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Adam Kaufman has a unique vantage point to watch the growth of legal sports betting in Massachusetts.
On The Gambler with Adam Kaufman, which airs Monday through Friday at 10 p.m. ET on WRKO 680 AM in Boston, guests dissect wagering hits and misses in a show that mixes standard gambling chatter and mainstream fandom in the two months of legal sports betting in Massachusetts.
Gaming Today spoke with Kaufman about his new show and helping educate new bettors while entertaining long-time gamblers in a sports-mad town.
The Gambler and Boston Sports Betting Media
Gaming Today: How does your show fit into the local betting scene?
Adam Kaufman: It’s a lot of live betting and responding to what just happened, because obviously at 10 p.m. Eastern, games have either just wrapped up or they’re in the process of wrapping up. You’ve got a whole bunch of games that are in primetime or West Coast. Football season’s going to be crazy. Playoffs are crazy between basketball and hockey. A lot of stuff is going on while you’re on. And so there’s just a lot to react to.
We really love sweating our bets and listeners’ bets and guests’ bets and building stuff out together. I can’t think of a time that I’ve had more fun hosting a show such as this one. And I’ve hosted radio shows, and I’ve done a lot of really cool stuff in this industry for years and years and years, be it radio, TV, internet, print, whatever.
It’s so lively, and, obviously, we’re brand new, but I hope more and more people will continue to find us.
We’re getting guests from every different sort of facet of the business and people that are coming on and giving us real hard-hitting gambling analysis.
My only concern right now would be is that we’re too in the weeds and appealing maybe too much so to the experienced gambler … as opposed to someone who is brand new at this”
We may need to dial it back in the future or have learn-to-gamble type segments, so as not to lose the novices that tune in for five minutes and say, “I don’t know what they’re talking about. This is too much.”
It’s so easy in this space when you’re part of this space to get lost in that stuff and just assume everybody knows what you know. That’s not the case. The goal for us is to get everybody to that point. And so it’s so fun and loose and goofy and self-deprecating, and we celebrate our hits when we own our misses. It’s a blast. I’m really enjoying it.
Fans, Bettors, and the Bruins’ Collapse, Celtics’ Struggles
GT: Were locals hammering the Bruins or Celtics like fans or being more savvy bettors?
AK: I would bet that the newbies, the novices, the people that just are excited to download whichever book’s app is on your phone or even multiple books to take advantage of all the early promotions and build up various bankrolls, they’re doing it for the “free money.” They’re not doing it to shop odds like professionals would do, who obviously have multiple books at their disposal.
And I think those people, it’s $5 here, $10 there, maybe $20, $25 bucks there. But again, it’s just for fun. It’s just to have some skin in the game, some action, a little extra rooting interest while you’re sitting up at night.
Would you otherwise be watching a Nugget-Suns game if you’re a casual basketball fan? Maybe, but probably not.
And so, let me throw a little money on the spread here, on the live moneyline, or whatever it may be that’s going to gain your interest.
Gambling, I would think, has probably really helped TV ratings, especially around this area for people that are so new to this, because it’s only been a couple months of legalized betting since it went live mobile on March 10.
I think the general excitement among people in my friend group and listeners and even for me is just the “Wow. I have Vegas at my fingertips. It’s crazy how much stuff I can bet on and how easy this is”
And as long as you’re being responsible with it, whether that’s setting up the parameters on the apps to do so for yourself if you don’t have that self-control or just going at it like this is just a fun hobby and doing it that way, I think it’s just such a fun space to be in. I haven’t heard from anybody who’s, “Oh my God, this is the worst thing. I’m losing my shirt. How could I have ever gotten into this?”
It’s the alternative. It’s, “This is so much fun,” and “I just hit a $10 no-sweat parlay that one of the books was offering, and I came away with $150, and I’m having the best night ever.”
Right now there’s a lot of positivity around this”
Does Anyone Really Want to Bet on Boston College?
GT: Do many there care that you can’t bet on in-state college sports most of the time?
AK: No. Not that I’ve heard anyway, or not at this point. Obviously, we’re not at college football season yet. People could around here bet on March Madness, which was really a top priority. People wanted the opportunity to bet on that. I think that was — other than just the newness and the excitement — a big part of the reason for the initial spike.
Obviously, once everything went legal, it happened right before March Madness. And so I was “Oh my goodness, I’m going to parlay team outcomes” or “I’m betting on my alma mater.” I won a fair amount. I was just sitting at a bar one night with friends having a couple of drinks on a Friday or Saturday night.
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DraftKings, Barstool, and a Town That Bets on Stuff
GT: What was the Boston betting culture before legalization?
AK: I know an awful lot of people that really — other than if they were in Vegas or something like that — never really gambled until it went legal and then got all excited about it, chasing bonuses and now are in the space on a daily basis, more or less.
But no question, I also know a number of people — I can’t speak to whether they’ve converted, I just never asked them — but a number of people that have been using the various sites or overseas books or whatever and have been gambling for years and years and years and that’s their brand. In some cases, it’s their livelihood. There are a lot of people around here, in the media or just people that gamble on the side.
It’s just popular. It’s just that kind of state where we are attracted to having a little more interest in a sporting event or whatever it may be”
It’s not even just sports. Some people just like to bet to bet. It’s really no different than a poker mentality, the amount of people that’ll get together once a month with their buddies to play poker just because. It might be a night out with your friends, but they’re not playing for free.
Hometown Pride and Sportsbook Choices
GT: Will DraftKings stay the book of choice in Massachusetts because it’s local? What about Barstool?
AK: I’ll certainly say the DraftKings has signage all over the place locally, so it’s always right there. You see it, whether it’s on the dasher boards at a Bruins game or it’s at a Celtics game, or they’ve got the logo at Fenway. There’s a DK lounge at Gillette, and I can’t even imagine what’s going to happen from a sports betting perspective when we get to football season.
I really couldn’t speak to it, but what I will say is the vast majority of people that I know that are on the apps and that are doing this, I tend to hear DraftKings first. There is dabbling in some of the others, whether it’s FanDuel or BetMGM, or Caesars.
Honestly, I don’t hear too much with respect to [Barstool founder Dave] Portnoy. It’s usually those other ones. But DraftKings is more often than not the first book out of people’s mouths. Whether that’s a branding and advertising success or whether it’s betting local, I couldn’t tell you.
Check out the full-length interview on YouTube above.
