July 11, 2024 • 41 mins
Sean Brace & Evan Davis sit down with John Ewing from Bet MGM (Data & PR) for guest number one on "Behind The Vig." A leading expert in the sports gambling content & information space, John has made a real name for himself on all things socials.
Key Topics Discussed:
Key Topics Discussed:
- How are live wagering numbers made.
- Trading team requrements.
- How engaging content attracts and retains bettors.
- Personal experiences and insights from career in sports gambling.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You are listening to Behind the Vague, a podcast mini series that takes you
beyond the vets and strategies and moreinto the business of the sports betting industry.
Now Here are your hosts, SeanBrace and Evan Davis. That's right,
you just heard the man. Thisis Behind the Vague, an eight
part mini series podcast. I amone of the co hosts. I am
(00:24):
Sean Brace is always joined by EvanDavis. You'll hear from Evan in just
a second, but allow me togive you a couple notes on who I
am and where I am at rightnow. And currently I am the program
director and afternoon drive host at FoxSports Radio The Gambler in Philadelphia. Now
one of the big things for meto get involved with a project like this.
(00:44):
First of all, Evan and Igo back and we'll talk a little
bit about how we met at aPolice Athletic League softball game being played at
siszens Bank Park and we sat thereand watched Phillies win, had a couple
cold beverages on a beautiful summer night, and look, we struck up a
relationship of friendship. Then here weare now, and we knew that we
could put our brains together, ourbeautiful bald heads together and create a series
(01:07):
that would be, you know what, different than anything that's out there,
and of course a series that you'regoing to learn. And that's the biggest
thing for me. It's like whenI talk about sports gambling Monday through Friday
on the airwaves and the Gambler,I'm talking about the spreads, I'm talking
about injuries, I'm talking about games, I'm talking about odds, future,
so on and so forth, andwe're going to hit on that in this
a part series, and especially withour first guest, John Ewing. But
(01:30):
I know this much, I'm gonnalearn a ton from you, Evan as
the co host. I'm gonna learna ton from these other guests, all
guests that are gonna come on here. There's gonna be news, There's gonna
be nuggets that I will definitely diveinto and hone in on and definitely look
use from here on out. SoI'm excited about that. I'm excited about
this opportunity behind the big Nobody's doinganything like this, So really looking forward
(01:53):
to these next couple episodes. Evan, I am too, Sean, and
thanks for doing this with me.I'm so excited to co hosting this with
you. So I'm Evan Davis.I lead the Gaming in Sports practice at
Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld, a lawfirm with offices in Pennsylvania and New York.
But for the last ten years orso, I've worked for a couple
(02:15):
of companies within the gaming and sportsbetting industries, Rivers Casino in Philadelphia and
Pen National Gaming now Pen Entertainment.I like to think of myself as as
a lawyer, but kind of afun lawyer, right because the type of
work that I get to do andthe type of companies that I get to
work with, And to be honest, some of my favorite conversations with either
(02:38):
clients or potential clients are with youknow, people that are really innovating and
doing some cool stuff within the sportsbetting industry, and I've been really privileged
to work with a variety of thosecompanies over the years. We all know
some of the bigger operators, butthere are some smaller operators out there.
There are a ton of companies thatare starting up with ideas for whether it's
(03:04):
partnerships in the space or marketing withinthe space, data science, all kinds
of cool, different stuff, companiesthat sort of the general public at large
hasn't really heard of. They're notbrand names, they're not household names,
and some of them really should be. And so for me, what I'm
most excited about is getting a chanceto highlight some of those companies and then
(03:27):
also dive in behind the scenes ofwhat goes on, you know, behind
the scenes with the operators, howdo they make their businesses work, what's
going on that people don't necessarily knowabout, and give folks a little bit
more insight into that as we gothrough this series. So couldn't be more
excited. We've got a great firstguest and can't wait to get started.
(03:50):
Excellent, So without further ado,let's get to Episode one behind the Vegue
and joining us John Ewing, Dataand pr Over at betmg off and running
Episode one behind the Vague Ladies andgentlemen. As you just heard myself,
Sean Brace and Evan Davis ready togo here and wow, we packed the
punch with our first guest, andI mean this in front of me.
(04:14):
Evan, I have the bio that, of course we chop up and type
out and have it ready to gofor our guests. But I just got
to speak from the heart on thisone. As a guy who has been
in this content space even before thesports gambling stuff, being in radio creating
content, you know what sticks outand what's good on the timeline, right,
and you continue to come back tothose people. And then of course
(04:36):
the sports gambling space is growing andgrowing over the years. But our next
guest is absolutely one of the firstthat I go to every day when I
wake up to get ready for mythree to six show on Fox Sports to
Gambler. Allow us to introduce representthe folks over at BETMGM. Now I'll
get into his bio here, JohnEwing, the PR Manager of Media in
(05:00):
Sites at bet MGM. He hasan over a decade of experience in sports
betting and gaming, working on bothsides of the counter. Really looking forward
to our conversation here, John,thank you for a couple of minutes today.
How we doing, man, I'mdoing awesome. Thanks so much for
having me on. Absolutely Now,look I mean that when I say that,
like I come to your timeline first. Now you have over eighty five
(05:23):
thousand followers. I mean, Iknow you don't notice me, but who
do you notice? Who's the mostfamous follower that you have right now on
social media that looks at John Ewing'sinfo every day that they get up ready
to cash and winning plays. Oh, I mean, one of my favorite
is just Bill Simmons. Oh.I been a big fan of his work,
(05:46):
his podcast back in the day whenhe used to write. So having
Bill as a follower and sometimes interactingwith him as one of the you know,
great career highlights understood and definitely oneof the great basketball minds out there.
And look, he's one of thosedudes that you don't always have to
agree with, but you have atake on his opinion and that tells you
(06:08):
all you need to know about hisinfluence, especially in the game of basketball.
We don't want to talk about Bostonthough, like we'll skip we'll skip
Boston for now. Evan, allowme to fire one immediately right back to
John here and John, we aregoing to open up each podcast here,
our mini series podcast behind the Vague. And it's not polite to ask anybody
(06:31):
their age, So with that,I wanted to ask a simple question,
is tell us one of your favoritechildhood sporting memories and then we can gauge
around about ball park where you're atokay, Yeah, tell me how old
I am with this one. Let'ssee the home run chase of nineteen ninety
eight. I'm from Missouri, soMark McGuire, the Cardinal, Sammy Sosa,
(06:54):
all the dingers, you know,back before we knew about the steroid
that was going on behind the scenes. But the home run chase, for
sure is one of my favorite memoriesgrowing up and true story here one of
my first wagers in my life.I graduated high school in nineteen ninety nine.
I bet Greg Lebinski that Sammy Sosawould win that competition. I lost
(07:16):
twenty five dollars, one of myfirst sports gambling wagers ever. Ho home
figured it was a loss. It'sall been uphill from there, right exactly
exactly, John. Let's let's getright into it. Man, how long
you've been at BETMGM. How'd youget to bet MGM. Let's start there.
