Latest / The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast / The Return of Sports, Bob Scucci and Firing Up the Phanwagon w/Matt Moore & Justin Phan

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The Return of Sports, Bob Scucci and Firing Up the Phanwagon w/Matt Moore & Justin Phan · The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Favorites the podcast from the Action Network.
0:13
Speaker 1: I am Chad Moman and I'll bring scooch on in
0:15
Speaker 1: his second later on NBA experts from the Action That
0:18
Speaker 1: We're Justin Fan and Matt Moore are joining the show.
0:22
Speaker 1: The season is starting up again in a few days.
0:25
Speaker 1: These guys have been researching there in their labs. They're
0:28
Speaker 1: betting preseason. Let's hear what they can share. The first
0:32
Speaker 1: don't forget two weeks ago when Professional Better Simon Hunter
0:35
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0:39
Speaker 1: Those who did and used the winning phrase Simon the
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0:47
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0:50
Speaker 1: or four best picks of the year. We had loads
0:53
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0:56
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0:58
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1:02
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1:08
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1:12
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1:15
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1:18
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1:45
Speaker 1: episodes nearly every day. Fantasy with Chris Raybon, Shawn Corner,
1:49
Speaker 1: Matthew Freedman, NFL Betting, we've been doing a f C
1:51
Speaker 1: n NFC win totals. Was stucky in Raybon, Chris Raybon,
1:54
Speaker 1: and we've got golf with Jason Sobel and Peter Jennings.
1:57
Speaker 1: There brilliant betters. But first law, I've on tape from
2:01
Speaker 1: Las Vegas. Mr Bob Scoochie. That's what's going on. That
2:21
Speaker 1: is a wind up? Huh, it was. I got a
2:24
Speaker 1: lot to say, trying to get people to review the podcast,
2:27
Speaker 1: up our iTunes, rankings, do all those fun things. SCOOCHA.
2:31
Speaker 1: Should I be freaking out about baseball? Right now. I would.
2:35
Speaker 1: Everyone else said why not, Like it's so disappointing, and
2:39
Speaker 1: I really, I really just thought like they had a
2:42
Speaker 1: better plan. You know, when this happened with the Marlins
2:44
Speaker 1: and the outbreak happened, I sort of thought, all right, well,
2:46
Speaker 1: you know, they had to expect this to happen. Then
2:49
Speaker 1: the game's being canceled. Now the NAT's saying they're afraid
2:53
Speaker 1: to travel to Miami. I have zero confidence in Baseball's
2:56
Speaker 1: ability to figure this out. Yeah, it's it's not looking good. Uh.
3:00
Speaker 1: And I was on the phone all day with colleagues
3:04
Speaker 1: and suppliers and people that are in contact regular contact
3:09
Speaker 1: with with MLB, and nobody really has any answers right now.
3:13
Speaker 1: It's kind of everything's kind of up in the air.
3:15
Speaker 1: And you know, like everything else this year, we're taking everything,
3:19
Speaker 1: not even week by week, but day by day all
3:23
Speaker 1: the things that we tried to plan for. Something will
3:25
Speaker 1: come up that you just, you know, you have no
3:27
Speaker 1: answer for and you're just you're winging it. You're you're
3:29
Speaker 1: we're doing it on the fly. Then MLB has postponed
3:33
Speaker 1: all of the Marlins games through Sunday. It is now Tuesday.
3:37
Speaker 1: Not unexpected, but how do you book these games like
3:41
Speaker 1: it's and let me just let me let me say,
3:43
Speaker 1: like baseball came back last week, massive ratings, massive betting handle,
3:49
Speaker 1: massive traffic in the sports digital community, huge enthusiasm for sports,
3:54
Speaker 1: and sort of a real big four sport coming back.
3:57
Speaker 1: And now all of a sudden you got to sort
3:59
Speaker 1: of rethink everything. It just takes the buzz out it does,
4:02
Speaker 1: but it's not completely unexpected. And I think that's why
4:05
Speaker 1: the ratings were so good, is because everybody is just
4:08
Speaker 1: dying for something, for some sense of normalcy, you know,
4:11
Speaker 1: going back to one of the major sports for the
4:13
Speaker 1: first time in months, and everybody's kind of stuck at
4:17
Speaker 1: home and they don't even have, uh, you know, their
4:20
Speaker 1: their favorite sports team to watch anymore. So when baseball
4:23
Speaker 1: came back, yeah there, it came back with a betting vengeance.
