Latest / Hey BigHead: The Vegas Local Podcast / The Hottest Place to Bet in Nevada, Boomer's Sportsbook | 331

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The Hottest Place to Bet in Nevada, Boomer's Sportsbook | 331 · Hey BigHead: The Vegas Local Podcast

0:04
SPEAKER_03: Hey, Brun.
0:06
SPEAKER_02: Yes, sir.
0:07
SPEAKER_03: Remember that last time we had Nick Bogdanovich on from Boomers, he's the head of trading, and I asked you if you ever did any sports betting, and what did you say?
0:16
SPEAKER_02: I've done it for other people.
0:18
SPEAKER_02: Have you sent no.
0:20
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
0:20
SPEAKER_02: Well, you're you're killing me spalse.
0:23
SPEAKER_02: What is with you?
0:24
SPEAKER_02: Why aren't you why don't you speak to me?
0:25
SPEAKER_02: I don't know enough about sport.
0:26
SPEAKER_02: I don't follow sports.
0:27
SPEAKER_02: It's just my thing, unfortunately.
0:30
SPEAKER_03: You know, if if this podcast thing doesn't work out, maybe I'll open up like an online class that teaches such young gentlemen and ladies such as yourself to how to sports trade.
0:39
SPEAKER_03: Maybe.
0:40
SPEAKER_02: See, if I was going to sports bed, it would be about hockey, and then I would have lost money because I would have bet on the nights.
0:45
SPEAKER_02: See, that's what it is.
0:45
SPEAKER_02: You bet with your heart, not with your mind.
0:47
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
0:47
SPEAKER_03: What are you gonna do?
0:48
SPEAKER_03: Well, listen, we had a great time talking with Nick.
0:51
SPEAKER_03: He's the head of trading at Boomers Sportsbook.
0:54
SPEAKER_03: And we had such a great time that not only did we have Nick, I wanted to have Joe Asher, the president and CEO on the show.
1:01
SPEAKER_03: And lo and behold, we have Joe Asher, the president and CEO of Boomers Sportsbook.
1:06
SPEAKER_03: Welcome to the show, Joe.
1:07
SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much for being here.
1:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thanks for having me.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: It's great to check out your digs, which were very nice.
1:12
SPEAKER_03: Oh, I appreciate that.
1:12
SPEAKER_03: What did you think of the Nick episode?
1:14
SPEAKER_01: Uh I enjoyed it a lot.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: Look, I Nick's had such a great career.
1:17
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
1:18
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and you know, I always learn something new every time I I listen to him talking about stuff and some of the stuff you've heard before, some of it's new.
1:25
SPEAKER_01: And I like the uh uh the interaction and the back and forth with him.
1:30
SPEAKER_01: I thought it was great.
1:30
SPEAKER_03: I'll tell you what, I don't know, I didn't know Nick before meeting him that day, but I I I could kind of get a feel for his personality after you know a couple minutes of of talking with him.
1:40
SPEAKER_03: I feel like he had a little bit of a shell at the beginning, but I feel like at the end of the episode I opened up a little bit.
1:46
SPEAKER_03: I feel like I cracked that shell just a little bit.
1:49
SPEAKER_03: And that that right there, it was was the greatest accomplishment for me, in my opinion, right there.
1:53
SPEAKER_03: But I I I I I don't think I feel I don't feel like I have a shell that I'm dealing with here with you.
1:57
SPEAKER_03: I feel like you're pretty open.
1:59
SPEAKER_03: I've seen you on the Mike Davis uh episode that you guys did.
2:01
SPEAKER_03: Mike's a a friend of mine.
2:03
SPEAKER_03: Um and yeah, you're you're very open and outgoing, so I'm I'm all for it.
2:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, it's funny.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: Um long time ago, Nick and I both uh Nick was ahead of trading for William Hill.
2:13
SPEAKER_01: I was the CEO.
2:15
SPEAKER_01: And uh the folks from London came over, it was a British company, they came over and they did like these like personality tests.
2:22
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
2:23
SPEAKER_01: And then you had to go stand in like one spot along the wall, depending on you know what you got.
2:29
SPEAKER_01: Nick and I were the exact same.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: Nobody else in the company that was there uh was in that category.
2:35
SPEAKER_01: We just sort of had the same um personality, which we never knew, like didn't know about it beforehand and had a perfectly you know good relationship.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: But that that that then sort of opened up the relationship uh between us.
2:47
SPEAKER_01: Nice.
2:47
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was great learning about Nick, and I'm very excited to learn about you.
2:50
SPEAKER_03: I'll tell you what though, I do know that you're a very humble guy.
2:55
SPEAKER_03: You're you're you're you're successful at what you do, but you're very humble and you're not one to toot your own horn.
2:59
SPEAKER_03: So I'm going to toot your own horn for you, if you don't mind.
3:02
SPEAKER_03: After doing our research on your background and boomers, you're a huge deal in the sports betting history.
3:09
SPEAKER_03: Did you know this, by the way?
3:11
SPEAKER_01: I yeah, I wouldn't say in the in in the sports betting history, you know.
3:15
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people have sort of built up the business, and then you pass the baton along to the next person and the next person.
3:21
SPEAKER_01: So at some point in there, yeah, you know, the baton got passed to me, and I've tried to move it forward as as best I can and have taken a liking to the business, and it's worked out well.
3:31
SPEAKER_03: I love that for you.
3:31
SPEAKER_03: How long have you been involved professionally in the sports betting world?
3:35
SPEAKER_01: So back in 2007, I started working on a company that was named Brandywine.
3:40
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
3:41
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and that was a racetrack where I worked at as a kid.
3:44
SPEAKER_01: And you know, when you start your own company, one of the things is you get to pick the name.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so I started working on Brandywine 2007.
3:50
SPEAKER_01: We opened for business in 2008.
3:52
SPEAKER_01: So uh, you know, gone on 20 years now.
3:56
SPEAKER_03: Without i is it the obvious reason as to why you called it Brandywine?
4:00
SPEAKER_03: Or explain to me why Brandywine?
4:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so so I grew up in uh in Wilmington, Delaware.
4:06
SPEAKER_01: And the the the name Brandywine is very common in that area.
4:10
SPEAKER_01: There was a revolutionary war battle fought along the banks of the Brandywine River, which flows through Delaware and Pennsylvania.
4:19
SPEAKER_01: Um it actually didn't, you know, do very well for the Americans.
4:23
SPEAKER_01: And it was on like I think September 11th, 1777, maybe.
4:27
SPEAKER_01: So it was like the first bad September 11th.
4:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:30
SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, General Washington had to retreat uh from the Brandywine.
4:35
SPEAKER_01: But as a result of that river and in that general area, there's like a Brandywine 100, and there's a bunch of businesses called Brandywine, there's a Brandywine High School.
4:45
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and um there was a racetrack um where I started going with my dad from my very earliest years.
4:53
SPEAKER_01: It was called Brandywine Raceway.
4:54
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
4:55
SPEAKER_01: And um I got a job working there when I was 16 years old, and uh it was always just a very special place for me.
5:02
SPEAKER_01: So uh that's why the company was called Brandywine.
5:05
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna be completely honest with you.
5:06
SPEAKER_03: That was very the opposite of what I thought it was.
5:08
SPEAKER_03: I thought you were just a big drinker and you're a fan of brandy and wine.
5:12
SPEAKER_01: I'm not really into brandy.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: I'll drink wine once in a while, but uh good.
5:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it it it it it doesn't have anything to do with uh with brandy anyway.
5:19
SPEAKER_03: At what point before your professional side of things when you got into the sports trading, sports betting industry, or even just anything related to it, were you a casual sports better yourself?
5:30
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I I I've I grew up around the gambling business.
5:33
SPEAKER_01: So my dad was a gambler and he'd bet on everything.
5:37
SPEAKER_01: And he bet on sports, he'd go to the racetrack like Brandywine in Delaware Park.
5:42
SPEAKER_01: Uh he'd go to the casinos in Atlantic City.
5:44
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I I kind of just grew up in that environment.
5:48
SPEAKER_01: I was shooting dice in the back of a butcher shop by the time I was nine.
5:52
SPEAKER_01: Uh when I was twelve, I went to the library and checked out a book written by a guy named Ken Houston on card counting, and he was one of the first really great card counters that you know bought um eight decks of cards and used to sit there practicing counting.
6:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, and went to Atlantic City for the first time when I was 14.
6:10
SPEAKER_01: My dad decided I was far enough along, and he took me down to a costume shop in Wilmington, got me a fake mustache, and then he staked me in Atlantic City.
6:20
SPEAKER_01: Um and and then you know, I got the uh you know the job at Brandywine.
6:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sure.
6:24
SPEAKER_01: Um, became the youngest track announcer in the country back when I was a teenager.
6:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
6:29
SPEAKER_01: And so I just sort of had this upbringing in that environment, right?
6:34
SPEAKER_01: It's very different from the world my kids are growing up in for sure, but you know, you don't know any different.
6:39
SPEAKER_01: And uh and I just sort of took to that and really liked it.
6:42
SPEAKER_03: That's interesting.
6:43
SPEAKER_03: Did you, without getting too personal, but I am very intrigued on the personal side in the relationship with you and your dad?
6:49
SPEAKER_03: My dad is not to the point where he is buying fake mustaches for me, but he definitely is is uh a major influence of how I got into the you know sports betting.
6:59
SPEAKER_03: Sports betting for me is is uh a very big part of my life.
7:03
SPEAKER_03: Um do you feel like the relationship with you and your dad was brought you closer because he got you involved with it?
7:10
SPEAKER_03: Or do you feel like you had held a little maybe not animosity, but just a little difference difference between him and you because you were such at a young age and he was kind of forcing you into it?
7:21
SPEAKER_01: He didn't he didn't force me into it, but it was our bonding time, okay.
7:24
SPEAKER_01: Right?
7:25
SPEAKER_01: Like that was the time when I'd get to spend time with my dad.
7:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
7:28
SPEAKER_01: And you know, obviously, you know, people do different things.
7:30
SPEAKER_01: I'd take my son to Buffalo Wild Wings on, you know, for for the games on Sunday.
7:35
SPEAKER_01: Um and and you know, but he used to take me to the track and and I loved it.
7:39
SPEAKER_01: I just cause because I was with him and you know, I'd try to tell him who to bet.
7:44
SPEAKER_01: I was a little statistic skeet, would clip the box scores out of the newspaper and try to tell him who to bet on in the baseball games.
7:52
SPEAKER_01: And so that was sort of our our um our childhood bonding, you know, and for him, you know, gambling became a real problem.
7:59
SPEAKER_01: He developed a gambling problem as a compulsive gambler, and caused a lot of harm for him.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: You know, for me, I I didn't have that sort of addiction to it.
8:07
SPEAKER_01: Good.
8:08
SPEAKER_01: Um, and and so I but I've always been very cognizant uh around it.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: Um and and I've just enjoyed it, you know.
8:15
SPEAKER_01: Long before I moved to Las Vegas, you know, I'd come out here three, four times a year like so many other people do, come out for you know, the first weekend of March Madness or for the playoffs in uh in the NFL, something like that, and you know, hang out with a group of guys for the weekend or whatever.
8:32
SPEAKER_01: And uh I've always loved it.
8:33
SPEAKER_01: When I when I was a little kid, there used to be this TV show called Vegas with Robert Urick, and the opening was like the facade of some of the legendary casinos.
8:44
SPEAKER_01: I think it was like you know, the stardust was in it.