Uh yeah, So it's been befouryears in the fall, been four
(07:40):
great years before that. I wasin the content game myself, working at
a number of different websites Predictionmachine,dot Com, Sports Insights, bet Labs,
most recently Action Network, so primarilyfocusing on writing content you know,
with a look at sports betting,what was happening that day? What can
(08:03):
you know people bet on? Andhere's some data trends insights so that you
can place a wager. So tellJohn, tell you what what is betmgm
because I think the world sort ofassumes that betmgm is MGM's you know,
online arm, but that's literally kindof only half true. Yeah. So
(08:28):
betmgm is a partnership between MGM ResortsInternational and Intain Holdings, which is a
European based company. Uh And theway it works is that the two got
together, uh MGM offering the accessto the American market, Intained providing the
technology. So the app is builton in Tain's data and tech and it's
(08:54):
been a great marriage for both sidesas bet mgm continues to grow and be
a leader in sports. And Iwant to follow up John and talk a
little bit about the Action Network.And I feel like those guys and girls
were there, you know, wheneverything started to change and really have held
on to it. What's the strengthif you wouldn't mind talking about your your
(09:16):
previous place of employment, what istheir strength? And and they're still you
know, staying power right here rightnow one of the leaders in our industry,
the sports gamling space. Yeah,when I was at Action you know,
I think what they did great wasjust offering constant information and insights into
(09:37):
what was happening every single day.So did it matter the sport. You
could find a writer or a bettingexpert that could give you, you know,
a lean one way or the other. Because at the end of the
day, right, it's all forentertainment purposes, and what makes it more
fun if you have a little somethingon a game and maybe you you are
(10:00):
just a casual fan, so youdon't have time to do all the work,
so you know, let someone elsemaybe put in the effort and you
can get a tip and maybe youdecide if you want to wager with them
or not. Now, a coupleof years ago, the Action Network was
bought right by a Danish company calledBetter Collective and again not necessarily a household
(10:24):
name in these parts, but tellus, you know what is Better Collective,
and you know the the amount thatthey paid for the Action Network is
eye popping, right, and it'sand I think it's a testament to the
company that you guys were able tobuild over there. Yeah, that acquisition
(10:45):
actually happened after I had left ActionNetwork, but yes, so, I
mean, just to go back further, the Action Network actually purchased Sports Insights
and bet Labs where I was working, and they put together a number of
different companies, including like Fantasy Labsas a way to you know, offer
(11:07):
a one stop shop for sports bettingand fantasy and a little bit of everything.
And then after a few years theyyeah, you're correct, they were
purchased then by Better Collective. Sothey did quite well for themselves. To
tell us what is Better Collective?Like, why, what is it?
And why did they want to purchasethe Action Network for two hundred and forty
(11:33):
million dollars. That's a question you'regoing to have to ask Chad Millman and
the team at Action Network. Ican't really speak to what Better Collective was
their reasoning for purchasing them, butI assume it was to have access to,
you know, a great media companyand content excellent John. As far
(11:54):
as look you over a decade inthis space right here right now, you
know, we've a ton of changes. Is there one that sticks out the
most to you? From going fromthe Action Network in your previous places to
where you're at right now with betMGM. One change, and it doesn't
necessarily have to be something as macroas all these states legalizing and we're still
(12:16):
haven't had the Big three with California, Texas, and Florida, although who
knows what's going to happen eventually inFlorida twenty fifty one maybe, But one
big change that's really caught your attentionover the last decade or so being in
this space, I would say theofferings that are available every day across sports.
You know, you think super Bowland you think props, right,
(12:39):
and you could bet on anything,you know, from the coin flip to
gatorade bath to a third string runningback how many yards they're going to have,
And that was what made the SuperBowl special. But there was such
a strong demand for that those typesof markets from customers that has now spread
(13:01):
to every sport and so having optionsto wager not just on the spread,
total and money line, but gettingto wager on point props and rebounds and
including those in parlays. Again,it's all a reflection of what the demand
is from fans and from customers.So so take us through that, right,
(13:22):
I mean bet MGM says, hey, we've got you know, the
w NBA season launching, and there'sa ton of interest going on, and
we want to come up with aprop bet on Caitlin Clark. How does
that work? How do you figureout, like how to set the the
(13:46):
odds on these props? How doyou figure out like should we be moving
them one way or the other?I mean, this is right every everyone.
All that we see on the userside is here's a here's a pro
and it's you know, minus onetwelve, minus one fifteen on either side.
But there's a lot that took placeto get it there. Yeah,
(14:09):
So in general, you know,props can be set based on some historical
data, right, how has aplayer performed recently, how they performed in
certain matchups. With rookies, that'sa little bit more difficult, you know,
because they're coming into a new league. But our trading team does have
(14:31):
models that project out player performance andthen of course you post a number and
the market can tell you pretty quicklyif they think it's right or wrong,
and then you adjust based on theaction that you received. So who's this
trading team that you're talking about?Is this like just there's a bunch of
math guys that are sitting in abank of computers and you know, crunching
(14:56):
numbers, like because there they wereday traders by day and sports traders by
night. How does this work?Uh, well, it is a mix
of background but for the most part, one it's a bunch of people that
just love sports. Uh. Youknow that that is the first qualifier to
be on the trading team. Youyou got to have a passion for it.
(15:16):
You got to have a deep knowledgeof the sport that you're gonna trade.
Uh. But then yeah, youhave a lot of backgrounds include finance
or you know, trading outside ofsports, but they primarily Yeah, they
are sitting in front of just abank of computer, screens of TVs with
(15:37):
games on, and they're just grindingout these matchups. It's funny. We
were just talking about offerings and rightnow, the one big story that you're
seeing across uh, you know,everything on the timeline is the car jiu
jitsu in New Jersey? Like,how does that? First of all,
we'll bet MGM be taking any wagerson that in the state of New Jersey.
(16:00):
Number one and number two is howcan I wager on car jiu jitsu.
Yet in the state of Pennsylvania.There are things do on the NFL
Draft that I can't play on.There are you know, certain wagers from
state to state that are available forSuper Bowl. It's just crazy to me
that something like that could be allowedin the state of New Jersey. Yeah.
(16:21):
Here, I am over here inPhiladelphia. Literally a hop, skip
and jump from the Ben Franklin orthe Ben Franklin Parkway across the bridge and
I can get into the state ofNew Jersey. How the heck is car
jiu jitsu going to be available nowat some markets. That was just a
conversation we had yesterday with the tradingteam when we saw the news that it
got. You know, if itgets regulated, the trading team can offer
(16:45):
odds. So it's not really achoice from the book standpoint. Regulators in
each state are going to have toapprove it, and if it's approved,
then the trading team can can postodds. But the conversation was around,
you know what spot in the caris the best driver backseat, back,
you know, passenger side, andpeople arguing where they would want to sit.
(17:08):
So it should be interesting, uh, if, if, and when
it all gets uh approved by regulators. So what I'm gathering here is that
if if you want to be ableto find a job where you can go
to a car jiu jitsu match andsubmit an expense report for all of that,
(17:30):
it's being a bet MGM trader.And uh that I like, right,
I mean, there are a wholelot of jobs in the world where
you can pull that off. Butit sounds like interesting, interesting expense reports
coming through for you know, industryresearch. Got to check it out.
(17:51):
Absolutely. I want to follow upwith you, John, and and like
I said, you are on you'rea little bit of everything right with the
contents, and you built up thisfollowing like you can't just let that go
now and be I don't think so. Even this is one man's take here,
but you know you've built up sucha following an audience that you have
to give it to the people nowand right, whether you're behind the scenes
(18:14):
or not for BETMGM or moving forward. You know, I would imagine that
that's going to be something that's importantto you for you and your brand.
What's your day to day like,what's your daily routine? Let me just
ask that you know it definitely,like I said, there's eighty five thousand
people following you for a reason.I go to you for a reason.
I go to you because I knowI'm getting the best nuggets out there,
(18:34):
the best odds, the best information, and whether it is BETMGM. You
do mix it up from time totime, not saying you plug other books,
but you are tweeting about other thingsthat are happening around the sports gambling
space. What's your daily routine whenit comes to that, how many you
know? Like, is there aday that you can miss Major League Baseball
(18:55):
the night before to get out ofthe house for a little bit. It
seems like you have to be marriedto your timeline because how good you are
really, I think the first andforemost, it doesn't feel like a job
to me. Honestly, I wouldbe doing this if I wasn't getting paid,
right. I love sports. Ilove I watch all the games any
you know, I watch all NBAfinals, the Stanley Cup. It's not
(19:18):
difficult for me to make time forthese events. And then as far as
you know, social media, yeah, you know, sometimes you can actually
get sucked into that a little toomuch. I think we're probably all guilty
of it, being you know,too screening it watching a game having your
phone in your hand at the sametime. But again, I think it's
a lot of fun, so itnever feels like work to me. But
(19:41):
from a day to day perspective,I mean, primarily my focus is on
sharing betting information from bet MGM toall of our media contexts so that they
can talk about us and promote thebook organically. So what do you think
is the most interesting stuff that youguys put out there? Like what I
(20:03):
mean, because we see different sportsbooks take some different approaches to this,
you know, the most bet ongames, the most lopsided action. What
what are people interested in? Andand I guess it's two questions, what
are people interested in? But alsowhat, if anything, do you think
(20:25):
maybe people should be more interested inthat they don't seem to be. Something
that kind of makes my job easyis that people love everything they want to
They just want more information about sportsand about sports betting. But what we
really see pop, you know,is being timely and relevant. So an
(20:48):
injury happens right unfortunately, or aplayer gets traded, what does that mean
for the team that's getting them orthe team that traded them? How does
it impact division a conference? Youknow, championship odds, so that really
moves fast when you share out informationlike that in the content world on social
(21:10):
media, et cetera. Of course, fans love hearing about big bets,
right, somebody has half a milliondollars on a on a game, it's
like wow, can you imagine?Or you know, someone bet a dollar
and won twenty grand on a parla. So you know, just aspects of
(21:30):
the game that make it more entertaining. Everybody wants those lottery tickets. That's
what it comes. You know,it's you get those scratch offs. You
know, they've been selling them thoseout of the gas station forever now and
then now you know, like yousaid, you're gonna go sit down and
it's a Tuesday Nai. Not somuch the Phillies because they're in first place.
