Sports Betting with Darren Rovell

welcome back to Unleashed. You know I am celebrating. My whole family celebrating. The whole state of Wisconsin is celebrating because the Bucks when their first NBA title in fifty years. Oh my gosh, Jana Compo m v P. The year old had fifty points at equals Bob Pettit's close out game record, and most of that was in the second half. The second half was incredible halftime deficit. He also had five blocks, fourteen boards. He was great from the line.

He only missed two free throw was something that kind of became a joke during the playoff run. He was incredible. Let's not forget too. He hyper extended his knee exactly three weeks ago. He was thought to be done for the season. He was only out a week. He led the Bucks, who were down two oh in the series. They win four straight. We've got to appreciate this story. We've got to appreciate the good guys. He was drafted

by Milwaukee eight years ago. He barely spoke English. He was sending all his money back to Greece to help his family. They were struggling. He just wanted to provide for them. There are so many stories, maybe even kind of more locally known, of people kind strangers giving him rides to practice because he had sent all his money back home. He's just one of the good guys. He wins m VP of the league twice. He could have left, he could have joined a super team, but he wanted

to do it with this team, for this city. Could you believe the shots of the Deer District last night, by the way they were like people or something like that. That's more than the little town I live in. He signed a five year extension the super Max before the season, and he said, this is the hard way to do it, This is the way he wanted to win. Also, total class move. He invited Son's head coach Monty Williams in the Bucks locker room afterwards. Monty, by the way, has

also been a star in this playoff run. It's been so great to hear more of his story, watch him coach his team, and the Sons will be back. And you know, Hanna says that the Bucks will be back. He says, this feeling is addictive. He wants to run it back by the way. Today on bet MGM, you can bet for that exact outcome the Bucks two championship at plus eight hundred. There's some fun futures there if you want to check them out on the bet MGM app or at bet mgm dot com. Over to college sports,

College football media days have commenced. It's always a fun time a year. Alabama is the favorite to win the national championship at plus two fifty despite only returning thirty three of their offensive production. That's second fewest in FBS, so man, they just turn them out over there. This will be an interesting season as it's the first season where players can capitalize on their name, image, and likeness that became official July one. For example, new Alabama quarterback

Bryce Young. Yeah, he's looking at seven figures off the field, so definitely want to monitor that story. It's kind of the wild wild West as everyone's trying to get ahold of this. You know, Michigan is the first to do it with jerseys. That one seems so obvious. The m Den, University of Michigan's official retailer, who's going to be the first to sell jerseys with names on them also seems so obvious, But players are signing deals individually. It's not

With the University Oklahoma quarterback Spencer Rattler. He's the first big name to have public autograph signings. And I'm not talking about a barbecue joint in Norman or anything like that. This is at a convention in Chicago later this month. Names like Barry Sanders, Michael Irvin, em At Smith, Hulk Hogan. Yeah, they'll also be in attendance. He's an early Heisman favorite. But this is the outlier. Most players are going to be doing much smaller, low cool stuff. But you want

to keep an eye on the folks. We're going to talk with Darren Vell about this later. He is the sports business expert in this is big money sports business. So Darren Revel is our guest this week. He's polarizing, sometimes controversial, and guess what, he doesn't care as long as you're talking about him, or better yet, following him. He's so accomplished in sports journalism, in business and life. He is currently the senior executive producer at the Action Network,

covering sports gambling as a whole. He has been at ESPN twice hired right out of college. You know, we actually discussed who was hired. They're younger. I always thought I was ESPN's youngest on air higher at twenty two. Yeah, that was wrong. You've seen him on ABC News, CNBC. He wrote two books by the time he was twenty seven years old. He's anchored documentaries, led investigations, and he earned an Emmy for his two thousand eight election coverage

for NBC Cash. He does it all. What I really like about his story though. He went to Northwestern, which has one of the best with some schools in the country, but he majors in theater. He has a great voice. He wanted to be on Broadway. While he was at school, he had a sports radio show where he kind of found this niche of sports business. And he said, even though I was a college student, I wanted to have

the best sports business coverage in the country. So when ESPN comes to campus and Evanston looking for interns, he pitched himself and basically created a job that was not there. Gosh, he really fascinates me because he's such a high performer. He operates with utmost efficiency. We'll talk about all that with him so love him. Had Um, you probably follow him. Let's bring in Darren Vel. Okay, Darren, before we get

