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A WWE legend recently took action against a scammer who was impersonating him and trying to steal money from his fans.

The former WWE Tough Enough winner, Maven, shared his experience in a video posted on October 13, 2025, exposing how criminals use his name to trick people. He discovered that someone was leaving fake comments on his YouTube channel, including a WhatsApp number. The scammer pretended to be Maven and tried to get fans to contact them. So he finally decided to test the scammer by sending messages to see what would happen.

Hey guys, there’s a scammer here. It’s come to my attention that someone impersonating me has been leaving comments on this channel. And along with these replies, they’re leaving a WhatsApp number hoping to get engagement. But I’m here to tell you guys, that is not me. So avoid it. But I have to admit, curiosity is getting the better of me. So we’re going to make contact. We’re going to type a message out and we’re going to see what happens when I contact the number.” (0:00 – 0:32)

The fake Maven quickly responded to messages, trying to build trust with fans. Maven noticed several warning signs that showed this person was not American, such as poor grammar and writing phrases like ‘you are a big fans.’ This suggested the impersonator was likely from overseas, where English was not their first language.

Maven played along with the scam to gather evidence. He pretended to be a fan who had followed him since his WWE days. When Maven mentioned following him on Tough Enough since 2003, the scammer did not catch the mistake. Maven actually appeared and won Tough Enough in 2001, and any real fan would know this basic fact.

I sent in my last message as a reply from the fake Maven who asked, ‘How long have you been following me on YouTube?’ And I said, ‘Since the beginning, I followed you on Tough Enough back in 2003.’ Obviously, my Tough Enough season was 2001. Any maven would know that. The person wrote back, and here’s where the clue came in. ‘Oh, wow. You are a big fans’ – Plural, could be a typo, but it tells me that it’s more than likely someone overseas, someone who English probably or maybe isn’t their first language. And even if it is, they don’t use the grammar that we use here.” (1:41 – 2:24)

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$500 Apple Gift Card Demand By The Scammer For The WWE Star

The conversation took a darker turn when the scammer started asking for money. After chatting for about 22 minutes, the fake Maven asked for a $500 Apple gift card, claiming it was for a special VIP fan card and promised the victim would never have to pay for anything again.​

Maven was angry that someone would use his reputation to steal from his supporters. He explained that his fans work hard for their money and do not deserve to be tricked by criminals. The scammer kept pushing for the gift card even after Maven said he could only find a $200 card instead.

The WWE star then revealed his true identity to the scammer through a video message. He called out the impersonator for using his name and warned that the scam needed to stop immediately. Even after seeing the video, the scammer still asked where the gift card was, showing how desperate they were for money.​

Instead of giving money, Maven donated $500 to the Diva for a Day Foundation. This charity helps women fighting cancer by providing them with stress-free days of beauty treatments. Maven lost his mother to cancer in 2004, making this cause especially important to him.​​

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It’s very difficult to three-peat as champion in any major professional sport, but especially in the modern era of the NHL. The league has not seen any team win at least three consecutive Stanley Cups since the New York Islanders won four straight from 1980 to 1983; since the salary cap was implemented in 2005, only three teams have even repeated as champions.

Thus, the two-time reigning champion Florida Panthers will look to become the first three-peat Stanley Cup winners of the salary cap era and sportsbooks, at least initially, liked their odds to do so, as they were co-favorites (+700) to win the 2026 title immediately following their 2025 win, per ESPN BET odds.

Those odds only improved over the summer after the Panthers locked in team-friendly extensions with Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand and Sam Bennett, making them +600 solo favorites approaching the end of September. Even offseason groin surgery for superstar Matthew Tkachuk couldn’t stop Florida’s momentum, as ESPN BET senior director Adrian Horton noted a “large influx of Panthers action,” with bettors understanding that the injury will not keep him out the entire season.

Then it got worse: On Sept. 25, captain Aleksander Barkov went down with a knee injury that required surgery and almost certainly rules him out for the entire regular season, possibly longer. Several books immediately lengthened Florida’s Stanley Cup odds, with ESPN BET raising them to +1000, sixth on the odds board.

And yet, the action backing the Panthers remains robust. ESPN BET reports its highest share of Stanley Cup bets (17.1%) and handle (21.4%) backing the Cats, with BetMGM reporting 13.8% of handle, second-best in the market.