4:27
Speaker 1: You know, people didn't have anything to bet on for
4:30
Speaker 1: so long, anything that they really knew about. You I'll
4:33
Speaker 1: throw table tennis aside or some of the other peripheral
4:36
Speaker 1: sports that were out there, but I mean something that
4:38
Speaker 1: they really knew and love. So yeah, they bet it
4:43
Speaker 1: with a vengeance, and we as bookmakers, you know, we
4:45
Speaker 1: took it on the chin day one. Uh, you know,
4:48
Speaker 1: right out of the gate when the Yankees and Dodgers
4:50
Speaker 1: both one and uh, and we got Claubert and right
4:54
Speaker 1: away all the bosses are like, so we do baseball
4:57
Speaker 1: is back and we lost, you know, but but everybody
5:01
Speaker 1: was just glad to have something to bet on. But
5:03
Speaker 1: I think everyone was kind of expecting to kind of
5:07
Speaker 1: kind of the shooter fall. I mean, you're just waiting,
5:09
Speaker 1: You're you're seeing people testing positive and and you have
5:13
Speaker 1: to put it in perspective, I mean, with everything else
5:15
Speaker 1: that that's going on in the world. I mean, it's
5:17
Speaker 1: still just a game of baseball, so you know, the
5:20
Speaker 1: importance of it has to be kind of taken with
5:23
Speaker 1: some perspective there. Right, But let's talk about sort of
5:27
Speaker 1: the impact of your business, right, because you've been thinking
5:30
Speaker 1: about how to get sports back for five months, as
5:33
Speaker 1: have we, and we've all been sort of surviving on
5:37
Speaker 1: UFC and and golf and things that have done incredibly
5:40
Speaker 1: well that we love, but those are not basketball, baseball
5:45
Speaker 1: and football, and so baseball coming back and then potentially
5:51
Speaker 1: who knows what happens next, how are you thinking about that?
5:55
Speaker 1: How do you plan for that? I mean, we don't
5:58
Speaker 1: uh that that's the thing. We're taking everything as the
6:00
Speaker 1: news is coming out and trying to adjust accordingly. I mean,
6:03
Speaker 1: the big sport obviously is NFL, and we're actually paying
6:07
Speaker 1: you know, much more attention to that than we are baseball.
6:10
Speaker 1: I mean, as much as we love baseball and it's
6:12
Speaker 1: a daily uh something to bet on every day with
6:15
Speaker 1: with daily games, we don't make nearly as much in
6:18
Speaker 1: baseball as we do in the NFL. So that's really
6:20
Speaker 1: the big prize. So when you see things like this
6:23
Speaker 1: happening with the Marlins, you can't help but wonder, if
6:27
Speaker 1: you know, NFL sitting back saying, okay, how are we
6:29
Speaker 1: gonna handle this? And you see more and more players
6:32
Speaker 1: now opting out for the for the season, So that's
6:35
Speaker 1: certainly gonna have uh an impact. So we're keeping an
6:38
Speaker 1: eye on everything, but it's hard to plan for things
6:42
Speaker 1: you just don't know, uh, you know, we we're just hopeful,
6:45
Speaker 1: we'll hopefully, we are hopeful that there's a season. Uh
6:50
Speaker 1: We're we're hopeful that there's a complete season, not just
6:52
Speaker 1: a half a season. And then we're we're hopeful that
6:55
Speaker 1: there's NBA, NFL and you know, maybe in college football.
7:00
Speaker 1: So I mean, it's it's really that it's hard to
7:02
Speaker 1: plan for it. We're just hopeful. Alright, you're an odds maker,
7:06
Speaker 1: so you say, Bob Scucci, bookmaker to the world. Tell
7:12
Speaker 1: me right now, give me odds on rank them. Is
7:16
Speaker 1: your leagues MLB finishing a season, NFL finishing the season,
7:22
Speaker 1: College football finishing a season, college football finishing the season.
7:27
Speaker 1: I'd make it an underdog. And I think the last
7:30
Speaker 1: time I spoke with you, I made NFL a small
7:33
Speaker 1: underdog to finish the season. Uh So, So I believe
7:36
Speaker 1: I made uh the NFL a three to two underdog
7:41
Speaker 1: to uh to to finish the season. I think I'm
7:44
Speaker 1: still sticking with that with the NFL. The way it's
7:47
Speaker 1: looking with baseball, I think that they're going to finish
7:50
Speaker 1: the season. I I can't see them coming this far
7:54
Speaker 1: and not finishing out at least, you know, it's a
7:56
Speaker 1: sixty games season, so so I think it's even money
7:59
Speaker 1: there that one's a coin flip. So, so that's you're
8:02
Speaker 1: gonna get. You know, the biggest the biggest underdog for
8:06
Speaker 1: me to finish the season, I think is college football.
8:09
Speaker 1: Give me a number three to one. Wow? Three to one.
8:12
Speaker 1: I honestly, I mean I'm a pessimist, and maybe it's
8:16
Speaker 1: not good for maybe it's not good for for our
8:18
Speaker 1: business for me to even say that, but I don't
8:21
Speaker 1: see them finished. I'm having a hard time seeing them
8:23
Speaker 1: starting a season, and honestly, it's not good for our
8:27
Speaker 1: business at all. Well, and the reason, and you know,
8:30
Speaker 1: because it's still tied to academics. I mean, as much
8:32
Speaker 1: as we know, it really isn't there's still that other element.
8:36
Speaker 1: It's not just business the way Major League Baseball in
8:39
Speaker 1: NFL and NBA are strictly, you know, it's a business,
8:42
Speaker 1: but so on on. On the college football side, you
8:45
Speaker 1: not only have to play the games, but there's also
8:47
Speaker 1: the academic side, the school side, the administration, the board
8:50
Speaker 1: of regions, all that good stuff. How is any university
8:54
Speaker 1: going to justify having their players on campus to play
8:58
Speaker 1: football when they're not and letting their students on campus,
9:02
Speaker 1: or they're not letting their students in classrooms, or if
9:05
Speaker 1: they let everybody there and they do some kind of
9:08
Speaker 1: on campus teaching and on campus living and then three
9:12
Speaker 1: weeks in they send everybody home, then what do you do?
