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BONUS: Darren Rovell Interviews Jeopardy James · The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast

0:08
Speaker 1: Welcome to a bonus episode of The Favorites. I'm Darren Ravelle.
0:12
Speaker 1: I know I'm not your usual host of the show,
0:14
Speaker 1: but today I got a chance to talk to Jeopardy
0:16
Speaker 1: James Holdshower, who has won more than one point five
0:20
Speaker 1: million dollars in twenty straight episodes of Jeopardy. He caught
0:25
Speaker 1: my attention for a specific reason. He uses his experience
0:28
Speaker 1: in sports betting as a guide to crack the game
0:31
Speaker 1: of Jeopardy, and that's what we talked about on this show,
0:34
Speaker 1: along with how he uses the buzzer, the last sports
0:36
Speaker 1: bett he ever made, and how good he is as
0:39
Speaker 1: a sports better. So I spoke to him on Wednesday
0:42
Speaker 1: over Skype. Take a listen. I'm Darren ravel with the
0:45
Speaker 1: Action Network, and we welcome in Jeopardy champion James Holdshower,
0:50
Speaker 1: who through Wednesday, has won one point five two million
0:56
Speaker 1: dollars on twenty straight appearances. It's the third longest run
1:00
Speaker 1: of all time, only second money wise to Ken Jennings,
1:03
Speaker 1: who won about a million dollars more, but he had
1:07
Speaker 1: seventy four appearances fifteen years ago consecutively. James, thanks for
1:12
Speaker 1: joining us. I see you're in Uh actually a Cubbs, Jersey.
1:18
Speaker 1: You know, you're originally from Naperville. Went to the University
1:20
Speaker 1: of Illinois math major. Uh, let's get into Uh. First
1:26
Speaker 1: of all, how is it for you? What does it
1:28
Speaker 1: feel like? Because obviously you're taping these shows. I think
1:32
Speaker 1: you tape like five a day or something like that,
1:34
Speaker 1: so you know everything. It's almost like The Bachelor. Uh
1:38
Speaker 1: what what is it? What is it like to watch
1:41
Speaker 1: it later and see the whole country watch it in
1:44
Speaker 1: a time that we live in where almost everything is live.
1:48
Speaker 1: You know, I think it's really great. That's uh. The
1:50
Speaker 1: audience kept mom about it, and you know, it seems
1:53
Speaker 1: like everyone's really being food And it wasn't that hard
1:56
Speaker 1: for me to keep the secret. But I know my
1:58
Speaker 1: daughter is terrible with secrets, so I kind of had
2:00
Speaker 1: to make up a story to her that I was
2:02
Speaker 1: going to l A for work, which she she's four
2:05
Speaker 1: years old, so she doesn't question why a programmler needs
2:07
Speaker 1: supply from Vegas to l A to go do work. Nice.
2:12
Speaker 1: So one of the things that I read was that
2:15
Speaker 1: before you played the game, you essentially asked some questions
2:20
Speaker 1: about the buzzer, in particular, how important, how important is
2:24
Speaker 1: the buzzer, because I know when I was at Northwestern,
2:27
Speaker 1: I actually tried out for the college show and I
2:31
Speaker 1: could not get the buzzer right and I was automatically
2:34
Speaker 1: had no shot. So tell me how how important the
2:37
Speaker 1: buzzer is. So being on Jeopardy, I would say, is
2:41
Speaker 1: mostly about your tribual knowledge. But the people who appear
2:44
Speaker 1: on the show have all passed the same test. They
2:46
Speaker 1: all can do most of the questions on the board,
2:49
Speaker 1: so the buzzer becomes most of the game. Then you know,
2:51
Speaker 1: you you see on TV everyone's bringing in on most questions,
2:54
Speaker 1: and you know it's whoever wins the race that gets there.
2:57
Speaker 1: So I knew that would be the critical thing, and
2:59
Speaker 1: I tried to do all the which I could ahead
3:01
Speaker 1: of time. There's an e book that I read by
3:04
Speaker 1: a former champion with great advice there, and I actually
3:07
Speaker 1: emailed him and he told me to ask the producer
3:10
Speaker 1: before I went on about some questions exactly how long
3:13
Speaker 1: If you busn't too early, they lock you out for
3:15
Speaker 1: a quarter of a second. And I I had some
3:17
Speaker 1: really specific questions about like let's say hammer the buzzer
3:20
Speaker 1: five times, and I locked out for now five quarters
3:22
Speaker 1: of a second, and she kept like looking at me like,
3:25
Speaker 1: who is this guy? You know, why is he? So?
