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Speaker 1: Are you back there, Blair doing your thing? Can I

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Speaker 1: sit on your shoulder? Is that going about it? Oh?

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Speaker 1: Get out, please, get out, get out. Oh that's so brutal.

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Speaker 1: This is Blair Montgomery. I flew to Chicago to visit

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Speaker 1: him back in June, and I promise you that he

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Speaker 1: wanted me to visit. He wasn't yelling at me to

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Speaker 1: get out. He was yelling at a baseball, a baseball

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Speaker 1: hit by a player with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Blair

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Speaker 1: had a two fifty dollar parlay in the game. That's

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Speaker 1: one large bet made up of a string of smaller bets.

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Speaker 1: I have a baseball parley where it was like I

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Speaker 1: picked a guy to hit a home run and the

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Speaker 1: team to win for three separate games, and uh, I

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Speaker 1: hit the first two. I need the Dodgers to win,

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Speaker 1: and I need one of their players to hit a

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Speaker 1: home run. So this girl, I just wanted to go

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Speaker 1: to ex trainings. And if this game goes to extra innings,

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Speaker 1: we may be paying quite a bit of attention to

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Speaker 1: this one. How much will this pay for you? If

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Speaker 1: everything works, if if if Freddie Freeman right, so, Freddie

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Speaker 1: Freeman right here, he's that second for the Dodgers. He's

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Speaker 1: their first baseman. He hit a ball to the fence

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Speaker 1: earlier and a guy jumped up and caught it right

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Speaker 1: at the wall. And if he hits a home run

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Speaker 1: in the Dodgers win, it pays out like almost sixty grand.

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Speaker 1: You actually think it's like sixty three grand. So it's

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Speaker 1: obviously a very, very very profitable and big parlay. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to Crash Course, the podcast about business, political, and social

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Speaker 1: disruption and what we can learn from it. I'm Tim O'Brien.

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Speaker 1: If it hasn't already, sports gambling is coming to your town,

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Speaker 1: your living room, and your kid's cell phone. Last year,

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Speaker 1: Americans bet about four hundred and fifty million dollars on

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Speaker 1: sports every day. That's one of those numbers. I don't

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Speaker 1: even know how to comprehend. It's so huge. That translates

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Speaker 1: to a hundred and sixty five billion dollars a year,

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Speaker 1: but of course gamblers lose a lot of that. That's

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Speaker 1: how the industry pulled in forty four billion dollars last year,

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Speaker 1: and it looks like betting is going to keep on exploding.

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Speaker 1: I've been watching the gambling industry for years, but the

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Speaker 1: current boom is like no other. It's going to reshape games, fans,

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Speaker 1: and society, and its impact has only begun to be felt.

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Speaker 1: And because some gamblers become addicts, it can be a

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Speaker 1: wildly destructive activity. It can also lead to corruption in sports.

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Speaker 1: In honor of the Super Bowl this weekend and the

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Speaker 1: vast number of bets that we placed on the game,

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Speaker 1: this is the first of three episodes about the past, present,

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Speaker 1: and future of the multibillion dollars sports betting boom. Over

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Speaker 1: the next three episodes will travel from Chicago to London

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Speaker 1: to the tribal lands of Connecticut to explore all of this,

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Speaker 1: looking at mobile betting, match fixing, and the future of

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Speaker 1: tribal casinos. But first things first, Today's crash course inside

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Speaker 1: the digital sports bet Boom to better understand that boom,

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Speaker 1: I wanted to spend time with somebody who's really good

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Speaker 1: at navigating all of the ups and downs of gambling.

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Speaker 1: Blair is one of the industry's super users. He gambles

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Speaker 1: every day, every weekend, and he's making more money betting

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Speaker 1: than he does from his day job. He's also a

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Speaker 1: window under the peculiar set of talents that makes successful

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Speaker 1: gamblers interesting to me. Unlike most people who bet, he's

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Speaker 1: actually able to make a handsome living off of it.

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Speaker 1: He's obsessive, but to my untrained eye, not an addict.

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Speaker 1: He's emotionally disciplined, he manages money well, he's good at math,

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Speaker 1: he's intuitive, and he knows how to judge risk. Anyone

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Speaker 1: can hit those bets one time. It doesn't take someone

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Speaker 1: who's a sharp sports better or someone who knows sports

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Speaker 1: extremely well to hit that at one time. But to

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Speaker 1: be able to do that repetitively over time, or the

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Speaker 1: even come close to hitting those things over time, I

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Speaker 1: think you gotta be a little nuts and a little crazy.

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Speaker 1: And that's kind of how I am like, meaning being

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Speaker 1: entirely risk forward, being comfortable with massive risks, Yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 1: And you have to put the work in. And if

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Speaker 1: you don't and you lose your edge on that and

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Speaker 1: you're not showing up and being really active with it,

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Speaker 1: I think it's gonna come bacted by you, and you're

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Speaker 1: gonna start losing and it's gonna hurt a lot. It

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Speaker 1: was a great weekend to go to Chicago to watch

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Speaker 1: Blair gamble the French Open crowd its winners game two

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Speaker 1: of the NBA Finals tied up the series, and the

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Speaker 1: baseball season was in full swing. I was excited to

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Speaker 1: meet Blair and watch him in action. How you do it,

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Speaker 1: good man? How are you good? It's good to see you.

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Speaker 1: As I told you, a lot of our a lot

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Speaker 1: of our interaction is gonna be putting this mic close

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Speaker 1: to your Yeah, that's fine to worry about it. Don't

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Speaker 1: confuse Blair with that image you might have in your

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Speaker 1: mind of a worn out old gambler lurking in a

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Speaker 1: casino him. He looks like a jock, athletic and trim,

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Speaker 1: with close cropped auburn hair. He's energetic and friendly, very Midwestern.

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Speaker 1: I was introduced to Blair by some sports cammeblers I

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Speaker 1: know who hang out together online. I heard he was

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Speaker 1: really good at this whole sports betting thing, and he

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Speaker 1: was even considering turning the side hustle into a full

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Speaker 1: time job. I found Blair a fascinating person to focus

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Speaker 1: on because he's an unknown who's already started making a

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Speaker 1: big splash. And I think he's the embodiment of all

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Speaker 1: of the highs and lows to be found in the

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Speaker 1: gambling boom. I've always had like a really good just

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Speaker 1: general read on sporting events. And I think my mom

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Speaker 1: always joked and she was like, you're gonna work for

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Speaker 1: ESPN someday. And when I didn't go that around in college,

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Speaker 1: she was a little disappointed. But it didn't really change

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Speaker 1: much in terms of who I was or what people

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Speaker 1: knew me about. They just didn't know that I could

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Speaker 1: turn hunter Bucks into you know, sixties seventy dollars and

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Speaker 1: then you could make tens of thousand some dollars off

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Speaker 1: of it in a sitting. Like I said, Blair is

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Speaker 1: very good at this. Here's how he got here. When

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Speaker 1: he was around ten or eleven, he started playing poker

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Speaker 1: with his buddies in a small town in Michigan. He

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Speaker 1: was a good student and a good athlete, competitive and

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Speaker 1: he routinely demolished his poker partners. His tournaments with friends

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Speaker 1: grew through high school to thirty forty kids in somebody's basement.

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Speaker 1: In college, he started going to real casinos. He spent

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Speaker 1: whole days playing tournaments. I think it's extremely fair to

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Speaker 1: say that when I was younger, in particularly I was

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Speaker 1: playing poker that you know, going on tilt is a

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Speaker 1: very common term in poker, and I had an extremely

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Speaker 1: hard time balancing that a lot of people do, you know,

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Speaker 1: and so there were times where I was playing with

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Speaker 1: money that I shouldn't have, and there are times where

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Speaker 1: I lost money that I couldn't afford to lose. Around

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Speaker 1: the time he turned one, a poker front of his

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Speaker 1: suggested he get into sports betting, so he started to

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Speaker 1: dabble in that too. Poker would soon take a back

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Speaker 1: seat because in the Supreme Court ended Nevada's monopoly on

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Speaker 1: sports betting by striking down a federal law that had

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Speaker 1: effectively banned it in most other states. Pretty quickly, states

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Speaker 1: started legalizing something that had once been considered taboo. Indiana

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Speaker 1: was the closest state to Blair to legalize it in

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Speaker 1: the fall of but it was still old school. You

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Speaker 1: had to go to a casino and wager in person,

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Speaker 1: so Blair had to get up early in the morning

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Speaker 1: at Chicago to drive an hour or so to Indiana,

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Speaker 1: pushes money through a window to a bookie, and then

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Speaker 1: drive home to watch the games. Betting became more popular

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Speaker 1: and the lines of the casinos grew longer. It was

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Speaker 1: like going to like an amusement park, you know, were

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Speaker 1: you wait in line for two hours for a ride.

