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The Bear is everywhere.
ESPN’s Chris Fallica has garnered a national following for his work in the sports gambling sphere. Most notably, you’ll find Fallica on the set of ESPN’s College Gameday on Saturday mornings. The “Stanford Steve & Bear” podcast previews upcoming college football games, and Fallica pens a weekly ESPN Chalk column that drops Thursdays. He also makes regular weekly appearances on Daily Wager.
Fallica’s official title at ESPN is Research Producer and Sports Betting Analyst, but an affable and everyman style helped him become a personality in his own right. We caught up with Fallica for an exclusive chat prior to Gameday’s appearance in East Lansing, Mich., ahead of the Michigan-Michigan State game.
GAMING TODAY: We asked Brent Musburger this recently, and I’m curious to get your take. How would you characterize your approach to sports gambling? Recreational, analytical, gut, or a combination?
CHRIS FALLICA: I would say a combination. Anybody that follows me knows I tend to be more of a contrarian-type bettor. I usually don’t want to be on the side of a public underdog. It’s not to say those teams don’t win or it’s the right or wrong strategy. At times, I think a little bit too much and get a bit too psychological with picks and that might hurt me on occasion.
GT: How salty do some people get when your predictions don’t pan out? Is there a lot of blowback on Twitter, and how do you handle it?
FALLICA: I understand that people are listening and want me to win every game, but the people inside the industry know that’s not possible. They know that (winning) 55 to 56 percent of the time means you’re having a great year. It’s the loud minority on Twitter that makes it worse. Not every fan is like that. The only time I’ll be angry is if you use vulgarity and make it personal. That’s when I’ll just completely ignore you.
GT: What is the worst “bad beat” you’ve ever had?
FALLICA: I was alive in a pick-six at Hollywood Park back in 2004 going into the last race of the day. I had the lead at the top of the stretch and wound up running second and third in the race. So, I went from winning about $1.8 million on a $96 pick-six ticket to winning about $6,000 for having five out of six winners. That was a good handicapping job that unfortunately ended with a rough beat.
GT: What are your must-visits when it comes to restaurants on the Gameday travel circuit?
FALLICA: Number one has to be The Smokin’ Pig outside Clemson in Pendleton, South Carolina. It is the best barbecue I’ve had anywhere on the road. You get yourself some chopped barbecue chicken, pulled pork with the mustard sauce, a side of the sweet potato crunch, and a loaded baked potato. You’re good to go. There’s a good and underrated Italian place called Giuseppe’s in Columbus, Ohio. It has food (on par) with some of the best that I’ve had in Italy.
GT: We’ve got to ask about picks for the next college football weekend. Does anything stand out to you?
FALLICA: I would probably lean towards laying the number with Cincinnati (vs. Tulsa), but I don’t know what the number will even be (right now). When Cincinnati sees their position in the playoff rankings Tuesday night, I think Luke Fickell and those guys will know that they need to put up a big number on anybody and everybody the rest of the way. Whether that results in too much pressure and pressing, who knows? But I don’t know if that’s a Tulsa team that’s very good on offense right now.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for the purposes of brevity and clarity.
