WEBVTT - Episode 8: The Integrity Landscape 0:00:15.316 --> 0:00:15.756 Pushkin. 0:00:21.596 --> 0:00:23.676 All right, here, we are welcome to the third and 0:00:23.756 --> 0:00:26.636 final part of our season. In this last part, we'll 0:00:26.636 --> 0:00:29.556 be giving you secret tips so you can make a killing. 0:00:30.036 --> 0:00:32.876 I was able to completely change my life around, from 0:00:32.876 --> 0:00:36.196 making zero dollars to now making one hundreds of thousands 0:00:36.196 --> 0:00:39.076 of dollars from sports betting. During this entire journey, I 0:00:39.156 --> 0:00:42.076 found seven key habits I wish I knew earlier. 0:00:42.996 --> 0:00:46.916 Just seven key habits. How hard can it be? I 0:00:46.916 --> 0:00:48.676 mean even Eric Andre is doing it. 0:00:49.676 --> 0:00:52.996 No, it's broncos times. 0:00:53.236 --> 0:00:56.636 I'd take the over, take the over over to YouTube. 0:00:56.916 --> 0:00:58.236 Everybody's gonna hate me for this. 0:00:58.356 --> 0:01:00.596 But day three oh seven of betting one hundred dollars 0:01:00.636 --> 0:01:02.836 every single day of the year, I won five hundred 0:01:02.876 --> 0:01:03.836 dollars yesterday. 0:01:04.316 --> 0:01:06.876 Every day is a new day, but it only counts 0:01:06.916 --> 0:01:09.516 as a day if you put some money down on it. 0:01:09.636 --> 0:01:12.156 You need to be more like me or Kevin Hart. 0:01:12.516 --> 0:01:15.276 All run, lady, like it's the birth of your child. 0:01:17.516 --> 0:01:20.716 Michael. Yeah, yeah, you're in the wrong script. 0:01:21.276 --> 0:01:23.436 Oh oh, go. 0:01:23.356 --> 0:01:23.876 To V two. 0:01:24.516 --> 0:01:26.916 I mean, you know, I never never realized how important 0:01:27.036 --> 0:01:30.236 was to have an editor. Thank you, Julia. Yeah, so 0:01:30.316 --> 0:01:32.876 that was the old script. I guess I wrote that 0:01:33.036 --> 0:01:35.636 somehow before we decided to be the only podcast that 0:01:35.676 --> 0:01:40.676 refuses ads from sports gambling companies. Ah, here's the new one. 0:01:40.956 --> 0:01:44.076 Here it is. Welcome to the third and final part 0:01:44.116 --> 0:01:46.836 of our season. It's it's not about how to make 0:01:46.876 --> 0:01:50.756 a killing gambling on sports, No, it's about how to 0:01:50.756 --> 0:01:55.356 prevent sports gambling from killing you. There we go. That's better. 0:01:56.236 --> 0:01:57.676 Okay, let's roll the theme. 0:02:01.996 --> 0:02:06.516 I'm Michael Lewis, and this is against the rules. In 0:02:06.556 --> 0:02:08.916 the first part of this season, we told the story 0:02:08.996 --> 0:02:12.316 of how sports gambling came to be legalized and normalized 0:02:12.316 --> 0:02:16.156 in the United States. In part two, we laid out 0:02:16.156 --> 0:02:19.636 how the new sports gambling industrial complex works, how it 0:02:19.676 --> 0:02:22.996 came to be dominated by two companies, Fan Duel and 0:02:23.076 --> 0:02:28.036 Draft Kings, and exquisitely designed to maximize both the number 0:02:28.116 --> 0:02:32.396 of and the stupidity of sports bets that Americans make. 0:02:33.596 --> 0:02:35.716 I don't think anybody consciously set out to create as 0:02:35.756 --> 0:02:38.796 many gambling related tragedies in the United States as possible, 0:02:39.316 --> 0:02:42.156 but in effect, that's what this new industry is doing. 0:02:43.156 --> 0:02:45.796 Now we're going to turn to the future like where 0:02:45.836 --> 0:02:48.716 all this might be headed. And the best way to 0:02:48.716 --> 0:02:51.476 see the future is always just to look a bit 0:02:51.556 --> 0:03:05.276 more closely at the present. We're going to start our 0:03:05.316 --> 0:03:08.036 tour of the present on a basketball. 