8:47
SPEAKER_01: And and so I just had this fascination with Las Vegas from a very early age.
8:53
SPEAKER_01: And but I never came out here.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, I remember first time I got out to Las Vegas was I I after I worked at the racetracks for a while, I got out of it for a while, went to law school, practiced law.
9:06
SPEAKER_01: So it actually just graduated law school.
9:08
SPEAKER_01: I think when I first came out to Las Vegas, a buddy of mine was coming out for a conference or something.
9:14
SPEAKER_01: And it was like wow.
9:16
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was so cool because I it I had hyped it up so much in my mind, and then I was there.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: Um and and there I was here.
9:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and just loved it.
9:26
SPEAKER_01: And you know, maybe at that time I kind of thought, you know, well, Jews, maybe I should stay.
9:30
SPEAKER_01: Because like how old were you at this time?
9:32
SPEAKER_03: 21, 22?
9:33
SPEAKER_01: Uh a little bit older.
9:35
SPEAKER_01: I would have been like 25, 26, something like that, mid-20s.
9:39
SPEAKER_01: Um you know, I'm glad I didn't move out at that time.
9:43
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't have met my wife, and so who knows what life would have been like.
9:46
SPEAKER_01: My kids would be different, and yeah, who knows?
9:48
SPEAKER_01: So it's all worked out great.
9:50
SPEAKER_01: Um, but I think it was like a real cool era back then, and and and I love the history of Las Vegas, and um it just you know it's probably in my blood just from my youth, but it's it's been a great run.
10:03
SPEAKER_01: I've been out here 20 years, and it's been a great run.
10:06
SPEAKER_03: You know, it's funny, very rarely do things that when you when they're hyped up in your mind, do they meet the expectations once you actually see it or you go to it or whatever.
10:14
SPEAKER_03: And I I agree with you.
10:15
SPEAKER_03: Vegas for me was hyped up in my mind to an extent that there's no way it could match my expectations, and it did.
10:22
SPEAKER_03: It it did help that I with the first time I came out here, I I left up winning money, and that was probably the worst thing that ever happened to me because I could do it anytime then after that.
10:31
SPEAKER_03: But it was um, you know, Vegas is is that rare beast that does exceed expectations if you have fun, if you you know you're you're not out of control or you're you're with the right people.
10:42
SPEAKER_03: Um so totally get that.
10:44
SPEAKER_03: When you were you're so just let me just understand this.
10:47
SPEAKER_03: So your dad helped you understand the sports betting side of things growing up.
10:51
SPEAKER_03: When you were in charge of the racetrack, who helped you understand the business side of it?
10:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, I wasn't in charge, I was working there.
10:57
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
10:57
SPEAKER_01: Uh the guy who hired me was um the head of publicity, a guy named Marv Bakrod.
11:03
SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, he helped me learn that aspect of it.
11:06
SPEAKER_01: And then I became very uh close with the guy who was the president of the racetrack, uh, who was this guy named Hap Hanson, who who really became a lifelong mentor to me, and I stayed very um friendly with him uh until he died, and in he lived in like to 96 or something, but um he he played a seminal role in my life because I was in school at the time, but I didn't really like school and I'd much rather be at the racetrack.
11:32
SPEAKER_01: Um but uh he conditioned my employment at Brandywine on staying in school.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: Like in order to work at the racetrack, I had to stay in school.
11:40
SPEAKER_01: And and that was a very selfless thing, right?
11:43
SPEAKER_01: Because if I'm not in school, then I'm probably a better employee in in in the short term for for Brandywine, and I'm 100% focused on that instead of having to focus on my studies.
11:53
SPEAKER_01: But he really wanted me to stay in school.
11:55
SPEAKER_01: And um, and you know, sort of I I did barely by the hair of my chinny chin chin, you know.
12:02
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't easy because, you know, especially when I got to college, I didn't really have anything in common with a lot of people at school, you know, because I had grown up in this weird world world real you know, weird uh world of gambling.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I just much prefer to be at the track um than, you know, sitting in a classroom.
12:20
SPEAKER_03: That's so funny.
12:21
SPEAKER_03: Hap Hanson, by the way, what a fantastic name.
12:23
SPEAKER_03: What a cr what a great name that is.
12:25
SPEAKER_01: You know, he he he was uh an amazing uh story in and of himself, you know, sort of grew up in very humble circumstances, wound up going to the Naval Academy, uh, and then you know, was part of the greatest generation, served in the Pacific in World War II.
12:41
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then when he eventually got out of the uh Navy, uh wound up becoming uh ultimately president of the Surracetrack.
12:48
SPEAKER_03: What's something that he uh g passed down to you that still sticks with you to this day?
12:54
SPEAKER_03: I'm sure I'm sure there I'm sure there are a lot of things, but what's one of them?
12:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a lot of things, but he was a man of of of integrity uh and um you know just very um uh uh you know a distinguished gentleman sort of thing, right?
13:09
SPEAKER_01: And sort of really from him and from a couple of other people who were mentors of me really, you know, helped me understand, you know, how to act, how to behave, how to how to conduct yourself, you know.
13:21
SPEAKER_01: A lot of stuff like that I didn't really get from my dad, you know, who who had his own set of challenges.
13:26
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so I got it from from other people and and certainly from Hap.
13:30
SPEAKER_01: Love that.
13:31
SPEAKER_03: Are you uh are you a Hap Hanson to anybody right now?
13:34
SPEAKER_01: Not not in that same way.
13:36
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I definitely try um to be a positive influence on on the younger people uh in in my life, obviously, you know, with my kids, but but also some of the younger colleagues we have uh at at Boomers.
13:51
SPEAKER_01: You know, we have sort of uh you know Boomers is to some extent, you know, it's there's a little bit of getting the old band back together again.
13:58
SPEAKER_01: And a number of us worked at at William Hill, including Nick and Dave Grolman, who's our head of operations, our head of HR, Devonique Blackburn, Dave Lichterman who who works in operations and and and and others.
14:11
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
14:12
SPEAKER_01: Um and so there's definitely, you know, the old band, but then there's it's it's like the uh the Eagles at the sphere, right?
14:19
SPEAKER_01: Then we got the new, you know, the new members uh as well.
14:22
SPEAKER_01: And you know, we got a number of people in their 20s, and you know, I yeah they know about the business from maybe a customer side, but I'm you know trying to help them learn it from the business side.
14:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and it it by the way, did you see the Eagles at the sphere?
14:38
SPEAKER_03: I have saw it twice.
14:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh, I thought it was great, really enjoyed it.
14:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
14:42
SPEAKER_03: Did you see them when Glenn was was still around or no?
14:45
SPEAKER_01: Once yes, once no.
14:46
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
14:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
14:48
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Eagles are I I've I haven't seen them in the sphere, but I saw them when he was still around, and it was a phenomenal show.
14:54
SPEAKER_03: All the all of them were there.
14:56
SPEAKER_03: It was uh it was such a great time.
14:58
SPEAKER_03: Um pretty cool that his son is there now, right?
15:01
SPEAKER_03: Like how how awesome is that?
15:02
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
15:04
SPEAKER_03: Um, all right, so how did you get from Brandywine to I'm assuming the next big milestone in your professional career was William Hill, right?
15:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, so um yeah.
15:15
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, Brandywine Raceway and other racetracks as a kid, then practiced law, then got out of law and ultimately made my way out here in Las Vegas in 2006.
15:25
SPEAKER_01: Brandywine was um William Hill at the time was a um British company publicly traded in on the London Stock Exchange, and they decided they wanted to move into the U.S.
15:36
SPEAKER_01: At the time nobody in the U.S.
15:38
SPEAKER_01: had heard of William Hill, really.
15:39
SPEAKER_01: I mean, to the extent you had, it was a winery in in Northern California.
15:44
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know that.
15:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it still is.
15:45
SPEAKER_01: And there's a bunch of stories with that.
15:47
SPEAKER_01: But um they bought three small businesses when they came into the US, and and one of them was was Brandywine.
15:54
SPEAKER_01: Oh, no way.
15:55
SPEAKER_01: So um they that's how I wound up working for William Hill.
15:58
SPEAKER_01: So they bought my company and and asked me to stay on as the CEO of the business.
16:03
SPEAKER_01: That was 2012.
16:06
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then you know that business sort of had a great run, really a great run uh early into mobile and in-play betting and and a good team of people, um terrific team.
16:18
SPEAKER_01: And um that um business uh ultimately was acquired by Caesars in 2021.
16:25
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
16:26
SPEAKER_01: And um uh you know, at the start, I think William Hill maybe had had you know twelve percent of the market in Nevada, and and you know, sure it was much, much greater by the time of uh of the acquisition by uh by Caesars.
16:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
16:43
SPEAKER_01: Um I left the day the deal closed.
16:46
SPEAKER_01: Um strategically?
16:48
SPEAKER_01: I was just kind of burned out and um you know I'm not really like a super big company guy by that point.
16:54
SPEAKER_01: You know, we I think we had 1,100 people working for William Hill in the US, and that was kind of a lot.
17:00
SPEAKER_01: Um and um uh very amicably, no, no, no issues whatsoever.
17:06
SPEAKER_01: Uh when when uh uh when I told Tom Reg who's the CEO of Caesars that you know I prefer to go very you know amenable and and um worked out great.
17:17
SPEAKER_01: So took some time off.
17:19
SPEAKER_01: Um and then um uh got a call from IGT, which is you know well-known Nevada company.
17:27
SPEAKER_01: They had a small uh sports betting hardware software business, okay at the B at the B2B level, a a system that they provided to uh a number of operators um across the country, a bunch of tribal um casinos, yeah um and and others.
17:44
SPEAKER_01: Um and um uh I had a non-compete with with William Hill, um, but went to work for IGT because it wasn't really competitive and Caesars was was good with that.
17:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
17:57
SPEAKER_01: Um and so I did that for uh for a period of time.
18:00
SPEAKER_01: And um Did you have to let Caesars know that uh I did, yeah.
18:04
SPEAKER_01: I mean I did and and got you know got their permission to do it because I didn't want to have any problems and they had treated me well uh on you know on on the way out.
18:13
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I wanted to to do the right thing.
18:16
SPEAKER_03: That that's one of the things I'm noticing definitely about you and and definitely about Nick as well, is you're both very well respected in the at least the uh uh what industry would you call it?
18:26
SPEAKER_03: Like the the sports sports betting.
18:27
SPEAKER_03: All right, sports betting industry, especially on the professional level, you guys are are very very well respected.
18:33
SPEAKER_03: Was he in the uh was he in the the sports betting hall of fame?
18:36
SPEAKER_03: He he is indeed.
18:37
SPEAKER_03: That's wild.
18:38
SPEAKER_03: He is indeed.
18:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
18:39
SPEAKER_03: So that's weird.
18:40
SPEAKER_03: I I'm sorry, so you're at you're at IGT.
18:42
SPEAKER_03: What's your role at IGT at this point?
18:43
SPEAKER_01: I was the president of sports betting for IGT, and um really was brought in to help organize the business and you know.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: There wasn't anybody in a senior management role who had a real deep understanding and uh certainly not you know the operator's perspective that I had.
19:01
SPEAKER_01: Um and I brought in some people uh um to you know to that business to do it, including somebody I had worked with at Brandywine called uh named Joe Bertolone.
19:14
SPEAKER_03: Um and you know after a while um what's something that you do bring to the table?
19:20
SPEAKER_03: Like like what's first order of business for you when when you get over to IGT and you say, Oh, I I I see that this needs to be fixed.
19:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the the way a number of the deals were structured um didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
19:32
SPEAKER_01: The um the customer support model um wasn't right uh and and they weren't you know sort of dealing with their partners the way I thought it should be done.
19:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:44
SPEAKER_01: Um and so those were like a couple of them.
19:47
SPEAKER_01: And then yeah, just building out you know the team, you know, the team of people.
19:51
SPEAKER_01: Um and so you know after a couple of years or so um I pretty much done, you know, what what needed to be done what yeah, what uh what they needed me to do.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: And and then that jived um time time-wise with something that sort of came up totally out of the blue.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: Um I got appointed by uh by President Biden to chair the board of something called the Woodrow Wilson Center.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: Really?
20:16
SPEAKER_01: Uh which um is is headquartered, it's based in Washington.
20:21
SPEAKER_01: And um uh it it's a public policy institute focused on foreign policy and foreign affairs.
20:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh and um uh so I wound up switching to part-time at IGT.
20:35
SPEAKER_01: They were very supportive of uh of me sort of doing this and and um supporting you know the work with the Wilson Center.
20:43
SPEAKER_03: Hold on a second.
20:43
SPEAKER_03: I feel like we we passed over the whole Joe Biden uh hell asking you to play this role.
20:49
SPEAKER_03: Did he reach out to you?
20:50
SPEAKER_03: Did one of his colleagues or somebody at his associates reach out to you, or did you have a relationship with him prior, or how does this even come about?
20:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so so I'm from Delaware originally, as as we discussed, and uh um met Joe Biden at a fairly early age, and he had at the time, you know, he had he well, he had two sons, uh Bo, I think, had passed by at this point in time.
21:14
SPEAKER_01: But uh Bo Hunter and I are all roughly, you know, the same age, and so I knew them uh when we were young lawyers in Wilmington together.
21:22
SPEAKER_01: No way.
21:23
SPEAKER_01: Um and um uh and I'd been a supporter uh of of his for many years.
21:29
SPEAKER_01: I you know, I talked earlier about you know learning from seeing other people, and I certainly learned a lot um from just watching Joe Biden over the years, quite frankly, and and certainly the way to treat people, sure.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: The way the way he treated people um was was a a real um uh lesson for me.
21:48
SPEAKER_01: Um so but but in terms of getting appointed to the Wilson Center, yeah, uh just kind of came up out of the blue.
21:54
SPEAKER_01: I got a text message from uh somebody who was running the personnel.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Office in the White House and said, Hey, there's this board position that came up, and we think you might be a good fit for it.
22:05
SPEAKER_01: And would you take a look at it?
22:07
SPEAKER_01: And you know, so they sent me an email, told me about it, and did my research, and and then it was to be on the board, it wasn't to be the chair.
22:15
SPEAKER_01: And then uh uh I said yes.
22:18
SPEAKER_01: And then uh, you know, the president the the the board is sort of half set by statute uh and the other half are presidential appointees.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
22:27
SPEAKER_01: And so I was gonna be, you know, appointed the board, and then I was actually having uh lunch in Chinatown, and I get this like phone number from or phone call from a 202 number and didn't know the number, let it go to voicemail, and uh, you know, I didn't know if they're trying to sell me solar panels or or or what, you know.
22:46
SPEAKER_01: Um, but uh and I, you know, listened to the message and it's this woman, you know, in the White House saying, Hey, you can call us as soon as possible.
22:54
SPEAKER_01: We met with the president today to to to go over the Wilson Center uh board appointees.
22:58
SPEAKER_01: And so I called her back and she said, you know, we met with him and he said he wants you to be the chairman.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: So will you do it?
23:05
SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, I thought for a second.
23:08
SPEAKER_01: It's like this is like totally out of my realm, right?
23:10
SPEAKER_01: This is like Washington, I'm in Las Vegas, and you know, I'm in the sports betting business and this is foreign policy, but um, you know, did you have a chance to to actually have a conversation with him at some point along the line there?
23:23
SPEAKER_01: Um not before I was appointed.
23:25
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I had had obviously I've had many, many, many conversations with him over the years.
23:31
SPEAKER_01: Um, but you know, not about the Wilson Center between the time I got that phone call and when I got appointed.
23:38
SPEAKER_01: Subsequently, I, you know, obviously talked to him about it.
23:41
SPEAKER_01: Um so anyway, uh switched to part-time at IGT, did that, and you know, then you know, all all along the way, ever since I left uh William Hill in 2021, every few months I'd get this phone call from somebody, and it was something along the lines of hey, you know, it's kind of not the same since you left.
24:03
SPEAKER_01: Um, what are my options for sports books in you know, in Nevada?
24:08
SPEAKER_01: Like what should I do?
24:09
SPEAKER_01: I'm not happy, it's just different now.
24:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh and you know, I'd walk them through the choices, talk to them about what IGT had, and you know, the option to do it yourself, or you know, what their options were.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: But this would and and and sometimes they would say, Well, you ever think about getting back in it?
24:27
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Nah, I don't think so.
24:29
SPEAKER_01: And you know, as I say, this just kind of continued, you know, every you know, three, four times a year.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: Of course.
24:36
SPEAKER_01: Every few months.
24:37
SPEAKER_01: Um that's a good problem.
24:38
SPEAKER_01: And then I just decided, you know what?
24:41
SPEAKER_01: You know, maybe it's time to get back into it.
24:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:43
SPEAKER_01: You know, maybe it's time to get back into it.
24:45
SPEAKER_01: And so started thinking about it.
24:48
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, maybe it's 23, 24, uh 2024, um, early in the year, and um then decided, okay, you know, it's kind of you know, it's time and left IGT uh that summer and um uh started working on you know putting boomers together.
25:08
SPEAKER_03: What's the first order of business when you're like, all right, you know what?
25:10
SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm I'm I'm motivated, I'm committed to starting my own thing.
25:15
SPEAKER_03: First order of business is what?
25:17
SPEAKER_01: Uh I started, you know, I'm thinking about okay, you know, can we get the senior team back together?
25:22
SPEAKER_01: What's the plan?
25:22
SPEAKER_01: Why am I back together?
25:24
SPEAKER_01: Why why am I gonna get why am I gonna do this?
25:26
SPEAKER_01: Right.
25:27
SPEAKER_01: And and you know, the point really was to, you know, I thought there was room in the market to compete with William Hill, right?
25:32
SPEAKER_01: The William Hill business is a monster business, it's a great business, right?
25:36
SPEAKER_01: And it was a great business when when Caesars bought it in 2021, and you know, they've picked up the baton and they've continued it on, right?
25:44
SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, I I thought there was room in the market for for uh a competitor, yeah.
25:50
SPEAKER_01: And um so started thinking about the people to um try to get to do it with me that I mentioned earlier, right?
25:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh Dave Grolman, Nick, and Devonique, yeah, um, and so kind of started there.
26:04
SPEAKER_01: Also, um very early on had to had to figure out how to get the license to do it.
26:10
SPEAKER_01: So in order to operate sports books, you have to have your core non-restricted gaming license.
26:17
SPEAKER_03: And um in in um for the people that may not understand that, and I think Jonathan Jost will explain that, but do you mind explaining what the difference is between a restricted gaming license and a non-restricted gaming license?
26:28
SPEAKER_01: Yes, so a restricted license allows uh allows you to operate 15 slot machines.
26:34
SPEAKER_01: Um like a Dotties.
26:36
SPEAKER_01: Like a Dotties or you know jackpot Joni's or you know PTs, something like that.
26:43
SPEAKER_01: Um and a non-restricted license allows you to operate a full casino.
26:49
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
26:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh in in order to sort of get that core non-restricted license to operate, um, there's a room requirement in Clark County.
26:58
SPEAKER_01: You have to have 300 hotel rooms to to have a non-restricted casino.
27:02
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: Um there might be some exceptions for grandfathered license, but that's the general rule.
27:08
SPEAKER_01: Um which is why like I think Red Rock might have 302 hotels.
27:12
SPEAKER_01: Oh, do they really?
27:13
SPEAKER_01: All right.
27:14
SPEAKER_01: Right?
27:15
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
27:15
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, um the um uh same in in Washoe County where Reno is.
27:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
27:23
SPEAKER_01: Um, no room requirement in Elko.
27:26
SPEAKER_01: In uh uh I was very familiar with Elko and I've had I've I've always I've I've liked Elko a lot.
27:32
SPEAKER_01: Elko is a mining town in northeastern Nevada.
27:35
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
27:35
SPEAKER_01: Um they have a county fair every year where they have live horse racing, and so I go up uh every year for with my son for the for the fair.
27:44
SPEAKER_01: They let me announce uh races up there.
27:46
SPEAKER_01: No way.
27:46
SPEAKER_01: So I'll call, you know, I'll call a race a day when I'm up at Elko.
27:50
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
27:50
SPEAKER_01: Kind of back into the race calling.
27:52
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, look at you.
27:52
SPEAKER_01: There's actually one on YouTube uh of me calling a race at the Elko Fair.
27:56
SPEAKER_01: If you put in the Ryan, we're definitely gonna look that up.
27:58
SPEAKER_01: Elko Fair, you can see it.
27:59
SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
28:00
SPEAKER_01: Um so anyway, I I've had this, I like going to Elko.
28:04
SPEAKER_01: Um and um I was up there for the fair actually in the uh Labor Day weekend of 2024, and was just kind of asking around, hey, does anybody know of a non-restricted license that um might be available for sale?
28:19
SPEAKER_01: And um sure enough, somebody said, Hey, you know, uh the old commercial hotel, um they've pretty much closed it as a casino, they've shut it down, but they've kept the license active.
28:31
SPEAKER_01: They open once a quarter.
28:32
SPEAKER_01: Okay, in order to keep a license active, you can open once a quarter for eight hours, and that keeps the license active.
28:38
SPEAKER_01: That's wild.
28:39
SPEAKER_01: So what they what they would do is twice a year, you know, they'd open it, you know, uh um 4 p.m.
28:45
SPEAKER_01: eight hours till midnight, and then you know, until eight a.m.
28:48
SPEAKER_01: the following morning, and that covers off two quarters.
28:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:51
SPEAKER_01: But it keeps the license active.
28:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:54
SPEAKER_01: So um I reached out to uh a uh uh a lawyer who's always represented me and done a great job, Scott Shear.
29:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and uh said, Hey, any idea who you know who owns the commercial?
29:08
SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, can you help me work in touch with them?
29:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
29:13
SPEAKER_01: And and sure enough it happened, and the guy who was running the place is actually somebody who I'd known for years.
29:19
SPEAKER_01: So anyway, uh that was one of the first things.
29:21
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, got the the rights, the gaming rights at the at the commercial, and um you know that they no longer operate it, you know, for for the eight hours a quarter.
29:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they've transferred the license to me, and we built a uh um sort of small sports book counter um you know on a small piece of the property that we're um that we'd be leasing from them.
29:45
SPEAKER_03: One of the things that Jonathan said about that is when he he was because he was so young, he really didn't have much to because he they had to go through a very detailed background check.
29:56
SPEAKER_03: And for him, it was like you know, he's got a couple bucks here and there, but didn't have houses or kids or anything at that time.
30:02
SPEAKER_03: You or were in a very different part of your life.
30:04
SPEAKER_03: Did you have to have that same in-depth background check that he did back in the day as well, or was it because it was transferred you were able to get a little leniency on that?
