Episode 116: 'G-Stack' George Tsilfidis Joins for a Discussion
On this week's episode of Circles Off, I'm joined in studio by Gstack George. He's gonna break down
His history as a better and how he got to be the host of 90 degrees right here on the Circles Off channel
Also, we're gonna discuss this new bet pod ratings account on Twitter how it's rating who it might be and of course a bet bash recap
I was there just over a week ago. We'll discuss all that my experience there all that and more this week Circles Off starts now
Come on, let's go welcome to Circles Off episode number 116 right here on the Hammer betting network
I'm Rob Pizzola joined by Gstack George. Thank you for having no problem a lot of people might be wondering no Johnny today
Johnny's one of the hardest working guys. I actually know I say that in all seriousness and truth
He's recharging his batteries before football season
And we will have him back in the near future to do episodes
But who better than George to have in studio here? I think we've gotten some commentary George in the past about people not knowing who you are
Your story being a little bit mysterious. So we're gonna get to that today, but as usual with
Circles off we do start with the numbers number 16
I have a very old
One of the first jerseys I ever got. Okay
A Vinnie test of Erdi number 16 jersey. We are we are born on the exact same day in the exact same year
Like one hospital apart basically. Yeah, yeah, it's it's very interesting how just like things come together
But I remember the Monday night miracle from my youth like it was yesterday
So do I you remember the same game? Yeah
That game taught me the greatest lesson of life that the game is not over until you get to triple zero
And that was the that put a scar on me forever
And I will never celebrate until the game is officially done triple zeros
No matter how big the lead that game early in my life taught me that lesson
So I had to look it up to make sure that I actually remembered it correctly
But it was 34th quarter points. Yes from the New York Jets the Jets and Dolphins were like in a I think they're battling for the AFC East that year
So it was actually a really big game
But the the funniest thing about the game are like the quotes over the course of the game from the commentators about it being over
I think Arnold Schwarzenegger was on that broadcast and he actually predicted that the Jets would come back
Yeah, of course he did and of course I obviously there's it's a no no lose situation at that point
But they actually did come back and I remember I did not I got a Vinnie test of Erdi jersey after that game
Why did you make money on it or you became a fan?
I was just like I was like always a Cowboys fan
But obviously the Italian roots Vinnie test a version to use like a guy that I wanted to cheer for as well
So that was that was just like one of the first jersey
I don't even know what happened to add jersey at some point
I'm sure my dad just tossed it. Oh he left it at my parents else when I moved out and it's just in somewhere
So hopefully someone has it. I have a buddy who does that
He whenever he bets a future
He buys a jersey of that team and he wants like he adopts them as his team and he rides it all the way
And he's got the jersey. He's like I'm in the mode man. Yeah, I mean that that's I've never been a jersey's guy
By the way same even when I was young
Part of them was like I
This is like whatever this is me just stating what I like tighter fitting clothing
I'm like a skinny guy. I've always kind of like that on like loose fitting clothing and I've always been skinny skinny
You just can't find like tighter fitting jerseys. It's not what jerseys are. They're meant to have stuff on underneath
jerseys don't fit for our body types Rob everybody in the middle
Are enjoying it, but you and I were left out of the jersey game for sure
Joe Montana famous number 16 as well
I remember Pat Lafontein as a 16 and I only bring that up because Rick Jennerette who is actually one of my favorite hockey
Broadcast not just hockey broadcasters of all time
They're like broadcasters recently passed away with some of like the most memorable calls
But one of them being like the La La La La Fontein again. I can't really do it justice
But I think that's one of the best calls in the history of sports. I got one for you. What's the classic
locker room guys having a hack in the dart and halftime Len Dawson
He was 16 and he was hacking the dart in the middle of the in the locker room at halftime
I go that's my guy right there
It's the classic Mario Belatelli as well from the Italian national team. You'd be doing a disservice
He didn't say Darcy Tucker Darcy Tucker for the leap for the Leafs fan base for sure Jake Plummer was another 16 that I recall
Them like most app everyone always thought like Plummer had like this big upside
He was gonna turn into something and he just he just never really did. He's exciting to watch though for a while
But probably because he he must have won in one year where he threw like 25 interception
Yeah, he had chaos to his game that that scramble around like the play action like roll out to the right
He's at downfield and just like pray something happen. You know who could be like that
Then I'm not you know being hyperbolic because I watched it last night
But Sam Howe's got a little bit of chaos to his game where scramble around make something happen good or bad
Doc Goodin wore a 16 for the Metz and the reason I remember him is the famous story that he was so
High during the world series parade. He never actually made it. He was he was after they won
He went to a drug dealers house to do some hardcore drugs and he ends up watching the world series parade high around a bunch of
People doing drugs and I'm like that when I saw his 30 for 30 was one of the craziest stories
That is a pretty crazy story. I didn't know any of that at all
I think we filled our quota of numbers for Joey Kinesh who asks for us to do this on a weekly basis
I know he's messaged before and told me it's oh damn. I'm in his bad book now his favorite segment is
Listening to us just randomly rhyme off players that we can remember that war that number of the episode
We're going to get into Georgia's background
But before we do I do want to remind you that pinnacle is the world sharpest sportsbook and available to betters in Ontario
We often preached line shopping here on circles off. I think that's one of the most critical aspects to betting
I would never consider betting without pinnacle being one of my sportsbook accounts
Because of the everyday competitive odds that they have that smart that pinnacle
Your trusted sportsbook and use code hammer when signing up. It does help us support us here at circles off again
Use code hammer when you sign up to pinnacle. You must be 19 plus
Not available in the US
Licensed in Ontario and as always of course, please play responsibly
All right, George. We're going to get into it here
a few weeks ago
It's I guess more than a month ago. We had this account start up on Twitter
BPR yeah at bet pod ratings
Which is taken the Twitterverse by storm and what bet pod ratings is we're going to get into this a little bit later into the episode
But someone we don't know who I have my suspicions. We'll talk about that a little bit
But someone who's reviewing sports betting podcasts out there and typically they give a brief summary of the podcast
Then a rating and then a yes or no at the end
That might be the giveaway as to as to who it could be but on august for august first
Hate to throw you under the bus here. I'm just reading it quote for quote go for it
It was your interview with captain jack right here on the circles off
channel and
You can get that interview down below in the description if you do want to see it
I personally thought it was a excellent interview. Thank you, but it got a three out of ten in a no rating
Specifically though poor interviewing by gsg. Oh wow
Who's actual source of income remains unclear
So
We we have to clear this up for people yeah
We brought you on to 90 degrees replacing Kevin Davis who could no longer do the show
What's the background on g stack George? How did you get involved in sports betting?
It's a long story and it's riddled with failure all around all along the way and I'll take you back to the beginning
But I want to tell you this was by design when I interview
I like to give a piece of me, but I don't like to reveal my story
Like I had a podcast before joining 90 degrees and doing
On this circles off channel called the Monday grind
And they didn't release episodes on Monday
So people always like what the hell does that even mean right at but it was describing something
A process that I go through every one day during football season
But I like to give my a piece of me in spurts and make it about the guests
I'm trying to make them look good. I'm the point guard
I'm the the head coach to make them look like the star
So that's by design and and I'll get into all of that in a bit
But my journey starts off like anybody in Ontario or Toronto my first exposure to sports betting is something called pro line
The ontarially lottery gaming corporation betting was legal for us
But you had to do it at convenience stores and play through a site called pro line
And they made you parlay three outcomes at once huge house edge
But you didn't know any better. You thought this was what sports betting was
And I had competed and there was a bar in the e-circ area called Detroit
And they had other bars in the area that also worked for them and they had a spread competition where
You made a pick for every single spread you gave the bar your money
And there was a part of that that went to a giant pool at the end
But there was weekly payouts based on who did the best
So that was my exposure to sports betting. It's parlay's through pro line
I don't even know a single
Outcome that you can bet on I don't know any of that stuff and then someone says to me
Hey, you know, there's these things like called offshore's
Where you can bet individual stuff. Yeah, so the first book I ever had was sports interaction
He recommended it to me. He goes it's it's in Quebec somewhere
That was my first time I ever
It wasn't Quebec somewhere. I was on the native reserve to get around the the rules
Yeah, yeah, and I believe they still operate but he said to me it was a new world
So first of all, I never had the online experience where you're
You know sending money over I think I was using insta debit at the time to get money in and I'm like
Oh, you can bet individual games, but oh the payouts are not very good
I'm not even getting paid out as much as I'm betting because I'm used to parlaying and right and the bigger concept so
That was my first experience
Ended up betting never really took a full interest to it
often on life goes on
And then the next phase of my life is I get
bookie a pph in Toronto. There was this famous
book called platinum sports book and underground local sports book and they would throw like extravagant super bowl parties and would
Did you go to the parties? Yes, I must have seen you at some of them. Yes, that was probably there for a half
I was there for
All the parties until the year that it got rated which was the Baltimore and San Francisco lights out brother brother
Bull that was the year it got rated that was the first one that I'd for some reason I couldn't go to
I don't remember the exact story. I watched the Super Bowl
I remember where I watched that Super Bowl
But I couldn't go to that party and I was just getting texts off the hook of like great thing great
You know yeah great you didn't come this year. They got escorted at halftime too
So I had buddies that were there. They said we had to then go find a bar
Last minute and Super Bowl and everywhere's pack to go find and watch the rest of this game now
Because of the delay because of the halftime show of Beyonce and the light outage
They actually didn't miss the game right so it was it was very odd that whole Super Bowl
The the comeback where where like Baltimore betters must have been sick to their stomach with that delay like everything about it
So that year I started
The year before was the giants and the patriots in the in the Super Bowl
Wasn't the undefeated season it was the rematch four years later right so I start getting into betting that year
And then again, I'm making mistakes because I learned that hey I can find out what the public is betting on and I can fade the public
I used to type in public betting into Google and there was a website
I think the spread or something and they used to give you the graphs the circle graphs. Yeah, yeah and
A buddy was telling me you know reverse line movement and you know all this good stuff and I'm like I'm a pro now
I think I know what I'm doing
So I'm learning I'm betting. I'm actually doing not bad. I
Learned now a lot of it was just luck. Yeah, but one thing
I like to do was
I'm I'm very um
What's the word I'm looking I'm contrarian by nature. Yeah, I like to think differently than than people
I think that's actually a good trait to have in sports betting
Being contrarian by nature doesn't mean that you have to go against what the public is thinking or doing on everything
But thinking in a different way. I think it's generally healthy exactly
so when
People were doubting the giants going into the air and I'll tell you the inspiration for it
I mentioned it on the Drew Dinsik podcast, but
If you remember like the giants had won the Super Bowl four years earlier and they had a season where they were like
13 and 0 and then it just unraveled. I think plaques will coberus got hurt
So there was the markings of a good team
But the market didn't view them as a good team the next year and I said why they still have
Everything that they did that got them to the Super Bowl the year before
They had some decent weapons. That was the emergence of Victor Cruz if you remember that year
I'm a Cowboys fan now you unfortunately remember that I'm gonna tell you story about the Cowboys
December 11th played the giants on Sunday night football and why that's all relevant to me in us in in a minute
So I remember the giants have this really good D-line before it was Michael Strann
But they always had this like they had Oceomaniara and Justin Tuck and then Jason Pierre Paul like they were a factory
They understood how to the blueprint on how to build a defense that could win
If you can get a pass rush with your four defensive lineman
It takes a lot of stress off of your secondary and it allows your linebackers or extra corners to fill in those gaps
So the best thing in football the biggest advantage is having an elite four-man pass rush
It allows you to clog up passing lanes
So I understood this concept even though I wasn't fully understanding of how to bet professionally
So I had some football instincts and
I remember reading a story and I told Drew Drew didn't never heard this story
But it was the St. Louis Cardinals fan who bet them to win the World Series a few months