0:03:07.476 --> 0:03:12.636 Court gambling signs and gambling advertisements. We can't even watch 0:03:12.676 --> 0:03:16.756 playbacks of our game without seeing you know, FANDUL DraftKings 0:03:16.836 --> 0:03:20.836 or whoever advertising you know, the player props or futures 0:03:20.996 --> 0:03:21.436 going on. 0:03:22.836 --> 0:03:25.996 That's Larry Nance, junior first round pick of the Los 0:03:26.036 --> 0:03:30.276 Angeles Lakers back in twenty fifteen. Now he's a power 0:03:30.316 --> 0:03:34.676 forward for the Atlanta Hawks. The NBA forbids its players 0:03:34.676 --> 0:03:37.596 from gambling on basketball, but they still have to live 0:03:37.596 --> 0:03:39.196 in the same world as the rest of us. 0:03:39.996 --> 0:03:42.276 I know, obviously no betting, no tipping, no fixing, but 0:03:42.316 --> 0:03:45.156 it's like, come on, guys, you just at least try 0:03:45.196 --> 0:03:47.676 to hide it from us, like you know, this is 0:03:47.676 --> 0:03:49.716 still a passion of ours? Is the job of ours 0:03:49.756 --> 0:03:52.316 that you know you're making just to share almost like 0:03:52.356 --> 0:03:53.036 a mockery of it. 0:03:53.076 --> 0:03:57.316 Feels like are you ever made aware of like the 0:03:57.436 --> 0:04:01.356 specific bets people might have made on you, like the 0:04:01.356 --> 0:04:03.836 prop bets social media? 0:04:04.196 --> 0:04:06.996 Will you if you log into social media before or 0:04:07.036 --> 0:04:09.476 after any game, Before the game you have people begging 0:04:09.476 --> 0:04:11.516 you to hit a certain amount of rebounds or points 0:04:11.596 --> 0:04:14.076 or whatever it is. And after the game you either 0:04:14.116 --> 0:04:17.316 have somebody praising you or absolutely cursing you out for 0:04:19.436 --> 0:04:22.036 it being your fault that they lost money. 0:04:22.476 --> 0:04:24.196 Is it different than it was when they were just 0:04:24.316 --> 0:04:26.956 upset or happy that the team won? 0:04:27.756 --> 0:04:32.916 Oh significantly significantly. Yeah, it's the kind of language used 0:04:33.076 --> 0:04:37.356 is drastically different than just like losing a basketball game 0:04:37.476 --> 0:04:40.476 or having a poor performance. But now like when when 0:04:40.516 --> 0:04:43.476 somebody thinks you lost the money because you know, it's 0:04:43.516 --> 0:04:47.836 my job to get your seven rebounds tonight, you know, 0:04:47.916 --> 0:04:51.996 then then they they get very animated if you don't 0:04:52.036 --> 0:04:52.676 hit that number. 0:04:53.396 --> 0:04:56.596 So it's it's kind of it gets personal, oh very much. 0:04:56.596 --> 0:04:59.756 So yeah, at tax on, family, at tax on just 0:04:59.996 --> 0:05:02.316 anything they can lash out on, they will use and 0:05:02.396 --> 0:05:02.876 lash out. 0:05:03.716 --> 0:05:05.676 So what do you do to defend yourself? I mean, 0:05:05.796 --> 0:05:07.956 I mean, I don't mean physically. I'm just like just 0:05:08.076 --> 0:05:09.996 like to make sure this isn't making your life miserable? 0:05:10.516 --> 0:05:14.116 Oh, I I mean I didn't. I didn't ask you 0:05:14.156 --> 0:05:18.436 to put money on me for me, Like I honestly, 0:05:18.796 --> 0:05:22.236 I have no desire to hit anybody's number. I hope, 0:05:22.316 --> 0:05:24.676 I hope nobody ever bets on me ever, Like I 0:05:25.196 --> 0:05:27.676 genuinely hope nobody ever bets on me because I just 0:05:27.756 --> 0:05:31.316 don't care about your specific agenda. So you can tweet 0:05:31.356 --> 0:05:34.596 at me anything you want, and my honest reaction is like, 0:05:35.196 --> 0:05:35.996 shouldn't have bet. 0:05:37.756 --> 0:05:40.396 Now. Larry Nance isn't even close to the focus of 0:05:40.436 --> 0:05:44.396 gambling interest in basketball. I love watching him play, but 0:05:44.436 --> 0:05:46.756 he usually comes off the bench and hardly anyone accepts 0:05:46.756 --> 0:05:50.156 sports gamblers pay attention to how many points scores. But 0:05:50.276 --> 0:05:52.476 even he senses the new danger in the air. 0:05:53.236 --> 0:05:56.156 We played in Memphis, I think, and when we were 0:05:56.196 --> 0:05:59.356 staying there that night and I didn't hit my player prop, 0:05:59.356 --> 0:06:00.796 which I don't know why you're betting on me, but 0:06:00.836 --> 0:06:03.676 I got a message while we were in Memphis that 0:06:03.836 --> 0:06:06.516 was like, hey, better not leave your hotel room to night. 