3:28
Speaker 1: What actually acts? I just want to make sure that
3:31
Speaker 1: that our our our listeners and viewers know. So as
3:34
Speaker 1: soon as Alex Alex Trebek stops talk, that's when it's like,
3:39
Speaker 1: that's when you got to get in. It's not entirely
3:42
Speaker 1: key to his voice. They have a human who actually
3:43
Speaker 1: has to activate the buzzing system, but he that human
3:48
Speaker 1: person is going off of Alex's voice, so he's trying
3:51
Speaker 1: to match the end of the question. And but you know,
3:53
Speaker 1: the human timing is another element to it that you
3:56
Speaker 1: have to kind of practice that. They do give you
3:57
Speaker 1: practices at the start of the taping day. So I'm
4:00
Speaker 1: not trying to get into too minutia. But it's when
4:02
Speaker 1: a light pops on them, how do you then know? Yeah,
4:06
Speaker 1: there's a If you go to Jeopardy dot com, they
4:07
Speaker 1: have a picture of the set and you'll see they
4:09
Speaker 1: have a kind of a gift with blinking lights around
4:12
Speaker 1: the game board. You can only see him on the stage,
4:14
Speaker 1: not at home, but they come on when the buzzer
4:17
Speaker 1: is activated, and you you have to decide for yourself
4:20
Speaker 1: whether you want to try to time Alex's voice or
4:22
Speaker 1: time the lights. A Um. Okay, so I guess after
4:28
Speaker 1: you spoke to that person before you got on the show.
4:30
Speaker 1: How much did you practice the buzzer? A pretty good amount.
4:34
Speaker 1: You know. I had a tape a buzzer I made
4:37
Speaker 1: out of wrapping masking tape around a mechanical pencil to
4:40
Speaker 1: try to simulate the half of it. I didn't even
4:42
Speaker 1: really come back close, but at least, you know, I
4:45
Speaker 1: had something to go off of, and I practiced standing
4:47
Speaker 1: around in my dress shoes like I would be on
4:48
Speaker 1: the show. I tried different posts of holding the buzzer.
4:51
Speaker 1: I eventually went with it kind of folded arms and
4:54
Speaker 1: hold it in this hand. Tried to eliminate wasted motion
4:58
Speaker 1: as there. The author of the book says, it's like
5:00
Speaker 1: a baseball player. You know, if you have a hitch
5:02
Speaker 1: in your swinging, it works for you great, but it's
5:04
Speaker 1: probably better to eliminate the hitch. Okay, so it's the buzzer.
5:09
Speaker 1: It's the buzzer speed. I assume you you cut down
5:11
Speaker 1: on that, you're able to hit it in the right place. Now,
5:14
Speaker 1: let's talk obviously we cover sports gambling. How much does
5:20
Speaker 1: being a sports gambler come into play with your strategy.
5:24
Speaker 1: Anyone watched the show knows you do math so quickly.
5:29
Speaker 1: So the idea basically and you're again, you're a math major.
5:32
Speaker 1: So the idea basically is to go as much as
5:34
Speaker 1: you can, to wager as much as you can without
5:37
Speaker 1: putting yourself in jeopardy of of of kind of coming
5:42
Speaker 1: into play with where the other people are. Um, So
5:46
Speaker 1: how do you I mean, I guess you've always had
5:48
Speaker 1: a math PENSIONT for math, and you've got better you're
5:52
Speaker 1: actually doing those calculations in your head. Yeah, I suppose
5:57
Speaker 1: there's two big things where the work comes into play.