into some sports betting and sports business items, I can't wait to pick your brain on. I want to clear something up because I was at ESPN for five years as a sidebine reporter for college football and basketball, and I was under the assumption that I was some prodigy. I was told I was ESPN's youngest on air higher for a full season at twenty two years old. I had just turned twenty two. But then I heard you on a podcast say that you were the second youngest

on air Higher behind Max Kellerman. I'll tell you what. That totally burst my bubble. But what is the story there? And can I still carefully craft the wording so I can tell my kids that one day it was seven days after my twenty second birthday. What do you got that's pretty good? This was May and I turned twenty in April. Okay, so I think I probably have you

by a slipper. Yeah, no, just I mean just a whacko story of you know, me reading and I always say young people don't get this, but me reading the green pages of USA today as much as the red pages, so the business section, the B section before the C section sports and just falling in love with the idea of being a business reporter who covers sports and not believing that there really wasn't one at the national level. And just luckily, you know, ESPN came to Northwestern and

it wasn't an HR person. If it was, I would not I might have made it to ESPN at some point and I said, you guys are the worldwide leader in sports, why don't you be the worldwide leader in sports business? And it was a little bit foreign, but I think they got the idea. And I was in Bristol like three weeks later, Man, what's Max Kellerman story? Then? Kellerman was on a local access TV station in New York at eighteen, and he was so we kind of have that kinship in common of like like being on

the national stage so young. You know, I set up all these rules that I'm thankful for now for my career. Like one of them was like I'm never dating anyone from MSP and not going on a single date. Yeah, And as inconvenient as that was in Bristol, I mean you were more on the road. If I would have done that it just would have complicated so many things. And there's a lot of rules that I made, like not drinking in public. Like again, because I had this job,

I couldn't believe I was there. It was my dream and I was going to do nothing to destroy it. But that also has to do with considering yourself a brand, which you did before people even use that term, like my brand, I'm branding myself. What's the secret, sauce to branding yourself in any industry? That's a really good question. First of all, you need to be unique in a

way that people think about you. So one of the things I did, and this was later on with Twitter, was I knew I couldn't get all the sports business, but I knew that if I could be a conduit, a go between where you know what I do. And you saw something that I would have done if I would have seen it, and now I'm gonna give you credit for seeing it, but it's gonna be on my

timeline and kind of doing it that way. And I think like when people say, like this is what Darren Ravel would have said, you know, it's just heavily defining what you are and what you would say in certain situations, and it begins with pounding and pounding and pounding the same thing. So you know that like Tiger Woods, after it as a put, revel is going to give me the you know what he made and what his career money is. And I think just through repetition, that's really

how you build a brand and identity. I haven't heard it described that way, but that makes so much sense too, because you've found such a niche and you did it first with sports business, but you also do it in you know, your theater background. You you wanted to make a push up Broadway like you have this curiosity that extends far beyond sports. That's why it's so important for for I always think about for liberal arts education, for

being curious, just being curious. You know, I have a brain that just works at a speed that is both good and very bad. I have three kids. When I have to slow down and just play hockey or just play in the pool, that is the hardest that I have to literally or on vacation, to not read a book or look at a phone, to sit there, oh my gosh, is torturous. But that's also made me what why I'm good at what I do and I'm multitask work for the Action Network. I am dealing with a

memorabilia collection that I'm building every day. I'm a partner in a venture capital firm that invests in food and beverage. It's accepting that the good and the bad and learning how to train it throughout life. But it doesn't help when you're on Twitter the way I am for good and bad. You know, to figure out how to disconnect. Do you have minions who help you with your social media? I have fired every single tweet, all two hundred and eighty thousand or something like that I have. I will

not let anyone touch it. I do have a guy who we have a three way system. It is designed so that I could relax for thirty seconds. He spends time on Twitter all day and the only job is to fire missives to me in three ways. If something is interesting and not that important, but he wants me to see it and it fits my brand and what I would do, he emails it to me if it is semi urgent, could possibly be something I need to

get on. That is a text, and then whenever I see him call if no matter where I am, and that's maybe one time a day I'm picking up that phone. The thing is that I need to tell the betting story or the business story to the original story, and the faster I can get that original story the faster, or I can then get out that secondary story right right. It's twofold, and it used to be into you know, I started in two thousand. It used to be there

was a page called rich Johnson's Sports Pages. There was all these links of every sports section and I wake up at six am and read every damn sports section and see, like, what is the story that is the magic today? And so when people say like how I think I was probably in between the first and tenth journalist on Twitter, and people are like, how did you recognize that that was the platform? And I was like

I didn't. I was swimming in a sea of trying to figure out how to get things, you know, right, And I realized that if I followed the right people on Twitter, I wouldn't have to do what I've done before. So it really it came to you. Yeah, it wasn't about disseminating information. It was about absorbing the information. What's your morning routeam, Like, how do you start off your day?