0:06:07.716 --> 0:06:09.436 And it was just like, you know what. I don't 0:06:09.436 --> 0:06:12.276 know if that's credible or not, but regardless, I'm probably 0:06:12.276 --> 0:06:13.716 gonna stay in my hotel room tonight. 0:06:14.796 --> 0:06:18.316 This moment in Larry's story, it reminded me of someone 0:06:18.356 --> 0:06:22.036 we heard from a few episodes ago, Jeff Gordon, the 0:06:22.116 --> 0:06:25.956 recovering gambling addict. As a kid, Jeff had been a 0:06:26.036 --> 0:06:29.876 huge basketball fan, but after he started gambling on the sport, 0:06:30.436 --> 0:06:32.276 his love curdled into something else. 0:06:33.356 --> 0:06:35.596 What triggered my mind that I think I have a 0:06:35.676 --> 0:06:38.556 problem is I was pissed at the player because I 0:06:38.596 --> 0:06:41.036 was a quarter of a point away from being in 0:06:41.116 --> 0:06:45.676 first place and winning more money. And I was pissed 0:06:46.036 --> 0:06:51.156 that I that that player didn't score one more basket 0:06:51.236 --> 0:06:53.556 or you won't give more more as this, And I 0:06:53.636 --> 0:06:58.716 just remember hating Andrea Iguidala for so long, and it's 0:06:58.796 --> 0:07:00.596 like why. 0:07:01.676 --> 0:07:04.476 Of course, fans have always wanted things from players, there's 0:07:04.516 --> 0:07:07.196 nothing new about that. What's new is the tone of 0:07:07.236 --> 0:07:10.756 their desire. Less a want, more a need. 0:07:12.076 --> 0:07:13.996 Like you know, when you go sign autographs or something 0:07:13.996 --> 0:07:16.516 pregame or go sign autographs for people getting on the 0:07:16.516 --> 0:07:18.676 bus and be like, hey, how's how's Zion feeling the 0:07:18.796 --> 0:07:22.076 night or as a nasty fall? How is he? And 0:07:22.116 --> 0:07:24.276 you got to look at him and go like, fine, 0:07:24.836 --> 0:07:27.036 you know, just one work fun, fine, good. 0:07:27.276 --> 0:07:31.036 I don't know more and more what fans want is 0:07:31.156 --> 0:07:33.156 information an edge. 0:07:33.876 --> 0:07:36.756 There's been multiple occasions where like you can tell someone's 0:07:36.796 --> 0:07:38.876 come up look digging for information. When you don't give 0:07:38.916 --> 0:07:41.356 it to them, they're like come on, man, like come on, 0:07:41.476 --> 0:07:43.236 just you know, help me out this one time, like 0:07:43.396 --> 0:07:45.036 I don't know, you. 0:07:44.516 --> 0:07:48.436 Know, the players always know stuff that would be useful 0:07:48.436 --> 0:07:51.956 to gamblers. The players are also seeing gambling happening all 0:07:52.036 --> 0:07:56.356 around them, on them to larry. It seems pretty clear 0:07:56.396 --> 0:07:57.276 what's coming next. 0:07:58.116 --> 0:08:01.876 I think there's gonna be a lot of players getting 0:08:01.916 --> 0:08:04.796 in trouble. A lot, I mean a lot of players 0:08:04.796 --> 0:08:05.516 getting in trouble. 0:08:07.516 --> 0:08:12.836 Trouble, that's what's coming. We've already seen a trickle of it. 0:08:13.876 --> 0:08:16.836 But the waters are rising, and you can feel the 0:08:16.876 --> 0:08:20.756 flood on its way, and so can everyone involved in 0:08:20.836 --> 0:08:25.956 any sport that's being gambled upon. The entire sports industrial 0:08:25.996 --> 0:08:28.356 complex is a bit like those poor people in western 0:08:28.356 --> 0:08:30.956 North Carolina who were told they lived in a flood 0:08:31.036 --> 0:08:34.676 zone but had never seen a flood, and then came 0:08:34.716 --> 0:08:48.356 the rain. One of the amazing things about the new 0:08:48.396 --> 0:08:52.516 sports gambling industry is just how totally