Category Archives: Daily Payoff Exclusives

The Truth: A 1985 NBA Draft Lottery Flashback

By TERRY LYONS – follow on Twitter @TerryLyons

NEW YORK – NBA conspiracy theorists everywhere, I’m here to tell you the absolute truth about the 1985 NBA Draft Lottery. Yes, I was there 30 years ago as one of about a dozen people charged with running the event on behalf of the teams of the National Basketball Association.

Yes, we the soldiers at the NBA league office worked diligently on behalf of the teams.  We reported to NBA Commissioner David Stern and we toiled for thousands and thousands of long hours and travelled many miles to represent the NBA and its players to fans and businesses around the world. As with most human beings given a good job with definite goals and responsibilities, we took those jobs very seriously and did our very best on behalf of all the NBA. At times, the job descriptions called for us to enforce the rules our employers had signed into the league’s constitution and by-laws or the NBA rule book. Those were the times that were often most challenging because so many of our employers liked to try and bend the rules to best fit their own small world, their own situation, their own roster or their own rather short-term future. Not surprisingly, some of those people – while willing to hold their hands on a bible – swore they’d never toss a game. Instead, they camouflaged their so-called “tanking” by assembling rosters that would fail team chemistry 101 at any college in the land.


It is important to read between the lines of the words I’m writing because, at no time, do I believe the coaches and players walk out to the court with losing a game as a goal. In fact, I believe the coaches and players of the NBA and pro sports, in general, are the most competitive beings in the universe, right up there with thoroughbred race horses.  In my years at the NBA, players like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Kobe Bryant, and old-schoolers like Bill Russell, Jerry West and Rod Thorn taught me what the words “mental toughness” meant and how it related to competitiveness and winning games. On the flip side, full team rosters and starting lineups without cohesiveness are destined to fail, no matter how mentally tough or competitive any one player might be.


PROBABILITIES

The NBA teams entered in the 2015 NBA Draft Lottery are as follows: The first three picks in the draft will be determined by the lottery and the remainder of the “lottery teams” will select in positions 4 through 14 in inverse order of their consolidated standings at the end of the regular season.

Team
Record
Chances
1st Pick
2nd Pick
3rd Pick
Minnesota
16-66
250
25.00%
21.51%
17.77%
New York
17-65
199
19.90%
18.81%
17.12%
Philadelphia
18-64
156
15.60%
15.74%
15.59%
L.A. Lakers
21-61
119
11.90%
12.60%
13.30%
Orlando
25-57
88
8.80%
9.66%
10.68%
Sacramento
29-53
63
6.30%
7.10%
8.12%
Denver
30-52
43
4.30%
4.94%
5.79%
Detroit
32-50
28
2.80%
3.26%
3.89%
Charlotte
33-49
17
1.70%
2.0%
2.41%
Miami
37-45
11
1.10%
1.30%
1.58%
Indiana
38-44
8
0.80%
0.95%
1.15%
Utah
38-44
7
0.70%
0.83%
1.01%
Phoenix
39-43
6
0.60%
0.71%
0.87%
OK City
45-37
5
0.50%
0.59%
0.73%

 

With that in mind, I give you the lead-up to the 1985 NBA Draft Lottery and, for those not aware of the situation, I’ll provide some background: In 1983 and 1984, the Houston Rockets were amongst the least cohesive and victory challenged teams in the NBA. Under NBA rules in ’83, the Rockets and the Indiana Pacers, as the worst teams in the Western and Eastern conferences of the NBA, participated in a “coin-flip” to determine the first pick of the annual NBA Draft, even though both Chicago and Cleveland had lost more games than Houston that season. The coin-flip was the first legislation to disincentivize teams from losing games on purpose in order to gain a better position in the annual draft and it drew the line of demarkation by conference. Through sheer luck of a “50-50” chance coin-flip, or the luck brought on after Manhattan restauranteur Jimmy Weston bestowed a clock shaped like a map of Ireland upon the Rockets’ staff contingent headed up by the great PR man, Jim Foley, the Rockets won the flip and the right to draft 7-foot-4 college player of the year Ralph Sampson while Indiana was left to select Steve Stipanovich with the second pick of the ’83 NBA Draft.


A year later, a slightly better Rockets team with Sampson and a dysfunctional roster around him were back in the West cellar. This time, with the great Hakeem Olajuwon as the prize, straight out of the University of Houston, none-the-less, the Rockets’ contingent was back at Jimmy Weston’s and the lucky Irish clock was removed from its place on the wall to accompany the Rockets’ group when they ventured to the 15th floor of Olympic Tower to call “heads or tails.” Team owner Charlie Thomas’ daughter, Tracy, had the guts to make the call and only as luck would have it, the coin came up heads and the crew headed back to Houston with the rights to “Dream” tucked into their briefcases. It was an unbelievable thing to witness and, although I was and remain extremely good friends with Foley to this day, I remember feeling quite sorry for Larry Weinberg and the Portland people that May day.


The times moved on and the league quickly adopted its lottery system to be instituted before the 1984-85 season when yet another prized collegian would be the No. 1 choice of the draft, that being Patrick Ewing of Georgetown.


The setting was the Starlight Roof on the 18th floor of the Waldorf-Astoria and the challenge of the event was the fact the NBA and the folks who televised “At the Half” for CBS Sports were contractually bound to wait until the wee hours of the morning of June 18, 1985 to load-in, then build-out the set and properly place cameras and equipment. While the conspiracy theorists, still somewhat ignoring the unbelievable luck incurred by the Rockets, conjured up the ridiculous vision of a “freeze-dried” envelope, the truth of the matter was that the people involved were deeply focused on the physical aspects of installing the set, cabling television cameras up 18 floors and getting a clear broadcast signal from trucks parked on the Eastside of Manhattan to the CBS Broadcast Center of the Westside of the city.


While some people might remember the “lucky horse shoe” from the great Canadien-born pacer “On the Road Again,” brandished by Knicks GM Dave DeBusschere when he took to his spot on the set, I remember flying cross country on a Red-Eye after Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals to join my colleagues in New York to conduct the very first NBA Lottery. I remember watching the calmness of Rick Welts, the head of our group, as he orchestrated the event plans. Rick, by the way, hails from Seattle where he started his career in sports as a ballboy for the Sonics, and he is now running the Golden State Warriors franchise. I remember watching Ed Desser planning the television aspects with set-designer Hugh Rasky and CBS Sports producers, like Bob Mansbach. Ed, by the way, hails from Los Angeles and had worked for the LA Lakers before joining the NBA staff as Director of Broadcasting. I remember assisting the great Brian McIntyre as we credentialed an ungodly number of interested media types from all corners of the USA. McIntyre ran the NBA media operation, just as he runs his life and family, with great honest, dignity and trust. Brian, by the way, hails from the great city of Chicago and cut his teeth in pro sports selling game programs for the Bulls and Black Hawks before the Bulls hierarchy was smart enough to hire him full-time in their small front office.


There were a number of others, all equally dedicated to the job at hand. Some of them grew up in New York but others, like Rob Levine, grew up as a Celtics and Red Sox fans in Sharon, Mass while still others hailed from Oakland, Denver or San Diego. So, while critics of the league office thought there might be a New York bias, the truth was quite the opposite, as the staff took on a decidedly nationalistic demographic as Stern tapped the shoulders of talented workers from different places to help him polish the gem that was the NBA in the early ‘80s. At the time, the NBA was a gem tarnished by years of mismanagement or non-managment, really, but, it was ready to burst-on to the international sports scene in ways never imagined by anyone, once polished and properly positioned to a legion of new fans.



The focus on the day of the 1985 NBA Lottery was actually so very basic, it took on more of a cry of hope to “not screw it up” rather than a form of any planning for after-the-fact. Yes, there were plenty of rehearsals, usually utilizing the team logo cards which were printed to be placed on the respective team table-tops at the draft, staged those years at The Felt Forum, adjacent to Madison Square Garden. The late Jack Joyce, a retired FBI agent who was a confidant of the late Larry O’Brien was in charge of the NBA’s security department and he was charged with spinning the drum on the lottery set, as his assistant, a NYC detective, Horace Balmer, kept a watchful eye on the process.

Levine, who was one of Welts’ top aides, made the suggestion to secure each envelope with a sticky, gold seal he purchased at a local stationary store on Madison Avenue which gave the look of a classy invitation to the otherwise plain envelopes. Levine was the last person to touch the envelopes before they made their way to the stage for all to see Joyce, Mr. Jack Wagner and David Stern conduct the actual event in front of the bright lights. There was no refrigerator. There was no dry ice. There were no bent envelopes or anything else that would have made any of us lose the very high level of credibility we all treasure and value to this day.  And, as Stern has noted on occasion of interrogation from inquiring minds, we were not in the practice of committing a punishable felony of fraud anywhere or anytime, never mind in front of television cameras for all the world to see as we represented the league and worked so hard to enforce its rules and procedures – on and off the court.

Looking back after all the years, I was fortunate enough to witness unbelievable acts of athleticism and, literally hundreds of hotly-contested, high-pressure feats, such as Julius “Dr. J” making his incredible reverse, under-the-basket and off-the-backboard lay-up in the 1980 NBA Finals against the LA Lakers, Michael Jordan’s “spectacular move” driving to the hoop a few years later against those same Lakers. I saw Magic Johnson whipping crisp passes to James Worthy or lobbing them into Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who would sink his patented sky-hook. I even watched Vince Carter jumping over Frederic Weis at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games but, to this day, there were two episodes that really stood out and I truly could not believe that I witnessed during my NBA career.

One was the first time the “Dream Team” took the court at the Basketball Tournament of the Americas and the other was the palpable tension that built up about “two envelopes” into that ’85 Draft Lottery. No one could’ve properly planned or really anticipated the magnitude of either one of those moments in time.  They were just truly incredible moments in sports history.

Now, after 30 years, I have mixed feelings about all that’s been stated about the ’85 event. My reactions to the conspiracy theorists were, in fact, much like Stern’s. My first thoughts were just amazement at their concept and imaginations and an honest hope that someone with that mindset is on the right side of the law. Then, some anger and resentment that so many – more informed people – would call our decency and credibility into question. Then, a return to amusement at the continued sillyness and ridiculousness of the length new media would actually go to continue such a stupid and wrong myth. And, then, a return to anger at the sheer longevity of the accusations. I try not to take it personally, but, deep down it still hurts.

Overall, I was happy to see the league take action steps over the years to instill more sense of fairness for the lottery teams. In 1986, the competition committee influenced the league’s Board of Governors to make adjustments to the system and the NBA decided the lottery would determine the order of selection for the first three picks only. The remaining non-playoff teams would select in inverse order of their regular-season records. Therefore, the team with the worst record would be assured of picking no worse than fourth, the team with the second-worst record no worse than fifth and so on. In 1993, the NBA board approved a modification of the system effective with the 1994 lottery, to again increase the chances of the teams with the worst won-loss records to gain one of the top three picks in the draft while decreasing the chances of the teams with the best records. The new system increased the chances of the team with the worst record drawing the first pick from 16.7 percent to 25 percent, while obviously decreasing the chances of the team with the best record amongst lottery teams. In ’95, the NBA adjusted the lottery with the addition of the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies (now Memphis) franchises and in 2004 the system was adjusted to make room for the return of Charlotte to the NBA and the probabilities set to what they are this week when the NBA stages the lottery in New York City, once again.

All of those adjustments in the rules were intended to balance fairness in the process to re-stock teams in desperate need of talent upgrades against the improper “tanking” of games by the front office personnel of teams seeking to position their franchises for an upcoming draft. To this day, I’m not sure there is a solution that can make it a perfect science, but I do applaud the NBA for consistently tweaking the system over the years and for focusing on the issues while seeking new and possibly better mechanisms to fairly disperse the never-ending talent pool entering the league.

thedailypayoff

THE DP INTERVIEW: Joey Levy, Draftpot, founder & CEO

THE DAILY PAYOFF sat down with Joey Levy CEO & Founder of Draftpot, an innovative daily fantasy platform that offers restricitonless gaming, for a conversation on student entrepreneurs, big data, and of course how Draftpot’s unique approach is disrupting the fantasy space.  You can find Levy on twitter @Draftpot where he welcomes interactions

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The Daily Payoff [TDP]: You’re getting a lot of attention – and its well deserved – you have a proprietary game mode without salary cap restrictions.

Joey Levy [JL]: Yes for sure, but we do have a traditional GM mode which caters to people who want the strategy involved with the salary cap – but our most popular setting is fan mode which does not have restrictions. This allows us to tap into wider demographics and acquire users with little to no fantasy experience and the feedback has been tremendously positive.

TDP: How can we sign up?

JL: The site is https://Draftpot.com the great thing is that you can play instantly without cumbersome signups and logins. We don’t want any restriction from our users being able to enjoy Draftpot. Of course we welcome registrations but at your convenience.

TDP: Did Draftpot come from pure innovation or necessity? A bit of both?

JL: I think its been a combination, I knew there was a need for an alternative platform to offer restriction-free games. I started doing more research into the nature of DFS. I was always a player but when I heavily got into the business I realized how big of an opportunity it could be. It really is the instant gratification of the games that drive the revenue. The space is in its infancy but nevertheless moving. The industry provided its viability but at the same time was early enough to develop a product to differentiate itself. That’s where Draftpot fills the gap.

TDP: data is very closely linked to the fantasy game. Are you working with any data providers or analytics companies?

JL: We work with Sportsdata LLC (subsidiary of Sports Radar). They provide the API calls for all the sports we’re involved in. That’s how we get the data. As far as the web development itself – that’s done in house by the cofounders

TDP: Tell us about the endeavor – founding the company, developing the platform, raising capital – all as a Columbia student.

JL: Its been a challenge dealing with classes while trying to build a business., especially one that requires so much time and effort. That being said we have been able to manage our classes, develop the website, administer it, and improve it constantly. My partner (fellow Columbia University student) directly oversees the web development. We currently have over 2,000 users and have amassed 20K in entry fees. My job is to continue that trajectory. We are constantly coming up with new and innovative ways to market this

TDP: So Draftpot was founded by a fantasy player/college student the result filled a void and introduced fantasy sports to a much larger demographic — given this perspective any other “first of its kind” claims that Draftpot can make?

JL: Sure thing. We have the first user driven chat area where you can talk trash during competitions. This is an element of the game that was taking place offline for years but Draftpot allows that user interaction online. If you go to Fanduel or Draftkings or any other site when you are tracking your contests in real time it really just a list of whose participating and the order – while we provide that information because its necessary – we also have a chat box on that same page where you communicate with those same participants. It can get quite fun – we’ve had tournaments where there has been over 600 people all interacting and talking smack.

TDP: What sports do you currently offer and what’s next?

JL: Of course we offer the major domestic leagues. We will be adding college football and college basketball when those seasons start. We will have PGA up before the US Open, MMA is coming very soon, we are also exploring adding Esports to our platform – we would be the first site to offer both traditional and Esports.

TDP: Any advice for the student entrepreneur?

JL: Defiantly going to require full time commitment. To do it right you can’t do it on the side. To be successfully your venture simply has to be full time. Pursue what you want to pursue but understand what you are getting into and commit accordingly.

TDP: Okay, time to plug Draftpot

JL:We always want more users, so please go to https://Draftpot.com to sign up for an account with promo code “TheDailyPayoff” and get a free $4 coupon to start. To any interested investors: we are raising capital and are wrapping up our seed round now, for more information please reach out to me [email protected]

Timing Is Everything; Brands Berra And Brady Linked Together

Timing Is Everything; Brands Berra And Brady Linked Together

by Joe Favorito @JoeFav

There is a tinge of irony that on the day Tom Brady and the New England Patriots were dealing with the heavy-handed ruling by the NFL, politicians on New Jersey were circulating a petition to have Yogi Berra recognized for The Presidential Medal of Freedom. While many opined about the issue of the Brady brand for the long term (there won’t be much damage if any), the Berra brand, on the Hall of Famer’s 90th birthday, is one to be cherished, and not just for his prolific baseball career. There are very few individuals in the New Jersey lore transcends the era in which they made their mark. Springsteen, Lombardi, Senator Bill Bradley, President Woodrow Wilson, Sinatra would fit the mold. And then there is Yogi.

Yogi Berra’s legacy is as vibrant today as it was when the St.Louis native first arrived in the area to take the first steps as a Hall of Fame catcher with the New York Yankees. The difference today is that Berra legacy is not just about sports or his Italian American heritage or even his larger than life presence in and around Montclair, New Jersey. It is about pride, consistency, leadership and education, a legacy which can now be told year-round to an even larger audience with the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center, hard by the first base line of Yogi Berra Stadium on the campus of Montclair State University.
The Center underwent a $3.2 million renovation in 2011, and houses plenty of things Yogi, and features new video displays and other tidbits to enhance the experience, as well as the stadium shaped auditorium, which hosts more programs dedicated not just to baseball, but to learning experiences for all ages, with programs that focus on sportsmanship and social justice, two traits Berra has always held in high regard on and off the diamond.

But how can Berra’s legacy, built on malapropisms and baseball, withstand such a test of time? The key comes from the man himself, someone who was able to balance a successful business career in the offseason with a legendary career on the field. A man who stood by his principals and rarely bent the rules, and went on to take those same ideals to the front office, leading both the Mets and Yankees to the World Series.

In a time where athletes were not really known for thinking long-term for business, the Yogi brand was seen on Yoo-hoo and Wiffle Balls, even a spot withWiffle Balls, in commercials and card shows, and was never associated with anything that was controversial in nature. It is a brand that stands for loyalty and family, and as the years go on, has incorporated stronger social values and education into the plan as well. All of those factors speak very clearly in a challenged society, and have made the museum and learning center so much more than the precious artifacts it has and the events it holds. It speaks to a larger societal issue of positive values and dedication to community, which is really why the Yogi brand has continued so long. Yes it is about a quirky former ballplayer and the stories he can still tell so well. But more importantly it stands for quality in a world where sometimes quantity is placed on a higher level and the quick win is better than long term success.

That is not to say that leadership in athletics or entertainment is fully compromised today. A legion of leaders both in and away from sport can point to what Berra built as a standard for what they have tied themselves to today, even with all that goes on and the microscope anyone of note is under today. As far as Brady goes, his reputation for the long term will also survive and thrive in all likelihood. However for a lasting brand that has transcended time largely unscathed, one could look to the Yankee legend as a standard-bearer, and one who is deserving of any honor, event from POTUS, more now than ever.

– See more at: http://joefavorito.com/2015/05/12/timing-is-everything-brands-berra-and-brady-linked-together/#sthash.rM2BweM1.dpuf

THE DP Interview: Ted Taylor Sportech PLC

Ted Taylor is the Managing Director of Sportech Venues for Sportech PLC, the world’s largest supplier of sports pools and tote betting in the world with over $13 billion processed annually. Taylor works at a dynamic pace with global implications as Sportech has a presence in over 30 countries. Taylor is responsible for directing and growing the intersection of e-gaming and pool betting with the live venue experience. Recently, we chatted with Taylor on his role, the Football Pools, the space in general, and more.

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The Daily Payoff: Describe your role with Sportech PLC? Most satisfying part?

Ted Taylor: Leading and developing good people and helping those who have potential achieve it. If the share options come through then that might be quite satisfying too!

TDP: What is one big challenge you had to overcome to get where you are career wise? What did you learn from that challenge?

TT: Can’t recall any specific big challenges – there have been a lot but none that stick out so far ahead of the others. However, recognizing my own strengths and weaknesses proved to be a challenge and doing so has definitely helped me. Also, I suppose it was important to learn that others are imperative to make stuff happen.

TDP: For those who may not be familiar with the system – in a few words, what exactly is the Football Pools?

TT: Established in 1923 TFP is a way of creating a pool bet where each customer makes selections on multiple sporting events that take place over a short period of time. The number of different events is what makes the bet so difficult and which is also why it grew exponentially in its early years – winning was hard so the payouts became massive.

Imagine taking 16 NFL games from this weekend and having to guess the result of ALL of them in sequence. Prizes would go to the winner of 16 f 16, 15 f 16, 14 f 16 and possibly 13 f 16. If they all went to form then there would be lots of winners. But if the Jaguars beat Denver in Denver then (because few would spend the $1 to back that) and one or two other outliers occur then noone wins and the pool rolls over. It’s VERY similar to mega millions etc – the difference is that you get to choose your numbers.

TDP: You oversaw the Littlewoods, Zetters, Vernons merger into what we know as the Football Pools today. Why were these companies targeted?

TT: There were three pools companies at the time – as above. Littlewoods was the biggest although all three were gradually declining in the face of massively increased competition from their hey-day – lottery being the main competitor.

We felt that owning all three under the same roof as ‘The Football Pools’ would allow us to retain each brand while still consolidating all the operations and technology under one roof. Just rationalizing three into one and using the synergies to keep each alive for considerably longer than they would have lasted as solo operators. Being able to call ourselves ‘The Football Pools’ meant there wasn’t any doubt about what was going on. Littlewoods was once the worlds biggest gaming company but they’d gradually gone into other areas and then lost a little focus and others had come into the area and eaten their lunch. This meant that, by the time we got involved, Littlewoods wasn’t necessarily regarded by most as a gaming company – many thought we did mail order shopping!

TDP: It’s been nearly 5 years since the reorganization of The Pools – reflecting back, what was done correctly? What could have been improved?

TT: The actual integration of the ‘incoming businesses’ under the Sportech umbrella went very well. We definitely over-achieved on the timescales to integrate their 100 people into our other location whilst minimizing loss of customers. General communication with those from the purchased businesses was vital as, given Vernons was based only 3 miles away, some synergies were required. We did this well and I felt it was important to be the face and voice of the integration – we (my boss and I) had already agreed on the strategy so it meant that I was able to answer questions readily and stick to them. The value in this is that people know they are dealing with the decision maker and, after some initial wariness, be trusted.

What I took learned from the process: Be clear about who is who and how important they are. Gain trust of key employees. Be honest and have forthright communication – I am reasonably good at being honest even if they don’t like me or agree with the message! Also consistency – our team ALL sent out the same message

In hindsight, I could have followed my gut more and did a few things differently. In the great scheme of things, it didn’t hurt that we were all seen as reasonable.

TDP: The Football Pools has been committed to giving back with over £1B donated over the years. From a business development perspective, is this philanthropic element an important factor to Sportech PLC when choosing between potential partners? What has this done for the brand?

TT: Simple answer, the most important aspect is benefiting the individual causes.

TDP: Sportech has operations in over 30 countries. How difficult is it to manage your e-gaming approach given the changes in policy and law per country?

TT: It’s tough enough managing our approach just in America. E Gaming everywhere is a very fluid market everywhere in the world and we have to apply considerable effort and cost to ensure we stay on the right side of things. We are careful not to be seen as overt or to comply with anything a regulator wants. Our experience is that anyone being even slightly disingenuous or cavalier is frowned upon by the regulators around the world – and there are LOTS of them on the case.

TDP: Horse and dog racing seem to be Sportech’s strongest link to the U.S market. Through this you have built bet-processing data centers like in California and entertaining gambling environments like in Connecticut. Talk a little bit about these efforts and any future growth with racing and venues in the U.S?

TT: We are a betting and technology company so we need good quality IT and data centers. This is a pre-requisite for delivering our services our customers, and potential customers. We glean a certain amount of confidence from seeing how professionally they are equipped and managed. Some of this CAN be pure gloss because, even in our relatively highly automated business, the people have to be in the right place at the right time doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing or it can all go wrong.

We are always looking for new opportunities and business development is a huge part of my role. We bought a ‘venues’ business in Connecticut which had declined dramatically through a lack of investment and focus. It needed to be resurrected. This took some time but is now back on an even keel. Now, we are able to use any of our venues as an example of good practice.

We are looking at repeating our success in Conneticut wherever possible – the different regulations in almost every state means it is complicated but we are making great progress in different states right now.

TDP: What are some innovative ways Sportech embraces new media and the digital realm?

TT: It isn’t particularly innovative but we are investing heavily in the platforms that will allow people to play our games on the move. Mobile games and the ability to play them on an iPad/tablet within one of our environments is key.

TDP: What are some industry trends or developments that you are closely following?

TT: Budget deficits mean that many states are looking at ways of getting new revenue or just stopping revenue from disappearing across state borders. It means that there will continue to be changes in the casino market as licenses become more prevalent.

TDP: Are you working on any special project we should know about?

TT: Main special project, at least that I can discuss, is the build out of a big and high-end Sports Bar & Restaurant adjacent to Bradley Airport in Hartford Connecticut. It is a fairly big investment in massive screens, golf simulator, very comfortable, great value, all of which will be in an environment where customers can also bet. It will open before Christmas with more on the way.

We have also realized that combining F&B with betting in an environment where customers can watch multiple sports and bet on those that are legal is a way of getting the next generations to bet.

TDP: What’s the future hold for Sportech PLC and for you?

TT: We are always looking to grow. The future holds further and continued evolution.

TDP: What’s your favorite book, sports business or otherwise?

TT: Right now it is 1491 although that’s a really very odd one. I used to enjoy the Malcolm Gladwell / Michael Lewis type stuff but I am probably over that now. I mix my reading up a lot and have something which is beyond my intellect on one table and a sporting biography on the other.

TDP: Any tips for aspiring sports professionals who may be reading this?

TT: Work REALLY hard – and don’t take drugs. Funny enough I was offered a professional contract when rugby was professionalized in England. However, the amount was so derogatory that I played for free and trained when I wanted to. No BS – although I might have enjoyed saying ‘I was a professional sportsman’.

THE DP INTERVIEW: Tom Masterman VP, Business Development at SportsData US subsidiary of Sportradar

THE DAILY PAYOFF sat down with Tom Masterman VP, Business Development at SportsData US subsidiary of Sportradar for a conversation on big data, analytics, and its impact with respect to gaming.  You can find Tom on twitter @TomMasterman

TheDailyPayoff: Tell us about the recent partnership with Nascar and the role of data analytics.

Tom Masterman: Unlike athletes, vehicles are wired from bumper to bumper. Each team is continually optimizing a large amount of real time data. This partnership provides unparalleled access to unique real-time race data, in an easy-to-consume API.

For the first time, developers looking to build NASCAR-related products have a data source. The result will be a host of new engaging products which appeal to broader sports data fan base.

TDP: There are many examples of how analytics influence daily fantasy especially with paid applications. What is the effect now and what do you predict moving forward?

TM: Every fantasy player is looking for an advantage over his or her peers. With our data, projection products like those created by Accuscore and numberFire, predict not only how a player should preform in tonight’s matchup but how an injury would impact the rest of the players season. With the Daily Fantasy industry continuing to grow so will the market for products that predict accurately and granularly.

TDP: What are two unique ways Sportsdata has worked with a property to amplify fan experience?

TM: Our rich NCAA metadata enables BlacherReport to provide quality coverage for smaller schools and conferences. This aligns with BleacherReports’s strategic focus on a customized fan experience. Now it’s not just Duke and Kentucky fans that can feel connected their favorite team’s latest news, scores, and statistics.

With Facebook we have been able to add context to trending topic pages by providing real time scores and in-game images. Facebook is now creating an organized way for fans to socially interact with other people who share a vested interest in the same games, teams, and players.

TDP: What is one property that does big data right?

TM: FiveThirtyEight is one that comes to mind. From sports to politics, Nate Silver’s group does a tremendous job at culling out useful and entertaining insights. They highlight the importance of telling stories with data and making it more digestible for a consumer who wouldn’t normally be drawn to a certain topic.

TDP: In 6 months to a year what are we talking about with respect to sports analytics?

TM: With new player tracking technology including RFID chips and other wearables, we see a future where bio metrics and telemetric data are as common as hits, touchdowns, and rebounds.

 

E-sports and Vulcan, the Next Fantasy Wave

By Joe Favorito @JoeFav @TheDailyPayoff

A few weeks ago E-Sports veteran turned commentator Rod “Slasher” Bresleau was asked at a New York Sports Venture event what the next wave of fantasy sports will be.

The answer might have surprised a few audience members.

“Why not e-sports fantasy,” he said “These guys are engaging, have millions of followers, produce great content and are highly highly competitive. It is a natural fit just like any sport or series of athletes would be for the fantasy world,” he offered.

Then came the laughs.

Bresleau, one of the e-sports’ loudest voices, was dead serious though, and this past week some serious money came along to back up his prophesy.

Vulcun, a tournament site for fantasy e-sports, announced it raised $12 million in venture capital from Sequoia Capital and other investors, a sure sign that the watching of e-sports is getting as big as the playing of games like “World of Warcraft.”

The premise for Vulcun and its $1 Million prize pool is the same as any traditional fantasy sports platform, A fan assembles a team of his favorite e-sports players from games like WOW or League of Legends and puts real dollars against them during live competition.

Founder Ali Moiz told Venture Beat that the investment amazingly came along after running the game platform for 11 weeks, enough time to prove concept, gain followers and most importantly, snag big dollars.

“We had no idea that in just 11 weeks we’d be receiving such an investment. I am deeply humbled and grateful to the community for making this possible and for making Vulcun the No. 1 place where they choose to play fantasy e-sports games,” he said.

The story also said that about 858,000 teams have been created, with 6.7 million player picks. Vulcun has paid out $760,000 in prizes, and its top winners include Baldr, who won $32,000; yjingtong, who won $27,000; and RealAZMan, who won $18,000, according to Moiz.

Sequoia partner and Vulcun board member Omar Hamoui, added in a published statement, “We really believe in the long-term potential of e-sports and fantasy leagues. Vulcun allows fans to really participate in the thrill of competitive gaming at the highest levels, without the need to go pro. Vulcun founders Ali and Murti have a strong background in running a successful e-sports team and passionately believe in what they do.”

The issues with pay e-sports fantasy are much different than what is going on with the professional leagues in the United States, where ESPN and MLB recently invested in Draft Kings and a host of companies like the NBA and Comcast have anted up for Fan Duel.

Bresleau pointed out that each game in e-sports is like its own sport, so gaining knowledge enough to put dollars down on players needs a hyper local and affluent audience. He also pointed out that game fixing is becoming a bigger issue as e-sports grows professionally, with as many as 18 players being banned in the past six months for taking money to throw games in a highly unregulated marketplace.

Still the audience, at least 120 million online viewers in North America alone, is growing and companies are noticing, making e-sports pay fantasy an intriguing option for investors looking for a new “in” in what is becoming a fast moving and potentially profitable pay fantasy business down the road.

Football and baseball take note, the millennials may have a pay fantasy option of their own.

Augusta and Soccer, the Next Fantasy Frontiers

By Terry Lyons @terrylyons

Contributing columnist to @TheDailyPayoff

It’s early April and your March Madness bracket was busted long ago, your Kentucky Derby futures were long shots at best, and for Fantasy sports players, the NFL season is a distant memory and a deep freeze just delivered the coldest Opening Day of Baseball in recent memory.

Ballpark scenes complete with snow flurries, sleet and ice, left you less than intrigued at selecting your fantasy battery. The only thing left is either Fantasy Golf or Soccer.

NFL football, the dominant force in Fantasy Sports, is designated by 69.4% of fantasy players as their favorite faux sport, according to research compiled by industry gurus at Fantasy Sports Trade Association. In 2014, there were an estimated 41.5 million fantasy players, although those numbers are yet to reflect the millions who experimented in the Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) craze that is upon us in 2015.

DFS has created an industry upon itself as the two leaders, Draft Kings and Fan Duel, continue to shock sports business pundits and Wall Street analysts alike with enormous private equity investments, major sports leagues taking equity stakes, and newly confirmed reports of the Walt Disney Company sinking an estimated $250 million strategic investment into a new deal that will provide ESPN with ad revenue and fantasy sports players with ubiquitous exposure to the Draft Kings brand of daily fantasy.

The glut of offerings in the fantasy (American) football and baseball point to an opportunity for entrepreneurs looking elsewhere, possibly to the truly global games of Soccer and PGA Tour golf.

From a random sampling taken the evening before The Masters, golf’s most prestigious tournament, Draft Kings daily fantasy site was offering 4,410 contests related to MLB baseball, 1,677 contests for PGA golf, 1,388 contests for NBA basketball, 1,013 games for NHL hockey and 1,081 contests for European Premier League futbol (soccer). Mixed Martial Arts – an entity to be addressed at another time – had 440 contests awaiting.

In the world of golf, the contests were all for “Salary Cap” based games where the contestant was required to pick six PGA tour professionals competing at Augusta and fit them into a lineup that did not exceed $50,000 in value. As you would expect, the salary rankings of top players, such as Player of the Year Rory McIlroy, ranked in the $14,900 range while Masters champ Bubba Watson came in at $12,200, Augusta favorite Phil Mickelson was a more affordable $9,900 while Tiger Woods came in a seemingly affordable $9,400. The range spanned to the likes of aging champions Ben Crenshaw and Tom Watson who were listed at $4,800.

The ease of picking a simple sixsome and finding a contest that attracted your $1 minimum to $5,300 maximum investment  provides a simple mechanism for sports fans to dabble in the world of DFS. This is in comparison to playing salary cap-based games in the NHL where you need to know the amount of ice time skated by the likes of Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon if you plan to compete against the sharks sitting in the Draft Kings’ “Head-to-Head” contest lobby.

Away from the daily offerings, traditional fantasy golf games have long been offered by Yahoo Sports, on the official site at PGATour.com and on the Golf Channel’s online site, but have fallen short in the eyes of many participants when it comes to format and prizes.

Golf Channel’s game is simple as you select a foursome, using either one or two players from various tiers of PGA pros, grouped as “A,” “B,” or “C” players. As a fail-safe, you also pick four bench players with a limit for the number of times you can use a single player, that being 10 times over the course of the full season. The Yahoo Sports golf game allows for team registration nearly all year and is geared towards having groups of players utilize the site for their own private game.

System-wide, it is impossible to catch-up to the overall leaders unless you’ve fielded a top-notch group of foursomes for each and every tournament. To try to avoid the severe drop-off of participants who cannot crack the leaders, Yahoo also carves the season into “Winter,” “Spring,” “Summer” and “Full Season” to allow for seasonal competitions. There is no entry fee, no sponsor but Draft Kings took banner ads on the site to lure potential players to their daily style of play.

Golf Channel runs a free game, sponsored by golf shoe maker Foot-Joy, that calls for participants to pick a foursome from PGA Tour players grouped in tiers with points awarded based on the money the players earn in the tournament. Again, the prize structure is weak, there’s no money prize pool and drop-off of participants over the rather long PGA Tour season is significant.

There are a number of software companies that run fantasy golf leagues, acting more as the commissioner or statistician for privately run leagues. One of the better sites is Fantasy Golf League Software which allows individual groups or “leagues” to customize their own versions of PGA Tour leagues, presumably with the traditional style of one league member being the proverbial Commissioner/Banker while acting as Judge and Jury if there are any discrepancies.

A private league run by friends of this reporter dubbed The Larry Bird Golf League is as simple as it can get. Participants name three golfers for each tournament each week and get credit for the golfer who earns the most money from each tournament’s prize pool. Once your player cashes, he’s done for the season while the other two you played remain eligible for another time.

We do some variations to keep people interested, including a special in-season competition for the Majors and even a new “Skins Game” concept to reward a Fantasy Team who is the only team in the league to pick a tourney winner. That “Skin” has yet to be cashed as of the Masters.

In soccer, the challenge of picking winners is similar to ice hockey, where a deep knowledge of every roster and every player by position (Goal-keepers, defense, midfielders and strikers (forwards) is needed in order to play intelligently.

The key difference in playing DFS soccer is that the schedule is so different than that of the NBA, NHL and MLB, with the majority of matches held on Wednesday or Saturdays. In Draft Kings’ soccer, the salary cap listed Tottenham’s Harry Kane at $10,700 and Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud at $10,300 and the lower-level roster players at $3,000. Thankfully, the figures were not calculated in Pounds Sterling.

The sharps tend to play the best players in soccer at home, but, keep in mind, most of the action on the sport of soccer is done via the High Street bookies who take action on everything from the outcome of the game to who scores the first goal. The need for salary cap style fantasy is not nearly as attractive as action on the game itself, so a smart fantasy soccer play might be better promoted to the growing American soccer audience being taught the nuances of the game by NBC Sports Network coverage.

As of yet, MLS soccer has yet to spawn much interest via mainstream fantasy players, yet interested players need not look any further than MLS.com where you are asked to build an 18-player roster with a $120 million salary cap with the offering of some $10,000 in prize money. To be eligible for prizes, a contestant must be from the 50 United States or Canada, according to site rules.

MondoGoal, a new start-up without the bankroll of Draft Kings or Fan Duel, is going “all-in” on fantasy soccer with offerings of daily cash leagues involving Premiere League, MLS, Spanish, Italian, German Bundesliga, Champions League and even plans for a special Women’s World Cup league this summer.

MondoGoal is concentrating on a more “European” and “Worldwide” audience, rather than the American fantasy audience and the start-up has partnered with some of the most well known football clubs in Europe, including FC Barcelona, AS Roma, Chelsea FC and Manchester City, among others.

Fan Duel has yet to delve into Daily Fantasy soccer or golf and is heavily promoting their association with the NBA, the league which shocked the gaming world by taking an equity stake in the company which is operating off a massive $70 million dollar raise which surfaced last September.

The step to consider from this brief round-up? After scouting The Masters this weekend and enjoying the pristine atmosphere and springlike weather of Augusta, try a daily Fantasy sports golf tournament next weekend. It’ll be a new tradition, unlike any other.

 

For further information, visit the following sites:

Golf Channel: https://fantasy.golfchannel.com/

Fantasy Golf League Software: http://www.fglweb.com/fglmain.php

MLS Soccer fantasy game: http://fantasy.mlssoccer.com/

MondoGoal: https://mondogoal.com

Link to Fan Duel $70 million investment story in WSJ: http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/09/02/fanduel-raises-70-million-as-daily-fantasy-sports-battle-heats-up/

Egaming: Bigger Than The NHL?

By Joe Favorito @JoeFav

 

“We are going to be bigger than the NHL,” declared Major League Gaming head Mike Sepso several months ago about the growth of his company and the sport of E-Gaming.

And to hear the numbers thrown around on engagement Tuesday night at a New York Sports Venture Group forum on the fast-rising sport, it might be hard to argue his claim.

 

For the uninformed, especially those over 30, Rod “Slasher” Bresleau, perhaps the most informed media member on Egaming and now the lead for the first Egaming news website portal “The Score” in Canada, explained the phenomenon in the simplest of terms.

“If you look at the games themselves, like World of Warcraft, as a sport unto itself like soccer, then view the industry and all its individual games as the Olympics or the XGames,” he added. “Each game has its own stars, its own storylines and its own followers, many of which are now in the millions, and all are very engaged consumers of every aspect, both as a player and as a viewer.”

How engaged? Both Craig Levine of ESL, one of the largest event creators and developers in the space, and Don Reilley EVP of Global Sales for MLG, talked about stadium audiences in the tens of thousands and viewership in the tens of millions, easily eclipsing traditional sports viewership in some of the biggest events.

“Everything that I thought would happen is happening,” Reilly said about the growth. ”We have to balance the needs of the people at the events with those of the people watching at home, watching their favorite players.”

Levine mentioned sellout crowds watching gaming events in places ranging from Korea and Croatia to New York and Seattle, with fans showing up armed with dollars to buy merchandise just like they would for a hometown sports team. The difference is really in the audience demo, which is the one that brands and traditional sports leagues crave; the dominant egame follower, according to most research is male, 18-34, highly engaged and very passionate about every aspect of the game he follows. Think UFC and NASCAR of a new era.

So what is the secret sauce for egaming? Reilley said that for MLG it’s not that different at all from what brands and broadcasters have been doing for 50 years on television, albeit with a key twist.

“We provide great content for a passionate audience, most of the time with events in a live environment, just like the networks have done with MLB or the NFL for 50 years. It is that live engaged audiences that brands crave and are now activating against,” he said. “However the big difference is in how and where we engage. Unlike traditional broadcasts our audience does not have to be plugged in. They can engage on whatever device they choose and do so wherever they are. We deliver the programming to them however they like, and that is what sets us apart from traditional sports right now.”

Another aspect of egaming’s success has been the accessibility of the gamers to an engaged audience. Like the UFC of five years ago or the NHL of 10 years ago or NASCAR, egaming providers boast about the ease of contact fans have with the elite players. Send them a text or an email and you get a response, and the response is seen by millions, not just a few hundred.

That sort of access, they claim, is what is missing from today’s traditional sports, where despite all the trimmings of social media, athletes are locked behind a wall of handlers, team officials and brands who say the stars of baseball, football and basketball are accessible, but in reality the chance to email Bryce Harper or Kobe Bryant and get a response is less than zero.

“Because we are still evolving and the elite players are almost of the same age and background of many of their fans, the relationship is different and is much more intimate right now,” added Levine. “That means a great deal to a generation that is used to access without barriers, and that type of access has great value to brands as well.”

The numbers for egaming engagement that are thrown around are certainly staggering. Over 32 million live followers for a recent “World of Warcraft” event. A gate of over 30,000 for a live event in Croatia, a billion dollar investment made by Amazon to buy streaming service Twitch, which provides highlights from any series of games to millions of followers 24/7. But for all the success, there are some growing pains.

“It’s the Wild West for sure,” Bresleau told the packed room of approximately 150 representing a wide spectrum of interests. “Companies come into the space with a great deal of capital and find ways to engage with fans, and the people with the real brand value, the players, are now seeing greater opportunity to monetize their success at a new level. Right now it’s all great and any success helps the sport, but down the road there may be a consolidation as the business settles in.”

Another example of global growing pains comes in the form of what traditional sports have seen; game fixing. Bresleau added that as many as 18 professional players in the past few months have been banned for fixing games for money. Illegal gambling it seems, has also found itself into big time gaming.

There is also the question of wider appeal to a casual fan who would be willing to watch egaming in person or online, along with the question of whether massive stadium events are just one-off phenomenon’s or are they able to sustain a repeat audience. It is a similar question the UFC has had to address time and again as a new sport on the traditional block, and they too have handled the issue well.

“We see a fan as one who is very engaged and he or she will come back again if they have an amazing experience,” Levine added. “We can’t oversaturate a market and we are still building, but all signs are the business sis not just here to stay, it is growing at a very fast rate.”

And what about traditional sports as a form of egaming? Millions has been spent on creating marketing and selling products like FIFA 2015 and Madden for years, but those sports games, although successful, have not migrated into the new egaming space.

“Those games are great for their audience, but when you can watch a live NBA or NFL game with real stars playing it, the level of professional egaming is diminished,” Bresleau added. “What captured the egaming world is the ability for the gamer to really be someone else, to travel to another planet or be a superhero or an elite warrior, that’s the transcendent appeal that is drawing millions in.”

And are the elite gamers actually athletes like those in the NBA or NFL or the Olympics? “They train, they travel, they sacrifice and they have great skill, so my argument is yes and it’s why egaming is an amazing sport,” Bresleau added.

The panelists all believe that despite the mainstream media covering egaming as a novelty event up until now, coverage of the live events and the sport itself is about to ramp up considerably.

Engaged audiences, young demo, brand activation, young stars and global appeal. Egaming is rising fast, and it will be interesting to see how high and how far it will go as a business of the future. Look out not just NHL, but MLS, MLB and anyone else in a traditional business. The sports world is changing.

 

 

MMA Looks Like It Will Get Its Decision In New York

MMA Looks Like It Will Get Its Decision In New York
Joe Favorito @JoeFav
The lone state holdout on Mixed Martial Arts in any form may soon finally be coming to an end after years of debate and millions of dollars spent by the UFC and other organizations lobbying for a decades old ban on the sport.


On Tuesday, The New York State Senate again passed legislation to approve MMA as a professional sport, something which had happened five times prior. The difference this time is that both Governor Andrew Cuomo and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie appear to be in support of the bill, one which was fought tooth and nail by former Speaker Sheldon Silver, a fight which the now indicted politician won each time under previous administrations.



The reasons for Silver’s vehemence were widespread; they ranged from lobbyists of boxing working behind the scenes to keep the sport out of one of boxing’s most profitable states to his abhorrence with the violence of MMA (his brother is a prominent physician who has dealt with head trauma and has always been firmly against the brutality of MMA) to frankly, other more pressing issues in the State such as gay marriage and other causes that needed more attention. Still at this point with casinos in the State lobbying to bring in small events, while large venues like First Niagara Arena in Buffalo to Madison Square Garden and the Barclays Center in New York to the Carrier Dome in Syracuse all wanting to reap bigger gates and paydays that have gone to Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the time may have come for change.


Mixed Martial Arts in the non-professional sense has thrived in New York for years. There are scores of training centers throughout the state which house not just amateur but professional fighters. The Renzo Gracie Academy just two blocks from MSG has trained UFC star Georges St. Pierre as well as a host of Gracie jiu-jitsu fighters, but their buts usually have been through the Lincoln Tunnel at places like the IZOD Center or the Prudential Center or in Atlantic City. The only full-fledged MMA cards have been in unregulated underground gyms which have catered more to the unfettered violence lawmakers have railed against than the safer and more regulated state controlled events that legal MMA would bring and have brought to virtually every other state across the country.


This week the UFC even brought their latest star, Ronda Rousey to meet with Governor Cuomo and defend her sport. The final holdouts against the bill, which include state Senator Liz Krueger, worry about the sexism and open violence against women that legal MMA would bring to venues, even though the fights are seen in millions of homes across the country and around the world today.


“Having women shown fighting on TV shows that it’s OK for us to be strong,” she said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “It’s OK for us to fight. So much history is being made through MMA for women in sports. It’s a new sport so it’s not really bogged down in tradition the way that a lot of others are.”


The solution she says, is for those who find the fights offensive to simply not watch or buy tickets. Proponents see the legalization of MMA as a huge windfall to venues across the state. However that huge flow of dollars has not held true in many cases. Big fights bring big crowds, and the possibility of a UFC card on Broadway will garner the exposure the sport would love on occasion. However small shows do not regularly outdraw similar boxing events, and the rush to book events with lesser known fighters could backfire in some cases.  Regardless, in a free economy the opportunity to create and host events to fill distressed seats and dates in a controlled and sanctioned environment is a good thing for the sport of MMA and for the state of new York, which regardless of successful gates, will reap tax dollars and registration fees for events that are going elsewhere right now.


While MMA is known for its quick endings, this battle in Albany, New York has been a long and bloody one, one which it looks like will finally come to a decision and it will be a good one for a still fast-growing sport popular more with millennials than anyone else.  Controversial and entertaining to many MMA is, now with a potential new home not far from Madison Avenue

NFL Opens The Pay Fantasy Door For Teams

NFL Opens The Pay Fantasy Door For Teams
Joe Favorito @JoeFav



The end of this week’s NFL meetings in Arizona brought about what could be seen as a big crack in the armor for pay gaming and the gridiron. According to Dan Kaplan of Sports Business Journal, the league will allow daily fantasy deals for one year, formalizing a policy that has been more restrictive than the NHL and NBA and had forced several teams into a difficult situation when looking at new in-market revenue streams. The one year deals with companies like FanDuel and DraftKings will have a one year team opt out according to Kaplan, but will open a door that could be very lucrative for individual clubs, especially given the huge dollars that flow into fantasy football already every year. Which teams will formalize agreements now that the option is open remain to be seen, with one, the New England Patriots Jonathan Kraft’s Kraft Sports Group, having an equity stake in Boston-based Draft Kings.

The announcement in Arizona comes at a time when baseball, also with a small stake in fan Duel through MLB Advanced Media, should also be entering into the daily pay fantasy world more than ever before, although league sources say no deal is imminent as Opening Day comes into view this weekend. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said recently that he felt it was time to take a look at all forms of legal wagering as a revenue stream, echoing the statements that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has made in recent months as well.

The NFL meanwhile has been the most silent on any kind of pay fantasy or gambling talk, with its owners most concerned about the ill-will that could be fostered from gambling talk, especially coming off a recent period of negative publicity that has damaged the NFL shield, but not its coffers. Whether one year deals will reap a windfall for fantasy businesses who choose to align themselves with teams remains to be seen, but the amount of money spent in marketing to NFL fans through broadcast and digital buys by the two biggest players in the market was at record levels in the tens of millions last year. Official designations with teams would allow any company to use the marks of their respective partner and could open up digital and in-stadium activation, but without a longer play the company runs a big risk of losing equity should the league change its stance, or create a league-wide partnership beyond 2016.

Regardless, the openness to accept pay fantasy partners is a signal of an acceptance trend that seems to be a long time in coming, and could be yet another escalation in a business, pay fantasy and legalized gambling, which many experts say could be a billion dollar industry within five years

Sports gambling hot topic in domestic leagues

special thanks to Tanner Simkins @TannerSimkins
From hockey to broadcast to global soccer, the legalization of sports betting in countries and territories where it is not yet legal continues to be a hot topic. While in the United States officials from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred are now more open-minded and forward-thinking about the possibility of legalized gambling on a national level down the road, most see the possibility as at least 3-5 years from becoming reality.
At last week’s Sportel North America Conference in Miami the topic came up several times ones again, as the billion dollar broadcast sports industry could also someday get a bigger piece of the legal gambling pie if and when all becomes free and clear. “Gambling is part of sports. The time is coming to bring it out of the shadows in the US,” said NBC’s Rob Simmelkjaer during a panel discussion on the media rights business. Simmelkjaer eluded to the recent comments by Silver and others in saying that the veil of secrecy around all the gambling that goes on illegally in places like the US should be lifted while the right system is put into places that brings revenue into the teams and networks that are investing in growing sport not just in the US, but around the world. One place that NBC may see a bump from starting in 2016 in in the Olympic space, where, at least in Las Vegas, the International Olympic Committee recently OK’ed the start of gambling on the games in sports books in the state of Nevada.
The impact of gambling in its legalized form is not just an issue in the US, but abroad as well where many countries are unlike France, the UK and Australia and still do not allow wagering on major events like World Cup and Rugby. That ban on implementing gaming companies into media rights discussions has been a well-raised sore spot with rights holders selling some of the world’s biggest events, especially in soccer. “We would love to be involved in sports betting but UEFA & the clubs we work with don’t want us to be yet,” added Thomas Schmidt, Managing Director, Sports Media Rights For Team Marketing AG during the panel. “We are well aware of the dollar value betting houses can bring, but right now it is not something our partners are willing to investigate as a revenue stream, but we will keep trying.”
Another rights holder now in the US is MP & Silva, who recently acquired the European rights to the NFL, one of the few American sports still silent on the gambling issue and opportunity, despite the common knowledge that football, as much as any US sport, probably benefits the most in attention because of all the small and large scale illegal wagering that goes on around the game. One of the biggest areas for growth should gambling become legal will be in the mobile space, as fans can engage in minute to minute wagering like is done in the UK on soccer, using any sort of analytics that are available. The mobile space, more than any other, is seen as the real sweet spot in the debate. “Right now “70 percent of people between 12-18 consume almost all sports content on mobile,” said MP & Silva’s VP of North America Dan Cohen when asked about the value of the mobile space going forward, an area which will become even more valuable as the years pass and revenues are realized.
Still for now, the wait and see atmosphere continues, even with the debate and the opportunity becoming more clearer. The estimated dollars being spent on the NCAA Tournament this month are in the billions, which leave broadcasters and rights holders from all corners of the world wondering “what if,” should the gambling seas part in the years to come.

Real Madrid Looks To Turn Pay Fantasy Into A Winner For Fans

Real Madrid Looks To Turn Pay Fantasy Into A Winner For Fans
By: Joe Favorito @JoeFav

The pay fantasy space keeps growing in interest in the United States as well as now, globally. In recent months a host of European soccer clubs like FC Barcelona, Chelsea FC and AS Roma have launched pay fantasy games in hopes of drawing in new dollars and engaging a worldwide audience, especially one in the US that is now soccer savvy and used to playing pay fantasy in American football and baseball especially. The developer on many of these is Mondogoal, with offices both in the States and in Isle of Mann.

However this past week another high powered soccer club launched their own game, this one with a Million Dollar payoff. It was Real Madrid, and in partnership with US-based Hotbox sports, they created a game where a $5 wager can turn into a big winner. After months of quiet speculation and some difficult logistical hurdles which had to be cleared, the contest was unveiled before this coming weekend.

Unlike the traditional salary cap games that fantasy consumers are used to, the Real Madrid game is pretty simple; supporters pick nine players from any position for the match. There is no cap limit on stars. There are a series of analytics that will rally points for your nine players ranging from shots to saves to passes to time on field, all based on the playing roster the club has that day. Your best points totals overall will help net a winner, no pun intended. A series of tiebreakers will also help create the best possible winning scenarios.

“The concept of the game is simple, and the potential payoff is huge,” said Terry Lyons of Hotbox Sports, who has created a similar pick em game with the NHL New Jersey Devils, the first ever for a US sports league. ‘While many pay fantasy games are complicated and sometimes difficult to understand, we have taken a concept with a global brand and made it very understandable for everyone who follows the team. You control the roster and you root for your team. The better your guys do, the better the chances are of cashing in. We think it will be a big hit with the global audience Real Madrid has.”

Real Madrid hosts Levante in a La Liga match on the 15th before their showdown with FC Barcelona on the 22nd.

With March Madness Here, FanAngel Rolls the Dice On Funding Athletes

With March Madness Here, FanAngel Rolls the Dice On Funding Athletes
By Joe Favorito @JoeFav
 Pay for play has been a popular theme in the debate over college athletics, but pay for stay?


Another of those seem like a good idea platforms has arisen in the past few weeks to somehow try and solve the issue of keeping elite athletes in school. It is a crowdfunding site called FanAngel which will allow fans to anonymously contribute to pay college athletes to stay in school through donations that are given to the athlete when his or her eligibility expires.


According to an ESPN.com story, founder Sean Fojtik said that when a fan commits a pledge to an athlete, that money is immediately taken out of the account. Eighty percent of the money will be held for that athlete if that athlete does choose to stay in school, 10 percent will be given to that athlete’s teammates, and 10 percent will be earmarked for charity and scholarship funds. The money is given to the athlete when that athlete’s eligibility expires. FanAngel’s revenue source would be to take a fee, as much as nine percent, from the donation to help facilitate the fund.


While the site says it will steer clear of NCAA rules with regard to mentioning names, many have argued that the site would create an unfair advantage for big schools and marquee names, easily creating an unfair advantage. And although the site is anonymous with regard to where the funds could go, corruption could easily ensue. The story also says that there is no way for athletes to contact the  company or crowdfund on their own through his site, although we are talking enterprising young people and deep pocketed donors, which can be a lethal mix in many cases.


Is the idea a low risk, high reward play for the creators, a legitimate solution to help solve the one and done rule, or a symbol of much that is wrong with college athletes, where big schools find big donors with big ways to circumvent the rules? For one thing it is creative, but as we have seen in the free market, the only way for it to work is to pull big dollars from anonymous sources, while the NCAA watches very closely.


Fan Angel gets high marks for buzz and creativity. Whether it translates into a legit business solution is anyone’s guess and some people’s gamble.

PERSONALITY CORNER: Tim Rooney Sr.

PERSONALITY CORNER: Tim Rooney Sr.

By Frank Scandale@FScandale

 

Age: 76

Title: President of Yonkers Racing Corp and Empire City Casino.

Former Life: Part owner in the Pittsburgh Steelers

Duties: “Keep everyone in line and make sure expenses are under control.”

Favorite Sports Moment: “Very easily, when we won our first Super Bowl.”

Favorite Family Moment: “ Ha. Reviewing it, it has to be the same moment because of the family involvement. Unbelievable.”