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Speaker 1: This all had to be done before the games could start.

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Speaker 1: If you wanted a bet during the game, you could

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Speaker 1: try your luck at a digital kiosk, But the problem

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Speaker 1: was the betting lines or the odds we're changing by

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Speaker 1: the second, and the machine couldn't keep up. So you

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Speaker 1: would submit, and then it would think, and then it

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Speaker 1: would be like do you accept the odds change? And

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Speaker 1: you're like yes, and you eat it again and they're like,

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Speaker 1: do you accept the odds change? Like this is just ridiculous,

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Speaker 1: Like I am never gonna get this in, so then

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Speaker 1: you just remove it. But nobody would have to wait.

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Speaker 1: Once gambling went digital apps operated a lot faster than

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Speaker 1: electronic kiosks. The rise of sports betting apps like FanDuel

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Speaker 1: and DraftKings man it easier to monitor odds and place

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Speaker 1: bets from the comfort of your own home. Blair's trips

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Speaker 1: to Indiana effectively ended when Illinois legalized online betting. In

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Speaker 1: his living room became his new gambling den. It's a bright,

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Speaker 1: airy space with a view of the Chicago skyline and

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Speaker 1: decorated with a comfy L shaped couch in a big

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Speaker 1: flat panel TV. Decidedly not a casino vibe. It's completely

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Speaker 1: different than the brick and mortar experience. It's still fun

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Speaker 1: having like the actual paper slip that you keep and

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Speaker 1: when you win and you go in and you turn

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Speaker 1: it in. It's a really cool feeling. But how technology

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Speaker 1: has changed the way that you can just do this

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Speaker 1: on your phone is what's made this boom so insane.

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Speaker 1: Over the last a couple of years, COVID lockdowns caused

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Speaker 1: a huge spike and online gambling across the country, from

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Speaker 1: hundreds of millions of dollars in wagers a month to

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Speaker 1: several billion. But it wasn't until the fall of the

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Speaker 1: Blair's own sports gambling career really took off, and it

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Speaker 1: all started at a friend's wedding. Before Blair drove to

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Speaker 1: that wedding, he had lined up five or six different

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Speaker 1: parlays for NFL games that day, laying down a total

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Speaker 1: of about a thousand dollars in bets. Remember, a parlay

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Speaker 1: is basically one wager made up of a bunch of

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Speaker 1: smaller different bets. How many field goals are kicked, added

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Speaker 1: to the number of touchdowns, added to the total score,

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Speaker 1: and so on and so on. Each one of those

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Speaker 1: bets needs to win for the entire bet to pay off,

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Speaker 1: because they're so risky. The odds are astronomically bad. But

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Speaker 1: if all of the smaller legs of the better winners,

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Speaker 1: gamblers can get a massive payout. During the wedding, Blair's

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Speaker 1: most promising parley was shaping up nicely, but by the

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Speaker 1: time the bride and groom had said I do and

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Speaker 1: he sat down at the reception, he was a nervous wreck.

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Speaker 1: Rather than celebrating, his eyes were glued to his phone.

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Speaker 1: If I have a bet, particularly parleys that have legs,

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Speaker 1: I have got to be monitoring it and following it,

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Speaker 1: particularly because you're gonna get live cash out offers, and

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Speaker 1: if you think something is potentially gonna slip, you need

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Speaker 1: to jump on it and get out. His friends got

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Speaker 1: sucked in and started watching the game with him. While

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Speaker 1: the father of the bride is giving his speech, the

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Speaker 1: Dolphins converted to fourth downs. Basically, they went ninety yards

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Speaker 1: in like sixty seconds and they converted a fourth and

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Speaker 1: to extend the game. All of that helped his bet.

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Speaker 1: Blair was ecstatic, His wife Sarah well less. So, if

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Speaker 1: we're being fully transparent, I was kind of getting not

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Speaker 1: upset with him, and I was like, you guys are well.

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Speaker 1: I was annoyed because I was like, you guys are

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Speaker 1: being rude, like you need to listen to the speech.

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Speaker 1: But then as it turns out, like you know, nobody

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Speaker 1: even noticed. But I was just next to all of them,

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, we're right back in college. I'm on

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Speaker 1: team Sarah. Here all of these goofs were staring at

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Speaker 1: a cell phone during a wedding reception. But then I

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Speaker 1: found out how much money was involved. By the end

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Speaker 1: of the speeches, Blair's parlay had one and he had

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Speaker 1: guaranteed his biggest win yet thousand dollars. It's hard to

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Speaker 1: describe because it's literally the best. It's the best feeling

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Speaker 1: in the world. And as you start to realize, like,

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Speaker 1: oh my god, this has incredible potential, it gives you

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Speaker 1: goose bumps, you know, and then when you're down to

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Speaker 1: one game, you're just sitting there sweating out and everyone

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Speaker 1: one is riding with you and everything, and so it's

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Speaker 1: just it's the best feeling in the world. Like it's

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Speaker 1: i mean again, better than everything else, better than sex

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Speaker 1: um um. I probably can't answer that one. How I

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Speaker 1: want to because Sarah will probably get a little mad,

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Speaker 1: but hitting a parlays the best feeling. It's it's incredible.

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Speaker 1: After that high at the wedding, Blair kept at it.

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Speaker 1: In the next couple of weeks, Blair hit not one,

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Speaker 1: but two other massive parlays for a total payoff of

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Speaker 1: a hundred and thirty three thousand dollars. Other gamblers started

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Speaker 1: paying attention. My following went from eight hundred people on

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Speaker 1: Twitter to like ten twelve thousand and in just the

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Speaker 1: span of a couple of weeks. And then because of

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Speaker 1: those three successful cart and everyone was like, whoa, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I didn't know that you actually were good at this.

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Speaker 1: And you hit one and people are like, oh, that's cool.

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Speaker 1: You hit two and people are like, oh, okay, and

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Speaker 1: then you hit three in a row, and everyone is

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Speaker 1: kind of losing their minds and they're like, this kid

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Speaker 1: could be from the future. Blair's Twitter account at Monty

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Speaker 1: Parley now has about thirty five followers, and Blair's built

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Speaker 1: a real community there. In case you didn't know it,

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Speaker 1: gambling Twitter as a thing. Lots of people congregate there

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Speaker 1: looking for hot tips. Blair tweets out his bets and

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Speaker 1: his analysis so followers can decide whether or not to

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Speaker 1: piggyback with their own bets. He complains about his losses,

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Speaker 1: and he celebrates his major wins. He really engages with

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Speaker 1: his followers. He also has a discord group that's an

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Speaker 1: online chat room where people pay twenty dollars a month

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Speaker 1: to talk about their bets and get advice from him.

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Speaker 1: He takes that responsibility very seriously. If people are going

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Speaker 1: to have faith in me and follow me, like I

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Speaker 1: take it to heart and take it serious. Trying to

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Speaker 1: please a lot of people and I'm trying to help

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Speaker 1: them make some money, you know. I've had people that

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Speaker 1: have DM me on Twitter after a parlay hits and

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Speaker 1: they're like, you just paid for my daughter's dance recitals

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Speaker 1: for the next year. Like I can't even put into words,

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Speaker 1: I can't believe. I don't even know how I found

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Speaker 1: you on Twitter, and I'm like, that's amazing, you know,

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Speaker 1: Like it's the best feeling in the world. But when

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00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:10,120
Speaker 1: they lose and people are frustrated, you deal with that

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00:14:10,200 --> 00:14:13,280
Speaker 1: side of it too, and it's hard. It's hard because

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Speaker 1: even thought Blair is really good at this and has

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Speaker 1: earned his following through some big wins. It's a risky business.

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Speaker 1: I'm definitely a big parlay guy, and I'm not from

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00:14:21,960 --> 00:14:24,520
Speaker 1: the future, so like I lose all the time, like

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00:14:24,640 --> 00:14:28,880
Speaker 1: anyone who bets parlays loses all the time. But if

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Speaker 1: your win right on a twelve like parlay is point

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Speaker 1: to five and you can hit that two or three

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Speaker 1: percent of the time, you're gonna be math massively profitable.

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Speaker 1: So it's just a manitor of bankroll management and not

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Speaker 1: getting too crazy. He's never lost more than on a bet,

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Speaker 1: but he told me about one time when he missed

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Speaker 1: a parley by one leg that could have netted him

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Speaker 1: upwards of two d and twenty dollars. I cried a

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00:14:54,760 --> 00:14:58,800
Speaker 1: little bit that night because that would have been ridiculous, right,

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Speaker 1: I mean, truly just insane. At another time, when he

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Speaker 1: missed out on close to eighty grand I was like,

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Speaker 1: oh my god, I could feel like I wanted to

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Speaker 1: throw up. But each loss for Blair is a learning opportunity.