unconstrained it is. 0:08:53.676 --> 0:08:58.396 Zero restrictions on advertising, for example, zero punishment for pushing 0:08:58.436 --> 0:09:03.596 gambling on people already prone to gambling addiction, zero consequences 0:09:03.636 --> 0:09:07.956 for designing diabolical apps that nudge gamblers into making dumber 0:09:07.956 --> 0:09:11.356 and dumber bets. We're still at a stage where the 0:09:11.396 --> 0:09:15.756 industry is promising to police itself, and apart from limiting 0:09:15.836 --> 0:09:18.996 the bets of sharp sports gamblers, there is really only 0:09:19.076 --> 0:09:22.556 one thing the industry is doing to prevent maximum havoc. 0:09:23.836 --> 0:09:27.956 It's trying really hard to catch and punish anyone who 0:09:27.996 --> 0:09:31.796 trades on inside information. Each and every one of the 0:09:31.796 --> 0:09:35.276 states that have legalized sports betting also now employs a 0:09:35.396 --> 0:09:41.196 sports betting insider trading detective. This person is called an 0:09:41.236 --> 0:09:42.356 integrity monitor. 0:09:43.956 --> 0:09:47.756 So all you're doing is monitoring the market for abnormalities. 0:09:48.036 --> 0:09:52.436 When abnormalities are identified, you send those abnormalities out for 0:09:52.796 --> 0:09:57.196 requests for information from every licensed operator in the country. Hey, 0:09:57.276 --> 0:09:59.876 did you also see any abnormal aging here? 0:10:00.556 --> 0:10:04.636 That's Matthew Holt who created the first so called independent 0:10:04.756 --> 0:10:09.916 licensed integrity monitor. Because Matthew got there first, Matthew's company 0:10:09.956 --> 0:10:14.356 took the best name, US Integrity. And so tell me 0:10:14.396 --> 0:10:16.196 what you're monitoring in the marketplace. 0:10:16.276 --> 0:10:20.076 For number one, and the easiest would be, Hey, Michael 0:10:20.116 --> 0:10:22.876 bets one hundred dollars a game on average on football, 0:10:22.916 --> 0:10:24.916 So we have a you know, we have a betting 0:10:24.956 --> 0:10:27.356 pattern for Michael. We know he likes the bet football 0:10:27.516 --> 0:10:30.516 usually bets one hundred to two hundred dollars, but now 0:10:30.516 --> 0:10:32.876 he wants to bet twenty thousand dollars on the first 0:10:32.876 --> 0:10:36.876 set of a tennis match. Hmmm, very abnormal. Or you know, 0:10:36.956 --> 0:10:39.796 Michael bets one hundred to three hundred dollars on baseball 0:10:39.876 --> 0:10:43.116 every day, but now he wants to bet fifteen thousand 0:10:43.236 --> 0:10:46.076 on first round KO in an MMA match. Well, he 0:10:46.196 --> 0:10:48.476 never bets MMA, and he never bets more than a 0:10:48.476 --> 0:10:49.396 few hundred dollars. 0:10:49.716 --> 0:10:50.076 Boom. 0:10:50.116 --> 0:10:52.436 That's going to trigger someone to look into that match. 0:10:53.156 --> 0:10:55.876 These new sports gambling companies have more data on their 0:10:55.916 --> 0:11:01.156 customers than all the casinos in history combined. The integrity 0:11:01.156 --> 0:11:03.996 monitor sitsts through most of it hunting for betters who 0:11:04.076 --> 0:11:05.596 clearly know something they shouldn't. 0:11:05.956 --> 0:11:08.476 Why are we getting all these new accounts signing up 0:11:08.596 --> 0:11:12.516 just to bet one wager? Severe odds movement is something 0:11:12.556 --> 0:11:15.956 that definitely triggers the system and would have an analyst 0:11:15.996 --> 0:11:17.036 further investigate. 