Most Admired Person: Wellington Mara. I knew Cardinal (Terrance James) Cooke, but as a regular human being, Wel Mara was special.”

Favorite Golf Spot: Winged Foot Golf Club, Mamaroneck, NY.

ART ROONEY AND TIM ROONEY AT RACETRACK

Even a guy who used to co-own one of the best NFL teams in a city that saw its share of horrendous winters and can’t avoid talking about this winter’s hottest topic – the weather.

 

Relentless sub-freezing temps, snow and lingering ice have made 0 degrees the new 32 in the Northeast and its effects have not have escaped Tim Rooney Sr. and his operation at the Yonkers Raceway Corp. which also operates the Empire City Casino in the shadow of New York City.

 

This became the second consecutive winter when the region took it on the chin.

 

“Last year, the first quarter hurt dramatically against the same quarter in 2013. When the weather hit, we were down, but we came back up at the end of the year.  January (2015) started off fairly strong, but then the bad weather even supplanted the weather from the last year!” Rooney laughed. “We came back again and were up every day until last Saturday when that 5 inches of snow hit us. We had the accounting department check how many days we had under 25 degrees or snow and we are double the number of bad days this year compared to last year.”

 

Weather is only one of the factors that determine how the casino and harness racing business will go for Rooney. The competition and proliferation of brick and mortar casinos and online betting made his days as a football team owner seem orderly.

 

 

In a wide-ranging interview, the gregarious Rooney touched on football, gaming, horse racing, online gambling, his family and golf.

 

The Rooney name has been synonymous with professional football since 1933 when Art Rooney Sr. founded the Pittsburg Steelers for  $2,500. Tim and two of his four brothers were forced to sell their shares in 2009 in the team because the National Football League’s concerns about the family’s other business interests in gambling entities. The move was painful for Rooney for many reasons, not the least of which is passion for the pigskin despite his love for horses.

 

“Well, there is no comparison. My father was in the business (racing) his whole life, but football is football.

 

He likes to say his favorite sports moment was the first time the Steelers won a Super Bowl, Super Bowl IX in 1975. “Nothing possibly comes close. They were all good (wins) but there is no emotion ever having equaled that first one.”

 

When pressed about his favorite family moment – he has five children and 19 grandchildren – he laughs and hesitates, saying, “I probably shouldn’t say this, but it might be the same moment because of the family’s unbelievable moment (together)…winning the Super Bowl was unbelievable.”

 

 

So much has changed now with respect to sports and gambling, but Rooney wishes the NFL then had allowed them to hold their shares.

 

“When we were closing in on the sale, I honestly did not want to sell my stock in the Steelers. My father had done this (racing) long before this and we had been running the team in this manner,” he continued. “On the other side, my brothers who stayed in will be a lot wealthier, especially when Buffalo sold for $1.4 billion.”

 

Despite his love of football, he says he does not attend games anymore. Too easy to stay home and watch it on television, he says. He used to fly to Pittsburgh on Saturday, have dinner with his brothers that night, go to the game and fly home on Sunday night.

 

Today, his focus is on Yonkers and Empire with his son Tim Jr. and son-in-law Bob Galterio. With casinos popping up all around the Northeast and siphoning off potential and former customers, Rooney says the trick is to keep reinventing and innovating. Rooney, in fact, hinted that Empire would unveil something new soon along with a strong advertising campaign.

 

“We’re going to try out some new things this year, a little more refreshing,” Rooney, now 76, said. “We have a new ad campaign coming out at the end of February or so. It’s more of a return to a stronger campaign on TV.”

 

The table games at fully licensed casinos has been a draw for some players, he said, but New York State’s upcoming budget has a provision for Empire to receive a higher quality electronic table game, something Rooney insists will level the playing field somewhat. The legislature still has to approve it, but he is optimistic that will happen.

 

“Our facility is very good. We just opened another restaurant and put a lot of money into our food business. Two of the three restaurants are doing very well. But the biggest thing we have coming is that part of Governor Cuomo’s budget is to give us a higher quality of electronic table games, one of which is blackjack. “

 

That looming boost and the weather’s inevitable improvement has Rooney eyeing a 5 percent improvement in 2015. “I think we will be up a couple of million dollars this year.”

 

 

 

The real issue down the road is becoming a fully licensed casino when New York State allows those businesses in the metro region to apply. Under the state’s gaming law, New York City and its surround suburbs, including Yonkers, are prohibited from receiving any casino licenses for at least seven years, according to a story in the New York Daily News last December.

 

“We’d be looking to get one of those new licenses,” Rooney said.” Basically if we had a license now, we could open immediately.”

That would complement Rooney’s operation that features approximately 6,000 electronic machines now. “For us not to get a license would be hard to imagine.”

 

For now, the only non-tribal casino licenses will be located further upstate, which Rooney believes will not impact business.

 

The other big issue looming on the horizon is online gambling and sports, a mounting issue as prominent figures such as current NBA commissioner Adam Silver and his predecessor David Stern call for legalized sports betting outside of Nevada.

 

For Rooney, it’s a complicated issue, while he knows there is so much betting now in sports. According to the American Gaming Association, the estimated amount bet illegally on the recent Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl game was said to be approximately $3.8 billion, compared to approximately $100 million bet legally.

 

“The only question I have for it and somebody smarter than me can figure it out is when a guy makes an unbelievable catch in the game and then later on an important third down drops the ball, everybody is suspicious of everything that happens. Is somebody going to ask if he dropped it on purpose?

 

He recalls the days at the track when people were betting heavy on sporting events at the pay phones, back before cell phones existed. “If you go out and see the pay phone lines, all I can tell you is that they are not calling home to find out what’s the wife is making for dinner.”

 

Today, the game is more interesting and exciting for a wider ranger of people.
“If say Denver is playing Seattle and you don’t have an interest in either team, I don’t care who wins the game, but people watch them because they are betting on the game. That is really part of the popularity of the game.”

 

When the snow finally melts in the East, you’ll likely find Rooney relaxing on a golf course, one of his favorite other sports. The mere mention of golf gets him going about Tiger Woods, the stalled champion nursing injuries and a bruised mental game.

 

“Tiger Woods. When you looked at his position, the only other guy who dominated a sport like Tiger was maybe Michael Jordan. Not Bradshaw. Not Manning. None of them was a dominating in their sport as Woods.”

 

He recalled how small the purses were in comparison to today’s average first-place prize money being way north of $1 million, and cited his family’s own tournament, The Philadelphia Golf Classic back in the 1960s.

 

“We had this match, we owned it, sold the tickets, everything. The purse total was $150,000. That was tied for the biggest purse on tour at that point,” he explained. “In our tournament we got lucky. (Jack) Nicklaus and (Arnold) Palmer tied and went into a playoff. It’s the only thing that got us to break even.”

 

 

 

Devils, Sixers Co-Owner Bullish On Gambling

Devils, Sixers Co-Owner Bullish On Gambling

by Joe Favorito @JoeFav
It hasn’t been the easiest of years on the field and ice for Devils and Sixers co-owners David Blitzer and John Harris, but neither has lost their enthusiasm for the business and both are bullish on the future of sport, especially their two currently suffering franchises.


This week at the Leaders in Sport Conference in New York, Blitzer touched on one of the hottest topics in sports; gambling, and where it may, or may not end up in the sports landscape as New Jersey wages an ongoing battle in the courts to have law overturned that prohibits sports betting outside of Nevada. Both the Devils and the Sixers were first adopters in taking on an online poker site as a sponsor, and earlier this year New Jersey became the first NHL club to bring in a daily pay fantasy partner to test those waters as well. “I have felt for a long time that ultimately – gaming, let’s call it, in sports – should be regulated and taxed,” he said. “I just feel like more information – I actually think one of the arguments against [full legalization], the ‘integrity of the sport’ question – that having it more out in the open rather than sort of being underneath the floor will actually enhance that [maintaining the integrity of the league] rather than degrade it. That’s been my view for a long time. When it comes and how it comes, I don’t know.”


This past weekend at the MIT Sloan Analytics Conference MLB commissioner Rob Manfred admitted that baseball will take a look at the options on gambling as well, but will also follow the proposal that NBA commissioner Adam Silver has put forth, with a federally-mandated program vs. a state by state approach which many feel would be unmanageable and fraught with issues.


“That’s a whole different question, what the business model eventually looks like,” Blitzer added. “But clearly if one is providing the content, should they at least be ‘in the value chain,’ let’s call it. That’s something for people to argue about in ‘x’ number of years. But I’m sure the leagues will be some part of the value chain.”


He also chimed in on the growth of sport abroad, both for the NBA and the NHL. “I truly believe that the NBA has the ability to be the highest-growing international business over the next decade,” he added. “Managing that growth is not easy. It’s very different managing a business in Asia or Europe than it is in America. To manage that in the right way, on a variety of continents, is going to be interesting. I think they will succeed.”


In order to keep the coffers humming, it is thought that legalized gambling will be a key growth component, some feel second in revenue only to broadcast rights. That is why teams are constantly testing the waters for revenue streams that are currently legal like pay fantasy, and that teams on the bottom looking to innovate, like the Devils and Sixers, are the ones pushing the envelope open more.



Full credit to John Brennan of NorthJersey.com. Certain quotes used from his 1-1 with David Blitzer.

