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cover of episode The Science of Sports Betting with @BetwithAJ  EP40

The Science of Sports Betting with @BetwithAJ EP40

2022/3/3
logo of podcast Escaping the Drift with John Gafford

Escaping the Drift with John Gafford

Chapters

AJ discusses his early days in sports betting, starting with a successful first bet and his realization of the potential to turn sports betting into a business.

Shownotes Transcript

From the art of the deal to keeping it real. Live from the Simply Vegas studios, it's The Power Move with John Gafford. Back again, back again, back again for another wonderful episode of The Power Move. I'm your host, John Gafford.

Live from the Sibley Vegas studios, as the man said when we let in. Sitting to my left, Colt, party boy, Amadam. Colt. Hey, you read my... I did. I did. Good. Party boy. That's it. Right on the Wikipedia page. Sitting across from us is the counselor...

Chris Connell, counselor, how are you? How are you guys? Living the dream. You know what, man? I'm doing good. Sitting next to you is our special guest today, AJ. How you doing? How you doing? Thanks for having me. Oh, man, of course, of course. You know, anytime that Chris, you know, when Colt says, I got somebody we should have on the show, I immediately am fearful.

for that. We get on a list because we're within 200 feet of a school. So we have to make sure we're okay for that. This is how a podcast is. Man, putting that church down the street has messed it up. But when Chris says we should have somebody on, you know, we normally say, okay, we could probably make that happen.

And, you know, let's face it, dude, you pulled up here to McLaren, so you got my attention. I mean, I'm easy. Let's face it, I'm like a 15-year-old kid. I'm like, ooh, he's got a McLaren? What does he do? I don't know about that. Yep.

But, you know, we do live in Las Vegas, and occasionally those that listen to us from around the world, around the country, wherever you are. If you're one of our 10,000 subscribers, here comes my quick pandering. Make sure you like, subscribe, whatever you do. If you're watching us on YouTube, make sure you click that like button. Every little bit helps. And if you haven't given us a review wherever you are, make sure you do that. But today, we're going to talk about...

The art of sports betting, man. Correct. Which is what it is. Yeah. AJ, one of the premier sports betting services in town, which means he doesn't necessarily go places on money. He's just very good at handicapping. So he tells you what you should play for. I do both. He does both. Yeah, I do both. And it's a solid business, and it is. And it's, you know, anybody that can build a business to the level of where you have men and what you have.

The idea here is to kind of uncover and find some of those clues is what we're going to do. So that's the goal we're doing. But first, you know, we always start off the top of the show. We're talking about some current events. We do. Cool. First of all, by the time this comes out, it'll be out. So I don't even care. Some mind-blowing shit happened yesterday. I mean, mind-blowing. I'm not going to say the person's name.

But a friend of ours that we all know, and you guys know this, a friend of ours that we all know, his parents died when he was very young and always kind of questioned the history of himself. My wife fancies herself to be an internet sleuth. She's the all? Yeah, exactly. She's definitely Dr. Google. FBI agent. Every single guy in this room went like,

- Oh yeah, oh yeah. - Wow. - Just know you try to pull some stuff, my wife's gonna find it anyway. So my wife just kind of volunteered to help him like poke around a little bit, right?

So after poking around and looking at a couple of things, they came up zeros. She's like, you got to do the 23andMe thing. You just got to do it. Let's try to find something. So he does the 23andMe thing, right? And so he gets the results. And he literally sends it to her. He goes, I don't know how to look at this. You just look at it for me. She goes, okay. So she logs in. And she goes, and the first thing that pops up is, hey, here's your half-brother. Yeah.

Oh shit. That he never knew. And so we start looking up this, there's a picture of him on the 23 and me and it looks a lot like, yeah. Had that guy just friend requested me out of the blue. I'd be like, Oh, I didn't know you were his brother. No. So we started looking at dude, this dude we find his Instagram and like it,

They look just the same. I mean, it's really startling how similar they look. And they're like, have a lot of similar hobbies based on this. The political views might tend to differ a little bit from what I saw. But yeah, but it's just, it's crazy. And right now he's kind of processing that as we go along. So hopefully we'll have an update on that next week. Isn't that crazy how your genes are your genes? Like I had a friend that her...

She didn't know her dad. And her dad, I knew very well. Very Al Pacino. He's Al Pacino. Right? Just very aggressive. Like literally Al Pacino? If I brought him in, you're like, holy shit. Charlie! Right? Like, it's...

Or this. You are here to help us. You are here to help us. She met him when she was like 30 years old. And I'm telling you, when I met her, I'm like, holy shit, you are identical to the dad that she's never known. I mean, it's crazy how those things work. Did you tell her that you look like Al Pacino? Was that a nice thing? No, how she acted. Just how her manner is everything. That's right.

she didn't look like lady you look a lot like al pacino take that now god rest her soul she was taken out in the october one shooting but she was a great great person it's just funny how jeans your jeans are your jeans no matter what you want to say your attitude you're there so that's undefeated yeah man has never won in a battle against concrete no

And as much as you try to pretend what you aren't, you know, I was never going to be a ballerina. No, that was it. That was it. No. So that was like, I mean, Scott goes, man, there should be a show for this. And I'm like...

There is, dude. There's a show right now that says that, which is crazy. Crazy. So also this weekend, thank God, only a couple kids got injured at our annual Mardi Gras party, which was awesome. In retrospect, AJ, you don't know this, I threw a monster Mardi Gras party over here. I saw it on his stories. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And next year, we've got to go. I do build a float off the front of my house, but...

but the height of a normal Mardi Gras float is about, you know, you're talking about the beads are coming from a good six feet off the ground. When we're throwing them from basically, it was a roof. 26 feet. Yeah, it was a carpet bombing strike. Before we continue on, there was an assumption of risk, by the way. Yes. Inherent in the entire process. There was. You.

You don't need to change your behavior. People need to assume different risks. I just think from now on, we're not getting the heavy beads next year. We'll go with the lighter ones. You're going to knock people over. They were hitting hard. Yeah, they were coming down. My wife's catalog caught on her hands.

oh yeah not that that's funny honey sorry i shouldn't have been winding up when throwing them yeah no well no no i yeah so a great mardi gras party this weekend nobody got hurt it was awesome thank you guys for coming and being part of that that band yeah the band was great right awesome yeah yeah i love the look on people's faces they walked in and they're like oh they're like there's a band here oh yeah there's a band here wow

That was a great party. Great party. It was good. The band was amazing. It was good. We had a good time. It was great. I'll be there next year. Yeah, you'll be there, AJ. So what else? So what else for current? I mean, I don't want to jump on the Ukraine event. I mean, obviously, that's every channel. But did you see it's 40?

How long that the whole convoy coming in? How do you not just be saying it? I don't think this is playing out in Putin's favor right now. I think they ran out of gas. I don't think it's not. There's a page on Twitter. It's called Anonymous. I don't know if you guys have ever heard of that. They're like releasing every detail. Oh, the hackers? Yes. They hacked Putin's yacht. The government websites. They're letting everything out. Have you seen the women, the Ukrainian women, catfishing on the Ukrainian Tinder?

and getting like, oh yeah, I'll meet up with you. Where are you guys going to be tomorrow? And they're like, oh, we're supposed to be here. The Russian guys are? This is why. This is how the Russians are going to lose this war because this is how they're going to lose. Submarine the whole thing.