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ESPN BET has since shortened Florida back to +900 (tied for second-best) and some shops, like Caesars Sportsbook, never dethroned the team from favorite status at all. The sportsbook’s head of hockey, Karry Shreeve, said that while his oddsmaking team took Barkov’s injury into effect for markets like President’s Trophy winner and team point total, he believes that they’re always a threat to win the Stanley Cup if they can just get to the playoffs.

“They’re really tricky. For us, it’s definitely dependent on what the market is. So those injuries, in my opinion right now, really just affect the regular season and everything that comes with that,” Shreeve told ESPN. “But we’re not ready to drop them in price significantly, at least for the Stanley Cup, just because I’m not convinced who’s going to fill their spot [in the playoffs].”

“Last season they faced a full gauntlet in the playoffs, eliminating tough opponents in Tampa, Toronto, Carolina, and Edmonton on their way to a second title,” Horton said over email. “Even if they struggle during the regular season, they’ve proved over the last two years that they need to be considered a favorite when gearing up for the postseason, especially if Barkov can return.”

See more: Preseason power rankings | Stanley Cup odds | Fantasy hockey draft guide

Crowded field of Stanley Cup challengers

Of course, the Panthers are far from the only team vying for the Stanley Cup and there is a bevy of contenders at the top, with seven teams showing odds of +1000 or shorter at ESPN BET.

The logjam of favorites sporting +800 odds include the Carolina Hurricanes, Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers, the Cup runners-up two years running. Just beyond that lie the Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights and Panthers at +900, with the Tampa Bay Lightning coming in at +1000.

The odds fluctuate greatly from book to book, with BetMGM, for one, installing Vegas as a favorite alongside Edmonton, while DraftKings has Carolina as the solo favorite. ESPN BET priced the Hurricanes competitively, seeing this as potentially the year its talented core finally breaks through.

“Carolina is one of the most consistently dominant teams we have seen in recent years, having recouped some talent over the summer as they look to make another deep run,” said Horton. “Patrons will likely have their postseason struggles in mind, but it took the Panthers at full steam to eliminate them. We fully expect Carolina to be back battling in the playoffs.”

The Canes have not attracted such significant public attention, with BetMGM ranking them fifth (6.5%) and ESPN BET ranking them seventh (5.7%) in Stanley Cup bet share. Instead, bettors are largely backing the Avalanche and Golden Knights in the favorites tier.

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But outside of the top contenders, American bettors are largely turning their attention north of the border. The Toronto Maple Leafs have been unequivocally one of the most-bet teams for the Stanley Cup across the sportsbook marketplace, taking a leading 10.6% of tickets and 15.0% of handle at BetMGM, who lowered them to +1600 from +2000 at open. They aren’t the only Canadian team attracting public attention.

“After a late season surge last year there is also betting interest in the Canadiens,” BetMGM senior trader Matthew Rasp said in a release. “We expect Montreal to take another step forward and for liability to grow on the team.”

To that end, Toronto has garnered the most bets (17.4%) to win the Eastern Conference, while Montreal has gotten the most handle (20.1%) in the market at the sportsbook.

In general, though, bookmakers aren’t sweating Canada’s Stanley Cup drought finally ending after 33 years, with the exception of possibly Edmonton getting it done. Shreeve said he is “comfortable” with the price he is offering on the Leafs despite the action, while DraftKings sportsbook director Johnny Avello is expecting the winner to come from the cluster of favorites.

“The way I look at it, there’s no real clear-cut, short favorite,” Avello told ESPN. “This year, it’s more wide open at the top, and then you have a whole second tier of teams that are in that 20-to-40 range. There’s another 10 teams there. Could the Stanley Cup winner come from there? Absolutely. But the top tier has eight teams that we believe will contend for the title.”

The last preseason Stanley Cup favorite to win the title was the Avalanche (+600) in 2022.

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Auston Matthews nets goal for Maple Leafs

Auston Matthews tallies goal vs. Red Wings

Can money buy his Hart?

The 2025-26 NHL season will mark the 100th awarding of the Hart Memorial Trophy to the league’s most valuable player, so it could be fitting that a multi-time winner of the award who is well on his way to becoming an all-time great comes into the campaign as a huge favorite.

Oiler captain Connor McDavid is +200 at ESPN BET, holding a relatively large lead over Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (+475) and Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov (+650), former Hart winners themselves.