Hohume. Sorry, I know youguys have beened baseball out there in
(21:52):
Saint Louis, but just saying that, you know, say it's the in
the Guardians versus the Troit Tigers,and it's Sunday night baseball on ESPN.
Yeah, sure, I'll throw alittle same game parlay action on it.
You know, have a little funwith it. Not trying to create you
know, lifetime financial success here offof one ticket. The bottom line is
(22:14):
get a little scratch in the gameand it's fun. It adds looks extra
flavor to it. So I'm rightthere with you on that one. Speaking
of your Phillies, I mean,they've been hot. They've been They're almost
one of the most bet usually themost bet team every day Harper for Forber,
always most popular home run bets too. So you know, teams that
(22:34):
do well attract a lot of attention, especially ones in big markets like the
Phillies, and we see that supportat the sportsbook on a daily basis.
Would you say, let me followup on that, would you say,
John, And you know your experiencefrom Stucky from Action Network the Year of
(22:56):
the Chalk twenty twenty four, itjust seems like every favorite is cash and
in continually to see that with theBoston Celtics here. So would you say
that you see a lopsided amount ofaction on the favorites more so than anybody
else as far as BETTMGM is concerned. I mean, typically favorites and overs
are the most popular bet, right, because a favor is typically the team
(23:18):
that's doing really well at that timeor is a very popular team in general,
you know, thinking basketball like Lebronright, always a favor always on
a good team, and always veryheavily supported by betters and overs. It's
as simple as it's usually more funto root for points than to cheer against,
(23:41):
you know, scoring. So thoseis what that ore two bets that
we see most often. And you'reright, we have seen a lot of
favorites win. Most recently, hearthe Celtics in the NBA Finals. But
that actually wasn't a terrible outcome forus because there was a lot of action
on some underdog teams like the Timberwolves. Okay, see the Mavericks, a
(24:06):
lot of betters thoughts. You know, one of these teams was gonna make
a run out of the West.But the Celtics were so good, which
I know everyone, I feel likeno one wants to hear that. Trust
me. I don't like talking aboutit either. Austin's hurt my heart too
many times. So so take methrough what happens when you know we're in
the conference semifinals and you know,the the Timberwolves wing to go up in
(24:33):
the series, Like what happened?The training team get together and sort of
say, okay, we think weneed to take their odds now down you
know, fifty points or how isit that you guys are adjusting? Is
it you're looking at okay, whatdo we think we need to do?
Or are you just looking at thebets that come in and reacting accordingly.
(24:57):
So the baseline is based off ofa model that we have of what,
okay, so hey, Celtics wonthe East, MAVs the West. What
is our projection on who's going towin this series in the finals? Here's
what we think the odds should bebased on, you know, our numbers,
and then the trading team might adjustthem, you know, once they
(25:18):
have a conversation about they don't justpost a number because a model told them
to. They they can make someyou know, hand adjustments. And then
again, we set that out thereand the market tells us if we're right
or wrong, and you adjust theodds based on the action that comes in.
And then how about like, butyou can't do that for live bets,
(25:40):
right, I mean, you knowyou guys are offering like what's going
to happen in this at bad?I mean, so are people just sitting
around watching the game and saying,all right, well, Bryce Harper's coming
up, and if there's a guyon, this is the likelihood he gets
a hit versus if there's not,or is it do you have to rely
(26:02):
more on computers and algorithms for thatkind of stuff? You're right. For
live betting, we rely on themodels, and we purchased a company called
Angstrom and they specialize in modeling andbeing able to for these live you know,
live betting has just exploded in popularitybecause again it's just everyone's watching the
(26:23):
game, everyone has their phone intheir hand, and as you're watching,
it's like, oh, I thinkthis can happen or that could happen,
and offering these markets have become verypopular. And so the question that a
lot of people ask, right iswhen we're watching things on TV, there's
a delay. Things are going onin the stadium and it takes a couple
(26:45):
seconds to go out over the airwavesand make sure nobody's said a bad word.
So the TV networks can you know, write broadcast what's going on?
So how does this work? Imean, because something's happening, you know,
in Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia,but you're sitting watching on TV in
Saint Louis and you don't know aboutit for a couple seconds until after it
(27:06):
happens. So is there a processthat lets these odds sort of updating real
time? Yeah, we get datafrom official league providers, so the sportsbook
does have information before it's being aired. That's how they're able to offer odds
on the next play because there is, as you said, there's a slight
(27:29):
delay on what you see, youknow on TV when you're watching, So
you got like a direct pipeline rightinto what's going on in Citizens Bank Park
and the second it happened, somebody'ssitting a button and it's updating, it's
getting sent over to your computers,and so your your computers are finding out
(27:49):
about it a couple of seconds beforemy eyes are when I'm watching them on
television. Yes, let me askyou from let me follow up on that,
John, the leagues right, howinvolved in your mind like Major League
Baseball with that, because it justseems like it would go hand in hand
for Major League Baseball to understand thatthe element of live wagering has been you
(28:14):
know, rising and rising, andof course a lot of people are doing
it more and more, so itwould be more of a reason to have
somebody in there that is, youknow, keeping it on the up and
up, keeping it fast paced,keeping everything staying refreshed. How involved are
the leagues in your mind when itcomes to certain things like that from the
live wagering element, there's not ayou know, the leagues in the sportsbook
(28:40):
have a partnership, but there's nodirect like the leagues are trying to influence
what markets the sportsbooks offer or anythinglike that. Sports naturally set themselves up
where live betting is possible when youjust think their stoppage during the games,
(29:00):
right every half inning, players arechanging on and off the field, So
that's plenty of time to offer somekind of wagering market there, or you
have you know NFL, you're watchinga game, there's a timeout every other
minute, it seems like, soagain there's there's a lot of breaks just
naturally in the game that lend themselvesto live betting. Yeah, I probably
(29:21):
should have been a little bit morecareful. They're with my words. It
definitely didn't mean from the standpoint ofthe league's being involved from that, but
it just it feels like everything likeyou're logged in and you're seeing these at
bats, and like you said,lack of a better better example, we
got Bryce Harper and then j tRumuto following him, and they got both
of those up there and they're onit, and it's just I think,
(29:45):
you know, a question that Iget all the time is, you know,
number one is what does that backroom look like? Of course you
can't answer that question for us,But number two is, you know,
is there somebody specific to betem GMat every one of these stadiums? Is
there someone that us with all ofthese sports books in general, or is
there one you know, does betMGM do live betting better than other sports
(30:07):
books? So on and so andso forth. I think that's a question
that I get a lot is fromthe live wagering standpoint, how are they
able to keep up with pitch afterpitch? I know you just said the
breaks, which is definitely real,but for something like baseball, and especially
with the pitch clock, it seemslike it's just moving faster than ever.