So let me tell you this. I just want to go on record. That is the number reason why I don't believe that 9-11 could have been an inside job. All these conspiracies require a group of men, mainly men out there, you know, whatever, to keep their mouth shut for a period of time. Not possible. It's not possible. Not possible. Because they'd be at Chica's Bonitas hanging out with the party boy. They would be.

Why don't you point at him? I'm just pointing in a general direction. We need to get them to sponsor us. We give them way too much free. We need way, we give them way too many. Chica's Bonitas for your next turn. I'd be sitting there at Chica's Bonitas being like, well, I'd like to get some attention from him. Hey, I know what happened in 9-11. I was there. I was strapped to the building foundation with C4 or whatever. Yeah, no, I think that I'm, I think this is not going the way he thought it was going to go. Now, the only thing that's scary about it is,

Do you think, and here's the only question I want to ask about this. At some point, are the people around him going to say, maybe we just need to take him out? Those oligarchs. That's what I'm saying. The oligarchs are going to be squeezed. He's going to lose a lot of that support that minute it hits the pocketbook. Just like in life. It's already hitting. They already did. Already did. They already said the guy that owns...

Is it Emirates? What team does he own? Soccer? Yeah, they pull MLS. Yeah, the big one out over in Europe. The billionaire guy is like, I'm having a call with this guy now. They pulled him out from every sport. But here's the thing. But again, because he's threatened. I mean, he's kind of guy like, if there's no Russia, there's no reason for a world. And honestly, I believe he believes in his head. If there's no Russia, there's no, if there's no me, there's no Russia. Yeah.

So my question is, if he says we're going to launch all these missiles, do you think these Russian soldiers are really going to push those buttons? Well, so when you're talking about NORAD, our best hope is that the ICBMs or whatever, our defense is good enough that it's not going to. But that's just a reality. And that's the problem with these big dick spraying competitions is when you have mutually assured destruction with nuclear proliferation,

That was the point of it. That's why they have them in Pakistan, India, England. Ukraine had it. You look at these major forces, these major countries, it's supposed to be everybody has it so nobody uses it. Then you get maniacs out there like Putin. It's a legitimate reality. How much do you think you get paid to be that guy that...

pushes a button right they gotta be the guy how cool like is that the number one that's your that's the top job title out there right no but but the point is you push that button it doesn't matter how much money you got because you know you're gonna be gone in the next nine to twelve minutes you're gonna put that on a business you have to be a loyalist you have to be a loyalist to a degree where

So Colt wants a business card that says my fingers on the button. Yeah, Nuke. Like Nuke guy. Nuke pusher. Imagine going to the bar. What do you do for a living? Oh, I've worked here or this. And then the guy's like, yeah. You know, Colt, it's not actually a button, right? It's just a key. I saw a button. He doesn't want you to know. It's a whole series. It's a big, long series of things that need to happen. Just...

Maybe in the United States, but in Russia, I'm walking in and it's like just a room with a glass box. And he's got half a bottle of vodka. He's looking at like a phone from the 50s. Do not push.

Please don't push this more. Don't push. Bad things happen. I do what I'm finding out today, and I think AJ too. Chris does a lot of great. Amazing. Amazing, amazing accent. And I'm like. That's why we're late because he was doing some Cuban accent. He was doing all sorts of. Now Russian accent. I think the problem is we need to turn this into a puppet show. I think it's a.

I think if it's a puppet show, we get- We just need to dress up, Chris. Terry Fader, you better watch your back, Terry Fader. They're coming in as Putin next week, Chris. Coming in hot. Coming in hot. Coming in hot. Well, let's talk about, guys, because we do try to talk about business success at some point on this podcast, which is great. So I do want to get to you, AJ, and talk about what you do, who you do it for, but-

You know, dude, the first thing that we always talk about when we do these things is I want to talk about the early days because success leaves clues. And for several reasons, there's several current themes that we always have that seem to run together here with everybody we have in. And then, you know, for those of us also that are raising kids, it's also good to kind of see the direction that you should push your kids if you want to be successful because that's another bonus. So where did you grow up, man? Tell us the humble beginnings. Humble beginnings. Tell us. Well, yeah.

I grew up in England. Your shirt? Yeah, I think I grew up somewhere. I grew up in, you know. You might be in a simulation. Exactly. But no, I was born in England, moved to the States when I was four years old. Okay. And my parents separated and then they got remarried and came back to Vegas.

don't know why to each other uh no they they separated and they got remarried and you know your mom and dad both moved here or no yeah yeah well my stepdad and uh the reason i moved here because they uh the reason i moved to vegas is because they have separated okay my real god my mom got it and then um i moved here with my stepdad uh and my mom got it back in 2006 seven okay yeah almost

16 years ago. Okay. So you're young. How old were you then? I'm 32 now. So you're 32. Yeah. So back in 2007. Yeah. So yeah, that's when I graduated high school. Where'd you go to high school? Bonanza. Bonanza. Mormon Gorman? Mormon Gorman? It's borderline Mormon Gorman. That always shocked me.

I didn't realize there were so many Mormons at that school. Oh, my God. It's insane. Everybody makes that joke. Insane. Yep. There you go. It's good, though. It's good. A lot of my friends were Mormon, I would say, when I grew up. And then, yeah, man, I graduated high school. So how old were you moved here when you moved here? To the States, I was four or five. What about Vegas? Vegas, I was 16 and a half. All right. So let me ask you a question. So pre-moving to Vegas, where were you going?

What was I doing? Where were you? I was in Orange County, California. Orange County, okay. Newport. You're in Newport, okay. So when you were in Newport, at what age did you get your first hustle to start making money? I think not necessarily when I was in Newport. Okay. I think when everything changed when...

Like what happened with the whole recession with my parents lost everything. What are they, what are your parents doing? They were account executives at Caesars. And my mom was a flight attendant for British Airways. And she, you know, she have a little brother, he's 18. And he, you know, she kind of stopped working for him to kind of raise him. And then, you know, dad was kind of like the breadwinner of the whole thing. And, and,

I think when it started, when I saw how bad they were struggling and during 07, 06, like when I knew the shit was going to hit the fan is when I realized like, hey man, this corporate life that he's going through is probably not the same route that I want to go to. Right. You know what I'm saying? Right. So that's kind of where like I, you know, just...

selling baseball cards here and there, like buying shoes online and flipping them on, you know. The flipping of the shoes. I love my kicks, man. I love, you know, your money gets longer, your shoes get larger. That's it. Or more expensive, you know. You can't see his shoes he's got on right now, but they're nice looking.