Because your quantity I feel like is out of this world all times you were discussing, so like right now I have about seven hundred tweets already to go for the future. So like, I mean, I've morbidly thought about this. But if I were to die and my wife doesn't have my pass code or anything like that, like you'd be getting Darren Ravel tweets Like today, you know, you said give your wife your password. She has my cell phone password. It's so fine, Ums, got to get in.

Nothing's locked. I don't I have one phone? Um I have That surprises me that you have one phone? Sev dred chargers I have. I do have one phone. Um, now I lost my train of thought. What were we just talking about? Your morning? Your teine, my morning routine. So my morning routine is actually my night routine. So before I go to bed, I write on a piece of lines paper, you know, I take a piece of line paper and I write everything I need to do. And there are certain dates that I get ready for.

So today July ist anniversary of the moon landing, and I have some moon landing pieces I have. I just in the Memorabilisi. It's fun for me too. But like July twenty nights the fourth anniversary of the most famous wedding ever, Charles and Diana, and I have a ticket that got you into the church that though, so so you know. I'm a big I'm a history buff, I'm a theater buff. I'm a cinema music renaissance man. I love all this, and I love the art of telling

the story for your memorabilia collection. I saw the other day the shirt that Tom Hanks more in Forrest Gump when he's running in that whole sequence, not not the Smiley phase one. I probably couldn't afford that, just the Nike. Do you buy these for a personal collection? That is ultimately an investment. Nothing that I buy is cheaper than the day I buy it. I really believe that because I'm going to tell the story of it. I'm going to figure it out. I'm gonna get Tom Hanks to

sign it. I'm always trying to add value. And the truth is, I enjoy my collections, but I don't enjoy them enough not to sell them. So I try to jump ahead on markets a one to three years in advance. So I like to I mean, I'm just big on nostalgia. As an eighties kid, I think eighties it tugs the heartstrings a little bit more for some reason. I don't know,

but I think I know nostalgia. So like when I saw that graded video games were coming out and people were taking sealed video games and grading them and that they were gonna be worth thousands of dollars, I was not the guy that said, oh, that's so stupid. I was the guy said, oh my god, I get it. It makes complete sense. So, you know, I see the first generation iPhones are selling for ears, like, oh my gosh,

makes complete sense to me, you know. And it's also funny because what were you gonna do, Like, as a young kid, you weren't gonna hold onto the video game. You know, you rip you all ripped it open. I love the idea of natural scarcity of things. Well, you've been a pioneer in sports business reporting, then you transition to news, You've covered politics, elections, You've won an Emmy. Now you're with Action Network on the gambling side, a

senior executive producer Why sports betting? So in two thousand eighteen, I was coming to the end of my second stint at ESPN. I had seven months left on my contract. But here I was sitting in New Jersey. The Supreme Court had just made their decision whereby states can now decide whether they want to legalize gambling. And I'm in New Jersey here and I'm seeing it at the ground floor. I happened to be in. Not many people say thank god I live in New Jersey, but in this case

it definitely applied. Um. I was seeing the world of what it would be at maturity in my state, and I couldn't believe it. My friends who would talk about sports and text about sports who were not betters, all of a sudden, We're getting into the lines that spreads everything going on. And I said, this is just going to mirror across the country. If you were to see the buses in New York City that went from New York to New Jersey and back, like every bus was

at MGM, whatever it was. And I just said, you know what I've I've gone from writing twenty to forty to sixty gambling stories a year. Can I do it? You know? Full time? Knowing that if there were big sports business stories, especially now like name image and like this and other things, obviously the Action Network is gonna set me loose. But could I do it more, and I love covering the big bets, and I love covering, you know, all the betting where the money is, where

people are voting with their wallet. You know, that's what people whether it's a jersey list or whether it's it's gambling, there's gonna be so much focused on it, and there's a lot of I think I'm an adrenaline. I know I'm in adrenaline. I'd say so. Plus the other thing was, you know, this is no disrespect to anyone, but there had not really been a big reporter into the into the betting game. It was the right time because there