9:15
Speaker 1: So and that's the thing we're asking you're asking me, like,
9:19
Speaker 1: how we're planning on these scenarios, And I don't think
9:23
Speaker 1: the leagues themselves or college football is actually planning on
9:26
Speaker 1: what happens in this case, what happens if there's an outbreak?
9:30
Speaker 1: Just here, what do we do with the rest of
9:32
Speaker 1: the game. I don't think there's a comprehensive plan. I
9:35
Speaker 1: think it's a kind of like the way I'm hopeful
9:37
Speaker 1: that the season is gonna finish. I think that's the
9:41
Speaker 1: way they're approaching it too. We'll start it and we'll
9:43
Speaker 1: see what happens. We'll get as many games in as
9:46
Speaker 1: we can. I don't like this, scooch. I want the
9:48
Speaker 1: people in charge of the things that I depend on
9:52
Speaker 1: to have more forethought, strategy and competency. Then well, let's
9:57
Speaker 1: just get this thing going and see what happens. But
10:00
Speaker 1: don't you get that sense that that's the way it is.
10:02
Speaker 1: It's kind of like fly by the seat of your
10:04
Speaker 1: pants and and you know, we'll wing this thing. Well.
10:07
Speaker 1: I think part of the problem is it's just so
10:09
Speaker 1: hard to unpack all that choose your own adventure scenarios
10:14
Speaker 1: for all of these things, Like what is going to
10:16
Speaker 1: happen if there's an outbreak and one of your teams
10:19
Speaker 1: and then you got to cancel games, and then nobody
10:21
Speaker 1: wants to travel. So does that team making up all
10:23
Speaker 1: the games? What are you gonna do if, like, even
10:26
Speaker 1: if you're in ten game college football season, like and
10:29
Speaker 1: you missed three of the games because three the games
10:31
Speaker 1: get canceled because those teams have outbreaks. Like it's it's
10:35
Speaker 1: I don't envy the positions that conference commissioners are in,
10:39
Speaker 1: that lead commissioners and executives are in. It's hard enough
10:42
Speaker 1: at the action that we're trying to figure out what
10:43
Speaker 1: we're gonna do based on based on all these different scenarios. Sure,
10:47
Speaker 1: I mean, and we're doing the same thing here. Uh,
10:50
Speaker 1: you know, in Nevada there's two of our two of
10:52
Speaker 1: our properties, the casinos themselves are not open. So so
10:57
Speaker 1: not only you know, we have sports books in some
10:59
Speaker 1: of them, but obviously the sports books can open if
11:02
Speaker 1: the casino is not open. So you know, we need sports,
11:06
Speaker 1: we need content, but then locally we also need that
11:08
Speaker 1: property to be open or you know, in the case
11:11
Speaker 1: of a mobile product, to make sure that you know,
11:13
Speaker 1: the app is working. So there's a lot of different
11:17
Speaker 1: kind of contingencies that that we're kind of hanging our
11:19
Speaker 1: hat on. All right, screw, I want to remind people
11:22
Speaker 1: that we're doing NBA in a few minutes with Justin
11:26
Speaker 1: Fan and Matt Moore, and I want to remind people
11:29
Speaker 1: that we're doing the phrase that pays. So leave a review,
11:32
Speaker 1: leave a podcast review that includes the phrase jump on
11:36
Speaker 1: the fan wagon in honor of our guest, Justin Fan,
11:39
Speaker 1: because in our world, we all follow Justin Fan in
11:41
Speaker 1: the Action Network app. When he makes an NBA pick,
11:44
Speaker 1: we race to bet it use that phrase, and we
11:47
Speaker 1: will randomly choose the winner. When I say randomly, meeting
11:50
Speaker 1: like me and producer Matt Mitchell are going to read
11:52
Speaker 1: the reviews and decide the best one, and we will
11:54
Speaker 1: choose that winner to get a free Action Network subscription.
11:56
Speaker 1: And don't forget, at the end of this episode, we
11:58
Speaker 1: are going to name the inner of the last Phrase
12:01
Speaker 1: that pays contest. It was a very good review and
12:03
Speaker 1: there were a lot of them. All right, NBA is
12:05
Speaker 1: coming up. You can't see the wastening in the podcast,
12:08
Speaker 1: but Scooch can see this because I'm on zoom. I
12:11
Speaker 1: speaking of basketball, broke my pinky playing basketball with my son.
12:16
Speaker 1: And I'm getting a lot of grief for it because
12:19
Speaker 1: I didn't do anything with it. For a few weeks.
12:21
Speaker 1: I thought it was just jammed, but like it wasn't
12:23
Speaker 1: it still killed and like wasn't getting better. And then
12:25
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, like the pinky was curling and
12:28
Speaker 1: like deforming, and I uh. I sent a video of
12:33
Speaker 1: it like me trying to move it to a buddy
12:35
Speaker 1: of mine who's an orthopedic surgeon, and he's like, you're
12:38
Speaker 1: an idiot. You need to go get it looked at
12:41
Speaker 1: right away. And I went in there, like it's broken
12:44
Speaker 1: and you need pinky physical therapy. So I've been going
12:48
Speaker 1: like twice a week for six weeks and they gave
12:50
Speaker 1: me a little mini cast that like a straightening get out,
12:52
Speaker 1: and I do a little pinky push ups. Chad Millman
12:56
Speaker 1: is proud of himself. I get mad. Made a lot
12:59
Speaker 1: of fun made of me by my wife and my children.
