Episode 44

Andrew Pace [00:00:00]:

I think there was, I don't know if there's a Drake song, but I think it might have been a Drake song that was released on YouTube. And, like, within, like, half of the day, it had, like, 5,000,000 views in the song. I never heard it, but the song was apparently amazing.

Shane Mercer [00:00:13]:

Doesn't take much to create a Drake hit, I guess. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Behind the Lines, the only podcast purifying the sports betting industry. Streamed. How do we do it? Well, we talk about the sportsbooks and their practices and how they affect you, an average recreational bettor, or maybe you're a pro sports bettor. Remember to like, download, subscribe, follow us on all the socials @inplayLIVE. And if you wanna see what inplayLIVE is all about behind the scenes, we got a promo code for you that is 'BEHINDTHELINES', all caps. I'm your host, Shane Mercer. That guy over there, Andrew Pace, the founder of inplayLIVE, back with us as per usual.

Shane Mercer [00:00:58]:

Pace, how are you doing?

Andrew Pace [00:01:00]:

Doing great, buddy. How about you?

Shane Mercer [00:01:02]:

I am doing well. We've got a jam packed show for our audience out there, all of our listeners and all of our Viewers, this is one where we're gonna have a few screen grabs for you and some things to share, so you may wanna watch it. But if you can't, hey. You can still listen in, and, you'll you'll be able to get everything out of it that you need to. We got a lot coming at you on the show today. We're gonna talk about AI a little bit later. We've got YouTube's Broadcast, that has made some major changes, pace, that I know you experimented with over the weekend here. We've got a couple of shady things we're seeing from the books that we wanna dive into.

Shane Mercer [00:01:33]:

But Before we do that, PACE, I wanna rip off some numbers for you just to give you a sense of how things are growing and how fast they're growing in the sports betting world. Some stats from November that I saw this morning. Maine. That's the state of Maine. Bettors wagered $40,000,000 in November In the opening month of legal mobile sports betting. So Maine hitting the ground running with this first legalized Full month that they had. Maryland set its own state record with 3,000,000, wagered. A record for that state in the month of November, but here's the big one.

Shane Mercer [00:02:06]:

The state of New York set a massive record in November, 2,110,000,000 in handle Just in the month of November. Pretty wild. Did you say 3,000,000 in Maine? In Maryland. In Maryland. In November. Yeah. It was a record for that state, but that state's still fairly new to the mobile, sports betting

Andrew Pace [00:02:30]:

Isn't it weird to think that just 1 of the players at inplayLIVE has more handle than the whole state?

Shane Mercer [00:02:37]:

That's all. Exactly. Right? I mean, who knows how long all of us? Who knows how long that'll last? You know, a pretty pretty a pretty small number. And it's funny. Right? You see you see, that that was Maryland, actually, with the 3,000,000. Maine had 40,000,000. So you think, hey. I think Maryland's bigger than Maine.

Shane Mercer [00:02:54]:

I don't really know my US geography all that well, but It it doesn't quite add up there, but New York, I mean, come on. 2,100,000,000, just nuts.

Andrew Pace [00:03:03]:

Well, I think with some of these newer legalized states, obviously, New York's been around now for a little bit. New York's New York, it's one of 1. But they might only have, like, a They're legalized now, but they might only have, like, a local government book or something like that. So they're still getting probably 1,000,000 and 1,000,000 of dollars that are being wagered through offshore channels. Whereas, like, New York that has, you know, the DraftKings, FanDuels, MGMs, all the legalized Action there. They're obviously and and and, obviously, a massive sports state. Like, New York's New York, massive, massive city, massive state, all that kind of stuff. But, they're also a massive, sports following.

Andrew Pace [00:03:44]:

Right? Original 6 with hockey, multiple sports teams for all the major leagues. Yeah. You're you're gonna see you're gonna see some bets, obviously.

Shane Mercer [00:03:52]:

Yeah. Yeah. You'll see some bets, and you've got a lot of people in in, you know, especially in the city of New York That have a lot of money to to throw around. So, you know, no no surprise there. Alright. Just wanted to throw those out Actually, to sort of kick things off, but I wanna get into, some of the shady things that we're seeing from the sportsbooks. And let's start off with FanDuel. This comes from one of our members over the weekend.