wasn't any like, oh, he's not a journalist anymore. And I think a lot of that has to do with the Action Network being like a real it's a real media outlet. Yes, it helps betters get better, but like it's not a tout service, so there's no reaction to that. But you know, I felt like I could make betting journalism better, and I feel like I have. I'd agree, it's good to have your name and your credibility as well. Come to the space because this is where the industry

is going. Obviously here we are talking about it. You brought up n I L I want to pick your brain on this a little bit. It is the I'm gonna let you ask the question because you're the host, but it's hard for you. Yes, I'm the host. I'm I'm the captain. Now shut up there. Uh. In twenty years, it's definitely one of it. It's probably the craziest thing

I've ever seen, the idea that and I wrote. I probably wrote the very first stories on, you know when at Syracuse when Carmelo told me, you know, my name should be on the back of the jersey and I should be getting a piece that's two thousand three, you know, like, and I've covered and I've asked every n C president about,

you know, merchandizing and everything. The fact that on July one, all of a sudden, the whole thing opened up, and because of the n c A losing a Supreme Court case like days before, told their appeal was shut down. There is no clearing house. No one says anything about what a deal should be, how much that deal should be worth fair market value, or could a booster just offer Oh, boosters shouldn't d m the players July one, boosters can d M the players give them your offer.

Oh agents, agents can now represent players. It can't be an inducement to represent them when they are a pro. But I mean it is just in flood gates. Open the flood gates. There should have been like on is a transition period or or meetings. And I guess my question to you then is, if you're an athletic director, how do you stay on top of this. I've spoken to athletic directors. The first time they see deals is

when it gets filed to the school. There's no conversation with the school, there's no conversation with the coach, and all of a sudden they're like, yeah, hey, we know you need to file this deal. Here, this guy's getting forty an autograph and this and that. By the way, once they file the deal on what you know, like this guy's getting whatever per autograph that athlete is not necessarily required to say as long as it's not during practice time exactly when he's doing what we're right, So, like,

you definitely lose control. And I don't think I don't think because it seems to be a free for all that there won't be people who will lose eligible ability here. I mean it's not as free as it seems. Though, Again I cannot believe, and I discussed this with Oliver Lack, because I can't believe there's not a clearinghouse that says this is what each endorsement should be worth for if a quarterback in the SEC or if he signs this deal and if it's above that, there's a holding period

or something like that. Now, it's gonna be harder to cheat with the schools having the contracts, but you know the big schools. Now here's the thing that I think is interesting. What happens if you have a girl like Olivia Done and she's at LSU Gymnastics and they have a great program. But or let's say that the Cabinder twins at Fresno State? Am I more likely to go to Fresno State so that I could then appear in their videos and get my value up? Right? Like? Think

about that, right? Like Olivia Donne has a million plus Instagram followers, right right? And Olivia Donne has yeah, three point seven three point nine million on TikTok. Why go there? Because I want to be around her and she's going to increase my value. We've never had that before in that sense. And then I'm glad that the atrocity of South Carolina women's basketball and Clemson football of oh our players voted that we didn't want to be on social media.

No they didn't, Okay, okay, don't don't give it that ALA's ball and no. And I've always and I've gotten garbage from and I listen, I take it. I go to battle every day. I'm fine. I know what I think. I think you like battle. I think you I do. I do like I do like battle again Creditlin Raging. You know, I'm going to say what I need to say. But the Clemson people who were killing me every year, listen, it wouldn't have hurt Trevor Lawrence. Maybe it would have

a little bit. But like if you can't engage during the season, you know, one, that's the coach taking away your opportunity to make mistakes, which is selfish because you should make mistakes. You know, my horrible mistakes when I've been trending nationally on Twitter, you know above Jared Folk of Subway, for God's sakes, you know, that's when you really learned. Oh good, we'll just be thankful that yours was. And I know exactly what incident you're referring to is

you got duped? And as far as I'm concerned, one major mistake in a career of reporting. Yeah, you know people. Yeah, there's there's a whole bunch of things. Sometimes you make a call. I would say that the times when I've made mistakes is when I'm just not fully paying attention. You know, young twin boys. They're both crying at the same time, and I'm trying to, like, you know, tweet that doesn't work. Oh, don't blame it on the twins.

