Welcome to Axis ProRata, a podcast that takes just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech business and politics.

I'm Dan Primak. On today's show, Amazon seeks to conquer yet another type of business, and private equity does right by all of those fired toys are us workers.

But first, the future of legal sports betting in the wake of a summer Supreme

Court ruling that struck down a law that had prevented it outside of Nevada. So Axios now has a

series on HBO and this past Sunday night's episode included a segment I did on legal sports

betting. And like with all things TV, most of what we taped didn't air, but we spent time all over the place

at the largest sports book in Las Vegas, at the T-Mobile Arena during a Las Vegas night's hockey game,

draft Kings as Boston headquarters, and the NBA headquarters in Midtown Manhattan.

And I basically learned two things. First, everyone even sort of involved in sports or sports

betting is very excited about the future and agrees

that the majority of these wagers will be placed via smartphones, even if folks are physically sitting

in sports books. Second, there is a lot of disagreement over how to share the money, or even if it

should be shared at all. So here's what Adam Silver said on that during

Axios on HBO. We knew there was enormous amounts being bet on the NBA in all sports. I mean,

estimates up to $400 billion a year, just the United States. If we're going to spend $8 billion

this year producing those games, I feel that we should receive a share of the proceeds from a

business that's being generated exclusively

on our game.

The problem, of course, is that so far, no one wants to give the NBA or any other league

a share of those proceeds.

Silver's dual arguments that the league basically deserves a royalty, or at least some

payments to ensure games are on the level, have fallen

...