Shane Mercer [00:04:16]:

In fact, I think it was, last night. We're recording on Monday. This is a this is from the Sunday nighter, and I'll just do a quick Screen share with you to give everybody, an idea of exactly what it is we're talking about here. So On FanDuel, this was a player prop. Here it is. K. So on FanDuel, rushing prop, Dak Prescott, over Ten and a half rushing yards. But you can see there, he already has 11.

Shane Mercer [00:04:44]:

So they're giving you the over 10 and a half at Plus money, plus 112. So that would be 2.12 in decimal odds. He's already surpassed That number and this is being offered very late in the game. So, Paes, tell us why this is a terrible bet.

Andrew Pace [00:05:01]:

Okay. So This is being offered at a time, typically speaking, where no other sportsbook is offering, player props at all. Right? Now they've got other props open as well, which I think is a good thing because It's not just Dax rushing yards. If it was just Dax rushing yards, it would be really, really bad. So if you guys are are listening and not watching, it's just to your typical player prop betting menu. But it's just offered at a time where, the rest of the books have closed these markets. Now If you're looking at this information, you're watching the game, whichever the case, you you go to the score, you go to ESPN, you see Dak Prescott has 11 rushing yards, and he's being offered, plus money, to cover the rushing yards that he's already covering. This is a trap being laid by FanDuel so much so that I think that if you wagered on the under, you might lose your account.

Andrew Pace [00:06:04]:

And the reason for this is because in the vast majority of situations, The winning quarterback will be taking knees at the end of the game, which count towards his rushing yards. So, There's been times where Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hertz, I've seen them, take knees out of out of the shotgun. So they'll actually lose as many as 5 or 6 yards on 1 kneel, and quarterbacks might need to kneel 3 times. We have seen quarterbacks kneel 4 times where they kneel on 4th down where there's still a running clock, and the reason why they kneel on On 4th down is to to hold the ball for as long as they can, try to get the clock as close to 0 or 20 in that play, and then take that final knee. So there's a chance that you're gonna see 4 knees, but more typically anywhere from 1 to 3 kneels, that that will put that total under. So That is there specifically for an inexperienced bettor to go all in on, on the over. And FanDuel is comfortable with the risk of of if if there's scenarios where the the winning team, he doesn't end up kneeling out and and the bet will in fact win, which is What actually happened in in this case last night, because the Eagles ended the game with ball, but even with one second on the clock, Dak has to come out and take that knee and and go under that rushing in total. So, yeah, it's a trap.

Andrew Pace [00:07:30]:

It's there to exploit people getting really excited about finding a a quote, unquote bad line and then getting absolutely smoked, from having bet it. And in the and like I said, in the cases where they pay it out Because they they didn't end up kneeling, they are more than happy because they've trapped you for the next one where they go, I am now going to start looking for Quarterbacks rushing yards when they're already covering, it paid out in the Cowboys Eagles Sunday Night Football. I can't believe it. I doubled my account balance, And then before you know it, you will lose everything.

Shane Mercer [00:08:06]:

Yeah. You know, you're you're gonna lose, If you you know, more more more often than not, we're gonna end up in that Neil situation, and you're gonna you're gonna lose, the over. But If you take the under, then you're also identifying yourself, right, as a as a sharp bettor to the sportsbook. It probably won't be long before you're limited. Right?

Andrew Pace [00:08:28]:

Right. So and and that's where, like, is it fairly handicapped for Niels or not? I have no idea. But if it is fairly handicapped for Niels, then maybe you wouldn't get flagged for it. If it is not and it's there just to trap you, yes, you will get rocked did shut down, maybe just for betting even a buck on it. The they might take it where anyone that hits that under and wins, they just wipe all the accounts right away because they're like, you are on to what we're doing, and we won't let you do it again. Whereas on the oversight, they are, like, keep betting with Thus, we're excited for the future with you.

Shane Mercer [00:09:02]:

Yeah. So I think at the end of the day, you look at something like this, and it's really just a lose lose Scenario here. Right? Which is what the books wanna create. Right? Opportunities for the player to lose and lose again and lose again in the future.

