Eli

All right, let's run it back Day One FM, welcome back to the show. Trey. Clara. How are you guys doing today?

Trey

Pretty good. Yeah, feeling springy,

Eli

Springy. There's a crisp in the air. But I'm feeling optimistic about the weather. Yeah, I spent the first 15 minutes talking about the weather if that'll make you guys feel a little better. Yeah. Anything else to add?

Trey

A subject I'm very comfortable with.

Clara

Yeah. I don't know. A good week for weather.

Eli

Good week for weather. That sounds like a decent album title. All right, jumping right in. I want to talk about gambling today. I don't know if you both are paying attention to news in the sporting world, but boom, huge bombshell report coming out of the MLB primarily with Shohei Otani, who is currently the biggest thing in baseball Dodgers pitcher. But he can also hit the ball very far. So that's kind of why he's he's the biggest thing in baseball. But news came out recently that his interpreter had essentially stolen well. This is how the story goes that his interpreter had essentially stolen $4 million from Otani, his bank account him and this interpreter had been longtime friends. So it's more than just like a transactional job that he had funneled money out of Otani, his bank account to pay gambling debts. And this is rocking the baseball world rocking the sporting world because Otani is like, you know, the MLBs Savior at the moment. And, yeah, I mean, I think it's kind of indicative of larger gripes that I have about gamblings takeover of sport in general, not just in baseball, but yeah, big, big story. I don't know if you guys have seen it.

Trey

Yeah, I heard that. It was not clear whether Ohtani gave the interpreter permission.

Eli

Yes. So that was the initial story that both camps went out with and then I think Otani some of my that's a fact check me on this but I think he hired like crisis PR and they're like no, we're not going to come near this with a 10 foot pole. Like we didn't know anything about this. So I think there's like multiple different outcomes like it could be that he didn't know which I think is probably right. It could be that he helped Mizuhara excuse me. Like out with his own gambling debts, Mizuhara gambling debts, or kind of like the more salacious arguably like fun but would be highly disappointing outcome is that this is like Ohtani's gambling debt. And he like this guy is kind of like the fall guy.

Trey

Oh, man, that sounds very like Japanese drama.

Eli

I know. I know.

Trey

But I'm curious. Was this over the course of years or was this like a one time transaction 4 million out situation?

Eli

No, no, I think this is like you're gambling on like, you know horse racing in Kazakhstan like what's like you know, the most down horrendous? I have a gambling problem.

Trey

Yeah, because this is this is a subplot in the new Netflix show the gentleman on I don't know if you've seen that the Guy Ritchie series. Where like the guy's brother takes all his money like, it's like 2 million.

Eli

Jacques' nodding his head, you like it? Is it good? Yeah, two thumbs up.

Trey

It's like the Dukes rich brother, like steals the family money to bet on a giant boxing match or like an underground boxing match. And then so very much like so called friend or relative takes your money to gamble away on something futile.

Eli

I mean, do either you guys gamble. Use mobile sports betting.

Trey

No but I have been I've been increasingly intrigued by the subway ads about the the jackpot app or whatever that's called. It's just a different it's called a jack pocket. It's literally you can just play Powerball in the Mega Millions like on your phone versus going to the bodega buying the receipt thing and scanning it. Interesting.

Eli

Interesting. Yeah, you're not into Clara.

Clara

I mean, not into sports betting.

Eli

Feeling lucky today kid?

Clara

No, it's honestly it's like one of those things that I've not really ever felt compelled by I mean, I've gotten like the scratch off lottery when like the whatever the Powerball gets to be super, super big as like a novelty thing.

Trey

The billboards are always like, Oh, is it really that high?

Clara

Oh for $2.99 I can have a shot at nothing.

Eli

I think the jury's still out on the Otani thing. It will be like the biggest, I think is one of the biggest stories in sports, at least this year, for sure, because he just signed a $700 million contract which is like, obviously an exorbitant amount of money. Yeah, for anything. And Clara did flag thank you that he was a FTX spokesperson.

Clara

Exchange for equity and FTX back in the day.

Trey

Otani or the interpreter? So that's kind of shady isn't it?