Out of the playoffs, okay, when they were like
18 games back or something it was inconceivable at
999 to one and he bet $250. I got the numbers wrong with Drew
I thought he became a millionaire, but he bet $250 ends up winning a quarter million dollars
I got inspired I said, you know what I just want to win once in my life and feel like
I want some big money
So entering the season the giants are like
30 to one or 35 to one end up putting like a thousand dollars on it at this point. I'm selling cars. I'm making good money
And I make this bet because I go I want the giants to win
I go if they win I want to feel good
I want to feel as good as this guy in St. Louis and and get the glory and and feel like you're some sort of hero
So the season progresses and the giants are showing some good traits
But they're not playing that they're not playing out the gate a strong
But Victor Cruz is picking it up. They've got a dynamic offense. They're like four and three
About 50 to one and then I bet like another 200 bucks paid a 10 grand
At 50 to one
So now I'm going to win 45 grand at this point. Yep. So now it's week
14 or 15 it's December 11th. I remember it because my best friend's daughter
Was born December 11th, which happens to be one day before I was yeah, so I'm at her birthday party and
I see the giants are playing Dallas
Sunday nighter and
Giants are 72 to one to win the Super Bowl now and the reason is is because they are out of like
They're not even leaving division and you can't make it in as a wildcard that year from the NFC East
But I said they're playing Dallas tonight. If they beat Dallas in the Sunday nighter
Then all of a sudden 72 to one is is crazy because you're gonna have a division leader
Entering the playoffs and then you got a home game and you never know what happens from there
So I bet $100 more
So now like the grand total is like $52,000. I've got $1,300 laid out
They end up winning that game and it was like crazy come back
Tight game they end up winning it and I remember the whole playoff run
They play Atlanta first game
Dominate them Atlanta scores two points on the safety
Yeah, I remember that one
Next game they play the Green Bay Packers in Lambo and if you remember a team next caught a
Half-time Hill Mary. Yes, I remember everything about it. And then the
NFC championship game they play San Francisco and it was like the fumble
Return and over time everything like the whole run was miraculous. Yeah, now here's the thing
I don't know what I'm doing yet. I think I do
But I start to believe in something called fate. Yeah, I go this is fate. I love the mannings to this day
I still maintain paint manning was better than Tom Brady. I just peak. We can get into that. Yes
I'm totally in agreement with you. Yes. We are probably in the vast vast minority
Yes, peak levels
Manning was better than break. I don't know if it's the baitable. I will die on this hill
It's same was I'll if I'm the last person on earth that believes it. It doesn't matter
But that's so I have an attachment to the manning brothers
And it's also a double like f you because Eli's beating Tom to get there
So it's the Super Bowl and now I'm this kid with $1,300 worth of futures that pays over 50 g's
I've never won anything big in my life
And this is on platinum
So the word gets around town in the in the Danforth area
This crazy kid has this money on futures and he refuses to to hedge
first of all
The Patriots were big favorites. So hedging was like a fool's errand, right? Yeah, of course
So I'm like listen, I'm just gonna ride it. I believe in fate. They did it four years ago
I think they can get it done
That game happens
And I remember everything everything about it because
I've got pictures with all my boys there
My buddy has a futon and we're watching the game the
His daughter and I told you it was her birthday her birthday one year one year old birthday
The word in the final game and I've got this Eli Manning
Jersey draped around my neck and we're watching the game and
I'm nervous and she just all I feel is like two little hands on my back
Wrapped up in the jersey and I'm like, oh my god. This is this is happening now
My buddy knows 12 is my number. I was born on the 12th day of the 12th one
We got the same stuff man my whole life. It's been 12 is my everywhere roulette 12 whatever it is
And you can look this all up my buddy looks to me and goes guess where this drive is starting
From the 12 yard line first plate Eli Manning Mario Manningham to the sideline. I go. Oh my god. This is happening
So Rob the the game ends up happening they win and I think we had to sweat a Rob Grunkowski hell marry like just cuz
You know, it's of course never be easy. No, so here's the here's the problem. I know I believe I'm a hero
I'm a professional sports better. Yeah, I know how to win. I had a great run
I was about to say and I'm sort of cut you off
But this has a lot of like the problem gaming aspects associated with it, right? Yeah
What your story reminds me very much of my own
Minus the the big win sure it's just
Thinking in terms of numbers like I remember or or fate or
I remember betting against
The red socks when they won the world series. They broke the curse of them. You know, yeah
I thought that that curse was real. Yeah, like I bet against them
They were the Yankees were up three nothing on them
In the AL championship series and I'm like well
This is it. I'm just gonna bet the Yankees
Game four and if they lose I'm gonna double. So I'm Martin Gale. Yeah, all those and lost every one
Then they got to the world series
I knew that they were a million times better than the Cardinals. Yeah, but I'm still convinced myself the curse is real
They're gonna lose and I'm betting the Cardinals. So anyway, sorry to interrupt but it does have like the the elements of
And now the downfall is gonna happen because I'm the pro. I made money
I know what reverse line movement is now. I can read the public betting percentages
I am smarter than everybody and I quit my job
And I say I'm gonna do this thing professionally
First of all, I was scared that I wasn't gonna get paid by platinum. I remember
That's a legitimate concern. I brought my cousin with me and I'm texting with the agent and I go
Like I wanted to meet in as public during daytime as I can
Uh, we're we're gonna meet on damn fourth, but he goes. I'm parked in the alley. Do you mind coming? I go? Okay me and my cousin
This is it. I was like the good fellow scene with the hero
Yeah, yeah, I go either getting paid or one of us is going away
So we get in the guy's car and this freaking guy's counting the cash out and it was real to me
I'm like, oh my god. I've never held this kind of money
I texted everybody in my phone and I said hey
drinks on me at legends
This was my buddy's bar on the damn fourth Tuesday yet paid out on Tuesday
I ended up spending like two grand at the bar that night, but it didn't matter
It was just good vibes. I was a guy who believed in vibes right quit my job. I'm gonna do this
I'm a pro nobody can tell me anything
And then all the bad stuff happened. I understand I learned about the variance of sports betting and
The coin flips and when you have no edge and betting late and everything I was doing all the wrong things
And I'm betting parles because now I've got ego
And I'm a great better. So I'm bombing everything the other thing nobody taught me about life is when you don't work a job
Your board during the day. Oh, yeah, so nothing to do so now rob I'm spending money during the day to keep myself entertained
So the money's even going faster
Maybe within two months I lost everything in fact I lost
Everything I had saved up before none from sports betting and I fell into a dark depression and I would go to the bar every day and drink
And my uncle probably doesn't listen to these podcasts, but
He actually like saved my life in that moment because I was too proud to go back to my old job
Which I was good at. I was a very good car salesman. Yeah
I was too proud to show everybody I failed yeah, and just came into the bar and he said hey
What are you doing here? I'm like
I'm just having a couple drinks and he's like I'm just here with a business partner
But I'll be done in about half an hour. Let's have a drink
So we're talking and I don't know why and I usually hide this stuff and hold it back
I was just able to humble myself at that moment and said hey, I'm in a really bad spot mentally
financially
And uncle said hey, he's a home builder one of the
Most successful ones in the city said why don't you come work for me? Yeah, I did it for two months
I realized I hate construction. Oh, yeah, I did it for a summer in high school and I don't think never
These hands are not born to construct anything really yes, but it got me back on my feet financially
I sucked it up. I went back to the dealership. I worked at and at that moment rob I put gambling away forever
I said, you know what that was a scary moment in life. I got all the thrills of the victory and
all the like the sinking feeling of losing everything and I said I'll never do it again
And I've changed my life at this point
I said, you know what? I don't want to sell cars anymore. This was after another year working there
I said, but I want to get into media and broadcasting so I go back to school
I go to Humber to learn how to become a broadcaster. I do the broadcast journalism program at Humber College
I want it to be Bob McCown and I want it to be the guy in the mic
And then I learned a year into my program that the fastest way into the industry is
As a producer, so I said, okay, I'll be a producer. I got a job off for a news talk
I'm happy with my new life. I'm not even thinking of sports betting like
I dabble here and there. Yeah, but nothing nothing serious
Then I meet somebody who changes my whole outlook
An understanding of betting
And I'm telling him my story and he's like, okay, okay, he was
Here's what you actually have to understand about sports betting. It's a market
And he started to like film film my head with words that I've never heard before like
Get gaining an edge and telling me about odd screens. I never knew this world. Yeah
At that point, I'm fascinated
I'm one of those guys that if I get an idea in my head
I'm going to pursue it. Yeah, like
I'm going to drop something like sidebar here, but I liked rap for a while. Okay. I made an album
I got in the radio. Oh god. We need to hear that one. I might have to use it for the intro track for 90 degrees going forward
I battle wrapped on king of the dot the second biggest battle league
And I have a video on YouTube with 250,000 views. Okay, and I only say this to tell you this is the kind of person I am right when I get an idea in my head
I'm going to push it like that's how that's how I operate. I think this is a
I honestly think that's a very common trait for successful sports bettors because it's like
Not settling for and it's always like got to be the best got to be the best and part of it is because you're competing in a market
With all these other bettors you can't settle for just like being average exactly
So I'm educating myself now. Now I'm reading like okay, what is and I start you know going through forums and start reading
I get introduced to some media
um
End up learning from captain jack uh circles off
spankies broadcast be better better is bet the process
I start learning that this there's this whole new world to explore and how to do it
And I taught myself uh through a ton of reading. I'm the type of guy that
And during the pandemic whenever
Something would release a medical journal. I actually read it because I wanted to understand what was in it
So that
When I'm having an argument with somebody and they're reading the surface points
I can I talk and tell you what was in that medical journal because that's the way I'm I'm designed. I'm very curious
So I'm learning about sports betting
Uh, I'm doing well for a couple of years now
um
But I learned my lesson. I'm not gonna leave my job. I'm happy at
News talk I'm making money and I was working the evening show
So it allowed me to be on uh on screen until like a certain time and like once my show started
Whatever I had to get off screen
But it was seven p.m. My show started um
Lovely lady barbed to julio was my first was my first host. I remember hearing her news updates
So I see if our b1010 back in the day. Yeah, yeah, so that was uh my exposure and then um
My cousin and I were also betting on something called pools in oil G
And there's a real opportunity there because there's a weekly payout of like five six hundred thousand dollars every single week
And you're not playing against the book. You're playing against a pool of players
Yeah, they take their rake. Yeah, but the game could get the king could be meat
I figured out a way to take advantage of the game where it's some boxing multiples. Yeah, so it's across different tickets
Yeah, okay, so just to explain to the audience
what the pools
Um, game was you had to pick the winner of every single NFL game over the course of a week
So you just go fill out a scratch card and say these teams are gonna win and it was five dollar fee
If you wanted to box a game which meant take both outcomes of a game
It would double the cost of the price uh uh uh that you had to pay
So if you want a lot of people would box like sunday night and monday night football
Because they didn't want to have to like deal with hedging or that or have a sweat
So they'd box those games would be a twenty dollar ticket instead of a five dollar ticket
But on one single ticket it only allowed you to box five games four games four games so eighty dollars. Yes
What I figured out was if I take two tickets and spend eighty dollars on both tickets
I can now eliminate a fifth game
And if I bring in another 160 dollars, I can eliminate two games now. Yeah, right? So
We didn't have a budget though at this point
But we learned how to
Identify how to eliminate games and we started mathing it like okay probability of teams winning
The rest of the games on the board are there enough
Upsets there where because we want like we've spent before
$2,500 and $1,500
Yeah, no four hundred dollars
So we've lost money doing it. So there's two dynamics, right? There's you want to spend enough money to eliminate enough games
But you there has to be enough big spreads on the board that when upsets happen the payouts go up. Yep
Totally agree with you. I mean uh
So just getting into like this is just gent so again our paths overlap so quickly and we probably
Because of we're born on the exact same day and we probably reached like very similar points in our life
So I went through this exact same experience with the pool stuff where we you know me and a few friends one pool
Probably four or five times never the huge payout which I was looking for yeah
Sometimes we would win like 10k, which is nice
Sometimes we would put in you know 2500 and we'd lose because
But after we did it the first time we're like well, we're dummies. Why are we boxing?