Yeah. So again, the tradingroom is literally just TVs and monitors everywhere,
(30:32):
and you know, just a bunchof desks where the traders can watch
the screens and monitor the action.That's coming in and but no, BETMGM
does not have employees at every gameall again, it's all data that's just
relayed through official league partners. Andthat's where for the live betting, you're
(30:55):
relying more on the models, soyou know data is instantly sent over model
updates. And again, like forbaseball, you know what the lineup is
going to be, so and youknow what markets you're going to offer,
you know, a hit, awalk. What's the outcome of this at
back going to be right? Soyou have a set number of outcomes,
you have a set lineup that allhelps again make the process smoother. Have
(31:21):
you thought it all about bull purposingthe trading room as a sports bar,
because this sounds like it might beone of the cooler experiences, right,
is like here's a room filled withlike math guys, computers and televisions and
analyzing sports. And I'm thinking,like, you know, you get a
(31:42):
couple like fancy IPAs on tab andthat's a that's an interesting happy hour.
The bet MGM office is the wayit's set up is the trading room is
on one side. It's an allglass windows, so if you could stand
out there and just kind of watchthem work if you want. But across
from that is kind of a sportsbar setup with multiple TVs, an area
(32:08):
where it's technically supposed to be likea dining area, but there after you
know, five o'clock, we sometimeshave happy hours in there and it becomes
a little sports bar. Forgive me, John, where's the where's the bet
MGM located at? Where you guyslocated at Jersey? That's good, Not
because I'm gonna show up there.You apply it. That's funny, that's
(32:30):
funny. That's funny, Kevin.You had something I mean to cut you
off there? No, I wasgetting Yeah, gotcha, hey, John?
One more from me from the standpointof over to you and and everything
you've been able to do, fromthe social and and what you continue to
do combining everything representing the squad overat bet MGM. What's what's a win
(32:52):
for you? You know? Doyou you classify certain posts as wins,
days, as winds, meetings aswins? What's a win you? Yeah?
Again? My goal is to generateearn media for bet MGM, which
is just simply means getting other peopleto talk about us for free. And
I do that by sharing out bettinginformation with the media who then turn around
(33:16):
write articles, create podcasts, orshare it on social media. So if
if I share something and it justyou know, you see it everywhere,
that's that's a win. And ifI share it and you see it populate
across the social channels right away,you know it was you know, it
(33:36):
was something that was on top ofeveryone's mind and that's really relevant to fans
and betters. And we'll hang abanner when Bill Simmons throws it in an
article over there at the ring orcorrect, that's that's definitely a win me
personally. Yeah, when Bill mentionsme on his podcast, which happens,
you know, a few times ayear, that's that's always a win.
So you're cruising down the road,you're listening to the latest podcasts and all
(33:59):
this sudden he throws out John Ewing'sname, and that's gotta be really cool,
man. They'll be modest with us. Oh yeah, totally, he's
my guy, John Ewing. Yeah, I'm always like Bill, thanks buddy,
great man. Well, it's worthpointing out that I have two hundred
and seventy five Twitter followers. Ohnice, So it's you know you're getting
(34:22):
you're gonna get you can. Iam one of yours, John, but
I don't believe you're one of mine, Evan. I don't think I follow
you, Evan. So you're gonnabe two seventy six after this, all
right. My Twitter posts are severalpictures of me with one or both of
my kids or my wife trying toget on like the jumbo tron at the
(34:45):
Sixers game or the Union games whereyou got to like tag them on Twitter.
That is a material part of myTwitter feed. Yeah, that is
great, John, fantastic stuff,Evan. Any final questions for John Ewings,
Sir before we get out of hereon episode one Behind the Big Yeah,
John, I just wanted to,uh to to ask you how you're
(35:07):
doing with the Rams having left forLos Angeles and if that's uh, you
know, but if that's a sorespot or if we're past that, we're
ending on that note. No,No, it actually worked out pretty well
for me because they broke up withme. You know, I was sad,
(35:28):
but then I found this new hotgirl named Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs
and I just slid right on overinto this Super Bowl run that's been going
on. So No, it hasnot been painful at all. It's been
all right. We're gonna edit outthe last question ask you for really good
last question. So, so,John, here's my last question for you.
(35:49):
If I've got two hundred and seventyfive Twitter followers and you're about to
be to seventy six, how dohow do I at least get to crack
the three hundred mark? If youwant to uh get attention on social media,
you know, you can either befunny or have interesting data to share
that others don't, or you canbe quick to respond to you know,
(36:13):
accounts with large following. So anduse one of those previous two of being
funny or share information preferbly a comboof both, which I try my best,
not always uh too great results,but you know, slowly but steadily
if you reply to people, ifyou again can share a funny meme or
(36:34):
have an interesting insight, you'll you'llgrow your followers. And and one more
for you, what for for anyonethat's listening to this that's not a bet
MGM customer, what what do youtell people? Why is bet mgm the
place that that people should be lookingto add as a sports book account and
uh and a place where they shouldbe placed in their bets. Yeah,
(36:55):
just simply giving you access to allthe markets and across sports betting and I
gaming that you could possibly want.Great app, great customer service and again
all the markets that you want towager on. Come do that at betem
(37:15):
jam Hey and the I gaming bigfans of Katie Cooler. She's tremendous local
gal representing the Philadelphia side of thingsfor better. Don't tell me, I
know, I have to hear itall the time. That tremendous job and
all things ie gaming and John greatWay first of all, evan great last
(37:36):
question on that one right when thatone down for future guests, because I
thought that was great and how youcan really improve your social media following and
no better person to ask than JohnEwing once again, folks be sure to
follow him. Uh, it's oneof my co hosts. At the time.
John did say John Ewing, isit John E Wing n It's all
one word and that's e W IN G once again representing the squad over
(38:00):
at BETMGM does a fantastic job.He is the PR Manager of Media Insights
once again at BETMGM. John EWINGKcan't thank you enough for a couple of
minutes today, sir, continued successand we'll catch up down the road.
Man, I really appreciate you guyshaving me on. It was a lot
of fun and go Phillies. Allright. That was a great conversation.
(38:21):
Of course with John Ewing you hearda lot hopefully you learned a little bit
as well. And what we're goingto do and this is episode one here
we're going to do it moving forward. But this is the post pod recap,
kind of like a post game show. Evan. I've done a few
of those, and I look,I like to keep it loose. What
did you learn? What did youlike? I'll tell you straight up meant
everything I said to him. Ijust want to be honest about that,
(38:44):
Like I wasn't buttering it up.He is tremendous on the content side,
the numbers, the information he putsout there, and you know, it
was it felt like it was comingfrom an honest place. I know a
lot of people look at some ofthose numbers and they're like, eh,
they have sportsbooks really giving us theright numbers. As you just heard,
they are right, Like there's toomuch that goes into doing it the right
(39:05):
way. Versus what do you haveto gain by putting out false numbers and
so on and so forth. AndJohn is there. He's on his timeline
all day, every day. Helives it. He eats, sleeps,
in, drinks, sports, asyou said, which I you know,
one thing I learned to Evan isyou hear about certain people that are in
these positions and oh you know,I don't care how those games play.
(39:25):
No, John is clearly the difference. Like he has to watch, he
is invested. He can't he can'twait to sit down to catch the home
run derby, to catch you know, a NFL game or a Major League
Baseball game. So I just lovedthe way that he was very transparent,
honest, and really good at hisjob. Yeah, I think totally like
an authenticity there, right, Imean you can you can sense the passion
(39:47):
and you understand how he got howhe got to where he is now with
you know, I don't know moreTwitter followers than you, Sean, Right,
that blows me out of the water. Blows a lot of people out
of the water. No, I'mjust kidding, but no, it's it's
it's amazing. And I thought itwas fascinating when he sort of you know,
gave us a peek behind the scenesthat like what what it looks like
inside the building, right when you'vegot these these trading rooms and what they're
(40:13):
doing and how they're doing it,and who's staffing them and sort of this
combination of human judgment and algorithms.You know, it's it's fascinating because I
think, you know, you're herein this audio format, but you're picturing
what he's saying in your mind's eyeand you can almost see what this looks
like. So it's, uh,I really appreciate it sort of being taken
(40:35):
back into into the building and behindthe scenes of the operation, and just
can't thank him enough for being ourfirst guest right here on behind the Vague.
We got a lot of great guestslined up. You're gonna be able
to get a new episode every singleThursday. If you've missed anything, you
can download our podcast at FOXPHL Gamblerdot com. That's FOXPHL Gambler dot com.