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Speaker 1: I try to always the day after look back at

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Speaker 1: the ones that lost and take in some whatever information

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Speaker 1: I can kind of soak in what happened, and that's

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Speaker 1: how I know that player is really a pro at sports. Gambling.

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Speaker 1: He's not blindly putting money on games or props. He

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Speaker 1: does his research and he has a strategy. He listens

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Speaker 1: to the commentary during the games to learn as much

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Speaker 1: as he can. He tracks stats and historical data online.

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Speaker 1: He really thinks this through. He showed me one of

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Speaker 1: the websites he uses a sort through all of the

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Speaker 1: data when he's thinking about his bets. The site's called

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Speaker 1: props dot cash. It was founded only a year ago by,

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Speaker 1: of all people, an aspiring elementary school math teacher. He

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Speaker 1: wanted to use sports data to make math more fun

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Speaker 1: and accessible for students. He quickly learned he can make

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Speaker 1: more money selling it as a service for gamblers. You

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Speaker 1: have to remember, deep real time analytics like this weren't

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00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:16,840
Speaker 1: available to most gamblers for the entire history of sports betting. Now,

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Speaker 1: guys like Blair can operate like hardcore statisticians. The screen

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00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:23,480
Speaker 1: in front of Blair is a sea of fever charts,

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00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:28,360
Speaker 1: bar graphs, league team and player names, all awash and

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00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:33,359
Speaker 1: lots and lots of data. All this data is publicly available,

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Speaker 1: but to be able to slice and dice it this

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Speaker 1: way that quickly is what makes this super helpful. You

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Speaker 1: don't need a super analytical mind to be able to

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Speaker 1: like look at this and formulate a point of view.

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Speaker 1: And so I think it's helped a lot of like

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00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:51,520
Speaker 1: your average sports bettors could just sharpen your sort of

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00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:56,840
Speaker 1: statistical sensibility about where the value lies. He's also pretty fearless.

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00:16:57,200 --> 00:16:59,840
Speaker 1: He's not afraid to go with gut instincts, even if

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Speaker 1: that means backing an underdog. One of his big Parley

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00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:07,000
Speaker 1: wins last year included an NFL bet that the notoriously

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00:17:07,080 --> 00:17:11,000
Speaker 1: bad Jets would beat the pretty good Titans. His followers

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00:17:11,040 --> 00:17:16,040
Speaker 1: really questioned that one realistically, any given night, anyone can win,

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Speaker 1: and that is true. These guys are professionals and they're

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00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:23,680
Speaker 1: all good, no matter who's on your fantasy team and

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00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:26,320
Speaker 1: who didn't throw for a three yards or get you

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Speaker 1: a touchdown that week, and you're like, this guy sucks.

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Speaker 1: I'm never I'm never taking this guy again. That guy

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Speaker 1: is elite and he is in the pent of the

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Speaker 1: one percent and what he does in the entire world.

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Speaker 1: And so if you don't think the Jets can beat

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Speaker 1: the Titans, I promise you they can and those games

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00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:48,480
Speaker 1: do happen. That strategy is paying off. If I can

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Speaker 1: come closer to winning more than I throw up air balls,

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00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:54,639
Speaker 1: then I'm going to make money off of this or

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00:17:54,640 --> 00:17:58,159
Speaker 1: at minimum break even. And again, just keep kind of

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Speaker 1: treading water until I get close to hitting a huge parlay,

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Speaker 1: because that's kind of my goal with this is just

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Speaker 1: just do okay, small winds here and there, don't do

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00:18:08,600 --> 00:18:11,919
Speaker 1: anything too crazy, and then put yourself in the spot

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00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:17,200
Speaker 1: where you could win. What did you net in lash? Overall?

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Speaker 1: It was close close to It was close to two,

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00:18:21,119 --> 00:18:23,959
Speaker 1: and he was like a hundred thousand, So I mean

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Speaker 1: it was a incredible year. And that was that your

331
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Speaker 1: best year ever? Absolutely? Yeah. He says his gambling winnings

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Speaker 1: last year earned him about as much as his day job.

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Speaker 1: He's a regional manager at Salesforce. Blair says he loves

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Speaker 1: his job, but he also logs off right at five

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00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:43,680
Speaker 1: and switches to his side hustle. Beside hustle. This quickly

336
00:18:43,680 --> 00:18:48,640
Speaker 1: approaching full time status. Now it feels like a second job,

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00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:52,080
Speaker 1: you know, it really does. I'm definitely doing this and

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Speaker 1: minimum at minimum thirty hours a week, if not forty,

339
00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:59,560
Speaker 1: every single week, and it it never ends. There's sports

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00:18:59,600 --> 00:19:03,200
Speaker 1: on every single day. He also has a life outside

341
00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:06,520
Speaker 1: of his two gigs. His wife, Sarah is really supportive

342
00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:09,520
Speaker 1: of his side hustle. She talks about his work and

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00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:12,399
Speaker 1: his skill like he's an entrepreneur and he basically is.

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00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:15,600
Speaker 1: She's clearly proud of him that she supports him, and

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00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:18,320
Speaker 1: she trusts that he's not going to make any decisions

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00:19:18,359 --> 00:19:21,879
Speaker 1: that could hurt their family, and yet all of the

347
00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:25,280
Speaker 1: gambling takes away from their time together. He's very focused,

348
00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:27,159
Speaker 1: I would say that's the best way to describe it.

349
00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:30,520
Speaker 1: Very locked in, kind of in his own element. And

350
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Speaker 1: then he'll come out, like thirty minutes later, he's like,

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00:19:32,359 --> 00:19:35,000
Speaker 1: all right, sorry, what did you ask me? I was

352
00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:37,880
Speaker 1: a little preoccupied. Um, I should know better enough by now.

353
00:19:37,960 --> 00:19:43,240
Speaker 1: But yeah, he's he's pretty locked in today. Well the most,

354
00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:45,960
Speaker 1: just a few more basketball games and then you're free.

355
00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:50,160
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to having my husband back, but there's

356
00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:53,600
Speaker 1: always another sport to distract Blair and he and Sarah

357
00:19:53,640 --> 00:19:56,720
Speaker 1: had a major change soon after my trip. Their son

358
00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:00,480
Speaker 1: Tommy was born in August. When I visited them in June,

359
00:20:01,160 --> 00:20:04,879
Speaker 1: Sarah was trying to figure out how they would juggle work, gambling,

360
00:20:05,359 --> 00:20:07,800
Speaker 1: and a new baby. I think it's something that We're

361
00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:10,159
Speaker 1: still going to have to navigate just because it is

362
00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:15,040
Speaker 1: so new, especially when the baby comes, like right now,

363
00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:17,040
Speaker 1: it's just me that he has to worry about, And

364
00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:21,120
Speaker 1: especially during peak NBA season when there's like fifteen games on,

365
00:20:21,240 --> 00:20:24,119
Speaker 1: it's very time consuming for him to be monitoring all

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00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:26,080
Speaker 1: of those all night, and honestly, we don't spend that

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00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:29,560
Speaker 1: much time together on those nights. Sarah and Blair have

368
00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:32,000
Speaker 1: been together for ten years and have been through some

369
00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:35,880
Speaker 1: ups and downs. They clearly trust one another, so much

370
00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:39,120
Speaker 1: so that Sarah's considering using her marketing chops to help

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00:20:39,119 --> 00:20:42,160
Speaker 1: Blair build a bigger gambling brand for himself. There are

372
00:20:42,200 --> 00:20:45,520
Speaker 1: downsides to having a bigger brand, though. Blair says wagering

373
00:20:45,560 --> 00:20:48,320
Speaker 1: takes a physical toll, and what began as a hobby

374
00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:51,560
Speaker 1: morphs at times into an obsession. It can leave him

375
00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:54,840
Speaker 1: little time for anything else. Relationships with his friends and

376
00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:58,440
Speaker 1: family are affected research embedding and true on vacation time.