13:02
Speaker 1: But you can see it in the zoom when like
13:04
Speaker 1: my hand goes up and down. Hey, quick, quick story.
13:07
Speaker 1: I broke my thumb the same way thirty years ago
13:11
Speaker 1: playing pick up basketball with you remember the comedian Buddy Hackett.
13:15
Speaker 1: Of course, his son, Sandy Hackett was I was guarding
13:19
Speaker 1: him playing at a local church here and he went
13:22
Speaker 1: to wing a pass that I tried to intercept. It
13:25
Speaker 1: went straight on my thumb. My entire hand turned black.
13:29
Speaker 1: Happened to be the day before I was starting work
13:32
Speaker 1: as a ticket writer at my first boyd gaming job
13:36
Speaker 1: and trying to count money without a thumb on your
13:40
Speaker 1: first day, thousands of dollars that you're kind of using
13:43
Speaker 1: like this, I'm trying to count money. I didn't know.
13:46
Speaker 1: I didn't know if i'd last. Man, that is that
13:49
Speaker 1: is not a good way to start a new gig.
13:51
Speaker 1: And like that was by the way, were you having
13:53
Speaker 1: a right tickets out by hand or were you punching
13:54
Speaker 1: him in at that point? Hey man, I'm not that old.
14:01
Speaker 1: Scooge NBA is back in like two days, and the
14:03
Speaker 1: one question I get is, forget about sides in the
14:06
Speaker 1: first two weeks. Do you favor the under? Do you
14:09
Speaker 1: favor the over? I mean I think I favor the under,
14:14
Speaker 1: but I mean they're they're not gonna be playing any
14:17
Speaker 1: any defense. But to me, it's a coin flip. I
14:20
Speaker 1: don't know. I'd I'd like to hear some of the
14:22
Speaker 1: expert handicappers weighing on that one. But yeah, but like
14:26
Speaker 1: you must have an idea of how you're gonna shade
14:28
Speaker 1: the games. How are you gonna be shading it towards
14:30
Speaker 1: the under? Are you gonna shade it towards the over?
14:32
Speaker 1: Like when you're thinking about your totals, are you thinking
14:35
Speaker 1: about after this long of a layoff, this is how
14:38
Speaker 1: you want to set the numbers? Or you just going
14:39
Speaker 1: back in with whatever they were power rated out when
14:41
Speaker 1: this season sat down in the middle of the March, Well,
14:43
Speaker 1: I mean they were pretty high to begin with. So
14:46
Speaker 1: I mean when we talk about shading and we're gonna go,
14:48
Speaker 1: you know, a couple of points, but we always we
14:50
Speaker 1: always tend to shade and over because we just know
14:53
Speaker 1: simply we're gonna get more over bets in any circumstance.
14:56
Speaker 1: Uh So, if you know, if we're going strictly up
14:59
Speaker 1: against the professional better as we know, they typically bet
15:02
Speaker 1: the unders because there's more value there, just on a
15:05
Speaker 1: on a normal case basis, because we do shade overs
15:09
Speaker 1: more than unders, so more than normal. Probably not if
15:13
Speaker 1: you're asking me or we're gonna share the over more
15:15
Speaker 1: than we normally do. Probably not all right, Scooch. We're
15:18
Speaker 1: gonna get back into our regular weekly cadence probably when
15:22
Speaker 1: we get closer to everyone being in training camp as
15:26
Speaker 1: we get into August. But it's always good to see you.
15:29
Speaker 1: It's good to see you too, man. I hope that
15:30
Speaker 1: Pinky gets better. Yeah, you're the only one who's saying
15:33
Speaker 1: nice things that I appreciate that. All right. Coming up
15:37
Speaker 1: next on the podcast, as promised, Matt Moore and Justin Fan,
15:40
Speaker 1: our NBA experts, we're gonna break down what you can
15:42
Speaker 1: expect when the NBA season tips off later this week.
15:47
Speaker 1: All right, As promised, NBA season is starting in about
15:51
Speaker 1: three days, maybe even less than that. We probably have
15:55
Speaker 1: some of the best NBA betting coverage, if not NBA
15:58
Speaker 1: bettors in the world here at Action Network. Matt Moore,
16:02
Speaker 1: one of our senior writers. Justin Fan, one of our
16:05
Speaker 1: analysts who's running some of our analytics, also might be
16:09
Speaker 1: my favorite NBA better follow them both in the Action
16:12
Speaker 1: Network app. Don't forget jump on the fan wagon? Are
16:15
Speaker 1: phras to pay his contest? Fellas we got like forty
16:18
Speaker 1: eight hours until the games tip off on Thursday, Fan,
16:23
Speaker 1: the one question everybody has been asking how do you
16:28
Speaker 1: account for totals right now as the season tips off.