30:15
SPEAKER_01: Well, so so the first time I got licensed in Nevada and received sort of a non-restricted license was in 2006.
30:25
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
30:25
SPEAKER_01: Um and it was even before it was the job I had be when I came to Las Vegas and and before I started Brandywine.
30:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
30:31
SPEAKER_01: So that was the more thorough because they were starting from you know when I was born all the way up until that point in time.
30:40
SPEAKER_01: Uh ever since then, what they do once you get the license for the first time, you the you start with where they left off.
30:48
SPEAKER_01: Right.
30:48
SPEAKER_01: So the first was from when I was born up until 2006.
30:53
SPEAKER_01: Then when I got licensed for Brandywine, it was sort of the stub period between 2006 and 2008.
30:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:00
SPEAKER_01: Uh then when I got licensed for William Hill, it was you know 2008 till whatever year that was.
31:06
SPEAKER_03: So they don't go back before because they they Well, they've already investigated that.
31:10
SPEAKER_01: They've already they've already done that.
31:11
SPEAKER_01: Right.
31:12
SPEAKER_01: And so um so this time around, uh I'd gotten licensed again uh during my tenure at IGT.
31:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh so when it came time to starting boomers, it was you know probably a couple of years um from when I had been most recently licensed.
31:29
SPEAKER_01: So uh it's but it's you know it's a very thorough process, but I've always thought that uh I've always found the agents who do the investigation to be very fair and reasonable, but very thorough.
31:41
SPEAKER_01: Like they're very thorough.
31:42
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the first time I remember, you know, you had to produce a bunch of checks, canceled checks, and you know, the guy said, you know, what you know what was this check for?
31:52
SPEAKER_01: What's this for?
31:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what's this check for?
31:55
SPEAKER_01: Right?
31:55
SPEAKER_01: And you know, you explain, you know, you explain what it's for.
31:58
SPEAKER_01: And or why did you, you know, transfer money to this person?
32:02
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
32:03
SPEAKER_01: Um and so it's you know, it's very much uh you know, looking at, you know, following the money type of thing, trying to understand who you associate with and so forth.
32:12
SPEAKER_01: And then they talk to people who know you.
32:14
SPEAKER_01: I've been listed as a reference by a number of people who have gotten gaming licenses subsequent to that.
32:20
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they always ask a bunch of questions and so forth.
32:24
SPEAKER_03: That's so great.
32:25
SPEAKER_03: So after all this, in Elko, Boomers is born, basically.
32:29
SPEAKER_03: Was it Boomers at the time?
32:31
SPEAKER_03: It was Boomers from day one.
32:33
SPEAKER_01: So Boomer, Boomer was a dog that we had.
32:35
SPEAKER_01: Um what kind of dog?
32:37
SPEAKER_01: He was a uh Dotson Cocker Spaniel mix.
32:40
SPEAKER_01: We got him at the uh, it's now called the Animal Foundation.
32:43
SPEAKER_01: I think it was Lead Animal Shelter back then.
32:45
SPEAKER_01: Love it.
32:45
SPEAKER_01: And um Boomer the dog was actually named after a racehorse from the 1980s.
32:51
SPEAKER_01: There was a racehorse that came down out of Canada named Boomer Drummond, who became one of the top older pacers in the country, raced at the Meadowlands a bunch of time.
32:59
SPEAKER_01: It's and I always loved the name, and the announcer would go, and there goes the boomer.
33:03
SPEAKER_01: Right?
33:03
SPEAKER_01: There's some of his old races you can still find on on YouTube and Facebook.
33:08
SPEAKER_01: Um and so that was the the the namesake of Boomer, uh Boomer the Dog.
33:14
SPEAKER_01: And then Boomer the Dog died on Thanksgiving Day in 2024.
33:19
SPEAKER_01: He had a great run.
33:20
SPEAKER_01: He made he was 17.
33:21
SPEAKER_01: Good for him.
33:22
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, tremendous run.
33:24
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, you'd sort of a dog would sign up for that kind of thing.
33:27
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's like Happ Hanson living, you know, to 96, I think it was.
33:31
SPEAKER_01: And you know, he's great.
33:33
SPEAKER_01: Um and so uh that was kind of the the the genesis of of the name Boomers.
33:39
SPEAKER_03: That's great.
33:39
SPEAKER_03: And I love how Boomer goes from a horse to your dog to a sports business to if I ever have a first child, it's gonna be named Boomers.
33:49
SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be great.
33:50
SPEAKER_03: It's passed down from generation to generation.
33:52
SPEAKER_03: I love it.
33:53
SPEAKER_01: And it's also got some sports connotation to it, right?
33:55
SPEAKER_01: You got Boomer Sciason, uh Chris Berman on ESPN, you got Boomer Sooners.
34:01
SPEAKER_01: So there's sort of a sports element uh to it as well.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
34:05
SPEAKER_03: Brian, do you know any of those?
34:06
SPEAKER_03: Do those any of those names ring a bell to you?
34:08
SPEAKER_03: No?
34:09
SPEAKER_03: No.
34:09
SPEAKER_03: Oh, geez.
34:10
SPEAKER_03: I have my hands full with you.
34:12
SPEAKER_03: So as president and CEO, give me a run-through of what your day-to-day is typically like.
34:18
SPEAKER_03: What do you do besides putting the team together, besides you know, going out, shaking hands, making connections, what's your what's your day-to-day like?
34:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, um, it's a number of things, right?
34:27
SPEAKER_01: So there's there's the business development aspect where we're you know chasing new business and you know, we're hungry and you know, trying to expand and and um uh so signing up to casinos.
34:38
SPEAKER_01: And one of the I think one of the key things to know about the business, and and really one of the reasons to do the business is in Nevada, in order to get a mobile betting account, you have to physically go into a casino to sign up.
34:49
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
34:50
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
34:50
SPEAKER_01: Other states you can you know sit on your couch and download the app and um you know electronically fund it and away you go.
34:59
SPEAKER_01: But Nevada maintains this requirement to sign up in person.
35:02
SPEAKER_01: And that's one of the keys to success of the William Hill business because they got like a hundred retail locations spread across the state where people could go to sign up.
35:12
SPEAKER_03: Now, do you like that?
35:13
SPEAKER_03: Or or do you wish it was you didn't have to go into the casino?
35:16
SPEAKER_01: Well, if if that wasn't the requirement, I wouldn't have bothered to do the business.
35:21
SPEAKER_01: That's what gives us a shot to compete against, you know, these big companies who have, you know, essentially unlimited funds.
35:28
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
35:29
SPEAKER_01: Right?
35:29
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, DraftKings and FanDuel, for instance, dominate the market outside Nevada.
35:34
SPEAKER_01: They're not in Nevada.
35:36
SPEAKER_01: The reason they're not in Nevada is because of this in-person signup requirement.
35:39
SPEAKER_01: Right.
35:40
SPEAKER_01: Right?
35:40
SPEAKER_01: They could go and buy a casino and have one location where people could go and sign up for a mobile account, but that's not enough to build a business.
35:49
SPEAKER_01: And so much of the business, like the you know, the vast majority of the business is on mobile these days, right?
35:55
SPEAKER_01: There's still a retail sports book, there's a retail experience.
35:58
SPEAKER_01: I was just over at our sports book at Silver Sevens, you know, at Flamingo in Paradise.
36:02
SPEAKER_01: And you know, there's people hanging out there sitting, watching the horse races, watching the games.
36:08
SPEAKER_01: Um, but you know, for the pure transaction of making the bet, you can just do it on your phone.
36:13
SPEAKER_01: It's so much easier.
36:14
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, away from the strip, you know, it's like 85% of the business is on mobile.
36:21
SPEAKER_01: So so the individual casinos, um, they're they're in part uh mobile acquisition sites and mobile customer service sites.
36:31
SPEAKER_01: You know, person can go in and make a deposit in cash, they can withdraw money, they got a question, there's somebody for them to go talk to.
36:39
SPEAKER_01: Um and so um that requirement of the in-person signup, it gives us a shot.
36:46
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
36:46
SPEAKER_01: Like I honestly wouldn't have tried to do the business if the regulation was different.
36:51
SPEAKER_01: Now, the reason for the regulation is the long-standing public policy in Nevada has been to encourage investment in brick and mortar casinos.
37:00
SPEAKER_01: Oh okay.
37:01
SPEAKER_01: And one way to do that is to tie the mobile sign-up to a physical casino.
37:08
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
37:08
SPEAKER_01: Now you only got to go in once.
37:10
SPEAKER_01: Once you go in, you never have to go back.
37:11
SPEAKER_01: You can deposit electronically.
37:13
SPEAKER_01: Also, we're building out a network of deposit kiosks.
37:17
SPEAKER_01: We're in all the village pubs, for instance.
37:19
SPEAKER_03: I I see your signs out outside of them.
37:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it's great branding, and people can can fund their account in cash in the village pubs.
37:28
SPEAKER_01: They can do it at the gold mine tavern on Water Street in Henderson, they can do it at Maddie's up in Elko.
37:33
SPEAKER_01: Um, and it so once you go in to sign up, you don't have to go in ever again.
37:38
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people do because they want to deposit, they want to withdraw in cash, um, or they just want a different social experience of sitting around watching the games on the screen and you know cheering, cheering for your team.
37:52
SPEAKER_01: Um but but it's that requirement that makes this business feasible.
37:56
SPEAKER_03: And it gives you a gives you a shot.
37:58
SPEAKER_01: Correct.
37:59
SPEAKER_03: Love that.
38:00
SPEAKER_03: It especially being the the market is is so big.
38:05
SPEAKER_03: And even just getting, I don't want to say a sliver, but being that you are an independent sports book here in Nevada, being able to have a sliver, I'm sure at least gets you gets gets you to stand on your feet and able to continue to grow over time, which is is is huge for you guys.
38:22
SPEAKER_03: You you your competitors are giants, right?
38:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
38:25
SPEAKER_01: No, look that that William Hill business, like I said, it's a you know, we built a hell of a business.
38:29
SPEAKER_01: It's a great business, right?
38:30
SPEAKER_01: And and the um, you know, but there's a number of casinos who um aren't crazy about being sort of in bed with Caesars, right?
38:40
SPEAKER_01: And just because Caesars might be their competitor.
38:43
SPEAKER_01: Right.
38:44
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so uh or they were dissatisfied with the attention that they were getting because you know they were a small property and didn't really matter to that big company.
38:54
SPEAKER_01: Whereas with us, uh they matter.
38:56
SPEAKER_01: Right now we're we're up to 12 locations.
38:59
SPEAKER_01: Gary Ellis, who owns the village pubs, but you know, Gary stepped up first um and and uh let us uh move into Ellis Island, which is such a great locals property, right?
39:10
SPEAKER_01: It's a great location, really is and he's got a place out in Henderson uh called uh Casino Valley Verde.
39:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
39:16
SPEAKER_01: And and so Gary was a very early supporter, which I'm very appreciative for.
39:21
SPEAKER_01: Great guy, Gary's such a great guy.
39:23
SPEAKER_03: So actually, I asked Nick this question, and he said that's definitely definitely a question for Joe.
39:28
SPEAKER_03: How did you get into how'd you get into Ellis Island, by the way?
39:31
SPEAKER_03: Because and you you kind of touched on it right there, but can you did you did you approach him?
39:35
SPEAKER_03: Did he approach you or what what partake?
39:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so this is it's kind of a uh an interesting sorry, interesting story.
39:43
SPEAKER_01: I had known Gary um over the years um from you know when I was working at at William Hill.