377
00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:02,080
Speaker 1: It's even changed how we watch his games. He very

378
00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:05,400
Speaker 1: rarely just tunes in for fun anymore because he always

379
00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:08,040
Speaker 1: has money on the line, which asserts its own sort

380
00:21:08,080 --> 00:21:11,600
Speaker 1: of pull. So here's the thing. Every sporting event that

381
00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:15,800
Speaker 1: I can watch is an opportunity to take in information

382
00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:19,040
Speaker 1: and learn. I'm like, yeah, I'm not gonna bet on this,

383
00:21:19,119 --> 00:21:22,840
Speaker 1: but I'll watch. Then all of a sudden, I'm scrolling

384
00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:25,480
Speaker 1: on Twitter or Instagram and I'm not paying attention. But

385
00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:27,600
Speaker 1: if I bet on it, I'm gonna pay attention to it,

386
00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:29,679
Speaker 1: you know. So to be honest, that's why I like

387
00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:32,560
Speaker 1: doing it, even if it's something just nothing crazy. If

388
00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:34,080
Speaker 1: I just bet on one of the teams to win

389
00:21:34,280 --> 00:21:37,160
Speaker 1: or cover the spread or whatever, it just it helps

390
00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:39,560
Speaker 1: me treat it like work, where I'm trying to get

391
00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:42,560
Speaker 1: better at like a craft than just sitting here and

392
00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:47,560
Speaker 1: watching a sporting event. And like you said, nothing beats

393
00:21:47,560 --> 00:21:50,840
Speaker 1: the rush of gambling in terms of like my own life,

394
00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:55,159
Speaker 1: my own like well being. Doing anything that involves like

395
00:21:55,280 --> 00:21:57,639
Speaker 1: risk gets my blood flowing and gets me excited and

396
00:21:57,720 --> 00:22:01,399
Speaker 1: I feel fulfilled and a lot. I'van it's a great feeling.

397
00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:04,520
Speaker 1: So that explains why Blair signed up for fan Duel

398
00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:07,560
Speaker 1: and DraftKings, the two titans in the field of sports

399
00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:11,280
Speaker 1: betting apps, as soon as digital gambling became legal in Illinois.

400
00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:16,240
Speaker 1: He prefers FanDuel. Their user interface is significantly better, It's cleaner,

401
00:22:16,880 --> 00:22:19,359
Speaker 1: it's easier to manage, and it's owned by one of

402
00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:22,760
Speaker 1: the world's biggest gambling companies, one that has brought all

403
00:22:22,800 --> 00:22:25,960
Speaker 1: of the insights and tools of a consumer products juggernaut

404
00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:30,080
Speaker 1: to digital sports wagering. It towers over the industry like

405
00:22:30,119 --> 00:22:33,320
Speaker 1: the Wizard of Oz, and most gamblers don't understand who's

406
00:22:33,320 --> 00:22:35,679
Speaker 1: spinning all of the wheels behind the curtain. I was

407
00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:38,960
Speaker 1: familiar with it, but I didn't know how much of

408
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:42,040
Speaker 1: a role they had played in all this. After the Break,

409
00:22:42,280 --> 00:22:44,440
Speaker 1: I'll take a closer look at that company and talk

410
00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:46,480
Speaker 1: to some of the people playing a role in making

411
00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:51,840
Speaker 1: those gambling apps almost addicting lye fun. Then later I'll

412
00:22:51,840 --> 00:22:54,199
Speaker 1: sit with Blair to watch him in action and do

413
00:22:54,280 --> 00:23:03,840
Speaker 1: some gambling of my own. So that company we were

414
00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:07,440
Speaker 1: talking about before the Break, its name is Flutter Entertainment.

415
00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:11,560
Speaker 1: It's one of the world's biggest gambling operations. While gamblers

416
00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:15,680
Speaker 1: like Blair, we're dreaming of sixty pay days, Flutter, which

417
00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:19,160
Speaker 1: owns FanDuel and other big brands, hauled in seven point

418
00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:23,879
Speaker 1: six billion in revenue. As the old saying goes in

419
00:23:23,880 --> 00:23:28,200
Speaker 1: the casino business, the house always wins. Then Flutter cashed

420
00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:31,040
Speaker 1: in when the sports betting landscape shifted in the US

421
00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:34,360
Speaker 1: back it was the full steenth of May and one

422
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:40,600
Speaker 1: day it will be a company holiday. The day the

423
00:23:40,640 --> 00:23:45,040
Speaker 1: Supreme Court opened gamblings floodgates by allowing individual states to

424
00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:48,680
Speaker 1: legalize sports betting if they wanted, And that was Peter

425
00:23:48,800 --> 00:23:53,919
Speaker 1: Jackson Flutter CEO, the origins of foots slang in the

426
00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:57,520
Speaker 1: UK for having a bat having a flutter, says Peter,

427
00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:01,720
Speaker 1: as an ancient indulgence. Gambling is something that people have

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00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,639
Speaker 1: done for a very very long time, actually not just

429
00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:06,840
Speaker 1: around sports. You know, people bet on dice and you

430
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:09,840
Speaker 1: look at the history of gambling and it's a very

431
00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:14,080
Speaker 1: very well established thing and there are psychological reasons why

432
00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:17,960
Speaker 1: people enjoy taking that risk. Flutter is a collection of

433
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:20,840
Speaker 1: gambling companies in Ireland in the UK that includes old

434
00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:24,760
Speaker 1: fashioned bookmakers and newer digital ventures. It has a big

435
00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:28,560
Speaker 1: footprint in Europe and around the globe. It's reach expanded

436
00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:32,840
Speaker 1: when it bought FanDuel, that app that gamblers like Blair

437
00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:36,160
Speaker 1: love to use. It's a U S company that originally

438
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:39,879
Speaker 1: made a big splash and fantasy sports leagues. Flutter's timing

439
00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:42,520
Speaker 1: was good. It broke into the US Right before that

440
00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:46,879
Speaker 1: Supreme Court ruling was announced, Peter had just become CEO,

441
00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:50,080
Speaker 1: armed with an engineering degree from Cambridge and a blue

442
00:24:50,119 --> 00:24:53,360
Speaker 1: chip pedigree in banking and consulting. That sort of makes

443
00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:56,880
Speaker 1: him the perfect leader for a modern gambling company, less

444
00:24:56,880 --> 00:25:00,080
Speaker 1: a bookmaker and more of a consumer products champion. In

445
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:04,320
Speaker 1: adept at reeling in digital customers, what was really clear

446
00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:08,200
Speaker 1: to me was that the economics in a digital batting environment,

447
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:10,920
Speaker 1: we're going to be no different to any other digital business.

448
00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:14,600
Speaker 1: And we know that if you pick any category, the

449
00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:19,480
Speaker 1: economics flow disproportionate to the scale player. A very big

450
00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:21,600
Speaker 1: part of what I thought we need to do at

451
00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:26,000
Speaker 1: that time was to build scale. More than seven point

452
00:25:26,080 --> 00:25:30,679
Speaker 1: five million people visit Flutters various gambling platforms every month.

453
00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:36,080
Speaker 1: It's stock priced sword more than between, and it competes

454
00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:39,119
Speaker 1: with draft Kings for all of the advertising space you

455
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:41,960
Speaker 1: see chewed up on your TV screens and in bus,

456
00:25:42,160 --> 00:25:46,359
Speaker 1: subway and train stations. It's partnered with sports leagues and

457
00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:49,840
Speaker 1: traditional media companies. As the boundaries that once separated those

458
00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:54,399
Speaker 1: businesses have dissolved. Amy how who runs vanduel for Flutter,

459
00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:57,840
Speaker 1: so she's offering her customers more than just gambling. At

460
00:25:57,840 --> 00:25:59,280
Speaker 1: the end of the day, we actually view what we

461
00:25:59,359 --> 00:26:02,480
Speaker 1: do is we're an entertainment platform, and so there really

462
00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:05,280
Speaker 1: are quite a few commonalities as you think about what

463
00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:08,159
Speaker 1: we built and what we deliver every day to consumers

464
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:10,080
Speaker 1: and what we're trying to do here at vandel as well.

465
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:14,040
Speaker 1: Like Peter Amy isn't a gambling veteran. She was a

466
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:18,440
Speaker 1: senior executive at Ticketmaster, the entertainment company before coming to FanDuel.

467
00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:21,000
Speaker 1: One of the critical things for me is how do

468
00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:24,240
Speaker 1: I acquire as many customers as I can as efficiently

469
00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:27,679
Speaker 1: as possible. Right so, we have built i would say,

470
00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:30,920
Speaker 1: by far, the most efficient marketing acquisition engine in the industry,

471
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:32,960
Speaker 1: and that's really one of the things that's been a

472
00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:35,960
Speaker 1: huge driver of our success so far. Another of Flutters

473
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:39,359
Speaker 1: advantages it learned the sports gambling ropes in Ireland and

474
00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:42,560
Speaker 1: the UK long before the US betting boom took off,

475
00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:45,000
Speaker 1: and how all of that rolled out in the UK

476
00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:49,320
Speaker 1: has lessons for the US. I tracked down Rob Davis

477
00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:52,159
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about that. He's a business

478
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:54,760
Speaker 1: reporter for The Guardian and the author of a new book,

479
00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:59,560
Speaker 1: Jack Pott, How Gambling Conquered Britain. He's watched the UK

480
00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:02,000
Speaker 1: gambling bomb from a front row seat and he was

481
00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:05,280
Speaker 1: able to walk through exactly how gambling took over his country.