Now I'm playing, Oh I will they can? You want to tell that story real quick so our listeners know what we're talking about. Yeah, with the NBA escorts, Yes, So basically I was doing a story on how the NBA was down in their labor situation, that things were suffering, and there was a guy who emailed me who said that he was of an escort service and his business was down thirt So I did not call him, but I conducted an email interview and I basically to see

if he was real. I asked him what I thought were really tough questions and he answered them really well, and I put it in the article. And like three or four years later he said, I was this guy. And now what's what's interesting is when a newsperson is holding a microphone up to someone, if someone wants to lie and say they saw the kid jumping off, that

we usually never know. But if you're at a point where you're an E list celebrity like me and you want people want to get back at you, right, and there's a malicious way, that's the only thing that the way that comes out. But unfortunately, I think journalists are lied to every day to their face, yes, but it never really comes out. So that you know, that was I was like six or seven years in my career. I now make sure I double e check or it

doesn't wind up. You know, in an article, there are so many there's many opportunities you can have to say something in the wrong way to you know, you've got to be really careful with how you choose your words. And here we are talking about sports, and your story was more about sports business and how the lockout was

affecting everything. I've been lied to by a head football coach about who the starting quarterback is within two minutes of kickoff and went on air with bad information and I see the other quarterback running on the field and you just feel so hung out to dry. Now yours was this person had malicious intent? Olivia? I had a worst situation. I was doing a profile of Michael Vick's agent while the agent was negotiating with what I thought was the San Diego Chargers to move up to the

first pick in the draft in two thousand one. I was in the same hotel room as the agent and he's saying, it's the Chargers, is the Charges And I'm doing like a live blog and like someone else's reporting that they're coming close to a deal with the Falcons, like he lied to me in the room, you know. So it's it's it's hard. It's hard. You got it.

You're expect to get things right all the time. And that's why I you know, in situations where I've had one source, you know, it's you know, There's been probably five or ten situations where I have one source on massive stories, and I've gone with it only because I've known it was lock Stock. Kobe changing his jersey number from from eight to twenty four, had one source. It wasn't Kobe, but it was someone good enough that I was going to go with so, yeah, you have to

have all these rules. Hey, speaking of Kobe, you all had a special relationship. How did that relationship form? And what do you feel like he would have done off the court if he wasn't so tragically taken from us.

So in two thousands six, I interviewed Kobe and uh, he said, Hey, you're always talking about the business, you know, as I get to the end of my career, which is again that wasn't at the end of his career at ten more years left, but it was the first ten second ten said I want to do more business. Give me your phone number. So I gave my phone number, and he continued to surprise me. He wanted to learn

about companies to invest in. And I had been investing in food and beverage companies and we set you know, I used to go to l A and he his favorite restaurant was this eyehop that only had ten tables. Because only ten people or ten people full of tables

could notice him. He was very friendly. He said hi to everyone, and we were going to invest in this company and it was eight million dollars for ten percent, and I told him to invest in it, and he ultimately didn't and six months later it told sold for two five million, and he goes, he goes, next one, next one. I'm like, yeah, okay, yeah. So we played that game and I knew I had a lot of pressure on me to do the next one. And we

went back and forth. We talked all the time. So for the next one, I said, Okay, I got this guy. He just sold vitamin water to Coke for four point one billion. His name is Micropoli. You might not like the drink right now, but this is a horse that I would attach my name to and go. So I'm telling you you already lost twenty three million by not listening to me. I'm telling you put your money in. He put six million dollars in four and in the next six months. I think it's gonna sell for five

to seven billion. So he's not around, but his family will have, you know, five or six million. That's a great story. He was a guy who I would say like lived life in a way that he almost like new life was short. I know that sounds freaky, but he did not sleep and he was the most voracious guy I'd ever seen, and he would have done so much. I mean, look at what he did in his short time off the court, with the books and the and the business study did and winning the Oscar for dear basketball.

It's really sad. It really hit me recently when my kid brought home a book Who was Kobe Bryant? And I was man that that was I was like, God, he's past tense. It's crazy. It's still hard to believe. Thank you for sharing that too. That's really interesting stuff. My dad, I know, worked with Kobe a lot too when he started doing some broadcasting and uh, he said, his last picture with Kobe, it was them walking in the tunnel at Staples Center and someone took a picture

and he has it. And I asked him, Dad, do you remember what you guys were talking about in this picture? You know that's Kobe Bryant and now everyone's thinking about their last encounter with them. And he said all he wanted to talk about was his daughter's and my dad has three daughters and that's what they were talking about.