39:50
SPEAKER_01: Um, and we actually ran into each other at a funeral.
39:54
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
39:54
SPEAKER_01: Uh there was a guy who who worked for the old Leroy's business uh named John English, great guy, great guy, longtime industry executive.
40:03
SPEAKER_01: He he died way too early.
40:05
SPEAKER_01: Um, and uh I went to his funeral and Gary was there.
40:10
SPEAKER_01: And um we kind of had a little you know chat in the parking lot afterwards, and um uh I just decided, you know what, I'm gonna get together with Gary and go have lunch with him.
40:20
SPEAKER_01: And um at the time he was trying to figure out what to do with the sports book, and he was actually thinking about, you know, um uh John had talked to him about maybe getting into the business, and John English was gonna get into the business, possibly with uh Vic Salerno, uh, who was a longtime guy in the in the business and one of the people that you know I talked about passing the baton to the next generation, right?
40:43
SPEAKER_01: Vic kind of handed it to me, and I've tried to move it forward.
40:46
SPEAKER_01: Um and I actually was I guess working for IGT at the time and um gave them you know what IGT could provide.
40:56
SPEAKER_01: Um but then when I decided I was gonna do it, um I called Gary up and said, Hey, I want to come by and and and talk to you about what I'm thinking about.
41:04
SPEAKER_01: And so that's kind of how how it started.
41:06
SPEAKER_01: Went over to to Ellis Island and you know, had lunch with them.
41:10
SPEAKER_01: And um it kind of you know went you know went from there.
41:13
SPEAKER_03: Building relationships, I could see are are such an important part of where you are today.
41:18
SPEAKER_03: I I I feel like not even just with boomers, but just with your success in your career that you've had so far.
41:23
SPEAKER_03: It it seems like even just the 20, 30 minutes that you and I have been able to meet, I feel like you you you're great at building relationships and maintaining them, it seems like too.
41:33
SPEAKER_01: Well, I you know, I I just like talk to people like you know, like a regular person and you know, try to find out, you know, um about them and you know always try to be transparent and and straight with them.
41:45
SPEAKER_01: Um which is hard hard to find these days.
41:49
SPEAKER_01: Gary's a great guy, such a fascinating story of you know, of what the village pub started with, you know, the bar and he was working there for his dad.
41:56
SPEAKER_01: And he's got if you could ever get him to come onto the podcast, then you know that'd be great.
42:01
SPEAKER_01: And and uh he you know, he actually sent me a picture.
42:03
SPEAKER_01: He was at the fights uh at the at the White House uh last weekend.
42:07
SPEAKER_01: That's so funny because he's friends with Dana.
42:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:09
SPEAKER_01: And um uh, you know, he he stepped up.
42:12
SPEAKER_01: I'm very appreciative because he stepped up and went first.
42:14
SPEAKER_01: He had the confidence that you know I would deliver and and do it.
42:19
SPEAKER_01: And I think I you know um already, you know, Nick had already agreed to step uh come on board and and same with uh Dave Grollman.
42:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:28
SPEAKER_01: And um actually Debonique was working for Gary.
42:31
SPEAKER_01: She had left Caesars and was like the head of HR for for Ellis Island and Gary's other properties.
42:39
SPEAKER_01: And before I would hire her back, you know, I went and you know, asked Gary for for you know his blessing because I didn't want to like you know put him in a bad spot.
42:48
SPEAKER_01: And uh and of course he graciously said um said yes.
42:51
SPEAKER_03: Love that.
42:52
SPEAKER_01: Um and then yeah, it was just a number of other people who I had known previously.
42:57
SPEAKER_01: Um up in Carson City, we're at the Casino Fandango, which was one of the very early Brandywine books, way back in 2008.
43:04
SPEAKER_01: Coming full circle in this.
43:06
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
43:06
SPEAKER_01: Yes, and and you know, I'd stayed friendly with um you know with uh the folks there.
43:12
SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, some people have reached out to me for for um for boomers, and then I feel bad that I didn't call them first.
43:20
SPEAKER_01: Um and others, you know, I've reached out to.
43:24
SPEAKER_01: A number of them are William Hill customers.
43:26
SPEAKER_01: Um some of them smaller places didn't have a sports book at all, and I somehow got hooked up uh with them, and um, and we've put in a sports book there.
43:36
SPEAKER_01: Um and so it's been that sort of a um sort of thing.
43:40
SPEAKER_01: But for you, you know, just reaching out to people, and sometimes they don't call you back or they don't text you back.
43:45
SPEAKER_01: You keep chasing them, you keep chasing them, you keep chasing them.
43:48
SPEAKER_03: You are a businessman through and through.
43:50
SPEAKER_03: I respect the hell out of that.
43:51
SPEAKER_03: Good for you.
43:52
SPEAKER_03: One of the things I like about boomers, and out of the many things I already like, is you're very player friendly.
43:58
SPEAKER_03: You like it's it's I I believe Nick answered this question.
44:02
SPEAKER_03: Is I I asked him what does it mean to what does fair actually mean when the sports book still makes money?
44:07
SPEAKER_03: But you guys talk about fair pricing.
44:09
SPEAKER_03: That's a big thing for you guys.
44:10
SPEAKER_03: Can you kind of elaborate what the fair pricing is when it comes to boomers?
44:14
SPEAKER_03: Sure.
44:14
SPEAKER_01: So so you know, why should a customer sign up for an account with boomers, right?
44:19
SPEAKER_01: This is a very mature market for sports betting.
44:22
SPEAKER_01: And most people who want a sports betting account already have at least one.
44:26
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
44:26
SPEAKER_01: Right?
44:26
SPEAKER_01: They signed up with William Hill or with Stations or with MGM or Circa or whatever.
44:32
SPEAKER_01: Um and so why should they sign up for a boomers account?
44:35
SPEAKER_01: And so how are we going to break in and compete?
44:39
SPEAKER_01: So we decided one way to do it was on price and to compete on price and offer our product at a lower theoretical margin than what the competition might be doing.
44:50
SPEAKER_01: So Caesars, they have a corporate objective to get their margin up to 10%, right?
44:56
SPEAKER_01: To expand their hold percentage.
44:58
SPEAKER_01: I think it's now around seven.
44:59
SPEAKER_01: They want to get it up to 10%.
45:01
SPEAKER_01: And the reason I know this is they put it in their investor presentation.
45:05
SPEAKER_01: It's right there and it's right there.
45:07
SPEAKER_01: They're not shy about it, at least to the analyst community.
45:12
SPEAKER_01: Well, the way you do that is by charging more to consumers, right?
45:17
SPEAKER_01: So uh NFL, for instance, typically if you're gonna bet on an NFL game, it's minus 110 to win a hundred.
45:25
SPEAKER_01: So if I want to bet the uh uh uh Eagles and you want to bet the Patriots, you know, whatever, we gotta each put up 110 to win a hundred.
45:34
SPEAKER_01: So$220 has now been wagered.
45:37
SPEAKER_01: The sports book is gonna keep$10 and return$210.
45:41
SPEAKER_01: So if you win the bet, you get your$110 back plus your$100 profit.
45:45
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
45:45
SPEAKER_01: So you get your your you know um$210.
45:50
SPEAKER_03: Which is common amongst 99% of the people.
45:53
SPEAKER_01: Totally studied.
45:54
SPEAKER_01: That's the way broadly speaking it works.
45:57
SPEAKER_01: Um and the guy who loses or loses$110.
46:00
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
46:00
SPEAKER_01: Right?
46:01
SPEAKER_01: It was that way on the golden nights and the hurricanes.
46:03
SPEAKER_01: So it's not limited to to the NHL.
46:05
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
46:05
SPEAKER_01: So um the um the theoretical margin, so the house makes ten dollars on the 220 wagered in my hypothetical.
46:15
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
46:15
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
46:16
SPEAKER_01: Um in in that scenario, the house has a theoretical margin of 4.55%.
46:22
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
46:24
SPEAKER_01: So what what we noticed Caesars doing last football season, William Hill doing, is instead of you know 110, 110 on each side, they went to 111 on one side, 110 on the other.
46:35
SPEAKER_01: Or you know, maybe it was minus 112, minus 110, you know.
46:40
SPEAKER_01: And on college football is even a greater we would call that the split in in um in the business.
46:46
SPEAKER_01: So higher theoretical margin.
46:48
SPEAKER_01: The other way you can increase prices is just to pay less on parlays, right?
46:54
SPEAKER_01: Uh so you know, because it's you know, if a guy hits a 15 parley, maybe he doesn't notice that instead of getting you know$380, you know, he's now getting$360, right?
47:05
SPEAKER_01: And so that's another way to build in more margin on the product.
47:09
SPEAKER_01: So what we've done is actually the opposite.
47:13
SPEAKER_01: So I talked about minus 110 being the standard on the NFL.
47:16
SPEAKER_01: We said, what can we do to try to get people to sign up with boomers?
47:20
SPEAKER_01: We said we're gonna do minus 105.
47:21
SPEAKER_01: So we cut the margin in half, and so it's minus 105 on each side.
47:26
SPEAKER_01: Um so instead of 4.55%, now we've chopped it down to you know two and a quarter.
47:33
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
47:33
SPEAKER_01: Um and and you know, we try to pay more on parlays, for example, and um we're trying to do a lot with promotions as well.
47:43
SPEAKER_01: And the promotions are to drive engagement and again give people a reason to bet with boomers.
47:49
SPEAKER_01: Um, and we're you know focused on what what's interesting to Nevada betters, right?
47:54
SPEAKER_01: So we're doing a lot of promos with the Golden Knights, for instance.
47:57
SPEAKER_01: We had a promo where I think if you bet$20 on the Knights to win and they scored a goal in the first period, we gave you$10 in free bets, right?
48:06
SPEAKER_01: Just bonus bets.
48:07
SPEAKER_01: Phenomenal.
48:07
SPEAKER_01: Just as a as a bonus.
48:08
SPEAKER_01: You still had your your bet, yeah, your$20 bet or whatever it was.
48:12
SPEAKER_01: Um uh but now you get bonus bets.
48:15
SPEAKER_01: We we did something called shutout insurance, where if you bet on somebody to score a goal in the game, because one of the things people like to do when they're betting in a hockey game, yeah, is you know, you might bet the knights to win, or you might bet the total goal scored, but you also like to bet goal scores.
48:29
SPEAKER_01: Like I let to bet Carlson to score, right?
48:31
SPEAKER_01: Or you know, I'd have a feeling that maybe Stone's gonna score.
48:34
SPEAKER_01: And um uh so we had this thing called shutout insurance, where if you bet somebody to score and the team got shut out, right, we gave you your money back.
48:43
unknown: Right.
48:44
SPEAKER_01: Up to a up to a certain amount.
48:45
SPEAKER_01: We you know, capped the the it up to a certain amount.
48:48
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, a bun a bunch of sort of Vegas specific promos that we're trying to do.
48:54
SPEAKER_01: What's interesting to Vegas fans?
48:56
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, we were offering uh inflated payoffs, essentially, boosts, they call them, yep, on the um the A's games that were played out in Summerlin recently.
49:06
SPEAKER_01: Did you go to those?
49:08
SPEAKER_01: I did not.
49:08
SPEAKER_01: I did not.
49:09
SPEAKER_01: I was too busy watching them.
49:10
SPEAKER_01: I went to the Knights game one night when when they were playing out in Summerlin.
49:14
SPEAKER_01: A friend of mine said the wind was blowing out, and so the play was to bet over on total run scored.