482
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:09,960
Speaker 1: The boom there started when professional Premier League soccer began

483
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:13,480
Speaker 1: appearing on everybody's TV. I think it last counted something

484
00:27:13,480 --> 00:27:15,640
Speaker 1: like a billion people watched the Premier League. So there

485
00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:20,800
Speaker 1: is really no advertising platform like it, and so it's

486
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:24,760
Speaker 1: no surprise that over time gambling companies become very interested

487
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 1: in that, and then that essentially gets put on steroids

488
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:30,480
Speaker 1: with the arrival of the Internet and then the second

489
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:33,959
Speaker 1: leg mobile devices. Right, yeah, absolutely, there is a there

490
00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:36,040
Speaker 1: are a number of things all going on at once,

491
00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:39,679
Speaker 1: kind of confluence of events that creates a sort of

492
00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:43,159
Speaker 1: a perfect breeding ground for gambling to thrive and for

493
00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:45,480
Speaker 1: football to thrive on. It's as well because a lot

494
00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:49,879
Speaker 1: of money that goes into football from gambling. Gambling is

495
00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:53,720
Speaker 1: an unusual business. Much of it is just pure entertainment

496
00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:57,000
Speaker 1: for most people, but because it taps so directly into

497
00:27:57,040 --> 00:28:00,160
Speaker 1: primal urges around greed and risk, it can all will

498
00:28:00,160 --> 00:28:03,560
Speaker 1: be a powder keg. Compulsive gambling is one of its

499
00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:07,159
Speaker 1: most overt problems. The British government was alarmed by all

500
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:11,920
Speaker 1: of that, so it gathered politicians, gambling operators, even religious

501
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,840
Speaker 1: organizations to figure out a response. The two thousand and

502
00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:19,600
Speaker 1: five Gambling Act was born. It offered a regulatory structure

503
00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:22,800
Speaker 1: in the UK that was meant to last for decades.

504
00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:26,160
Speaker 1: They were thinking, well, this is a leisure pursuit, people

505
00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:28,320
Speaker 1: want to do it. We shouldn't be a nanny state.

506
00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:30,679
Speaker 1: We shouldn't try and intervene and stop them doing it.

507
00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:32,640
Speaker 1: And in fact, we can raise huge amounts of tax

508
00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:35,359
Speaker 1: revenue and create jobs. And you know, there's some logic

509
00:28:35,440 --> 00:28:37,520
Speaker 1: in that. But they dropped the Gambling Act in two

510
00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 1: thousand and five. It comes into force in two thousand

511
00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:42,160
Speaker 1: and seven. And the thing that happens in the middle

512
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:44,080
Speaker 1: of those two things is the invention of the iPhone.

513
00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:47,200
Speaker 1: The Gambling Act was built for a brick and mortar world,

514
00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:52,480
Speaker 1: but mobile devices didn't need buildings. Like everyone else, including me,

515
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:57,640
Speaker 1: British politicians didn't fully understand the implications of the technology revolution.

516
00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:00,280
Speaker 1: Within a year, everyone was going to have Sisto a

517
00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:02,720
Speaker 1: casino in their pockets. And one of the things that

518
00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:04,520
Speaker 1: I've found a lot when I've talked to people who

519
00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:07,720
Speaker 1: do struggle with their gambling is that it helps them

520
00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:10,720
Speaker 1: if there's some degree of friction between the urge to

521
00:29:10,760 --> 00:29:14,040
Speaker 1: gamble and the ability to actually do it. Less friction,

522
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:19,720
Speaker 1: more gambling, more gambling, more fun, and more money. But

523
00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:22,120
Speaker 1: the Brits had also learned that sports gambling was so

524
00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:25,600
Speaker 1: explosive and ubiquitous that their regulations turned out to be

525
00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:29,440
Speaker 1: backward looking. So far, the US hasn't appeared to have

526
00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:33,080
Speaker 1: learned any of those lessons, and states are legalizing gambling

527
00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:36,600
Speaker 1: at a rapid clip. Annual revenues from online sports betting

528
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:40,640
Speaker 1: are currently about a billion dollars. Goldman Sachs estimates that

529
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:43,920
Speaker 1: that figure will soar to about thirty nine billion, by

530
00:29:45,320 --> 00:29:47,440
Speaker 1: far more than what people spend on other forms of

531
00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:51,720
Speaker 1: entertainment such as movies and booze. All that action could

532
00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:55,280
Speaker 1: also lead to more blow ups. You could be in

533
00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:57,760
Speaker 1: bed at night at three am with your partners sleep

534
00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:00,600
Speaker 1: beside you, and you're losing the mortgage, you're losing the

535
00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:02,920
Speaker 1: child's university fund, and you know, I spoken to lots

536
00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:05,160
Speaker 1: of people have done that. That's not scam hungering. I mean,

537
00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:08,320
Speaker 1: that's what guys on. I've looked at research indicating only

538
00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:11,200
Speaker 1: about two percent of the gambling population winds up with

539
00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:14,880
Speaker 1: an addiction. Most people do gamble for fun, But all

540
00:30:14,880 --> 00:30:17,960
Speaker 1: those studies largely rely on data that predates the more

541
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:21,880
Speaker 1: recent gambling boom. I imagine that number might sore now

542
00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:25,800
Speaker 1: that everyone can have a casino in their pocket. That

543
00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:28,920
Speaker 1: also got me thinking, could Blair be a self destructive,

544
00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:32,960
Speaker 1: compulsive gambler. I'm not an expert, but I don't think so.

545
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:35,120
Speaker 1: He's learned the hard way what he has to watch

546
00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:38,360
Speaker 1: out for. Back when he was big into poker, he

547
00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:42,120
Speaker 1: found himself betting money he didn't have. Now he makes

548
00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 1: it a point to talk openly about his losses. He

549
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:47,920
Speaker 1: says that keeps him from glamorizing gambling. You need to

550
00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:50,600
Speaker 1: be humbled and you need to be brought back down

551
00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:53,240
Speaker 1: to earth, and you need to know that like, hey,

552
00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:56,840
Speaker 1: you can't dodge bullets. But I don't mind going through

553
00:30:56,840 --> 00:31:00,920
Speaker 1: those downswings because it just helps me put things in

554
00:31:00,960 --> 00:31:05,040
Speaker 1: their perspective. Do you think gamblers have a different relationship

555
00:31:05,160 --> 00:31:08,440
Speaker 1: to money than other people? Yeah, I mean I think

556
00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:12,920
Speaker 1: with the way that gamblers do this, there's an obsession

557
00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:16,600
Speaker 1: to money and too for whatever reason. You know, Well,

558
00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:18,360
Speaker 1: but what's the root of it. Do you think. I

559
00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:20,440
Speaker 1: don't know if I think it depends on the person.

560
00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:24,400
Speaker 1: Like for me, the root of my passion with all this,

561
00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:27,200
Speaker 1: it's not greed. Blair was still in high school when

562
00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:29,800
Speaker 1: the recession hit in two thousand and eight. Both of

563
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:32,560
Speaker 1: his parents were real estate agents in Detroit and they

564
00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:36,080
Speaker 1: lost their house. They moved down to Florida, but Blair

565
00:31:36,120 --> 00:31:38,880
Speaker 1: stayed in Michigan to finish out high school. Then he

566
00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:42,000
Speaker 1: went to Michigan State. He worked his way through college,

567
00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:44,880
Speaker 1: maxed out student loans, and he had to pay for

568
00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:50,280
Speaker 1: his senior year using credit cards. I've seen how money can,

569
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:58,320
Speaker 1: unfortunately hurt a family right, and it doesn't solve all problems,

570
00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:05,960
Speaker 1: but avoiding financial problems can create an environment to have

571
00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:09,400
Speaker 1: a healthy family and a good marriage and everything. It's

572
00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:12,719
Speaker 1: not everything, but being able to avoid that stuff is

573
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:18,000
Speaker 1: where it comes from. With me, is like security. I

574
00:32:18,040 --> 00:32:20,200
Speaker 1: want to be able to invest and make good money

575
00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:24,000
Speaker 1: and do fun things and help my kids get through

576
00:32:24,440 --> 00:32:28,440
Speaker 1: college and start their lives because I learned everything that

577
00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:32,480
Speaker 1: I learned the hard way. So he's careful. He keeps

578
00:32:32,480 --> 00:32:35,120
Speaker 1: his gambling money in a different account and doesn't touch

579
00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:38,000
Speaker 1: the savings he shares with Sarah While the Titans of

580
00:32:38,040 --> 00:32:42,160
Speaker 1: Mobile Gambling don't offer money management tutorials to gamblers, they

581
00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:44,680
Speaker 1: say they're trying to monitor their customers for signs of

582
00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:48,800
Speaker 1: problem gambling. Here's fandual CEO Amy how again, I have

583
00:32:48,880 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 1: a compliance team of well over a hundred people. This

584
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:55,720
Speaker 1: focus on everything from risky play to to anti money laundering.

