Follow the Money | August 31st, 2026 | Hour 3

**Mitch Moss** (0:18)
Welcome in, we're live in Vegas. Circa Resort and Casino is the spot. Busy hour coming up, our best bets. Arash Markazi's gonna be in studio. A lot to get into with LA sports teams with him. Right now, we begin the hour by going out to the Progressive Guest Line. Zach Cohen joins the program now.
Great write-ups on the daily at vsin.com. Several sports, including tennis. And the US Open is underway right now. We'll talk about it here. Zach, thanks for the time today. How are you?

**Zach Cohen** (0:43)
I'm good, how are you guys doing?

**Mitch Moss** (0:44)
Doing well. Were you sad last night watching what appears to be the end of Novak Djokovic?

**Zach Cohen** (0:50)
I was sad only because you saw him crying. You saw, I feel like it kind of hit him that he was potentially nearing the end of his career. At the same time, this stuff has happened with him before and he has made two semi-finals this year at SLAMS and one of them we made the finals. So I don't know, I don't want to rule him out yet. I'd still think that there's a run in him in Wimbledon. I just don't think he's going to win a SLAM. And I wonder if that's going to be enough for him to realize that he can't do it. Like losing to Mariano Navone, it's a little unacceptable for a player of his caliber.

**Mitch Moss** (1:19)
Yeah. Now, what is your philosophy overall on live betting this sport? And again, you love tennis, like you're doing this year round. To me, last night, I want to say it was the third set. When it appeared to me that Joker was severely compromised, like everything's going into the net, double faults left and right, the way it felt, just like and he's eventually crying on the court. It was a little bit before then, but he looked like he was emotional.
Like, I think I got to start betting against this guy and it worked out. But how many times like how careful do you have to be? Because a guy might look or a girl might look like they're hurt, but they're really not in a three minute break and help him out. And oh my God, there's a second win for him and they look great.

**Zach Cohen** (1:58)
Yeah, it happens all the time. Like there was a match today. It was out over 10 and against Andre Rublev and Vertanen ended up losing, but like he looked gassed in sets three and four. And he ended up having a little bit more in the tank for set five because sometimes they'll just give up and hope that they're going to have a little bit something towards the end of the match and they will end up finding another gear. You really never know what's going to happen. But with Djokovic, like towards the end of set four, it looked really obvious that he was just not going to be able to win that match.
Last night would have been a really good live betting opportunity. I did get in on Navone, but it's not like the wrong time. I got in on him at the end of set two, and then at set three, it looked like he was on his way to losing, but ended up winning. So I got happy with that. But yeah, you really need to be monitoring stuff at this tournament, really at the majors in general, because the physicality of best of five, especially like on the men's side, where they're playing longer matches, it's just ripe with opportunities on the live betting market. Yesterday, there was a player, Terrence Atman, who was cramping up so badly on his left hand, which is his serving hand, that he actually had to serve with his right hand against John Munnar. So he ended up losing that match after going up two sets to love. And it was pretty obvious it was going to happen.

**Pauly Howard** (3:06)
Great points. And we saw it with Sinner as well when he was cramping up at a previous tournament. No Sinner, two top 10 men have already been eliminated. Can I get you convinced with Medvedev? How about a long shot now in this draw?

**Zach Cohen** (3:20)
Yes. So I mean, Medvedev is a player that I absolutely love. I mean, he's a great personality, but the problem is that he had been playing so poorly coming into this tournament that it's really hard to trust him. I think that if you're looking for kind of longer shots, I'd be looking at the top half of the draw, which is where you see guys like Taylor Fritz, Rafael Hodar, Felix Ojealia's team, all three available at pretty long numbers. I'd be looking for those guys who wouldn't have to face Carlos Alcaraz until a potential final. I do think Alcaraz is potentially going to lose somewhat early in this tournament. Got through his match in straight sets today against Roman Safioulin, but there are some tougher ones coming up. Of course, Arthur Feast did get upset today by Stefano Sitsipas, so that's kind of one obstacle out of the way, but I am interested in seeing what Alcaraz does against a player like Tommy Paul in the fourth round, because I do think Alcaraz is just kind of missing some match fitness, and Tommy Paul is one of the best grinders in the sports. It would be interesting to see what happens there.