Oh my god, Yeah, that's crazy. I have a video of when he announced his retirement in Philly that luckily another journalists took and he hugs me and the first thing he asked is did you bring your babies down with you? You know? He ever forgot to ask about you know, your kids. By the way, my favorite line from your father. I hope I don't mess this up. I think it's like without regard for human life or something like that. I can't remember something like with no

regard for human life. Yeah, I mean, god, that is you know, a big fan. I'm a big fan. Thank you, Thank you as we are of you. I want to I want to wrap up talking more about sports betting and now your presence in it. But you recently spoke with our VP of Trading, Jason Scott about NBA futures in June and how the playoffs have been so good to sports book because I mean, here we are with Phoenix and Milwaukee with the heck, why is this so rare?

How did this all take shape? Yeah? You know, I mean I just don't think any even people in Phoenix did not think this was there. I think the start of the season they were the fourteen most likely team to win. You know, Milwaukee was up there. I think a lot of people bet for them to win the I think they were as sure as in the beginning six to one. I think a lot of people, you know, thought that they would definitely win the Eastern Conference. But then there was so much of a conclusion out west

that you know, the Lakers or the Clippers. I mean, the Clippers just got so hot with the idea of Kauai and Paul George on the same team. There just wasn't new energy around Milwaukee. And honestly, I don't think people knew how good Chris Middleton was. I mean, he is ridiculous and and I just he reminds me of Sam Perkins. He's kind of like Drew Bide shows almost no emotion and is just an assassin. I mean, and then obviously Connachton and all the other players just played.

They are the Milwaukee Bucks in a sense, are the perfect team, and that's why they don't get looks because we are geared towards a world of stars stars. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's that's really well said. You know, it's funny with sports betting right now after finals, it's kind of a dead time in the sports calendar before we get in a football season. But April this past aprils were coming out of COVID was the second biggest month ever

for the US Gaming industry revenue grew. Why do you think sports betting has flourished after the year we had. Why is it so hot right now? I think it's why crypto has been big. I think listen, I mean I bought nine thousand dollars worth of digital horses. I did. It only lasted forty one day. Is because speaking of cheating on the wife almost he was whispering and I was very uncomfortable obviously, like she, I spent nine thousand dollars on digital horses. I did sell them for a

nice margin. But like and then crypto, it's like, you know, crypto, we need to get our dopamine going. Memorabilia, nostalgia, our life's talks. We can't see people like we normally see. We go back to the time when we were kids and we look at things and it lights up our eyes. So like, you know, I think it's all connected betting, in crypto and memorabilia. We are trying to just have something kind of doing that, but it has something to live for, like in each day, figure out how to

have intensity running through our body. And I think that very simply, that's what it is. That's where it is. I wholeheartedly agree one more thing. Mental health has never been more relevant for US Layman and for athletes, It's never been discussed more in sports. You host a podcast with theo Floury We're all a little bit crazy about mental health. I love the title what have you learned from doing the show? So when I hit forty, I was like, I've only enriched myself. I haven't really done

that much for society. And I looked at all the things that I could have done. I disagree. First of all, you have brought us a lot of entertainment of the years. Ok, entertainment, joy, Yeah, thank you, thank you, you know, but I want to do some real things. And I thought, you know, I'm not a doctor. I can't cut out something and give someone life that had cancer. And you know, mental health is a crazy thing. No one thinks about mental health. I was in two thousand and ten. I was humming

along with my career. I was in Vancouver for the Olympics. I was broadcasting for CNBC, starting at two thirty in the morning and ending it to thirty in the afternoon, and something was running through my body. I had adrenaline running through my body and my feet were shaking and I'm like, what the heck is going on? I do

not know what's going on. I essentially like I had never taken care of my mental health, and it just this is the time, like actually thirty if you look at like, that was the time like where I just broke down and I somehow like got on some medication which was crazy where the words were moving around in the and I'm like, okay, Like when people say, oh, you were on three milligrams of this drug, what were

you in bed all day? I go, no, I was on national television for twelve hours, and they go, that's impossible. So I realized, okay, I can't. Drugs are not going to save me in this thing. I gotta do therapy, I gotta do I gotta find all these things. And I found myself and I and I and I figured it out and then I said, you know what, I gotta just work on this for the rest of my life. So I joined the organizations actually we're a little crazy,