16:32
Speaker 1: I don't if anybody saying, how are you figuring outsides,
16:35
Speaker 1: because I think a lot of people might stay away
16:36
Speaker 1: from them. Tell me what you're thinking about is a
16:39
Speaker 1: better and then how you're thinking about totals. Yeah, I'm
16:41
Speaker 1: flowing expecting these guys to kind of be rusty coming
16:44
Speaker 1: out the gate um, seeing even Lebron talked about Hair
16:47
Speaker 1: is going to need these eight games to kind of
16:48
Speaker 1: round it out to postseason form. And I'm expecting more turnovers,
16:53
Speaker 1: lower percentage shooting, and not only that, the minutes projections
16:57
Speaker 1: for a lot of these guys are going to be lower. Initially, Um,
17:00
Speaker 1: you're gonna have some outliers like James Harden, Mac D'Antoni
17:03
Speaker 1: are gonna just come out the gate play these guys
17:06
Speaker 1: thirty minutes. But a lot of these guys still need
17:09
Speaker 1: some games to ramp back up to get back into forms.
17:12
Speaker 1: So we're gonna see um some lower totals and slopper
17:15
Speaker 1: your play out the gate um, and I think that's
17:17
Speaker 1: gonna be kind of a league wide trend. Matt More
17:20
Speaker 1: is justin fan right or wrong. I'm never gonna say,
17:23
Speaker 1: Justin is wrong. I would never do such a thing, Chad.
17:26
Speaker 1: I will say that I'm really interested to see it
17:28
Speaker 1: because talking to coaches and people are in the league,
17:31
Speaker 1: there is kind of this idea that offense might be
17:34
Speaker 1: a little bit actually up. And the reasons are one,
17:37
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of confidence the defensive communication is
17:39
Speaker 1: going to improve. I talked to the bookmakers. They were like, well,
17:42
Speaker 1: it's empty. The arena is empty, so they should be
17:43
Speaker 1: able to make callouts easier, except that the coaches are like,
17:46
Speaker 1: none of my guys talk anyway, Like that's something we
17:48
Speaker 1: have to harp on in practice anyway. And the empty
17:50
Speaker 1: arena kind of has it feel a little bit like
17:53
Speaker 1: you're just self conscious of it because you're more worried
17:54
Speaker 1: about what you're gonna say and get picked up on
17:56
Speaker 1: Mike or whatever. So there's a little bit more hesitancy.
17:58
Speaker 1: Their second, because us, the defense can hear all the
18:01
Speaker 1: play calls, more teams are going to read and react offenses.
18:04
Speaker 1: Now that's gonna one produce a little bit faster paced
18:07
Speaker 1: because you're just taking the first kind of impulse guys
18:09
Speaker 1: are not shy about shooting. And then two, you've got
18:13
Speaker 1: kind of this higher rate of turnovers because it's not
18:15
Speaker 1: set plays. They haven't practiced these sequences, So there's this
18:18
Speaker 1: idea more LiveBall turnovers which could result in that. Now
18:21
Speaker 1: the pace has been significantly up throughout the scrimmage games
18:24
Speaker 1: like that's been way up, and that's not uncommon for preseason.
18:28
Speaker 1: The offensive rating has been down from the regular season though,
18:30
Speaker 1: and there is kind of this going idea that in
18:32
Speaker 1: the beginning for these first eight games, they are gonna
18:34
Speaker 1: be rusty. It's gonna take a while to pick up.
18:37
Speaker 1: My question is gonna be more whether where the bookmakers
18:39
Speaker 1: go do it. Are they gonna Are they going to
18:41
Speaker 1: go a little bit too harsh on that? Are they
18:42
Speaker 1: gonna get a little bit too far out in front
18:44
Speaker 1: of it early? I kind of wonder if they are.
18:46
Speaker 1: I'm literally to lean a little bit, I think towards
18:49
Speaker 1: the overs in certain situations with certain teams, I think
18:52
Speaker 1: early on. You know what I'm loving right now, I've
18:55
Speaker 1: got the Spurs pacers on right now and I've been watching,
18:59
Speaker 1: you know, scrimmages all day. Matt. You mentioned sort of
19:03
Speaker 1: the lack of fans. I love how intimate this feels.
19:08
Speaker 1: It feels like I'm getting a view on something that
19:12
Speaker 1: you normally don't get, like it's a practice or an
19:15
Speaker 1: l a summer league scrimmage or you know, it's one
19:19
Speaker 1: of those sunny Hill leagues in Philadelphia. Like it feels
19:21
Speaker 1: very sort of behind the scenes to me. Yeah, I
19:25
Speaker 1: think the presentation has been really good. How they built
19:27
Speaker 1: the sets, which is how one writer described it for me,
19:30
Speaker 1: um was it feels more like a set than it
19:32
Speaker 1: does like an arena. That's been very good. I think
19:35
Speaker 1: the led lighting, all of the different things. Some of
19:37
Speaker 1: the stuff I don't think it is a hit, like
19:38
Speaker 1: some of the digital fans stuff. I'm not sure it's
19:40
Speaker 1: gonna work. But the overall presentation I think is really good.
19:43
Speaker 1: The biggest thing I think they gotta get for the
19:45
Speaker 1: actual game broadcasts, they need to pump up the court
19:48
Speaker 1: audio and decrease the announcer audio a little bit, because
19:51
Speaker 1: I think people in this setting they want to hear
19:54
Speaker 1: the court, but that they want to hear the call outs,
19:55
Speaker 1: They want to hear the trash talk. And I know
19:57
Speaker 1: that that the broadcast will be nervous about that, but
20:00
Speaker 1: this is why I think people want to see the most.