You could not pull those shoes off. If I had those shoes, I wouldn't be wearing any other clothes. Just these shoes. That's all shoes you do. Don't make me borrow them. So you're flipping cards doing that in high school. Graduated from Bonanza. What happens then? I went to UNLV. I got accepted for UNLV and then I was there for four years and

So you finished UNLV? I finished, yeah. Good for you. I'm a BA in business, minor in law. Oh, good for you. Yeah. Is that where you met the counselor over there? No, no. We actually met through a mutual friend of ours, and we were trying to figure out who that was for the longest. We have so many friends in common. I'm pretty sure you and I have probably like hundreds of friends in common. Well, Grindr is a great connection. Grindr!

don't know about that guy i don't know about that i don't know these two j day for me it was christian no it's uh farmers only that's of course what it was yeah don't sleep on j date though no all right so you're uh so go to unlv yeah so you're graduating so where were you working during call were you working on and so that's when the hustle started okay i was working for at&t okay i started as a just a sales rep and um

That company kind of taught me how to probe with customers, like how to build a rapport, everything from in and out, how to make sure that they're taken care of. So wait, were you working in-store? Yeah, in-store. I've worked at Whitney Ranch AT&T store, all corporate. Okay, got it. Selling cellular.

Yeah, I was selling cell phones as a sales rep for a couple of years. And then they promoted me supervisor, assistant store manager. And then boom, I ran the store. I broke apart when I was the youngest manager there. Nice. Yeah, so killing it, crushing it, making good money. And at the same time, while I was going to UNLV, I was working at Starbucks as a barista. So I'm doing two jobs, managing a girlfriend. Oh, God.

And you know what I'm talking about. Can you ever really manage your girlfriend? I think, no, you can't. Yeah, you can't. You can't. Well, obviously, I'm not with her for a reason. There you go. Like Jack Welch says, you got to fire the bottom 20%. Jesus. So, yeah, I worked at Starbucks. So you're going to school, working at Starbucks, and you're also working at AT&T. Yeah, two jobs. So, question. Okay, why, when you're working at AT&T and you're making good money, why Starbucks? Well,

Star Wars was like when I was 19. Got it. I should have started with that and then hopped on and over. But I don't know. I just like their – because they were paying for like half my school, you know?

because this is an interesting point this is an this is an interesting thing because

most kids that are in college are just looking to get a fake ID and go get drunk. I mean, you're working two jobs. No, I went there, but I'm saying, but I'm saying, so what in it, what in it was the driver for you to say, I'm going to work these two jobs and get up and do this every day and go to class and do all this? A hundred percent. No, um,

the drive was to never to be rely on one stream of income, even as a young, because you saw, man, I've been a hustler since I was 16. Because you saw what happened to your parents when, when, when the giver of the paycheck took the paycheck away. Yeah. Like you imagine going from making $200,000 a year, my parents, my dad, and then done. Like you lost your two houses in Vegas and you left me in Vegas and they all moved back to LA because they had a house. Yeah. That's got a house over there.

And then now I pretty much raised myself since I was 19. Yeah. By myself. No help. No help. Including paying for school. Yeah. Were you taking loans or were you paying as you get? I had the millennial. Okay. You know, like the two year. And now obviously I have no student loans. Yeah.

got everything taken care of. Okay, so let me ask you a question. I'm just curious about this. We'll step on some political views here a little bit. Oh, shit. No, no. So you were a guy that worked two jobs. You were a guy that got through school. You paid off your student debt. You've done that. Do you feel that the U.S. government should pay off everybody's debt or somebody should have to pay it off themselves? Ooh. Yeah, just curious. As a graduate, I would say I think it... That's tough. I personally think...

Schools should be free to everyone. I think that's what I think it is. Like a rising tide lifts all ships kind of thing? Yeah.

Like, you know what I mean? Like the more educated your fan base is, you're, you're right. I think you'll be, you'll have better conversations. There's no right or wrong. There's no right or wrong answer. Yeah. Right or wrong answer to that. I'm just, you know, I just, I look back and I see, I hear the story of somebody that bootstrapped themselves up, including paying for, for university. And then I kind of see the, it should just be given, you know, to a certain extent. And I, but I, I personally, sorry, I personally don't think that,

One thing shouldn't be left out because you've given our student forgiveness loans and stuff like that. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like if you're giving out a loan and then it's going to be forgiven, then that shouldn't be taken out of somewhere else. Yeah. Understand what I'm saying? Yeah. So like I don't think someone else should suffer because the kids want to go to school for free. No, I agree. But I think the tuition reimbursement should also be tied to the results in school. 100%.

You can be straight A's. I'm going to write you a check. 100%. You know what? That is a good point. I think for some kids, it's better that they work and grind and pay for it themselves. Like, I don't have student loans. Because they have to have skin in the game. Right. Some kids, it's better to have skin in the game. Some kids wouldn't do it. Some kids don't have the same opportunity to have skin in the game. Like, this whole bootstraps, you got to pull yourself up thing, it's not always going to be the same for a lot of kids. Because if you come home,

It's one of those things. You meet kids and you go, that kid's going to make it. He could be in Siberia. He's going to make it. It's just his DNA cries out to make it. They're wired different. They're wired different. And these kids, though, that have it all and they're pouty and they don't do much for themselves, they could probably have poor parents be the same thing or rich parents are the same thing. It's just how do you get everybody kind of –

Well, again, I think that I think opportunities, right? I think that's, I think, look, we've all talked about this before. I am 1000% for equality of opportunity. Equality of outcome is up to you. That's, that's a hundred percent the way that I think. And that's why, like, if you like, I don't, I don't mind the concept of college being free, but,

If you do the work, you shouldn't get paid to go to school and then go party at night. No, no. Cause here's the 2.0 GPA. Here's the point. No. And let me, let me be the first, let me be the first one to say as someone that did not finish college as I did not, that would be my dumb ass. Right. I'd be like, woohoo. I mean, I mean, dude, it was Pell Grant. Let's party. Dad's paying for it, whatever, blah, blah. And that's why maybe two and a half years into it, I decided the institution had nothing for me. Now,

That being said, I think that there's a lot of people that probably would do the same thing as I would. I mean, look what I do for a living now. I'll be honest. I went to school, I think,

pretty much so my background puerto rican indian so i have i have an indian background my parents are so they're very strict it's like you know i don't know if you guys have any indian friends oh dude oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah why aren't you a doctor i'm just about to say that why aren't you why aren't you a software engineer why aren't you a rocket scientist yeah right a doctor do you have siblings i have one is he a doctor no he's 18.

Not yet. I guess I'm pretty sure he's going to be a heart surgeon or something. God help you when he becomes a heart surgeon. Hopefully he'll help me when I need a heart transplant or something. Nick Dosa was here before you. Right, right. He's Indian. Yeah, exactly. Canadian, but cultural. Okay, listen. How are you going to go be a doctor? Did you say Canadians and Indians? That's it.

Canadians do not expect their kids to be doctors. Canadian Indians. But still, Indian. Yeah, of course. Nick was the same way. He was like, bro, it's just... You're going to be a doctor or you're going to go to med school? Or otherwise we're going to not love you for the rest of your life. No joke. That happened to me. I'm not tight with my parents right now. I'm not.

because I chose a completely different life than they wanted me to do. Well, let's talk about that. So you get it. It's crazy. To this day, I'm 32. So you're hustling. I'm not kidding. It's insane. I feel like almost we should call his mom right now and bring it back together. She's not going to answer. I think she has to be blocked. This will be like...