585
00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:59,480
Speaker 1: I've got clear metrics and targets. So my entire organization

586
00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:02,680
Speaker 1: is entered based on making sure that we're not just

587
00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:06,120
Speaker 1: developing the products to be able to let consumers manage

588
00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:10,959
Speaker 1: within appropriate limits, but they were really driving those numbers flutter.

589
00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:14,960
Speaker 1: CEO Peter Jackson sums that up simply, we want to

590
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:17,640
Speaker 1: make sure that our customers can have some fun, but

591
00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:21,120
Speaker 1: actually when the fund stops, we want them to stop betting.

592
00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:24,040
Speaker 1: And Peter says he takes responsibility for the fact that

593
00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:27,080
Speaker 1: it's not all on the gambler to stop betting. The

594
00:33:27,120 --> 00:33:29,160
Speaker 1: onus isn't on the customer, is a lot of it's

595
00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:32,120
Speaker 1: on us. We can see how much time someone's spending

596
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:35,120
Speaker 1: on our site. We can see their patterns of play.

597
00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:38,760
Speaker 1: If someone's been depositing a hundred dollars a month and

598
00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:41,040
Speaker 1: suddenly they put five hundred dollars in and suddenly they

599
00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:43,880
Speaker 1: put two thousand dollars in. We need to be on

600
00:33:43,960 --> 00:33:47,400
Speaker 1: red alert. And actually it doesn't matter how much money

601
00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:50,200
Speaker 1: people have. If people are spending a huge amount of

602
00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:53,440
Speaker 1: time on our site and they hadn't in the past,

603
00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:56,360
Speaker 1: that's also something we need to be really thoughtful about

604
00:33:56,400 --> 00:33:59,160
Speaker 1: as well. So there's lots of signals and signs that

605
00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:03,760
Speaker 1: we look for in terms of our customers on our platform. Well, well,

606
00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:06,480
Speaker 1: then reach out and engage in talk talk customers to

607
00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:09,440
Speaker 1: check their okay. I want to take Amy and Peter's

608
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:12,560
Speaker 1: responses here at face value, but there's a long history

609
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:15,879
Speaker 1: of companies peddling vice who claim to be concerned about

610
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:18,439
Speaker 1: the impact of what they sell and then can't really

611
00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:22,120
Speaker 1: knuckle down and change their behavior. The tobacco industry comes

612
00:34:22,160 --> 00:34:25,160
Speaker 1: to mind. I also wonder how much of their valuable

613
00:34:25,160 --> 00:34:29,200
Speaker 1: corporate resources they really want to spend looking after wayward gamblers.

614
00:34:30,320 --> 00:34:33,600
Speaker 1: FanDuel's website does offer a nifty tools for setting limits

615
00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:36,880
Speaker 1: on wagers, but the onus certainly is on the customer

616
00:34:36,960 --> 00:34:40,440
Speaker 1: to take advantage of them. Gamblers themselves are required to

617
00:34:40,480 --> 00:34:44,280
Speaker 1: set the limits. FanDuel stays out of the way After

618
00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:46,560
Speaker 1: I signed up as a FanDuel newbie for this story,

619
00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:50,240
Speaker 1: the company flooded my inbox, encouraging me to do anything

620
00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:53,359
Speaker 1: but set limits on my gambling. I was offered lots

621
00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:56,799
Speaker 1: of exclusives and free bets. I may not be the

622
00:34:56,840 --> 00:34:59,839
Speaker 1: sharpest gambler in the world, but I also know there's

623
00:34:59,880 --> 00:35:02,359
Speaker 1: no oh such thing as a free bet, and I'm

624
00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:05,880
Speaker 1: just a gambling voyeur. For others more attached to their betting,

625
00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:10,600
Speaker 1: fan Duel, Draft Kings and other companies, persistent messaging might

626
00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:15,600
Speaker 1: encourage something that becomes much more life shattering. Fortunately, my

627
00:35:15,680 --> 00:35:18,920
Speaker 1: new friend Blair is not in that category. I sincerely

628
00:35:18,920 --> 00:35:21,440
Speaker 1: hope he stays in the safe zone and continues to

629
00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:23,720
Speaker 1: have fun and make some good money on the side,

630
00:35:24,600 --> 00:35:27,000
Speaker 1: because it really is fun to watch him in action.

631
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:31,120
Speaker 1: After the break, Blair and I will crack open some beers,

632
00:35:31,400 --> 00:35:34,480
Speaker 1: dig into some pretzels and cheese dip, and over analyze

633
00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:37,120
Speaker 1: some games, all in the hopes of making a little

634
00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:44,879
Speaker 1: bit of money. We'll be right back. Let's go back

635
00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:47,160
Speaker 1: to that Dodgers Mets game Blair was betting on at

636
00:35:47,160 --> 00:35:50,400
Speaker 1: the beginning of this episode. Get through. Oh Let's go,

637
00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:56,120
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Oh my God. It's unbelievable, all right. Now,

638
00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:58,840
Speaker 1: this baseball game is very important to me. Here's the

639
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:03,120
Speaker 1: bet Blair made for two fifty dollars. He chose the

640
00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:06,280
Speaker 1: winner of three baseball games that day and one player

641
00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:09,560
Speaker 1: who would hit a home run in each one of them.

642
00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:12,920
Speaker 1: By the third game, his bed is still alive. He

643
00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:16,719
Speaker 1: just needs one more player to hit a homer, but

644
00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:19,760
Speaker 1: it's never that easy. By the end of the ninth inning,

645
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:23,880
Speaker 1: his guy, a Dodger named Freddie Freeman, still hasn't delivered

646
00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:27,920
Speaker 1: the goods. Then the game goes into extra innings. Blair's

647
00:36:27,920 --> 00:36:31,040
Speaker 1: hopes are kept alive. As a better I could not

648
00:36:31,160 --> 00:36:33,799
Speaker 1: be asking for a better situation right now. It's an

649
00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:36,200
Speaker 1: extreme long shot that he hits a home run to

650
00:36:36,239 --> 00:36:38,160
Speaker 1: win the game, you know, on the bottom of tenth,

651
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:40,400
Speaker 1: But I have a chance, which again, he's all I'm

652
00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:44,200
Speaker 1: asking for. So now, Freddie Freeman is a Mets are beating,

653
00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:47,799
Speaker 1: leading the Dodgers five to four, and Blair would love

654
00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:50,839
Speaker 1: for Freddie Freeman a walk off home run that would

655
00:36:51,360 --> 00:36:56,480
Speaker 1: be worth sixty dollars to Blair. Of course, he slings

656
00:36:56,600 --> 00:37:00,920
Speaker 1: the first pitch that's disappointing and grounds out. Yeah. Well,

657
00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:05,120
Speaker 1: it's not by any means over um, but it would

658
00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:08,320
Speaker 1: realistically probably have to go two mornings for him to

659
00:37:08,320 --> 00:37:10,799
Speaker 1: get another right bad I'm honestly pretty surprised he swung

660
00:37:10,840 --> 00:37:14,680
Speaker 1: at the first pitch. Ever, the optimist Blair saying it's

661
00:37:14,719 --> 00:37:18,080
Speaker 1: not over until it's over, and even when it is over,

662
00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:21,000
Speaker 1: he's hedged enough that he still has a chance to

663
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:23,640
Speaker 1: make money off the game. Wow, he struck him out

664
00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:30,600
Speaker 1: games over employer. So I'm not upset about it. I'm

665
00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:33,279
Speaker 1: not upset about it by any means. I'll take that

666
00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:37,279
Speaker 1: all day long. But he sounds pretty dejected and he's

667
00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:40,480
Speaker 1: thinking aloud about what might have been. I had a

668
00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:44,640
Speaker 1: chance for my guy to do what I needed him

669
00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:47,960
Speaker 1: to do, to literally end the game and win my

670
00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:50,560
Speaker 1: bet in the bottom of the tenth inning. So it's again,

671
00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:53,520
Speaker 1: those are good scenarios. That means I had a long odds,

672
00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:56,360
Speaker 1: right long odds, but a good scenario, and you have

673
00:37:56,520 --> 00:38:00,319
Speaker 1: to find yourself, like I almost picked this guy trade

674
00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:02,600
Speaker 1: Turner to home run today, and he did. I ended

675
00:38:02,680 --> 00:38:05,560
Speaker 1: upon with Freeman because the starting pitcher for the Mets

676
00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:09,680
Speaker 1: was statistically worse against lefties than he is against righties,

677
00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:12,319
Speaker 1: so I went with Freeman over Turner, and of course

678
00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:13,879
Speaker 1: Turner was the one that you know, you know, we're

679
00:38:13,880 --> 00:38:18,000
Speaker 1: on the first inning too, So unfortunately just picked the

680
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:21,880
Speaker 1: wrong guy. Even if he's disappointed, Lair takes comfort in

681
00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:23,759
Speaker 1: the fact that he's in it for the long haul.