Eli

Slightly we're also slightly and then I was reading this article in New York mag who, you know, they've had a lot of recent flop articles, mainly the Andrew Huberman thing which we're not going to talk about today. But they were saying that Oh, like Otani has kind of this mysterious figure, like it was just, like, publicized who his girlfriend is and that he had a dog.

Trey

Why is that shocking?

Eli

It's not really is the whole thing. It's like, this guy's the best. Like one of the best baseball players of all time. Like he's obviously just very

Trey

Already, like hasn't - how long has it been? The betting?

Eli

He is putting up like insane numbers. I'm not a huge MLB guy. I'm sure someone again will fact check me on this. But he is kind of like billed as the future, like MLB is really putting a lot of their chips into this one guy because he's an insane pitcher, he can also hit which is pretty rare. And if that contract number didn't, you know, scream Holy shit, this guy's talented. But like, the reason I brought it up is because also March Madness is happening right now. And I just think like, we're really reaching a point at which sports like we were, we were due for a sports betting scandal given how kind of like prevalent mobile betting is, particularly with, you know, the youth and Gen Z males. And that's kind of like what sports has become the analysis show on NBA League pass, you can place bets it's like betting is everywhere. It's almost secondary to sports itself. And I just think we were like dairy are taking over you mean like Sorry for taking over sports? A secondary? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I just think it was about time that like a major scandal rocked. Rocked Absolutely. Sports, the sports world.

Trey

Well, while it might be very shocking to most of the public who doesn't pay attention, and also probably most of the people who are betting on sports themselves, I have a, I have a feeling prediction, that it's not going to change anything about the amount of people betting or the money being spent, like just this guy being called out is not going to do anything to my behavior as a consumer.

Clara

But I think that's like the interesting aspect of this and like what the future of gambling scandal could bring? Because like, I don't know, I'm only hearing about this now. And if research. Only for the podcast, I candidly was not following this.

Trey

But it was on NPR.

Clara

So it was on NPR. But I missed that I missed that special like fades into NPR voice. But what I was reading something in Vox about it, but that the danger of I guess betting scandals, broadly is that people's belief in the game and people's actual Fandom of anime? I mean, not even fandom necessarily, but like your belief in what's going on in the field being real, like it really only takes one scandal to basically like devastate either like a sporting franchise, like a team or an entire league. And I think the Otani thing, in some ways is like a best case scenario in terms of a betting scandal. Like he seems like maybe, I don't know, on the outskirts of this more, so you're not really having like a single player be accused of, you know, himself or herself betting on the game. But I don't think, I don't know, it's probably to your point matter of time before something that has like, you know, sharper teeth happens. But I think that there is definitely a scenario which that has ripple effects. I think in terms of how people feel, in terms of placing bets if you don't think what's happening is real or if you think the game is rigged, which obviously as we know, misinformation and conspiracy theories abound. I don't think it's hard for something like that to catch fire necessarily. A natural conclusion. It's like, what, you know, game games being rigged because of close connections to the players and it's like insider trading almost.

Eli

No, I mean, I do think it completely ruins being bring back integrity in sport. Well, I mean, players players are directly implicated at an increasing increasingly frequent rate. In American sports, in European soccer, it's huge. It's like a huge issue for players to like, either bet bet on themselves and not unlike the kind of hype anyway, but bet on their, the games that they're playing. And now there's like a lot more stories coming out about American players doing it. Because I think, you know, FanDuel, Caesars what are the other ones are, like huge kind of ad, like advertising drivers or revenue drivers, excuse me. And it's also what gets like people watching sports, right as a whole. Like I was reading in that same Vox article, I think, in last year, 2023. Americans spent 120 billion on sports gambling, big for taxes are actually it's a tax exempt, or 20% increase from the year before not tax exempt, so I'm not writing for government. New York State is the biggest driver of sports betting I didn't put that in there. I did. Nice. Nice the Empire State.

Trey

Right. I think mobile sports wagering generated 862 million for New York State in its second year of operation. That's the highest of any of the states, which is crazy. It brings a total generated revenues of 1.7 5 billion, which just shattered national records from mobile sports betting. I mean, are we? Yeah, are we kind of like, this is I guess my issue is something when you open the floodgates are open. I don't know open the door crack. Like you can't close the door. Again, you can't put the toothpaste back with you. Right.