I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Isn't that wild? One of my buddies was one of the original Facebook guys. Wow. He could not tell his mom he didn't work at Facebook anymore. He didn't need to. He retired, right? He was so afraid. He goes, my mom will yell at me and be so disappointed. So he would go back home for years and pretend that he was still working. Like, oh. Oh, what's that? Mark Zuckerberg? Oh. There you go.

Yeah, yeah. That culture is so just in the Chinese culture. In their 50s. They're completely blinded from what's happening in 10 years from down the road. You could be a billionaire and they would still be proportionally successful. And especially if you don't marry an Indian girl. Oh, my God. Look out.

And my girl now is Caucasian, so good luck with that. She definitely has me blocked. You're done. You're definitely done. So you're in college. What was the hustle in college? You said the hustling began in college. Yeah, shoes, man. I was just getting into that game. Flipping shoes. And then on top of that, I'm trying to go back. This is years ago, right? We're talking 12 years ago.

So I was, so, you know, I knew a lot of frat boys and all my boys were in fraternities and SAE, Delta, all that crazy. Phi Alpha, baby. Phi Alpha. Yeah. Phi Alpha Delta. You know, and so our thing was like, I was really, you know, I knew everyone when I was growing up. So our thing was like, hey, let's get a warehouse. Let's throw a party. Like, you know, let's make some side money coming in. Like these kids has money. They have money. Yeah.

And then we were renting out the Italian American Club. You remember the Eastern in Charleston? Oh, yeah. He goes there once a week. He goes there once a week. Once a week I go there. It's an Italian American Club. It's a good place. And so I thrown – man, we've thrown so many parties there just so that we could have some side money going in and out. And then –

And then I slowly kind of like got away from that party life. I've done it. I'm like, this is not really my thing. Yeah. And then focused on having another stream of income while going to school. Okay. Which was AT&T. So that was AT&T. So you left Starbucks after working two years. In Starbucks. And then now you're at AT&T where they taught you really how to sell. Man.

That's one of the best companies I've ever worked for. Really? That's interesting. It is interesting. Because AT&T, Starbucks, Disney, those are like one of the three biggest companies that they teach you so much when it comes to like... Well, at least this is my age. Yeah, yeah. 11, 12 years. So they were teaching you customer experience while you were teaching. Yeah, like, I mean... What was the coolest thing you would say you learned from AT&T when it comes to creating a magical customer experience? I mean, just...

I had customers that came back to me just so they could see me. Really? They could just talk to me.

I've just been a very good listener, I guess. I don't think not anymore. I'm not a good listener. But I guess back in the day, you know, they just come by, they bring their friends, their families and like, hey man, hook me up, hook me up, this and that. And then it just, I don't know. I made sure that they were like, they would treat it like family every single time that they walked in. So good. So I made sure my employees were treating the same way when new people come in and out of the store.

So our store was number one in the district when I was running it. Just because of how it was closing. What's so funny, you take something as goofy as a cell phone. Let's face it. Remember, this is back in the day when iPhone 3GS was a thing. This is back in the day. I literally, if something goes wrong with my iPhone now, I'm on T-Mobile, I'm just like, my first thought is, oh shit, I have to go to T-Mobile. It's the worst thing.

thing in the world. Like we talked about taking a kick in the ass instead of resetting your credit cards. Dude, my wife's ringer on her iPhone the other day died and I'm looking at each other like, oh God, oh God, please come back because we don't want to go deal with the store. Because here's why. Now see, here's a question. So when I go to the T-Mobile store and it's not even the T-Mobile employees. It's not them. That's the problem. It's there's somebody in there going,

Well, does it have a calculator? Can you show me the calculator? And you're like, bro, get on YouTube. There's a million videos for how to do what you're trying to do. And it just does not stop. I'd take T-Mobile over going to Apple, though. You got to get on a list. You got to do all that shit. Yeah, that's true. Well, I have friends at Apple now.

Like good higher ups and like the juicy sales reps too. And then now they're like, hey man. Well, let's get to it. Let's get to it. So let's move on from AT&T and get to the nuts and bolts because you went right to AT&T. So how do you find the casinos? When does that little bug start to bite you? I mean, Vegas. Well, yeah. And then I used to day trade.

And back then with very small amount of bankroll in it. So you started day trading? Like option trading and stuff like that. Got it. And just playing with the stock market here and there. I've always been a numbers guy all my life.

Like I like that quick profit. I like that quick money. But then I'd realize quick money is not going to be well, that's not going to build me wealth. So, um, and I, and, and I realized like if I could study these games and I love sports and I never played it when I was in high school or in college, I've never played, but I've loved when I could turn an income, um, outcome into an income. Well, let me, let me ask you a question. So you are, would you consider yourself an expert at analyzing, um,

Absolutely. An expert at analyzing athletes? Oh, yeah. Okay. Umpires. All right. And you can do it as easy as taking a glance at somebody. Yeah. You can just look at them top to bottom and you know where we're going. All right. Let me ask you one very important question. All right. Yeah. Looking at the man sitting to my left, do you think there is any way, just looking at him, any way in any sport he could compete in the Olympic Games?

Yeah. You got it. Maybe the... No. Dude, I am telling you. No. Curling. Curling, guys. No. How about this? He's going to be the best curler. We... Let's go equestrian. Pick a sport, and I'll put money up against you. Any sport. We'll go play it one day. It's not a bad... No. You said you could be in the Olympics in equestrian at an Olympic level inside of one year. How about this, guys? You guys supplement my income for a year. I'll go...

I'll go. I will go train for a year. And then you can be free sponsorships. I will give you free sponsorships. I'm already a sponsor. I know. Same. But still, dude, I'm telling you. If I went through, there's probably 10%. There's probably 10% of sports I could become. I'm convinced after watching Olympics. The only one I would say that maybe you have a prayer at that I did see in the Winter Olympics for the first time

is where the dude lays on the other dude on the luge. Because that just seems like a bar story that went too far. Like, no, I could do that. No, I can lay on Bill and go down the luge. No, you can't. Sure, I can. It's just something about Colt where his weight ratio and balance is perfect. The guy on the bottom does it all the work. I don't even know if I need a year of training. I train every other weekend doing that.

And you'd be good. Didn't that guy fly off one of those things and like smash? And died, yes. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we're actually going to, well, I don't know, Colt may hijack the show as he's known to do. But when we go back from the break, we're going to talk more about AJ and get actually into the business of sports betting, which we'll talk about in just a minute. Hang out. We'll be right back.

Hey, it's John Gafford. If you want to catch up more and see what we're doing, you can always go to thejohngafford.com. We'll share any links that we have, things we talked about on the show, as well as links to the YouTube where you can watch us live. And if you want to catch up with me on Instagram, you can always follow me at thejohngafford. I'm here. Give me a shout. Back from the break for part two of the science of sports betting, the business of sports betting, which is really what it is. We're here with A.J. Gusina.

- I just figured out if I said it fast it'd be close. - That was AJ, there you go. - We're here with them. - That was AJLV.com. - Okay, it's Gunasina, John. - Gunasina. - What? - It's like a Russian missile. - Like what? - No, I figured if I say it fast it was close. - You're good. - Gunasina. - Gunasina. - Gunasina. Yep, again, if you're watching us on YouTube, go back and check out part one of this nonsense. You can go from there.

