How a Professional Sports Bettor Really Makes Money

SPEAKER_1 (0:03)

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news.

Joe Weisenthal (0:20)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:25)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:26)

Tracy, guess what?

SPEAKER_1 (0:28)

What?

Joe Weisenthal (0:28)

I'm going to Vegas tomorrow.

Tracy Alloway (0:30)

I know you are. Wait, I'm trying to-

Joe Weisenthal (0:32)

Have I mentioned that before?

Tracy Alloway (0:33)

I'm trying to restrain myself. The irony is that you left me high and dry in Vegas last time, but now for the next week, I'm gonna hear how much you love Vegas.

Joe Weisenthal (0:41)

Come out, it's not too late to get a ticket.

Tracy Alloway (0:43)

I would love to come out.

Joe Weisenthal (0:44)

You're welcome.

Tracy Alloway (0:45)

But I'm doing the opposite of Vegas. I'm going to Vermont.

Joe Weisenthal (0:48)

Oh, yeah, you're going antiquing?

Tracy Alloway (0:49)

That's right.

Joe Weisenthal (0:51)

I'm not sure if I was supposed to say that.

Tracy Alloway (0:52)

The pinnacle of middle age. Thank you, Joe.

Joe Weisenthal (0:54)

Well, it's both, it's two expressions of middle ageness, right? Like I'm going out with four friends.

I'm gonna go see a Dead and Co. show at the Sphere.

Tracy Alloway (1:04)

That's something other than middle age, I think.

Joe Weisenthal (1:07)

Like post-middle age.

I'm gonna take a road trip to the Hoover Dam. Maybe I'll get some good infrastructure photos. And yes, I'm gonna gamble. I like to play poker and you're gonna be in Vermont and teaking. But you know what's something I find really interesting, Tracy, and Vegas is booming, despite the fact that for years, Vegas had this monopoly on gambling.

And you would think, okay, now gambling is everywhere. It's on your phone. Many more jurisdictions have opened up casinos. And yet that doesn't really seem to have slowed it down.

Tracy Alloway (1:37)

Well, I will say the last time I was in Vegas, which was, I guess, October of last year, I did notice some differences. So I was wandering around the big casinos, as one does, and I was going past those big sports betting areas where they have the armchairs and you recline in them and stare at it like.

Joe Weisenthal (1:55)

It's like this big theater of 50 screens.

Tracy Alloway (1:57)

Yeah, exactly.

And those looked pretty empty to me. So I kind of wonder if, okay, people still like gambling at table games or whatever, but maybe you're getting less interest in the sports aspect of it because why go all the way to Vegas to watch a basketball game and bet on it if you can do it from your couch at home?

Joe Weisenthal (2:17)

No, that is a good question.

It would be interesting. I mean, I feel like the last time I was in Vegas, I don't remember exactly when. I think there was a big game going on. So that environment of the casino can get super raucous and exciting, but it still does raise questions about the rise of being able to bet literally on your phone everywhere in basically every state, I think, or close to it.

Tracy Alloway (2:40)

I have a random collection of thoughts on this topic, which is kind of ironic because I know absolutely nothing about sports betting. And now you're gonna rattle off a bunch of facts. Here are all my thoughts on it. Well, one, I remember when I used to come to the US from other places, a big culture shock was when you would watch TV and there would be all those ads for medicine. And it would be like, talk to your doctor and request the specific medicine, which doesn't happen as far as I know in any other country in the world.

Now, I think the big culture shock is all the gambling ads.

Like, you watch TV and there are all these ads going, oh, you know, we'll pay you an initial lump sum to get on our platform and make a few bets. And you're gonna win all this money and it's gonna be loads of fun, blah. And then the other thing I was thinking is I feel like a lot of the gambling operators, and this isn't exclusive to the sports bettors, but maybe to the casinos in Vegas as well, I feel like they're getting smarter with a lot of the way they're operating. So again, the last time I was in Vegas, I noticed, for instance, this isn't necessarily new, but it was kind of more extreme. The minimum bets on tables change a lot between the weekend and the weekdays. But I feel like they change even more than they used to. I feel like the pricing is more dynamic. And Joe, I know you make fun of me, but it ruined my crap system.