Wagering On Baseball? MLB Comish Manfred Open To Talking

Wagering On Baseball? MLB Comish Manfred Open To Talking
by Joe Favorito @JoeFav
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Sports in the United States and the relationship with some form of advanced gaming and gambling continue to do a very slow and seductive dance toward an eventual plan, and the gyrations continued all weekend at the annual MIT Sloan Analytics Conference, the ever-evolving stats geekfest that this year drew over 3,000 media personalities, innovators, entrepreneurs, visionaries and business leaders to the Boston Convention Center for two days of stats filled discussion and debate.
It was the largest-ever gathering for the conference, the brainchild of two MIT grads, now Houston Rockets now GM Darryl Morey and  VP of Customer Marketing & Strategy, The Kraft Sports Group Jessica Gelman, who saw the continued confluence of analytics and  data into every aspect of sports business, and as that area of evaluation and innovation has grown, so has the event.
While wearable tech, wireless devices and every form of statistical breakdown was on the docket, the issue of gambling as a new frontier was a constant subject when the biggest of the big, NBA commissioner Adam Silver, MLS commissioner Don Garber and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred all took the stage at various times. While Silver has been the out-front champion of acknowledging and then finding ways to adapt some form of legalized national wagering, it was really Manfred in his new role that had the most to say on the issue in a Friday conversation with MLB Network Brian Kenny. In years past, especially under former commissioner Bud Selig, the notion of anything progressive with gambling and baseball would never have even been part of the conversation.  But baseball’s latest leader has taken a more progressive and outspoken stance on several topics, from international play to the speed of the game, and the “someday” notion of legalized gambling seems to fit the bill.
“In terms of the ‘away from the field’ issues associated with the legalization of gambling – I think that enough has happened out there that it’s incumbent upon me and my staff to take to the owners the developments in this area, to have a conversation about some of the rules that go beyond the play of the game on the field that we’ve had traditionally in baseball and revisit those,” he said during the conversation.
He later told CNBC that the gambling “landscape is changing very quickly” but that no one should expect “players or on-field personnel” betting on games anytime soon. Manfred admitted again that  the “industry will have to take a hard look at” the larger issue of legalizing sports gambling and went on to praise Silver for taking the leadership role in the conversation and driving the talk to see if there is a Federally-controlled system that all sports would participate in going forward.
The great irony in such a discussion Manfred pointed out, is that the actual office he now holds is a product of the 1919 Black Sox scandal which has forever changed the face of gambling on baseball. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was appointed by the owners to basically keep themselves and the clubs in line when it came to the integrity of baseball, and the sport has had a zero tolerance rule ever since when it came to gambling and baseball of any kind, with the Pete Rose case still being the greatest challenge to the issue of gambling and baseball.
The other irony is that baseball’s long standing preponderance with numbers has actually given rise to much of the conversation on gaming and sport in America today, starting with the advent of what was then Rotisserie Baseball and is now full-fledged fantasy baseball, and then moving on to the concept of “Moneyball” and the new era of detailed analytics in sports. Without baseball and its analytic preponderance, who knows where all this talk would be today.
Now where legalized wagering goes in the near future is anyone’s guess. Later in the weekend a panel hosted by ESPN The Magazine editor Chad Millman had the consensus that legalized federal rules on sports gambling is probably four and a half to five years away, but the growing opportunities in daily pay fantasy games for all sports, including baseball (where MLB.com has a minority stake in the uber site Draft Kings), continue to escalate with each passing week. No less than ten companies with some sort of fantasy attachment were on display at MIT, with hundreds more wannabees roaming the halls.
What was clear from Manfred’s comments with regard to legalized sports wagering is that he, like Silver, see the potential opportunity in the future and are willing to examine and publicly discuss the risk and the reward. In a world where teams are constantly battling for other new areas of revenue to offset the rising costs of doing business without continuing to zap the fans pocketbooks, baseball and legal gambling may make for strange, but smart bedfellows down the line, especially now with a commissioner willing to engage in the discussion for the first time.

The Olympic Gamble Arrives…

The Olympic Gamble Arrives…
by Joe Favorito @JoeFav
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The past few weeks have been another whirlwind of activity around the fantasy sports and gaming space. There was the news that European soccer clubs like FC Barcelona were embracing pay fantasy sports more and more, a host of pieces on FanDuel and Draft Kings reporting record quarters for engagement amidst massive marketing, the Fantasy Sports Trade Association held its annual winter meetings, New Jersey politicians continued their amplified fight to bring sports wagering to the Garden State and other places still on the outs with Federal Law, and oh yeah, the State of Nevada finished the process to allow sports wagering on the Olympic Games.
While most of the news was part of the escalating dialogue in the value of fantasy sports as a revenue driver and engagement barometer for casual fans, the Olympic push was a relatively new salvo fired into the sports and gaming world. While it is somewhat ironic that Nevada, the state where lobbyists spend big bucks to keep Federal laws blocking other states to engage in sports wagering, is looking to increase the opportunities on global sport, would look to add international and potentially obscure sports to its wagering platform, the reality is that the petition shows just how much global fantasy and gaming is gaining steam, and consumers are getting more used to gaming as a regular part of their engagement experience.
The Olympic question is interesting for many reasons. The statue right now does not allow wagering on the Games because of “amateurism” and the use of judges who could influence votes, yet there are as many as seven countries in Europe where Olympic wagering is allowed, with no discernable issues. There is also the growing blurring of what is considered amateur in a world where the Olympics have become much more high tech, much more expensive, and much more subsidized by brands and events where athletes get paid…and rightfully so. The amount of security spent on The Games these days’ accounts for all kinds of monitoring in the digital space, so the thought of even more corruption being brought into The Games because of wagering seems to be becoming more and more of a non-issue.
The real intriguing aspect for Olympic gaming is on the fan engagement and revenue side. The IOC is constantly looking to engage a younger audience, one which is digitally savvy and is accustomed to finding new ways to be involved with whatever event they are watching or experiencing, whether that is in entertainment or sport. The gamification of The Games, one where you can, either for dollars or points, better follow athletes and the goings on in sports big and small from hundreds of countries, raises the value and the consciousness of The Games beyond what is done today. On the revenue side, the IOC, always looking for new streams of revenue, can reap huge licensing fees for data to companies who would engage in Olympic gaming and fantasy, an area which professional sports from the Premier League to the NBA and the NHL, are realizing today.
Like with all fantasy and sports wagering issues going on today, for Nevada this will be less about a brick and mortar engagement (although it wouldn’t hurt to have more consumers in a sports book during the dog days of August watching the Rio Games) as it is a play to grab more of the fast-growing global digital space.
The digital gaming space, as the NBA and NHL have now acknowledged with their team and league deals with Fan Duel and Draft Kings, is where the real dollars will be made going forward, and the ability to have that space as an offering to casual Olympic fans makes great sense. Rest assured the major leagues in North America will continue to watch the developments with Nevada and the Olympics, as gaming and gambling continue to be a lucrative, enticing and still controversial engagement point for all.

Harness Racing Jockey Hits Milestone

Harness Racing Jockey Hits Milestone

 

By Frank Scandale @FScandale

 

Profile: Daniel Dube

Occupation: Harness driver

Born: 06/08/1969

Birthplace: Quebec

Resides: Millstone, NJ

Height: 5 feet 7 inches

Colors: Green-White-Black

 

When you reach a key milestone in your racing career, how do you motivate yourself for the rest of the rides?

 

Dan Dube, a French-Canadian harness racer who has been racing at Yonkers Raceway in New York this winter, now has the answer to that question as he reached a coveted 8,000-career victory plateau at the end of February.

 

“You always do your best. It is fun to win races. But when you are young, you want to just win races, but when you get a little older, you see the purses and that helps push you,” Dube answered with laughter.

 

Dube, now 45, He doesn’t discount that 10,000 wins are possible. “Yes, having a good purse, that is certainly motivation. But all the races are special.”

 

Taking time out in between races this week, Dube spoke briefly about his career, saying he started racing as a teenager, maybe 13 or 14 years old, having been trained by his driver-trainer father, Leo. When he turned 18, he joined the professional ranks and has not looked back since. Six years after he began in 1993,he won trainer and driver of the year awards at Hippodrome de Quebec and the Roger White trophy as the outstanding trainer in the province of Quebec. Dube continued to add awards, including in 1999 when he captured his first driving titles in the United States as he was the leader at the now-defunct Garden State Park in Cherry Hill, NJ, in both wins and earnings and was the top driver at Yonkers.

 

He reached his 8,000th win on Thursday night, Feb. 26, when the temperature was a relatively balmy 21 degrees, compared to some single-digit temps earlier last month.

 

He achieved the half-mile oval win behind a pacer named Clem in the eighth race of the evening, leading wire to wire, stopping the clock at 1:56 and rewarding his backers with a handsome $22.60 win mutual for a $2 bet in 1:56, and rewarding his backers with a $22.60 win mutual for a $2 wager.

 

Dube plays down his win total.

 

“I don’t really look at (the numbers),” Dube said. “I don’t put any pressure on myself. I’m happy the season has gone well so far.”

 

He is also ‎on the outskirts of $95 million career purses, and is best known as the primary driver for two Harness Horses of the Year – Gallo Blue Chip (2000) and Rock N Roll Heaven (2010).‎ Dube may not look at the numbers, but he is indeed a big numbers man.

 

Proving that motivation theory, Dube stayed hot at Yonkers by winning five more races just days after his benchmark 8,000 wins.

 

With the wins, Dube joined 27 others who have cracked the 8,000-win mark in their careers. He has a long way to go to catch the all-time race leader David Palone, who has racked up 16,890 wins in his career. Only one other driver, Herve Filion, has collected more than 15,000 wins.

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