But no, but we're just getting into the meat and bones of it here with AJ. He's graduated from college. He's getting to the end of college. And we're talking about when you first found your way into a casino here in Vegas. And you were talking about you're a numbers guy. And you just found out being able to turn numbers into an outcome, into an income. That's a power move. That's buzzword. And he did say...

I got the horn right there. That was. That is turning into it. He also said that I could be in Lindblum. No. No, did he support that? Yeah. I didn't hear you support that. Yeah. He says he could go. He did. He did. The only way my bank account is set up, I got to check it in the savings. You know, the way it's set up. He did. So I've got two people now. Okay. I'm just telling you, you are now in a league with Slap for Cash. He's the only other person who has ever said that Colt could pull this off. You know Slap for Cash? Yeah. Uh-oh.

You don't know slap for cash? No. I know cab cash. Slap for cash. This is one of the slap contest guys. He slapped the shit out of people. Oh, I've seen it on TikTok. He's like 6'6", 550 pounds. He basically turned slapping the taste out of people's mouth into...

Like Jake Paul's slap. I saw that. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah, that was anyway. So it was your part of this crew. So if you need anything, me, you and slap for cash. Oh God. All right. Go LFG baby. So back to this culture. I'm going to mute you for back to you. Back to this income or outcome into an income. Correct.

So talk about that. Man. Yes. Yeah. Yes. I've gotten a betting, sports betting back in 2011. Okay. 2011, 2012. Was this before or after you graduated from college? I think I was in still in. Still in college. I think I was my senior year. Senior year. Yeah. Because I went right after high school. And I think I remember going into Station Casinos.

And then with like $200 to see if I could flip it to make 500 bucks. Like just, just that was the tester. That was my tester. And I did like a three team parlay. No, four, 14 parlay, some money lines, some spread. And then I hit it.

I hit it, man. It was my first freaking bet of my life. It's almost like the worst thing that could happen to you. Correct. This is what happens to people in Vegas. Vegas could either make you or break you. Yeah, for sure. I've been blessed that I've been that 1% that actually made it through doing what Vegas is not supposed to do for you. Yeah, which is win. You know what I'm saying? Oh, yeah. Because Vegas is not supposed to do that.

because those buildings weren't built on winners no no no no i'm just going to say that they are not just going to say casino is not built on winners no there's 99 cent shrimp shrimp cocktails do not buy themselves buddy it takes a lot of losses you mean the 2799 shrimp cocktail palestinian inflation

Crazy, right? So you win the first bet. The first bet's a winner, which can be disastrous for people when they come to the book for you. Correct, because you get addicted. Oh, well, now you're like, I'm going to quit everything. First time I bet on a horse race, I bet on a long to win and won. Oh, God. And you won? Yeah. Oh, wow. What was the odds? It was like 30 to 1. Holy shit. That's amazing. Yeah, it is. I've hit a 30 to 1 odds before. But again, it was my first time ever. Once. Yeah, I'm not...

The Royals. Kansas City Royals back in 2000. Oh, you hit that game. That's the game that made Vegas Dave, right? Yeah, we all had that Royals because they went to the World Series the year before. It only made sense. Just like the Dodgers. Yeah. Two years ago, they went back. It's kind of like made sense. See, what's funny is I didn't even think about that. They were in the World Series the year before. They were in the World Series the year before. It only made sense.

So it wasn't even like this mystery pick out of all the MLB teams. They were experienced. You got to remember that. People don't like the Dodgers. Look how bad they struggled back to back. They got cheated on. Astros, Red Sox, they all cheated on them. And then they came back. I mean, you're not going to lose three World Series back to back.

But then after you win one and you fall off the list. I was going to say, until the Buffalo Bills figure out a way to go to the Super Bowl. They might come back next year. So now you're winning. Yeah, I'm winning now, left and right. I'm not every day, but I've always told myself, even when I do hit these tickets, I'm not going to be an addict. I'm not going to be those 80-year-old man.

80-year-old men out there on a Friday night cashing their paychecks and their pension and then betting on their games because I've seen that shit happen, man. I've seen a lot of people go down the wrong place and they've lost everything. And I've seen it before. It happened to many people around me. I've seen it. You ever seen those guys at Santa Anita Raceway?

Walking around like the horse better guy. Oh yeah. That's the worst thing you could bet on. Degenerate horse betters. Absolutely. Absolutely. That to me is the, cause they cash your checks. Yeah. And there's people on the floor beside them. Yeah. And those are the people that making for cheaters rich right now, you know, it's just, it's crazy. And is there a huge competition between you guys? Um, world.

Now it is. Like when I got in this game when...

Other guy, I'm not going to mention his name, but I think he fell off the Instagram too, by the way. Did he get bounced off Instagram? Man, from Instagram. 10 million follower count gone. Ouch. Yes. See, dude, I got to tell you. The guy you mentioned. Yeah, yeah. But let's talk about that for a minute, man, because it is- But he ruined the community. I'll be honest with you. I'm not afraid to say it. No, but my point is this. My point is this. Social is so important. Absolutely. But it is the worst, the worst business to-

- As a sole business. - Like I'm a YouTuber or I'm an Instagrammer or I'm a this, because like you just said, I mean, just can just pull the plug on you and you're done. - 'Cause it's a free platform. You're not paying for it. So you gotta listen to what Zuck is telling you. - This is why we are all, this is why for the longterm, as bullish as everybody is on the metaverse and buying virtual real estate,

Dude, you don't think Elon Musk for shits and giggles would just pull the plug on that thing? And you're done. Just because he thought it was funny? He's tapped his stock before. He's being invested by the SEC. He takes his own stock because he thinks it's... Like, there's nothing... I'm never going to invest in some system where somebody else can just pull a plug and it's gone. And you're done. Yeah. And I think that's another reason why that dude got banned from IG because of...

called himself king of metaphors and all this other stuff and like asking people to buy his coins. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a lot of scams going around, man. And that's one thing I think I even told Chris a while ago. I'm like, I will never get into shit that I don't know what it is. Yeah, I understand. Especially, I have 35,000 followers on my Instagram. Yeah.

15 something on Twitter and like I'm all over have multiple other accounts so I cannot like I don't want to go walk around this city of Las Vegas without having to do this look back every time like who's gonna fucking kill me who's gonna like you stole money I have not one person yeah like I'm very active in the exotic car community very active for last 10 years yeah and I host events myself I go there no one ever talks shit like oh he's a scam he's a that

We all have haters, but we can't stop that. If you only got 20, you better figure out how to get to 40 by the summer. You know, it's like I had a conversation with another, I call him my brown brother. And he was like, you know, it's hard for us being brown.

And being rich, you know, like me having some money and nice cars and living in a nice home. They'll find some way to, like, fucking pick on you. Well, dude, it's insane. It's so crazy. I mean, you know, we went through something. Yeah. You know some stuff. I'm like, what? It's so funny, man, because being in the business that we're in real estate, and this is probably –

For haters, dude, this is the worst industry there is. Gambling. Do you think sports? Well, because here's the thing. There's always somebody that wants to. And it's so passive aggressive, so chicken shit passive aggressive. It drives me crazy.

