Bet Bash Primer

 

I will not be at Bet Bash this year. It's a combination of the event getting a little stale, children, and work. I am a part-timer when it comes to betting, so I must continue to fulfill my regular duties of educating the youth of America, at least for another 24 years. I'm sure the time will fly right by.

I'm not sure saying Bet Bash is "stale" is the right way to put it. I remember flying home last year thinking to myself "That was a blast. In fact, I'm still pretty drunk right now. But man, I didn't learn a damn thing the past 3 days." And that's where I think Bet Bash finds itself - caught between educating new bettors, while not being able to provide enough learning opportunities for seasoned bettors. Don't get me wrong - you should be attending the event if you have even the smallest connection to the sports betting world. However, every year attendance might be hard to justify. I think most of the seasoned bettors and the multi-year attendees are doing it for the same reason I will continue to do it - you're in Vegas for a week with essentially zero obligations.

Here's some brutal honesty: I wish there was a 'Bet Bash light.' Some sort of event where you didn't have to sift through so much to find the good stuff. An event that's more relaxed with people that have already experienced the growing pains and still want to network/discuss sports betting, but also let loose for a few nights. I've heard the Sloan Conference in Boston might function slightly like this, but c'mon...we're talking about going to Boston in late February/early March. Vegas in the summer OR Boston when it's 12 degrees outside and you have to deal with the local losers causing an oyster shortage? 

Why do I feel bad for wanting a different type of event than Bet Bash? Because the only reason I would want this smaller event is a result of attending Bet Bash in the first place and having made those connections. Each year, you meet new people you otherwise wouldn't have met if Bet Bash was more exclusive or inaccessible. 

Basically, I've thought about it the same way you, the reader, thinks about your close friends. You enjoy meeting new people, but you're all friended up. Wife wants to introduce you to work friends and their husbands? Cool, let's have fun, but I already don't get to see my close friends nearly enough. We both know what this is, let's just get through the night. I can see it now: Bet Bash Lite - where seasoned bettors don't let newcomers in, and honestly I, and most of you readers, would not be invited. I think I just created a new event and got myself removed from it in one paragraph.

I actually expected someone to write or pod about Bet Bash from a "normal" perspective, yet we're a few days out and I've seen/heard nothing. My thoughts will be in no particular order, just things I remember, have seen, experienced, or wish I could change from the past 2 years.

Bet Bash

• Keep perspective. This message is for everyone, but it's especially important to the people on Twitter bitching about the ticket price, or how you don't get your money's worth throughout the week, or how it's wrong for Spanky to make money off this event. Keep perspective - you are in Las Vegas, with at least 3 nights of open bars, at one of the coolest venues (Circa Sports) in the city, surrounded by people who are really similar to you and understand sports betting to a point where you don't have to hear about which leg of a 12-team parlay blew it like you usually have to with your current sports betting circle. Oh, and you're away from the family for 3-4 days. Love my family, shoutout families. But you better believe I'm going to walk into my hotel room that first day with the biggest smile on my face when I'm staring at 3 nights in a room by myself without the chance of a screaming child as my alarm clock. Don't think of Bet Bash as a sports betting event where you have to find $2,000 worth of value or you're going to go home upset. It's a mini vacation where you can do whatever the hell you want with an added bonus of some sports betting networking on the side. It's Las Vegas - if you leave having not had any fun, you are not a fun person.

• Don't go expecting to learn very much from the scheduled events. There are plenty of seminars to choose from with several other events (speed networking, scavenger hunt, sports betting HOF induction, etc) sprinkled in throughout the week. If you're brand spanking (pun always intended) new to betting, sure, you might pick up more than other attendees. But my guess would be 90% of attendees aren't going to learn shit in any of the seminars or side events. This is not necessarily Spanky's fault - I can't imagine how hard it is to put together a list of seminars and events people find worthy of attending. However, just because you're trying to fill time blocks doesn't mean you need to insult the audience with jokes on stage posing as real bettors. Can you imagine if someone Spanky wanted to impress, like a legislator fighting against the tax changes or trying to improve treatment of bettors, walked into one of those rooms expecting to learn something? What an embarrassment. Anyways, back to my main point - you won't learn much in these seminars. The lectures are vague and mostly novice level. Some of the speakers will be great, others will be so hard to listen to you'll want to get up and leave immediately. It's almost as if some of the speakers are used to sitting in a small room staring at computer screens all day and their only "human" interaction happens over a messaging app. Weird. Also, I think it would be funny if someone were to throw a dildo at one of the speakers on stage, preferably one that doesn't deserve the platform, but honestly, any speaker will do. Would be topical and funny!