20:02
Speaker 1: They want to hear what guys are saying when they're
20:04
Speaker 1: on the floor, I want to hear the sneaker squeaking,
20:07
Speaker 1: Like that's what I love. Like I want this to
20:09
Speaker 1: feel like a practice almost. You know, fan you mentioned
20:13
Speaker 1: uh minutes, you mentioned lineups. One of the things that
20:18
Speaker 1: you do that is sort of garnered view of following
20:22
Speaker 1: is understand intimately the value of understanding who's playing who's not,
20:26
Speaker 1: and the timing of all that. And Fantasy Labs NBA
20:29
Speaker 1: twitter handle is like the must follow Twitter handle for
20:33
Speaker 1: anybody who wants to be in the betting a DFS
20:36
Speaker 1: space and it's brilliant and like you guys are starting
20:38
Speaker 1: to pump out and like get back into practice. People
20:41
Speaker 1: need to know, like about the tool that you have
20:43
Speaker 1: spent almost a year building and the value and sort
20:47
Speaker 1: of how that translates some of what you do for
20:49
Speaker 1: everyday users. That's kind of my biggest edge so far
20:53
Speaker 1: as to follow news and to kind of anticipate it
20:55
Speaker 1: before happens. The books have gotten way better at adjusting
21:00
Speaker 1: efficiently and quickly when news breaks, so I think the
21:02
Speaker 1: edge now is to kind of anticipate it beforehand, um
21:06
Speaker 1: to be ahead of it. And and that's what kind
21:08
Speaker 1: of we do at the Labs NBA Insiders tool, We
21:10
Speaker 1: give you all the information, the latest updates, the percent
21:13
Speaker 1: that a player will likely play, and these sort of leans, um,
21:17
Speaker 1: if he's in the layup line, if he's wearing a
21:19
Speaker 1: starters jersey during shoot around, like all that tidbit of information.
21:23
Speaker 1: Will watch all these these videos from shoot around for
21:26
Speaker 1: you so you don't have to scour him digging for
21:28
Speaker 1: any kind of nuggets that we can get, you know,
21:30
Speaker 1: that are not publicly available that give us an edge
21:33
Speaker 1: on on the field. Alright, so this tool is even
21:35
Speaker 1: alive yet, Like people are gonna get access to this
21:37
Speaker 1: tool sort of when the NBA starts to launch and
21:40
Speaker 1: people should be going to where do you want to
21:43
Speaker 1: send them to go play with it? Yeah, you can
21:46
Speaker 1: look at it on the Labs Insiders page. I think
21:48
Speaker 1: this is gonna be the stretch where news is gonna
21:51
Speaker 1: matter more than any time you've ever seen. We've already
21:54
Speaker 1: seen that with all the coronavirus stuff. We're gonna see
21:56
Speaker 1: it too with players and teams or motivations when we
21:59
Speaker 1: get deeper into the seeding games. They're they're gonna be teams,
22:03
Speaker 1: whether up top like the Lakers who have clinched the
22:06
Speaker 1: number one seed and they have no motivation to play anymore.
22:09
Speaker 1: They're gonna start resting players. Teams that are out of
22:11
Speaker 1: the playoff race, they're gonna start resting players if there's
22:14
Speaker 1: no incensive to play anymore. I can see Santonio easily.
22:17
Speaker 1: You know that that seventh that eighth game, they're out
22:19
Speaker 1: of it. The Mardarros and sits and they start, you know,
22:22
Speaker 1: giving guys that Kellen Johnson, uh, the young guys um
22:25
Speaker 1: some reps. So this is gonna be a stretch where
22:28
Speaker 1: news is going to be more important than ever. It's
22:30
Speaker 1: right on my alley, right, So explain You mentioned like
22:35
Speaker 1: the window is so short news breaks. How long do
22:39
Speaker 1: you have to react to a point spread moving, a
22:43
Speaker 1: player total moving? Give me sort of the line the
22:46
Speaker 1: demarttation here. I mean it used to be up to
22:49
Speaker 1: a minute at some at some spots, but now the
22:52
Speaker 1: sharper books the line, the lines off the board, the
22:56
Speaker 1: it's moving within seconds. So I mean you have to
23:00
Speaker 1: kind of be around all the time and monitoring this
23:03
Speaker 1: stuff when it breaks. The window is just diminishing more
23:07
Speaker 1: and more. It's like you get you get twenty seconds
23:10
Speaker 1: to make a bet. You find out to Martin Rosen sitting,
23:13
Speaker 1: you've got twenty seconds to make a bet on that
23:15
Speaker 1: game before the line is changing, if you're lucky enough
23:18
Speaker 1: to even Sometimes it takes twenty seconds for things on
23:21
Speaker 1: a computer to move right. That is exhausting. People kind
23:25
Speaker 1: of glamorized sports betting a little bit that it's sexy,
23:28
Speaker 1: that it's um a lot of uh, you know, a lot,
23:31
Speaker 1: a lot different than actually is. It's just having monitors,
23:34
Speaker 1: of having lines, of having books up and just kind
23:38
Speaker 1: of hunting these opportunities all day, just kind of finding
23:40
Speaker 1: the edges. Alright, So, Matt Moore, speaking of edges, you
23:44
Speaker 1: posted a story about the Bucks and about sort of
23:48