682
00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:26,759
Speaker 1: My theory a lot of the time is just live

683
00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:31,200
Speaker 1: to fight another day, because you cannot beat sports betting.

684
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:36,160
Speaker 1: There's always gonna be another game, another match, whatever, it's

685
00:38:36,160 --> 00:38:38,880
Speaker 1: always going to be there, and what you're trying to

686
00:38:38,920 --> 00:38:42,040
Speaker 1: do ultimately is just it's just just keep making money

687
00:38:42,160 --> 00:38:45,600
Speaker 1: and keep profiting off of this stuff. And you've got

688
00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:48,600
Speaker 1: to understand that you're gonna get to the last leg

689
00:38:48,600 --> 00:38:51,000
Speaker 1: of parlays a decent amount of time and that's gonna

690
00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:53,320
Speaker 1: be the one that you were wrong on and it sucks.

691
00:38:53,719 --> 00:38:56,000
Speaker 1: So if you take your win, you take your cash

692
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:58,759
Speaker 1: out and hedge, you move on. There's nothing wrong with that.

693
00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:01,319
Speaker 1: You just keep building your bank roll, pay off a bill,

694
00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:03,400
Speaker 1: go on a vacation, you know, something like that, go

695
00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:06,040
Speaker 1: out to dinner with your your spouse, your significant other.

696
00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:08,880
Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with that at all. But that's hard,

697
00:39:09,680 --> 00:39:12,600
Speaker 1: especially because so much of gambling is a solitary pursuit.

698
00:39:13,360 --> 00:39:15,480
Speaker 1: Sarah says she wishes she could help Lair with some

699
00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:17,960
Speaker 1: of his research so they could work on this together,

700
00:39:18,560 --> 00:39:20,440
Speaker 1: but Blair really needs to keep it all in his

701
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:23,839
Speaker 1: own head. His friends are supportive and try to bet

702
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:27,640
Speaker 1: with him, but they also don't really get it. I'll

703
00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:31,680
Speaker 1: do it with my friends, and my friends will participate,

704
00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:35,640
Speaker 1: but they'll mostly just take whatever it is that I

705
00:39:35,680 --> 00:39:38,800
Speaker 1: did and then put significantly less money on it, and

706
00:39:38,840 --> 00:39:40,239
Speaker 1: then when the game's going on, they might not even

707
00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:42,520
Speaker 1: be paying attention in the sense that I am. And

708
00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:44,360
Speaker 1: if you watching a guy miss a three pointer in

709
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:46,000
Speaker 1: the first quarter and be like furious, and they're like,

710
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:47,239
Speaker 1: what's the big deal, it's the first quarter. I'm like,

711
00:39:47,239 --> 00:39:49,000
Speaker 1: because he's only gonna shoot two more. I needed to

712
00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:51,520
Speaker 1: make two and now he's got to go and they're

713
00:39:51,560 --> 00:39:55,960
Speaker 1: like what. That's what prop betting specifically will do to you.

714
00:39:55,960 --> 00:40:00,719
Speaker 1: You will pay attention to the dumbest and the tiniest

715
00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:04,879
Speaker 1: little details that will impact your bet at some point

716
00:40:04,880 --> 00:40:06,880
Speaker 1: throughout the game, and it will change the way that

717
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:09,840
Speaker 1: you feel about certain players because they'll miss a layup,

718
00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:12,400
Speaker 1: or they'll drop a pass in the end zone or something,

719
00:40:12,440 --> 00:40:16,080
Speaker 1: and you're just like like, like, what's wrong with you?

720
00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:19,160
Speaker 1: You know? But in reality, like they're humans, they're gonna

721
00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:22,960
Speaker 1: make mistakes. But it's hard not to get frustrated when

722
00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:25,760
Speaker 1: stuff like that happens. I laughed to myself as player

723
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:28,720
Speaker 1: told me this, but I wouldn't truly understand until later

724
00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:31,840
Speaker 1: when I had my own bet on the line. You see,

725
00:40:32,280 --> 00:40:34,400
Speaker 1: I had the Fan Duel app open for most of

726
00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:38,040
Speaker 1: the weekend watching the lines along with Blair, and Fan

727
00:40:38,080 --> 00:40:41,080
Speaker 1: Duel kept nudging me. I just got a reality check

728
00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:44,200
Speaker 1: from my Fan Duel app saying, we're glad you're enjoying

729
00:40:44,239 --> 00:40:47,200
Speaker 1: FanDuel Sports Book. Just so you know, you've been playing

730
00:40:47,239 --> 00:40:50,759
Speaker 1: for thirty three minutes. You have wagered zero dollars since

731
00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:54,280
Speaker 1: you logged in. Okay, So I do get the feeling

732
00:40:54,280 --> 00:40:56,840
Speaker 1: that the app is getting mad at me. Isn't this

733
00:40:56,920 --> 00:40:58,920
Speaker 1: the company that was telling me they wanted to make

734
00:40:58,920 --> 00:41:02,000
Speaker 1: sure I went about this nice and easy. Well, they

735
00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:04,319
Speaker 1: sure made it easy for me since it was my

736
00:41:04,360 --> 00:41:07,360
Speaker 1: first prop bet. They gave me twenty five dollars to wager.

737
00:41:08,360 --> 00:41:11,360
Speaker 1: So during the Warriors Celtics playoff game, I put it

738
00:41:11,400 --> 00:41:14,280
Speaker 1: on one of their promotions, what they call a boost bet.

739
00:41:15,040 --> 00:41:18,239
Speaker 1: I bet that Steph Curry and Jayson Tatum would each

740
00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:22,040
Speaker 1: score over thirty points during the game. At first, I

741
00:41:22,080 --> 00:41:25,080
Speaker 1: was really proud of myself. I thought I would nail it.

742
00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:28,160
Speaker 1: You're a pretty good shape on that boost. Bet, you're

743
00:41:28,280 --> 00:41:30,560
Speaker 1: really good shape. Yeah. I think he's a twenty now

744
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:34,840
Speaker 1: and uh Tatum's got twenty one. I mean, in a

745
00:41:34,920 --> 00:41:37,480
Speaker 1: close game, Steph Curry needs ten points and Jayson Tatum

746
00:41:37,480 --> 00:41:41,280
Speaker 1: needs nine. You're in a You're in a good spot.

747
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:47,759
Speaker 1: Step Crey to sport game. Good job, Steph. See I've

748
00:41:47,920 --> 00:41:52,279
Speaker 1: now got a different relationship to this game. Yeah. Now

749
00:41:52,280 --> 00:41:55,200
Speaker 1: you paying attention to it differently. You can feel it right, Yeah,

750
00:41:55,280 --> 00:41:57,360
Speaker 1: totally where he's like in a normal game, you'd like,

751
00:41:57,400 --> 00:41:59,879
Speaker 1: oh wheriors are up twelve. You know this is great?

752
00:42:00,160 --> 00:42:05,080
Speaker 1: Missed the lay up. Then all of a sudden, the

753
00:42:05,120 --> 00:42:09,320
Speaker 1: game turned into a blowout. The Warriors began pounding the Celtics.

754
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:13,239
Speaker 1: Blair spotted that development right away before I even knew

755
00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:16,719
Speaker 1: what it meant. Blows is where all the parleys where

756
00:42:16,719 --> 00:42:22,240
Speaker 1: they all go to die? All parley's even my parley. Yep.

757
00:42:23,040 --> 00:42:26,280
Speaker 1: Although Steph Curry needed just one more point and Jayson

758
00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:28,560
Speaker 1: Tatum needed just two from I bet to pay off

759
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:32,160
Speaker 1: the blowout met their coaches might take them off the court.