• Be direct, know what value you bring to the table, be clear with what you're asking of others. Are you scared that if you say too much, someone will steal your edge? Buddy, there are 5 other people here with the same edge you have and 4 of them are doing it better than you. Your "secret" edge has been monitored on a screen by all the professionals, even if they didn't know it was you doing it. Your edge might make you somewhat unique, but you're in the one place where that edge can be amplified by finding the right person. Bet Bash is full of very quick, very choppy conversations that are usually happening in super crowded areas. Be able to state the value you possess, be able to explain exactly what you're looking for, and be open to additional conversations. You might not be talking to the right person, but that conversation might lead to the ideal connection. And throughout these conversations, try not to be a robot. My god, I can't stress this enough. Not only are some of the seminar speakers going to be brutal, but you're going to run into so many people that really struggle to hold a conversation. Drink Work through the awkwardness as much as possible, move on as needed.

• Wear whatever you want every day. This is a weird thing to include, right? But I guarantee a bunch of you going to Bet Bash aren't sure how to dress at a conference like this. Spoiler alert: it doesn't matter and no one cares. Also, don't ask anyone else what you should wear, that's weird. What I do know is that throughout the week, you will see the hottest fashion trends from white guys in their twenties, white guys in their thirties, white guys in their forties, white guys in their fifties, and white guys in their sixties.

• Do the Legacy Club thing. Alright, lot to unpack here. I'm going to be the guy who's so controversial, yet so brave. Legacy Club kinda sucks. I completely understand the vibe they're going for and I think they've got it down. It's supposed to be a club where old-timey Vegas goers would feel comfortable and reminds them of an era when you could be overtly racist instead of the disappointing undertones we get today. A time when Frank and the Rat Pack might be sitting in a corner booth, sipping drinks and talking about cool things. A time when Tungsten Arm O'Doyle had runners in the Stardust 24 hours a day using the payph....blah blah blah. It's a cool vibe and different than the typical Vegas nightclub scene people would normally think of. The outdoor patio is actually awesome and I loved sitting out there around a fire at last year's Bet Bash. But there's just nothing really to do in Legacy Club. You stand around and talk with people the same way you just stood and talked with people for the last 3 hours at the open bar. It's definitely darker than the casino, so our 2/10 collective sports betting appearances go up to a soft 5, but still, just a bunch of dudes continuing to mill around. My biggest gripe is with the bar. If you've ever read my blogs or we've interacted in any way, I sincerely hope I've come off as a very simple man with very simple tastes. I'm from the Midwest, and we drink beer. Lots of beer. If we're feeling crazy, maybe we switch over to Captain and Cokes to get the night going. If you're at Legacy Club and you want a beer, you will drink a Peroni. You will then continue drinking Peroni, and you will like it, because it is your only option. I mean shit, would it kill them to have a few Bud Lights up there? Maybe spice it up with some Kona Big Wave? Would the entire vibe of the club be thrown off if they had a couple handles of Captain on the shelf next to their fancy liquors imported from god knows where? This gripe probably doesn't resonate with most of you cause you're real men and learned how to drink real-man drinks. I am still a child and want to drink the same stuff I would find at my local dive bar. Moving past the drinks and back to the club itself...seriously, not much to do. Like I said, you stand around and talk to others as you've been doing all day. The key difference is you do tend to hear better stuff as the night goes on, and therein lies the value of Legacy Club. Everyone starts feeling looser. You might hear some classic old stories. You might hear someone sound like a human when they're usually all buttoned-up and professional in every other situation. And you might even develop some connections with people, just by hanging around. So go up to Legacy Club, try to fit in with everyone, but keep it together as the night goes by. You're usually just getting started as Legacy Club wraps up.

• Make sure you're eating meals. It's Vegas, you're constantly drinking or hungover, time moves at a different pace. Try to listen to your internal body clock and find time to eat at some of the restaurants inside Circa. Or venture over to the strip - that's one thing I wish I had done better over the last 2 years. While at Bet Bash, you sometimes forget you can Uber down to the strip and add a little variety to your trip. If you are set on being in Circa for most of your stay, here's a quick Ferris review of your dining options:

• Barry's: Good food
• Saginaw's Deli: Good food
• Victory Burger: Ass
• 8 East: Good food

        I am not a very good food critic.