49:19
SPEAKER_01: Did it hit right?
49:19
SPEAKER_01: It did.
49:20
SPEAKER_01: Love it.
49:20
SPEAKER_01: It did.
49:20
SPEAKER_01: I think it hit the first day, I think it fell right on the number the second day, maybe.
49:25
SPEAKER_01: Um and um anyway, what what's interesting to to Nevada betters, right?
49:32
SPEAKER_01: Not and not just Vegas, too, right?
49:33
SPEAKER_01: You know, yeah, you're all living looking to do things.
49:36
SPEAKER_01: What's gonna be interesting to folks in northern Nevada, you know, come football season?
49:40
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's something with the Niners, maybe it's something with Boise State football, right?
49:44
SPEAKER_01: We're opening uh in in a couple weeks in Jackpot, which is Jackpot's the border town with Idaho on Highway 93.
49:53
SPEAKER_01: So far northeastern corner in Nevada.
49:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right?
49:56
SPEAKER_01: The four Jacks casino uh up there owned by the Jack family.
50:00
SPEAKER_01: They're four, you know, a father and three sons, so that's the four Jacks.
50:04
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, so we're gonna you know open up there and you know we'll certainly be focused on, you know, whether it's Niners, they obviously we're gonna be focused around the Raiders and doing stuff on the Raiders.
50:14
SPEAKER_01: We're getting ready to roll out a great promotion on the ACEs, by the way.
50:17
SPEAKER_01: Aja Wilson, number 22.
50:20
SPEAKER_01: Super nice, by the way.
50:21
SPEAKER_01: I'm a big Aja Wilson fan.
50:23
SPEAKER_01: I have my uh one one of the things when when Biden was president is I'd get invited to these different events at the White House.
50:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
50:30
SPEAKER_01: One was when they had the ACES Day at the White House after they had won the championship.
50:34
SPEAKER_01: And I took my younger daughter there, and she got to meet Aja Wilson, who was so incredibly nice to her, like so kind.
50:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
50:45
SPEAKER_01: First, when she went up to her and and took a picture, and then we were getting ready to leave, you know, we kind of went to the bathroom and we ran into her by you know the bathroom, yeah, and she was like, Did you have a good time?
50:56
SPEAKER_01: How cool is it to be at the White House?
50:58
SPEAKER_01: She was so nice.
50:59
SPEAKER_01: That's fantastic.
51:00
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna we're gonna do like a promo where you know if you bet on a WNBA game, you get entered in a drawing to win um tickets to uh the game when uh Indiana comes and Caitlin Clark comes to T-Mobile, right?
51:15
SPEAKER_01: Uh again, something tailored to you know Nevada uh customers.
51:20
SPEAKER_01: And so we're really trying to hit that you know focus on Nevada because these other big companies, MGM, nice people like them, you know, Caesars, again, a lot of a lot of good people there.
51:30
SPEAKER_01: Of course.
51:30
SPEAKER_01: They're focused nationally, they're running these big businesses across the country, right?
51:35
SPEAKER_01: We're focused on one state.
51:36
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
51:37
SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, these casinos who, you know, don't really matter to a big monolith company, they sure as heck you know matter to us.
51:45
SPEAKER_01: The four jacks matters to us.
51:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, the Bonanza Casino in Reno, family-owned, right?
51:51
SPEAKER_01: Russ Sheltra founded it in the early 1970s.
51:54
SPEAKER_01: His son Ryan is his GM today.
51:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, they matter to us, right?
51:59
SPEAKER_01: Ellis Island matters to us, Silver Sevens matters to us.
52:03
SPEAKER_01: Oh, host Locos, North Las Vegas, a great spot.
52:06
SPEAKER_01: You know, doing a heck of a business during the World Cup.
52:08
SPEAKER_01: There's a Mexico game, you know, coming up tomorrow when we're recording this.
52:13
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, that place will be, you know, be packed, and you know, they matter to us.
52:18
SPEAKER_03: That's so funny.
52:18
SPEAKER_03: And I feel like you're able to, you're able to do this because this is some of the the the benefits of being an independent sports book is you have a lot more flexibility compared to the Caesars, compared to the the big, the bigger names, is that you can kind of swing for the fences, do some of these promotions, focus on the the more be more focused on these local spots that us Vegas locals, that us Nevada locals, you know, go to.
52:45
SPEAKER_03: Um and I I I I love that for you because I feel like it makes things more fun because everybody was just stagnant and everybody was complacent with the minus 110.
52:54
SPEAKER_03: Everybody, I mean, I honestly I wouldn't have even known about the different payout for the parlay compared to what it used to be because of these investors and and the decisions they're making.
53:04
SPEAKER_03: But with you guys and the promotions that you're running and the the odds that you offer, being player focused and being player first, that gives you a tremendous opportunity to have more fun and kind of bring the fun back into sports betting.
53:17
SPEAKER_03: So it's not so always analytical, it's not always so serious, I guess.
53:23
SPEAKER_03: Like we can we can still enjoy the game while still making some money uh while while watching it.
53:29
SPEAKER_03: And I feel like I've lost that as a sports better.
53:31
SPEAKER_03: And I'm glad to hear this from you.
53:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, look, look, it's it should it should be about fun.
53:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right?
53:37
SPEAKER_01: If it's if it's not about fun, right, it's not a good thing to be doing, right?
53:41
SPEAKER_01: It's it's really not.
53:42
SPEAKER_01: It's you know, look, the the math is against the customer, right?
53:46
SPEAKER_01: We're we're we're in business to make money, right?
53:49
SPEAKER_01: Um, and so what we're selling and providing to people is an entertainment experience.
53:54
SPEAKER_01: We're trying to make it fun.
53:55
SPEAKER_01: Yes, right.
53:56
SPEAKER_01: That's why we've got the dog mascot, right?
53:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh that's you know, that's you know, broadly based on Boomer the dog.
54:03
SPEAKER_01: Um, but it it should be about fun, right?
54:06
SPEAKER_01: This is you know, uh a very small segment of the population, you know, can make a living betting on sports, right?
54:14
SPEAKER_01: For the vast majority of the people, you know, you're not gonna make a living doing it.
54:18
SPEAKER_01: Why is that right?
54:19
SPEAKER_01: Just the the math of it all, right?
54:20
SPEAKER_01: Where you know, I talked about the 4.55% theoretical margin or you know, the two and a quarter percent theoretical margin, but it's still two and a quarter percent, yeah, right.
54:30
SPEAKER_01: So um the you know, again, but but you know, you know, people are doing it, you know, for entertainment to have um uh an extra reason to watch the game to make it more fun, right?
54:41
SPEAKER_01: You bet on you know Carlson to score, you know, you're you know, you're hoping he's scored.
54:46
SPEAKER_01: It just makes it more fun, yeah, right?
54:48
SPEAKER_01: And and so that's what you know sports betting i is about, and that's what we're trying to you know to focus on.
54:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
54:55
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm not a fan of when people you know try to to to you know mislead people and saying, oh, you know, it's easy to win.
55:03
SPEAKER_01: Right.
55:03
SPEAKER_01: Right.
55:03
SPEAKER_01: And you look, these beautiful casinos that, you know, that I drove by to get here, right?
55:08
SPEAKER_01: They don't build them because everybody goes in there and wins money, right?
55:11
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
55:12
SPEAKER_01: Vegas wasn't built.
55:13
SPEAKER_01: Right.
55:13
SPEAKER_01: That's not why we're there.
55:15
SPEAKER_01: Like I you know, I look Red Rock, Durango, Station's a competitor of ours at some level, right?
55:22
SPEAKER_01: But but I love visiting their properties.
55:24
SPEAKER_01: They do a great job, right?
55:26
SPEAKER_01: They don't build those because everybody goes in there and wins.
55:29
SPEAKER_01: That's not that's not how it works, you know.
55:31
SPEAKER_01: But it's about the entertainment of it.
55:34
SPEAKER_01: And so I don't I don't like gambling being misrepresented as as an easy way to make make a living, right?
55:40
SPEAKER_01: That's not that's not it, right?
55:42
SPEAKER_01: But it should be about having fun, having a little bit more excitement into the game, having a bit more reason to care.
55:48
SPEAKER_01: We're into the World Cup now.
55:49
SPEAKER_01: People want to bet on the U.S.
55:51
SPEAKER_01: Just you know, they're gonna cheer for the US anyway.
55:53
SPEAKER_01: Sure, why not?
55:54
SPEAKER_01: Right?
55:54
SPEAKER_01: But you know, now they make a little bit of money out of it, and maybe they bet Pulisic to score in in the game and they care about a little more, or they're watching the Aces and they want to bet on the number of points that Asia is gonna get.
56:07
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right.
56:08
SPEAKER_03: So it's just to make it more fun.
56:09
SPEAKER_03: You know what I like about you is you're a businessman through and through.
56:13
SPEAKER_03: That's you've established that.
56:14
SPEAKER_03: You obviously know about sports betting too, but I I like that you have you have a good mix of both.
56:18
SPEAKER_03: It's it's a healthy balance of being business savvy, but also knowing your shit when it comes to sports betting.
56:25
SPEAKER_03: Um, I can listen to you talk about this all day long.
56:28
SPEAKER_03: Like, listen, you and I can just go out to have lunch and it'll turn into a five-hour lunch and just me listening and asking you questions because I could, I'm so intrigued by everything you're saying, and I I I I love it.
56:40
SPEAKER_01: I I just I'm totally up for that.
56:44
SPEAKER_03: And we'll bring in Brian too, so Brian can learn a little bit more about sports betting and understand the minus 110, minus 105, that whole thing.
56:51
SPEAKER_03: You ready for it?
56:52
SPEAKER_02: It's all foreign language to me, right?
56:53
SPEAKER_03: I know it is that.
56:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but you pick it up by listening and being just being around it, you know?
56:57
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
56:58
SPEAKER_03: And and there's no judgment.
56:59
SPEAKER_03: Listen, you can ask questions too.
57:00
SPEAKER_03: We we don't we don't judge.
57:02
SPEAKER_03: We don't, you know.
57:03
SPEAKER_01: You know, when I was back in law school, yeah, the night before a test, I mean I'd study for the test, but then I'd put the textbook under my pillow.
57:10
SPEAKER_01: Just in case like osmosis worked.
57:14
SPEAKER_03: You never know.
57:14
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's no I you know, as long as it didn't like affect my sleep, there's no downside to it.
57:19
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, you take a shot.
57:20
SPEAKER_03: That that's why I go to the sports book sometimes, so I can get the ticket, the physical ticket, and I put it under my pillow too.
57:25
SPEAKER_03: And maybe it works, maybe it doesn't.
57:26
SPEAKER_03: I never know.
57:27
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
57:27
SPEAKER_03: Do you uh obviously you you're well versed in horse in horse riding?
57:32
SPEAKER_03: Do you follow, I'm assuming you follow NHL.
57:34
SPEAKER_03: Do you follow the NFL as well pretty closely?
57:36
SPEAKER_01: I've NFL is my number one sport to follow as a fan.
57:40
SPEAKER_01: I I I love the NF NFL.
57:42
SPEAKER_01: I think the product is so great.
57:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
57:44
SPEAKER_01: I'm a lifelong Philadelphia Eagles fan, uh, having grown up in Delaware, and you know, it's great to be an Eagles fan these days, but of course you know it wasn't so easy.
57:53
SPEAKER_01: You had a rough yeah, you had to wait a long time.