All these games that are a pick them and like I'm picking all the big spreads
We should be actually doing the opposite yeah
We should be trying to pick the games that are a pick them and boxing the bigger spreads
And hoping that one of these under 14 point underdogs wins because if that happens then this ticket pays like
Immediately pays like 100k because nobody has those outcomes
Yeah, I'll actually do you want better? I don't even pick the pickups because I I believe
If you pick three pickups, it actually be better off just putting the money into a book
Right for 10k for three. So here's where it is
Is a 12 game card you can't make money when there's only 12 games
This one all the buys are happening pools doesn't include the Thursday night or because they want to get as much action up to Sunday morning
So on a 12 game card there was like seven
multi-digit spreads yep
So me and my cousin and I we put 10 grand down and eliminate everything but one game Baltimore
Baltimore is a 13 pay point favorite against Cincinnati and
If you bet that 10k online, it would pay what?
1800 bucks. They're like minus 600 or something of that nature
So as long as the pool ticket paid more than 11-8. Yep. We're way ahead. Yep
Well chaos happened that week. Yeah, Baltimore won chaos happened. We made 100k
And often outcome you'll never get that kind of markup because I don't play parles. Yeah
I don't play futures that much and and when you do it's it's it's very hard
To win a future and then let alone to make money pools offered an opportunity to blow up and grow your bankroll fast in a way that
the average betting doesn't so
2019 comes and my cousin is like pushing. He's like listen
We need to do this like we've been making money steadily for a few years and I said I'm not ready
had a bad experience. I don't want to do this
We entered that year and we I had a bankroll that was dedicated to the daily wagering for for football
But also for pools something separate because you can't measure the ROI on pools
It's very weird and stupid. Yeah, there's sit like a pesky tells the story on your podcast about how they lost for like 11 weeks before
They went they hit the Hill Mary game, right? So you have to accept that there's gonna be four five weeks in roll
Where you don't make money and you're wondering what the hell am I doing? Yep, so 2019 comes and it's week four
and
We end up and I remember everything about it
I remember what the big upset was I remember all the games we had the big upset was Tampa Bay beat the Rams is a 12 point
Underdog and at that point the Rams were three you know
Fresh off a Super Bowl appearance everybody thought they were the best team in the world
So we had that game boxed we had other upsets
One the most amount of money I've ever won in one week ever
And then the next week happened and we won a lot of money again
And another week happened and we won a lot of money again
And I don't want to give details of the money because A
I don't want to come off like Simon Hunter and get attacked and everything and say you're full of shit
And I have pictures and screenshots and I don't want to I don't ever want to post it
I could I could do it and say hey, let me start you don't have you I know we interviewed
China maniac a few weeks back as well, and you know people just did
Honestly didn't believe the story he was selling and he had to come on Twitter afterwards and post like all these screenshots
It is what it I didn't want to do it and frankly like I have a little bit more tack than that
And I don't care to ever I'm not trying to be a tout I don't care about that stuff if you think I'm not a good gambler that your business
I don't care. I make money
Uh, I showed you some stuff just to show hey Rob
Uh, this is real. This is real, right? So
2019 ends up being a fantastic here all the way through
And about halfway through I had been getting hounded by an ex salesman at Bellsmeat Bell Media
Who wanted to start up his own media company and he goes I want you because at that point at news talk
I had risen to the ranks of being like the best producer at news talk on the biggest show in the drive time hour
And he said I want you to help me design the stuff and I said you know what I'm a little unhappy right now at the place
I've peaked where I am and I'm very aware of when there's no more room for growth
I've been there five years. I said it's it my boss is not going to step aside to give me his seat
Yep, and that's the only seat that I want that's next and I go that's not going to happen
Uh, now of a sudden my bankroll literally literally rob and this again
This is I don't want people to say oh yeah bullshit you double your bankroll in one year
We more than doubled our bankroll in that in that year
Well, when you're plet when you're playing like for people that don't want to believe that
I mean pools is essentially parlay betting in a sense, right?
You're just stacking all these combinations together and it's gonna
You know pay a larger amount, but when you are betting that type of style
It's much easier for you to you know threefold tenfold your bankroll
In a short period of time. It's also much easier for you to lose consistently because the hold is higher on a lot of those markets
And in 2020 there was the upsets weren't happening right because yeah, I'll tell you a game specifically in a sorry
I like the sidebar I like to chat do you remember
Houston versus New England 2020 and you'll remember it once I jog your memory
But it's Davis Moses a rookie and I was like bill balachik doesn't lose the rook. I remember the game clearly and I remember doing a
Parascope that morning. Yeah, where I specifically probably talked about that because the Patriots had four offensive linemen out
It was covid right that that I so I actually
I'm confusing it. I actually bet the Texans that game. Yes. Yes. Don't I did too. Okay, so follow me here, right?
Four offensive linemen out for New England never like this doesn't happen four starters now the market doesn't account for that
They they can understand the fantasy guys in the quarterback
At that time I would say the market was a little bit slow not the betting market the
Public because you got to remember when I play pools. I'm not playing against
There are sharps, but the majority I'm playing against very public better said money. I would yes
So Houston's winning the whole game leading by two scores
And then like they punt the ball off the guys back and like so a lot and what I learned was a lot of upsets didn't hold in 2020 because
It's one thing to catch a team off guard
And if you have a home crowd that can energize you and get you to the finishing line
But eventually if you play long enough the better teams win. Yep, right?
It's the reason why it's harder to upset in the NBA in a seven game series because you catch a team off guard once in the NFL and their lights are out
But set through seven games the stronger team will eventually pull themselves through yeah
So in covid a lot of these teams didn't close out their wins. So the payouts were not good in pools in 2020
Anyways, this is a long long side bar
2019 I said, you know what here's the time
We've had success. I'm unhappy in news talk this guy wants to pay me to help me help blow up his media company
So it was a good payday for me. Yeah, I said that was the moment. I was finally ready. I had money
For bankroll. I had investments in life. I had income coming in not just from news talk 1010
So now my job was like my third best source of income. Yep, and that was the moment. I'm like, okay, here's the time
I step away from my job and now I'm a professional better
I bet football. I don't bet other stuff because I still believe in quality of life. I don't want to live on a screen
all the time. Fair enough. Yeah
I also football is a big enough
liquid market and I can get enough money down that I can make my living in a six month window and enjoy the other aspects of life
But I'm retired. I'm retired from
Living and here's the downside. It's COVID. I came to go on vacation because that was my plan March to
March to June every year. I was like, I'm just gonna go to Greece for two months and hit the Caribbean
So that aspect of life changed. So now I'm bored two years of doing this. I'm bored. I'm like, okay
I still love media because I wanted to get into media and I go
I see you guys
You guys were my favorite podcast even and I told you guys this long before I ever joined the team
And I said you can do educational content. You can tell stories
You can help the person like me in 2011 who thought that reverse line movement and public betting mattered
And you don't have to tell yourself you don't have to show yourself. I'm a big winner
Let me show you my futures ticket and some people do that. I don't disparage. That's your choice
It's just not my style. I also have been taught in life. Don't show people
How much you make because it creates
It puts eyes on on what you're doing operate and silence make your money be happy
So I'm bored and I'll tell you the moment that I decided I want to do media
Steve Fezick and I actually like Steve Fezick a lot of people don't I I love his brand of media
I think on Twitter. He's insufferable, but that's part of the game
He's talking to Ross Tucker and he's telling him about an edge and preseason
He said you should be laying money lines instead of minus one and a half and two's because
One point is actually a key number in preseason and this was the reasoning
He said because coaches don't want to go to overtime. That's what he said
Good edge right reasoning
Wrong wrong information
There is no overtime, right
It's not that they're trying to avoid overtime. There is there's no overtime
So I said, you know what there's I'm a very sharp guy and I read all the rules and I like there
There's the void where I can come in with some educational stuff
But I can also like give the correct information
When people are talking about player names and yeah, that guy is key for them
I mean, they don't know the name. Yeah stuff irks me when I as a listener. I'm like no, I know the name
I want to I should be on that part to correct the record
That's how I end up getting an immediate that's my story
Full of failure took a long time to get to success
Very similar to mine
Little bit of differences along the way. I got into media first. That was like my first exposure
Didn't never never graduated from university because I just got a full-time job offer in sports media
I was a huge sports fan when I was 20 years old. I was like yeah, this is no brainer
Like I this was never even a career option for me now. It is I'm gonna do this
And that kind of led me down the path of oh thinking I'm like this is gonna be this great sports better as well
Didn't work out that way, but yeah, we share a lot of of that
For the for the people out there now how's it going for you the past couple years when you say that you're
Are you still betting exclusively NFL? Are you doing other sports? I bet boxing and I bet political events but
Boxing doesn't come around that often
And unless it's the big big fights. Yeah, you're not getting down liquidity
Political events are even more rare. It's just the humongous edge that I and I enjoy it
I'll tell you something watch an election night when you have money on it. Yes
And also in that race that you don't care about the 48th Senator in North Dakota
That becomes very entertaining to watch and yeah, yeah call it call it and watching the numbers
So from an entertainment perspective. I also have an edge the other stuff
I got rid of the slot machine gambling. I love football. I love basketball. I love hockey. I'm a fan
But I I don't know how to bet it and I don't want to learn how to bet it because I don't want to spend that kind of time commitment
Fair enough
I'm similar to you in that aspect people like why do you only bet football and hockey?
I don't only bet football and hockey, but the other sports that I bet the origination comes from someone else entirely or its top down
Slash team chasing whatever you want to call it. Yeah, so like yeah, it is what it is, but for bet pod ratings
Who's you know, Georgia's actual source of income remained unclear up until now
But it is now clear that he's still doing this for a living no other job
No, that's it. That's it. You told me hey, let's come record this at 11 a.m. On a random day. I'm like yeah, okay
Of course, I've got nothing else planned sure. Yeah, you want to record enough. Yeah, let's go when I book a guest
I'm like what's your sketch? This is offseason. What's your schedule like?
I'm very flexible I can work around your schedule. Yes
Yeah, I'm sort of in the same boat except I have the businesses as well
So it takes up a lot of my time and now I have like an addiction to golf
Which stemmed because of the same thing that happened during COVID
Couldn't really travel there is nothing to do places were closed would open up first golf courses. Oh, can I can I ask you
Was netflix every Monday morning releasing the Jordan doc two parts at a time not like the sporting event of the week
Because I know it was for me. Okay, it was for a lot of people
but
The way that I like to consume things is
Wait for it all to come out and watch it all in one shot
Yeah, but if you're waiting for it because you have other stuff to do. It's COVID. What else do you have to do?