Clara

Yeah. And I don't know. I mean, again, to go back to this Vox article, thank you to Brian Walsh for writing such a helpful summation of the controversy. But he opens it talking about the 9019 World Series, which I had never heard of before, I'm new, surely, was one. But basically, eight members of the White Sox were banned for life because they were implicated in gambling and basically intentionally losing the World Series. But you know, in the aftermath of dots, sports have historically distanced themselves because of like, whatever having any sort of implication of like impropriety. But I do think like sports is in a weird position. And we've talked about thought of like losing viewership, Gen Z is generally less engaged in sports viewing in the traditional sense, and is not as like reliable of a fan base. And so it is, I guess, kind of a trade off of like, weighing the likelihood of a major gambling scandal on that scale that has like the ability to wipe out an entire team's bench essentially, with, you know, the possibility that like, nobody wants to watch the MLB anymore. And I feel like it's interesting, and I don't know that this will, this Shohei Ohtani thing will necessarily change anything about how teams are approaching gambling, or, you know, leagues or whatever, are approaching gambling, but I am curious if it sort of starts to make anyone start to hedge their bets, no pun intended, slightly more, because I do think we've seen kind of like a very accelerated like adoption across the board. Right. But I think this is more of like a warning signal, which is, I guess what I meant at the beginning of like, it's not the worst scandal that could have happened, but it is nevertheless, like, fairly impactful if you consider who this guy is. But I don't know. Like, I guess to that point, do you guys foresee this changing anything in terms of how leaks are going to respond or start to adopt gambling into their.

Eli

I don't know, I think this has become so like, ingrained in American sport culture. And like, everyone knew this was happening in the background, like everyone was already betting but that does like Supreme Court decision in 2018. Like, completely blew the floodgates open and now. Now, it's like you can bet in the stadium like, teams are kind of like, teams are sponsored by betting platforms, etc. It's like there's a far more explicit tie to betting. So I don't know but I could see. I could see them being slightly more light touch about it moving forward. But I think the MLB is going to do everything that they can to shield Otani from this in general, like putting my conspiracy theory hat on, even if he did it, I just don't know that they are gonna let him fall. But one thing that I was reading about in preparation for the pod was about sports betting on college games in college campuses. And seeing as March Madness is happening right now, US betters, it could be gamblers try, I saw you leave the note in the doc.

Clara

I was laughing on the side.

Eli

We'll put more than 2.7 2 billion on the men's and women's college basketball tournaments, using legalized sports books. I think this is interesting because like college athletes, I mean, college, college sports is no longer necessarily just for amateurs. And that's a whole other podcast, discussion topic, are not professionals. And so what you're going to have is like people, potentially just berating college athletes for like their bets not hitting, you know what I mean? And like sports betting apps, pay colleges money so that they can advertise and like sign up for our loyalty rewards program. And like, here's $100 To open an account for like free bets. So I think they might crack down on like, you know, getting the next generation in on our product. Yeah, I think they'll do that. But I don't see like a whole crackdown happened,

Trey

Right. The same thing is like happening with Temu, which is like, there's some I know, it's like this some kind of deal at the moment where you can get like, some money for sending your code to a friend who signs up to Temu for the first time, which for anyone who doesn't know is this purchasing platform similar to like, TikTok shop or Alibaba or whatever. Very cheap products, essentially, but these sorts of incentives to sign up and start purchasing as a young person Then when there's like free money involved seems just very irresponsible. But what I wanted to point out too, is like, I think we're circling around a lot of smaller consequences of all of this behavior, which is like, maybe the bench gets wiped out, or maybe the athletes get bullied or whatever. But I think we've seen to a larger extent, how money has infiltrated, for example, the sport of golf in the Middle East, and how it's kind of reshaping the entire sport itself. Yeah, and like how people are choosing to participate in it. So I think that is like, my, I guess, fear, when people add all of this, you know, financial incentive to get involved in the sports world, I think very quickly, like the rules can begin to change the reasons why people are enjoying or consuming, it begin to change. And we're already kind of, like, screwed with our lack of attention spans too. So when you can bet in the stadium when you can, like, you know, financially incentivize people or athletes to behave certain ways or whatever, then like, all of the integrity behind sports is lost.