and then we started doing this podcast. We went around to twenty to thirty schools and gave these presentations where we told stories, did breathing exercises, allowed people to ask questions in a forum on mental health that they've never had before. I think I've saved probably lives again I'm not counting, but there were people who were in bad shape who didn't know what to do. So we're hoping that, you know, through talk, through reaching out to us. I mean,

the podcast has been great. We've had so many topics to talk about, whether it's Naomi a Soca or or Richard Sherman or whoever. So yeah, very important to my

life and at the speed that my life runs. I think that's the part where I kind of slowed down and it feels really good to give back because it's the community Olivia is so underserved, and you know, you have these statistics that come out with oh, the year in COVID there were fewer suicides, and then Unconnected the same organization a month later says, oh, there were twenty five thousand more drug overdoses. Like if you connected that, it's the worst year for for death in that sense.

So I hope that my platform can augment it and really talk about it before. It's like we always hear like suicide hotline, that's a great I'm not shutting that down, but like let's get of people for ye make people realize they need to talk to someone. Let's let's make it cheaper, Let's make it easier to get to all that. I think that's really important. Well, Darren, thank you for sharing not only your story. Everyone should check out that podcast. We're all a little bit crazy, and thank you for

letting us tell that story as well. And for the record, every time you have a platform like you do, and you're so big on social media and now this podcast, I bet you're helping a lot more people than you realize. So thank you for speaking out on that awesome thank you. Yeah, and thank you for joining us today. I wish we could go so much longer just about your career. There's too much. There's too much going on. There is there is. You are one of a kind. Darren Ravell, thank you

so much for being on. Thanks Olivia. Peter Andrew was

bet MGMs betting expert. He helped us out every week. Peter, welcome back. Sons still unable to win their first title. They lost four straight games in this year's final. Now, after the game, Chris Paul says he's not retiring, So now we wait and see if the Sons want to pay him this offseason, bring him back. They're at plus four hundred to win the title in how do you like that one after the way we saw them go

out this season. Yeah, it's gonna be tricky. I mean you can obviously talk about janice Is amazing game yesterday, but there's also something to be said about Chris Paul and Devin Booker's not so great game. I'm not a fan of the Sons for next season. You kind of alluded to it. Who knows what's going to happen. I tend to think Chris Paul may end up somewhere else. I think Lakers Lakers is Magic Johnson last night. I think that's always an option. So it's gonna be really

interesting to see. Absolutely what were the numbers ending up with Joannice winning m VP by the way, Yeah, so it varied as the tournament went on, but I think if you went in the second round you would have got him at something like plus seven hundred, which is great value. And then going into the championship when he was I think it was unclear how much he was gonna play. I think you had somewhere around five or

six hundred. So if you had an inkling that he was gonna, you know, show up and be able to play, and on that that injury, you still left yourself with the chunk of chains that gives you a hundred bucks right there. So not a bad deal. And we actually had a customer parlay both bucks to win and your honest to win m v P. So um a nice

little payoff for that customer. Oh. Absolutely. Now it does seem very early to be talking about NBA favorites for next year, but that's why we're degenerates and this is so fun. So NBA favorites next year, the Nets at plus two, they'll hopefully be healthy, strong with Harden and Katie, and then Lakers and then Bucks plus eight hundred. Are you taking any of those early? Yeah? So the way I think I look at it early on, you know, really early on, about two hundred days away from another season.

I look at the teams that current odds could change dramatically. So a person like Damian Lillard, is he available and does he go to a team like the Heat or

the Knicks or even the Lakers. So those are probably the teams that I would approach for fifty For the Lakers, I think that changes dramatically if they get a Chris Paul or Damian Lillard, definitely he plus thirty knicks plus eight thousand, those teams become, you know, infinitely better when you get when you add a point guard like that, and uh, an absolute all star, an Olympian as well. And then the last team I think I go with

is the Nuggets. Jamal Murray will be healthy again, I think you can you can say that they had a little bit of the short end of the stick due to his injury. It was clear and apparent, so I'd take them early on now too. Absolutely sticking with basketball, USA men's basketball in the Olympics. They start Sunday versus France. Zach Lavine was cleared. Brad Beale still out that that whole situation stucks. Plus three sixty for the US to win by six to ten points. How do you like

that one? Yeah? I uh, they spread is eleven and a half. So I would rather take that because I think the USA basketball team actually has a bad taste in their mouth from a couple of those exhibition games. I can see them blowing friends out of the water. The odds aren't great for them to win the title. Their minus three fifty so you have to put up a little bit too to win a little bit. I would maybe hedge that with putting Australia as an example,