57:56
SPEAKER_01: In fact, one of the yeah, people somebody one time asked me, you know, like what's one of the worst days you had as a as a bookmaker in in your Ole.
58:05
SPEAKER_01: Yes, sure.
58:06
SPEAKER_01: It was actually the year the Eagles beat the Patriots to win the Super Bowl, um, the money that was on the Eagles, and so we needed the Patriots.
58:16
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
58:16
SPEAKER_01: Right?
58:17
SPEAKER_01: So that that need was sort of conflicting with this lifelong passion at Eagles.
58:23
SPEAKER_01: So I didn't really enjoy it when they won.
58:26
SPEAKER_01: Like I just I was like kind of bummed out because we had lost sports.
58:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sure.
58:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh and and I just didn't really enjoy it.
58:32
SPEAKER_01: Now I subsequently got over it, and that was the game, you know, the Philly special game, which is quite certainly the most iconic play in in Philly sports history.
58:39
SPEAKER_03: As a Patriots fan myself, I remember that play all too well.
58:43
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I love watching.
58:44
SPEAKER_01: I still watch it.
58:45
SPEAKER_01: You know, I still see those video, the mic'd up videos of it.
58:48
SPEAKER_01: It's great.
58:49
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and so you know, just just I love I love the NFL product.
58:54
SPEAKER_01: I think they've gotten it so good.
58:56
SPEAKER_01: Um, the games uh have been so good.
58:58
SPEAKER_01: You know, Super Bowl wasn't so great this year uh because Seattle was was was so dominant.
59:04
SPEAKER_01: Um, but it had been good for a number of years.
59:07
SPEAKER_01: Um anyway, I enjoy it.
59:09
SPEAKER_03: What do you think of the Raiders this season?
59:11
SPEAKER_03: Mendoza.
59:12
SPEAKER_01: I I love I love what they've done with um look, we'll see if Mendoza makes it in the NFL.
59:18
SPEAKER_01: So many guys you think are gonna don't.
59:21
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
59:22
SPEAKER_01: Certainly you have to love what he did, you know, at Indiana.
59:25
SPEAKER_01: Um and I love the fact that they bought in cousins as to to be the mentor so you know they don't have to start Mendoza game one.
59:33
SPEAKER_01: You know, hopefully, you know, if if they're having a you know a decent season, you know, maybe Mendoza doesn't start till very late in the year.
59:40
SPEAKER_01: But they've got a tough, um, a tough, they're in a tough division.
59:44
SPEAKER_01: They got a tough road, you know, to make the playoffs.
59:47
SPEAKER_01: But they got the beginnings of the pieces of a team, you know, they really do.
59:50
SPEAKER_01: Uh with with Genty and and Bowers.
59:54
SPEAKER_01: You know, uh I I totally get the decision to try to get draft picks for for Crosby given where he is.
1:00:00
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
1:00:01
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it didn't happen for a reason.
1:00:03
SPEAKER_01: He's meant to be here.
1:00:04
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I you you could certainly see the Raiders, you know, two, three years down the line as being a real serious team.
1:00:13
SPEAKER_01: And and you didn't have that feeling in recent years before now.
1:00:17
SPEAKER_01: And so I I I think, you know, cousins, such a great yes, you know, such great signing.
1:00:24
SPEAKER_01: Um hopefully he and Mendoza get along well and and and can have a collaborative relationship and and and you know, clearly um uh the Raiders must have thought that was going to be the case when they brought Cousins in.
1:00:37
SPEAKER_01: Um and and you know, or maybe he didn't even play at all, you know, this year.
1:00:42
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't that be you know a great way to sit and learn and and and be mentored?
1:00:47
SPEAKER_01: You know, you look at Aaron Rodgers as you know as a young quarterback and then Jordan Love and how they've been able to do it, you know, quarterback to quarterback, you know, from from Favre to Rogers to Love.
1:00:58
SPEAKER_01: Rogers even back a few seasons behind Brett.
1:01:00
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:01:00
SPEAKER_01: Like it wasn't just one season, it was it was it was and and and you know the reports are of course that Favre wasn't mentoring them either.
1:01:07
SPEAKER_01: He just was sort of learning by osmosis, like you know, you with your ticket under the pillow, right?
1:01:12
SPEAKER_01: And you and your right.
1:01:14
SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, if if you have a willing mentor uh and and uh you know a smart, willing mentee like you know, Mendoza appears to be, I think it's a great, great combination.
1:01:26
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I'm still an Eagles fan.
1:01:28
SPEAKER_01: I think you know it's different with the Knights because maybe you didn't have that passionate hockey fandom, and of course the Knights were were first, and you know, like I love the Knights too.
1:01:37
SPEAKER_03: We were here when the Knights were born too.
1:01:38
SPEAKER_03: So that's that that that that's a different thing.
1:01:40
SPEAKER_01: That's a different thing.
1:01:41
SPEAKER_01: And but yet you already had your NFL team and and and so maybe it's not quite the same, but you know, I think the Raiders are probably everybody's number two NFL team at least.
1:01:50
SPEAKER_01: And and yeah, why not?
1:01:51
SPEAKER_01: And and clearly you're gonna, you know, I'm gonna root for the you know for them as long as they're not playing the Eagles.
1:01:56
SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
1:01:56
SPEAKER_03: Or not playing the pages, but yeah.
1:01:58
SPEAKER_03: Um the do you see I I know last year you because Boomers started, is it August of last year's, is that correct in saying August 1st, we opened for business in Elko.
1:02:10
SPEAKER_03: So you started right before the NFL college football season started.
1:02:14
SPEAKER_03: What are you doing differently this year for because it's it's it's gonna be here and be before we know it.
1:02:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, we have a lot more scale this year, right?
1:02:22
SPEAKER_01: Because you know, then we had three locations, right?
1:02:25
SPEAKER_01: Elko and and Gary's two properties, Ellis Island and and Valley Verde.
1:02:29
SPEAKER_01: And now we got two we got 12 at the moment.
1:02:31
SPEAKER_01: Jackpot will be um number 13.
1:02:34
SPEAKER_01: Um uh Club Fortune North in North Las Vegas, the old poker palace is gonna re um hopefully it's gonna be in July uh when they open.
1:02:43
SPEAKER_01: So that'll be 14.
1:02:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:02:45
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then we get a couple more um that'll be open before the NFL season as well.
1:02:50
SPEAKER_01: So uh for us, we have a lot more places where people can go to sign up, get their mobile account, um, where they can go to bet, deposit, and so forth.
1:03:02
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna continue to build out this network of deposit kiosks, more sports books.
1:03:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, we're gonna go back to the minus 105 uh as well.
1:03:11
SPEAKER_01: We're we're gonna um you know we hadn't really firmly committed to it.
1:03:16
SPEAKER_01: So this is the first time we're telling anybody that we're gonna do it, but we're gonna, you know, stick with the minus 105 to to give people something to better on it.
1:03:23
SPEAKER_01: And then we're just gonna be based on what we've seen with the promos and the way people love these promos, yeah.
1:03:29
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna do a lot more of that kind of stuff going forward.
1:03:32
SPEAKER_01: We'll certainly be doing it with the Raiders, and I mentioned, you know, with with the ACEs.
1:03:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, sure.
1:03:36
SPEAKER_01: Um, and in in northern Nevada, maybe we'll do it with um, you know, teams that are relevant and players that are relevant, more relevant up there.
1:03:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and so I think we're gonna do a lot more on the promotion side this football season and and really try to be relevant to as many people as we can.
1:03:55
SPEAKER_03: Well said.
1:03:56
SPEAKER_03: How many years do you yourself see at at at the helm here?
1:04:00
SPEAKER_03: Do you see yourself for another 20, 30 years?
1:04:03
SPEAKER_03: What do you got?
1:04:03
SPEAKER_03: What do you what do you got left in you?
1:04:05
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a great question, Andrew.
1:04:06
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I have no idea.
1:04:08
SPEAKER_01: I'm look, I've been working my whole life.
1:04:10
SPEAKER_01: My my my dad had a newsstand in Wilmington, and I started working there um as early as I can remember.
1:04:17
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
1:04:17
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:04:18
SPEAKER_01: Five, six years old.
1:04:19
SPEAKER_01: I was man in the newsstand.
1:04:21
SPEAKER_01: Um and and you know, we talked about you know working at the racetracks and stuff like that.
1:04:26
SPEAKER_01: So um I I don't think I'd be good at being retired, to tell you the truth.
1:04:31
SPEAKER_01: I just I wouldn't know what to do with my time, right?
1:04:35
SPEAKER_01: And I'd be afraid that my brain's gonna go to mush.
1:04:39
SPEAKER_01: Um so uh uh you know, not interested in retirement at any point uh in you know, yeah, that I can think of.
1:04:48
SPEAKER_01: I mean, obviously it's dependent on my health, and you know, I don't take that for granted.
1:04:52
SPEAKER_01: I try to stay on top of that, and everybody should totally try to, you know, be on top of that.
1:04:57
SPEAKER_01: Um our our um our youngest is 13, he's gonna be gone into uh uh sev um eighth grade.
1:05:07
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:05:07
SPEAKER_01: Um and so um, you know, we're after he's out of school, then you know, maybe it's time to reassess, right?
1:05:18
SPEAKER_01: And all the kids if the kids are off, you know, out of high school and off to college, if if that's what they do, then maybe that's time to reassess.
1:05:25
SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of the way that I that's a good way of looking at it.
1:05:27
SPEAKER_01: That's the way I sort of think about it.
1:05:29
SPEAKER_01: I very much enjoy what I'm doing.
1:05:31
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's been one of the great things of being about being back into it is I just really enjoying it.
1:05:37
SPEAKER_01: It's much much nothing against IGT, you know, fine company, a lot of nice people there, but this is much more my environment.
1:05:44
SPEAKER_01: I love being with you know the people um that I'm with and and you know, love chasing the business and being hungry and trying to be creative.
1:05:53
SPEAKER_01: And you know, you mentioned this earlier, but you know, with us, you know, don't take a whole lot of thinking to To come up and pursue ideas.
1:06:03
SPEAKER_01: I do these meetings with you know with the entire team, you know, the folks in the office come into the conference room, the folks out in the field can dial in uh you know on a video call and like sort of talk about where we are with the business and update everybody and then take questions.
1:06:19
SPEAKER_01: And one of the questions at the last one we had last week was you know, you're doing a lot of stuff with the Knights.
1:06:24
SPEAKER_01: How come we're not doing anything with the ACES?
1:06:26
SPEAKER_01: This is a woman who who uh works in the auditing department in our office, and she's uh she's an ACES fan.
1:06:33
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, you're right.
1:06:35
SPEAKER_01: We really, you know, we should be doing something with the ACES, right?
1:06:38
SPEAKER_01: So so that was last week, and now we've already come up with this, you know, the promotion around, you know, enter and win tickets to a game.
1:06:46
SPEAKER_01: Uh we're gonna do uh other promotions tied to the number of points um that um players score in the in the game.
1:06:55
SPEAKER_01: Right, it's just because you know she had the idea.
1:06:57
SPEAKER_01: That's a great idea, yeah.
1:06:58
SPEAKER_01: It's a great idea.
1:07:00
SPEAKER_01: Why wouldn't you?
1:07:00
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
1:07:01
SPEAKER_01: Why wouldn't we, right?
1:07:02
SPEAKER_01: Like, duh, I should have thought of that a year ago, right?
1:07:04
SPEAKER_01: So shame on me, right?