While McDavid’s preseason odds aren’t unprecedented — he was actually shorter to open the previous two seasons — they are significant given the hockey world is watching him on and off the ice. On the eve of Opening Night, McDavid signed a two-year, $25 million extension to stay with the Oilers beyond this season, following much free agency speculation after the team’s second straight Cup Final defeat.

“With McDavid, it just helps that he’s inherently already going to be the favorite for a lot of these awards,” Shreeve said. “So just because of who he is already … we don’t have to make him even more of a favorite.”

Speaking of new contracts, Minnesota Wild superstar Kirill Kaprizov signed a record-setting eight-year, $136 million deal at the end of September, which may have generated some buzz around him in the Hart betting markets. The winger has garnered the most wagers at ESPN BET and BetMGM, also attracting the most handle at the former (17.6%). He shows +1200 odds at ESPN BET, fifth on the board.

Bettors are also buying into the idea that a goalie could repeat for the Hart Trophy after Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck took home the hardware last season. Bookmakers at BetMGM, DraftKings and ESPN BET all report liabilities on goalies like Hellebuyck (+3000), Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy (100-1) and the New York Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin (100-1).

Shreeve sees that happening as “unlikely” and the numbers certainly back him up there: Out of the Hart’s 99 awardings, only nine have gone to goalies and just once in repeat years — both to Dominik Hasek in 1997 and 1998.

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Kirill Kaprizov’s top plays from last season

Check out Minnesota Wild left wing Kirill Kaprizov’s top plays from the 2024-25 season.

Calder betting: Get to know the name Ivan Demidov

The betting market for the Calder Memorial Trophy, awarded to the league’s rookie of the year, can be a strange one.

Shreeve notes that the overall handle for Calder winner is relatively small compared to other NHL future markets, likely owing to unfamiliarity with the names in question. “We just don’t know as much about these guys as we would in the NBA or NFL because we don’t grow up with these guys,” he said. “A lot of them are European, a lot of them just playing in leagues we’re not familiar with.”

Thus, the markets often end up with a situation where one flashy name rises above the rest to be the preseason favorite. Sometimes it results in the favorite going the distance — such as Connor Bedard (-135) in 2023-24 and Auston Matthews (-130) in 2016-17 — and sometimes it doesn’t, for mitigating circumstances or otherwise, such as when McDavid came into the 2015-16 season at +130, but lost the award to Artemi Panarin (+2200) after sustaining an injury.

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This year, the name is Ivan Demidov of the Canadiens, who is an overwhelming +165 favorite at ESPN BET; the next closest players — Oilers forward Isaac Howard, San Jose Sharks forward Michael Misa and Wild defenseman Zeev Buium– are in a three-way tie for second at +1200.

Because of the lack of name recognition, bookmakers chalk up Demidov’s status as the favorite to bettor activity rather than on expert consensus. At ESPN BET, Demidov holds a whopping 73.1% of the handle to win the award, and he also has the most tickets and money at BetMGM.

“Demidov is an interesting case as he made a splash at the end of last season and is still eligible for the Calder this year,” said Horton. “The media frenzy around his debut is a leading factor in the early opinion of him to be a standout favorite.”

The only other name garnering any sort of notable attention is Blackhawks defenseman Sam Rinzel (+2500), who Avello notes has become a liability at DraftKings due to his long odds.

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Botswana has declared a public holiday to celebrate the country’s victory in the men’s 4×400 metres at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, the first African nation to win the event.

President Duma Boko hailed the gold medal as a “historic African win”, in an online address praising the team for their performance.

He announced Monday, 29 September, as a holiday to celebrate the achievement – a day ahead of the country’s independence day.

On Sunday, Botswana’s team of Lee Bhekempilo Eppie, Letsile Tebogo, Bayapo Ndori and Busang Collen Kebinatshipi edged out the US, the winners of the last 10 world titles, in a rain-drenched race. South Africa took third position.

“I’ll be sure to tell everyone, Botswana’s natural diamonds are not just in the ground, they are our World Champion athletes,” the president said, speaking from New York where he is attending the UN General Assembly.

He described the moment as “electric”, adding that Botswana’s performance spoke to its rising stature on the global stage.

The southern African nation finished fifth overall in the championship’s medal standings – behind the US, Kenya, the Netherlands and Canada – their best ever return after taking two golds, one silver and a bronze.

Last year, Botswana celebrated another historic milestone as Tebogo won the nation’s first Olympic gold medal with his victory in the men’s 200m in Paris.