760
00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:36,959
Speaker 1: What I wouldn't be surprised if Tatum, if this gets

761
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:40,520
Speaker 1: to like points that he won't come back in and

762
00:42:40,520 --> 00:42:43,520
Speaker 1: then you're like, wow, he needed three points for a

763
00:42:43,640 --> 00:42:46,120
Speaker 1: quarter and a half and he couldn't get it, and

764
00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:50,000
Speaker 1: he just missed a free throw, which is unusual, which

765
00:42:50,040 --> 00:42:52,919
Speaker 1: is making me mad and it should right like it's

766
00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:59,439
Speaker 1: it's it's very frustrated. At this point, it wasn't hard

767
00:42:59,480 --> 00:43:02,280
Speaker 1: for our minds to go cynical, and we started questioning

768
00:43:02,320 --> 00:43:05,960
Speaker 1: FanDuel's motives and offering this particular boost. Did they know

769
00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:08,600
Speaker 1: it was going to be a blowout, because this sort

770
00:43:08,640 --> 00:43:13,160
Speaker 1: of thing with the boost happens all the time. All

771
00:43:13,200 --> 00:43:16,600
Speaker 1: the time. We're like, you're right there, and all of

772
00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:20,960
Speaker 1: a sudden, something weird happens and then it just doesn't finish. Wow. Really,

773
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:23,520
Speaker 1: So it's common for boosts not to pay, like right

774
00:43:23,560 --> 00:43:25,560
Speaker 1: at the edge, it's common for them not to hit.

775
00:43:25,760 --> 00:43:28,040
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I mean I get it is common for

776
00:43:28,080 --> 00:43:30,480
Speaker 1: them not to hit, except presumably they wouldn't be offered

777
00:43:30,480 --> 00:43:33,080
Speaker 1: that much. But the thing is that they come right

778
00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:34,879
Speaker 1: up to the edge of it, and then they don't hit.

779
00:43:35,440 --> 00:43:38,120
Speaker 1: We weren't the only ones moaning about how close we got.

780
00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:41,719
Speaker 1: The next day, Pat McAfee brought up that exact same

781
00:43:41,800 --> 00:43:45,680
Speaker 1: parlay on his popular gambling show. McAfee has developed such

782
00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:49,360
Speaker 1: a close following that Banduel reportedly pays him thirty million

783
00:43:49,360 --> 00:43:52,920
Speaker 1: dollars a year just to gab about gambling and fan

784
00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:56,360
Speaker 1: duel representatives go on a show the morning after I

785
00:43:56,400 --> 00:43:59,600
Speaker 1: lost my parlay, he had fan duels. Top odds maker

786
00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:03,279
Speaker 1: John Shearon onto chat, let's just get right into it.

787
00:44:03,360 --> 00:44:07,440
Speaker 1: Last night's boost yea Tatum and Steph to both score thirty?

788
00:44:07,719 --> 00:44:10,960
Speaker 1: How many did Steff have after three quarters? How many

789
00:44:11,000 --> 00:44:14,120
Speaker 1: did Tatum have after three quarters? How many minutes did

790
00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:17,160
Speaker 1: they play in the fourth quarter combined? Zero? How did

791
00:44:17,160 --> 00:44:22,520
Speaker 1: you know? How? How did you know? John? We just

792
00:44:22,560 --> 00:44:24,440
Speaker 1: have a direct line step side. It will be over

793
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:30,160
Speaker 1: after three quarters and you wouldn't see him again. People. Well,

794
00:44:30,200 --> 00:44:33,200
Speaker 1: I'm not seeing fan duel fix that, bet. I really

795
00:44:33,239 --> 00:44:36,040
Speaker 1: don't think there's any chance that they bribed Katum, Curry

796
00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:39,200
Speaker 1: or their coaches. That's why McAfee and Sharon could joke

797
00:44:39,239 --> 00:44:42,000
Speaker 1: about it now. But whenever you see something like that happened,

798
00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:44,920
Speaker 1: I assume you guys are ecstatic. You would have to

799
00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:48,399
Speaker 1: be whenever the fourth quarter starting, and it's like, neither

800
00:44:48,440 --> 00:44:52,000
Speaker 1: the guys are playing. Oh, isn't that we perfectly put

801
00:44:52,160 --> 00:44:55,319
Speaker 1: this is the perfect boost right there. Third Like that's

802
00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:58,840
Speaker 1: dream for the book, right for that to happen. Honestly

803
00:44:58,840 --> 00:45:01,120
Speaker 1: it is. But like that's not the way that we

804
00:45:01,280 --> 00:45:08,560
Speaker 1: try and think about. We're not sitting there looking to

805
00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:10,880
Speaker 1: try and you know win. All of these boots boosts

806
00:45:10,880 --> 00:45:13,520
Speaker 1: are offered honestly, you know, with genuine good faith. We

807
00:45:13,520 --> 00:45:15,040
Speaker 1: want people have a good experience. I want to give

808
00:45:15,080 --> 00:45:18,560
Speaker 1: them a bit of value. So Fan Duel wasn't manipulating anything.

809
00:45:19,120 --> 00:45:21,560
Speaker 1: All of us gamblers just had bad luck on that one.

810
00:45:22,239 --> 00:45:24,200
Speaker 1: But it did get me thinking about the perils of

811
00:45:24,239 --> 00:45:26,880
Speaker 1: match fixing and about a series of interviews I had

812
00:45:26,920 --> 00:45:30,360
Speaker 1: done earlier in the spring. Next episode, we'll bring you

813
00:45:30,440 --> 00:45:34,520
Speaker 1: that story, the rise of gambling and match fixing. For now,

814
00:45:34,840 --> 00:45:37,239
Speaker 1: I'm still stewing about the hundred and fifty bucks I

815
00:45:37,239 --> 00:45:41,160
Speaker 1: missed out on. Blair, of course, was much more successful.

816
00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:44,960
Speaker 1: Sure he missed out on the sixty three dollar Baseball

817
00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:48,120
Speaker 1: Parley pay out, but in our two days together he

818
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:51,640
Speaker 1: netted close to two thousand dollars. That's not bad for

819
00:45:51,680 --> 00:45:56,400
Speaker 1: a weekend of watching sports. Tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow's

820
00:45:56,400 --> 00:46:00,840
Speaker 1: another day, and there's hockey, and there's probably some random

821
00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:04,800
Speaker 1: bottom to your tennis matches, and I bet you there's

822
00:46:05,320 --> 00:46:10,320
Speaker 1: twelve baseball games or something. So there's plenty of stuff

823
00:46:10,320 --> 00:46:12,640
Speaker 1: that there's going to be action on, that's for sure.

824
00:46:23,040 --> 00:46:28,560
Speaker 1: Here at Crash Course, we believe the collisions can be messy, impressive, challenging, surprising,

825
00:46:28,880 --> 00:46:33,279
Speaker 1: and always instructive. In today's Crash Course, I learned that

826
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:35,320
Speaker 1: we are in the very early stages of a huge

827
00:46:35,360 --> 00:46:40,080
Speaker 1: boom that's transforming sports media and the way that people gamble,

828
00:46:40,680 --> 00:46:43,120
Speaker 1: and that the only people who should be gambling lots

829
00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:45,640
Speaker 1: of money a lot of the time are the ones

830
00:46:45,680 --> 00:46:48,799
Speaker 1: who are actually good at it. What did you learn?

831
00:46:49,200 --> 00:46:51,319
Speaker 1: We'd love to hear from you. You can tweet at

832
00:46:51,320 --> 00:46:55,319
Speaker 1: the Bloomberg Opinion handle at Opinion or me at Tim

833
00:46:55,320 --> 00:46:59,799
Speaker 1: O'Brien using the hashtag Bloomberg Crash Course. You can also

834
00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:02,960
Speaker 1: subscribed to our show wherever you're listening right now and

835
00:47:03,040 --> 00:47:05,880
Speaker 1: leave us a review. It helps more people find the show.

836
00:47:06,680 --> 00:47:10,279
Speaker 1: This episode was produced by the Indispensable Anamazarakis and me

837
00:47:10,800 --> 00:47:14,680
Speaker 1: are supervising producers Magnus Hendrickson, and we had editing help

838
00:47:14,719 --> 00:47:20,040
Speaker 1: from Katie Boyce, Jed Sandberg, Jeff Grocott, Mikeniezza, Samantha Story

839
00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:23,680
Speaker 1: and Christine Van den Bilart. Blake Maples does our sound

840
00:47:23,680 --> 00:47:27,919
Speaker 1: engineering and our original theme song was composed by Luis Kara.

841
00:47:28,760 --> 00:47:32,319
Speaker 1: I'm Tim O'Brien and this has been crash course. Check

842
00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:35,320
Speaker 1: your feed for the next episode in our gambling series

843
00:47:35,600 --> 00:47:36,560
Speaker 1: about match fixing.