(40:58):
And next week we got ourselves sogood one. Yeah, we can't
wait to sit down with Alex Kane. He is the CEO and founder of
Sport Trade and he'll join us onnext week's episode of Behind the Vegue.
This has been Behind the Vegue,an iHeartRadio podcast, available for download at
FOXPHL, Gambler dot com.
You are listening to Behind the Vague, a podcast mini series that takes you
beyond the vets and strategies and moreinto the business of the sports betting industry.
Now Here are your hosts, SeanBrace and Evan Davis. That's right,
you just heard the man. Thisis Behind the Vague, an eight
part mini series podcast. I amone of the co hosts. I am
(00:24):
Sean Brace is always joined by EvanDavis. You'll hear from Evan in just
a second, but allow me togive you a couple notes on who I
am and where I am at rightnow. And currently I am the program
director and afternoon drive host at FoxSports Radio The Gambler in Philadelphia. Now
one of the big things for meto get involved with a project like this.
(00:44):
First of all, Evan and Igo back and we'll talk a little
bit about how we met at aPolice Athletic League softball game being played at
siszens Bank Park and we sat thereand watched Phillies win, had a couple
cold beverages on a beautiful summer night, and look, we struck up a
relationship of friendship. Then here weare now, and we knew that we
could put our brains together, ourbeautiful bald heads together and create a series
(01:07):
that would be, you know what, different than anything that's out there,
and of course a series that you'regoing to learn. And that's the biggest
thing for me. It's like whenI talk about sports gambling Monday through Friday
on the airwaves and the Gambler,I'm talking about the spreads, I'm talking
about injuries, I'm talking about games, I'm talking about odds, future,
so on and so forth, andwe're going to hit on that in this
a part series, and especially withour first guest, John Ewing. But
(01:30):
I know this much, I'm gonnalearn a ton from you, Evan as
the co host. I'm gonna learna ton from these other guests, all
guests that are gonna come on here. There's gonna be news, There's gonna
be nuggets that I will definitely diveinto and hone in on and definitely look
use from here on out. SoI'm excited about that. I'm excited about
this opportunity behind the big Nobody's doinganything like this, So really looking forward
(01:53):
to these next couple episodes. Evan, I am too, Sean, and
thanks for doing this with me.I'm so excited to co hosting this with
you. So I'm Evan Davis.I lead the Gaming in Sports practice at
Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld, a lawfirm with offices in Pennsylvania and New York.
But for the last ten years orso, I've worked for a couple
(02:15):
of companies within the gaming and sportsbetting industries, Rivers Casino in Philadelphia and
Pen National Gaming now Pen Entertainment.I like to think of myself as as
a lawyer, but kind of afun lawyer, right because the type of
work that I get to do andthe type of companies that I get to
work with, And to be honest, some of my favorite conversations with either
(02:38):
clients or potential clients are with youknow, people that are really innovating and
doing some cool stuff within the sportsbetting industry, and I've been really privileged
to work with a variety of thosecompanies over the years. We all know
some of the bigger operators, butthere are some smaller operators out there.
There are a ton of companies thatare starting up with ideas for whether it's
(03:04):
partnerships in the space or marketing withinthe space, data science, all kinds
of cool, different stuff, companiesthat sort of the general public at large
hasn't really heard of. They're notbrand names, they're not household names,
and some of them really should be. And so for me, what I'm
most excited about is getting a chanceto highlight some of those companies and then
(03:27):
also dive in behind the scenes ofwhat goes on, you know, behind
the scenes with the operators, howdo they make their businesses work, what's
going on that people don't necessarily knowabout, and give folks a little bit
more insight into that as we gothrough this series. So couldn't be more
excited. We've got a great firstguest and can't wait to get started.
(03:50):
Excellent, So without further ado,let's get to Episode one behind the Vegue
and joining us John Ewing, Dataand pr Over at betmg off and running
Episode one behind the Vague Ladies andgentlemen. As you just heard myself,
Sean Brace and Evan Davis ready togo here and wow, we packed the
punch with our first guest, andI mean this in front of me.
(04:14):
Evan, I have the bio that, of course we chop up and type
out and have it ready to gofor our guests. But I just got
to speak from the heart on thisone. As a guy who has been
in this content space even before thesports gambling stuff, being in radio creating
content, you know what sticks outand what's good on the timeline, right,
and you continue to come back tothose people. And then of course
(04:36):
the sports gambling space is growing andgrowing over the years. But our next
guest is absolutely one of the firstthat I go to every day when I
wake up to get ready for mythree to six show on Fox Sports to
Gambler. Allow us to introduce representthe folks over at BETMGM. Now I'll
get into his bio here, JohnEwing, the PR Manager of Media in
(05:00):
Sites at bet MGM. He hasan over a decade of experience in sports
betting and gaming, working on bothsides of the counter. Really looking forward
to our conversation here, John,thank you for a couple of minutes today.
How we doing, man, I'mdoing awesome. Thanks so much for
having me on. Absolutely Now,look I mean that when I say that,
like I come to your timeline first. Now you have over eighty five
(05:23):
thousand followers. I mean, Iknow you don't notice me, but who
do you notice? Who's the mostfamous follower that you have right now on
social media that looks at John Ewing'sinfo every day that they get up ready
to cash and winning plays. Oh, I mean, one of my favorite
is just Bill Simmons. Oh.I been a big fan of his work,
(05:46):
his podcast back in the day whenhe used to write. So having
Bill as a follower and sometimes interactingwith him as one of the you know,
great career highlights understood and definitely oneof the great basketball minds out there.
And look, he's one of thosedudes that you don't always have to
agree with, but you have atake on his opinion and that tells you
(06:08):
all you need to know about hisinfluence, especially in the game of basketball.
We don't want to talk about Bostonthough, like we'll skip we'll skip
Boston for now. Evan, allowme to fire one immediately right back to
John here and John, we aregoing to open up each podcast here,
our mini series podcast behind the Vague. And it's not polite to ask anybody
(06:31):
their age, So with that,I wanted to ask a simple question,
is tell us one of your favoritechildhood sporting memories and then we can gauge
around about ball park where you're atokay, Yeah, tell me how old
I am with this one. Let'ssee the home run chase of nineteen ninety
eight. I'm from Missouri, soMark McGuire, the Cardinal, Sammy Sosa,
(06:54):
all the dingers, you know,back before we knew about the steroid
that was going on behind the scenes. But the home run chase, for
sure is one of my favorite memoriesgrowing up and true story here one of
my first wagers in my life.I graduated high school in nineteen ninety nine.
I bet Greg Lebinski that Sammy Sosawould win that competition. I lost
(07:16):
twenty five dollars, one of myfirst sports gambling wagers ever. Ho home
figured it was a loss. It'sall been uphill from there, right exactly
exactly, John. Let's let's getright into it. Man, how long
you've been at BETMGM. How'd youget to bet MGM. Let's start there.
Uh yeah, So it's been befouryears in the fall, been four
(07:40):
great years before that. I wasin the content game myself, working at
a number of different websites Predictionmachine,dot Com, Sports Insights, bet Labs,
most recently Action Network, so primarilyfocusing on writing content you know,
with a look at sports betting,what was happening that day? What can
(08:03):
you know people bet on? Andhere's some data trends insights so that you
can place a wager. So tellJohn, tell you what what is betmgm
because I think the world sort ofassumes that betmgm is MGM's you know,
online arm, but that's literally kindof only half true. Yeah. So
(08:28):
betmgm is a partnership between MGM ResortsInternational and Intain Holdings, which is a
European based company. Uh And theway it works is that the two got
together, uh MGM offering the accessto the American market, Intained providing the
technology. So the app is builton in Tain's data and tech and it's
(08:54):
been a great marriage for both sidesas bet mgm continues to grow and be
a leader in sports. And Iwant to follow up John and talk a
little bit about the Action Network.And I feel like those guys and girls
were there, you know, wheneverything started to change and really have held
on to it. What's the strengthif you wouldn't mind talking about your your
(09:16):
previous place of employment, what istheir strength? And and they're still you
know, staying power right here rightnow one of the leaders in our industry,
the sports gamling space. Yeah,when I was at Action you know,
I think what they did great wasjust offering constant information and insights into
(09:37):
what was happening every single day.So did it matter the sport. You
could find a writer or a bettingexpert that could give you, you know,
a lean one way or the other. Because at the end of the
day, right, it's all forentertainment purposes, and what makes it more
fun if you have a little somethingon a game and maybe you you are
(10:00):
just a casual fan, so youdon't have time to do all the work,
so you know, let someone elsemaybe put in the effort and you
can get a tip and maybe youdecide if you want to wager with them
or not. Now, a coupleof years ago, the Action Network was
bought right by a Danish company calledBetter Collective and again not necessarily a household
(10:24):
name in these parts, but tellus, you know what is Better Collective,
and you know the the amount thatthey paid for the Action Network is
eye popping, right, and it'sand I think it's a testament to the
company that you guys were able tobuild over there. Yeah, that acquisition
(10:45):
actually happened after I had left ActionNetwork, but yes, so, I
mean, just to go back further, the Action Network actually purchased Sports Insights
and bet Labs where I was working, and they put together a number of
different companies, including like Fantasy Labsas a way to you know, offer
(11:07):
a one stop shop for sports bettingand fantasy and a little bit of everything.