So but like I would have just watched other
Series's or I would like I rewatch the sopranos like 14 times during COVID or whatever like that
That's my kind of thing the only show
The only shows that I've really ever watched week to week in my life
Like post-streaming sure because be like when we were growing up
There was no netflix so it was you had to tune in at you know
appointment PM on Sunday night to watch the sopranos on HBO whatever and if you didn't do that
You know you're out of luck. Yeah, some but one of my friends might have bit
Literally videotape did and gave me a VHS like a watch at the next day, but aside from that
You know
There was no streaming now days with streaming they drop all these shows all at once an entire season whatever the only shows
I've ever watched week to week since then are game of thrones and
Succession where just I watched them on a weekly basis aside from that
I just don't game of thrones mostly because if I didn't watch the episode live it's boiled. Yeah, 100 percent
But he I would see stuff
That what was the the Jordan documentary was the last dance. Yeah, and it was hashtag the last dance
I just muted that hashtag on Twitter and I never saw this guy
So I but it's a doc how much can they spoil that well of course. I know the whole Jordan
Yeah, I know I know the flu game, you know, I knew that he was a better. Yeah, I've heard all the stuff
But it was very entertaining, but yeah, I mean I I ex I exhausted all the streaming content
How good are you when you watch shows because like for me it takes me like three seasons to figure out everybody's name
Yep, so uh game of thrones I got into late like around season five
And I remember having a group chat with my buddies and they love it because I'm like late watching the show so they
They're very good at not spoiling it and I'm like catching up with them and like for the first three seasons is like
Hey, remember the guy who killed the big guy with the right or the guy who's banging his sister like that
I didn't know nobody's names until like the third season. I'm like, okay. Okay. You've said it enough times
I figured it out. So I never watched the first season of Game of Thrones live
I watched it all in one day with my wife
after the fact and
Google images was my friend because I would get to like the third episode. They'd say a name
I'd be like I have no idea who the fuck this is. Yeah, yeah, but Google image. I'm like, okay
I know who this is or whatever
So Google images through the entire first season was how I got through at the end of season one
I read all the books between season one and season two. So I had a very good
Foundation for it the rest of the way, but I could see how it would have been
Extremely confusing. Yeah, especially characters
And a lot of them we looked the same like similar name to similar names and they're all wearing the same clothing
And from this family and and if you start throwing in time jumps
I'm all the way confused about what the hell's going on. Yes, totally
Really quickly here if you've enjoyed the content here on circles off make sure you do smash that like button, but also
Subscribe to the channel set notifications going forwards the last 28 days
53.2% of the views in the last 28 days are from people who are not subscribed
And of that 53% I can see a lot of you came back and watched a second video as well and a third video. So
If you're not subscribed just quickly hit that subscribe button
It does help us monetize the channel helps people find our content on YouTube and we can continue to grow continue to do these episodes
Just a no-brainer if you do enjoy the content subscribe if you're listening in audio form
Just rate and review five stars or just read and review whatever you really think of it
Hopefully you think it's a five-star podcast and you rate and review it that way
But honestly we do value the feedback and that's what I want to get to with the next topic here
Which is I guess a form of feedback in the bet pod ratings Twitter accounts
So I let the show with it and kind of intro to you
With that as well
But this thing is emerged now
It's not a huge following but I'd say definitely people are aware of it all together now. Yeah, and
I'm curious what your take is on the account and like how it personally affects you if it does in any way
When you see the reviews of your podcast. All right. So first of all, I got a very thick skin. You can't offend me
There's two things. I'm too happy in life to let anybody say anything to bring me down online
The second thing is
Nobody would ever repeat this stuff to my face. I'm very confident in
in
personal and face-to-face interactions and nobody would ever bring this kind of energy. So that being said
The person is clearly smart and prefers sharp content and doesn't think much of me thinks
Either he thinks I suck as an interviewer which
Objectively, I'm a producer. I spend a lot of time in media. I don't believe that's true. I think I am good
Maybe doesn't think I'm smart enough because I don't give enough of my takes but
He clearly likes what I'm doing because he's never not finished my
I shouldn't even say him because you know, it could be it could be a woman
They've never not finished. I based off the tone of this account. I would I would lay minus 10,000 male
Well, they've never not finished my stuff and the last two podcasts
I did with sharp Clark and Joey canish even though I sucked up the joint and you know
You got to avoid listening to my parts for the hour
They enjoyed it enough to say hey, I would recommend it. It was entertaining
Also though, but like that aside. They actually put me on to a pod that I never heard of
Like they they gave a 10 out of 10 to
Herala Bob on spanky be better better than I agree like that was my favorite episode
I tell you
Herala Bob was spankies best episode
Shane 6b was bet the processes bet best episode and for you guys
It's either Barry horse or Matt Trenhill one of those two episodes. Those are my two favorite episodes
So he actually put me on to Matt Trenhill did another podcast give it a 10 out of 10
I'd never heard of it
Because of it. I actually took a recommendation and I listened and I enjoyed it. So thank you very much
I'm sorry that I let you down every episode
And I'm trying I'm trying my best here. Just give me enough time
I'm one of those guys that I eventually will grow on you, you know
Eventually if you hear a song enough times
You catch an ear warm for it. So I'm I'm hoping I turn it around
Believe in me the account seems to like all the guests you have on but not you in particular. So I'm a good
Selecting the guests the topics are good enough that I can make the guest
Look good and talk about stuff that makes them smart and sound good
I just got to do something of maybe maybe it's my face. Maybe they don't like my face
I will try to change that for you. I like you
Don't put much serious stock into it. I do literally value every piece of feedback regardless of what
Whether or not it's coming from someone who likes me dislikes me
There are you know, there's like a brief explanation in the in each
Tweet or what's it called? What do they call now Zach posts posts in each post
Of like why they like the episode or didn't and that's fair
I think clearly this is someone who's a very sharp person just based off of the descriptions
I clearly see some personal vendetta's against other people from this account
Which is maybe a dead giveaway of who it was but you interviewed Chris Andrews. Okay
And there was some like derogatory remarks about Chris Andrews in the review of that podcast
That weren't about like his appearance is just like Chris Andrews like
Boots winning sports betters or whatever like there's only a few people out there
There are constantly harping on that. So maybe that's a little bit of a giveaway
But
Generally speaking, this is one person's opinion on things
I like to crowdsource opinions for one and I'm very deep rooted in analytics. So
For people out there that don't really know the amount of planning that goes into circles off and what we do
I evaluate every single episode that we ever do
Like over
Evaluated like exhaust myself by going through metrics both in video and audio form
Where did viewers drop off in this video that they also drop off on audio at the exact same time
What topics tended to do well and others. So when you know, I look at an example like
You know the Brad Powers interview that with air last week. Yeah, bet pod ratings gave it a 4 out of 10
As a recommendation
Mostly CFB process talk unfortunately Brad Powers process isn't particularly interesting
Grinding CFB year round pouring through box scores betting circa openers
That's the the opinion of one person. Yes. Yes, but then I will go to the analytics
And I'll look at the average watch time for that video relative to another guest and it's through the roof. Yeah, so
for me
I like to see it, but I'm never gonna put any stock into it like
Maybe they might pick up on something that is a valuable piece of in you know feedback for me
Rob repeatedly us or does this or does that and you know, but aside from that
Yeah, I'm not gonna let it bother me or get to me. You know, you know, we have to understand is
Like the super sharp community. They'll listen to our pods, but they represent like
A very small segment of who the audience is
As much as we want to think hey, we're catering to sharp better's the truth is it's a lot of guys who just want to get better
Don't do it professionally and enjoy it from an entertaining perspective. So
The loudest voices are often represented by like the smallest minority of 100% and that's a problem if we believe that stuff
That stuff to be true like
Twitter has a very loud
Voice about opinions of things, but reality is Twitter's not real life
So Twitter hates wrestling right they hate the creative direction that wrestling is heading in
But they're breaking revenue records and sales and people are loving it because Twitter only represents
A small segment of the audience and I think we have to remember that it might not be BPR's
You know top his flavor of what he enjoys and that's totally cool
I never I never be grudge a person for not liking what they don't like and liking what they do
Content is how you choose to consume it. Totally agree with you there
And listen like there's stuff that's true, but
It's like I'll give an example right we did a we like to do Q&A episodes on circles off, right?
and
The bad pod ratings account will typically describe those as like low effort low effort
Episode which is totally true. Yeah, it's a low effort episode
But we've done so many Q&As now. I know how they perform analytically
I know roughly how often we should do them
It is low effort, but it also gives opportunity for viewers and listeners to like get feedback from us
And participate in the discussion
This is a pre-recorded podcast regularly. It's not like we're live and people are you know able to interact in real time
So it gives people an opportunity to do that and people take the opportunity to do that
So we'll continue doing those going forwards even though they're low effort
It's not even low effort because they're still
You know gathering the questions you want to know was a really low effort watch along content
That's it. I have nothing to prepare. It's why it's my favorite. I know
But here's the thing there's a sense of community and people enjoy it because one thing I learned is people like to watch
With other people around it the experience is different
So the guy who might think a Thursday night game is boring. He doesn't have any money on it
Yeah, he might tune in and watch along with four people in here
You know your opinion and feel like I'm in the room. I'm in a party. I'm watching the game
That's low effort content
From last season of all the content we did at the hammer the watch-along stuff was the most successful
Oh, yeah generated the most viewership the most engagement
Watchtime so obviously we're going to continue to do that going forwards announcement coming soon on what the football schedule is going to look
On forward progress and on hammer HQ
This year, but yeah overall. I'm interested in the cat. I honestly think it's kind of cool
I would you know
Probably don't have to take personal shots at people when you're reviewing a podcasting and just state your opinion as to why you liked it and didn't without
constantly ragging on someone
but
Yeah, I think I think it's generally I'd like to see more of it and honestly I will say
There is a correlation between this account tweeting
Out episode reviews even for some older episodes that we've done and then people watching it within the next 12 hours
So it's actually helping boost our views and listenership even on the ones where they review know
So yeah, it it is what it is but overall interesting
I've seen a lot of accusations some accusations were being thrown out at bet fashion at some people
Uh, I think captain jack cue spanky's head trader Luke of being this account
There's absolutely no way this could be Luke because Luke doesn't care about sports
So why would be listening to all these sports betting caught podcasts about like the AFC East preview and whatever
There's no way Luke and I are too busy betting lacrosse together anyways
Yes, Zach is incredibly involved
You know what I love you you've got this investigative journalism part where you want to find out who it is
I'm the guy who like when you watch a documentary like you know the one on the missing plane in Malaysia
Yes, I think he'll be three different theories. Yeah, one of those theories
They could have excluded from the doc altogether. I'm one of those guys that each one. I'm like yeah, you're right
This is the real one. I'm also like that so I have to be careful when watching those though the theory about them like
Going under the plane and we're rerouting it with the laptops and like they could have just not include
There was no reason to include that it was purely for TV. I'm disappointed. They didn't go with aliens
I thought that that they could have got a fourth episode out of that series. Yes
They could have for sure. So
That bash was interesting
Not only because people were being accused of being the bet pod ratings account
Oh, by the way, there's a lot of people accusing
Rufus at one point. This is not Rufus because Rufus is not mean spirited. So
I know that it's not him, but somebody was saying oh yeah all the bet the process episodes are getting yeses and high ratings or whatever
I mean, it's not Rufus. I can say that but
Doesn't matter who it is, I guess as long as it as long as we continue to get traction from it
And at least there's some positive interaction
all around with it, but
it's been
Over a week now. I don't know action. I'm horrible with time
Two weeks to the day this airs
since for a bet bash yeah
Yeah, it was an experience. You could have make it out this year. I bought the VIP ticket and uh, you know
For issues that I don't care to get into I couldn't make it
I want to take this from a perspective of what I wanted to get out of it
And what I imagine it to be like and you tell me if I'm way off base and actually what you get out of it
Um the speed networking thing that I would have gone just so I can get 10 new guests for the podcast
Did you do the speed networking thing? I did
um
Who's the best most interesting person you matched with um, so I will say that
And I'm gonna just speak candid by the way there's people out there that think like spanky pays me to say stuff about that
This this absolutely does not happen if you actually want to know how cheap spanky is
I was on one of the panels there and I still had to pay for the final party of the event
That's a true story. He's not paying me anything to promote that bash
So let's just make that explicitly clear
The speed networking for me this year was a little bit more disappointing than last year. Okay, so last year I got paired with
Um, it was 15 people I still think last year maybe it was 12
But don't remember the exact amount
But I mostly didn't know of the people I got paired with last year
I developed relationships with them that I'll probably you know
I said probably 75% of them I communicated with over the course of the year
This year I got 15 people
But I know I knew a lot of them and now maybe this is my own fault for the way I filled out the form
But like I got paired with pisky as one of them who I interviewed here on circles off and we chat pretty regularly
I got paired with Thomas Viola from unabated who I chatted with a lot that week prior to that so my pairings weren't the best
Um, the person that was most interesting would probably not be want not want me to say their own their name okay, but
What I will say is that
I learned especially through my pairings
That I
I knew that I've known for a long time that sports betting has largely shifted to like the top-down approach
Yeah, okay, the majority of bettors who are trying to win now are all top-down. I don't want to say it's easy money, but there's like
There's all almost a step-by-step guide in how you can win top-down
Mm-hmm
Most of the questions I got at networking three or four people were
I started betting the last couple years. I'm doing really well
I don't know how to scale. I want to figure out how to scale
But what I learned and not only through these people, but other people in that room and just talking people at the conference
Is there so many people out there who are just trying to scale?