Andrew Pace [00:09:16]:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So I think just for anyone, the lesson here would be If you are betting on something that you think is a broken line or some sort of palper error posted by the sportsbooks, they do happen. They do exist When you get the opportunity to bet on them, oftentimes, if they do pay out, you lose your account, and you have to decide whether or not it was worth it to wager on that line. If they don't pay out, you'll oftentimes still lose your account because they do not want your business if that's how you're playing. So you really have to ask yourself. And then the the third is it's not actually a broken line, and you just took significant risk.

Andrew Pace [00:10:00]:

Right? So you really have to ask yourself the question, do I wanna bet on this? Are the books, you know, setting a trap? And if you did catch the books off guard, is it worth it? And my answer to those questions, I would say I don't wanna say 99% of the time. I would say about 95% of the time or no's across the board. It is not worth it. Just just ignore it.

Shane Mercer [00:10:26]:

Yeah. Yeah. You know? And the great thing about you know, if you come across a line like that, when you're part of a group like inplayLIVE and you're betting with a group of people, you can bring it to the group and say, hey, guys. I'm Seeing this, what do you think about it? Which is what happened last night. And I think, you know, you you advised that individual perhaps not to not to place that wager. You know? So so it's always, you know, great to have the group, as sort of a resource, a a place to come to and and kind of feel things out a little bit when you see sort of wagers that that maybe don't look totally right to you. Okay. You brought up something else there, and we we were talking about getting, getting your your account closed And getting getting cooked and getting limited.

Shane Mercer [00:11:04]:

And that's something we talk about a lot on this podcast in terms of getting limited. But a whole bunch of us members And likely people who aren't members, have gotten another email today, that goes beyond getting limited. So I'm gonna share it with All of you right now, and this one comes from Bet 365. And, a buddy of mine, alerted me To the fact that he got it this morning, and I was like, oh, man, that sucks. Why would they do that? And then sure enough, a few hours later, there it was sitting for me in my inbox. And so, just pulling that up here for you now, and and I'll read it to you as soon as, as soon as we got it here. But, you know, this comes from Bet 365, which is the very first sportsbook that I got limited on. And that was about, Oh, a little over a year ago now, when I got limited on bet 365 and, you know, limited to the point where I could no longer bet more than, You know, a dollar.

Shane Mercer [00:12:03]:

In some cases, 25¢. And so I had about 31¢ in my Bet365 account. It's, and it's still The sportsbook that I use the most often. Because even though I'm not betting on Bet365, I'm using it to track games, to track events, to watch games sometimes because, they'll show the broadcast on bet365, and it is the sportsbook I have opened the most. And so to get this email today, I am a little bit frustrated, quite annoyed, and thinking about what am I gonna do next. So here it is. You can see it here on the screen. Dear mister Mercer, due to the nature of your business, my business, a decision has been made to close your account with immediate effect.

Shane Mercer [00:12:48]:

Any existing unsettled bets will remain open on your account and will be settled in the normal way. If you then require a withdrawal of any remaining balance once all bets have been settled, Please contact our customer services team who will assist you with this. Well, I can't even log in to MyBeth 365 now, so that would make it very difficult to contact their customer services team, but I don't think they have any interest in helping me with any of this. Like I said, I haven't bet On Bet 3 65 in over a year, but I have been using it almost every day or at least every day that I'm betting on sports, to to track games. So I know many people are getting this email today. Pace, Are you surprised by this at all? I I never thought that they would just completely shut down my account. At the same time, I think I kinda get it. Right? Here I am using their product all the time, never placing any wagers, never contributing any financial, you know, not not not giving them any kind of financial incentive to keep me as a user, but I here I am using their product and taking advantage of it.

Shane Mercer [00:13:56]:

So, I mean, am I totally, you know, unsurprised by it or totally surprised by it? I guess, maybe not. But at the same time, it's gone on for so long. I thought that this was just how the how they rolled.

Andrew Pace [00:14:10]:

Yeah. That 365, man. Scum of the earth. It's all it's all I can really say. I like to look at I like to look at, different angles of things, Shane. So when I see this, I think, okay, you've closed my account. You go try to log in, and it Says, your details can't be recognized. So I just kinda wonder how long before, you know, we try to make another one.