who's plus seven fifty. I don't think they can do it, but I think if you throw a few bucks as as kind of the backup, I think that lends you a good position where you kind of trail USA throughout the tournament and then just make sure you have a little bit of of your money on on Australia as

well should they pull up the crazy upset. But the good thing for us is throughout the entire tournament for the Olympics, we're actually running a promotion for USA basketball, so every game you can bet twenty on them and you get a free five dollar bet. So we want you to ride in the storm just like we will. I love that everyone should check that out. Olympics are so fun and even more fun when you've got something at stake yourself. Right, Absolutely, It's gonna be fun a

couple of weeks. Okay, I'm gonna have a really fun week this week. I'm going to Detroit with our bet MGM family, staying at the MGM Grand excited to visit our sports book there as well. What should I put some money on as we're looking forward maybe to football season a little bit um, there aren't many live events this week quite yet. What what would you recommend I take a look at. Yeah, so futures obviously are are going to be the big thing for the next month.

I think, not only do you look at just teams to win the Super Bowl where it's this crazy sexy payout, teams to win a division. I think you look at a couple I happen to be a Niners fan, but Cardinals I think are plus six to win the NFC West. I love that for a team like like the Cards that have a guy like Kyler Murray that somehow is still up and coming and still hasn't even proven what he can be. He's already a great player. He might

have even been a Pro Bowler last year. But you look at teams like that where they have a legitimate shot. You don't know what's going to happen with someone like the Rams losing cam Akers yesterday. Seattle is always up in the air. Niners have a lot of things they're working through as well, with quarterback situation. I would really lean going into division winners even a f c R NFC winners, and then obviously football winners for the Super Bowl,

and then a couple of golf tournaments. So three m starts tomorrow and you can put a bet on that can go on a wrap and actually look at some of the events down the line as well. So there's still ton to bet on. And obviously you said at the Olympics hockey is on its way back slowly, and certainly NBA as well. But now I want to quick payout while I'm there, and you know, beater, I'm very cheap, so it's like pulling it from my stone cold grip, so I'm excited. I was looking there are some live events,

they're like under twenty games. I was looking at feeling pretty confident on Yeah, we we you know it's the lesser of the sports. But there's tongue going on. I think if you want your quick payout and we know you'll win the money obviously, I think you just go the baseball route, first five inning bets. You can obviously do full game bets. My Yankees are looking a little bit better as of late, so I think that's not

a bad bet. I think they have the socks all weekend in in fan way, so it'll be an exciting series. We'll obviously have it on at the sports book at the MGM Grand Detroit, so you'll be able to get your fix and watch as well. I'm excited. Now, you also want to touch on NHL. The expansion Draft is this week. How do you feel about the Crackings team? Yeah, so the team fully gets announced tonight, they've they've leaked a bit of it and the team looks really solid.

So you know, the way the NHL works is you can protect a certain amount of players, we have to expose some of your players and a lot of times people have to expose a a superstar and All Star, a really good player. And based off what the Cracking are picking, they look like they have a legitimate team. Their plus four thousand as of right now too in the Stanley Cup. Who's to say they can't do what what the Knights did and maybe even take a step

further and actually win the Stanley Cup. So it's worth throwing a couple of bucks on them. And then this this week will obviously shake out where it's gonna be crazy because you have the actual NHL Draft this weekend. Free agency resumes. Teams are gonna be Wheelie and dealing. New York Rangers are rumor get Jacklichel there plus that will change dramatically if they land him. And then you have teams like the Maple Leafs that really teetering on

getting over the edge. But their plus fourteen hundred. They have a great team. They have a top three team in the league. I think if you take any of those three put yourself in a good spot. We need to get Marty Turko on this show to help us get ready for NHL Draft week, right, yeah, absolutely he I think he'll agree with me on some of those things. Okay, okay, well, Peter, thanks so much for not only giving our audience grade advice week after week, but thank you for giving me

some advice for my trip to Detroit. I am so excited. If I'm mad at you next week, you'll know why. Yeah, I have fun. I'm sure you'll have a last with our family. Oh yeah, Peter, Andrew thinks so much. Thanks, thanks so much for joining us this week, folks. I'm headed to Detroit to stay at our MGM grand I cannot wait to place a couple of bets while I'm there. Thank you for following. I'll let you know how I

clean out next week. Follow us everywhere at bet MGM, and listen and rate review wherever you listen to podcasts