But they're doing top-down
And it's hard yeah, it's very hard to do that and I almost think and I'm biased
I'm a very biased person. I'm not sitting next to Johnny
Johnny doesn't only do top-down by the way
He does all sorts of betting originates his own UFC does whatever, but the pendulum has swung
Like three or four years ago. It was everybody wanting to build their own models the like originate games
And maybe a lot of those fizzled out, but that was like very prevalent
Now it's you can't find people like that like there was no one there who wanted to have a conversation about
Oh, I'm doing this for NFL and this for NHL or MLB or whatever. It was very very top-down. So
Anyways, that was my experience in terms of the most interesting person
It was I don't want to you know the conversations are sort of had. It's not like a
You're dealing with a doctor or lawyer like just patient confidentiality
Yeah
I'm not the type of guy that wants to just share someone's personal information. Let's say he was doing top-down in a more interesting way
Than I had previously thought
And not only did I talk to him for like the seven minutes that we had at speed networking
I talked to him probably for a few hours afterwards. Oh, that's great, but
I met Jill Brennan who's partnered with Adam Bjorn now on this prime sports. Yeah
Book that they're opening up
I met I met a lot of good people like it was just but too many familiar faces
I would say I think the experience for you is different because
Everybody knows or recognizes you are at least a good portion of the audience
versus someone
That isn't known and you both get to learn about each other whereas there's a bit of a dynamic
We're like, okay, they want to know about you. They're curious. Yeah, so like like I think you when you can fill out the speed networking form
You have
You have some input into who you're going to get paired with okay, so maybe I made it too specific but definitely
I think a lot of people that I got paired with were looking for like a mentor in some way or looking for advice
And I'm totally fine with that because I my motivations from that bash are very different than a lot of people's right
I'm at a point in my betting where
And you know, I know whatever this comes across however it comes across but like I don't really need help with liquidity
You know, I bet major market NFL NHL. It's pretty easy for me to get down. There's no appetite
Like there's no shortage of people that are don't want to work with me on that stuff. Yeah
I'm there to have a good time and like network and just meet people and see what's going on in the space like they're
I'm going out to bet bash more for a party. Yeah, that that I would go for a party
Be to get guests for the future show and three
I'm generally curious I'm a curious person
I like a guy if you walk on public transportation and there's 40 people on the bus
Everyone has a unique story. Yeah, and everyone can at least do one great episode telling you about their life
I truly believe that I have a general curiosity about people my favorite thing is
Cracking a bottle of red wine and having a conversation with somebody for an hour or two hours and getting lost in that conversation
And actually wanting to learn about that person
I also would not have wanted to go out there to make business connections and I'm fine with my operation
Yeah, and the money I make and the money that I can get down so that wouldn't have been my main driver either
There are a few connections that I made and this like I honestly again
I would recommend the the conference to anyone the price point this year was like
800 dollars ish or so you got to pay your way out there and and you know your combination
So it's not cheap, but if you're serious about sports betting
I would be there now listen again. There's gonna be other people. There's other successful sports betters out there
That I know through Twitter that that didn't show up. They don't want to go because they they want to remain anonymous
They want to they don't need to help like in getting down their operations good to each their own
But I have a great time
Meet you know see a lot of similar faces every year that I would never see otherwise. Yeah, the Mike Craig's of right-angle sports
Who I love Chris Bruno who you know I'm shooting crafts with the guy to like six in the morning every night and having a blast
Captain Jack I don't see in person like all these people. I don't see we just we just interact online
Okay, that was two of my questions is first who
Who who did you want to see that you had never met before and who did you want to see from
You know them and you just like you know what I like this guy good vibes. I haven't seen him in a while
Would love I can't wait to see him when I when I get out there
The person that I wanted to see that I've never met before was Darren Revelle
I'm not even joking. Why I just wanted to be able to to converse with him
Outside of the panel to let him know like our I was wondering if he was aware of our history
Of like why he blocked me on Twitter
Which I thought was like honestly just like uh
You can block whoever you want
Wait, we don't know for the future. We don't know in the future
But as of now you can block whoever you want and to each their own
You know, there's there's some people that I interact with or that like you know they are
They'll just block anyone that's negative comments whatever you do have you however you want but I just wanted to chat with him
Obviously because you're pretty polarizing character, but also because
Yeah, I just wanted to see if the real-life persona matches the Twitter persona sure
So that's that I'll talk about the panel
In brief in terms of meeting up with people
It's it's definitely a couple of the right angle sports guys
Specifically Mike Craig and Jeff who who runs the the discorders at least very active in the discord for them as well
But those are guys that
I just always have a a good time with like they're down to earth. Yeah people
How much how much what percentage of the conversations are about betting versus non-bending because that I used to work in media
And the one thing I hated or or you know, I had connections in politics
I hated the discussions about media and about politics if like we do that at work, man
I want to I want to just hang with you and not talk about that stuff
It was a lot of betting discussion. There was it would there was a I mean
It's hard to say what the exact split was but it is a betting conference people are there
You know when you introduce yourself to someone
A lot of times you just wanted to let people know like who you are
What you do so most of the conversation starters are are betting sure
But there was I mean the people that you knew the people that you know it's still it still is betting like it's like
How are things going how is the last year can I help you out in any way you know
That's always the starting point and then you get into other stuff typically where your hobbies all overlap
So in some cases golf some cases poker car wouldn't you know whatever
um
But it is it is still a lot of betting talk
I said Revelle as one of the people I wanted to meet two of the other ones were
People that I've interacted with but never met in person
Both of who we interviewed here on circles off one was um telemicus model
I won't give out his real name. I'm not sure if we aired it on the pod
But um he since that pod as like graduated into a professional betting now
His college basketball model which he's with he's doing some stuff with
Rufus
So telemicus model great guy way taller than I expected. I don't know why I mentioned that but you know
You're way taller than I expected so for you to say that person's like it's like yeah, he towers over me
I'm just over six feet uh, he and by the way
I got that exact same feedback in public as well. It's like oh, I always pictured you'd be a shorter guy
I always thought Johnny was taller than you. I don't know why but when I saw it I'm like oh
Rob's actually tall. I don't know that six feet and a little bit and then Clive Bixby as well
Who is part of the hammer we do forward progress together Sunday nights during the NFL season
Uh, but I'd never met him in person. So we had a good day at stadium swim
um
Did you do the scavenger hunt because when I was talking to Kevin and he's like oh, I can't wait for the scavenger hunt
He's like what about you and I'm and I'm thinking of myself
I can't think of an event that I
Less want to do then
I'm a big fat guy and I'm not doing 11 a um in Vegas and that heat
Trying to ride around his split 10k six ways. I had no interest in that event at all
So I actually think I could be wrong. I actually think it started at 9 a.m. Not 11 a.m. Okay, so
Again here open book. I'm all about honesty and transparency. I'm gonna just share these conversations
So I think candidly spanky was concerned that he wasn't gonna have enough people who were interested in the scavenger hunt
So he was really appealing to my like competitive nature
The fact that I love puzzle like I do escape rooms with my wife
It's like a passion of ours. We love that type of stuff
So he was really appealing to that of like you got to do it as soon as people see you do it like they'll join or whatever
But on the sign-up day there was actually so many people signing up that I'm like
I'm not you know, we have an open bar the night before sure. I'm going to play
Crap's afterwards. I can tell myself to go to bed at two o'clock
It's not gonna happen. Yeah, because I'm around people that I I enjoy spending time with
Captain Jack came by that night and had like an epic like table was so cold
And then this guy rolled for like 40 minutes. It was it was incredible
And I was up to like 630 in the morning
Yeah, and I'm like I'm not gonna go sleep for two hours and do the scavenger hunt. So I I slept
got back down to
At lunch at circa at Saginaw's at like 12 o'clock
Then I went to the circus sportsbook
I got to see all the groups coming in from the scavenger hunt. So
basically the winning team
The way you won is you had to play a specific ticket at the circus sportsbook and then go and hand it to
Spanky's
Accounts guy Mike got it who I will not call Chinese Mike anymore because he's not even Chinese
Vietnamese Mike
Yeah, yeah, anyways
You had to go give him a ticket and like whoever did that one
So as groups were coming through the sportsbook they would see me there
And they were like kind of running their logic by me
But I noticed the first like three or four groups all had different
Ticket numbers like oh yeah, I'm gonna play six dollars on this Eagles preseason game tonight
One groups like I'm we're playing 99 dollars on week one under
For the Eagles game. So I was like I honestly have no idea who could win
But they were all walking me through their logic. This is a very intricate
Like puzzle and they had to go all over the place one group ended up somehow at like the penitentiary or the jay
Like they went so far off grid they ended up at like a jail
And Spanky had to call them and be like no you guys are in the wrong spot like leave there
type of thing
But I didn't do it. I honestly regret not doing it really because
I think I would have done well and
Just because you wanted to win their competitive nature kicks in plus EV analytics team one
And there was like a camaraderie amongst the the team. It was kind of cool
I like it's it's not even like everybody split what I everyone got like took home like 2k
Each as part of that team
It's not it's not the money obvious or anything. Oh, they they free rolled bet bash
Yeah, 100% I mean they paid for their trip, but
I kind of regret it because I just wanted to see what it was like a little bit more and
But then again
Do what I go back in time and go to sleep at two o'clock
No, I was playing perhaps with you know a bunch of of bet bash attendees
I wouldn't I wouldn't change that all right the panels that's the
The money and the one that you were specifically on
With Jeff Benson Darren Rovell
There's two other gentlemen as well as the physics the physics that's right who replaced last minute scratch Joey Kanish
Which some people weren't too happy about and they share a pen as well
Yeah, so this panel panel day comes
I meet Rovell in the hall he's staying on the same floor as me at circa. I meet him at the elevator
To go downstairs
Introduce myself
Are you Rapazola? Yes, he says to me how contentious is this going to get
And I'm like I have zero intent on making this contentious like I'm not I told them I'm like I'm not a Twitter troll right
I'm I'm not the guy that's gonna
I told them like you got a worry about Jeff Benson at circa because he's gonna he will speak like
He to each their own and I actually actually really liked that about Jeff Benson
How he's very just outspoken speaks his mind, but I'm like I'm not gonna be that guy
I'm just gonna state my point of view and I'm sure that our points of view will not align on a lot of things
Yeah, but I'm not here to take personal shots or whatever he's like, okay, you know like what's the history?