0:11:18.316 --> 0:11:21.276 These integrity monitors are behind the recent uptick in sports 0:11:21.276 --> 0:11:25.476 gambling scandals. One week, Johntae Porter of the Toronto Raptors 0:11:25.556 --> 0:11:28.476 NBA team fakes an injury and pulls himself out of 0:11:28.476 --> 0:11:31.116 a game so as creditors can make money betting that 0:11:31.156 --> 0:11:33.076 he won't score as many points as he could have. 0:11:34.476 --> 0:11:36.516 Next thing, you know, a wide receiver from the New 0:11:36.516 --> 0:11:40.516 England Patriots named kay Jan Boudet is arrested for placing 0:11:40.756 --> 0:11:44.756 eight nine hundred bets while he was a student at LSU. 0:11:46.436 --> 0:11:49.596 Some of those bets were on his own games. Back 0:11:49.596 --> 0:11:52.716 in the old days, people who argued for legalizing sports 0:11:52.716 --> 0:11:56.716 gambling said they could prevent these kinds of scandals. Once 0:11:56.756 --> 0:12:00.356 insider trading was easier to detect, no one would dare 0:12:00.516 --> 0:12:05.516 do it. Well, not really. Instead, it seems that the 0:12:05.636 --> 0:12:09.396 easier it is to trade on inside sports information, the 0:12:09.436 --> 0:12:11.116 more insider trading there will be. 0:12:12.116 --> 0:12:15.436 Brad Bohannon was a college baseball coach at the University 0:12:15.476 --> 0:12:18.556 of Alabama who with a group of his friends had 0:12:18.596 --> 0:12:22.756 got into some gambling debt and they came up with 0:12:22.796 --> 0:12:26.116 an idea to make some money. They were playing LSU 0:12:26.236 --> 0:12:28.476 on a Friday night when LSU was the number one 0:12:28.516 --> 0:12:30.676 team in the country, and the coach came up with 0:12:30.716 --> 0:12:33.996 an idea that he wouldn't tell anyone. He was going 0:12:33.996 --> 0:12:37.236 to make a pitching change to a basically an outfielder 0:12:37.396 --> 0:12:40.596 relief pitcher who had not started any games and didn't 0:12:40.636 --> 0:12:41.556 have any experience. 0:12:42.436 --> 0:12:46.316 Corrupt sports bets are a bit like weird sex acts. 0:12:46.796 --> 0:12:50.756 You hear about them and think, nah, no way anyone 0:12:50.796 --> 0:12:53.876 would do that. But a good rule of thumb in 0:12:53.916 --> 0:12:57.636 life is that anything some human being has imagined, some 0:12:57.756 --> 0:13:01.836 human being has done. And apparently some human being imagined 0:13:01.836 --> 0:13:05.156 the college baseball coach hired to teach and improve a 0:13:05.156 --> 0:13:09.076 bunch of young men rigging a game against his own players. 0:13:10.556 --> 0:13:12.996 When one of the better is attempted to place a 0:13:13.356 --> 0:13:17.236 six figures wager at a sports book, you know, the 0:13:17.556 --> 0:13:20.636 people behind the counter started asking him questions. You know, 0:13:20.796 --> 0:13:24.116 they realized that he was actually communicating with the coach 0:13:24.196 --> 0:13:26.556 on the phone at the time. We were able to 0:13:26.596 --> 0:13:31.196 collect that evidence, video, surveillant evidence and end up showing 0:13:31.236 --> 0:13:33.516 that they were putting together a pretty big scheme and 0:13:33.556 --> 0:13:36.196 they had four people betting in four different places. 0:13:36.436 --> 0:13:38.276 It doesn't sound like they were that smart about it. 0:13:38.676 --> 0:13:39.236 They weren't. 0:13:39.396 --> 0:13:41.196 No, and at the end of the day, you know, 0:13:41.316 --> 0:13:44.996 sometimes we joke that we certainly catch America's dumb as criminals. 0:13:45.876 --> 0:13:49.516 That's one point about integrity monitors. They're pretty good at 0:13:49.516 --> 0:13:53.636 catching the dumb insider traders. People who work for pro 0:13:53.716 --> 0:13:57.436 sports teams placing bets from inside their training facilities, for example, 0:13:58.156 --> 0:14:01.156 and they were instantly caught by the sports apps geolocation 0:14:01.316 --> 0:14:05.716 feature and reported to the league office. I'm told that's 0:14:05.716 --> 0:14:09.476 happened a lot, But there's just no way that everyone 0:14:09.556 --> 0:14:14.076 trading on inside sports information is that dumb. If you 0:14:14.196 --> 0:14:19.036 were the the Alabama coach and you were advising the 0:14:19.076 --> 0:14:21.276 people how to place the bets so that they didn't 0:14:21.316 --> 0:14:24.196 get detected, what would you tell them? 0:14:25.076 --> 0:14:29.196 Number One, you want to try to place the bets 0:14:29.236 --> 0:14:32.356 in person if possible, because you know, again, once you 0:14:32.436 --> 0:14:35.556 sign up for an account, there's this huge digital footprint 0:14:35.596 --> 0:14:39.196 with all of your information. Make sure that it's across 0:14:39.276 --> 0:14:40.116 state lines. 