Eli

Yeah, I mean, dramatic pause. I agree. I agree. And it's also it's hard to clarify, like, to your earlier point, it's hard to just go and be like a fan of a team now, right? Like a, it's prohibitively expensive to go to a stadium and like buy one, maybe five beers at a hot dog. You're dealing with people whose like, incentives for going are misaligned because they have maybe like a prop bet, or something like that. Not to mention, you have like a bunch of shady characters who are probably invested in the team, which, again, is like, probably larger, more macro factor that I don't necessarily know, is a direct, like consequence of what we're talking about. But it's just harder to be like a regular fan. And there's like, the passion has been kind of gutted out of enjoyment of sports, even like down to the minute like the Mcnugget minute, you know what I mean? Everything must be the progressive halftime report. New but I feel like I'm noticing a bit right.

Trey

I want to make a comparison and see if this tracks like, imagine you are a huge music fan, and you want to go to a concert of your favorite boy band or something. And you can, you're able to place bets not only on like, which member will sing which part of the song but also which songs will appear in the concert lineup, which also was like incentivizing you to go and be like an active participant in the concert itself, beyond just being there and enjoying the music. But like, we also have seen with Taylor Swift's tour last year, how there's so much like economy driving behavior around where she goes, whether it's like hotels being booked up, or, you know, just local businesses kind of reveling in the success of her tour stops. So I think like, if you if you imagine that money, or that level of money infiltrating these intense fandoms around these like pop stars or whatever, and that beginning to place massive pressure probably on the pop stars themselves, like people would have an insane reaction, I think in the same way that they're, well, I'm not sure are people reacting in the sports world to this kind of money infiltration? Or am I just like, naive, and everyone's like EA Sports betting?

Eli

I think some I think some but I also think a lot of people like don't give a shit, right?

Clara

I do think it's I mean, I dropped it in the dark. But Have either of you heard of Goss Media? No, it's not especially large. But I have gotten lots of Instagram ads for it, which is a self tell because surely I'm doing something wrong. But it's basically like an ad for it's not quite a gambling app. But it's kind of like a pop culture and reality TV predictions app, where you can basically place wagers on like, who's gonna get the rose tonight? Or who's going home tonight? Or who will so and so date next and you can answer these sort of like daily questions. And whenever whatever you're betting on or guessing on comes to pass, you can earn diamonds against your accurate predictions and then use those diamonds to redeem for like beauty rewards. So yeah, I think I sent this to you forever ago. But it's their kind of branding. It is like not your boyfriend's betting app is their sort of tagline.

Trey

Not your BFs bookie which is even worse.

Clara

Yeah, that is even worse. But I mean, to your point, like I don't think it's necessarily far off like that scenario of like a more sort of official framework for super fans to bet on or, I don't know try to influence what happens in some way.

Trey

Like to me betting on kind of manufactured reality TV stars and like the outcomes of these kind of fake shows anyway seems like a natural fit for like betting and incentivizing versus, you know, America's good old baseball get yeah favorite pastime and like the wholesomeness of sports, and the reason why people enjoy it I think.

Clara

I guess people always gambled though. It is time like, races. The 1919 sports team, but I do think that what and I think, to your point, is like, the scale of it is at such a high level, and there's absolutely no barrier to entry really, at all right? I think we're getting the crazy part. Like doing giveaways or whatever for DraftKings. Like for the Superbowl or whatever. Like, I was getting ads for like, place a free bet. I was like, maybe. I was like, universe again, one of those things where I was like, this is definitely so dumb, like taking like the ad to use, quote, unquote, free money to gamble. Like, that is not true. Like that's big. Don't like don't get one card purchase. Come on in, there's puppies in here. Right, you know, but it was like, the bad times. Yeah. But I mean, what a note to go out on but all that to say, I mean, I do agree, like it's a different landscape. And I think that there's real damage that it can do and has already done to sports. I

Trey

I mean, also, though, while the government reaps the rewards of like 1.7 billion generated and revenue to spend on whatever programs you want to I kind of feel like.

Eli

Programs in quotations.

Trey

NYPD but no, I just think like, you know, it's gonna be really hard for like, to your point, the MLB is going to come out and be like, nothing, nothing to see here folks. Saying what the government they'll be like, Oh, look at all the revenue we're driving, that's going back into paving your roads.

Eli

And yeah, like when they wanted to build a casino in Times Square, like think of all the tax revenue, right. Not seeing a dime of that my quality.