Speaker 1: they were basically in the same position last year. They
23:51
Speaker 1: are probably the best team in the NBA. They are
23:54
Speaker 1: they are best suited to win the finals. They will
23:57
Speaker 1: be favored unless they play any team from California. Yeah,
24:00
Speaker 1: and yet what are your expectations? Well, justin and we're
24:03
Speaker 1: actually talking about this earlier in our action slack and
24:05
Speaker 1: and the kind of ideas the Bucks in particular are
24:09
Speaker 1: vulnerable is shooting on both ends of the floor. They
24:12
Speaker 1: create a lot of wide open jumpers and they can
24:14
Speaker 1: hit those. They have lots of shooters, but they also
24:17
Speaker 1: give up a huge ton. Their defensive scheme is built
24:20
Speaker 1: to allow three point shots, which in today's NBA that's
24:23
Speaker 1: really dangerous. Now they managed it very well because they
24:26
Speaker 1: target with shooters. They want to take those shots. The
24:29
Speaker 1: problem in the playoffs is that you don't necessarily have
24:32
Speaker 1: those weak spots. Is that if you face a team
24:34
Speaker 1: like the Heat that can put four reliable shooters on
24:37
Speaker 1: the court at all times, if one of the guys
24:39
Speaker 1: that you elect could be like, all right, this guy,
24:41
Speaker 1: we're gonna give up shots too, and we're gonna keep
24:43
Speaker 1: playing our drop coverage and we're not going to change
24:45
Speaker 1: things up. If that guy gets hot, you're in real trouble.
24:48
Speaker 1: And that's where they got burned last year because Fred
24:50
Speaker 1: VanVleet almost Kyle Lowry to a degree when absolutely super
24:53
Speaker 1: nova in those last four games and edged out the Bucks,
24:56
Speaker 1: and that's why they fell in the Eastern Conference finals.
24:58
Speaker 1: The Bucks also shot really well below what they're expected
25:02
Speaker 1: value on shots should be, and Justin in particular was
25:04
Speaker 1: noting that a lot of that is because rotations get
25:06
Speaker 1: sharper and guys were able to make better closeouts and
25:09
Speaker 1: that now I think some of that is just variants,
25:11
Speaker 1: and I think there's a good chance for the Bucks
25:13
Speaker 1: to be able to get away from that because, in
25:15
Speaker 1: part as I wrote the piece, they've shifted their offense
25:17
Speaker 1: and it's a little bit more complicated now. They have
25:19
Speaker 1: more deviations. They have more ability to run pick and
25:22
Speaker 1: roll with Janice as the screener, which provides you with
25:25
Speaker 1: better ways to get him moving instead of him running
25:28
Speaker 1: into a brick wall all the time. But I do
25:30
Speaker 1: think teams like Miami and Boston in particular are really
25:33
Speaker 1: well built to go into a series like with Milwaukee
25:36
Speaker 1: and win. The question is gonna be can they get there? Uh?
25:38
Speaker 1: And will the Bucks shooting hold up. It's why I'm
25:41
Speaker 1: really hesitant, even though I think the Bucks are the
25:43
Speaker 1: best team and I like their matchup versus both the
25:45
Speaker 1: Lakers and Clippers in the seven game series, I'm really
25:48
Speaker 1: hesitant to bet on them to win the title because
25:51
Speaker 1: of all these concerns and what we saw last season. Alright,
25:53
Speaker 1: so fan picking up on what matches said Miami Boston, like,
25:58
Speaker 1: who do you think has the best shot to knock
26:01
Speaker 1: the Bucks out of the Eastern Conference? Number one seed. Yeah,
26:04
Speaker 1: I think this whole notion that the Bucks have an
26:07
Speaker 1: easy quote unquote easy path to the finals is a
26:10
Speaker 1: complete force. You look at these matchups, I think all
26:13
Speaker 1: of them present pretty sizable challenges. Miami the current four seed,
26:18
Speaker 1: um kind of projects to be their secondmount opponent and
26:20
Speaker 1: there too, and no against the Bucks in the regular
26:23
Speaker 1: season series, and that's for a good reason. They take
26:25
Speaker 1: a lot of three and have one of the best
26:28
Speaker 1: Janice quote unquote stoppers in the league and Bam ade Bio.
26:31
Speaker 1: I think there's maybe two other guys in the league
26:33
Speaker 1: I might have guard Janice over Bam, but Bam has
26:37
Speaker 1: been phenomenal versus Jonas one on one defending him. You
26:41
Speaker 1: look up this Bucks rosters. How many guys are you
26:43
Speaker 1: really trusting in big moments. We've seen Chris Middleton fold before.
26:46
Speaker 1: I love him, but you know he's had some brutal series.
26:49
Speaker 1: Eric Bledsoe, Brook Lopez, his three point shooting has gone
26:53
Speaker 1: to hell this season. Dante divin chand will love him,
26:56
Speaker 1: but he's not a reliable three point shooter. So these
26:58
Speaker 1: matchups specifically present challenges for Milwaukee's drop defense. You look
27:04
Speaker 1: at Boston, they have prolific jump shooters and Kema Walker
27:08
Speaker 1: and Jayson Tatum. We talked about Miami and their three
27:11
Speaker 1: point shooting um Toronto. They have Fred Davy and Kyle Lowry.
