelona

Wayne Rooney has said that JJ Gabriel’s potential move away from Manchester United has been known to those close to the situation for “a while”. The highly-rated teenager has expressed his desire to leave the club.

Gabriel and his family have since flown over to Barcelona to hold talks with the Spanish giants over a possible move. He was expected to be part of the first team squad for the Carabao Cup clash against Brighton before the bombshell revelation.

United legend Rooney, who himself made his breakthrough into first team football as a teenager and has a son, Kai, playing in the academy, has now hinted that United were aware of the forward’s desire for some time. He also suggested a move to Spain could be on the cards.

Speaking on Disney+’s Stick to United, Rooney said: “I think that anyone close to it knew that was coming. In fairness to Manchester United, they’ve done everything, they’ve done absolutely everything to keep him, to keep him at the club.

“I think it’s been known that there’s been a desire to go and play probably in Spain, I think, I might be wrong, but this is what you’ve heard over the years. The club have treated him probably differently to the other players because he is such a special talent.

“I know, I recognise, I understand that because I was that player at Everton and I was getting that treatment at Everton which was you’re getting a bit more, your parents get given stuff, you’re getting that special treatment more than the other players are getting. Which as a club you need to do to try and keep your better players.

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“It’s just disappointing, of course, because he is such a top player and he’s a lovely kid. So you never know whether it’s gone too far and whether there is a chance to stay.

“But I think everyone close to it has probably known that that was going to come”

Gabriel is one of the most exciting talents in the United youth teams. Despite being just 15, he has scored 29 goals and provided four assists in 32 appearances for the club’s Under-18s team. He has also scored two and provided two assists in two appearances for the Under-21s.

Speaking about the situation, United boss Michael Carrick is keen to protect the young player. “He’s a young boy, JJ, and I think it’s important that we certainly don’t play anything out here,” he said.

“I think the exposure and the scrutiny and everything, you’ve got to be careful and be sensible and think of him as much as anything. So the situation will work itself out, whatever way it’s going to work itself out. Making sure he’s okay is the important thing.”

Blind Raise has solidified its position as the second favourite for the 2026 Caulfield Guineas, following an impressive win in a preliminary race at Caulfield.

The three-year-old colt, trained by Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young, encountered early pressure in the Group 3 Caulfield Guineas Prelude (1400m) held on Saturday. It subsequently had to withstand a mid-race manoeuvre before scoring untroubled.

Sent out as the $2.40 favourite with Blake Shinn in the saddle, Blind Raise achieved a commanding 2-¾ length victory over Tornado Valley ($19), with American Eagle ($5) a short-head adrift in third.

Post-race, Blind Raise’s odds for the Caulfield Guineas (1600m) on October 10 were slashed from $11 to $4, placing the colt as the second elect behind Tron Bolt ($3.50).

Shinn commented that Saturday’s performance was a statement of intent with three weeks remaining until the Guineas.

“He’s an exceptional horse,” Shinn stated. “I’m just delighted to get a win for Trent and Natalie. They’re great judges of horses. It didn’t work for the horse in the winter when they took him to Queensland and they’ve come back and he’s just got a real aura about him. We’ve got three weeks into the Guineas, and he was off a two-week backup into today off one trial into his first-up run. I’m pleased he’s got three weeks into the Guineas. Trent can do what he likes with him and it’s exciting.”

Busuttin indicated that Blind Raise was a markedly different proposition for Saturday’s race compared to his first-up win at Sandown on September 5.

“He’s improved a hell of a lot,” Busuttin remarked. “He’s such a relaxed, calm horse, and first-up off the back of one trial when at Sandown, he was sweating, he was jig-jogging, he was up-and-about, but today he was asleep and I knew it was game on.”

Blind Raise was indeed tested, needing to expend energy up the hill from the 1400m start, before finding a position outside the leader, Alchemistic.

Later, Ethan Brown, piloting Wolf Gap, initiated a move before the turn, injecting further intensity into the race.