5:59
Speaker 1: The first is just that, you know, the way I
6:01
Speaker 1: approach my work, I'm looking for advantages I can have
6:04
Speaker 1: that the average better dozen't. And you know, so I
6:06
Speaker 1: came into this thinking like what can I do differently
6:08
Speaker 1: than the average contestant to give myself that edge. And
6:11
Speaker 1: the second thing, of course, is that I can wager
6:13
Speaker 1: five figures worth of money and not be feeling too
6:16
Speaker 1: much pressure about it. You know, to me, this is
6:18
Speaker 1: just like a coin flip that's heavily waited on my side,
6:21
Speaker 1: and I want to get in as much money as
6:22
Speaker 1: I can on that coin, whereas I think your average
6:25
Speaker 1: contestant might be sweating. Uh, you know, and they can't
6:29
Speaker 1: concentrate on a tribute question with too much money is
6:31
Speaker 1: at risk, and that's you know, going to be too
6:34
Speaker 1: much trouble for them. They really shouldn't betting that much. Then.
6:37
Speaker 1: So you're you're you're, you're so good at the pressure,
6:39
Speaker 1: you figure out the math. Uh. I need to ask
6:42
Speaker 1: you about being a sports gambler in general, because it
6:45
Speaker 1: seems like you're you said that it's akin to being
6:48
Speaker 1: a day trader, which to me suggested that you're jumping
6:51
Speaker 1: on the early lines made by bookmakers. Uh. Is that
6:56
Speaker 1: what you do? Is that your thing? And is there
6:59
Speaker 1: a particular work? Yeah? So you know, I people are
7:03
Speaker 1: much more familiar with finance than sports betting in general.
7:06
Speaker 1: So I kind of like in these things too different
7:09
Speaker 1: terms from the finance world, you know. I think that's
7:11
Speaker 1: I often bet on futures, and I think that to me,
7:14
Speaker 1: it's kind of like running a hedge fun. You know,
7:15
Speaker 1: you're going long short on some teams and certain ways
7:18
Speaker 1: you can find a market where they're under price and
7:21
Speaker 1: a market where they're overpriced. Um, I do often jump
7:23
Speaker 1: on the early lions and try to trade out of
7:25
Speaker 1: those positions, either in game or uh when the market
7:29
Speaker 1: moves at a lot of sports books don't like you're
7:31
Speaker 1: doing that, so uh kind of the most important thing
7:35
Speaker 1: is just to make sure you stay on their good side.
7:39
Speaker 1: It's it seems like, uh, you said the day where
7:42
Speaker 1: you don't necessarily get to see your daughter's Saturday? Is that?
7:45
Speaker 1: Are you big into college football? You know? I work
7:47
Speaker 1: from home. Thanks to the apps, I can bet from home,
7:50
Speaker 1: and it's easier to line shop and things like that.
7:53
Speaker 1: And sometimes my daughter will be running around, and you know,
7:56
Speaker 1: if it's not like half time of a bunch of
7:58
Speaker 1: different college games, I usually will say, could break to
8:00
Speaker 1: play something with there, But it's Saturday is a pretty
8:02
Speaker 1: hard day in my whole family. My wife often has
8:05
Speaker 1: to try and take the kid out of the house
8:06
Speaker 1: for as long as you can. You used to run
8:10
Speaker 1: a poker strategy website. Is there anything specifically poker about
8:15
Speaker 1: your game? You know? I think that's one thing is
8:20
Speaker 1: playing tournament poker. You recognize that people who jump off
8:23
Speaker 1: to an early edge get the advantages of playing in
8:25
Speaker 1: the big stack. You know, if you're the chip leader
8:28
Speaker 1: in no limit tournament, you're the only person who can't
8:30
Speaker 1: go broke on the next hand, which really has a
8:32
Speaker 1: lot of strategic advantages, and I thought that, uh I
8:35
Speaker 1: expanded that to my play. The first person I know
8:37
Speaker 1: of who immediately goes for a thousand dollar clues in
8:40
Speaker 1: single Jeopardy tries to build a stack before hitting any
8:43
Speaker 1: of the daily doubles, And I think that might come
8:45
Speaker 1: from poker tournament experience. Okay, so what about the people
8:51
Speaker 1: who you're competing against as you've gone to so now
8:54
Speaker 1: we're through twenty as as at least what we know.
