Latest / The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast / The Return of Scooch plus Arash Markazi of the L.A. Times

Transcript

The Return of Scooch plus Arash Markazi of the L.A. Times · The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: Welcome to The Favorites, the podcast from the Action Network.
0:12
Speaker 1: I I am Chad Millman and today back in a
0:16
Speaker 1: triumphant return, Mr Bob Scucci. Later on in the show,
0:22
Speaker 1: a rash Markazi columnist for The l A Times, my
0:26
Speaker 1: former colleague ed ESPN, who has logged more miles, more
0:30
Speaker 1: miles from l a X to Vegas than any human alive.
0:34
Speaker 1: He is going to come on and talk Vegas raiders,
0:37
Speaker 1: Vegas reopening, and a huge risk, a huge risk he
0:40
Speaker 1: took that few people would ever bother taking. And and
0:45
Speaker 1: before we get to any of that, we're gonna play
0:48
Speaker 1: a new game here on the podcast. Matt Mitchell, producer extraordinaire,
0:53
Speaker 1: tell our fans how to play. Thanks Chad, We are
0:55
Speaker 1: calling on all of our listeners here at the Favorites
0:59
Speaker 1: podcast to head the Apple Podcasts and give us a
1:02
Speaker 1: five star rating and review, and if you do so,
1:05
Speaker 1: you'll be entered to win a fabulous prize. All you
1:09
Speaker 1: have to do is leave a review and include the
1:11
Speaker 1: phrase the right side is the Winning Side, along with
1:15
Speaker 1: your Twitter or Instagram handles, and one lucky reviewer will
1:19
Speaker 1: receive a copy of The Odds the book, signed by
1:22
Speaker 1: both author Chad Moment and the real author, Bob Scucci.
1:26
Speaker 1: So leaving a review only takes about thirty seconds, and
1:29
Speaker 1: we really appreciate it. If you're not sure where to
1:31
Speaker 1: write the review, you just go to Apple Podcasts on
1:34
Speaker 1: your phone, tap the favorite stile, scroll all the way
1:37
Speaker 1: down the episodes list, and there at the bottom you'll
1:40
Speaker 1: see ratings and reviews. Chad Scooch and the whole Action
1:42
Speaker 1: Network crew really appreciate it. So thanks in advance. Good luck.
1:46
Speaker 1: Back to you chat. We're back, baby, Scooch. I'm looking
1:50
Speaker 1: right at you, Chad. What's going on? Man? You look fantastic, dude. Listen,
2:09
Speaker 1: we've been keeping up. I'm talking to you fairly regularly
2:12
Speaker 1: during uh the downtime, but it's nice to get you
2:15
Speaker 1: back on. It feels like you haven't been on and forever.
2:17
Speaker 1: Give me the rundown. What's happening at the Orleans, what's
2:21
Speaker 1: happening with BOYD Gaming? What's happening in Las Vegas? Are
2:24
Speaker 1: you back in the office. What's it like? So I'm
2:27
Speaker 1: back in the office a couple of days a week. Um,
2:30
Speaker 1: still working a lot remotely. I'm home right now, so
2:33
Speaker 1: I'm working from home right now. I've got two offices.
2:36
Speaker 1: One is at the Orleans and one is at the
2:39
Speaker 1: corporate office, so I've been into both. Both are a
2:42
Speaker 1: little still uh kind of hard to get used to
2:45
Speaker 1: when you walk through the casino. Obviously it's uh it's
2:49
Speaker 1: not as full as we would uh you know, like
2:52
Speaker 1: to see it or used to seeing it. But I
2:54
Speaker 1: was actually surprised when we opened that we have as
2:57
Speaker 1: many people as we do. We have more people than
2:59
Speaker 1: I thought we would. We opened on June four. We
3:02
Speaker 1: opened seven of our sports books. A few of our
3:04
Speaker 1: sports books, the smaller ones still haven't still haven't opened,
3:08
Speaker 1: mainly just because the casino itself hasn't opened yet. And
3:12
Speaker 1: I was surprised how many people were there. I mean,
3:14
Speaker 1: there was a ton of people there, and there was
3:15
Speaker 1: no sports really going on that day, and the only
3:18
Speaker 1: thing we we booked was a little bit of international soccer.
3:21
Speaker 1: But we had some horse racing, golf stream was running
3:25
Speaker 1: and a couple of other race tracks, and people were
3:27
Speaker 1: lined up to bed and uh they were great about
3:30
Speaker 1: you know, the new format and would telling them how
3:32
Speaker 1: to stay six ft apart. And we had every other
3:34
Speaker 1: teller uh stationed in in in the racing sports book
3:38
Speaker 1: trying to maintain the distancing, and for the large part,
3:41
Speaker 1: you know, we weren't mandating the wearing of masks, although
3:44
Speaker 1: we highly encouraged it. Uh. Since then, the Governor's mandated
3:48
Speaker 1: a couple of days ago as a Friday. So now
3:51
Speaker 1: everyone's uh wearing masks and everybody's great about it. So
3:55
Speaker 1: we have very very few uh complaints. I think people
3:58
Speaker 1: were just more uh needed to have someplace to go to,
4:02
Speaker 1: someplace safe, and someplace to kind of see their friends,
4:05
Speaker 1: even if it is that a little bit of a distance.
4:07
Speaker 1: All right. So I saw a picture I think the
4:09
Speaker 1: night before Vegas opened, and it was from outside the Orleans.
4:13
Speaker 1: It was right along the sidewalk there at that main
4:17
Speaker 1: entrance where you pick up and drop off, and before
4:20
Speaker 1: midnight there was a massive line standing outside the Orleans.
4:27
Speaker 1: There's nothing in the world that I've ever felt like
4:30
Speaker 1: I needed to be at as soon as it opened.
4:33
Speaker 1: I certainly have never felt I need to be at
4:35
Speaker 1: the casino before it opens, Like who the fund is
4:40
Speaker 1: lining up to go to the Orleans At eleven fifty
4:42
Speaker 1: five on June four, three months after a pandemic, when
4:45
Speaker 1: the coronavirus is still out there. The Orleans is the
4:48
Speaker 1: place to be. Man. I'm not even saying about the Orleans.
4:51
Speaker 1: I'm saying who the fund is lining up at the
4:53
Speaker 1: Pellaggio or the MGM or Mandalay or whatever. Everyone's different,
4:56
Speaker 1: you know. So me personally, I don't like to line
4:59
Speaker 1: up anywhere. I don't go. You don't have to line
5:01
Speaker 1: up that anywhere, Scooch. I've got a place at the
5:04
Speaker 1: front of every line, and if I have to wait
5:07
Speaker 1: in line someplace, I'd rather not even go. I mean,
5:09
Speaker 1: that's me. But I'm in the minority there, and you know,
5:12
Speaker 1: I've got some relatives I've got you know, my uncle Ray,
5:16
Speaker 1: he's the first firston to be in line. And New
5:19
Speaker 1: Year's Eve, the big crowds, and you know, everyone's different.
5:22
Speaker 1: So I get it, especially if you know you have
5:26
Speaker 1: a place that you've been going to for years, and
5:28
Speaker 1: so you're leans. A lot of the people that have
5:31
Speaker 1: been going there kind of live in the surrounding neighborhood.
5:33
Speaker 1: It's a it's a combination of a locals place as
5:36
Speaker 1: well as a destination resort. So we rely on a
5:39
Speaker 1: lot of those uh folks that live around around the neighborhood,
5:43
Speaker 1: and you know, after three months of being kind of
5:45
Speaker 1: cooped up. They were just looking for a place to go.
5:48
Speaker 1: So I get it. The only time I've never had
5:51
Speaker 1: to wait in line was my bachelor party in Las
5:55
Speaker 1: Vegas in June of night where and I thought we
6:02
Speaker 1: were going out for a nice dinner, me and all
6:04
Speaker 1: my buddies, and I went up to change clothes and
6:08
Speaker 1: walked out of my room and walked into a buddy's
6:11
Speaker 1: room and he's like, man, you look great, like thanks,
6:15
Speaker 1: and he goes, it's not what you're wearing a night
6:17
Speaker 1: and pulls out a polyester Elvis jumpsuit, a massive, massive
6:24
Speaker 1: wig and the plastic gold rimmed sunglasses and says, this
6:29
Speaker 1: is what you're wearing. And for the rest of the night,
6:32
Speaker 1: I did not wait in a single line. You go
6:37
Speaker 1: anywhere as Elvis, and you are getting free limo rides
6:41
Speaker 1: and you go to the front of every single line.
6:44
Speaker 1: But what's it like booking right now? I mean, we're
6:46
Speaker 1: booking a lot of things that frankly we have no experience,
6:50
Speaker 1: and you know, Japanese baseball, South Korean baseball, and uh,
6:54
Speaker 1: some things that were just relying on the expertise of
6:57
Speaker 1: some others, and uh, for only that there's not a
7:01
Speaker 1: whole lot of professional betters that focus on that either.
7:04
Speaker 1: So we're doing fairly well with it. But it's strange.
7:08
Speaker 1: It's strange, not kind of you know, you fall into
7:10
Speaker 1: a routine after all these years of following you know,
7:13
Speaker 1: the box scores and following the news and following the
7:16
Speaker 1: cycles and just not having any of those cycles. It's
7:20
Speaker 1: just just strange, so kind of getting used to it all.
7:25
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, other than that, booking is booking,
7:27
Speaker 1: whether it's uh, South Korean baseball or Major League baseball,
7:32
Speaker 1: so that that parts the same, right, So explain what
7:35
Speaker 1: you mean by that, Like we'll joke all the time
7:37
Speaker 1: during the season that like you'll be losing, but imagine
7:40
Speaker 1: how much worse it would be if I wasn't so
7:42
Speaker 1: good a job, wasn't so good at bookmaking. So, like,
7:45
Speaker 1: I assume you're talking about balancing understanding your liability where
7:50
Speaker 1: the risk is explained to people. What you mean by that, well,
7:53
Speaker 1: I mean part of bookmaking is minimizing your risk. And
7:57
Speaker 1: even when you lose sometimes because of you're the way
8:00
Speaker 1: you're booking, you're losing less than you would normally lose
8:03
Speaker 1: if you you know, weren't as efficient. So a lot
8:06
Speaker 1: of times we can have and I've talked about it before,
8:09
Speaker 1: we can have our biggest losing days, you know, lose
8:12
Speaker 1: a ton of money, and I'll feel good about the
8:14
Speaker 1: day because I've done everything I could to minimize it,
8:18
Speaker 1: and it could have been twice as bad. So so,
8:20
Speaker 1: and it goes both ways. On winning days. I've had
8:23
Speaker 1: days where we've won money and I don't feel half
8:26
Speaker 1: as good because I feel we didn't book that well
8:28
Speaker 1: and we should have won a lot more uh than
8:30
Speaker 1: what we actually did win. So you're never quite happy
8:33
Speaker 1: as a bookmaker, you know, even even if you uh,
8:36
Speaker 1: you know, even if you have great days, you always
8:38
Speaker 1: feel like you could do a little a little bit better.
8:40
Speaker 1: And that's kind of the competitiveness and us. But when
8:42
Speaker 1: we're talking about baseball, baseball still baseball, and if you're
8:45
Speaker 1: dealing with a twenty cent line, now maybe because of uh,
8:49
Speaker 1: we don't really know the players that well, we'll have
8:52
Speaker 1: a thirty cent line instead of a twenty cent line,
8:55
Speaker 1: or twenty cent line instead of a ten cent line,
8:57
Speaker 1: so we'll kind of widen the gap a little bit
8:59
Speaker 1: increase right, a radical hold only based only because we
9:02
Speaker 1: don't know a whole lot about that sport a whole lot, Dude,
9:06
Speaker 1: you don't know anything about like like, but doesn't that
9:10
Speaker 1: make you nervous? Like? All right, here's the situation. It's COVID.
9:16
Speaker 1: Everything is shut down, your book, like everyone's business is
9:21
Speaker 1: sort of struggling and trying to figure out how can
9:23
Speaker 1: we create some kind of product that can drive revenue.
9:27
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, out from the distance comes Korean baseball.
9:33
Speaker 1: Korean baseball, and comes Russian table tennis and all these
9:39
Speaker 1: sports that none of us have any idea what they are,
9:42
Speaker 1: and you're being asked all of a sudden, like it's
9:45
Speaker 1: either make book on sports I don't know or don't
9:49
Speaker 1: make anything. How are you, like the night before you're
9:52
Speaker 1: supposed to start doing this, how are you even figuring
9:54
Speaker 1: out what you're doing? Like I said, we'll call, uh,
9:58
Speaker 1: We'll call some people that we were I on over
10:00
Speaker 1: the years that uh uh, that that are have some
10:03
Speaker 1: connections that uh uh they'll be able to contact people
10:07
Speaker 1: who do follow it a lot more closely than than
10:09
Speaker 1: the rest of us. So we have to rely on
10:11
Speaker 1: other people, uh in those situations. And then after booking it,
10:15
Speaker 1: then we become more proficient, then we do know a
10:18
Speaker 1: little bit about it. And you know, give an example,
10:21
Speaker 1: like years ago, UH, we we never really booked beach
10:24
Speaker 1: volleyball uh and UH it was real popular with the
10:28
Speaker 1: Hawaiian clientele that we had at our downtown properties. So
10:31
Speaker 1: they come into town, you know, hundreds of of of
10:34
Speaker 1: our Hawaiian guests, and they said, Hey, they got this
10:36
Speaker 1: big beach hay and uh, this uh beach volleyball tournament.
10:40
Speaker 1: Can you put odds on it? We didn't know anything
10:43
Speaker 1: about it, so, you know, the first year we put
10:45
Speaker 1: it up, we got beat. The second year we put
10:47
Speaker 1: it up, we got the By the third year, we
10:49
Speaker 1: had a pretty good understanding of it, and then we
10:51
Speaker 1: started to actually know what we're doing. So it's kind
10:53
Speaker 1: of the same thing with this. We'll rely on other
10:56
Speaker 1: people's opinions at first. We have other tools in place
10:59
Speaker 1: to minimize the risk. We're not gonna take twenty dollars
11:02
Speaker 1: a game, you know, generally, UH, we'll probably limited to
11:06
Speaker 1: two thousand dollars. Uh. That covers like the people that
11:10
Speaker 1: actually want to bet. There's very few people who want
11:12
Speaker 1: to bet more than that, and if they do, you know,
11:14
Speaker 1: there's there's other flags that come up, you know, and
11:17
Speaker 1: and so so they're easy to detect. You know, you
11:19
Speaker 1: still want to keep the wise guys at bay, and
11:22
Speaker 1: you still use the same ways of detecting them that
11:25
Speaker 1: you do in other sports. I Uh, I'm feeling very
11:29
Speaker 1: nostalgic this week because I knew you were coming on today.
11:34
Speaker 1: Our old friend Alan Boston called me today. Uh. He
11:38
Speaker 1: was in He was in very good spirits, which was great. Uh.
11:42
Speaker 1: And I did a podcast recently called The Window with
11:46
Speaker 1: a guy named Matt Russell from Canada to broadcaster in Canada,
11:50
Speaker 1: and he happens to be a guy who loves sports betting.
11:52
Speaker 1: And he had called me like five years ago trying
11:54
Speaker 1: to figure out how to sort of get his the
11:57
Speaker 1: media business. He was working into feel comfortable sports betting.
12:00
Speaker 1: He was as prepared as anybody who's ever interviewed me ever,
12:03
Speaker 1: and um, it was amazing and uh and not just
12:06
Speaker 1: because you know, it's fun to talk about yourself. He
12:08
Speaker 1: asked so many questions about the odds and it made
12:11
Speaker 1: me even more nostalgic than today. Karl Reiner dies and
12:15
Speaker 1: like the first line of his obituary, which you would
12:17
Speaker 1: never expects of the Ocean's eleven trilogy, and like Swingers
12:23
Speaker 1: was on a few weeks ago, and Swingers like has
12:25
Speaker 1: such a stardust feel to it. All of it makes
12:27
Speaker 1: me sad that you can't go full bore and like
12:30
Speaker 1: have hundreds of thousands of people in the casino. Yeah,
12:33
Speaker 1: it's a bittersweet, um, but uh, you know it's I
12:38
Speaker 1: thought the canceling of Marchmaness Tournament was about the most
12:41
Speaker 1: surreal thing that I had seen in the sports book,
12:45
Speaker 1: just not seeing that canceled, So everything else after that
12:49
Speaker 1: kind of paled in comparison. I mean, to me, that
12:52
Speaker 1: was like the moon falling, right, you know, you just
12:55
Speaker 1: didn't expect to see that. So, uh, you know, we're
12:59
Speaker 1: just kind of learning to to deal with things that
13:01
Speaker 1: we've never never dealt with before. Matt Russell did ask
13:05
Speaker 1: me why you weren't in the book more. I came
13:08
Speaker 1: up with like a fake answer, which was, you know,
13:12
Speaker 1: Joe Lupo ran the sports book and he was sort
13:14
Speaker 1: of the primary character. And Scooch was a great guy
13:17
Speaker 1: who gave me a lot of background and explained things
13:19
Speaker 1: to me. And that's when I knew he was so
13:20
Speaker 1: good at this. And I begged me to do the podcast.
13:22
Speaker 1: I didn't want to tell him. There were just too
13:23
Speaker 1: many stories that I wasn't allowed to talk about. You
13:27
Speaker 1: should have seen when when that book came out. You know,
13:30
Speaker 1: you know that you and I didn't talk about anything
13:33
Speaker 1: that was going in the book or out of the book.
13:35
Speaker 1: We just hoped him prayed. So so Joe, Joe Lupo
13:38
Speaker 1: and I when that book came out, the first thing
13:40
Speaker 1: we did was like, what's in here's the one we're
13:43
Speaker 1: going true. Okay, he kept that out. That's great, kept
13:47
Speaker 1: this out? That was great. So yeah, I agree, there's
13:50
Speaker 1: a lot that we kept out. I can't even remember
13:53
Speaker 1: what I wish I had put in reminder to listeners,
13:56
Speaker 1: go into Apple Podcasts, go to the favorites, you rate
14:00
Speaker 1: this as a five star, you give it a review,
14:03
Speaker 1: You drop the scooches um the right side is that
14:05
Speaker 1: a melmanism or a scooch is um? The right side
14:08
Speaker 1: is the winning side in the review? Yeah, I think
14:10
Speaker 1: that was yours. That was mine. And uh, you may
14:13
Speaker 1: be lucky enough to get a signed copy of The Odds,
14:15
Speaker 1: the very book we were talking about right now. It
14:17
Speaker 1: will be signed by both me and Bob Scucci, who
14:21
Speaker 1: may or may not have been in the book. What
14:23
Speaker 1: did you miss most? What did you miss most before
14:25
Speaker 1: you got back to work? Well, I mean I missed
14:29
Speaker 1: the action. I mean just having that it felt like,
14:33
Speaker 1: uh like, even when I go on vacation, there's still
14:35
Speaker 1: you're You're still trying to keep up with all the
14:38
Speaker 1: sports and all the major events, the transactions that are
14:42
Speaker 1: going on. Trying to fill that void every day was
14:46
Speaker 1: it was a lot. I mean, you just it's a
14:49
Speaker 1: part of your life for thirty years and then suddenly
14:51
Speaker 1: there's just there's nothing, you know, so it's like, what
14:54
Speaker 1: do you do in the meantime? I mean, I've got
14:56
Speaker 1: some some projects going on that are kind of non
15:00
Speaker 1: sports related. We're in transition transition with some of our
15:03
Speaker 1: Nevada casinos here, so I've had stuff to keep me occupied.
15:07
Speaker 1: But just the lack of that sports and just the habit.
15:10
Speaker 1: You know, my my wife was kind of making fun
15:13
Speaker 1: of me because one night I'm sitting there watching the
15:15
Speaker 1: nineteen four World Series with the Padres and the Tigers.
15:19
Speaker 1: She's like, what are you really like that Jones? And
15:22
Speaker 1: for a sport? I mean, and I wasn't. I mean,
15:24
Speaker 1: it was just on and I was like, hey, I
15:26
Speaker 1: remember this, and but but yeah, you kind of need
15:28
Speaker 1: some of that to to kind of keep you going.
15:31
Speaker 1: So when when Michelson match with with Tiger Woods was on,
15:35
Speaker 1: that was a whole event for me. You know, I had,
15:37
Speaker 1: I had the snacks going on. I was like five
15:40
Speaker 1: hours of my day that I'm just right in front
15:42
Speaker 1: of the TV. I know, it was so great when
15:45
Speaker 1: that happened. When the Michelson, Brady and Manning and Tiger
15:48
Speaker 1: Woods match happened, we were supposed to go have a
15:51
Speaker 1: social distance evening with friends, and I kept texting my buddy,
15:56
Speaker 1: I'm like, five more minutes, I gotta watch the end
15:58
Speaker 1: of this. Five more minutes, I gotta watch the end
16:00
Speaker 1: of this. Like I didn't want to get off the couch,
16:02
Speaker 1: and like it was a Sunday afternoon. I made myself
16:06
Speaker 1: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I like had a
16:09
Speaker 1: bag of son chips. I even had like a glass
16:12
Speaker 1: of chocolate milk. It was so good to just sit
16:15
Speaker 1: on the couch and watch sports. And normally I get
16:18
Speaker 1: to say that because it's my job, I have to
16:21
Speaker 1: be watching it. To have it as an afternoon and
16:23
Speaker 1: I'm just like, I gotta do this, and I'm ignoring everybody.
16:26
Speaker 1: It was a it was a freaking gift, just took
16:28
Speaker 1: you away for a minute instead of thinking about everything
16:31
Speaker 1: that's going on in the world right now. Well, Scooch,
16:33
Speaker 1: everyone says it's coming back. We got baseball coming back,
16:35
Speaker 1: we got NBA coming back, and right now everyone seems
16:38
Speaker 1: to say it's still happening. And hopefully they do start
16:41
Speaker 1: and uh, they do get to finish their season, sixty
16:45
Speaker 1: game season in Major League Baseball. Like, I've been getting
16:48
Speaker 1: so many questions about how you handicap a home run winner,
16:52
Speaker 1: a h season win total, a m v P, a
16:56
Speaker 1: Cy Young, all of these things, um, in sixty game season.
17:02
Speaker 1: I want to get your take how you're thinking about
17:04
Speaker 1: handicapping these, and then I wanna give you my take,
17:07
Speaker 1: which is probably more interesting to me. Well, I'm sure
17:11
Speaker 1: your take is a lot more interesting because we're just
17:13
Speaker 1: taking season season numbers and just dividing it by the
17:16
Speaker 1: percentage of what they would normally play and just kind
17:19
Speaker 1: of coming up with a with a number, um that's
17:22
Speaker 1: just strictly formulated by by the math of a full season.
17:25
Speaker 1: So nothing terribly exciting in the handicapping of putting up
17:29
Speaker 1: the number. We'll let everyone else kind of drive the
17:31
Speaker 1: number up and down once we quote them up. I'm
17:34
Speaker 1: looking a lot of park metrics. What I'm really doing
17:37
Speaker 1: is reading Shanzarillo at Action Network, reading any story in
17:40
Speaker 1: our app that he writes, because he's as good at
17:42
Speaker 1: baseball as anyone, and he loves the Reds right now
17:44
Speaker 1: and sort of a shortened season. But park metrics, it's
17:48
Speaker 1: all wacky this year because the teams are not traveling
17:52
Speaker 1: all over the country there, park metrics are going to
17:55
Speaker 1: have a much bigger impact. Like if Mandy Machado plays
17:59
Speaker 1: horrible in San Diego but is amazing in Colorado, but
18:04
Speaker 1: they're having fewer games in Colorado, or he's amazing at
18:06
Speaker 1: shay Or City Field, but he's got fewer games and
18:09
Speaker 1: shty cy shitty field city Field, like all of a sudden,
18:12
Speaker 1: that as an impact, it's not as easy as just
18:14
Speaker 1: dividing and percentages and sort of all that simple math.
18:17
Speaker 1: You're talking about skeeds. Where are you getting the most
18:21
Speaker 1: traction right now for odds to win the World Series
18:25
Speaker 1: and for season win totals were I mean, right now,
18:28
Speaker 1: they're not driving a whole lot of handle because I
18:32
Speaker 1: think everyone just wants to see. I mean, there's different
18:35
Speaker 1: rules involved, especially with the season win totals from operator
18:39
Speaker 1: to operator. So I think that's one thing that you
18:42
Speaker 1: just have to be careful of in terms of, uh,
18:44
Speaker 1: you know, it's not standard of the required number of
18:47
Speaker 1: games in order for you to have action. Uh and
18:50
Speaker 1: and they may differ from place to place. So if
18:52
Speaker 1: you do see some drastic odds, I think, you know,
18:54
Speaker 1: just look at at the number of games that's required
18:56
Speaker 1: for for action. So I think, but at least here
19:00
Speaker 1: in Vegas, they're kind of keeping an arms length from
19:03
Speaker 1: from those type of props right now, only because they're
19:06
Speaker 1: just really not sure. They don't want to tie up
19:08
Speaker 1: their money for for that long of a time period
19:10
Speaker 1: and then not know if they're just going to get
19:12
Speaker 1: a refund on it. But you know, so just the
19:15
Speaker 1: normal kind of the teams that were kind of vented
19:18
Speaker 1: last year still still driving uh most of the bets
19:22
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, teams like the Yankees and Dodgers
19:26
Speaker 1: because they're just the popularity. But but it's not we're
19:30
Speaker 1: not getting a whole lot of the sharp play that
19:33
Speaker 1: you would normally see on those type of props. Have
19:36
Speaker 1: you figured out what the minimum number of games is
19:38
Speaker 1: going to be for you guys to pay off of that?
19:41
Speaker 1: So we have partners in outside of Nevada, and a
19:44
Speaker 1: lot of times are our house rules don't always metch
19:48
Speaker 1: so we're trying to make them as consistent as possible.
19:51
Speaker 1: So I'm still working with those guys to to kind
19:53
Speaker 1: of get to that uh that final number so still
19:58
Speaker 1: up in the air, all right. So then let's talk
20:00
Speaker 1: about NBA for a second, because they've been talking about
20:02
Speaker 1: coming back for a lot longer, so maybe you've had
20:04
Speaker 1: a chance to sort of think a little bit differently.
20:07
Speaker 1: Here's the one question. As you know, I'm pretty famous,
20:09
Speaker 1: and so I do a lot of radio shows, and
20:12
Speaker 1: here's the one question I get asked about more than
20:15
Speaker 1: any other, the value or lack of value that home
20:20
Speaker 1: court advantage now doesn't have, and what that does to
20:25
Speaker 1: even the playing field for teams like the Rockets against
20:29
Speaker 1: sort of the Big Three and the Clippers, Lakers and
20:32
Speaker 1: uh Bucks. So yeah, I mean that's the question everyone
20:37
Speaker 1: was asking even before the shutdown, when they were talking
20:39
Speaker 1: about playing in arenas with with no fans, and obviously
20:45
Speaker 1: every arena has a slightly different home court advantage, and
20:51
Speaker 1: baseball has a slightly different home field advantage. Uh So, Uh,
20:56
Speaker 1: I mean that's the that's the unknown. But if you're
20:58
Speaker 1: asking me as a as a book acre, um, I mean,
21:02
Speaker 1: it's pretty pretty standard. In the NBA. We just subtract that, Uh,
21:07
Speaker 1: what would normally be a four point home three point
21:10
Speaker 1: home court advantage four point or five point home court advantage,
21:13
Speaker 1: take that out of the number, and uh just use
21:17
Speaker 1: basically the road number. So you know, usually when you're
21:20
Speaker 1: making odds and you have your your your stats in
21:22
Speaker 1: front of you, you're looking at it away number, a
21:25
Speaker 1: neutral field or home number, and so you're just gonna
21:28
Speaker 1: use that neutral field number on on every one of them. Yeah,
21:31
Speaker 1: but I'm not even thinking about UM fans and how
21:36
Speaker 1: they could impact. I'm thinking about the creature comforts of home,
21:40
Speaker 1: like the lack of travel that comes when you're an
21:43
Speaker 1: NBA player. You get to stay in your own bed,
21:46
Speaker 1: you get to take the normal route to the stadium,
21:50
Speaker 1: you get to drive your own car. Uh, you're comfortable
21:53
Speaker 1: with the stadium with the optics, the literal optics, the angles,
21:57
Speaker 1: you know, dead spots like things like that that are
22:00
Speaker 1: sort of tricks of the trade, Like the Bucks don't
22:03
Speaker 1: have any more of an advantage with that than the
22:06
Speaker 1: Rockets do at this point, so to me, like I
22:09
Speaker 1: might be more inclined to bet the Rockets at twelve
22:13
Speaker 1: to one tend to whatever they are than the Bucks
22:15
Speaker 1: that a little bit less than three to one. Yeah,
22:19
Speaker 1: I mean, most of the studies done on home court advantages, uh,
22:24
Speaker 1: you know, like when you when you looked at all
22:26
Speaker 1: the star players statistics at home versus a way, they
22:31
Speaker 1: were always pretty similar. So in terms of the statistics
22:35
Speaker 1: themselves on those players, if there was no difference home
22:38
Speaker 1: and away, then really you know what made them player
22:41
Speaker 1: play better at home and what gave them a better
22:44
Speaker 1: win ratio at home? And what it always seemed to
22:46
Speaker 1: come back to was officiating. And not to suggest that
22:50
Speaker 1: the officiating was intentionally malicious, it's just having that home
22:56
Speaker 1: crowd just subconsciously effects the uh those close decisions, you know,
23:02
Speaker 1: those bang bang plays and and so, like all these
23:06
Speaker 1: studies have been done, there's been some pretty good articles.
23:08
Speaker 1: I can't cite some of the authors I can't remember,
23:10
Speaker 1: but uh, there's been some pretty good studies on that.
23:13
Speaker 1: So it almost always comes down to the officiating, whether
23:16
Speaker 1: it's the umpires in baseball or the or the referees
23:19
Speaker 1: in football. And so that tells you so without the fans,
23:23
Speaker 1: you wouldn't necessarily have that officiating bias that you would
23:27
Speaker 1: normally have with a full arena or full stadium. So yes,
23:31
Speaker 1: there's probably some degree of familiarity with the court or
23:35
Speaker 1: like you said, in baseball, it probably has the biggest
23:38
Speaker 1: uh bias, only because every park is is a little
23:41
Speaker 1: bit different and once the players, you know, have a
23:44
Speaker 1: feel for their home field, it's different. But you know,
23:47
Speaker 1: every basketball same, every basketball courts the same, every football
23:50
Speaker 1: field is the same. Uh So I always have to
23:53
Speaker 1: go back to the officiating in terms of what really
23:56
Speaker 1: drives that home field advantage. Well, I gotta tell you
23:58
Speaker 1: that has been discussed the least in any conversation I've
24:03
Speaker 1: had about the NBA coming back. Is the impact of
24:06
Speaker 1: officiating home versus a way. And so how do you
24:09
Speaker 1: account for that? Well, you don't really in the in
24:13
Speaker 1: making of the number. That's why I say there's an
24:16
Speaker 1: intrinsic number. And then we'll kind of let the we'll
24:18
Speaker 1: let the betters kind of uh discuss which which which
24:23
Speaker 1: is the best angle. I mean, that's nothing different than
24:25
Speaker 1: you have two opposing views from the handicappers themselves on
24:29
Speaker 1: what the right angle is. And and that's always been
24:32
Speaker 1: the success of handicapp Handicapping is kind of knowing what's
24:35
Speaker 1: not built into the number right, So this is how
24:39
Speaker 1: you get to that number, and then you know, your
24:43
Speaker 1: success as a handicapper is finding out what's not built
24:46
Speaker 1: into that and then whether or not that applies and
24:48
Speaker 1: how successful you'll be. How quickly do you think you
24:52
Speaker 1: will adjust once NBA games come back? What will you
24:56
Speaker 1: need to start making adjustments? I mean, how many games
25:00
Speaker 1: was under our belt? Yeah, probably by the first three
25:04
Speaker 1: or four days. Um, we'll see if they're you know,
25:07
Speaker 1: what kind of trends there are, and uh, you know,
25:10
Speaker 1: whether there's more scoring, less scoring, more enthusiasm less enthusiasm. Um,
25:15
Speaker 1: you know that has to affect the players as well,
25:17
Speaker 1: not having the fans in the stadium and and you know,
25:20
Speaker 1: some some players just rise to an occasion based on
25:23
Speaker 1: kind of that momentum and that feeling. So you know,
25:26
Speaker 1: without that, uh, you know, maybe maybe those guys that
25:29
Speaker 1: were averaging twenty one points a game suddenly only average
25:32
Speaker 1: eighteen nineteen, you know, So there's a lot of unknowns
25:36
Speaker 1: and that's kind of the beauty of it. And guess what,
25:40
Speaker 1: God willing, God willing, we are going to find out
25:42
Speaker 1: all the answers come and hopefully we get to keep
25:48
Speaker 1: seeing the answers all the way through the middle of October.
25:52
Speaker 1: Give me odds right now, odds that the NFL plays
25:59
Speaker 1: a full season. Who I think, Uh, you're probably like,
26:11
Speaker 1: if you had to bet, yes that they're gonna play
26:13
Speaker 1: a full season, I'd probably give you three to two.
26:17
Speaker 1: Three to two is pretty good. Yeah, yeah, i'd give
26:21
Speaker 1: you three. I'd probably give you a dollar fifty. What
26:24
Speaker 1: what makes you feel that way? Um, because I think,
26:29
Speaker 1: having already closed down everything, it's gonna be a last
26:33
Speaker 1: resort and things would have to get um, you know,
26:38
Speaker 1: escalated pretty quickly in order for everything to close down again.
26:41
Speaker 1: So I think I think they're gonna start the season. However,
26:45
Speaker 1: I just feel that certain spots are gonna get a
26:49
Speaker 1: little worse than others, and then they're gonna make some adjustments.
26:51
Speaker 1: That's gonna cause one game, two, game, three, game, you know,
26:56
Speaker 1: undetermined number of games. But to play a full season
26:59
Speaker 1: in this in these conditions I think it'd be an underdog. Sadly,
27:05
Speaker 1: I don't like. I'm a pessimist by nature. I don't like.
27:09
Speaker 1: I don't like the way you're headed. And in Vegas,
27:12
Speaker 1: I would think there is tremendous excitement, enthusiasm, optimism, and
27:16
Speaker 1: also like we're not shutting this football thing down until
27:20
Speaker 1: like it's the last possible second, just because the Raiders
27:25
Speaker 1: opening a new stadium in the town, Like the euphoria
27:29
Speaker 1: has to be beyond belief. The excitement around this town. That's, uh,
27:33
Speaker 1: you know, even even greater than when the Vegas Golden
27:35
Speaker 1: Knights first started that that first year, because I mean
27:38
Speaker 1: people care more about the NFL than the NHL. That's crazy.
27:41
Speaker 1: Who would have thought that. Yeah, no, it's unbelievable. So
27:45
Speaker 1: so yeah, the excitement and then every time I drive
27:47
Speaker 1: by that stadium and you know, you can see it,
27:49
Speaker 1: you know from the Orleans, you come out of the
27:51
Speaker 1: Orleans and you're looking right at it and it's a beautiful,
27:55
Speaker 1: beautiful stadium, and you know, just you get exciting just
27:57
Speaker 1: driving by and looking at it, and then just you
28:00
Speaker 1: know they're gonna be coming here after all these years.
28:02
Speaker 1: I'm not having a professional friend franchise and now we've
28:06
Speaker 1: got some. It's it's really exciting, and I think everyone
28:08
Speaker 1: shares that here in Vegas. So nobody's looking forward to
28:11
Speaker 1: anything ever being shut down again. But to ask, if
28:15
Speaker 1: one or two games somewhere along the line, if you
28:18
Speaker 1: know one team has to miss or another team has
28:21
Speaker 1: to miss, you know, it's just like I said, a
28:24
Speaker 1: small underdog, not a big underdog. All right, listen, would
28:30
Speaker 1: you lay it or would you take it? I am
28:33
Speaker 1: going to believe that if they start playing, they're not stopping,
28:38
Speaker 1: and you lay a dollar seventy dollar eighty, I would
28:40
Speaker 1: lay that, Yeah, right, I would. I would if your
28:44
Speaker 1: optimism if you're booking, If you're booking, I'll take it. Listen, Scooch,
28:49
Speaker 1: you I hope it happens, and I hope that. Uh.
28:52
Speaker 1: I hope that you don't have to wait in line
28:54
Speaker 1: for parking. You go to games, you don't like to
28:56
Speaker 1: leave your house. I can't believe you'd go to games.
28:59
Speaker 1: I really don't like to leave my house. Uh. If
29:01
Speaker 1: if I have the suite, then I'll go. So, uh
29:05
Speaker 1: does BOYD Gaming have a suite? Do? Uh? And then
29:12
Speaker 1: so and I've been invited some of our some of
29:14
Speaker 1: our other vendors and some of our other people that
29:17
Speaker 1: we we deal with, they have sweets and so I'm
29:20
Speaker 1: on the I'm on the invite list. Ah yeah. Our
29:24
Speaker 1: our boyd suite at the UH at the Tea Mobile
29:28
Speaker 1: said when we when I get tickets for the Vegas
29:31
Speaker 1: Golden Nights, it's unbelievable. You know, you drive, you park
29:34
Speaker 1: your car like literally right next to the suite, so
29:37
Speaker 1: you have your own entry. You don't have to wait
29:39
Speaker 1: for like the cars that are in front of you
29:41
Speaker 1: drive right up, You get out of your car and
29:43
Speaker 1: you're basically in the suite. I mean, it's fantastic. Scooch
29:47
Speaker 1: doesn't wait. Scooch doesn't wait at all. And reminder everybody
29:52
Speaker 1: go to the favorites page and Apple podcasts, rate and
29:55
Speaker 1: review the podcast. Use the phrase the right side is
29:59
Speaker 1: the winning side. We will randomly choose a winner to
30:02
Speaker 1: get a signed copy of the odds and you will
30:05
Speaker 1: not have to wait for that because Scuoche and I
30:07
Speaker 1: will both do it expeditious ly. Scooch, I feel like
30:11
Speaker 1: it might be time for you to just start coming
30:13
Speaker 1: back on like every week or so whatever. We've gotta
30:15
Speaker 1: figure out our schedule. I might have to do that.
30:17
Speaker 1: This was fun, all right, man, It was good to
30:19
Speaker 1: see you. Miss you you doo man, see every take care.
30:23
Speaker 1: Coming up next on the podcast, as promised, a rash
30:27
Speaker 1: Mar Kazi columnist l A Times traveling in Vegas on
30:32
Speaker 1: a NonStop pattern. He's going to talk all about the
30:36
Speaker 1: biggest risk he's taken. A local boy made good USC legend,
30:41
Speaker 1: l A legend, my friend and former colleague from ESPN,
30:45
Speaker 1: Mr Rosch Markazi, my brother. How are you, man, oh
30:50
Speaker 1: man is Chevit's listen. Whatever whatever I think about you,
30:54
Speaker 1: I always think about We went to dan Tanis one
30:57
Speaker 1: night in l a A and it was like there's
31:02
Speaker 1: been a lot of cool nights to have in l
31:04
Speaker 1: A and like when you have your job and when
31:07
Speaker 1: I used to have my job, Like you could do
31:09
Speaker 1: a lot of cool things in l A. But that
31:11
Speaker 1: dantan Is night, like it just felt so cool and connected,
31:16
Speaker 1: like you knew every single person. Well, that is quintestential.
31:21
Speaker 1: Hollywood is to Dantana's and so m it's a great
31:24
Speaker 1: place in the history on the walls. It is one
31:27
Speaker 1: of my favorite places to go. So it's also important
31:30
Speaker 1: to note, like you're sort of in l a legend
31:32
Speaker 1: for people who don't know that you've been around l
31:35
Speaker 1: A forever. You grew up there, and then you went
31:37
Speaker 1: to USC and now you're a part of the journalism
31:40
Speaker 1: program there, so you have a lot of students coming through.
31:43
Speaker 1: But what's most interesting to me, and then you are
31:45
Speaker 1: ESPN for a long time, and we're gonna get into that.
31:48
Speaker 1: Now you're at the l A times, what's most interesting
31:50
Speaker 1: to me is like how you've managed the way you
31:54
Speaker 1: are perceived by everybody in l A in which you
31:57
Speaker 1: were able to do critical coverage and yet still everybody
32:01
Speaker 1: seems to wanna talk to you. I hope that that
32:05
Speaker 1: that's the case. Sometimes it's probably not, but I think
32:09
Speaker 1: as long as you're authentic, as long as you're yourself,
32:13
Speaker 1: I genuinely like hanging out with the people. Every year,
32:16
Speaker 1: I have a birthday party, despite turning forty, I kind
32:19
Speaker 1: of use like my birthday as an excuse to like
32:21
Speaker 1: bring like everyone who covers whatever sport because I'm so
32:25
Speaker 1: lucky that I don't just cover like one team or
32:27
Speaker 1: one sport, so you know, that's like the one day
32:30
Speaker 1: of the year like I kind of like like to
32:31
Speaker 1: invite like everyone in town just to kind of catch up.
32:35
Speaker 1: Like I genuinely like hanging out with people. I like
32:37
Speaker 1: talking with people, Like I love the job that I
32:40
Speaker 1: do because like it gives me like an excuse to
32:42
Speaker 1: sit down with people and pick their brain and chat
32:44
Speaker 1: with them. But to your point, this is a dream
32:47
Speaker 1: job for me because this is my city. I love
32:50
Speaker 1: Los Angeles so much. I grew up here, so to
32:51
Speaker 1: be able to cover not only the Lakers of Dodgers, Clippers,
32:55
Speaker 1: USC and all those teams, but to do it for
32:57
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Times. And I know we've talked about
32:59
Speaker 1: that before, where I mean, that's a dream job and
33:02
Speaker 1: it's still so cool to me that I get to
33:05
Speaker 1: pick up the paper and I get to see my
33:06
Speaker 1: name there. All Right, So before we started recording, you
33:10
Speaker 1: told me that you're going to one of our mutually
33:12
Speaker 1: favorite cities tonight. It's a city that when we worked
33:15
Speaker 1: together at ESPN became your beat. You're going to Vegas.
33:20
Speaker 1: How many times? How many miles do you think you
33:24
Speaker 1: have from l A to Vegas? Okay, so you helped
33:28
Speaker 1: coin this beat that I've kind of carried with me
33:31
Speaker 1: to the Times, covering the flightpath between Las Vegas and
33:34
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. We started at six when Vegas Golden Ice,
33:40
Speaker 1: which hadn't been named yet, they were about to get
33:42
Speaker 1: their first pro sports team, and we did feel at
33:45
Speaker 1: that point that that was sort of like the beginning
33:47
Speaker 1: of this big trend. And to be honest, let me
33:50
Speaker 1: go back with the first moment when I switched to
33:53
Speaker 1: work with you and Dan Coffman and stuff, who was
33:56
Speaker 1: t Mobile Arena just opened up, and they opened it
33:59
Speaker 1: with the per b of housing a professional team, whether
34:02
Speaker 1: it was the NBA and the the the m NHL
34:05
Speaker 1: for both, which they still would like to do at
34:07
Speaker 1: some point. I do not know. I do know that
34:11
Speaker 1: I've grown to love the city as my second home
34:14
Speaker 1: or I there was a time where I was like
34:16
Speaker 1: maybe I should just like move there. But but it's
34:19
Speaker 1: one of those cities, as you know, Chad, It's like
34:21
Speaker 1: it's such a relationship town where like you walk around
34:24
Speaker 1: town and like you got your restaurant that you like
34:26
Speaker 1: to go to, where your bar you like you go to,
34:28
Speaker 1: and your casino host or bartender, and it's like, you know,
34:33
Speaker 1: it is a real community. So when the shooting happened
34:36
Speaker 1: in Vegas, where I always hold people is that it's
34:38
Speaker 1: not just a straight of these people live in Henderson
34:39
Speaker 1: to live in Summerland, they live in the north Las Vegas,
34:42
Speaker 1: they have families, they have I mean there's a ton
34:45
Speaker 1: of high schools. I mean people would be shocked at
34:47
Speaker 1: the number of high schools or in Las Vegas. So
34:49
Speaker 1: it is a community. And so I've really been fortunate
34:52
Speaker 1: that that job carried over to the Times as well.
34:55
Speaker 1: So it's interesting you mentioned the key word there, which
34:57
Speaker 1: is relationships. Right, like the reason why I think we
35:00
Speaker 1: all collectively felt taking you off of the l A
35:03
Speaker 1: Clippers beat and having you cover something a little bit
35:08
Speaker 1: broader that took advantage of your connections and your ability
35:12
Speaker 1: to create relationships and just find cool stories and do
35:16
Speaker 1: that between l A and Vegas, which are two of
35:18
Speaker 1: the cities where you are, you have to be the
35:20
Speaker 1: most connected in order to get something cool and different
35:23
Speaker 1: that is more than just a game story. That led
35:26
Speaker 1: to me to my favorite a rash Markazi Vegas story,
35:33
Speaker 1: which is this show is sort of becoming like a
35:37
Speaker 1: let's celebrate Vegas show. Because earlier I had I had
35:40
Speaker 1: Bob Scucci, a bookmaker at your league, so I've known forever. Uh,
35:44
Speaker 1: we were talking about the reopening and so tell me
35:46
Speaker 1: about like the j R. Smith experience. So this is
35:51
Speaker 1: sort of the couple of days before they're about to
35:53
Speaker 1: get their hockey team. The league is about to announce
35:56
Speaker 1: that Vegas is that, and we knew that this one's
35:58
Speaker 1: gonna happen. But that was basically why I was there.
36:00
Speaker 1: I was really excited for Las Vegas. I think the
36:02
Speaker 1: whole community was so excited to get their first professional
36:04
Speaker 1: sports team. So I am watching. I'm at w w
36:08
Speaker 1: WE pay per view actually, and I'm watching Game seven
36:10
Speaker 1: of the NBA Finals. Amazing classic game. The game is over,
36:14
Speaker 1: I'm like, what a cool moment. Go back, and I
36:17
Speaker 1: get a text from my friend at the Hexcess nightclub
36:20
Speaker 1: where he's like, hey man, great game. I'm like, oh
36:23
Speaker 1: my god, you're telling me it was fantastic. He's the
36:25
Speaker 1: as you're coming through, like when, like next week? Like
36:28
Speaker 1: tell me when and maybe I'll book a flight back.
36:30
Speaker 1: He's like, no, no no, no, they're coming tonight. I'm like,
36:32
Speaker 1: what do you mean tonight. They're in Oakland. We just
36:35
Speaker 1: watched him. He's like, I know they're not getting party
36:37
Speaker 1: up in San Francisco or like in Oakland. They're fine
36:39
Speaker 1: in Vegas. Right now, we're sending up the table you
36:42
Speaker 1: should come over, and I'm like, well, we're saying that
36:45
Speaker 1: would happen is like I would just go to the
36:47
Speaker 1: club and we want to put by myself and not
36:48
Speaker 1: by myself, but there wouldn't be anything there. But I
36:51
Speaker 1: I show up there they were, They're ready for the cabs.
36:54
Speaker 1: They got all this champagne, they got all this stuff going.
36:57
Speaker 1: And the next thing, I know, like here's Lebron, here's
36:59
Speaker 1: Jr's if here's you know, all the the and the
37:03
Speaker 1: entire team is there. And then listen so that they're
37:05
Speaker 1: on a stage at this point, you know, because if
37:07
Speaker 1: everyone's like let them enjoy that even and like I'll
37:10
Speaker 1: let them do. It's like they're they're up on a
37:12
Speaker 1: platform by the DJ. There's like a professional photographer to
37:16
Speaker 1: my left or right. There's like there's they're shooting this
37:19
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I'm gonna join them in this action.
37:22
Speaker 1: So I did that in one of those cool moments,
37:24
Speaker 1: by the way, where you know you're you're the only
37:26
Speaker 1: one there who's gonna put this out there for people
37:29
Speaker 1: to see. Becauld like the the other thing they're they're
37:31
Speaker 1: having the biggest pool party, which they normally have on Sundays.
37:34
Speaker 1: So I knew the videos that I was, you know,
37:36
Speaker 1: the pictures were gonna reach a wide audience. But it
37:42
Speaker 1: was one of those surreal moments where I'm like wow,
37:44
Speaker 1: like it was like Lebron, it was Vegas. But then
37:47
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I'm on Sports Center with Kerry
37:49
Speaker 1: Champion basically giving uh the play by play. Either you
37:54
Speaker 1: gave me a different version of the story when you
37:56
Speaker 1: first told me when we were talking about it many
37:58
Speaker 1: years ago, or you just changed it, which was you
38:01
Speaker 1: were already in your room in bed. I was no, no, no,
38:06
Speaker 1: a hundred percent totally in bed. Yeah, I mean I
38:09
Speaker 1: because at that point when I got the call from
38:11
Speaker 1: the friend, I was back at the Cosmo, like I
38:13
Speaker 1: was in my room. I was in my shorts. It
38:15
Speaker 1: was one of those moments where you're like, you know,
38:18
Speaker 1: turning out the lights. Almost a call that I ignored,
38:21
Speaker 1: you know, because You're like, Okay, what's there's gonna be
38:23
Speaker 1: no good at me come, you know. But it was
38:25
Speaker 1: like around midnight or a little bit before midnight and
38:28
Speaker 1: exact time. But I was definitely calling it like I
38:30
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna go out it was Sunday night. I knew
38:33
Speaker 1: I had to wake up early, but that's crazy. That
38:36
Speaker 1: was one for the books. No, that was and it
38:40
Speaker 1: was incredible story. And it was a video that ricocheted
38:43
Speaker 1: of j R. Smith spraying champagne and it was the
38:46
Speaker 1: beginning of sort of him being shirtless for like three
38:50
Speaker 1: straight weeks. Really was you know, because he got off
38:53
Speaker 1: the plane without the shirt, he did the parade without
38:56
Speaker 1: the shirt. He probably did a couple of talk shows
38:58
Speaker 1: without this. So I walked in, he walked in with
39:01
Speaker 1: his shirt. He did not wear a shirt for another
39:05
Speaker 1: week or so. How amazing was that? So so now
39:09
Speaker 1: you're at the times and like you did something and
39:12
Speaker 1: when we when we do these shows, a lot of
39:14
Speaker 1: times we talked about like risks people take, right, and
39:17
Speaker 1: it's it's about betting obviously on a day to day basis,
39:20
Speaker 1: but there are people who take risks with their lives
39:23
Speaker 1: all the time. And you about, i'd say, eighteen months ago,
39:28
Speaker 1: twenty months ago, did something that was incredibly risky, and
39:33
Speaker 1: there's been a lot of stories about it recently, but
39:35
Speaker 1: it's always been something that like I was super proud
39:38
Speaker 1: to see you go through this and wanted you to
39:41
Speaker 1: sort of talk a little bit about what you did
39:44
Speaker 1: and what some of the response has been. Yeah, So,
39:47
Speaker 1: um September, I decided to lose weight, and it was
39:52
Speaker 1: very public about that, only because I felt I needed
39:56
Speaker 1: to be publicly accountable, like because I think that there
39:59
Speaker 1: has been so many times I tried to do it
40:00
Speaker 1: on my own, and then I would just quit. And
40:03
Speaker 1: so when you do it on your own and you're
40:05
Speaker 1: by yourself, like, it's not hard to just quit. But
40:08
Speaker 1: then I put it out there that today's day one,
40:11
Speaker 1: and I haven't done a good job. It was three
40:13
Speaker 1: nine pounds um five ft six or seven. I'm I'm short,
40:17
Speaker 1: so there's a lot of way to carry around, a
40:20
Speaker 1: lot of way to just live your life with in
40:22
Speaker 1: terms of just walking and breathing and sleeping and things
40:24
Speaker 1: like that. And so I put it out there and
40:26
Speaker 1: I was always like, even now, like amazed by that date, Tuesday,
40:30
Speaker 1: September twenty only because I always made it a point
40:34
Speaker 1: to start like the first of the month or the
40:35
Speaker 1: first of the year, the first of the week, and
40:37
Speaker 1: so I was like, no, forget it. I didn't start Monday,
40:40
Speaker 1: but shoot, Tuesday September the day like I'm not gonna
40:44
Speaker 1: wait till like, you know, like October one, I'm not
40:47
Speaker 1: gonna wait till Monday, or you know, I'm gonna start
40:49
Speaker 1: today and then, um, the response was overwhelming. I think
40:53
Speaker 1: that's what really got me going because ten days into
40:57
Speaker 1: that trip, I was back in Vegas and I forget
40:59
Speaker 1: for it, but I was back in Vegas for work. Um,
41:03
Speaker 1: and that would have been really like and easy for
41:05
Speaker 1: me at that point to kind of just go back
41:07
Speaker 1: to doing what I did before, which was like a
41:08
Speaker 1: poorly and not work out. But I was amazed. Every
41:10
Speaker 1: day that I was in Vegas. On that particular trip,
41:13
Speaker 1: I went to the gym, I worked out. I eight right.