“He’s a horse with a good turn of foot,” Busuttin added. “When they whipped around and Blake was still sitting pretty on him, I was pretty happy. He will go into the Guineas without another run. It was a two-week turnaround without a break and it’s three weeks to the Guineas and then another two weeks … to the Cox Plate.”

With the Caulfield Guineas approaching, considering the available betting markets for the race could be a prudent step for punters.

Yes, Polymarket is legal in California, with the Polymarket app and polymarket.us operating as a licensed prediction market being regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), an agency of the federal government. Using the Polymarket promo code CBSSPORTS in California unlocks a $50 bonus trading credit for new users after a $10+ deposit. Credits can be used to trade event contracts, including today’s MLB games. Tap here for the Polymarket US $50 welcome bonus. 

New users in California can claim the Polymarket promo code by registering with the promo code CBSSPORTS. Once complete, deposit $10+ to receive $50 in bonus trading credits. Existing users are not eligible.

The $50 trading bonus is non-withdrawable. Credits cannot be redeemed for cash, transferred, or exchanged. The trading credits must be used within the Polymarket US platform. Any earnings from settled trades will convert to withdrawable cash. 

If a trade settles at a loss, deposited funds are applied first to cover the loss, and any remaining bonus is still available for additional trades. Remaining credits will be removed from your account after they expire. 

Certain markets available on the global Polymarket platform may not be available on the Polymarket U.S. app. For full terms and conditions, visit Polymarket.us.

The Kalshi California welcome bonus is $55 and requires $25+ in trades to unlock.

Is Polymarket legal in California?

Yes, Polymarket is legal in California. The Polymarket app and its desktop site polymarket.us fall under federal licensing, with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulating Polymarket US. This is a different platform than polymarket.com, a global cryptocurrency exchange, which is not legal or available in the United States.  

Because they are federally licensed, the list of prediction market legal states is quite long and includes California.

Prediction markets on the Polymarket app allow users to trade on event contracts, including sports event outcomes. That means you can trade on a Lakers victory or a Rams vs. 49ers outcome legally after claiming the Polymarket California promo code.  

Polymarket US is just one of several California prediction market apps operating in the state. 

Last verified September 22, 2026 

Which Markets Are Available to California Traders on Polymarket?

Sports markets are the most popular type of market by trading volume in the U.S., according to Polymarket US. Other market types include weather and the economy. For more information on how to trade, visit our page on how prediction markets work. 

Sports markets

Polymarket California offers event contract trading for the outcome of specific sporting events, including game results, season-long outcomes and player performances. Prices are listed in percentages, and you buy either “Yes” or “No” contracts on the outcomes.

Let’s look at an NFL prediction markets example. If the Rams are hosting the 49ers, and Los Angeles is trading at Yes 60% to win, you would pay $0.60 per event contract. 

If the trade settles successfully (LA wins), you get $1 per contract, for a profit of $0.40 per contract. 

If the trade settles as a failure (LA loses), you lose the entire $0.60 per contract.

Available leagues on the Polymarket app include:

• MLB, NPB (Japan) and KBO (South Korea) 
• NBA, WNBA and college basketball
• NFL and college football
• Soccer (MLS, Champions League, Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, Liga MX)
• UFC and boxing
• Motorsports
• Tennis and table tennis
• Golf
• Cycling
• Esports
• Cricket
• Chess

To make trades on teams like the 49ers and Rams, click here to get started and claim your $50 bonus after depositing $10 with the Polymarket promo code CBSSPORTS: 

Polymarkets for California Sports Teams

California has plenty of teams to trade on at Polymarket US, and the platform offers championship markets, playoff markets, and game-by-game contracts for nearly every major franchise in the state. Here is a preview of some of those teams, with Polymarket app prices as of September 22, 2026.

Los Angeles Rams (15¢)

The Rams began the 2026 NFL season as the highest price in futures trading to win the pro football championship, sitting at approximately 17% to win it all (84% No). Adding reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett, who’s currently out with a knee injury, and getting former Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald to come out of retirement were big storylines leading up to the regular season.

Los Angeles Chargers (1.3¢)

The Chargers were positioned as a top-10 contender on the Polymarket app’s futures market to win it all. Two straight losses caused them to drop in the market. The team added former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel as its new offensive coordinator but lost defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, as he left to become head coach of the Ravens. The Chargers were 5% in the pro football championship market (96% No) heading into the season. 

San Francisco 49ers (7.5¢)

After a disappointing 2025 campaign, the 49ers are once again poised to contend in one of the toughest divisions in the NFL. Quarterback Brock Purdy will once again call the shots for a team that includes running back Christian McCaffrey and edge rusher Nick Bosa. When healthy, this roster is considered one of the strongest in football. An impressive victory against the market-leading Rams to open the season saw a spike in the Niners price.

Los Angeles Dodgers (31¢)

The Dodgers are the most-traded team on the Polymarket app’s baseball futures markets and the clear World Series top choice in trading by the public. Their price to win the 2026 title sits at roughly 32% (68% No), the largest gap between one team and the rest of the field all season, and that number jumped several points immediately after the club acquired back-to-back Cy Young-winning starting pitcher Tarik Skubal from Detroit at the trade deadline.

Los Angeles Lakers (2¢)

The Lakers enter the 2026-27 NBA season at a small price in the Polymarket app’s championship exchange, sitting at roughly 5% to win the title (96% No). This offseason, the Lakers lost LeBron James in free agency, and the team now centers around All-Star guard Luka Doncic.

Setting up a Polymarket app account in California

Signing up for a Polymarket California account is straightforward when you follow these steps:

1. Click any of the CLAIM BONUS buttons on this page to be taken to the Polymarket California landing page.
2. Download Polymarket US, one of several prediction market apps available for both iOS and Android smartphones.
3. Complete registration by entering personal information that is required, such as your birthdate and Social Security number, and uploading your government-issued ID to verify your identity.
4. When prompted, enter the promo code CBSSPORTS.
5. Deposit your funds by clicking in the top right corner of the screen; a minimum of $10 is required to claim the Polymarket California bonus offer.
6. When your funds clear, you will receive the bonus funds in your account.

How to claim the $50 Polymarket promo code in California

To deposit funds and claim your welcome offer, tap “Deposit” in the upper right corner of the screen or go to your Portfolio. Select your deposit method from the list of available options, including debit card, online banking, wire transfer, and Apple Pay. 

You’ll need to deposit at least $10 to claim the $50 Polymarket welcome bonus. The $50 will be awarded as trading credits, meaning you won’t be able to withdraw them until used and, if you win, converted into real money.

Make trades on teams like the Lakers and Dodgers and claim your $50 bonus after depositing $10 with the Polymarket promo code CBSSPORTS:   

Responsible Trading

Polymarket US doesn’t offer an expansive responsible trading section, but those who feel they need responsible trading assistance can contact the national helpline at 1-800-MY-RESET.

Polymarket US does partner with licensed Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) to provide customers access to responsible trading measures. FCMs manage daily trading limits. Those interested can contact FCMs through the Polymarket app to: 

• Implement credit and position limits for each customer account
• Validate orders against account limits before submission and reject orders that exceed established thresholds

Additional help and resources are available through the NCPG’s Financial Trader Health and Safety Initiative. 

FAQ

Is Polymarket legal in California?

Yes, the Polymarket app is a federally licensed prediction market platform that allows users to trade on the outcome of events, including sports. It is regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), an agency of the federal government. 

What is the Polymarket CA promo code?

The Polymarket promo code for California is CBSSPORTS, and you can claim the offer to receive a $50 trading bonus when you deposit your first $10+.

Does Polymarket require California residents to verify identity differently than other states?

Polymarket California users are under no restrictions once they verify their identity. The platform uses geolocation to determine a user’s location, so California residents can trade anywhere the platform is available. Polymarket is not available in Nevada, and offerings are limited in some other states.

Is Polymarket’s welcome bonus available to California residents?

The Polymarket promo code California offer of a $50 welcome bonus is available to any eligible new user in a location where the platform operates legally. That includes California. Just use Polymarket offer code CBSSPORTS during registration.

What happens to my Polymarket account if California’s legal status changes?

A change that would automatically make every prediction market platform in California legal or illegal is unlikely, but a change in legal status could affect which categories of event contracts can be offered. The exact outcome depends on developments in various courts. 

Which teams can you trade on with Polymarket in California?

In addition to California-based sports teams like the Lakers, Dodgers and Rams, users in the Golden State can also make trades on countless other leagues and sports teams, including NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, tennis, golf, WNBA, MLS, college sports, combat sports, motorsports and more.

Event contracts trading involves a risk of substantial loss and is not suitable for all investors. Participation in prediction markets is subject to applicable eligibility requirements.  Participation may be restricted or prohibited in certain jurisdictions and participants are responsible for ensuring their participation complies with applicable laws and regulations in their jurisdiction. Prediction markets content is not intended for individuals located in jurisdictions where they are prohibited. Additional help and resources are available through the NCPG’s Financial Trader Health and Safety Initiative page. 

France has reportedly postponed this year’s G7 summit in the spa town of Evian-les-Bains in order not to conflict with US President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday on June 14.

The meeting of G7 leaders was originally scheduled for June 14-16.  

However, US magazine Politico reported that the event has been moved to June 15-17 in order to not disrupt the 47th US president’s birthday celebrations. The US also marks Flag Day on June 14. 

The White House this year has plans to hold a mixed martial arts fight on the grounds of the White House for Trump’s entertainment. Trump is close friends with Dana White, the CEO and president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).  

The previous president in the White House, Joe Biden, also turned 80 while in office in 2022 but chose a more low-key celebration of coconut cake at brunch.  

Postponement due to ‘consultations with G7 partners’ 

French President Emmanuel Macron said the event’s postponement was due to “consultations with G7 partners.”

The G7 consists of the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan. Each year’s annual summit is held in a different G7 country on a rotating basis.  

Trump warns European allies ‘to be careful’

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France’s decision to possibly accommodate Trump comes after the US president has frequently verbally attacked traditional US allies. In his second term in office, Trump has launched a trade war which has impacted other G7 members, with Trump also pressuring European countries and Japan to spend more on defense.

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Edited by Sean Sinico

You missed something crucial in that Sydney Sweeney ad

Hello and welcome to another edition of Offside.Last week, everyone lost their collective marvels over an ad featuring Sydney Sweeneywhich became a civilisational debate about what a woman can do with her body, with female athletes accusing her of sending us back to the Stone Age. Men jumped up to attack wokeism or whatever they think Sweeney was critiquing. What almost everyone missed, other than the fact that Sweeney isn’t a female athlete, was something staring everyone in the face: that it was an ad for a gambling company.And gambling is the ubiquitous, omniscient, omnipresent and omnivorous elephant present in every room that sports fans continue to miss. More than a century before Sydney Sweeney tried to convince us that gambling was “Just Sports”, Manchester United and Liverpool demonstrated that gambling and sport have never really been just anything.On Good Friday in 1915, relegation-threatened United beat Liverpool 2-0 in a match so obviously suspicious that the Manchester Football Chronicle said it was “surprised and disgusted” by what it had witnessed. Bookmakers noticed a flurry of bets on the exact 2-0 scoreline, an investigation followed, and seven players from the two clubs were eventually banned for life for conspiring to fix the game.To be fair, wagering has been around since humans started running, fighting or throwing things, ever since we invented currency or competitive insecurity. But what has changed is its all-intrusive nature. As people joke, earlier the internet was something that was only available in a cybercafe or a computer classroom for an hour a day before we went out to touch grass. But today, thanks to the internet, it’s almost everywhere.For most of human history, betting was a physical activity. You had to go to a shadowy gully or a physical casino to place your bet. Even sports betting, compared with a slot machine, was a slower activity: you placed a wager and waited for the match to end.Now, that bookmaker occupies the same digital real estate as your social media accounts, your bank and the stream showing you the game.The product is faster, more granular and designed to keep you trapped.The easiest noob explanation is usually dopamine — the neuroscience equivalent of Mercury in retrograde — blamed for everything and understood by no one.Gambling does involve the brain’s reward system, but it’s not just that winning feels good. It’s the anticipation, learning and the gap between what happened and what could have happened. Gambling repeats that uncertainty. A Cambridge study in 2009 found that people who come close and lose have an increased desire to continue. The loss for the bank account isn’t necessarily a loss for the brain.A 2024 study of two million individual online bets found gamblers bet bigger after an immediate loss. Simply put, when you lose Rs 1,000, your brain tells you the next Rs 1,000 could be used to earn that money back.In 2026, the smartphone has stripped away all the barriers and pauses in which common sense could kick in. In-play betting turns a game into thousands of discrete events: the next scorer, the next corner, the next card, player props and a myriad other things.For most people who gamble, it doesn’t become an addiction. But for some — WHO estimates 1.2% of the world’s adult population has a gambling disorder — the belief that the next win will fix everything can become part of the cycle. At a high-risk level, WHO believes an average of six other people feel the ripple effect. And now we have a peculiar problem where gambling is so interwoven into sport that it’s almost impossible to deal with.Different countries have tried different approaches. Britain tried regulating it and gambling became woven into the very fabric of football, quite literally. While new Premier League rules mean the front of shirts can’t carry sponsorships from betting companies, they can still appear almost everywhere else, including sleeves, LED boards, broadcasts and the wider commercial ecosystem. America opened the door to legal betting after 2018 and watched it morph into player props, micro-markets and prediction contracts. India went the other way and banned online money games altogether, forcing companies like Dream11 to shut paid contests, though that hardly affected offshore or illegal operators.And the gambling company promoted by Sweeney is a new kind of digital chimera. Novig describes itself as a sports prediction market built “by sports traders for sports traders”, which sounds like the sort of rebranding exercise one might expect from an industry that has discovered the words punter and bookie lack the aspirational quality of trader and market.Except in this case the distinction is real.In a traditional sportsbook, the bookmaker sets the odds, builds in its margin and takes the other side of your bet. Novig operates as an exchange. Users buy and sell contracts whose prices move between zero and one dollar depending on what the market believes an outcome is worth. A contract priced at 40 cents pays a dollar if the event happens and zero if it does not, but unlike the old betting slip, you need not necessarily wait for the final whistle. If the price moves from 40 cents to 65 cents, you can sell your position before the match is over. Other users take the opposite side and the market, rather than a bookmaker alone, helps determine the price.The vocabulary follows the architecture.Bets become contracts, punters become traders, odds become prices and the whole thing sounds like a Wolf of Wall Street remake. Novig launched nationwide in August after becoming a federally regulated Designated Contract Market under the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, whose filings now include sports contracts covering everything from NFL games and college football to Premier League and Champions League outcomes.Ergo, the bookmaker became the sportsbook. The sportsbook became the app. And now the app represents Mammon’s greatest representative on earth: Wall Street.Which is why the Sweeney outrage was such a spectacular Trojan horse. For days, people argued over feminism, female athletes, wokeism, beauty standards and whatever other culture-war grievance could be squeezed out of a 30-second advert. Meanwhile, the company buying all that attention represented the latest evolution of an industry steadily erasing the old distinction between wagering on sport and trading an asset whose value happens to depend on sport. Since a lot of folks were outraged about what the Sydney Sweeney ad would mean for women, here’s what it can mean in the real world beyond asinine culture wars. The person placing the bet might be a man, but the losses rarely remain his alone. A 2025 review of 121 studies found that women were more often the family members harmed by somebody else’s gambling, with emotional and relationship damage followed by financial and health harms. Another Australian study found that women affected by another person’s gambling were more likely to have been harmed by a partner or family member and tended to report greater overall harm.That can mean savings disappearing, rent or school money being diverted, debt accumulating without a partner’s knowledge and relationships being held together by increasingly desperate financial lies. WHO also lists family violence and child neglect among documented gambling harms.None of that means gambling automatically turns men violent. But the combination of debt, secrecy, shame, arguments over money and pre-existing coercive behaviour can leave women carrying the consequences of somebody else’s compulsion long after the bet is settled.So while the internet spent days deciding whether Sydney Sweeney had somehow set women back, there was already a much less theoretical gender problem sitting behind the advert: women losing household security, relationships and, in the worst cases, physical safety because of gambling by men around them.That is rather more tangible than an imagined slight to female athletes. We spent so much time arguing about the Trojan horse that we almost failed to notice what had been carted into our city.

Brandin Podziemski’s big role under Steve Kerr started chatter around the NBA, and Gilbert Arenas is leading the charge. Arenas went on his Gil’s Arena podcast and openly questioned how the young guard earned so much power in the organization after the front office let Klay Thompson walk.

“Who is Brandin Podziemski sleeping with, bruh? Man, like Jesus Christ. This man gotta know, he got to know something or know somebody because there’s no way I got rid of Klay for him.”

Former Warriors big man DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins completely agreed with the sentiment, adding,

“It’s the real question, bro… When I played for the Warriors, I didn’t get that much of a leash. When I was coming off three, four All-Stars, I didn’t get that much of a leash. When you average 14, five, and four last season… he’s not a game-changer. He’s like a role player.”

When the room argued that fans cannot expect Podziemski to duplicate Thompson’s production, Cousins doubled down, highlighting the shooting guard’s 39% shooting from deep in his last year with the Mavericks.

“He took Klay’s spot. Come on, bro. 18 points. Come on, bro. And they can’t play one minute.”

Arenas didn’t stop at taking shots at the guard’s status, breaking down exactly why he thinks the on-court fit is wrong, adding,

“Klay got booed out of Golden State averaging 18 with the same stats. So I’m trying to figure out, like, cuz it’s not like your defense… you don’t play defense… It’s just confusing because the style don’t match.”

Brandin Podziemski steps into a much bigger role following Thompson’s departure to the Dallas Mavericks. The franchise icon left a massive void in the backcourt, but Podziemski showed promise last year by averaging 13.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists, proving he can grow with more floor time.

Golden State did draft Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg 11th overall this summer, but a rookie can’t carry the load by himself. They need Podziemski’s scoring to take the pressure off Stephen Curry while Steve Kerr and Draymond Green try to make one last run at a title before their championship window closes.

Read more: “He Might Be Back” – Ex-All Star Drops Wild Russell Westbrook Prediction As Former MVP Enters Retirement Era

Golden State’s looming Brandin Podziemski extension

As a member of the 2023 draft class, Brandin Podziemski is officially eligible for a rookie extension, but Golden State hasn’t locked in a long-term deal yet. He is currently playing out his original four-year, $16.2 million rookie contract, which carries a $5.6 million cap hit for the 2026-27 season.

He enters this year with a golden opportunity to prove his worth, as Jimmy Butler’s injury opens up massive minutes in the rotation. Butler remains sidelined while recovering from a torn ACL suffered in January. While his rehab is progressing positively with no setbacks, he is expected to miss the start of the season, with insiders targeting a realistic return to the court around January or February 2027.

Until then, a breakout campaign will put Brandin Podziemski in line for a massive payday before he hits restricted free agency in 2027. It will also give the front office a clear answer on whether he is a permanent piece of the new core or a valuable trade chip to move while his value is sky-high.

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