8:58
Speaker 1: Have you felt that the boith standing next to you
9:01
Speaker 1: feel more pressure? Is it palpable? You know, some of
9:05
Speaker 1: them I think did, But some of them have really
9:07
Speaker 1: risen to the occasion. Adam on Monday's episode played like
9:10
Speaker 1: a real champion. You know, I feel a little bad
9:12
Speaker 1: for him because he should have been winning seven episodes
9:14
Speaker 1: if you've faced any lesser competition that he did. There
9:18
Speaker 1: was a teach in my second game. He played a
9:20
Speaker 1: great game against me, and you know, maybe if I
9:22
Speaker 1: hadn't hit that daily double against him, he would be
9:24
Speaker 1: the super champ everyone's talking about. So people will talk
9:27
Speaker 1: about these are all blowout victories, but really almost every
9:30
Speaker 1: episode you can point to one point where if I
9:32
Speaker 1: didn't get a big Daily Double writer, if someone else hited,
9:35
Speaker 1: things could have gone very differently. How would you describe
9:39
Speaker 1: how successful you are as a sports better? Um, well,
9:44
Speaker 1: I'm not making the Billy Walters money, but you know, comfortable,
9:48
Speaker 1: and the important thing I think is that I can
9:50
Speaker 1: take time off whenever I want, you know, when it
9:52
Speaker 1: gets to be a hundred five degrees outside in Vegas
9:54
Speaker 1: and baseball is the only support and talent. I'm often,
9:57
Speaker 1: you know, taking a vacation, and I really apreciate that
10:00
Speaker 1: I have the freedom to do that. Uh what was
10:04
Speaker 1: the last bet that you made? I mean, are you
10:08
Speaker 1: are you betting now during this run or what was
10:11
Speaker 1: the last bet that you made? I have taken the
10:13
Speaker 1: last few weeks off because there's too much else going on,
10:16
Speaker 1: and really it's not as many sports to bet on.
10:19
Speaker 1: That's I made a lot of profits from the n
10:22
Speaker 1: C Double, a tournament that did not go so well.
10:26
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, there. I'm sure listeners are familiar with Polish middles.
10:29
Speaker 1: There were a lot of games where I would find
10:32
Speaker 1: the underdog on the money line and the favorite minus
10:35
Speaker 1: two and a half or something and they went by
10:37
Speaker 1: exactly two. That happened like four times in that tournament.
10:41
Speaker 1: But you did you have a good tournament? Though? No,
10:43
Speaker 1: it's did not go great overall. But you know, other
10:46
Speaker 1: knew that there were other things happening in my life. Uh.
10:49
Speaker 1: And the Super Bowl was right before I started taping Jeopardy,
10:52
Speaker 1: and uh, you know the pros love to make props
10:55
Speaker 1: on will just be a boring super Bowl? Yes or no?
10:58
Speaker 1: You bet the yes on boring everything. That was a
11:01
Speaker 1: wonderful super Bowl for me. Uh. Now, since you're talking
11:06
Speaker 1: about money, I have to ask you, how does the
11:10
Speaker 1: payment work for Jeopardy? Like, so it's one point five
11:14
Speaker 1: million dollars, like you get it after the show airs?
11:18
Speaker 1: Do you get it eventually? How does that work? I've
11:21
Speaker 1: always been curious about that. My understanding is that one
11:24
Speaker 1: days after my last episode goes to air, I'll receive
11:27
Speaker 1: a lump sum payment from them. I did think that
11:29
Speaker 1: they told me that Ken Jennings got a separate check
11:33
Speaker 1: because his run overlap two seasons, and I think you
11:35
Speaker 1: gotta one check when the first season ended. So if
11:39
Speaker 1: it happens to me, maybe I can expect that too,
11:41
Speaker 1: but I don't know. I know, I haven't been paid yet.
11:44
Speaker 1: What do you plan to do with your winnings? So
11:48
Speaker 1: I've already started giving some to some local charitable causes
11:51
Speaker 1: that I think are important to me, particularly once to
11:53
Speaker 1: deal with children. Uh, the Natural History Museum, the local
11:56
Speaker 1: food bank three Square, Uh, the library system there. You know,
12:02
Speaker 1: not only do I love the library, but they were
12:03
Speaker 1: invaluable and helping me prepare for the show, So I'm
12:06
Speaker 1: very thankful to them. Um, let's see, I want to
12:09
Speaker 1: send my dad and my step mom to the US
12:11
Speaker 1: Open because they've wanted to go for a long time.
