Prediction Markets Are More Established Outside US: Bruin Capital CEO

Bloomberg

Watch Prediction Markets Are More Established Outside US: Bruin Capital CEO - Bloomberg on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00and you understand the intersection of finance and sports so well. Talk a little bit about

00:04prediction markets because it's new here in the U.S., but it's something that has seen a long life

00:09overseas, particularly in Europe. It's very established outside the United States in sports.

00:14In fact, the business is about $100 billion, which 40 percent is sports. So it's part of the culture

00:20in the U.K., Italy and Spain, and it's coming to America. It's coming to America. What part of that

00:25worries you as these exchanges team up with prediction markets and try to expand

00:29prediction markets to things like politics and financial economic indicators and pricing and

00:35everything else? As a consumer, I find it interesting going outside of sports. As a guy in sports, I think

00:39it's a natural evolution. You have prop bets in sports, but now you have a market here where you

00:44can trade what you predict is going to happen. So I think there's a lot of interest, and sports has so

00:49many different elements that you can wager on, predict on, unlike other parts of society.

00:55How do you see this playing out when it comes to actual sports gambling? Because I think about

01:00the scandals that we've seen in the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball

01:04as well. Prediction markets feels like it's just that much easier to place bets on and get more

01:09people involved. It is, and that's why the regulation's been slow. But look, the way to look at it is people

01:14have been gambling on games in America for over 100 years, and having a regulated market is better than

01:19an unregulated market. And actually, in some of these instances, the warning signs that are out

01:24there are a result of having a regulated market. So I think it's better regulated than unregulated.

01:29One of the challenges that betting operators have in the regulated market is the unregulated market.

01:34The dark market creates complexity. So what do you see when you see overseas, when you look overseas

01:40and see how they've handled their prediction markets, their sports betting markets, and how we might be

01:45preparing for things here in the U.S.? So it's a much more regulated outside the United States. In the

01:50U.S., it's been unregulated. And that transition in the U.S. has been a lot harder, where it's kind

01:55of in the fabric of the U.S., where it's not quite in the fabric of Europe and other parts of the world.

02:00So how are the leagues responding to this? I mean, do you see the NBA responding with a robust

02:05enough response here? Yes. I mean, the NBA, Major League Baseball recently have had issues. It's at the core

02:10of what they do. It strikes the integrity of the game. There's no more important issue than make sure

02:15it's a level playing field. So it's a very serious matter for them that they want to address. And

02:20again, having this more regulation actually provides more tools to tricks, you know, nefarious behavior

02:26or unusual behavior. That's in the professional level. What about at college sports level? Because

02:32the college athletes have, and I know you're holding, you're like sighing a big, deep breath of

02:36relief here, because there's a lot more money at stake now in college sports than there ever was before.

02:41And it's so much harder to regulate. In college kids, if you have, you know, I have two boys,

02:45boys gamble, right? In college. And so there's gambling all over the place. I think it's hard

02:51to regulate. I know having had sons that played college football, the teams really work hard to

02:56educate the players, but the challenges at the collegiate level are high. I want to switch gears

03:01a little bit here because we had a week in which the crown prince of Saudi Arabia visited the White

03:05House. Mohammed bin Salman paid a visit to President Trump. There's a lot of perk, pomp and

03:09circumstance surrounding it. There was a essentially a state dinner on Tuesday night where Tiger Woods

03:14was invited. And it really reminded me of how much Saudi Arabia has put money and attention

03:20into sports, global sports, and becoming a big, big player in that field. How do you see it from

03:25where you are? I mean, are they kind of a third of their way through in terms of their sports

03:29ambitions? I think they're just at the beginning. I mean, it's unbelievable what they're doing in

03:32sports. First of all, they're hosting the World Cup. They made a big investment in golf,

03:36big investments in tennis, big investments in auto racing. They're in mixed martial arts.

03:41They have the WWE. They made an investment in boxing. You know, they're trying to transform

03:45the kingdom and their society. And sports is a big vehicle there. So they're doing a lot

03:50in the world of sports, but they're specifically doing a lot inside of their country. And it's

03:55amazing the commitment and dedication and the interest in sports. There was a lot of talk that

04:00that was sport washing because they needed to refurbish their reputation. But it sounds like it's more

04:05than that. It's part of their economic strategy. I think initially people kind of, they get labeled unfairly,

04:09but it's really about reinventing their society in their economy.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended