Phil Murphy responds to WFAN’s Mike Francesa, talks sports betting

Phil Murphy has received his first audience with Mike Francesa. The New Jersey governor hopped on WFAN on Tuesday, June 12, 2018 (6/12/18) to talk sports betting, which begins on Thursday, June 14, 2018 (6/14/18) at 10:30 a.m. at Monmouth Park.

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Phil Murphy has received his first audience with Mike Francesa. 

The New Jersey governor hopped on WFAN on Tuesday, hours after the big guy blasted him for his announcement he had signed legislation to officially bring legal sports betting to the Garden State, and … well, let’s just say Murphy didn’t need his hard hat if he brought one.

New Jersey’s No. 1 (elected official) and New York’s Numbah One had a breezy talk about all things sports wagering ahead of Monmouth Park (and other sites potentially) going live at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday.

Some highlights: 

Behind enemy lines: Murphy, a Massachusetts native, confirmed to Francesa he grew up a Red Sox fan. “But I’m not looking to start any fights with fans of other great baseball teams,” he added.

Online betting: Francesa’s big issue the other day was the fact New Jersey will have a 30-day wait before it has online sports betting:

Wait a second. If you’re New Jersey, why would you put out a release like this? … What kind of way? If you’re a government, you do business that way. If you’re a private business, you would never – you would fire people if they did business that way. ‘Here it is, our grand opening, and we’re not open? You think Amazon does that? You think Apple does that? You think Apple says, ‘Hey, come to the Apple Store, we’re putting the phone on sale tomorrow, but we won’t have any for 30 days?’ That’s why when you give bureaucrats or anyone in government a chance to do something, they’ll screw it up.

But Murphy seemed to have a good enough explanation for Francesa.

“The bill I signed had in it that the online piece would come in 30 days after the actual bricks and mortar. That’s to make sure we get the online piece of this exactly right in working with the enforcement side of this,” Murphy said, adding Monmouth Park and the Borgata casino in Atlantic City, which may take bets Thursday, are on track to start taking bets sooner than other casinos and racetracks because they invested more in sports betting before the Supreme Court decision giving New Jersey its win.

Cash flow: Murphy told Francesa he expects the actual tax revenue the state receives from sports betting to be “more modest” than he would have initially guessed, but he thinks the tracks and Atlantic City will recapture some overall entertainment revenue from Las Vegas. The tax revenues will go into the state’s general fund to start, Murphy said. The state expects about $13 million in revenue for the first year.

Federal regulation? Francesa asked Murphy if he thinks Congress could regulate sports betting nationally — a right the high court made clear it has. “My gut tells me it stays state regulated,” Murphy said. “There’s some noise around federal action. But I’ve long given up my license to predict what comes out of Washington.”

World Cup: Murphy said it’s not a coincidence betting will start right before the World Cup kicks off. “That’s not by accident. I’m a big soccer fan,” he said. “I wish the U.S. were in the darn cup. That’s one thing I bemoan.”

NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.

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