And then after a few years theyyeah, you're correct, they were
purchased then by Better Collective. Sothey did quite well for themselves. To
tell us what is Better Collective?Like, why, what is it?
And why did they want to purchasethe Action Network for two hundred and forty
(11:33):
million dollars. That's a question you'regoing to have to ask Chad Millman and
the team at Action Network. Ican't really speak to what Better Collective was
their reasoning for purchasing them, butI assume it was to have access to,
you know, a great media companyand content excellent John. As far
(11:54):
as look you over a decade inthis space right here right now, you
know, we've a ton of changes. Is there one that sticks out the
most to you? From going fromthe Action Network in your previous places to
where you're at right now with betMGM. One change, and it doesn't
necessarily have to be something as macroas all these states legalizing and we're still
(12:16):
haven't had the Big three with California, Texas, and Florida, although who
knows what's going to happen eventually inFlorida twenty fifty one maybe, But one
big change that's really caught your attentionover the last decade or so being in
this space, I would say theofferings that are available every day across sports.
You know, you think super Bowland you think props, right,
(12:39):
and you could bet on anything,you know, from the coin flip to
gatorade bath to a third string runningback how many yards they're going to have,
And that was what made the SuperBowl special. But there was such
a strong demand for that those typesof markets from customers that has now spread
(13:01):
to every sport and so having optionsto wager not just on the spread,
total and money line, but gettingto wager on point props and rebounds and
including those in parlays. Again,it's all a reflection of what the demand
is from fans and from customers.So so take us through that, right,
(13:22):
I mean bet MGM says, hey, we've got you know, the
w NBA season launching, and there'sa ton of interest going on, and
we want to come up with aprop bet on Caitlin Clark. How does
that work? How do you figureout, like how to set the the
(13:46):
odds on these props? How doyou figure out like should we be moving
them one way or the other?I mean, this is right every everyone.
All that we see on the userside is here's a here's a pro
and it's you know, minus onetwelve, minus one fifteen on either side.
But there's a lot that took placeto get it there. Yeah,
(14:09):
So in general, you know,props can be set based on some historical
data, right, how has aplayer performed recently, how they performed in
certain matchups. With rookies, that'sa little bit more difficult, you know,
because they're coming into a new league. But our trading team does have
(14:31):
models that project out player performance andthen of course you post a number and
the market can tell you pretty quicklyif they think it's right or wrong,
and then you adjust based on theaction that you received. So who's this
trading team that you're talking about?Is this like just there's a bunch of
math guys that are sitting in abank of computers and you know, crunching
(14:56):
numbers, like because there they wereday traders by day and sports traders by
night. How does this work?Uh, well, it is a mix
of background but for the most part, one it's a bunch of people that
just love sports. Uh. Youknow that that is the first qualifier to
be on the trading team. Youyou got to have a passion for it.
(15:16):
You got to have a deep knowledgeof the sport that you're gonna trade.
Uh. But then yeah, youhave a lot of backgrounds include finance
or you know, trading outside ofsports, but they primarily Yeah, they
are sitting in front of just abank of computer, screens of TVs with
(15:37):
games on, and they're just grindingout these matchups. It's funny. We
were just talking about offerings and rightnow, the one big story that you're
seeing across uh, you know,everything on the timeline is the car jiu
jitsu in New Jersey? Like,how does that? First of all,
we'll bet MGM be taking any wagerson that in the state of New Jersey.
(16:00):
Number one and number two is howcan I wager on car jiu jitsu.
Yet in the state of Pennsylvania.There are things do on the NFL
Draft that I can't play on.There are you know, certain wagers from
state to state that are available forSuper Bowl. It's just crazy to me
that something like that could be allowedin the state of New Jersey. Yeah.
(16:21):
Here, I am over here inPhiladelphia. Literally a hop, skip
and jump from the Ben Franklin orthe Ben Franklin Parkway across the bridge and
I can get into the state ofNew Jersey. How the heck is car
jiu jitsu going to be available nowat some markets. That was just a
conversation we had yesterday with the tradingteam when we saw the news that it
got. You know, if itgets regulated, the trading team can offer
(16:45):
odds. So it's not really achoice from the book standpoint. Regulators in
each state are going to have toapprove it, and if it's approved,
then the trading team can can postodds. But the conversation was around,
you know what spot in the caris the best driver backseat, back,
you know, passenger side, andpeople arguing where they would want to sit.
(17:08):
So it should be interesting, uh, if, if, and when
it all gets uh approved by regulators. So what I'm gathering here is that
if if you want to be ableto find a job where you can go
to a car jiu jitsu match andsubmit an expense report for all of that,
(17:30):
it's being a bet MGM trader.And uh that I like, right,
I mean, there are a wholelot of jobs in the world where
you can pull that off. Butit sounds like interesting, interesting expense reports
coming through for you know, industryresearch. Got to check it out.
(17:51):
Absolutely. I want to follow upwith you, John, and and like
I said, you are on you'rea little bit of everything right with the
contents, and you built up thisfollowing like you can't just let that go
now and be I don't think so. Even this is one man's take here,
but you know you've built up sucha following an audience that you have
to give it to the people nowand right, whether you're behind the scenes
(18:14):
or not for BETMGM or moving forward. You know, I would imagine that
that's going to be something that's importantto you for you and your brand.
What's your day to day like,what's your daily routine? Let me just
ask that you know it definitely,like I said, there's eighty five thousand
people following you for a reason.I go to you for a reason.
I go to you because I knowI'm getting the best nuggets out there,
(18:34):
the best odds, the best information, and whether it is BETMGM. You
do mix it up from time totime, not saying you plug other books,
but you are tweeting about other thingsthat are happening around the sports gambling
space. What's your daily routine whenit comes to that, how many you
know? Like, is there aday that you can miss Major League Baseball
(18:55):
the night before to get out ofthe house for a little bit. It
seems like you have to be marriedto your timeline because how good you are
really, I think the first andforemost, it doesn't feel like a job
to me. Honestly, I wouldbe doing this if I wasn't getting paid,
right. I love sports. Ilove I watch all the games any
you know, I watch all NBAfinals, the Stanley Cup. It's not
(19:18):
difficult for me to make time forthese events. And then as far as
you know, social media, yeah, you know, sometimes you can actually
get sucked into that a little toomuch. I think we're probably all guilty
of it, being you know,too screening it watching a game having your
phone in your hand at the sametime. But again, I think it's
a lot of fun, so itnever feels like work to me. But
(19:41):
from a day to day perspective,I mean, primarily my focus is on
sharing betting information from bet MGM toall of our media contexts so that they
can talk about us and promote thebook organically. So what do you think
is the most interesting stuff that youguys put out there? Like what I
(20:03):
mean, because we see different sportsbooks take some different approaches to this,
you know, the most bet ongames, the most lopsided action. What
what are people interested in? Andand I guess it's two questions, what
are people interested in? But alsowhat, if anything, do you think
(20:25):
maybe people should be more interested inthat they don't seem to be. Something
that kind of makes my job easyis that people love everything they want to
They just want more information about sportsand about sports betting. But what we
really see pop, you know,is being timely and relevant. So an
(20:48):
injury happens right unfortunately, or aplayer gets traded, what does that mean
for the team that's getting them orthe team that traded them? How does
it impact division a conference? Youknow, championship odds, so that really
moves fast when you share out informationlike that in the content world on social
(21:10):
media, et cetera. Of course, fans love hearing about big bets,
right, somebody has half a milliondollars on a on a game, it's
like wow, can you imagine?Or you know, someone bet a dollar
and won twenty grand on a parla. So you know, just aspects of
(21:30):
the game that make it more entertaining. Everybody wants those lottery tickets. That's
what it comes. You know,it's you get those scratch offs. You
know, they've been selling them thoseout of the gas station forever now and
then now you know, like yousaid, you're gonna go sit down and
it's a Tuesday Nai. Not somuch the Phillies because they're in first place.