Trey

The six trains still busted like, yeah.

Eli

An even more blighted area. Sure.

Trey

One light rain and like, I can't walk across the street because there's anyway,

Eli

Yeah, I mean, I'm curious to see what what becometh of of that. Also go to baseball games. I don't bet. I don't bet. Well, if there's any betting companies that would like to advertise on Day One, FM true, our inboxes are open.

Trey

Have you seen any examples, though, of brands working with or doing an activation that was in partnership with a sports betting app? I haven't, as the Olympics are coming up. I'm, you heard it here first.

Eli

I haven't have you know, I mean, I don't I think legally it's very tricky. from a brand standpoint. But...

Trey

Maybe you'd like just be a mirror of that behavior. Like, similar to how you do this, right? Yeah.

Clara

Wasn't there like a Gronk? thing?

Eli

Yeah, but that was for that was for FanDuel. Yeah. Or DraftKings? Whatever. Those...

Trey

Well is this gonna be like a crypto boom thing? Are we seeing this like here to stay?

Eli

No, no, this is here to stay. Yeah, I just think this is like people have gambled on sports forever. All right. But but it's not like some like, like smelly nerd came in was like, here's my company worth like $7 trillion. And everyone's like.

Trey

But it hasn't. Okay, so to your point, like it's been around forever. But why is it taken so long to become like an app on your phone?

Eli

Because it got deregulated.

Clara

Basically. And like,

Trey

Let's go back.

Clara

Let's bring back some good old fashioned regular regulation.

Trey

All right.

Eli

But yeah, there were other things on the dock and docket?

Clara

Well, I mean, I wish we could ask the users or the listeners listener. Do you want to use user? Do you want Megan Merkel's Flamingo and state for 500 or mindful moments on the rise? The extra mile?

Trey

Like how's how successful let's think about how successful will American Riviera orchard.

Eli

But what is this as a lifestyle brand.

Clara

Oh my god. Well, okay, the very quick TLDR and then listeners make your beds is that Meghan Markel and Trey feel free to weigh in? Megan Markel, I guess was when boarding Duchess of Windsor formerly was courting a partnership or collaboration of some kind with Flamingo estate which is sort of after goop and there's a good article and talk about this become kind of like the it brand for a certain pedigree of like LA rich people. And then you can.

Eli

Who also had podcast and deals fall through.

Clara

Yes. The Duchess of Windsor.

Trey

Cornwall sorry, or Cornwall, just a Cornwall apologies.

Eli

Part of the Commonwealth, I would hope that you would know Trey.

Clara

But they host the Flamingo estate hosts events and things at like It's like this beautiful home in LA but they also have now like packaged goods of different kinds candles, you know, face and body lotions, soaps, etc. And it's kind of in the vein of something that I guess Megan Markel wanted to align herself with being in sort of the forever process of a rebrand No, yeah, she's willing to do.

Trey

She's in multiple in person meetings, but the flamingo estate team and wanted to come on as an active partner in the business. And that never came to fruition. But she had reviewed all the relevant company information and had intimate knowledge of the business and q2 This past week, Megan Markel launches or announces American Riviera Orchard, which sounds like a brand name generator webs.

Clara

Literally like I saw it on whatever Instagram or like, there's no way that this is real. But it's basically in in terms of what people know about it sounds like a fairly direct rip of what Flamingo estate is doing as far as what their product lineup is. And like the overall sort of like ethos and branding.

Eli

And was this like a finger like in the eye of the current? Like, Was she taking advantage of the media malstrom over Kate, or was this before?

Trey

No, it was happening? I think, like, a couple days before he was announced to have cancer or whatever's going on there. But um..

Eli

Leaving the door open for more speculation.

Clara

But someone said in the quote in the pocket piece is her brand looks like what happens when you go to a dinner at Flamingo estate and aren't invited back. So it's been like the whatever the early buzz around it is, you know, fairly, you know. But I guess my over under is that it launches to the same fanfare as like the wing founders, whatever, like vintage store, like we get the cut roundup or whatever, and then fades into fades into the night. But it was a good oddity in the scroll this week.