12:13
Speaker 1: And uh it was my dad first said he would
12:16
Speaker 1: just take the grounds ticket to get in, but now
12:18
Speaker 1: he's wanted to go to Ash Stadium and maybe hope
12:21
Speaker 1: we wanted to go to Center for pretty soon so
12:24
Speaker 1: that the tennis US open for any in August and September. Yeah.
12:31
Speaker 1: Do you how have you become famous? Like? Are you
12:34
Speaker 1: out and about? Do you realize how famous you are?
12:37
Speaker 1: Do people stop you with each day? Does it get
12:41
Speaker 1: uh more noticeable? I would say the average time I
12:46
Speaker 1: go out of the house, Uh, at least one or
12:48
Speaker 1: two people will say hi to me, shake my hands
12:50
Speaker 1: something like that. I'll see a lot of pointing. But
12:53
Speaker 1: the one time, and really people really got in my
12:56
Speaker 1: face about it was when I was at the night's
12:58
Speaker 1: game orright Frank the siren and there I was on
13:01
Speaker 1: the big screen, so everybody knew who I was there,
13:02
Speaker 1: and I didn't have my kid with me, so a
13:04
Speaker 1: lot of people were stopping me for photos. And thankful
13:06
Speaker 1: that nobody is stopping me for a photo when I
13:08
Speaker 1: have my kid, because you know, if I let her
13:10
Speaker 1: go for five seconds, she's gonna run away. So um.
13:14
Speaker 1: I think the fans were probably more inebriated in the
13:16
Speaker 1: hockey game than it would be otherwise. Too. I think
13:20
Speaker 1: almost all been very respectful, so I'm appreciative of that.
13:23
Speaker 1: What did you think of the Washington Post calling you
13:25
Speaker 1: a menace to a menace to the game? I mean,
13:28
Speaker 1: that was pretty crazy. I try not to take those
13:31
Speaker 1: things too personally. It seemed like a rather silly take.
13:33
Speaker 1: But you know, if you want to drive Flix to
13:35
Speaker 1: your site, you can't write the hundredth article on how
13:37
Speaker 1: good James is doing. You have to be the first
13:39
Speaker 1: one to write something like that. So and you know
13:42
Speaker 1: it's you know something about that method a little bit. Yeah,
13:46
Speaker 1: I'm not going for a hundred percent approval rating. I
13:48
Speaker 1: would never be happy. Uh can you disclose how many
13:53
Speaker 1: you've taped or no? Uh no, I don't think that's okay, okay.
14:00
Speaker 1: Uh So my last question is how hard is it
14:04
Speaker 1: going to be to get down the money now that
14:06
Speaker 1: you need to get down because you're so recognizable. I
14:10
Speaker 1: will say that the bookmakers I've talked to, Okay, I
14:14
Speaker 1: should say the lines managers that talked to with the
14:16
Speaker 1: sports books when I come to when I can't be
14:18
Speaker 1: cashing tickets for the n C double as they shook
14:20
Speaker 1: my hands that they were rooting for me. So I
14:22
Speaker 1: don't think it'll be two different than it was. You know,
14:25
Speaker 1: I was already eighty six from half the places in
14:26
Speaker 1: town before this all started, and I doubt the inviting
14:30
Speaker 1: me back now. But I think the places that still
14:31
Speaker 1: welcome my action, they all know I'm you know, they're
14:34
Speaker 1: not dumb, and you know they're probably uh if anything
14:37
Speaker 1: would be good publicity to have me be seen there now,
14:39
Speaker 1: So will you go in if it? If it takes that,
14:45
Speaker 1: uh yeah, you know, I mean I try to bet
14:47
Speaker 1: through the apps if I can. But of course they'll
14:48
Speaker 1: take more money over the counter than they will on
14:50
Speaker 1: the phone, So sometimes I just need to go in
14:53
Speaker 1: person just to get more money down on something. Can
14:56
Speaker 1: I ask you a couple quiz questions on betting? Sure? Alright?