Why do I have your blocks? We talked about that a little bit for for years ago
I don't know the exact tweet I'm paraphrasing exact my people to find it and put it in post production
But rebel tweeted something along the lines of like the odds of two NFL ties happening in one week
Or like one in 750,000
absurdly wrong number. Yeah, I don't remember the exact number
But it I just remember the number I saw the number I was sitting at a bar
and like at
Just I'm like what is this and I'm like trying to do the math in my head and I was responding from the bar
Just like no this math is obviously what's the relevance of the bar here?
Have you been consuming a couple of drinks at this point? No, honestly. I just remember where I was
Okay, that exact moment. I don't know why I had been consuming drinks, but like I wasn't drunk
I was just I just remember it's so vividly
um
Because I was with another friend who happened to be like a stats major
And I'm just like, you know showing him and he's like this is ridiculous
So is it and it was an NFL week where two tie games happened
So he wanted to tweet the the probability of that happening and he completely
mis-tweeted it
I responded. I'm like like no, this is not right
His response to me was like well, I ran it by Johnny Avello sports book director of wherever he was at a time
And he said that this is like correct. I'm like okay
It's not like here's the map. Here's what I would do to come up with you know figure out exactly what the probability is
Um, and we kept going back and forth and he just eventually blocked me after like one of the interactions
And I wrote an article the next day. I was working with prediction machine at the time
I wrote an article the next day about the exact probability and how I figured it out and how it was way off
That might have something here, but might be a different one by the way
Um, this is November 2nd 2019
Um, I'll put it up on screen for those watching on YouTube so you can see everything but there's screenshots and stuff
So rob this is it starts by rob screen-shotting rebel tweets and he says interesting turn of events
uh effectively
Revells tweeting one of the most free money bets and sports is the under on the service academy
Navy. Yeah, and then he's giving percentages. I'm not gonna get into too much. It doesn't really matter
And the rebel replies. It's not a turn of events you idiot the story which I'm sure you didn't click on talked about
O bookmakers were more aware of the under now which will make it harder in the future
I bought that and I bet against it today. I lost
And then Rob says funny that you're calling me an idiot when our first ever interaction was
In regards to the probability of two ties happening in an NFL season
You were only a tiny bit off there if you recall yes, and then so this was this was after it obviously
I probably had to screenshot a rebel tweet because I was blocked
So I couldn't actually like just post the tweet or whatever, but yeah, so we we have a story passed
Um, so the panel comes and we're there
Um, now at some point Rufus
Peabody decides that he's gonna do a Twitter thread
This was not immediately when we started the panel was at some other point
um, but
Rumors packed it's
Like it's weird because I've been to other conferences before where
I've spoke on panels. I've been part of them usually the audience is very quiet
They're just observing maybe there's some questions at the end
This you could feel like more emotion in the room. It's really hard to describe
But like even after some answers like people would clap or or you know, there was like audible
Laughing and check like it was not it was unusual
Um, and we're following Billy Walters, right? Hmm. So the room is packed. Yeah like there was a break after Billy Walters
But everyone is there because pretty much everyone at the conference attends that
Spanky Billy Walters interview. So Rufus is doing this Twitter thread which
In hindsight, I have since read the thread. It is not
entirely indicative of the conversation
Like the first tweet in that thread is Rufus saying
quoting Revell saying I am part of the problem
Which in my recollection he said sarcastically and also as part of a larger sentence
So that created like a little bit of a stir sure and everything in there was not exactly
fully reflective of the situation but
basically
Sam penny out of it started the moderation kind of asks us all to explain our roles in gambling Twitter and
Eventually it got to the conversation of like
Don't know how I got to the point, but I was trying to make the point that um what bothers me about content creation in the space
the most is
When the content creator misrepresents themselves to the audience and I explain that I have a personal experience with this
um
When I was younger like I did an infomercial for covers called covers experts
Basically, I thought a lot of these people were
successful sports bettors that weren't I
Tailed picks from people who so I just don't like misrepresentation right I don't care
I never have if a content creator is a wreck better a losing better as long as they
Are up front about it. It's when they try to sell themselves as something that they're not
Okay, which really bothers me that's me personally some other people and I had a lot of conversations around the conference afterwards
From some people who are like I don't agree with you on this your hypocritical whatever totally fair
You can address those points with me and I'll always have a conversation with people about it, but
I could not communicate this point
Effectively to rebel which was really bothering me because he just kept
Bringing it back to him being the most transparent person
Anywhere because he tracks all of his picks within action network app
And I was like praising him for being transparent. I'm like that's great. There's been some history
There's a guy on twitter called sizzle who like has pointed to some maybe deleted bets from rebel in the past
I don't know whether that's true or not. I honestly I honestly don't know
Okay, but either way
He was very stuck in like the transparency thing and like where's your record Rob
And I was like well, you know that shows I give out picks. I keep track of record. I'm a I'm a pro better
It's disadvantageous for me to to track every single pick
For a variety of reasons so they won't reverse engineer
It's a promise to know but listen it's there there is some truth to that
It's different in the war in sharpson area. We can talk about a lot of this
But one sharpest selling picks he's giving out his plays publicly no matter what so I think there's an onus on him to track those even if someone can reverse engineer
It's like then stop selling the picks stop publicly doing them for me
betting his livelihood
If my NHL stuff for example was to get out there people would be able to flag accounts that know it's my NHL stuff
They could piggyback off it. They could do all sorts of stuff and potentially in some capacity maybe reverse engineer
But he was very fixated on the transparency component and I was trying to explain to him
That that's not the issue for me
It's the misrepresentation
Like you're not a gambling expert there and you had no absolute like nothing about gambling very very little
So do not put gambling advice out there without letting people know that especially when you have 1.9 million followers and
Other content creators in the space whether that's YouTube whatever
Just don't put stuff out there without letting the audience know who you really are
Let me ask you something though in the grand scheme of things in all content creators
You think Darren Revelle is one of the most destructive
Accounts out there or do you think there's people that are far worse?
He's one of them because
He perpetuates like the kind of like maybe the dream that you had of like everybody can win big
Like the parlay pats mattress max stuff or whatever yeah the guys I see here's the content creators
I hate I hate like Markle parlay. I hate it. I
Like disturbs me to the absolute mask. Yeah, yeah, I keep winning million dollar
I don't like that right so that to me is definitely a form of destruction
What you know ultimately I think Darren is just chasing clicks
I think he made that very clear as well like people are interested in this
I'm gonna write about it
But I do think that there's like an onus to not write about things that can be destructive
So to each their own everyone has their own opinion on this
I'm just sharing mine you might agree with Darren you might have your own takes
But this is my whole opinion. Do you think you came off bad because you said
Part of Rufus's Twitter thread didn't capture
Some of the the the the moments on stage or misrepresented it do you think when you look back on it
Do you think you came off bad reading reading that Twitter chain? No, I don't so in the room
I definitely did not feel like came off bad
I like
One for the amount of people who approached me afterwards to talk about it and like it was the highlight of their week or whatever and again
I hope like if it was the highlight of the week because like you
I was maybe too aggressive with revelle. I'm not really super proud of that. Yeah, I I think just from an entertainment perspective
Whatever I just spoke my mind. All I did was speak my mind and
You know, I don't think I came off bad now that video has been recorded. I don't know if it's ever gonna be released
It should be I agree, but I don't know if there ever will be
I do think if that was to make like it publicly
Most of the recreational
Side of bettors or recreational bettors the vast majority of the betting population
I would probably come off looking poorly. Mm-hmm because
There's just like a sore like there's a lack of
education in the space. Yeah
You know, you kind of know what I'm getting at. Yeah, like a lot of the points I'm making will just go right over people's heads
I was speaking to my audience would show the people in that room
Which would understand a lot of what I was saying
but
Darren just could not understand what I was saying and he just kept bringing up examples that were triggering me even more and more
And when I completely lost it in the moment was when he brought up
Chris Raybon as an example of someone who does it right? Mm-hmm Chris Raybon being with the action network. So
um
Backstory, but maybe one to two years ago
Someone DM me on Twitter
Specifically with screenshots of them tracking Chris Raybon on the action network app
um and said like
These lines don't exist
These live bets like these numbers do not exist when they're coming out
um, so myself and someone else
Um with in bet stamp at the time we kind of just like did our own due diligence on the situation
And he was very clearly past posting
Live odds
In some capacity, right? So he may have actually been betting them himself at those numbers
But when he was locking them into the app
They were had already moved long moved and she's cooking the books here
Yeah, and and I was explaining to Darren that like these past posting numbers and had has been known to do that
Well, it's not only me that like that lots of people know this I
You know there are people watching this that know this it's like not a
Well-kept secret, but he was explaining to me how it's physically
It's it's impossible to do that because of the way that their app works
They like bet stamp have have some sort of bet syncing technology where you just place the bet at a sportsbook and it pulls in the line
And tracks it now that's relatively new for one but
anyone
Like with live odds especially anyone who's trying to keep like a live
database of live odds even like
Any bet tracking software. It's really hard. Yeah for sure and
It's just an easy way to skirt the system and he specifically said to me and we were arguing about this for a little bit
And I I kind of just gave up because I wanted to move on but he specifically said to me
You don't understand how bet tracking apps work
Which was the triggering point for me because I helped build one. Yeah, I come from a product that like I worked as a product manager for the score for years
So I helped to work on the bet stamp product. I know exactly how bets bet tracking apps work
I know how to game the system. We spent years
We've spent literally years at bet stamp trying to plug all the holes that we know can possibly exist
But there's always always always always going to be a scenario unless you're directly pulling every single bet in from a sportsbook
Which no app is doing right now
Where somebody can be watching an odd screen and quickly click a stale number in an app
It might be one second it might be two seconds might be ten seconds or some apps might be thirty seconds
But it's always a possibility. He could not grasp this
He just could not and it's a fundamental lack of gambling knowledge
But that was what derailed it for me
Where it was just like this guy is just not gonna get anything that I say and
He really hit home many many times many many many times on him just being extremely transparent
And even Jeff Benson said like no one's questioning your transparency like this is not works questioning whether or not the stuff
You're doing is like is a harm to the general public he just
He couldn't he couldn't get it and at one point he then called my reputation into question
Um when I disagreed with him on something he said well
This is why you have such a bad reputation in the space. Oh, so he does know who you are like
He he played Koi about knowing and then oh wait a minute
I've done because I didn't think Darren would go into a panel like that unarmed and not knowing about everybody's background
This is why you have such a bad reputation in the space and Steve Fesik on my left says
impeccable what are you talking about his reputation is impeccable
He says that I'd never I mean years ago
I never ever thought Fesik would be the guy sticking up for me
But Steve loves you. I heard him and RJ Bell and
AJ and Steve Sidenberg Scott Sidenberg talking about the panel post like they did a show on it and
Fesik's got a lot of respect for you. He admires you. I wonder if it's that what's that syndrome where
You eventually grow feelings for your kid napper Stockholm. Yeah, yeah, after the beatdown
Fesik received on circles off like he's got Stockholm syndrome. He loves you now
Well, so I think maybe
My what it might have contributed to that and I don't know for sure like I actually never interacted with Fesik for years
Like I've always known of him. We just didn't interact um I
I gave I
You know made a few jokes about his tweets before yeah
Even in the panels like I don't know how you click send tweet on
The stuff that goes out like I have no idea and I don't know about you guys
But he clearly saw the kind of money you can make from Twitter now on engagement because
Steve has ratcheted it up the the violence on Twitter like oh yeah
He's tweeting stuff just the cause commotion right now. He's become a shit to server for sure
Gotta give it to him as if he finds another revenue stream. He's gonna explore that option
He stepped up his game, but I honestly think that a lot of it just stems from so we did the circles off interview with Fesik
Um, if you haven't listened to it honestly, I would highly recommend that you check it out
We'll link that in the description below as well
But Johnny and Fesik were getting into it a lot and Johnny um
I in my opinion asked an aggressive but not unfair line of questioning. Yeah, I think