41:16
Speaker 1: I think I had like one cheat meal. But the
41:19
Speaker 1: cool thing about it because I had done such a
41:21
Speaker 1: good job up until that point. The key for me
41:24
Speaker 1: of making the switches. I couldn't get the seatbelt to fit,
41:28
Speaker 1: and on that trip to Vegas, I got the seat
41:32
Speaker 1: belt to fit. It was snug, but it was a
41:34
Speaker 1: big moment that what I was doing was working. The
41:37
Speaker 1: days later and it's late, you know, because it wasn't
41:41
Speaker 1: like like I was big and when I when I
41:44
Speaker 1: got it to click, it wasn't like, oh, I have
41:46
Speaker 1: room to spare, but it was cool that I didn't
41:49
Speaker 1: need the extender, because the extender was really what got
41:52
Speaker 1: me going, you know. I um remember that flight, like
41:55
Speaker 1: I couldn't get the seatbelt to fit, and at that
41:57
Speaker 1: point in time, like, you know, you're big, but for
41:59
Speaker 1: whatever reason, I always kind of lucky, I guess with
42:01
Speaker 1: my seatbelt and it fit. It was always type of
42:04
Speaker 1: it fit. On this particular occasion it couldn't. And then
42:07
Speaker 1: the flight attendant was like, you need your seatbelt and
42:09
Speaker 1: I was like pretending I was sleeping and she but
42:13
Speaker 1: she saw the look at my face and discreetly handed
42:16
Speaker 1: me an extender, and I was just remember being so
42:19
Speaker 1: embarrassed by what I had done with myself and how
42:22
Speaker 1: I let myself ge get to this point, and it's
42:24
Speaker 1: like I'm getting that today's the day that I'm going
42:27
Speaker 1: to change. So I'm glad she didn't walk past, because
42:31
Speaker 1: if she would have walked past, I mean, hopefully there
42:33
Speaker 1: would have been another moment in time that would have
42:35
Speaker 1: forced me to change. What was the scariest thing about
42:43
Speaker 1: doing it publicly, putting yourself out there and knowing that
42:47
Speaker 1: I had tried this before this wasn't the first time obviously,
42:51
Speaker 1: and that if I quit, it was going to be
42:53
Speaker 1: very public. It was gonna be very like all these
42:55
Speaker 1: people that had congratulated me and encouraged me and said
43:00
Speaker 1: we're behind you, like and my ten days into this
43:05
Speaker 1: is gonna be like, Okay, I'm gonna go back to
43:07
Speaker 1: doing what I did before. Just was I didn't want
43:10
Speaker 1: to do that. And and listen, you know, I had
43:12
Speaker 1: gotten to a point where like, I wasn't happy with myself,
43:15
Speaker 1: so I didn't want to post pictures of myself. But
43:17
Speaker 1: on that one I'm like, I'm going to post a
43:18
Speaker 1: picture of me at the gym and I'm gonna be
43:21
Speaker 1: working out, and um, you know was which is what
43:24
Speaker 1: I always tell people now, is like, you know, I
43:26
Speaker 1: didn't lose a hundred thirty pounds in one day, like
43:29
Speaker 1: it took over a year and so, but it did
43:34
Speaker 1: take that day one. Because I'll never forget one time
43:37
Speaker 1: I I signed up to a gym online with the
43:40
Speaker 1: purpose of going there like on Monday, and I never
43:43
Speaker 1: for a calendar year I paid for that gym. I
43:45
Speaker 1: never went. So it starts with day one. It starts
43:48
Speaker 1: with that first trip into that gym. And then goes
43:50
Speaker 1: to day two and there's that consistency. By the way,
43:53
Speaker 1: you didn't like posting pictures of yourself. Your Instagram feed
43:56
Speaker 1: is like the Hugh Hefner of Instagram, So by my self,
44:00
Speaker 1: so it's with my friends. Yeah, exactly. I guess that's
44:06
Speaker 1: the key word. I didn't post a picture of you
44:08
Speaker 1: poin myself. What. Um, so, what kind of response have
44:13
Speaker 1: you been getting? You wrote a column that was really
44:16
Speaker 1: powerful about it and explain a little bit about sort
44:21
Speaker 1: of from a famous name perspective, the kind of encouragement
44:24
Speaker 1: you've got. Well, I mean that's been one of the
44:27
Speaker 1: more humbling things. I mean, one month into Kobe Bryant
44:30
Speaker 1: was as Staples Center. Um, he was courtside that a game,
44:34
Speaker 1: and he left and as he's walking, uh to leave,
44:38
Speaker 1: there's like a swarm of media around him, and I didn't.
44:41
Speaker 1: I mean, I was kind of part of that swarm,
44:45
Speaker 1: and he noticed me. He's like, oh my god, like,
44:46
Speaker 1: you look amazing. At that point one month into it,
44:49
Speaker 1: I lost forty pounds because you know, it comes off
44:52
Speaker 1: super quick at the beginning when you're that size and
44:54
Speaker 1: you haven't done anything active and you like be poorly
44:57
Speaker 1: and so the way it kind of came off quick
45:00
Speaker 1: and he was and I think he said in the
45:01
Speaker 1: face too, He's like, you look fantastic. Keep it up,
45:06
Speaker 1: which I always think like that really gave me the
45:09
Speaker 1: confidence that at that point, like I was already well
45:12
Speaker 1: on my way. But I always thought that was a
45:13
Speaker 1: really cool moment. The coolest was UM, I mean just
45:17
Speaker 1: in terms of like surreal, in terms of what he
45:19
Speaker 1: knew was. I was at the Terminator movie JUNKI, mainly
45:23
Speaker 1: because the Clippers have done a commercial, uh for the
45:27
Speaker 1: Terminator with UM with Arnold Schwarzenegger. And so I sit
45:31
Speaker 1: down and they're like, you got ten minutes with them,
45:33
Speaker 1: Like that's all I need. I don't need more than
45:36
Speaker 1: ten minutes. As soon as I sit down and hit
45:37
Speaker 1: record and I'm about to like asking my first question,
45:40
Speaker 1: and he said, before we begin, I want to congratulate you.
45:42
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I probably thinks i'm someone else like
45:45
Speaker 1: this fine, I'm like, thank you, but like for what again?
45:47
Speaker 1: You know? And he's like, UM, for all the way
45:49
Speaker 1: you've lost that that's incredible. I'm like, wait, like I like,
45:52
Speaker 1: how do you know my story? He's like everyone knows
45:54
Speaker 1: your story? And he proceeds to tell me, like to
45:57
Speaker 1: tell this room of people, which is like you know
45:59
Speaker 1: his who who worked for him? Um, you know this
46:03
Speaker 1: guy you know used to weigh three nine pounds. You
46:07
Speaker 1: couldn't get a seatbelt to fit he wanted, but he
46:09
Speaker 1: knew details of my story that to this day I
46:12
Speaker 1: think is one of the cooler moments. And then he's like,
46:15
Speaker 1: you should be in muscle and fitness and I'm like, okay,
46:17
Speaker 1: you're okay. I think you're going a little bit too
46:18
Speaker 1: far there, but I appreciate that. But you actually did
46:20
Speaker 1: get me at the muscle and fitness, which I always
46:22
Speaker 1: think is like surreal, the whole thing. I mean, I'm
46:25
Speaker 1: a year and a half ago, I was three hundred pounds.
46:28
Speaker 1: So to be at the point that I'm at now
46:30
Speaker 1: where I I don't want to say, like I'm I'm
46:33
Speaker 1: I'm happy where I'm at, Like that's crazy to me.
46:37
Speaker 1: So what's the hardest thing about not going back to that?