0:14:40.276 --> 0:14:42.876 Why do you want to make sure it's across state lines. 0:14:43.276 --> 0:14:45.956 Because at the end of the day, and if it's 0:14:45.996 --> 0:14:49.596 different operators across state lines. What we are seeing right 0:14:49.636 --> 0:14:53.556 now is more competition in the integrity landscape. 0:14:54.396 --> 0:14:59.676 The integrity landscape, I love that phrase. The integrity landscape 0:14:59.716 --> 0:15:03.396 in sports gambling is complicated, less like a wheatfield in 0:15:03.476 --> 0:15:07.836 Kansas than a rainforest in Borneo. There are a bunch 0:15:07.876 --> 0:15:11.276 of companies like US and Integrity. Each state with legal 0:15:11.316 --> 0:15:15.356 sports books hires its own integrity monitor with its own 0:15:15.436 --> 0:15:16.796 set of data on wagers. 0:15:17.756 --> 0:15:20.796 And let's say that I knew that there's five big 0:15:20.836 --> 0:15:23.676 sports books, and I can use a different sports book 0:15:23.716 --> 0:15:27.316 in each state, and of those five big sports books, 0:15:27.356 --> 0:15:31.956 three of them use different integrity monitoring providers. Well, suddenly, 0:15:32.476 --> 0:15:35.836 one bet at one sports book might not trigger the alert. 0:15:36.196 --> 0:15:39.116 But if each integrity monitor only saw one or two 0:15:39.196 --> 0:15:42.356 of the bets, and each operator also only saw one 0:15:42.356 --> 0:15:45.036 of the bets, they're not likely to report and you're 0:15:45.036 --> 0:15:46.436 more likely to get away with it. 0:15:47.956 --> 0:15:50.316 Still, it's true that they're catching a lot more people 0:15:50.356 --> 0:15:53.716 trading on inside information than ever have been caught in 0:15:53.756 --> 0:15:57.236 the history of sports. Matthew says that they're now like 0:15:57.356 --> 0:16:01.156 one hundred and fifty bus a year. So these integrity 0:16:01.156 --> 0:16:04.116 monitors are kind of doing for illicit sports gambling with 0:16:04.196 --> 0:16:07.356 the Kinsey report once did for sex, showing us all 0:16:07.396 --> 0:16:10.636 what everybody else is doing and is there a pattern 0:16:10.716 --> 0:16:11.436 to why they do it? 0:16:12.716 --> 0:16:15.036 You know, it's crazy some of it. You know, it 0:16:15.196 --> 0:16:18.156 just goes to the competitive nature of athletes in general. 0:16:18.436 --> 0:16:21.836 When you think of like Calvin Ridley and Jamison Williams 0:16:22.116 --> 0:16:25.796 and some of the NFL suspensions, just as examples. Those 0:16:25.836 --> 0:16:29.716 guys were betting such inconsequential amounts of money. Calvin Ridley 0:16:29.756 --> 0:16:33.076 was hurt. He wasn't even playing. He certainly wasn't trying 0:16:33.116 --> 0:16:34.596 to manipulate any matches. 0:16:35.916 --> 0:16:40.036 The insider trading is often totally irrational. I mean, you 0:16:40.116 --> 0:16:42.156 think that a guy making millions of dollars as a 0:16:42.156 --> 0:16:46.516 player wouldn't risk them by making sports bets. But they do. 0:16:47.716 --> 0:16:49.596 And you would think that if they're going to take 0:16:49.636 --> 0:16:53.876 that risk, they at least make very big bets. But 0:16:53.956 --> 0:16:54.756 they don't. 0:16:55.516 --> 0:16:58.716 Hunter Deckers, the starting quarterback at Iowa State who lost 0:16:58.716 --> 0:17:02.076 his eligibility. His average bet size was seven dollars and 0:17:02.116 --> 0:17:06.276 twenty two cents. Seven dollars and twenty two cents, and 0:17:06.316 --> 0:17:08.436 he lost his entire collegiate career. 