Totally within his right to ask the questions that he asked and um
In the hosting chair
There were times where I felt like a little bit uncomfortable. I don't like I just
People will not believe this about me, but I generally don't like confrontation
I don't it makes me uncomfortable
But I played more of a neutral party. Yeah, if it was like a witness interview was like a good cop bad cop
Yeah type of situation
And I think he probably came out of that interview
Respecting me a lot more for not being as aggressive as I'm piling on right which you know
I don't think it would have done me any service to pile on there. Yeah, like I I am a believer that there
That's another person on the other side of the camera that we're interviewing give them the opportunity to tell their side of the story
If you disagree
We can ask questions we can poke holes. We can do whatever we want to do
but
I don't think it would have served me any purpose to just like
Ask the same questions as Johnny
I think you I needed to keep it on track to make sure it didn't evolve anyways
I think that has led to phasic respecting me more. That's my speculation
He might deny that agree whatever. That's just my my perspective
But there's a few things other things that came up. So I referenced a book at Trent. Yeah as someone that I think
Is a good content creator
And my reasoning and by the way anyone can disagree with this stuff
I like it's not the be all you know my opinion is not the be all an end all
These are just the way that I'm wired to think and what I believe on situations and I disagree with you on book it with Trent
Perfect we can have this conversation
And lots of people do like this is this is a very big contentious point to me book it Trent as an individual
Is doesn't own book it. He's a minority owner in the company
Um doesn't really have like full creative
You know, I don't want to get into the full details
But like as just him as a person what he's doing on a day-to-day basis when I first found him
It was like doing these tiktok videos, which I thought were funny about like now in hindsight
It's probably a bad idea to put stuff out there, which is like yeah, I'm like you know
It's a video of like oh like
How my family gonna afford to eat this week. Yeah, yeah, and then he's like mashing like lions money line or whatever yeah
I can see how it can be taken
You know
But if you got to know him more and watch his content
He was very very actively preaching that he is not a winning better
And that to me was like do what you want you're giving your arming people
But even now when people call him like a loser on Twitter like why would I tail your picks or whatever
He just responds like I wouldn't yeah, or like I would bet the opposites or like he very much stays true
To who he is as a better all right
Here's the problem because you criticize rovel for saying hey, I'm transparent. Mm-hmm
You just said well book it Trent doesn't represent himself as a winning better. Yep. That doesn't matter because to me
I don't care that a guy who's an expert tells you hey man better unit on this team right who
Technically, okay, maybe he's got no edge or the pick is useless
But he's not preaching anything irresponsibly think better unit. I kind of like it right book it Trent
puts out a
Video this week where his book he's texting him hey man you owe me two grand and he goes give me one more day
I got one bet. I want to make it back and he and then he puts it all on Baltimore money line against Washington and
They won or lost that's irrelevant, but he's
Teaching the irresponsible part of gambling the chase right the yeah dumping everything on to try to get yourself on
Out on a Sunday night because Rob I've been there. I've been there. So if I by the way in the hole
You know for grand going into Sunday night or and I'm betting 500 bucks a game and I'm bet and I bet it all on the Sunday night
Or just so I could break even and you're shaking watching this game because a you don't even know how you're gonna come up with this money on Monday for your book
You got a queasy feeling
Watching the game and then once you lose that sinking feeling of
Damn, I should have just accepted the four grand loss because right now I would kill to have just four grand a pain instead of the eight
So I find that way more destructive than a guy who says hey, I'm a freaking good better
You should bet the the lions plus one because you know the this quarterback's gonna carve this other team useless analysis and stuff
That doesn't bother me as much as book a trend with some of his content not all of it
Yeah, but I don't like content like that. That's totally fair
I've been in the same spot of chasing losses. Obviously. I highly highly preach bank bankroll management now and not doing that stuff some people
I mean, it's just very challenging if you've been in the spot before you know exactly what I'm talking about for me
I think context matters and again
Listen, there might be and it's possible people who are stumbling upon that video
And taking it seriously. I don't believe that they're actually are I think it's a stick and people realize it's a stick
Because he's made it apparent that it's a stick. Yeah, it's clearly parody
I just think you're feeding uh that culture. Yeah, right?
And and and I believe that's more destructive than the actual game or the video or anything about that
It's feeding that chase culture because believe it or not. It's like he makes it look cool to chase all his losses and try to win it all back on one game
It's not cool. There's nothing funny about that because there's a dark aspect of that and I've seen it first hand
I've experienced it
So to me that stuff strikes a nerve. Yeah, no, and it totally canna struck a nerve with a lot of people most people
Though it was not specifically with Trent. It was with the brand. Mm-hmm
Where was like oh, how can you promote this? They're like this brand is doing this and that and I'm like listen
I'm not promoting the brand. I I don't like every single content creator with book it
I think that there are definitely people who quote unquote do it wrong. Yeah, try to pass themselves off as winners
When there's no need for that. Yeah, you can you know you can you see a guy like Trent
Who's built a following as a losing better and has been like very upfront with it and for some reason
I think he goes back to ego. Yeah, the sports fans some people just can't let it go
They can't just let people know that they they're a loser or whatever
But anyways that was one and then
There was a lot of people that approached me and I will say had very fair conversations with me
It was not like they approached me and like oh Rob you're a hypocrite you do the same thing or whatever
But it was like are you being a little bit hypocritical because you also run like your own content network and you're looking to monetize
And I can totally understand that side of things personally. I don't believe that
We do have a lot of conversations
About our talent in specific our messaging specifically
Yes, we are monetizing through sportsbook partnerships. Yeah, and listen
This is the reality of life
Not every single player that I ever sent to a sportsbook or that goes to bed at pinnacle or wherever is going to be a winning better
That's just not reality
But there's also lots of things that I do and preach that will turn a losing better into like less of a losing better
And someone who can maintain a banquerel for a long time and have entertainment and engagement look at zack for example behind the glass right
Although zack is I think now a winning better as well
At least his bet stamp is
Which it's actually not telling you about the table tennis in Russia three and then he's been in a zack's bet stamp account
He's past posting live odds
You know, yeah, but anyways there I can I can get that perspective like I like to have conversations with people and anyone's entitled
to have their own opinion on it
But I don't think it's hypocritical because I think a lot of what we're doing is rooted in the right messaging and
We do that on every like it can all it can honestly get redundant how often we do that like we talk about
You know playing within your limits and stuff, but it's important
So I don't really care that it's redundant anyways. Those are just like the big one last question
Because I think Ravelle is very aware of his brand and I think he put some some stuff out that he knows he'll get
Crap on because he wants the engagement it feeds him to I'd agree with that
You're you've been a public persona for a while now and you have a following um
Are you self-aware of your brand and are careful about what you're putting out there because I had a conversation with
My betting partner and my cousin who doesn't have a social presence and doesn't want one
And he's asked me what are you what are you doing this and I told him my end goals and I said but
If tomorrow I had to shut down my profile twitter no more media and just be happy in my life as a better
I can do it no problem. Yeah, I'm able to step away. I don't I don't
I don't feel like I'm compelled to tweet
Every day so that I can keep my brand going along. Do you are you in a position where you feel now obligated to have to
cater to the audience to give something out there?
I wouldn't call it and no I don't I honestly don't
It would sound stupid from someone who runs a content
Network to say that
But I don't ever feel obligated like people who follow me on twitter
There will be three four days at a time where I just don't tweet sometimes because I don't think I have something relevant to tweet
Or I'm just like it happened to me this week. Okay
Sam howl has this amazing first half of the the game, right?
And I I started to craft one or two tweets about Sam howl right on the guy you got to do something witty
Got a show half that you don't care
And then I sat back and I'm like who cares who cares what I have to say about Sam howl because
900 other people on twitter right now are making the same dumb comments
And I'm like I was gonna land on something like adjusting my power ratings washing things going way up
And I'm like who cares? I you know what?
I'm enjoying this game. I have I have some money on it
I don't need to tweet this thing out to anybody
I built most of my following on twitter from just live tweeting cowboys games
Honestly, I think people really could feel the emotion that I was feeling through my tweets and
I enjoyed doing that or just tweeting like primetime football games or whatever
That's how I built it, but like I don't feel an obligation to tweet at this point and I don't feel an obligation to do any type of content
You know that I'm not super comfortable with like
The Simon Hunter episode is probably the pinnacle episode of circles off. Okay. It's got the most views all time
um
It got the most views likely because it was polarizing and there's a lot of people who came in to defend Simon hunter
You see that in the comments comments of that video. It's still comment people still comment still find that video and comment on it um
but
I
Professor Shahin came up to me at that bash and he's like dude that Simon hunter video
He's like I have to watch it like once a week
Because it's like for the last he's just says it's the best vid. It's the best piece of content ever created
I don't really love that episode. Yeah, because I've listened back and
You know if I could do that in hindsight
We probably should have just reached out to Simon beforehand and had him on instead you thought it was mean spirited a little bit
Yeah, it was never the intent. I mean it sort of was but like
It's hard to describe anyways. I just listened back to it
And it's not a piece of content that I love tons of people love that I won't name names
But there's people who still reach out to me about how great that episode was and they're like oh here like they're constantly sending me
Simon hunter content of like oh you have to roast this guy you have to do and like it's been done
Yeah, I've done it now, you know
Recently he had a podcast. It was sent to me like by a dozen people about how he consulted for an NFL team during the draft
Yeah, and what and
People sent me those now
candidly like it's obviously BS. Yeah, because either
Either he he actually did no, it's and it's pathological
It's like at this point. I actually when someone has that level of lying to them
Like I call it salsa right where we all tell a story and there's a couple extra details and you know things get
Turned up 10 percent. That's called salsa when you're telling a story
Then there's the complete like fabrication of that of something that never happened in in a million years
And I go I look I'm like oh
That's that's really there's something wrong with him there that he thinks that people believe this this crap
So I actually have consulted for teams across major leagues before
I'm not gonna say who because guess what I signed an NDA and I can't talk about this stuff publicly first for these
But on top of that if you were if you did consult for an NFL team
During the draft and then you went out and did three podcast episodes of NFL draft bets
And talked about all the draft bets that you made
We have a real conflict of interest here a massive one
So either you didn't or you absolutely violated some sort of league policy
Which is a huge problem and you've now put that out there like
It obviously he obviously didn't but this is what my like this
This is the mess misrepresentation of content creators. Yeah, that drives me nuts
Like it drives me create he never had to say that yeah
He already has his following who thinks whatever and he's maybe built that off of many lies
But never had to say that drives me insane
But yeah, I don't you know, I could do another one of those episodes
And we could throw him up on the thumbnail. Yeah, and you know we and we were probably
We'd bank a ton of views sure and from a business perspective makes sense it makes sense to do it from a human perspective
I don't like the guy
whatever but like
And I'm not saying we'll never do one of those
But I'm not at the place now where like I just want to rehash that episode
Because I did feel like it came across in like poor jest as a person who's listened to every episode and enjoys the show
Very horse and Matt I think it's Matt Trenhill. Yeah, still my two favorite episodes
This I'm 101 won't even crack my top 10. Yeah, it was entertaining in the moment. I will never rewatch it
Yeah, I got it. Well, it's it's not a learning you're not so a wreck person
Someone who's just pure wreck might learn something from that episode
Because the whole motion of syndicates or whatever
Yeah, you maybe you'll learn something you'll be like oh, but a wreck person is just as likely to watch that episode in my opinion
See it in the comments of that episode as well. Yeah, and say like these hosts are like haters
They don't know what they're talking about and it's really just doing it's doing fan service to like our core audience
And you want to do that sometimes
You do you do like you want people coming back to but you want to do it
Like don't want to do it all the time. Yeah, and make it a consistent thing
Plus CV minus CV
We'll end off the show here
I got you want me to throw to you first. Do you yeah? I've got both mine and I go for it. Okay. Plus CV
pre-tipping
And I'll tell you three spots where it pays off you end up going to a wedding, right?