His triumph, which also marked the first time an African athlete had won the event, became a national sensation, with tens of thousands of people celebrating him at the National Stadium in the capital, Gaborone, after he returned to the country.

The government declared a half-day holiday allowing citizens to “pause and celebrate him” – in what then-President Mokgweetsi Masisi described as a “most unique… manner that will be etched in the annals of the history of the Republic”.

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The Hillsborough Law seeks to force public bodies to cooperate with investigations into major disasters

A long-awaited “Hillsborough Law” bill will force public officials to tell the truth during investigations into major disasters.

The news has been welcomed by campaigners, who had feared the legislation was going to be watered down.

The landmark Public Office (Accountability) Bill will force public bodies to cooperate with investigations into major disasters or potentially face criminal sanctions, as well as provide legal funding to those affected by state-related disasters.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who had previously pledged to bring in the law by the 36th anniversary of the 1989 disaster, said he was “humbled” by what the families had achieved.

“Thank you to the families and campaigners that for years and years and years never gave up on fighting for justice and truth and their determination to deliver a Hillsborough Law is why we’re here today,” he said.

Sir Keir Starmer had promised the law by the 36th anniversary of the disaster, which was on 15 April this year

Sir Keir continued: “Today is an important day having known the families for 10 years and it is humbling to see what they have achieved after an unimaginable loss.”

He said he had wanted the bill to be introduced earlier but: “In the end I decided it was better to get it right and I’ve discussed it with the families here today and I do think it is right to have got the law into place that they are welcoming of it.

“And they know it will serve thousands upon thousands of people they will never meet, who will not have to go through what they have gone through.

“The extra work we’ve done has allowed us to get it right.”

He added: “We are not going to allow it to be watered down – I’ve made that commitment to the families as soon as possible to make sure no one suffers injustice.”

Margaret Aspinall said she hoped “no-one will ever have to suffer like we did”

The bill will be introduced to Parliament on Tuesday to begin its journey towards becoming law.

The government has confirmed a new professional and legal “duty of candour” will be part of the bill, meaning public officials would have to act with honesty and integrity at all times and would face criminal sanctions if they breached it.

Margaret Aspinall, whose 18-year-old son James died at Hillsborough, said she was hopeful the new law “will mean no-one will ever have to suffer like we did”.

The disaster, during the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at the football ground in Sheffield on 15 April 1989, led to the deaths of 97 football fans.

The government said the new legislation would “end the culture of cover-ups” and learn lessons from wider disasters including the Grenfell Tower fire and the Post Office Horizon and infected blood scandals.

Ms Aspinall said: “It’s been a long journey to get here. I am so grateful to the prime minister for fulfilling his promise to me.”

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Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, Justice Minister Alex Davies-Jones and Attorney General Lord Richard Hermer joined Hillsborough campaigners and families to lay wreaths at the Hillsborough memorial at Anfield on Monday

Sir Keir praised Ms Aspinall’s “courage” and “the strength of all the Hillsborough families and survivors” in their long campaign for justice.

He said the new legislation would change “the balance of power in Britain” to ensure the state could “never hide from the people it is supposed to serve”.

“Make no mistake, this a law for the 97, but it is also a law for the subpostmasters who suffered because of the Horizon scandal, the victims of infected blood, and those who died in the terrible Grenfell Tower fire,” he said.

Charlotte Hennessy, whose 29-year-old father Jimmy died at Hillsborough, said the campaign for the law had been “really tough”.

“It has taken a lot of negotiation, blood, sweat and tears, late nights, meetings after meetings, reading a draft and saying ‘no’,” she said.

“The duty of candour was the biggest barrier we had – it’s important to note current laws such as perjury only apply to criminal cases.”

‘Momentous step’

Ms Hennessy said her family only became aware of exactly what happened to her father – a plasterer from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire – after the Hillsborough Independent Panel report.

“I didn’t know the truth of what happened to my dad until 25 years later. When people say ‘are they still going on about it?’ – I’ve only known the truth for 13 of the last 36 years.”

One of the bill’s architects, Elkan Abrahamson of law firm Broudie Jackson Canter, said there was still some way to go before it became law.

“We will now scrutinise the bill as it makes its passage through parliament, so we’re not quite there yet,” he said.

“But today is still a momentous step, owed entirely to the persistence of campaigners and their refusal to give up.

“The Hillsborough Law will transform the face of British justice.”

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