0:17:09.236 --> 0:17:13.756 Why and why? I don't know. Just use boredom, I guess. Yeah. 0:17:13.996 --> 0:17:16.676 You know, some of those guys, especially in college, lives 0:17:16.796 --> 0:17:19.916 such regimented life. You get up, you have team practice 0:17:19.956 --> 0:17:23.876 and breakfast, and you're basically told what to do all day. 0:17:23.956 --> 0:17:26.956 Every day is scheduled out for you. But the one 0:17:26.996 --> 0:17:29.236 thing they can't control is those little gaps you have 0:17:29.316 --> 0:17:31.516 in this device that's in your hands. Oh, I got 0:17:31.556 --> 0:17:34.956 fifteen three minutes. I can't actually go anywhere and do 0:17:35.036 --> 0:17:37.956 anything in that fifteen to eighteen minutes, but I could 0:17:37.956 --> 0:17:40.436 take out my phone and mess around. 0:17:42.516 --> 0:17:44.876 One way to think of sports gambling is as a 0:17:45.036 --> 0:17:49.356 massive new market for information. All sorts of information that 0:17:49.356 --> 0:17:52.636 no one thought twice about can now be used immediately 0:17:53.116 --> 0:17:56.396 to make money, and not just information that most people 0:17:56.476 --> 0:17:58.756 used to pay zero attention to, like I don't know 0:17:59.116 --> 0:18:01.796 whether the quarterback for some obscure college football team just 0:18:01.876 --> 0:18:05.676 came down with pneumonia. I'm talking about information that would 0:18:05.716 --> 0:18:08.796 never have occurred to anyone ever in the history of 0:18:08.876 --> 0:18:11.036 man to have financial value. 0:18:11.716 --> 0:18:14.756 We saw some significant betting on this basketball game. The 0:18:14.796 --> 0:18:16.396 line move like four points. 0:18:17.116 --> 0:18:19.996 This was a college basketball game before which the odds 0:18:20.036 --> 0:18:22.436 shifted in a big way even though there was no 0:18:22.476 --> 0:18:23.516 new public information. 0:18:24.796 --> 0:18:28.196 And then one of these syndicate betters called us and said, hey, 0:18:28.276 --> 0:18:30.716 I heard that this team is stuck on the tarmac 0:18:30.756 --> 0:18:33.396 with mechanical issues. They're going to make it to the arena, 0:18:34.036 --> 0:18:36.356 but not in time for warm ups. And we know 0:18:36.476 --> 0:18:39.796 in football and basketball, if you miss your stretching slash 0:18:39.876 --> 0:18:42.196 warm ups, those teams lose every time. 0:18:42.276 --> 0:18:43.156 Is that true? Every time? 0:18:43.196 --> 0:18:43.916 You know that it is. 0:18:44.436 --> 0:18:47.236 Yeah, they lose over ninety percent of the time and 0:18:47.396 --> 0:18:49.196 usually can't blowout fashion. 0:18:50.236 --> 0:18:52.876 Moments after the pilot announced the delay of the team's flight, 0:18:53.636 --> 0:18:56.156 the sports book started seeing bets from people who had 0:18:56.196 --> 0:18:59.556 obviously heard about it because it took the integrity monitor 0:18:59.676 --> 0:19:02.876 only seven minutes to get the news, and in. 0:19:02.796 --> 0:19:06.356 That timeframe, you know, it somehow got in the hands 0:19:06.356 --> 0:19:09.276 of syndicate betters who bet all this money, and one 0:19:09.276 --> 0:19:11.676 of them even had time after making all those bets 0:19:11.676 --> 0:19:14.836 to call us and give us a heads up to like, hey, 0:19:14.836 --> 0:19:17.356 if this keeps happening, you know, here's what's going on. 0:19:18.316 --> 0:19:21.276 Information moves so fast. 0:19:21.916 --> 0:19:24.876 So fast that the modern world really hasn't gotten its 0:19:24.916 --> 0:19:28.476 mind around it, so fast that there's no way it 0:19:28.556 --> 0:19:33.596 won't run wild over any integrity landscape. The various sports 0:19:33.676 --> 0:19:36.676 leagues are really trying hard to prevent this from happening. 