Shane Mercer [00:14:34]:

Well, you know, I had the same idea, and I was almost about to go make it. And I was like, you know what? Let me just let me sit with this for a little bit here. They're obviously doing this to a lot of people because we've got other people in the community that that have had this happen to them, and they're all sharing it. And I thought maybe it's best if I just wait a little bit. I know I was gonna be talking to you, and I'm like, let's see what pace thinks about it.

Andrew Pace [00:14:58]:

Yeah. I would not try to make a new account right now or. Yeah. I mean, maybe, maybe you could where you don't verify and You know, you deposit a little bit of money in there, and you don't use it to bet with. You could try doing something like that. And and for for anyone listening that's not a member of ininplayLIVE, like, this one's, something that is pretty near and dear to our hearts. And it's just using 365 to organize games, to follow games, to, watch games, all that kind of stuff. So, if this has happened to you, I I wouldn't panic or freak out about it.

Andrew Pace [00:15:34]:

I wouldn't worry about it. There's always another account that can be made, especially if they allow access to those products with a small deposit and no verification. So, yeah, I just personally wouldn't worry about it too much. And and then, yeah, like I said, there might be some upside. Maybe maybe there is a time where Those accounts can be used again, like, not again, but an an account can be made because they deleted this one. And then the last thing would be, like, Go to the regulator and just say, why why am I being discriminated against? Like, what practices allow them to just to just do this and see what they say? They probably won't support you, but I think that the more you pile up in these spots, you know, take 5 minutes out of your day and fill out the form, for your local regulator about you know, so regarding what they've done, I think that's that's worthwhile for sure.

Shane Mercer [00:16:23]:

Yeah. You know, I was Thinking about that too. Hey. Maybe I should just for for me, I'm in Ontario, so iGaming is is the organization I email. It's the regulator. And, I was thinking about it. And I because I've gone through this process before, well, I know what they're they're emailed to me back, which will probably come in about a week or week and a half after I email them, is, do you have a complaint number? We can't talk we can't do anything with you until you have a complaint number. And to get a complaint number, you've gotta talk to that 365, And you've gotta go through their customer service team, and they never wanna hand out complaint numbers because they know that that's used against them.

Shane Mercer [00:16:55]:

And so it's a whole it's a whole thing. But, you know, it it might still be worth it just to like you said, just throw it on the radar, tell iGaming this happened. You know, maybe they don't do anything about it, but at least, You know, at least they've been made aware of it. Right?

Andrew Pace [00:17:09]:

The the other thing that you can do with that though, Shane, is forget about iGaming, just the regulator in general. Use the reference ID for from that email, as the complaint number just because then there at least is information that can be pointed to. Yeah. Yeah. Relating to that.

Shane Mercer [00:17:27]:

Yeah. That's a good point. And and, yeah, I'm also wondering too about, you know, maybe I wait a little bit, wait a week, wait wait a little, you know, and open up another account with, with a different email address or something like that. Right? Not for betting, of course. But just like you said, maybe you make a small deposit or something, and then they'll they'll Let you let you keep it open maybe even for another year. It might be worth it. Right?

Andrew Pace [00:17:50]:

Absolutely. Yeah.

Shane Mercer [00:17:52]:

Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Okay. Let's talk about watching games because that's one of the big things that I've been using Bet 365 for, especially this past, NFL season Because they've been broadcasting the NFL games on Bet365, which has been amazing for me to be able to, 1, watch certain games that I don't have, on my TV, you know, because usually I'm getting 3 or 4 games, a week, or or a a slight on on the busy sort of NFL Sunday slate, the first slate of games, you know, I got maybe 4 games or so. Same thing in the 4 o'clock window, maybe 2 or 3 games. So I can go and tune in to all the other games or have been able to tune in to the other games on Bet365. But, Paste, you've been watching on YouTube TV, and they've got NFL rights.

Shane Mercer [00:18:38]:

They've got, the Sunday ticket. And the season started off a little bit rocky with YouTube, to say the least, I think. Hey, PACE, they it wasn't very good in terms of latency. And, in fact, it was almost worse than than regular TV, and it looks like they've taken some steps to corrected. So you tried it out this weekend. Tell me, how did it go?