And they always write comments on like, oh, can you please post another one of your awards that you won or post yourself for your car? It's always this. And then you see the same same people just pile into that shit. And it's like that's this is what I do when I see stuff like that. Just so you know, if I don't ever if I'm friends on social media and I don't ever interact with your stuff, this is why. Because I don't see it anymore. And here's why. Because I've gone down now and looked and said, OK, that's the tone that you're putting out.

And I'll go to your like last 15, 15 posts. And I just go like positive, negative, positive, negative, negative, negative, negative. And if it's mostly negative, I don't need that. I'm out. I'm out. I don't give anybody chances anymore. If you think that trying it, like if you're somebody out there that thinks dragging others down is building you up somehow. That's the completely opposite. It is the complete opposite. Cause dude, it's so transparent. Mm hmm.

and bitter to everybody else. And, you know, you don't hate, you don't hate, you don't hate back. You only hate, you hate, hate people in front of you. Haters. You don't hate down. Yeah. Haters hate on winners, not losers. Think about that. They don't. If you're picking on the Cleveland Browns, you're an asshole. Yeah.

That's like, what's wrong with you? Hey, I know. Let's make fun of the Jets. I'm like cheering for the Jets. I'm like, I don't even have any dog in that fight. So you're placing your own bets. Let's get back to that. That becomes a business in itself. So you become self-sufficient, making money, doing what you want to do, strictly kind of gambling. Still day trading? Still doing that? I'm not doing that anymore. You are. No.

I'm not, I've realized I'm not, I was in a morning person at 6am. I'm not going to do that. He knows my schedule. I text him like 11am. I'm like, AJ, you're still up. Yeah. I just woke up. No, but that's, but that's how, that's why I don't trade crypto in the morning. Yeah.

These kids, all I picture is them just sitting in front of a computer with like 50 energy drinks. I don't trade crypto for other reasons, John. But the market doesn't close. There's no time. It's 24-7. You become addicted to that kind of stuff. It's so bad. I just threw money into stocks today just because I cashed everything out. Did you buy stocks or stock? Not, but I bought multiple. He bought one share of wind one time.

One share is a long story. One share don't care, baby. One share don't care. No, but because you're addicted. Like, I kept opening my same stuff, and I'm like, why? I have nothing in the game. I'm finally just like, I need to throw money just so I'm not opening up. What was...

What was like you consider your first big bet? You're saying 200 bucks, stuff like that. What would you say is your first like, holy shit. Like I made it real skinny. Well, just like my fingernails on the side of the chair digging in. I'm scared now. Or did you avoid that? No. Well, I mean, he does it once. Yeah, I think.

The biggest payout was that Royals bet for me. Was it? I was back in 2015, I think. That was 31 odds. And I think I made like $32,000. Back then, I was like, oh my God. Hell yeah. It's free money. Off of $1,200. Off of $1,200. Yes. $1,200. And then the year after, hit another ticket for $80,000.

And then it just kept going. It kept going. Red Sox, Dodgers. To this day, what's the biggest payout you've ever had in one game? Red Sox, $120,000. $120,000 in one game. Yeah, off of like 5K. So let me ask you a question. Are you hedging bets when you go for yourself? You don't. You don't find a spread that's different here and they go this, you're all in on one. You decide which way the game's going to go in your head. 100%. Yeah, because baseball, they play four to five games. Is that your jam? I love baseball.

I crush baseball. Like, it's the best. You got to pick one sport, right? Pretty much or no? I do NFL, NBA, MLB, college, NHL. Like, college and pro. Pro and college. So I try not to get into soccer. Cricket.

Fucking rugby. If you're betting on a cricket match in this country, you're totally in. I was going to say it's Indian. That's the real reason mom blocked you. You didn't play fucking cricket, son. Two-week cricket game. No more curry for your ass. Tea breaks in the middle of it. How many hours a week do you watch sports? Oh, man. Every day? Probably eight hours a day.

That's what people don't realize. When you're betting like that, like... You have to know your game. So you're watching eight hours a day of games. Where are you digging for information? I mean, are you, like, going... I mean, you're like... I have websites full of websites. I have inside people. I have people that tell me, like, if the kids are...

Getting drunk the night before, I'll get a text like, hey, they're about to fuck this game up for you. And then I'll take the plus points of the other team. And then I'm usually right 90% of the time. But you love that. So this season, I'm hitting 82.5% in NFL, NBA. On this season? 82.5%. 82. All documented, 100%.

Yeah, that's a strong winning percentage. Yes, I know. And I've never hit 82% before. And I'm proud to say that now. But at what point did the books see you coming and say, hey, you know what, AJ, maybe we're good? Oh, I've been banned from casinos before. I can't go to certain casinos in Vegas. Right now you're currently banned.

Not all of them, but certain ones. And I'm not going to say their names. What about like a Billy Hill, though? William Hill? Yeah. They'll let you fucking crush them. William Hill, well. William Hill, then. You can do it online now, right? That's for the tickets that you see me post. It's always online. That's all William Hill. I have not gone to a sports book in...

six, seven years. Well, I have to get money, like, to get the withdrawals and the profit, but to, like, actually deposit money into your account and then, like, hey, place a bet. Like, it's very rare that I do. Sometimes I'll go in, like, just to look at it. Like, you know, there's 17 years. What's your top three favorite sports books? No, just, because people

everybody loves it because it's like they redid it beautiful I was just in there and I great like the D is amazing sports book like so I was wondering they're making it nicer now it's no more like homeless people and like they're hanging out like eating a hot dog no sir

yeah so he made his sports book at his premier location yeah phenomenal yeah that's it's just beautiful

yeah it's just so far away i live in summerlin so for me to drive 30 minutes away to see the same you know i have tvs like this on my home at the house so it's like for me to go all the way down there just plus like it's like me i'm very big on like being around good energy i'm that guy i you will never hear like me talking about other people i'm not that guy so if i'm if i see a guy like let's say

you're betting 20 bucks a game and I got 20,000 on a game and you're rooting for the opposite team that I got 20,000 on. That's like, that's bad energy. That's horrible. It's annoying. It's like, bro, you got $20 on a 10 team parlay that you're not going to hit. I,

Oh, yeah. I'm sorry, bro. You're not going to hit. I got to make rent somehow. You're not. You're going to owe landlord another 30-day rent. I got the Lakers against the Pelicans. I believe. Come on, LBJ. One of the worst things that ever happened. I went to the... Because I love Florida State Seminole football as much as you can possibly love a human baby. Oh, awesome. And we...

We had won the national championship the year before, and then we went back to the playoffs against Oregon in the first year of the playoffs. We went to the Rose Bowl again, and my buddy and his wife go. And just picking a team to root for, she shows up in all Oregon gear.

There's no reason whatsoever to leave Oregon. Holy shit. And I'm just like, you've got to be shitting me. Yes. And I'm like, you've got to be absolutely. Which is why I ruin all their dress-up parties. To be honest with you, that's why I do it. That's why. You know what? She kind of deserves it. Oregon has better colors, but there's no reason. They do have beautiful colors. There's no reason. But so you go from winning bets yourself. Yeah. Which is a business itself. To turning this into a business where you help others. Yeah. Actually place bets as well. So tell me about the concept of setting that business up.

