Andrew here. We have a dizzying amount of news, including President Trump’s pardon of the crypto mogul Changpeng Zhao — whose Binance struck a deal with a Trump family crypto venture — and Trump’s abruptly cutting off trade talks with Canada.
And then there’s “Operation Nothing but Bet,” the investigation into insider trading in the N.B.A. that raises new questions about sports leagues’ effort to tap into the billion-dollar gambling business. We dive into all that, as well as share personal A.I. hacks from the C.E.O. of Zoom.
‘Nothing but Bet’
The N.B.A. was supposed to be celebrating a lot this week: the start of its new season, the comeback of the superstar Victor Wembanyama and the highest ratings of an opening game in 15 years. (Also, the return of perhaps the best theme music in pro sports broadcasts.)
Then came the insider-trading arrests tied to “Operation Nothing but Bet,” which cast a cloud over the N.B.A. — and sports leagues’ embrace of legalized gambling.
“This is the insider-trading saga for the N.B.A.,” Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, said on Thursday in announcing criminal charges against six people. Among the defendants are Damon Jones, an assistant coach who leaked player information to bettors, and Terry Rozier, who plays for the Miami Heat.
We’re not even getting into a separate set of charges tied to illegal poker games, with allegations of involvement by the Mafia. But the two cases share a link with Chauncey Billups, the Hall of Fame guard who now coaches the Portland Trail Blazers: He was indicted in the poker scheme and appears to match the description of a co-conspirator in the gambling case.
Bettors made hundreds of thousands on wagers placed via the scheme, enabled by tipoffs from Jones, Rozier and others. So-called prop bets, which are tied to specific outcomes like a player’s performance, made the plot possible.
Such wagers have exploded in popularity amid the rise of online sports books like DraftKings and FanDuel, which authorities said were victims of the scheme. A FanDuel representative called the indictments “deeply disturbing.”
But the bigger cost may be paid by the N.B.A., which was an early proponent of legalizing sports gambling and now counts DraftKings and FanDuel as official partners. Skepticism of leagues working with gambling outfits dates back decades, buttressed by scandals including one tied to an N.B.A. referee.
Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner, has himself called for restrictions on prop wagers, citing concerns about game integrity and player harassment. (A data point worth noting: A recent poll showed that 43 percent of U.S. adults believe the rise of legal sports betting is bad for society.)
What will other leagues do? Sports gambling drew $10 billion in revenue this year through August, a significant portion of which now flows to the N.B.A. and other leagues. This week, the N.H.L. struck partnerships with the prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket, which are challenging traditional sports books.
But will Thursday’s revelations change the calculations by team owners that gambling-related profits outweigh the costs of a scandal? Or will they invite further scrutiny from Washington?
HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING
Mayor Eric Adams endorses Andrew Cuomo in the New York City mayoral race. The move is meant to help Cuomo’s chances of beating Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Party candidate, in the election early next month. Adams told The Times that he would campaign with Cuomo. His endorsement could help shore up support from some Black and ultra-Orthodox Jewish voters. That said, most recent polls still show Mamdani with a double-digit lead.
President Trump backs off a threat to send National Guard troops to San Francisco. Trump credited two tech leaders, Jensen Huang of Nvidia and Marc Benioff of Salesforce, with persuading him that Mayor Daniel Lurie was making “substantial progress” in fighting crime in the city. Benioff, who had publicly called for a National Guard surge earlier this month, backed off after fierce pushback from business allies and local officials.
Banks reportedly prepare another mega-deal to finance data centers. JPMorgan Chase and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group are among those leading the planned sale of $38 billion in debt to support the construction of computing facilities tied to Oracle and OpenAI, according to Bloomberg. The deal follows a complicated $27 billion transaction to finance data centers for Meta.
Target plans a big round of layoffs. The embattled retail chain will cut about 1,000 corporate jobs and eliminate about 800 open positions — together accounting for 8 percent of its white-collar work force — to eliminate what its incoming C.E.O., Michael Fiddelke, called “too many layers and overlapping work.” It’s another effort to help turn around Target, which has suffered from slowing sales.
Reagan enters the trade fight
Markets are weighing in on the latest turns in President Trump’s global trade war, with the Canadian dollar tumbling against the dollar overnight and the Shanghai Composite rallying.
Trump’s latest moves, a blow against Canada and rapprochement with China, come as Wall Street awaits the release of inflation data that had been delayed because of the government shutdown.
On Canada: Trump called off “ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA” late last night, citing a new $53.5 million ad campaign paid for by the province of Ontario. His beef: It features comments by Ronald Reagan in 1987 that criticize tariffs as “trade barriers” that “hurt every American worker and consumer.”
Trump, who has used A.I.-created propaganda videos as political attacks, called the ad a “FAKE” meant to interfere with the U.S. Supreme Court case on the legality of many of his tariffs. (Oral arguments are set for next month.)
Trade talks between Washington and Ottawa have largely stalled after Trump imposed stiff tariffs on many Canadian imports. Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, has repeatedly called for his country, a major exporter of timber and fuel, to reduce its economic dependence on the U.S.