Andrew Pace [00:19:00]:

Yeah. Well, I think it's just really good news to see that they're doing something. I mean, If we follow our conversation, you know, we're we're dating back 9 months on this podcast where it's like, hey, you know, YouTube's won the rights to the NFL Sunday ticket, and we at inplayLIVE were unhappy about that, right, because We know how good the Amazon Prime product is for NFL. So when YouTube TV won, we're sitting there thinking, like, Well, are they gonna improve it? And then they promised a a a really top tier product for the NFL. And then sure enough, the NFL starts, and it's a disaster. Truly, because a lot of people canceled their subscriptions and got refunds. We saw that with members of inplayLIVE. And then They started a marketing campaign, a you know, probably 4 or 5 weeks into the NFL season where I think they're pretty disappointed with their Their overall, subscription base to the Sunday ticket, offering it at discounts, and that continued and continued and continued, and I was getting bombarded with with that marketing.

Andrew Pace [00:20:16]:

And then all of a sudden, You see try this low latency product available on the YouTube TV screen. It speeds up The game, I think, by approximately 12 seconds. So I would compare it now to a Poor coaxial feed, which is kind of similar to what Bet 3 65 would have been offering. The quality of the video is great. So, like, when you bring up about 365 feet and you you expand it on to say, like, a TV, or any sportsbook feed for that matter. It's it's good, but it's pixelated and and all that kind of stuff. So YouTube TV has begun the journey of offering a low latency product. Now, I use YouTube TV.

Andrew Pace [00:21:06]:

I use it for college football. And the reason why I use it for college football, specifically being in Canada, is because that's how I can watch the games that are out of market. I don't have an alternative here. There is a college football package upgrade that's available for some people's broadcast, And I think if you're in Ontario, you can actually get a decent college football feed. But here in in, Vancouver, I got I got the college football upgrade package, and it is, like, it's, like, 2 minutes latent. It is so bad. It's unbelievable. So for me, the 12 extra seconds on YouTube TV means that I'm getting decent coaxial feeds on college football.

Andrew Pace [00:21:50]:

Does that matter as we head into bowl season? Not so much. But for next year, that's really, really, really good news. And I think just the whole landscape, from the standpoint of watching sports, cutting the cable, low latency versus this IPTV, you know, really latent feeds, It's just good to see it all heading in the right direction. So, like, Bet BetVision, BetGenius, BetVision, Amazon Prime now, yes, YouTube TV getting a little bit quicker. The sportsbooks offering decent feeds. It's it's it is tremendous news. It really is. The beauty of football is that you have 1 play and then there's a play clock.

Andrew Pace [00:22:30]:

And in between that play clock, There's time before that next play occurs, which means that as long as your feed is at, let's call it, like, the Sort of bad coaxial level, which is typically about from what happened on the field in real time to you watching it, Let's call that 20 to 30 seconds versus, say, the YouTube TV typical product, which is gonna be, you know, another 12, 15 seconds on top of that. You are seeing the play before the next play has occurred in most occurrences. From a betting standpoint, that allows you to Process the information in the time frame that's actually happening in the game, because a new play hasn't occurred as you're seeing it and making your decision. So that is powerful. For something like the NBA, this this doesn't help. Like, you might have 9 points in 10 seconds in the NBA in some points, where you see pull up threes on on 3 or 4 possessions in a row. So For the NBA, or basketball in general, you still you know, good good feeds almost don't exist, because even 15 seconds latent, is is is not good for for basketball. But for football and for baseball, it's good news.

Shane Mercer [00:23:49]:

Yeah. 15 seconds in basketball, you get 3 threes drained in that amount of time and and a hack maybe too to go in there. You know? It's like You could you could literally get over 10 points in that 15 seconds. You know, it it's not a stretch to to think that that could happen. So, yeah, it's gonna be Hard to get something that's that's a little latent for for NBA. But I think, like you said, it it sounds like we're trending in the right direction. You know? And we opened up this show too with with those stats And, you know, the the staggering numbers, especially being wagered, you know, in the various states as they open up and that kind of thing. And as you get more sports bettors Looking for low latent feeds, that pressure is gonna be on on the big, on the big broadcast providers to to to deliver, You know, to deliver something in in as real time as possible.