How do you start marketing it? When do you get your clients? Walk me through that setup process of that. Crazy, bro. Crazy. 2011, I started this whole game. I mastered money management discipline, being consistent with your bets, like my bets and everything. Took me about three years to go public with it.

And I mainly back in the day, I cared about what other people thought of me. Like, you know, it's back then it was like, oh, sports betting. It's so bad. It's gambling. And then 2014, I came back around. I'm like, you know what? I'm going to start posting my tickets. Like, it doesn't matter. $100, 500 bucks, thousand, whatever. I'm going to start posting my tickets and I'm hitting these tickets. And a good friend of mine, I'm like, man,

you're like literally posting these stickers beforehand and you're actually winning outright all these yeah it wasn't just a flex i'm like i was just like man this is this is something i don't think my neighbor can do this shit you know what i'm saying so i'm like all right let me figure this out the right way it's like hey why don't you just sell your pics bro yeah this is like i think when other competition of mine we're also selling their pics their knowledge and other stuff like that i'm like you know what i think i will

And then back then I was very big in the car industry, car scene in Vegas. And I'm like, I reached out to a few people. I'm like, hey, would you share some of my tickets on your story? I'll give you free picks. So like it's kind of like the referral programs, you know, real estate agents have and stuff like that. And then, you know, I went on a crazy streak, like 11, 12 game winning streak. All these people made money. And I'm like, oh, shit. Now what do I do?

Like, what should I charge these people? I had no idea. Weekly, daily, monthly. Like, I had no idea what was happening.

So like what I should be doing in the future. And 2014 came around. I'm like, all right, you know what? I'm not going to care what anyone thinks. Like this is, yeah. Most people that, oh man, you're showing off money. You know, back then it's like, you know, people are barely coming off the recession. Like, it's like, you don't want to show off so much money. Like, nah, I'm going to be that motherfucker. I'm going to be that guy. Well, no, if that's your business, you got to, just like you always say about your, your, your money management guy. Dude,

guy. Here's the deal. You know, money gets attention. Yeah. And then attention fall. And then, sorry, attention falls money. And so if you start flashing stuff, you get attention and the money falls out, which is why, you know, all the haters are like, Oh, why you show you the jet? Why you show the cars? Why you show this? Cause I bet you get so much hate. It doesn't matter. Dude, it's just to get, it's just to get your attention.

Cause if I get your attention now, maybe we can do some business and I can help others make money. And which is, which is all part of it. It's, it's a hundred percent as you strive forward, reaching back. But if you don't, but if you don't believe that I can get you where you want to go, ain't nobody going to grab my hand. No, that's not, it's just, it's nowadays. It's a kind of the life we live, you know, like if you don't got it and if it's kind of hard to like do the whole fake until you make it thing nowadays. Yeah.

It's really hard because people will catch up to that shit. Well, there's a lot. I'm a gambler. I know when somebody walks around and you're finessing me. I know. You don't have what you are telling me. I know. There's still a lot of people that are flexing the private jet with the JetSuiteX logo behind them. Oh, yeah. Ain't nothing wrong with JetSuiteX, bro. Yeah. I've flown JetSuiteX. I'm pretty sure all of us have. But I ain't going to stand up and try to flex like it's my own plane. I'm not going to.

i have two i have two the big seat on spirits yeah i'm a fan 59.99 right i'm at the age though where my favorite flexes is like me flying my little four-seater yes like me actually flying it that's my flex yeah somebody said the other day i was reading that the best flex you can have right now is just being able to surround you nothing

You show me somebody that's got total control of their own time, that's the best flexing. Yeah, it's true. I do that now, actually. Right now there's a guy in a Fremont that just peed on himself with a half a beer he found going, flex! Master of my own time. Look at that. Suck on that, Johnny. Oh, with the little fucking nipple rings and shit. That's it. So do you have it set up now like it's all subscription-based, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, what do you charge for that, if you don't mind me asking? Yeah, it's a few thousand dollars. It depends on the sport. Would you set up a website? Yeah, it's betwithaj.com. Betwithaj.com. Betwithaj.com for all your betting needs. No, so you set that up.

And so you start out with just the people that you know. Yeah, 11 people in 2014. 11 people in 2014. And they're still my friends to this day. They're still there, which means if they're still your friends, they've actually made money doing this stuff. Which is good. Better to make friends with people you do business with than to do business with your friends. 100%. How many people now on the subscription service? 6,600 people. 6,600 people. Now here's an interesting question. 18 countries, 26 states. Wow. Wow.

So how did you build it? So walk me through building it from 11 people to 6,600 that are giving you thousands of dollars a month a season. What are they giving you? Yeah. Baseball season roughly runs around 5,000 a season, which is actually peanuts compared to how much money they actually make. Sure. Yeah. Like if you break it down, it's like 500 bucks a month or a thousand bucks, about 750 bucks a month. Yeah. Um, um, yeah, I've, I've, I've done that and, uh,

I got on board with this whole gambling and sports betting when social media was popping right off. It was a perfect peak time when all the social media influencers were creating their Instagram, social media, the YouTube videos, TikTok, Vine. Remember Vine? Oh, yeah, sure. So that's when I reached out to those kind of people and I had a pretty large following on my other account before it was hacked and deleted.

And then we just connected with the right people. And then I shared their services on my end, my services they have shared on their end, on their platforms. And then my brand just blew up, blew up, blew up. - So all of this is built through social? - Social media, man. - No Google ad clicks, no nothing. - Seven-figure, eight-figure business right here. - Just right there. Just built strictly through the cell phone. - This is right here. It made me a multi-millionaire. - Just right through the phone. - To this day. - And just taking pictures, spreading it to other people that are winning.

Did you tell them, say, hey, give me a solid and take a picture of your winners and share them and tag me? Yeah, and they give me shout outs. Hey, thank you, AJ. Thank you, Bet With AJ. Da-da-da-da-da-da. I mean, you've seen my testimonials. It's crazy to this day. And I don't even post half that, repost half that stuff anymore because I have such a solid base now. I don't even reach out to people anymore. Oh, man.

So even, well, let me ask you this. So what kind of, because you went from the AT&T deal where it was all about creating elite customer experience. Do you have actual contact with these folks? Do you do lives? Do you do chats? Do you do strategies? Do you do, or just the picks go up and there you go and I'm good. Which, believe me, either way is good for me. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, more hands off the better. Sometimes that customer service experience is not what I'm looking for. Yeah. Yeah. You just want the data. In this time, what I do for a living now, I try to keep my privacy as much as I can.

So like, here's your picks. That's it. That's so no access to me because I, I give them a full blown welcome email. Yeah. Elementary school written in elementary school English. Like, I mean, you can't fuck this up. Yeah. Like it literally tells you one unit equals 5% of your bankroll. And I'll tell you what game you should bet on what time it goes out. Like everything's all you have to go sign up for William Hill, press Dodgers, press the money line, bet, bet what you could afford. Yeah.

according to your bankroll. Don't look at my bets. My dad can fuck that up. Those are that 10% because my client retention rate is 90%. 90% stay with you every year. Every year. So let me ask you this. So that 10. Well, now that you've got that many people, have you seen an instance when you put a game up and the line moves? Oh, I've moved lines myself. I moved the Rams line.