0:19:37.716 --> 0:19:40.796 They want to turn the American fan into a habitual gambler, 0:19:41.156 --> 0:19:44.556 to keep everything else about American sports as it was 0:19:44.636 --> 0:19:53.316 before gambling invaded, and well, good luck with that. First, 0:19:53.396 --> 0:19:55.556 let's just talk about how you chose where you were 0:19:55.556 --> 0:19:57.436 going to go, Like you could have gone to any 0:19:57.436 --> 0:20:00.356 college in America. You go to Kansas, right Why. 0:20:00.996 --> 0:20:04.236 I just Kansas because we had two possible weekends where 0:20:04.236 --> 0:20:07.156 we could do this reporting trip because of our production schedule, 0:20:07.796 --> 0:20:12.596 and I was looking for were places that had games 0:20:13.236 --> 0:20:15.396 that were a big deal for students, like on those 0:20:15.436 --> 0:20:21.076 weekends that had direct flights from like New York and California. 0:20:24.556 --> 0:20:28.236 That's of course, lydia Jan caught my producer. I usually 0:20:28.476 --> 0:20:32.236 hate the sort of journalism we're about to do, you know, 0:20:32.316 --> 0:20:35.956 where some reporter or pundit talks to some supposedly representative 0:20:35.956 --> 0:20:39.916 person or visit some supposedly typical place to take the 0:20:39.956 --> 0:20:43.276 pulse of the nation. But we made an exception here 0:20:43.956 --> 0:20:46.796 because going to the University of Kansas felt more like 0:20:46.916 --> 0:20:50.556 testing a scientific theory. The theory was that you could 0:20:50.556 --> 0:20:53.516 pick any random college and so long as it had 0:20:53.556 --> 0:20:57.356 fraternities and a football team, you'd find some huge potholes 0:20:57.396 --> 0:21:01.516 in the integrity landscape. Right now, five hundred and twenty 0:21:01.636 --> 0:21:05.756 thousand athletes compete in twenty four different sports at hundreds 0:21:05.796 --> 0:21:09.276 of colleges, and you can place bets on lots of them, 0:21:09.876 --> 0:21:12.516 not just on the teams or on the games, but 0:21:12.596 --> 0:21:16.036 on the kids, Like whether the freshman guard on the 0:21:16.076 --> 0:21:18.756 Temple University hoops team will score more than ten points 0:21:18.756 --> 0:21:22.076 in tomorrow morning's game. And if you saw him passed 0:21:22.076 --> 0:21:24.476 out at a frat party the night before, a prop 0:21:24.516 --> 0:21:29.636 bet might seem like the opportunity of a lifetime. So 0:21:29.676 --> 0:21:32.956 we dropped LJ at random into a college, the University 0:21:32.956 --> 0:21:36.316 of Kansas. She'd just been basically kicked out of all 0:21:36.316 --> 0:21:39.196 the sports books for committing the sin of placing smart 0:21:39.236 --> 0:21:42.356 sports bets, so she now had time on her hands 0:21:42.636 --> 0:21:45.716 to talk to the people the sports gambling companies just love. 0:21:46.796 --> 0:21:48.916 So yeah, So the first thing I did is I 0:21:49.116 --> 0:21:52.156 went to this kind of student coffee shop in Lawrence, 0:21:52.556 --> 0:21:55.796 and I met with two student reporters, and one of 0:21:55.836 --> 0:21:59.556 them was Chad Cushing. He's a multimedia editor at the 0:22:00.276 --> 0:22:01.236 University Daily. 0:22:01.356 --> 0:22:04.636 Cansen. It's everywhere. It's absolutely everywhere. 0:22:04.836 --> 0:22:08.316 I mean any morning of the game day in class, 0:22:08.436 --> 0:22:11.796 especially for bad basketball. I mean, the most guaranteed thing 0:22:11.836 --> 0:22:13.876 you could say to break the ice on most if 0:22:13.876 --> 0:22:15.756 you find another boy that you said next to is like, Hey, 0:22:15.956 --> 0:22:16.676 what's what's the place? 0:22:16.956 --> 0:22:17.076 You know? 0:22:17.076 --> 0:22:18.636 What what's money line? 0:22:18.916 --> 0:22:19.556 Money hawks? 0:22:19.556 --> 0:22:22.316 Money line hawks? Money line people get That's Ben Hook. 0:22:22.356 --> 0:22:27.236 He's a sophomore and the sports editor like tattoos. 0:22:27.476 --> 0:22:29.156 So money line is they win out right. 0:22:29.276 --> 0:22:30.756 It's just you ticking the winner. 0:22:31.156 --> 0:22:33.636