Shane Mercer [00:24:34]:

So, you know, absolutely positive to see it trending in that in that direction, which is just, fantastic. Okay. On this topic of technological advancements, this is something that caught my eye today. And, it's it's kind of interesting to think, but I I think we're already kind of there. But but let me give it to you. So the headline, this is a A headline in a Globe and Mail article that, came out over the weekend. 1st, AI came for Sports Illustrated. Soon, it will wanna give you sports betting advice.

Shane Mercer [00:25:12]:

So for everyone out there who's not familiar, Sports Illustrated came under heavy criticism, about a month ago or so because it was using AI In a lot of its content, and it wasn't telling anyone that it was using AI in its content. On top of it, it was Mhmm. Assigning that content to writers who didn't actually exist. So it was it was written by, you know, John Smith. And here's a picture of John Smith, and here's the article that that we claim John Smith wrote, But all of it was AI generated, the name, the photo, the content itself, all created by AI. Right. And so Sports Illustrated came under under heavy criticism for that. And so, you know, it it had to, you know, Play the whole PR game about, well, we're using it here and we're not using it in these situations, and, you know, we're we're still working it all out and we're we're Experimenting and blah blah blah blah blah.

Shane Mercer [00:26:17]:

But it got me thinking, hey. Wait a minute, though. What if we start getting a whole bunch of AI tipsters? We talk a lot about tipsters on this show, and most of them, I think, up until now have been actual people, real people out there for the most part Who are who are trying to, you know, get you to pay for for picks that are usually pretty bad picks and pretty terrible picks. But We could start to see a lot more of this AI sports betting advice. I know, you know, myself, for example, one Sort of thing that I've looked at. You know, you see models. Right? And, oh, we've run simulations. There's certain sites that we've run simulations on this game, and, You know, we've run computer generated simulations 10,000 times on Monday Night Football, and here's the predictive score from our from our, You know, our computer generated simulations.

Shane Mercer [00:27:09]:

So we're we kind of have seen some of this already, but, Pace, what do you think about the idea of, You know, maybe something popping up in your Instagram feed from a tipster, telling you, you know, here's the best bet of the day, but, really, it's all AI. The tipster himself doesn't exist. The name isn't real, but here's here's something to bet on.

Andrew Pace [00:27:28]:

Yeah. I mean, it's it's already it's already happening, and I think that, You know, we're in a world right now where it's it is just the beginning, in a lot of ways, and there's there's a lot of fears and a lot of industries is associated with it. I think, obviously, we saw the writers strike in Hollywood, relating to to AI and, name, image, and likeness, relating to that. And I think there was, I don't know if there's a Drake song, but I think it might have been a Drake song that was released on YouTube, and, like, within, like, half of the day, it had, like, 5,000,000 views in the song. I never heard it, but the song was apparently amazing.

Shane Mercer [00:28:03]:

Doesn't take much to create a Drake hit, I guess.

Andrew Pace [00:28:06]:

Well, the well, the point is is that the It's powerful. Like, you can create, entire films, entire art of any kind, from from music to paintings to to, yeah, entertainment, pretty quickly with with AI. And, there's a lot of upside to that, obviously. And and then, obviously, the flip side is Is the fears associated with it? That can be from job loss all the way up to, you know what's what's the show called, Westworld? West Westworld?

Shane Mercer [00:28:41]:

Yeah. Westworld. Yeah. With with the robots could you know, that that looked like humans and yeah.

Andrew Pace [00:28:45]:

Yeah. Yeah. And a 1000000 different sci fi films, you know, in the last 50 years. But, then, you know, obviously, that becoming some sort of legitimate fear. I think with the betting space specifically, there there's 2 sides to it. Right? It's just like anything else that we we do or follow. The first side is the sportsbooks and how they're using AI to now limit players. Why do you think that they're limiting quicker on these sportsbooks? How do you think they know so quickly?

Shane Mercer [00:29:08]:

Mhmm.