Trey

Right. I just find like Flamingo estate is genuinely an interesting case study. Because I think so many things came together and like a perfect storm for it to be like birthed into the world to not have any sort of pushback, I suppose. Like it is very goop adjacent. And when Gwyneth Paltrow kind of launched that we all know like, every time there's a new product thing, there's a huge backlash to it. Whereas this, I think, is built around this whole idea of slow living like Flamingo estate is literally a compound in this gorgeous urban area of Los Angeles. They make honey from the bees that are like on site. They host these. No, it's true. Like they they host these, you know, lavish dinners, they grow all their own crops, which they then shipped in like beautiful crates to local Los Angelenos. It's all from the mind of Richard Christianson, who used to head up this agency. I think he founded called chandelier, who has done a lot of like, branding projects for many brands that we've seen out of home advertising for.

Eli

In the terms of brands, right.

Clara

I mean, you know, jokes is the belt letter. I do agree and I was not very familiar with Flamingo estate prior to reading this, but I had seen their products and stuff, but I agree and I think what was interesting to me about the Megan Markel instance in particular, is that brands such as Flamingo estate, and I don't know that there's just many contemporary references, but obviously like glossier and outdoor voices kind of of the past where the orbit around the brand kind of becomes like it girl or like IT person central where like the partnerships that they do or don't do then become like indicative of where culture is or like is not going because you have someone there who's like oh taste maker of some kind whether or not you like or agree with their taste and taste maker of some kind that's like got a clear vision for where they want things to go. And I just think it's funny because I think in I don't know I haven't gone through the fine tooth comb but like the whole like rejected partner turned like spin off brand founder thing that like Megan Markel is going down the rabbit hole of just kind of like, I don't know, it was strange and funny thing.

Trey

Right. It's very, it's very much like the revenge.

Clara

Yeah, like revenge brand brand. Like what? What is this? But I don't know. I will be yes.

Trey

I think it's more and this is like.

Eli

Wish I came up with it. Sorry, go.

Trey

This is perhaps just too judgmental. And I apologize to the Duchess of Cornwall, but I just feel like she's not owned any area authentically. Like, you know, you see her in the documentary that they released on Netflix to the pandemic where she's kind of trotting around her little plot of garden land which Like, maybe the first time she has kind of grown her own food or something and like, maybe the natural result or, you know, natural conclusion of that is like she's creating this brand that is, you know, making spreads by edible spreads and butters and oils or something, but I just, you know, she always seems to like have a new idea that kind of does not connect with her audience. So she pivots, honestly, Girlboss like, keep it going, but I just like, I don't know, do you have to put your name on it so publicly, like just do the JK Rowling Robert Galbraith thing where you're like, Oh, it was actually me. I'm talented.

Clara

I think there's something and I don't know, with the whole royal kerfuffle, which I don't think we'll get into today. But like with authenticity, and like believability in general, and I think that like Prince Harry and Megan Markel, when they departed went really hard into this, like, we are being like so authentically ourselves, like Princess Diana, like we're looking up at you type of thing. And I think it's like one of those things where you only get to pivot so many times before you are no longer authentic, even by even if you are pivoting in a way that is whatever square one Oh, yeah. Well, I wouldn't mean, like 360s Yeah, no, I mean, I think there's, yeah, there is something to that.

Eli

Right back where you were.

Clara

But in any case, yeah.

Trey

I mean, it's not much different than most celebrities who were like advised to start a beauty brand because beauty is popping off or.

Eli

Here's my probiotic soda. Right. Yeah, my make up like whatever.

Trey

Emily Ratajkowski doing which, oh.

Clara

Well her swimmer line that like isn't selling.

Trey

Swimmer line that is not selling.

Clara

Or not being shipped, which is crazy. That's a bit tricky. Unfortunately.

Eli

Well, lots to unpack. Lots to unpack. Like up like up. Wow, excuse me. Subscribe, Like download, you'll get $100 off on FanDuel for a Day One FM. Thanks for tuning in.

Clara

No you won't in full transparency. Do not use code.

Eli

Use code Eli for free prop bets on the topics that we'll discover next on the pod or uncover really botched that. I'm sorry. Stern looks from my co host here. Thanks for tuning in. See you next time. Yo, thanks for tuning in. Stay up to date with all things they went up them by subscribing to our page on Spotify, following us on Instagram @d1a and staying up to date with the latest trends and insights on d1a.com/perspective.