On China: The White House on Thursday confirmed that Trump would meet with President Xi Jinping next week on the sidelines of an economic summit in South Korea. That seemed unlikely just days ago after Trump had threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Chinese goods from Nov. 1 in retaliation for Beijing’s export controls on rare earths.
Also worth watching are Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, who will soon kick off another round of trade talks in Malaysia with their Chinese counterparts.
Investors are waiting for a reading on the trade war’s economic impact on Friday. The Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish the September update of the Consumer Price Index at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, a reprieve from the shutdown-related blackout of government economic data.
The report is expected to show that inflation ticked up again in September, with economists ready to study how much of any increase is tied to tariffs.
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In other trade news, an E.U. plan to use frozen Russian assets as collateral for a loan of 140 billion euros ($163 billion) to Kyiv has stalled again.
Binance’s founder walks free
Many crypto investors cheered President Trump’s pardon of Changpeng Zhao, also known as C.Z., one the most powerful executives in the industry.
Two digital tokens backed by Binance, the company he founded, jumped in trading on Friday, Grady McGregor writes. The big question now: Does this clear the way for Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, to reopen its platform to American traders?
Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, suggested as much. “The Biden Administration’s war on crypto is over,” she said.
The politics around the pardon could hound Trump. Even some on the right — including Laura Loomer and Joe Lonsdale, a billionaire Trump backer — have criticized the move. The decision “makes it look like massive fraud is happening around him in this area,” Lonsdale wrote on X.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, argued that Zhao’s pardon amounted to “corruption,” pointing to the business ties between Binance and the Trump family’s crypto company, World Liberty Financial. (Zhao said on Friday that Warren didn’t “get her facts right.”)
The industry is looking for a halo effect. Crypto leaders believe that closer relations among Binance, Zhao and the Trump administration could provide “some breathing room” for the rest of industry, Justin d’Anethan, the head of partnerships at Arctic Digital, a crypto advisory firm based in Hong Kong, told DealBook.
(A widely held view is that Zhao’s criminal case — which revolved around allegations that Binance violated so-called Know Your Customer rules and enabled illicit money flows — involved less egregious offenses than the outright fraud at FTX.)
But some executives felt stung by what went down during a recent market rout, DealBook hears. Binance faced criticism from investors and rival exchanges this month when, amid heavy selling during a big crypto sell-off, trading on Binance’s platform froze. That left some customers unable to access their accounts. Zhao later said that Binance would pay more than $700 million in compensation.
Rival executives called for more extreme measures. One asked U.S. regulators to tighten trading protections in the wake of the market retreat.
The industry is also buzzing about a possible U.S. comeback for Binance after a two-year hiatus. That seemed far-fetched just a few weeks ago. At a major crypto industry summit in Singapore, Binance’s low profile there was a talking point.
“Will do everything we can to help make America the Capital of Crypto and advance web3 worldwide,” Zhao wrote in a post on X on Friday.
Talking A.I. With the C.E.O. of Zoom
Every week, we’re asking a chief executive how he or she uses generative artificial intelligence. Eric Yuan, who leads Zoom, told DealBook he’s using generative A.I. to deliver his earnings call scripts. His answers have been condensed and edited.
How do you personally use A.I.?
For earnings calls, C.E.O.s need to record the audio or maybe read the script in a webinar. It is time-consuming. So I used our A.I. product to automatically generate an A.I. avatar. Our team can use the avatar with a script to generate a video.
I’m just joining the earnings call for the live Q&A portion. I do not record any script, record any video anymore.
What directives have you given your employees on A.I.?
We are taking a top-down and bottom-up approach. As long as we have a very well-defined process, employees can leverage A.I. tools, they can figure out a way to automate the process.
Quite often, for some processes, we do not have documentation, and then it’s really hard to leverage A.I. We also need to streamline our process and make sure every process will be documented very well.
THE SPEED READ
Deals
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The defense giants Airbus, Leonardo and Thales have agreed to combine their space businesses to create a European rival to SpaceX. (FT)
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The Writers Guild of America said that it would oppose a merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, calling the possible combination “a disaster for writers, for consumers and for competition.” (Bloomberg)
Politics, policy and regulation
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Air traffic controllers’ next paycheck could be at risk after a bill to pay them during the government shutdown failed in the Senate. (WSJ)
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Meta laid off more than 100 employees who monitored risks to user privacy as part of wider cuts to its A.I. division. (NYT)
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The U.S. federal debt just topped $38 trillion. (PBS News)
Best of the rest
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“Most-Wanted Fentanyl Producer Is Extradited to the U.S. After Brazen Escape” (WSJ)
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Some steakhouses have been serving diners smaller portions at higher prices as the cost of beef surges. (FT)
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Andrew Ross Sorkin is a columnist and the founder of DealBook, the flagship business and policy newsletter at The Times and an annual conference.
Bernhard Warner is a senior editor for DealBook, a newsletter from The Times, covering business trends, the economy and the markets.
Sarah Kessler is the weekend edition editor of the DealBook newsletter and writes features on business.
Michael J. de la Merced has covered global business and finance news for The Times since 2006.
Niko Gallogly is a Times reporter, covering business for the DealBook newsletter.
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