1:07:06
SPEAKER_01: For you know for being focused on other sports, right?
1:07:09
SPEAKER_01: But you know, thankfully she brought it up.
1:07:13
SPEAKER_01: And you know, so so you know, how quickly we can move that, yes, is is I think such a big advantage for us.
1:07:21
SPEAKER_01: You know, we don't need like you know, this guy to approve it and that guy to approve it.
1:07:25
SPEAKER_01: All the decision makers.
1:07:26
SPEAKER_01: All the decision maker and the paralysis by analysis.
1:07:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh let's just do it.
1:07:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right?
1:07:31
SPEAKER_03: That's fantastic.
1:07:32
SPEAKER_03: I got I got two more questions for you before you get out of here.
1:07:35
SPEAKER_03: Um one ballpark it, how many team members does boomers have?
1:07:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right now we're uh around 65 or so.
1:07:44
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
1:07:45
SPEAKER_03: And they're all in Nevada?
1:07:46
SPEAKER_01: 100% in Nevada.
1:07:48
SPEAKER_01: Every single person who works for the company lives in Nevada, most you know, here in the Las Vegas area.
1:07:54
SPEAKER_01: Uh a number of people obviously in northern Nevada as well.
1:07:57
SPEAKER_03: And then I asked Nick this question, and he I I don't remember the answer he gave precisely, but I remember it was a very, very intriguing answer.
1:08:04
SPEAKER_03: Um sports betting goes through different stages, as does anything that that's sustains its you know longevity.
1:08:11
SPEAKER_03: Um obviously mobile betting is huge and you know everywhere now.
1:08:16
SPEAKER_03: Being legalized in a majority of the country is a huge deal.
1:08:20
SPEAKER_03: Uh maybe AI is being implemented somehow, somehow, I'm not sure.
1:08:25
SPEAKER_03: But I guess as a two-parter, are you able to utilize AI at all in in in your thing?
1:08:30
SPEAKER_03: And then also, where do you see the next phase of sports betting going to?
1:08:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, such a great question.
1:08:37
SPEAKER_01: And I heard you ask it uh to Nick.
1:08:40
SPEAKER_01: But so using AI, yes, in a variety of areas, not nearly as as much as I think we probably could or should or will uh in the future, but it it can give you just like a good starting point on a on a lot of things, right?
1:08:55
SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't think it replaces you know the human judgment at the end of the day, um, but it can give you a foundation and and you know help you understand about a topic before you you know you kind of really um get into it.
1:09:11
SPEAKER_01: Um and and certainly, you know, look, I'm sure customers are using it, you know, you know, who should win today's game, right?
1:09:19
SPEAKER_01: Well, that that's not gonna compensate for the bouncing of the ball and for the injury or what have you.
1:09:24
SPEAKER_01: Um but it's certainly a place to start.
1:09:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:09:27
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I I think there'll be you know additional adoption um of of AI.
1:09:34
SPEAKER_01: Um clearly there's been a big move not only to mobile um but also to in-play betting.
1:09:39
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
1:09:40
SPEAKER_01: Uh to what we call prop betting, but betting on you know how many points somebody's gonna score in a game or is Carlson gonna get a goal and you know that kind of stuff.
1:09:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:09:50
SPEAKER_01: Um and and people do that maybe because they think they have an edge, because you know, the the line on that might not be as tight as it's gonna be on an NFL game.
1:10:00
SPEAKER_01: And so maybe people can find advantage to it, but also you know, it also makes you know the game a lot you know more interesting for people and keeps people engaged, you know, right up um, right up to the end.
1:10:11
SPEAKER_01: Of course.
1:10:11
SPEAKER_01: Um, and so um I think you know that continues um to evolve.
1:10:18
SPEAKER_01: Um you know, it's it I'm I'm not a fan of some of the like super uh micro market type things because they can be susceptible to manipulation.
1:10:28
SPEAKER_01: You know, is an X pitch gonna be a ball or strike type of thing?
1:10:32
SPEAKER_01: And we saw you know some issues with that um uh last season, I think it was with the uh um the Guardians or the Yeah, I think they were Guardians by that point.
1:10:41
SPEAKER_01: Um but you know things that make it more fun for for the lay better.
1:10:47
SPEAKER_01: Yes, right?
1:10:48
SPEAKER_01: Um the you know promotions, right?
1:10:50
SPEAKER_01: It's a it's look, it's a competitive business, a very competitive business in Nevada, right?
1:10:54
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of choices the consumer has.
1:10:56
SPEAKER_01: I got four sports betting apps on my phone.
1:11:00
SPEAKER_01: Um we tell everybody check the price, right?
1:11:02
SPEAKER_01: We talked about margin and checking the price.
1:11:05
SPEAKER_01: Look, it's it's getting the boomers app, it's not like you know, uh uh a marriage.
1:11:10
SPEAKER_01: Like you don't have to like break up with your first spouse, right, to marry your second.
1:11:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right?
1:11:16
SPEAKER_01: You can keep your old app, you keep your existing app, and just get the boomers app and then check the price.
1:11:21
SPEAKER_01: And when you're getting a better payoff with boomers, or you know, if if the Patriots are playing the Eagles and the Eagles are you know minus four with boomers and minus four and a half with some other book, well, you're gonna bet with boomers if you want to lay the four.
1:11:35
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
1:11:36
SPEAKER_01: And if if you want to take the four and a half, you're gonna be betting with somebody else.
1:11:39
SPEAKER_01: So just check the price and figure out, you know, if the parlay, you know, plug in the parley you want to bet, see what it pays with us, see what it pays with the competition, and and just bet with us.
1:11:50
SPEAKER_01: Just check the price.
1:11:50
SPEAKER_01: That's all you gotta do.
1:11:51
SPEAKER_03: Do your due diligence.
1:11:52
SPEAKER_03: Listen, you want to sustain in this, you know, you can't just throw out money and hope for the best.
1:11:56
SPEAKER_03: I mean, you really do have to put in the work to and treat it as something where you are investing your money in into something that you know you want to succeed, and obviously you want to win.
1:12:06
SPEAKER_03: So it makes no sense for people to not check the price, to not, you know, have one app open in this one and you know one app uh open in that one and you know see what where the value is.
1:12:17
SPEAKER_01: Well, and it look it's different for different people, I'd say, because like I get enjoyment out of the finding, you know, checking the price at the various apps that I use and trying to figure out what's the best that that's part of the enjoyment of of betting for me is the the checking of the price.
1:12:36
SPEAKER_01: Some people just might not care.
1:12:37
SPEAKER_01: They just it's like, you know, I can get the you know the gallon of milk at the uh at the Albertsons and it'll be cheaper, or I can get at the Whole Foods and and pay more, or I can get it at the gas station right be, you know, right by my house.
1:12:50
SPEAKER_01: And I don't care, I'm just gonna I maybe it's just the convenience, I don't want to think about it.
1:12:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:12:55
SPEAKER_01: Or whatever.
1:12:56
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, but but yeah, people have different preferences, and that's totally, you know, totally cool.
1:13:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:13:03
SPEAKER_01: You know, I've got a friend of mine who's, you know, a regular better and he bets with us and he bets at other places too, depending on, you know, where he likes the price.
1:13:12
SPEAKER_01: Um and and like me, you know, he enjoys, you know, the the the looking around and trying to to uh to figure it out.
1:13:20
SPEAKER_01: And and so that's just part of the part of the fun of it, right?
1:13:24
SPEAKER_01: And and you know, it can be fun if you, you know, just kind of look at it from that perspective and and you know find things that interest you and that make it more enjoyable.
1:13:35
SPEAKER_01: Well said.
1:13:35
SPEAKER_03: Well, this episode unfortunately won't air until after Father's Day.
1:13:38
SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be the Thursday after Father's Day, but we're shooting the Thursday before Father's Day.
1:13:43
SPEAKER_03: This Father's Day, I'm gonna hang out with my dad.
1:13:44
SPEAKER_03: And my dad and I are probably gonna go and play some bests on some sports.
1:13:49
SPEAKER_03: He's not registered with boomers yet.
1:13:51
SPEAKER_03: So here in Vegas, where can I take my dad to register for boomers?
1:13:56
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the question.
1:13:57
SPEAKER_01: You can take him over to Ellis Island, um, which is of course right behind the strip on Koval.
1:14:02
SPEAKER_01: You can take him over to Silver Sevens, Flamingo and Paradise.
1:14:05
SPEAKER_01: Love that.
1:14:06
SPEAKER_01: Very easy ingress and egress surface parking over there in North Las Vegas.
1:14:11
SPEAKER_01: You can go to Ojos Locos um to uh uh to sign up.
1:14:16
SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, there's a bunch of places outs, you know, outside of the um the you know, this is you and your dad, but you know, somebody's listening, right?
1:14:27
SPEAKER_01: If some somebody's listening elsewhere, we're even in Tonopah at the mitzpah, Carson City at the Fandango.
1:14:34
SPEAKER_01: We talked about Elko, up in Lake Tahoe.
1:14:36
SPEAKER_01: A lot of people like to go up to Tahoe this time of year.
1:14:39
SPEAKER_01: Uh it's gorgeous up there.
1:14:41
SPEAKER_01: We're an incline village at the Hyatt, the Grand Lodge up there.
1:14:44
SPEAKER_01: Um and so, you know, there's there's um plenty of of locations.
1:14:49
SPEAKER_01: You can go on Bet with Boomer is the website where you can you know go on and and find out um where's the closest location for uh for folks to sign up.
1:14:59
SPEAKER_03: Love that.
1:15:00
SPEAKER_03: Brian, are you are you convinced to sign up now?
1:15:03
SPEAKER_03: Did it did we finally convince you to become a member of Boomers?
1:15:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'll uh place a bet, but if I lose, you pay me back.
1:15:11
SPEAKER_03: If you lose, uh I'm changing my phone number.
1:15:15
SPEAKER_03: Well, Joe, this was fantastic.
1:15:17
SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much for coming on and sharing not only your story, but boomers.
1:15:21
SPEAKER_03: And I I I'm so excited to to see the growth of boomers.
1:15:26
SPEAKER_03: I always love when it comes to sports betting, when it comes to business, I mean you you you're covering all my bases, and I I could, like I said, I could talk to you for hours on end.
1:15:35
SPEAKER_03: But I know Brian's gotta go because he's exhausted.
1:15:38
SPEAKER_03: He had a long day.
1:15:39
SPEAKER_03: Um, but Joe, thank you so much for coming on.
1:15:41
SPEAKER_03: This was awesome.
1:15:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thanks for having me.
1:15:43
SPEAKER_01: It's a great you get you got a great studio here, and I appreciate you letting me hang out here for a little bit.
1:15:48
SPEAKER_03: All right, Brian, pop quiz before I hit this outro.
1:15:50
SPEAKER_03: I bet$110 on a minus 110 bet.
1:15:55
SPEAKER_03: How much do I get back if I win?
1:16:00
SPEAKER_03: $100.
1:16:03
SPEAKER_03: Now, if I'm betting with Boomers, and I bet one of them.
1:16:06
SPEAKER_03: I got the first one right.
1:16:09
SPEAKER_03: Get two episodes each week on heybighead.com.
1:16:12
SPEAKER_03: Happy Father's Day, buddy.
1:16:14
SPEAKER_03: We'll see you next week.
1:16:21
SPEAKER_03: Well done, Joe.
1:16:22
SPEAKER_03: You you feel me?
1:16:23
SPEAKER_03: That was great.