46:42
Speaker 1: You know? It's just that consistency, you know, of of
46:44
Speaker 1: not allowing yourself because like I listen, I still like
46:47
Speaker 1: the foods that I like before, I would still rather
46:51
Speaker 1: uh not work out than work out. But you get
46:55
Speaker 1: to a point where like that becomes part of your
46:57
Speaker 1: routine and you in enjoy having a good salad and
47:02
Speaker 1: like a file at or salmon or chicken or whatever,
47:06
Speaker 1: like like you don't have to get an entire pizza
47:09
Speaker 1: to watch a football game. I mean I correlated or connected,
47:13
Speaker 1: like if I'm watching a football game, like that's like
47:16
Speaker 1: a sub and a pizza like like like that's the
47:19
Speaker 1: only way for me to enjoy. It's like, I know,
47:21
Speaker 1: you could just sit down and enjoy the game or
47:24
Speaker 1: have some chicken or a salaries or something. So it's
47:28
Speaker 1: been it was hard to break those habits. At this point,
47:31
Speaker 1: I have broken them, but I do still have that
47:33
Speaker 1: fear of allowing myself to get back because we have
47:36
Speaker 1: heard those stories before of someone losing a hundred pounds
47:38
Speaker 1: and then they gain it back. I definitely don't want
47:40
Speaker 1: that to happen to me. So, um, you are going
47:45
Speaker 1: back to Vegas tonight? Why are you going to Vegas?
47:48
Speaker 1: So So I was there June four when they opened
47:51
Speaker 1: up the Veiggest trip for the first time, and since
47:54
Speaker 1: March or whatnot, and then so now July one, there's
47:58
Speaker 1: despite the numbers being what they are, that it is
48:00
Speaker 1: it is a further um opening of Vegas, Vedara, um Aria,
48:06
Speaker 1: Mandelaide Bay, four Seasons, Delano, and Waldorf Astoria. So not
48:12
Speaker 1: the entire strip, but most of the strip as of
48:15
Speaker 1: July one, going into that July for fourth weekend, we'll
48:18
Speaker 1: be back up and running in. To be honest, like,
48:20
Speaker 1: we'll see how long that last. I mean, I hope
48:22
Speaker 1: just for like my friends and just people who live
48:25
Speaker 1: and work and depend on jobs, that that it does continue.
48:29
Speaker 1: The numbers post June four, We're not surprising. I mean
48:33
Speaker 1: I I wrote about how the Cosmo like no one
48:35
Speaker 1: was wearing a mask, no one, there was no plexiglass there,
48:38
Speaker 1: there was no temperatures being take. It was just it
48:41
Speaker 1: was almost like pre pandemic. And so like that is
48:43
Speaker 1: My most You video was seventeen million, and it was
48:47
Speaker 1: weird because it was very mundane, normal video. It was
48:51
Speaker 1: two minutes of me walking the casino floor. But if
48:53
Speaker 1: you did not notice the dealers wearing a mask, you
48:57
Speaker 1: would have thought it was pre pandemic. Wait, I know
49:00
Speaker 1: the video you're talking about, and I watched it. You're
49:04
Speaker 1: telling me that video has been viewed seventeen million times,
49:08
Speaker 1: million times. That's not and look now it's worse um
49:14
Speaker 1: than it was then. I remember seeing that video thinking
49:18
Speaker 1: this is ridiculous, Like how are these people walking around?
49:21
Speaker 1: I'm in the middle of Connecticut. I haven't left my
49:23
Speaker 1: house at that point in three months, And like, I
49:26
Speaker 1: know now that the governor of Nevada has since mandated masks.
49:30
Speaker 1: So you're gonna get there tonight. You'll be in all
49:33
Speaker 1: the places tomorrow, which is what I love about you,
49:35
Speaker 1: Like you just go, you go where the event is, right,
49:38
Speaker 1: what do you think it's gonna look like tomorrow? Do
49:40
Speaker 1: you think? What do you expect? I think July fourth
49:42
Speaker 1: weekend will be unique because in Los Angeles they've closed
49:45
Speaker 1: bars and the beaches. There's no beaches in Los Angeles County. Um,
49:50
Speaker 1: so I'm wondering are people are gonna stay home, which
49:54
Speaker 1: they should, like I'm going there for work, but like,
49:56
Speaker 1: are people gonna say at home or are they gonna say, listen,
50:00
Speaker 1: we've done the shutdown thing. They're closed to the beaches,
50:02
Speaker 1: they've closed the bars. Were driving to Vegas because you
50:04
Speaker 1: can get rooms at are really good rate right now obviously,
50:08
Speaker 1: so I know you have to wear a mask now,
50:10
Speaker 1: so that has to be different. I'm hoping that will
50:13
Speaker 1: be different, but I'm assuming it will be different. Um,
50:17
Speaker 1: it should not be as credited the cargo. One thing
50:20
Speaker 1: people forget about when they when the June fourth, when
50:23
Speaker 1: they hoping it up for the first time. I mean,
50:25
Speaker 1: you have the strip was so closed. So now that
50:27
Speaker 1: you know the Link and Excalibur and a lot of
50:32
Speaker 1: other casinos like hopefully gives people some option to spread
50:36
Speaker 1: out and not be so packed in. I don't know
50:39
Speaker 1: what it's gonna look like, you know, you know, because
50:41
Speaker 1: now Hockeys per perhaps and I don't know when that's
50:44
Speaker 1: gonna become official named Vegas as one of their hubs.
50:48
Speaker 1: It's a little bit like what's happening with Florida, right like, okay,
50:51
Speaker 1: I mean you you go into a place that's become
50:53
Speaker 1: a hotspot right now, so it'll be curious. I mean,
50:56
Speaker 1: I I'm kind of I'm interested to see how different
51:00
Speaker 1: it is. Because the the other interesting thing when I went,
51:03
Speaker 1: I was like, if you show up to Vegas Thursday
51:06
Speaker 1: at ten am, which is when I went. I think
51:08
Speaker 1: it was Thursday, you obviously don't think COVID nineteen is
51:11
Speaker 1: like that big of a deal, or you're not you're
51:13
Speaker 1: just not concerned about it. I mean, if you're literally
51:15
Speaker 1: also have a casino door at ten am Thursday waiting
51:18
Speaker 1: for them to like, well, you know, come back, Well
51:21
Speaker 1: you're you're okay, You're probably not that concerned. So that's
51:23
Speaker 1: why so many people at that time didn't wear masks. Thankfully,
51:26
Speaker 1: hopefully that will change. If the NFL plays this year
51:30
Speaker 1: and you've got the Las Vegas Raiders and you've got
51:32
Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Rams and the Chargers in your stadium,
51:37
Speaker 1: which team do you think you cover more games of
51:40
Speaker 1: those two or the Raiders? If this is normal situations,
51:44
Speaker 1: I'm for sure Los Angeles. Yeah. I mean, I'm definitely
51:47
Speaker 1: planning to be at the first game in Vegas, which
51:50
Speaker 1: I think is kind of like the course we took
51:53
Speaker 1: at ESPN. I was gonna be at every significant Vegas
51:57
Speaker 1: and so like when well the hockey team thing changed
52:00
Speaker 1: after the shooting. So that was definitely a game that
52:02
Speaker 1: I had to be up. But I was at their
52:03
Speaker 1: first preseason game, their first home game, but then also
52:06
Speaker 1: going into the playoffs, you know that their entire postseason run.
52:09
Speaker 1: I mean, I think people saw at that point, to
52:12
Speaker 1: be honest, that I had moved there because I was
52:14
Speaker 1: there so often, although I had not, but people thought
52:17
Speaker 1: that I had moved there. All right, Rush, I feel
52:20
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna have to name you at some point
52:22
Speaker 1: our official l A to Vegas UH Favorites correspondent Um.
52:28
Speaker 1: Try to be safe on the plane, Try to be
52:30
Speaker 1: safe when it opens. You look great. I'm glad to
52:33
Speaker 1: see you. I'm glad to hear your story is progressing.
52:36
Speaker 1: Enjoy Vegas. But don't you know, stay away from people.
52:40
Speaker 1: I will and I will check back and report on
52:43
Speaker 1: this beat that you've created. Chad, this is your fault.
52:45
Speaker 1: You created this monster, this l A to ve connection. Listen.
52:50
Speaker 1: I just I felt like you were being underutilized and
52:53
Speaker 1: I wanted to get you out. I wanted to get
52:55
Speaker 1: you out of l A. So this was a good opportunity.
52:58
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you later. I want to thank my guests,
53:02
Speaker 1: Bob Scucci from the Orleans and board Gaming and all
53:07
Speaker 1: the books in the state of Nevada and around the country.
53:09
Speaker 1: Bookmaker to the world, Mr Bob Scucci, plus Rashmar Kazi
53:13
Speaker 1: of the l A Times, who's on the flight path
53:15
Speaker 1: between l A and Vegas constantly. That's mostly where you
53:18
Speaker 1: can find them. Download the podcast from Apple Podcast and
53:23
Speaker 1: don't forget. Go to the podcast page, rate and review
53:26
Speaker 1: the podcast. The phrase that pays the right side is
53:29
Speaker 1: the winning side. Use that in a review and we
53:33
Speaker 1: will send you Scooch and I will send you a
53:35
Speaker 1: book called The Odds, which I wrote and he was
53:38
Speaker 1: a featured player in. We will both autograph it for
53:41
Speaker 1: you and send it your way. Something to do during
53:43
Speaker 1: the downtime until sports come back. Download from Apple Podcast, Spotify,
53:47
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast. Until next time, it's been
53:50
Speaker 1: the Ritz. Love you,