Why Your Model Gets it Wrong | Dejan Mitkovski (BetMGM)

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Dejan Mitkovski, in Vancouver, in the flesh again. This is the third time we're meeting a person, right? Austin, 2023
Nashville, last year, 2024

**Dejan Mitkovski** (0:11)
That's right.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:12)
It's 2025

**Dejan Mitkovski** (0:13)
Vancouver.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:14)
Yeah, end of August. Not a better time to be in Vancouver than end of August.

**Dejan Mitkovski** (0:18)
It is beautiful out, that's no doubt.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:20)
Okay, do you like Vancouver?

**Dejan Mitkovski** (0:22)
I love Vancouver. It's actually one of my favorite international cities.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:25)
How so?

**Dejan Mitkovski** (0:29)
You have this like really interesting blend of everything. You have this major metropolis with skyscrapers and businesses and a vibrant downtown. You have this wonderful park in Stanley Park, just north, right? You have the mountains in the background. You have the cusp of the ocean at your feet.
And there might be no nicer people on the planet than Canadians.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:56)
And Vancouver, specifically, is like a very chill place.

**Dejan Mitkovski** (0:59)
Yep. So when you mix all of that together, I mean, it's just a wonder. It's a wonderful town. The first time I was in Vancouver was 2009 And I've said it ever since then. It's one of my favorite.
It was a pleasure.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:16)
Okay.

**Dejan Mitkovski** (1:16)
Yeah, it was a pleasure. I lived in Seattle and I drove up with my then-girlfriend, now wife.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:22)
Oh, okay. Okay, so it was fruitful.

**Dejan Mitkovski** (1:24)
It was fruitful, yeah. So we drove up just for the experience because everyone told us how wonderful Vancouver was.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:31)
Where did you guys go in Vancouver?

**Dejan Mitkovski** (1:33)
Oh my god, so there is the Asian district, the Chinatown, and we were always told it is the best food you're going to get outside of Asia.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:48)
It's hard to beat, yeah.

**Dejan Mitkovski** (1:49)
It's hard to beat. So we came up for that, and then we actually went to a concert.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:56)
Okay.

**Dejan Mitkovski** (1:56)
Yeah, so we went to a concert. It was a wedding gift for me, so.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:04)
What kind of concert? I'm not going to dig too deep into it, but now you said it.

**Dejan Mitkovski** (2:08)
You're going to dig deep.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:10)
I just have to know.

**Dejan Mitkovski** (2:12)
So there has to be some context to this.
I am a person of the, I grew up in the 80s and the 90s, right? And so hip hop and rap were very big in America at that time. So it was a Jay-Z in Kanye, Wisconsin.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:31)
Oh, interesting. Okay. Jay-Z and Kanye West, that was, wow, that was a long time ago. It was a long time ago.

**Dejan Mitkovski** (2:37)
That was a long time ago.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:38)
The Kanye West were the prodigy of Jay-Z at the time. They were.

**Dejan Mitkovski** (2:41)
I mean, they put an album out together.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:43)
Okay.

**Dejan Mitkovski** (2:44)
But it's also, I love all types of music. I would probably say Led Zeppelin is my favorite band of all time, right? But I do love that genre of music.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:55)
That is an experience, I can imagine.

**Dejan Mitkovski** (2:57)
It was a great experience. But the concert, being in the city for the weekend, just great time.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:02)
All right.

**Dejan Mitkovski** (3:03)
Thanks for hosting me.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:04)
Yeah, absolutely. Welcome back.
Welcome back. It's good to have you here. And you flew from Detroit?

**Dejan Mitkovski** (3:10)
I did.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:11)
But how long have you been living in Detroit?

**Dejan Mitkovski** (3:13)
Oh my goodness. I moved back to Detroit in 2012
In 2012, I moved back in Detroit. No, I'm sorry, 2013 Sorry, 2013

**SPEAKER_1** (3:27)
Okay.

**Dejan Mitkovski** (3:30)
We moved back because we were living in Seattle, moved to Seattle for work purposes, and moved back because that's where family is from. We started, my wife and I started our own family. So we moved back when she was pregnant with our first.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:43)
Okay, there you go.

**Dejan Mitkovski** (3:44)
Yeah.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:44)
So we can kind of wind the clock back because you and I did multiple podcast interviews. All of them were incredibly fun. Oh, right.

**Dejan Mitkovski** (3:53)
So fun.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:54)
Yeah, but never one like this. I want to take the opportunity to get to know Dejan Mitkovski from a different angle and also to kind of see that in the context of what's been happening over the past 25 years with digital transformation, data, AI, and there's so much noise around this, right? So we can breathe in some clarity into the discussion. So 25 years ago, we're talking 2000s, right? So we're just past the 90s.