Andrew Pace [00:29:09]:

It's because a a human being isn't going in and reviewing your account. It's The pattern was immediately identified by, some sort of, AI, pattern that they're they've established and are looking for. So there's that side of it. Then there's the side of it of the lines being set themselves, so you can have Sharper lines, in theory, by, you know, you the use of of AI. And that can be anything from, like, a player acquisition like Shohei Ohtani, going to the Dodgers where the lines are not vulnerable for this 5 minute window, where a lot of bettors look for news to place futures to, you know, place Place bets on a game based on an injury of a player who is or is not playing, and and you can catch some some some real value doing that kind of stuff. Well, AI will will and already has the power to to ensure that no one got that information quicker than The AI service did and and potentially is able to, you know, close lines or change lines quicker, and just make the the sportsbook sharper overall. Right? So that that's the one side of it. The other side of it, I don't really think too much about, like, tipsters and things like that, like, Kinda what you touched on there, it is already happening.

Andrew Pace [00:30:27]:

It's been happening for a long time. Like, whether it's AI or or some sort of computer model or or whatever the case may be, spreadsheets. You know? All all of that is leading towards, data and information. I think it's just More readily accessible, more readily, provided that that does have an edge of some kind, on the algorithm or the sportsbooks. And the way sports betting works, I don't believe is going to change anytime soon or ever, and and that is that if the public likes a line, if they think the Chiefs are gonna win tonight, That line is going to move in some capacity based on the way that the money is coming in on that line. And That means that lines need to be balanced with Sharp Action. So as much as AI has a role in all of that, there's still gonna be opportunities to profit. Now, You know, does that give us more power as bettors, knowing that that process is still going to occur, but now we have more data and information? That I don't know the answer to, and we have seen, obviously, sportsbooks limit quicker and and and make things more challenging in in some ways, but at the same time, you you know, it's not like you there isn't still money to be made.

Andrew Pace [00:31:55]:

Right? So, yeah, I it's an interesting conversation. I'm excited for where it's gonna go from the standpoint of just Pure curiosity and and potential information. But, yeah, it really is just the beginning. You know, tips are just popping up on Instagram, where it's not even a human being and and it's them giving you a pic. How is that any different than than Anyone else giving us a a pick, there's still gonna be a human being somewhere that's profiting off of that if you're paying for it. So

Shane Mercer [00:32:24]:

Yeah. That's a good point. There's always gonna be a human profiting off of the technology, regardless of how you're interacting with it. I'll also mention, I really appreciate you bringing up Ohtani as a as a Blue Jays Toronto Blue Jays fan Hey. Thanks thanks for, you know, bringing that that topic up. Yeah. But, I think you're I think you're absolutely right that there's always going to be, That that person behind the AI. Right? And then on top of that too, when when us humans as the sports bettors Know what the AI is looking for.

Shane Mercer [00:32:58]:

Know what the algorithm is is is is looking for and how it's going to react to something. That's where we can find our edge. Right? And there's always going to be that kind of, that kind of back and forth, that sort of, give and take with the technology. Right? And it's almost to our benefit because we if we know that that the algorithm, that the AI is going to react one way, but that the humans who are playing the sports are going to do something different, Then we all we're we're always gonna have that little bit of an edge. Right?

Andrew Pace [00:33:34]:

Yeah. And and also too, I I will This is kind of hopeful thinking, so I I wouldn't want anyone to rely on this, but it's kinda like the Bet365 thing that you just brought up. You can react and say, oh my god. What am I gonna do? Or you could be, like, okay. What are my next steps in Managing this, do I require the sportsbook in the way that I was using it? And can I potentially get an account In my name again out of this, I think the answer to that is no? But, you know, just throwing those types of things out, these sort of positive Ways of approaching a problem, problem solving, and solution oriented thinking towards it. Well, with AI, I look at, like, A lot of sports, right now, and this really is almost every sport. And I think about Legalized betting in the United States and that coming onto the scene in 2018, and a whole group of people with inplayLIVE that were, like, really focusing on the end of NFL or the end of college football because they were betting on games when People were shaking hands and walking on the field. So you might have, like, a minus 10,000 line that's still open on the money line, but they're shaking hands.