Did you? Or minus 175 to minus 185. Just because you just... But I only bet even 50K, but I bet 50,000 on the Rams.

And obviously they won. I was like, oh, shit. I bet it's in C to cover, and they did. Well, yeah, that's a great bet as well. Three points. I forgot what I was saying. 50K. Yeah, I moved the line because that many people are betting on, let's say, William Hill Station Casinos, Circa, South Point. I know a lot of sportsbook directors out here. And you just see boom, boom, boom. I'm like, what?

I really do want that. When they watch your action, you're watching the lines move. Oh, yeah. Lots of insider. So, I mean, so that's got to be part of it as well because when you put it out to your folks as to this is what you need to do and all of a sudden line moves, do you immediately send a retraction like, okay, the rest of you guys need to go back this way? No, no, no, no. I don't play both sides. I would never do that. That's horrible. You don't do that. There's some guys that have done that and then...

No, no, but I'm saying you just say if you can get this. If the line gets, yeah, and you don't believe in the four and a half, but you believe in the four, would you send out another email? Or is it never really, you feel better that a half a point isn't going to mess up? I'm very big on money lines. Okay. Like, so let's say for the Rams, talking about the Rams. So the win's going to be, yeah, the win or loss is going to be there. One point. You're just simply changing how much you get. Correct. Exactly.

So minus 110 is usually the spread. Yeah. Like the Rams were minus four. He had plus four Bengals. He won because they lost by three. So imagine every single person that laid that minus four because they didn't want to lay the minus 180 juice. Right. Makes no sense to me. I'm betting big. I'd rather get the $27,000 in profit back versus losing the 50K betting on minus 110 at minus four. Makes no sense.

Makes no sense to you. No, that's just, most people who do bet the spread are the ones that want to get rich quick. Right. I'm just being honest. And I've seen it happen. I've been doing this for 11 years professionally, 12 now. So I've seen people, I'm like, hey man, how come you bet the money lines more often? I'm like,

Because I've seen games that lose by half a fucking point. Imagine lose half a point. That's not even a point. Yeah, free throw, yeah. It's crazy. So I have an interesting question because, again, there's inherent risk that goes along with this. It's like anything else. I mean, nothing is for sure. Everything is easy. They don't call it winning. They call it gambling. Correct. So the question is, so you have the 6,000 people on subscription doing whatever you do. Yeah.

Is there any of that money that you go, okay, I'm going to earmark this and it just goes over in this account and does not go into play or are you all in two separate accounts? This is my business. It goes there. Here's my play account and happens. So let me ask you a question. I don't even want to ask this because I don't want to put it out in the ether. We'll knock on Colts' head if we can. But the point is, if the roll was to go to zero, which it never has, would you start reaching into the other things or would you call it quits?

Like when it comes to... Like what we just went through in the pandemic? No, like the bankroll you built to this point. Would you ever re-up your bankroll if the world fell apart? Would you ever re-up the bankroll if it fell apart and went to zero? Yeah. You would? Yeah. Because I learned... I used to be a pro-loser back then. A pro-loser? Meaning...

i didn't know money management back then so i've lost it i've lost money before i mean back then losing thirty thousand forty thousand dollars that me up that's that's a lot of money but even to this day yeah it's a lot of us it's still money right no one wants to lose forty thousand dollars no no so some people it actually ruins their lives that's what my question was going to be is so you're out there you give your disclaimers a bet what you know right people you're you know you're getting in something that's gambling

Do you ever get nervous that some of these degenerates are just like putting everything on the line and they're like, oh, fuck you. Oh, that happened to me before. Like scare you? Like you said, 5% goes here. You split it out, right? Yep. Oh, yeah. Like I never, like even for me betting, like so one unit, meaning that's a unit that you bet on, the Dodgers, the Lakers, whatever the team it is. You only risk 5%.

of your bank roll. Yeah, but you're not going to have, you've got some guy in Iowa drunk. Like, do you ever worry? Look, it's the same. Look, it is the same with real estate. No, and the reason I bring that up is because I know a lot of people getting death threats and afraid to go to their office during when the market crashed. Mm-hmm.

They're like, you sold me this, you mother effer, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, I know a lot. Like, I never got that call, but I could tell you there's 30, 40 people afraid to come to the office at that time because they're getting death threats. So I wondered, you know, if people just... I mean, I'd be lying. I'd be lying if I've never gotten text messages, not texts, it's usually emails and DMs, saying that, oh, fuck, man, I lost money. I'm like...

Well, yeah, we all lost money. If you lost $200, I lost $20,000. What are you talking about? And you can't win them all. I bet the same games I give out to you. AJ, I just need the good leads, the Glen Gary leads. Ha, ha, ha.

You are here to help us. But I've never been afraid, man, because they know when they visit, they know I'm a transparent 100% guy that what I put out is what I bet. So if I'm risking my own fucking money. There's just a lot of weirdos out there. It's a thing. It's in a very tough. Mike, the industry is very different. The pod person calling me a weirdo. And that's why I wonder because that's a very dangerous industry. It's a touchy business. Those people have to shake out, though.

eventually. They do. And those are the 10% that shake out and never come back. If you don't have the discipline, you shouldn't do anything. No. That involves risk. Everything in moderation, boys. But those are the same people that invest in crypto. Swear to God. Those 10% of those people that said, oh, sports betting, not for me. And then they get into like NFTs and all this other shit and they have no idea...

Like you realize crypto, it's like it's going down every day. Like it's $35,000 now by Bitcoin. So it's like, Jesus Christ. Or who knows? Well, if somebody, so again, if they want to find you, dude, how do they find you? Instagram, betwithaj.lv. I'm...

Or just betwithaj.com to actually sign up for your servers and check that out. That's correct. And easiest way to get to, it's Instagram. DMs are open. Well, dude, thank you so much for joining us, man. It was awesome. It was super interesting to hear about, man. Thanks so much. And, man, that's a huge winning percentage, 85%. Thank you. 82.5%. 82.5%. Sorry. I don't want the haters to come back and be like, you said 85. It's not 85. I bet that you were 81. Yeah.

Watch, I lose the game today. It's 75%. No, well, that's like the people that go to the 100-item salad bar. They're like, there's only 97 items on the salad bar. Where's the sunflower seeds, pal? I think we had that conversation about 31 flavors. We did. We were those people. We did. Well, thanks for joining us again. Again, wherever you're listening to us, give us a quick review based on what I do, not what Uncult does. And yeah, if you hated what we do today...

I was saying. If you liked what we did today, tell a friend. And if you hated what we did, tell two because it doesn't matter if we're talking good or bad about you. As long as we're talking about you. That's correct. We'll see you next time. Later. Hey, it's John Gafford. If you want to catch up more and see what we're doing, you can always go to thejohngafford.com where we'll share any links that we've things we talked about on the show as well as links to the YouTube where you can watch us live.

And if you want to catch up with me on Instagram, you can always follow me at thejohngafford. I'm here. Give me a shout.