• Take the time to meet anyone you've ever worked with or chatted with online. You will have more than enough time to meet every person you came to meet over the course of 4 days. At last year's Bet Bash, I finally had the opportunity to meet Joey Knish. It was a brief meeting, similar to his stay in Vegas. He doesn't know this, but our brief encounter meant a lot to me. I was able to look him in the face and tell him Michigan is a bunch of cheating pussies who will never be good again now that they were caught thank him for answering a message from me 4 years ago. The phrase "life-changing money" has so many different interpretations these days it's almost impossible to use it without someone shitting on whatever you say next. My personal interpretation is two-fold: you either mean it in the literal sense, or you mean it in the ridiculous, over-the-top sense. When Knish answered a message from me 4 years ago, which he definitely didn't have to do, it led to my partners and I making life-changing money in line with the former of my two definitions. I am still a working-class shmuck and will continue to be a working-class shmuck for the foreseeable future. But Knish giving me a start changed the trajectory of things my family will be able to do, and for that, I will never be able to thank him enough. I hate that I felt the need to say all of this as it's Knish we're talking about, but I mean every word. So go out and meet all of your "online friends" face-to-face, it's really cool.

• Introduce yourself to Spanky. He will not remember you. He will not prolong the conversation. He will ask a question, nod once or twice, let out a booming laugh, and move on to the next person who wants to say hey. I promise you, none of this is a slight against Spanky or against you. Thank him for putting an event like this together, then let him go about his business. Also, watch him in his natural element up at Legacy Club. Like a wild animal escaping the cage, armed with wads of cash and an appetite to pay for everyone else.

• Know yourself. This is going to be my catch-all category with a bunch of random shit. First, if you're going to Bet Bash by yourself with no set plans of meeting up with others, you're already fucked and I don't know what you were thinking. Bet Bash is a social event, but my personal view is that you better have at least a few others you know you can hang with each day to make the time worthwhile. Everyone at the event either came with a couple other guys from their hometown, is meeting up with guys they know from being in the same online circle, or they're meeting up with friends they've connected with over the years. Thinking you're gonna go by yourself and latch on with others, just because they have one similar interest to you, is a pipe dream. When you're at the open bars or other gatherings during the week, put yourself out there. Why spend all the money and travel all the way out to Vegas if you're not gonna go for it? If you need a little liquid courage to get things rolling, have at it. Just don't get sloppy. There are always the sloppy guys at these events and it's hard to bounce back from that when you're trying to make a good impression in a super short window. My personal opinion in most aspects of life - you have to be able to drink. I really don't know what people do when they can't drink or they're one of those people that says "I'm not much of a drinker." Ok, what else do you do with your life? I'm not going to get into different personality types, but try to showcase those social skills you've been practicing all summer and fit-in with the crowd. Listen more than you talk. Try to be around big groups, even if you're not contributing a ton to the conversation. When it's time to leave Legacy Club, go down to the table games with everyone else and lose an uncomfortable amount of money. You'll lose what you believe to be a considerable sum, but keep in mind the guys you're with are losing 10-30x more. Nothing bonds a group of guys quite like a session of craps. Winning and losing doesn't matter, it's about being a part of it. 
• This all sounds great, but how do I know if I'm in the right spot? There's a guy I've seen at the last 2 Bet Bash events. I legitimately don't know his name, what he does or where he's from. He's bald, on the taller side, always has a drink in his hand. He is simultaneously at Circa Swim, in the Sportsbook, playing table games, and at the bar at any time of the day. When I met him 2 years ago, I believe he had been up for 48 hours straight. If you find yourself around him, you are in the right spot. Shoutout that guy, that guy rules.

• I have no thoughts on the sports betting HOF induction. I always leave Friday morning because my travel back home takes the entire day. The HOF induction sounds like a complete snooze-fest, if I'm being honest. I get that you have to honor members of your field who deserve it, but I'm not sure I can think of an event I would like to be at less. Plus, I believe it's a black tux event. Buddy, I'm sitting here complaining that Legacy Club doesn't have Bud Light - you think I own a tux? I know there's a big party after the induction ceremony where the infamous, bargain-bin escorts get brought in and Scooter McDonald throws the rascal into overdrive for photo ops, but even that doesn't seem like enough to push the night over the top. Maybe one of you in attendance this year can write a quick summary for me?

That's my Bet Bash primer. I want to reiterate: if you have even the smallest connection to sports betting, you should be at this event. This is your chance to speak with people who know exactly what you're talking about when it comes to niche sports betting and you don't have to constantly explain yourself. Bet Bash isn’t perfect, and it sure as hell isn’t cheap. But it’s Vegas, and there's always a way to extract value.  If you find yourself in the Legacy Club with a Peroni in one hand and the bald guy in the other corner, you’re in the right place.

Until next time.

Ferris

@FerrisB_86