And everybody wants to grab some drinks all night and then they'll tip what I do is I pull out a nice bill
I won't say how much slap it on the table and say hey man
Looking forward to the night. Um, this is my drink
I never wait in line after that. There's 20 people at the bar crowded sees you
Over here drink ready just because I pre-tipped him this is a absolute pro move
I'm totally with you on this I actually I talked about stags on this program before I had a stag on Friday night
Pulled the same move right away. Yeah, make sure that that bartender sees you right away. Thanks very much
Whatever boom the rest of the night. It's ready to go do it at Copacabana to Copacabana is an all you can eat
Brazilian steakhouse and they got like 20 different types of steak and
They'll constantly bring it around and cut you off a piece at a time one piece usually and move on
But there's like four really good meats, right? The ones with like Parmesan steak. There's the four bangers, right?
You make sure you tip two different waiters, right?
Early and every time they get that you'll be the first table that gets there
And he's cutting you off a second piece and he's taking care of you because you pre-tipped. Yep. Totally agree
Great move pre-tipped and that's that's a positive EV move in your life
Minus EV minus EV is hosting a party, okay
It's say the party goes from five pm to 11 pm or depends on what kind of party it is I guess
And you've got to spend the day before probably shopping everything then you got to get up a few hours earlier and prep the food and cook and everything and then
While the party's going on you drink okay, you got to play hostess and then when everybody's gone
Now you've got the reality. I got to clean this place to take me another eight hours
So that six hours of enjoyment that the guest gets it costs you about two days worth of headaches
Just to make things go smoothly. So I think hosting a party negative EV move
Man you you're you're we're on the same page today
I gotta I gotta play this one for my wife. We host a Christmas party every year, but my wife
God bless her soul
She it's called it's a Christmas games party
We did this for the bet stamp office like a couple years ago. Zach will remember this as well
But like she comes up with unique divides people in teams we buy like a different color stalking for the teams or a two or whatever
It's like this whole ordeal, but I'm part of like the whole planning and the setup and the cleanup
And they're there for like four hours. Mm-hmm. You know, everyone's got kids
They got to wait till their kids go down or they can get a babysitter
You know, they're over at nine they're leaving at like one in the morning because they got kids and they got to deal with them the next day
It's it's it's a struggle. I'm not I'm not I love parties don't get me wrong
But I don't like hosting them never never um plus EV
I just did some recent traveling
We had call customer service Josh on a couple weeks ago
I gave him this pro tip several years ago when I was doing a lot of traveling for work
um
And just to like meet different betting partners and different cities and stuff like that
But my wife often wouldn't come with me for a lot of these and
Her choice I would always always ask but
Shoot message me when I'm there. How are things going or you know when I come home? How is the trip?
I
Don't want to blatantly lie
But the plus EV move is to focus on the worst parts
Mm-hmm. You do not ever want to make your significant other or spouse whatever
Feel like they were really missing out on something. Yeah, because one it just pisses them off and it's gonna aggregate
Agrivate them what imagine like while you're gone
Your wife messages you and like how are things going? You're like oh best trip ever
Like she's just sitting at home now of like what the fuck like you doesn't have this this type of fun with me or whatever
And then or when you get back it's the same thing
So you really really have to focus in on the worst details and just ham it up like my Wi-Fi was terrible
Like I couldn't I could barely were what you know this the shower
Like bothered me the whole trip because the water was too cool whatever it is
Just do not
Make the trip sound too good and if you're traveling without your significant other and then you got to sprinkle in
You know if you were here it would have that could have got through this a lot easier. Yes
You gotta let them know that they could have enhanced this terrible trip that you had I
100% and then she'd be like oh maybe next time I'll come with you next time comes doesn't really want to come whatever
It's fine, but you know I travel with my wife. We do our own vacations
We both afford each other the flexibility to have our own time
So she wants to go on a trip with her friends whatever go on a trip with your friends
If I want to do the same thing we do that
But got like do not
Return and say it was
Unreal like oh you missed this view look at these pictures. I got do not do that
So it's it was a tip I gave to
Call customer service many years ago and I stand by it as plus CV
minus CV
While I was on this said trip. I went from Bet Bash directly to Nashville, Tennessee
drove to Jefferson City to play mini golf against Rufus who I beat by the way that won one series
but
On the way home we flew back out of Knoxville, Tennessee
So I'm at Knoxville. I'm at the airport. I'm going through the line at the airport
At security line and there's like all these pictures in line and
Zach will bring them up on screen here if you're listening
You'll just have to hear me describe them
But it's a picture of a gun and bullets and it says like officer stanton prevented this gun from getting on a recent flight
And as you go through the line there's more of these officer McConnell prevented this gun from getting on a recent flight
At the six bullets here officer stanton again officer fury and I'm like
Why the fuck would the airport? Yeah put these in the lot like do they think they're doing us like serve
What if officer stanton's not working today? Yeah, like am I in big trouble because he didn't prevent
I didn't even know there was this many many people trying to bring guns on a flight now. I'm freaked out
Now I'm in the line. I'm like holy fuck all these are within the last month
There's just five pictures here of people trying to bring guns onto the flight with like a full magazine
I'm like what is going on here like why your airport?
You want to put people at ease. Yeah, yeah, like you're one goal is make things go smooth as possible
I don't want to know that this happens. This is absurd
Officer what like I never seen guns that look like this in my life before officer Welsh prevented this gun from going on a flight
Don't do this stuff. No, if you are in air trap if you're working like if you run an airport
Make the the the customer the like the air traveler seem as like make it as safe as possible
I don't want to know that this shit happens. This is forever stuck with me now
Yeah, I'm gonna be at every airport like what does this guy have in the bag?
You know granted at least these things are getting caught
There's like a little bit, but who knows who knows what gets through so don't if you're in air travel
If you know someone in air travel get rid of these make people feel
Safe at the airport. Oh totally totally unrelated, but kind of related because I love the sidebar. I'm in Panama
What on a boys trip and we end up going to a club downtown
And we get into the building and then
My buddy says out loud he goes
We didn't get padded down at the door. Did we?
I go. Thank you, man
Now this is the worst night on them like hyper aware of everybody
I'm like and I I didn't notice that
But he had to plant that seat in my head because now I'm thinking
Who the hell is strapped in here and who isn't just because he said that comment
It's the idea of don't bring awareness to something that I probably don't want to know though
Well end off on one other thing
I just want to tell you so your
Niceness yes of giving up your bet bash ticket to a friend of mine. Oh, Zach's gonna put up the
The image on screen here. So you told me can't go to bet bash if you got a friend that wants to go
Just give him the ticket and he'll be there
My friend John Carlo Peruzza came out with me to bet bash
Ended up playing a three dollar three hundred dollar no limit hold them event
At the win and he won it for nine thousand nine hundred and thirty six dollars. Good. There's a picture of him up on screen
You can see it here with these pocket pins on his holding as the winner. That's awesome
Funny how things come together because he may not have made it out for that trip
Ultimately gets a ticket goes and and wins himself almost 10k and for Canadian with the exchange rate
That's roughly 13. What is that under bucks butterfly effect that that's what just happened there pretty crazy
So being a nice guy actually does
You're a guy who believes in that stuff in the karma. So I mean
Good for you for for giving that up and and not asking anything of it because
At the end of the day it came through check out George's podcasts right here on the circles off
YouTube channel and in audio form as well. It's called 90 degrees. He interviews
Different people from around the bedding space bookmakers betters entertainers
Does a really good job with it other aside from what bedpot rating says about him
I actually think he does a really good job with it
And the feedback has been predominantly very good as have the analytics which I care about the most
So check out 90 degrees for sure if you are in Ontario check out pinnacle and again play responsibly
If you are going to sign up use code hammer when doing so as it helps support the show
I have one last thing
You're listening to this on Thursday
If you're listening to it on Thursday or Friday morning
Rob I think we can say the sports book on Friday
Brad Powers Parker Fleming
Douglas Farmer from the hit the books channel as well as myself will be at circus sports in there doing a live show on Friday
1 p.m. Pacific time 4 p.m. Eastern time so you can come say hi to us there before or after the show
Preferably not during the show that'll be appreciated if you don't do that and then Saturday
We have a booth at circus. Well, so you can come say hi to us. We'll be in there watching the games as well
So if you want to come stop by but
Before then even if not you can check out the show on hit the books hq youtube channel
And the floor to it hit the books has been cooking lately
If we're actually going to have to get like I'm going to have to put my foot down. So
I'm not exaggerating. I've probably tried to get kinesh a mic a dozen times
He either rejects it says he's getting his own mic
He complains that it's the core that he has or there's always some excuse
But it's actually getting enough viewership right now that like we can't Zach
We cannot have this happen. You have to pay him to for the permission to put the mic in his house
He needs an incentive of a new mic is not clearly an incentive enough for him
He needs he wants something extra. He's holding up for a better deal
Well, he can't use one of these that we have here because he's laying down on his coach when he records most of the show
So we have to get him a headset or something
But we have to get him something
So that's going to happen for all the listeners of hit the books
I saw doc better out there started to go fund me to get kinesh a new mic
We don't need the money to get him a mic
We just need him to actually accept the I'm scared we'll order an Amazon package to his house
And he'll just say like no take this away or leave it out there because he doesn't want the mic
So we will get that done hit the books
He's going well definitely check that out as well. This has been episode number 116 for myself
Rob Pizzola for G stack George for Zach Phillips behind the desk
Thank you very much for listening make sure you smash that like button and we'll catch you next week