Hohume. Sorry, I know youguys have beened baseball out there in
(21:52):
Saint Louis, but just saying that, you know, say it's the in
the Guardians versus the Troit Tigers,and it's Sunday night baseball on ESPN.
Yeah, sure, I'll throw alittle same game parlay action on it.
You know, have a little funwith it. Not trying to create you
know, lifetime financial success here offof one ticket. The bottom line is
(22:14):
get a little scratch in the gameand it's fun. It adds looks extra
flavor to it. So I'm rightthere with you on that one. Speaking
of your Phillies, I mean,they've been hot. They've been They're almost
one of the most bet usually themost bet team every day Harper for Forber,
always most popular home run bets too. So you know, teams that
(22:34):
do well attract a lot of attention, especially ones in big markets like the
Phillies, and we see that supportat the sportsbook on a daily basis.
Would you say, let me followup on that, would you say,
John, And you know your experiencefrom Stucky from Action Network the Year of
(22:56):
the Chalk twenty twenty four, itjust seems like every favorite is cash and
in continually to see that with theBoston Celtics here. So would you say
that you see a lopsided amount ofaction on the favorites more so than anybody
else as far as BETTMGM is concerned. I mean, typically favorites and overs
are the most popular bet, right, because a favor is typically the team
(23:18):
that's doing really well at that timeor is a very popular team in general,
you know, thinking basketball like Lebronright, always a favor always on
a good team, and always veryheavily supported by betters and overs. It's
as simple as it's usually more funto root for points than to cheer against,
(23:41):
you know, scoring. So thoseis what that ore two bets that
we see most often. And you'reright, we have seen a lot of
favorites win. Most recently, hearthe Celtics in the NBA Finals. But
that actually wasn't a terrible outcome forus because there was a lot of action
on some underdog teams like the Timberwolves. Okay, see the Mavericks, a
(24:06):
lot of betters thoughts. You know, one of these teams was gonna make
a run out of the West.But the Celtics were so good, which
I know everyone, I feel likeno one wants to hear that. Trust
me. I don't like talking aboutit either. Austin's hurt my heart too
many times. So so take methrough what happens when you know we're in
the conference semifinals and you know,the the Timberwolves wing to go up in
(24:33):
the series, Like what happened?The training team get together and sort of
say, okay, we think weneed to take their odds now down you
know, fifty points or how isit that you guys are adjusting? Is
it you're looking at okay, whatdo we think we need to do?
Or are you just looking at thebets that come in and reacting accordingly.
(24:57):
So the baseline is based off ofa model that we have of what,
okay, so hey, Celtics wonthe East, MAVs the West. What
is our projection on who's going towin this series in the finals? Here's
what we think the odds should bebased on, you know, our numbers,
and then the trading team might adjustthem, you know, once they
(25:18):
have a conversation about they don't justpost a number because a model told them
to. They they can make someyou know, hand adjustments. And then
again, we set that out thereand the market tells us if we're right
or wrong, and you adjust theodds based on the action that comes in.
And then how about like, butyou can't do that for live bets,
(25:40):
right, I mean, you knowyou guys are offering like what's going
to happen in this at bad?I mean, so are people just sitting
around watching the game and saying,all right, well, Bryce Harper's coming
up, and if there's a guyon, this is the likelihood he gets
a hit versus if there's not,or is it do you have to rely
(26:02):
more on computers and algorithms for thatkind of stuff? You're right. For
live betting, we rely on themodels, and we purchased a company called
Angstrom and they specialize in modeling andbeing able to for these live you know,
live betting has just exploded in popularitybecause again it's just everyone's watching the
(26:23):
game, everyone has their phone intheir hand, and as you're watching,
it's like, oh, I thinkthis can happen or that could happen,
and offering these markets have become verypopular. And so the question that a
lot of people ask, right iswhen we're watching things on TV, there's
a delay. Things are going onin the stadium and it takes a couple
(26:45):
seconds to go out over the airwavesand make sure nobody's said a bad word.
So the TV networks can you know, write broadcast what's going on?
So how does this work? Imean, because something's happening, you know,
in Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia,but you're sitting watching on TV in
Saint Louis and you don't know aboutit for a couple seconds until after it
(27:06):
happens. So is there a processthat lets these odds sort of updating real
time? Yeah, we get datafrom official league providers, so the sportsbook
does have information before it's being aired. That's how they're able to offer odds
on the next play because there is, as you said, there's a slight
(27:29):
delay on what you see, youknow on TV when you're watching, So
you got like a direct pipeline rightinto what's going on in Citizens Bank Park
and the second it happened, somebody'ssitting a button and it's updating, it's
getting sent over to your computers,and so your your computers are finding out
(27:49):
about it a couple of seconds beforemy eyes are when I'm watching them on
television. Yes, let me askyou from let me follow up on that,
John, the leagues right, howinvolved in your mind like Major League
Baseball with that, because it justseems like it would go hand in hand
for Major League Baseball to understand thatthe element of live wagering has been you
(28:14):
know, rising and rising, andof course a lot of people are doing
it more and more, so itwould be more of a reason to have
somebody in there that is, youknow, keeping it on the up and
up, keeping it fast paced,keeping everything staying refreshed. How involved are
the leagues in your mind when itcomes to certain things like that from the
live wagering element, there's not ayou know, the leagues in the sportsbook
(28:40):
have a partnership, but there's nodirect like the leagues are trying to influence
what markets the sportsbooks offer or anythinglike that. Sports naturally set themselves up
where live betting is possible when youjust think their stoppage during the games,
(29:00):
right every half inning, players arechanging on and off the field, So
that's plenty of time to offer somekind of wagering market there, or you
have you know NFL, you're watchinga game, there's a timeout every other
minute, it seems like, soagain there's there's a lot of breaks just
naturally in the game that lend themselvesto live betting. Yeah, I probably
(29:21):
should have been a little bit morecareful. They're with my words. It
definitely didn't mean from the standpoint ofthe league's being involved from that, but
it just it feels like everything likeyou're logged in and you're seeing these at
bats, and like you said,lack of a better better example, we
got Bryce Harper and then j tRumuto following him, and they got both
of those up there and they're onit, and it's just I think,
(29:45):
you know, a question that Iget all the time is, you know,
number one is what does that backroom look like? Of course you
can't answer that question for us,But number two is, you know,
is there somebody specific to betem GMat every one of these stadiums? Is
there someone that us with all ofthese sports books in general, or is
there one you know, does betMGM do live betting better than other sports
(30:07):
books? So on and so andso forth. I think that's a question
that I get a lot is fromthe live wagering standpoint, how are they
able to keep up with pitch afterpitch? I know you just said the
breaks, which is definitely real,but for something like baseball, and especially
with the pitch clock, it seemslike it's just moving faster than ever.
Yeah. So again, the tradingroom is literally just TVs and monitors everywhere,
(30:32):
and you know, just a bunchof desks where the traders can watch
the screens and monitor the action.That's coming in and but no, BETMGM
does not have employees at every gameall again, it's all data that's just
relayed through official league partners. Andthat's where for the live betting, you're
(30:55):
relying more on the models, soyou know data is instantly sent over model
updates. And again, like forbaseball, you know what the lineup is
going to be, so and youknow what markets you're going to offer,
you know, a hit, awalk. What's the outcome of this at
back going to be right? Soyou have a set number of outcomes,
you have a set lineup that allhelps again make the process smoother. Have
(31:21):
you thought it all about bull purposingthe trading room as a sports bar,
because this sounds like it might beone of the cooler experiences, right,
is like here's a room filled withlike math guys, computers and televisions and
analyzing sports. And I'm thinking,like, you know, you get a
(31:42):
couple like fancy IPAs on tab andthat's a that's an interesting happy hour.