Andrew Pace [00:34:47]:

The game's over, and you can still bet on something. Thing. Right? And because of that obviously ending, which is, like, the most obvious and inevitable Thing you could ever sort of fathom, you know, you then start looking. We've talked about this before in our college basketball, episode about new strategies that you can find off It's something that you used to be doing. So maybe you find a sportsbook that's open in the NFL with 3 minutes left, and they've got a lot of different betting options still. And you look at it and you go, oh my god. Like, the probability of this happening is, like, you know, 1 in 50, and they're offering me, like, minus 200 on on this team total under or over or whatever the case may be. And then you start picking apart some of these books in these different scenarios, but it was all built on, you know, potentially just, like, a a line that shouldn't have been there when teams were shaking hands.

Andrew Pace [00:35:42]:

Well, may maybe With AI, some of these sportsbooks will actually start to open up lines that they're a little bit more confident in later in games across All sports. You see the 9th inning of baseball have far less offerings than any other inning, if not any at all. You see 5 minutes left in the NFL, like, we're just touching on player props where we said this shouldn't have been open and other books wouldn't have had it open. Well, they had it open for a reason, but you don't see these player props and all these other markets available at the end of an NFL game, a college football game. You know, watch the lines in an NHL game in the 1st period and what you can bet on versus, you know, 3 minutes left in the game, you'll open up sportsbook and say, why can't I bet on this game anymore? Well, there's reasons for all of this. Right? And and I think to myself, you know, can AI Bring some of those markets and offerings back to make the books more competitive, giving sports bettors, options, Probably much sharper options, but options nonetheless, late in games. And that's something that, you know, could be just way out of line to say, but at the same time, it's it's wishful thinking in the area of of the books getting sharper and and then allowing this this sort of, betting activity in games.

Shane Mercer [00:37:03]:

You know, one thing I'll I'll also say is that, You know, while it might seem like, you know, we can't, as a single human, compete against the computing power of of AI And, you know, the massive, big tech providers in the sportsbooks, you know, I don't know how much you've experimented with Chat GPT, but I've done some fair amount of Experimenting with it in my, in my career as a journalist. And and in the organization that I that I work for, it's being experimented with Pretty pretty widespread and and not not you know, this isn't sort of something that's a secret or anything like that. It's it's all very out in the open, but it's It's being toyed with, and it's it's happening at a lot of different media organizations as well. And so I'm seeing a lot of the content created by AI. And it's funny how we as humans can adapt to things so quickly because I can now read a piece of text. It doesn't matter who puts it in front of me or where it comes from, and I can tell instantly if it's been written by AI or not, if there's a human voice behind it or not. And it's it's so easily identifiable now. So, you know, it's it's as this as this kind of technology evolves, so will we as people, as humans, and and our ability to kind of navigate it and sort of spot spot things that are wrong with it, because it becomes So easy to do.

Shane Mercer [00:38:24]:

And it's, it's funny how how how, you know, how we're trained that way, I guess, or or kind of maybe how we are programmed that way to kind of Recognize humanity in things and how easy that that can become, to to sort of know when it's not present.

Andrew Pace [00:38:42]:

Exactly. Yeah. I think that's well said. There's always going to be scenarios where What is projected has flaws simply due to Chaos. And you just you just never know what's gonna happen in in sports. And The more you try to become predictive, it doesn't mean that there isn't theoretical value. It just means that it will just never be correct or perfect in those circumstances that were projected, leaving opportunity potential opportunity. Right?

Shane Mercer [00:39:24]:

It's a it's a crazy world out there full of chaos, and, we absolutely love it because we we can find ways to capitalize on it. It's it's just great. Alright, Paes. Well, I think that is a full show for everybody out there, for our audience, for our listeners. Remember to like, download, subscribe, and follow us on the socials @inplayLIVE. You wanna see what life is all about on the inside? We've got that promo code for you 'BEHINDTHELINES'. And, Pace, I just wanna tease something for our audience out there. Next week's next week's episode, I think we're gonna have a special guest.

Shane Mercer [00:39:55]:

Fingers crossed. It should be a good one. So make sure you tune in for next week's episode. Alright, We are on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, and everywhere you get your podcasts. Have a betting story or wanna be featured on our podcast? Drop a note in the comments below. And You wanna join inplayLIVE? Use promo code 'BEHINDTHELINES'.