27:15
Speaker 1: They have a guy Marcus told we can step on
27:17
Speaker 1: and hit threes. I mean, I think each of these
27:19
Speaker 1: matchups present pretty sizeable challenges um to where, honestly, I
27:25
Speaker 1: would not be surprised if they at least get pushed
27:30
Speaker 1: to seven or maybe even get upset alright in our
27:34
Speaker 1: final minute. Then give me your championship series. Who takes
27:40
Speaker 1: the title, Matt Moore, I'm giving you thirty seconds. Well,
27:44
Speaker 1: I will take Bucks over Lakers because it's most likely
27:47
Speaker 1: outcome the best numbers. I like taking in a position
27:49
Speaker 1: on the Lakers versus the Celtics, and the Lakers versus
27:52
Speaker 1: the Sixers. If I got one beat, I'll go Lakers,
27:55
Speaker 1: all right. Justin fan, I'm gonna go Clippers over Bucks,
27:59
Speaker 1: and I've been on the Clippers all season long. I
28:02
Speaker 1: think they present they still have some things they need
28:04
Speaker 1: to sort out, especially defensively with guys. You know, Matt
28:08
Speaker 1: did a great article on this on lou Williams, Montres Harald,
28:11
Speaker 1: those two specifically defensively cast some issues. But when I
28:14
Speaker 1: look at this roster, when they're at full health, their depth,
28:17
Speaker 1: I'm gonna kind of go out on a limb and
28:20
Speaker 1: take the Clippers. I think the Lakers are probably a
28:21
Speaker 1: little bit more logical. Um, but I'm still running with
28:24
Speaker 1: the Clippers. So you're going with a Kauai back to back,
28:27
Speaker 1: I will say that. Matt Moore on the Action Network
28:29
Speaker 1: NBA podcast earlier this week made a really good point, like,
28:32
Speaker 1: are the Clippers a team that doesn't need to like
28:35
Speaker 1: each other to win a title? Are they a team
28:37
Speaker 1: that just needs to act like they're coming to the office.
28:40
Speaker 1: And do they benefit from having this time off and
28:42
Speaker 1: being in a compressed schedule or there's being quarantined? Is
28:47
Speaker 1: that actually hurt them in a situation like this. I mean,
28:51
Speaker 1: to be fair off what you just said, Chad, like
28:53
Speaker 1: half the team has been gone out of the bubble.
28:54
Speaker 1: They really haven't had to spend a lot of time before.
28:57
Speaker 1: I mean, Andrew Sham and Montres, Harold Patrick, Beverly Lou Williams,
29:01
Speaker 1: they've all been out of the bubble like a zoo
29:02
Speaker 1: bog like, so this whole wearing on each other. I
29:05
Speaker 1: don't think that's really an issue because like half the
29:07
Speaker 1: team has been gone. Matt Moore, I'm gonna let you
29:09
Speaker 1: defend yourself. I don't know how you build chemistry with
29:12
Speaker 1: Kawhile Leonard when he doesn't talk. Ever, there were reports
29:15
Speaker 1: of chemistry issues earlier this season around January. They seem
29:18
Speaker 1: to get better, but oftentimes those things don't resolve themselves
29:21
Speaker 1: that quickly. A lot of explosive personalities, especially adding Marcus Morris,
29:25
Speaker 1: I have concerns about how they're going to operate together.
29:28
Speaker 1: I think everyone just looks at the parts and not
29:31
Speaker 1: what the whole is. And that's why I leaned towards
29:33
Speaker 1: the Lakers. Alright, justin fan, Matt Moore, Action Network NBA
29:38
Speaker 1: superstars look for their stuff all throughout the restart and
29:42
Speaker 1: into the playoffs. Thanks for joining the podcast, boys, Thanks
29:45
Speaker 1: Jed Alright. As promised two weeks ago, when Simon Hunter
29:50
Speaker 1: joined the podcast to give tips of being a pro better,
29:53
Speaker 1: we asked fans to rate and review the podcast. Those
29:55
Speaker 1: who did and used the winning phrase in their review
29:59
Speaker 1: were eligible to win one of Simon's best three or
30:03
Speaker 1: four picks of the NFL season. We have loads and
30:05
Speaker 1: loads of reviews so thank you for that, and in
30:09
Speaker 1: a second we will reveal the winner. We will, but
30:12
Speaker 1: first don't forget. We are doing another phrase that pays contest.
30:16
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30:20
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30:24
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30:27
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30:30
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30:33
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30:36
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30:41
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30:46
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30:48
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30:51
Speaker 1: to that are fun and could help you win money?
30:54
Speaker 1: This is easily one of my favorite pods of all time,
30:56
Speaker 1: with host Chad Millman and everyone's favorite bookmaker Bob Scoo
31:00
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31:06
Speaker 1: a recreational better, these guys give real actionable advice. Not
31:10
Speaker 1: to mention my personal favorite line change, Simon, the genius
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Speaker 1: professional Better says that giving me his free favorite play
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Speaker 1: is a lock this year. Chris from me, that was
31:22
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Speaker 1: your freaking contact info because that was one of the
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Speaker 1: rules and you didn't do it, but the review was
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31:32
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31:39
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