The bet MGM office is the wayit's set up is the trading room is
on one side. It's an allglass windows, so if you could stand
out there and just kind of watchthem work if you want. But across
from that is kind of a sportsbar setup with multiple TVs, an area
(32:08):
where it's technically supposed to be likea dining area, but there after you
know, five o'clock, we sometimeshave happy hours in there and it becomes
a little sports bar. Forgive me, John, where's the where's the bet
MGM located at? Where you guyslocated at Jersey? That's good, Not
because I'm gonna show up there.You apply it. That's funny, that's
(32:30):
funny. That's funny, Kevin.You had something I mean to cut you
off there? No, I wasgetting Yeah, gotcha, hey, John?
One more from me from the standpointof over to you and and everything
you've been able to do, fromthe social and and what you continue to
do combining everything representing the squad overat bet MGM. What's what's a win
(32:52):
for you? You know? Doyou you classify certain posts as wins,
days, as winds, meetings aswins? What's a win you? Yeah?
Again? My goal is to generateearn media for bet MGM, which
is just simply means getting other peopleto talk about us for free. And
I do that by sharing out bettinginformation with the media who then turn around
(33:16):
write articles, create podcasts, orshare it on social media. So if
if I share something and it justyou know, you see it everywhere,
that's that's a win. And ifI share it and you see it populate
across the social channels right away,you know it was you know, it
(33:36):
was something that was on top ofeveryone's mind and that's really relevant to fans
and betters. And we'll hang abanner when Bill Simmons throws it in an
article over there at the ring orcorrect, that's that's definitely a win me
personally. Yeah, when Bill mentionsme on his podcast, which happens,
you know, a few times ayear, that's that's always a win.
So you're cruising down the road,you're listening to the latest podcasts and all
(33:59):
this sudden he throws out John Ewing'sname, and that's gotta be really cool,
man. They'll be modest with us. Oh yeah, totally, he's
my guy, John Ewing. Yeah, I'm always like Bill, thanks buddy,
great man. Well, it's worthpointing out that I have two hundred
and seventy five Twitter followers. Ohnice, So it's you know you're getting
(34:22):
you're gonna get you can. Iam one of yours, John, but
I don't believe you're one of mine, Evan. I don't think I follow
you, Evan. So you're gonnabe two seventy six after this, all
right. My Twitter posts are severalpictures of me with one or both of
my kids or my wife trying toget on like the jumbo tron at the
(34:45):
Sixers game or the Union games whereyou got to like tag them on Twitter.
That is a material part of myTwitter feed. Yeah, that is
great, John, fantastic stuff,Evan. Any final questions for John Ewings,
Sir before we get out of hereon episode one Behind the Big Yeah,
John, I just wanted to,uh to to ask you how you're
(35:07):
doing with the Rams having left forLos Angeles and if that's uh, you
know, but if that's a sorespot or if we're past that, we're
ending on that note. No,No, it actually worked out pretty well
for me because they broke up withme. You know, I was sad,
(35:28):
but then I found this new hotgirl named Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs
and I just slid right on overinto this Super Bowl run that's been going
on. So No, it hasnot been painful at all. It's been
all right. We're gonna edit outthe last question ask you for really good
last question. So, so,John, here's my last question for you.
(35:49):
If I've got two hundred and seventyfive Twitter followers and you're about to
be to seventy six, how dohow do I at least get to crack
the three hundred mark? If youwant to uh get attention on social media,
you know, you can either befunny or have interesting data to share
that others don't, or you canbe quick to respond to you know,
(36:13):
accounts with large following. So anduse one of those previous two of being
funny or share information preferbly a comboof both, which I try my best,
not always uh too great results,but you know, slowly but steadily
if you reply to people, ifyou again can share a funny meme or
(36:34):
have an interesting insight, you'll you'llgrow your followers. And and one more
for you, what for for anyonethat's listening to this that's not a bet
MGM customer, what what do youtell people? Why is bet mgm the
place that that people should be lookingto add as a sports book account and
uh and a place where they shouldbe placed in their bets. Yeah,
(36:55):
just simply giving you access to allthe markets and across sports betting and I
gaming that you could possibly want.Great app, great customer service and again
all the markets that you want towager on. Come do that at betem
(37:15):
jam Hey and the I gaming bigfans of Katie Cooler. She's tremendous local
gal representing the Philadelphia side of thingsfor better. Don't tell me, I
know, I have to hear itall the time. That tremendous job and
all things ie gaming and John greatWay first of all, evan great last
(37:36):
question on that one right when thatone down for future guests, because I
thought that was great and how youcan really improve your social media following and
no better person to ask than JohnEwing once again, folks be sure to
follow him. Uh, it's oneof my co hosts. At the time.
John did say John Ewing, isit John E Wing n It's all
one word and that's e W IN G once again representing the squad over
(38:00):
at BETMGM does a fantastic job.He is the PR Manager of Media Insights
once again at BETMGM. John EWINGKcan't thank you enough for a couple of
minutes today, sir, continued successand we'll catch up down the road.
Man, I really appreciate you guyshaving me on. It was a lot
of fun and go Phillies. Allright. That was a great conversation.
(38:21):
Of course with John Ewing you hearda lot hopefully you learned a little bit
as well. And what we're goingto do and this is episode one here
we're going to do it moving forward. But this is the post pod recap,
kind of like a post game show. Evan. I've done a few
of those, and I look,I like to keep it loose. What
did you learn? What did youlike? I'll tell you straight up meant
everything I said to him. Ijust want to be honest about that,
(38:44):
Like I wasn't buttering it up.He is tremendous on the content side,
the numbers, the information he putsout there, and you know, it
was it felt like it was comingfrom an honest place. I know a
lot of people look at some ofthose numbers and they're like, eh,
they have sportsbooks really giving us theright numbers. As you just heard,
they are right, Like there's toomuch that goes into doing it the right
(39:05):
way. Versus what do you haveto gain by putting out false numbers and
so on and so forth. AndJohn is there. He's on his timeline
all day, every day. Helives it. He eats, sleeps,
in, drinks, sports, asyou said, which I you know,
one thing I learned to Evan isyou hear about certain people that are in
these positions and oh you know,I don't care how those games play.
(39:25):
No, John is clearly the difference. Like he has to watch, he
is invested. He can't he can'twait to sit down to catch the home
run derby, to catch you know, a NFL game or a Major League
Baseball game. So I just lovedthe way that he was very transparent,
honest, and really good at hisjob. Yeah, I think totally like
an authenticity there, right, Imean you can you can sense the passion
(39:47):
and you understand how he got howhe got to where he is now with
you know, I don't know moreTwitter followers than you, Sean, Right,
that blows me out of the water. Blows a lot of people out
of the water. No, I'mjust kidding, but no, it's it's
it's amazing. And I thought itwas fascinating when he sort of you know,
gave us a peek behind the scenesthat like what what it looks like
inside the building, right when you'vegot these these trading rooms and what they're
(40:13):
doing and how they're doing it,and who's staffing them and sort of this
combination of human judgment and algorithms.You know, it's it's fascinating because I
think, you know, you're herein this audio format, but you're picturing
what he's saying in your mind's eyeand you can almost see what this looks
like. So it's, uh,I really appreciate it sort of being taken
(40:35):
back into into the building and behindthe scenes of the operation, and just
can't thank him enough for being ourfirst guest right here on behind the Vague.
We got a lot of great guestslined up. You're gonna be able
to get a new episode every singleThursday. If you've missed anything, you
can download our podcast at FOXPHL Gamblerdot com. That's FOXPHL Gambler dot com.
(40:58):
And next week we got ourselves sogood one. Yeah, we can't
wait to sit down with Alex Kane. He is the CEO and founder of
Sport Trade and he'll join us onnext week's episode of Behind the Vegue.
This has been Behind the Vegue,an iHeartRadio podcast, available for download at
FOXPHL, Gambler dot com.
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