15:03
Speaker 1: How much does a two team money line parlay of
15:08
Speaker 1: two standard minus one ten bets pay? Okay? So I
15:14
Speaker 1: think the true odds are supposed to be like plus
15:16
Speaker 1: two sixty four or something, but they really give you
15:18
Speaker 1: a plus two sixty is right? That is? That is?
15:21
Speaker 1: That is correct? Okay? Who hit the infamous half court
15:27
Speaker 1: shot for Duke? Uh in the Final four that led
15:31
Speaker 1: to the back door cover? That was Chris Duhan? There
15:35
Speaker 1: you go? Which two teams combined to score seventy five
15:41
Speaker 1: second half points in the Super Bowl in Okay, let's see.
15:49
Speaker 1: I guess I can probably figure this out just from
15:51
Speaker 1: the years that'd be Super Bowl to be the Niners
15:53
Speaker 1: and Chargers? Correct? Okay, here we go. Uh what is
15:59
Speaker 1: the pay treats against the spread record in their nine
16:04
Speaker 1: Super Bowl since two thousand? So I'm not counting No,
16:09
Speaker 1: not not super Bowl twenty. Okay, let's see they covered
16:13
Speaker 1: this year against the Eagles. I feel like they had
16:16
Speaker 1: never covered, except there was a push um against the Eagles.
16:21
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna say one seven and one, we have
16:26
Speaker 1: four and five. But I'm gonna have to go back
16:28
Speaker 1: and check. I'm not gonna Oh no, obviously they card
16:31
Speaker 1: against the Rams. I forgot about that one. So okay,
16:36
Speaker 1: uh within three points? How many points was Appalachian State
16:41
Speaker 1: getting in its famous upset against Michigan in two thousand seven? Oh,
16:47
Speaker 1: I feel like most books, books didn't even have a
16:48
Speaker 1: line on this. I'm gonna say. I'm gonna say thirty nine.
16:54
Speaker 1: It was thirty three, but I like that. Um, what
16:59
Speaker 1: were the of Leicester City to win the Premier League
17:02
Speaker 1: before the season that they won five thousand to one?
17:05
Speaker 1: That one? I remember, you go. I was there that day.
17:08
Speaker 1: It was. It was crazier than Wrigley when I was
17:11
Speaker 1: in Wrigleyville when the Cubs won it all that was insane.
17:16
Speaker 1: Which state was the first state to legalize single game
17:20
Speaker 1: sports betting after the Supreme Court ruling Las May I'm
17:25
Speaker 1: not sure it was in New Jersey. It was Delaware.
17:29
Speaker 1: That was my trick questions which fifty to one Kentucky
17:33
Speaker 1: Derby winner in two thousand nine, became the biggest long
17:36
Speaker 1: shot to win since Donna rail In ns his name.
17:42
Speaker 1: I wasn't mind that bird. It was excellent. Uh. And
17:46
Speaker 1: my last question for you, which early two thousand's World
17:50
Speaker 1: Series winner did Phil Mickelson famously put twenty thousand dollars
17:55
Speaker 1: on at thirty eight to one odds eight one. Okay,
18:00
Speaker 1: so I have to be a surprise team that era
18:04
Speaker 1: of Let's say it was the Marlins. It was the
18:08
Speaker 1: Diamondbacks in two thousand. James, thank you so much for
18:16
Speaker 1: for doing this interview. Uh, you're a pretty hard guy
18:19
Speaker 1: to get and congratulations on everything it is. It's awesome
18:24
Speaker 1: to watch. It's addictive. And every night at least at
18:27
Speaker 1: seven o'clock in New York, I am they're watching, so
18:31
Speaker 1: good luck. You might have been done already, but I
18:34
Speaker 1: love the mystery of it all. And uh, and thanks
18:37
Speaker 1: for coming on with us at the Action Network. Okay,
18:40
Speaker 1: thank you for having me, Darren, good pleasure. Thanks to
18:42
Speaker 1: James hols howerd for joining us. Keep watching him as
18:45
Speaker 1: he goes for those records on Jeopardy. And please share
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Speaker 1: this with your friends and give our podcast a rating
18:51
Speaker 1: and a review for the Action Network. I'm Darren revel
18:54
Speaker 1: and this is the favorites