Opinion
Schwimer Claims MLBPA and Agents Oppose BLA Because They Ignore Minor Leaguers
“The MLBPA looks at is players just lost ten million dollars because they don't care. About the minor leaguers. And to see the amount of pushback we're getting from them and from agents that obviously don't care about their players and care more about them keep…”
Disclosure
Big League Advance raised a $130M Fund II at 3-and-30 fees
“Our first one was a two and 20 and our twenty six million, our hundred and thirty million dollar fund was a three and 30. And so we actually took us five weeks to raise that. We actually raised 182, but I had to return fifty two million because there's only so…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
JAMBOS achieved a 59% win rate against the spread in college basketball
“And we started doing it from then on through the college basketball season. We're up about 140 units. Now that might sound a little confusing, but basically a winning percentage of almost 59%.”
Disclosure
JAMBOS offers a $10,000 payout if its football picks lose money
“If we're negative units, that means if you bet the same amount on every game, and you lose money, we will give you 10 thousand dollars back.”
Opinion
Data usage by NFL and European soccer teams is embarrassingly poor
“I mean, football and European soccer, it's embarrassing, the use of data to make decisions.”
Disclosure
Schwimer Explains Big League Advance's Upfront Earnings-Share Model for Minor Leaguers
“Can I invest in them? Give them money, hundreds of thousands, at some point, sometimes millions of dollars, in exchange for a future share of their earnings. If they don't make it, they keep all the money, and if they make it, we share in their success.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Schwimer Projects Over 50% of Big League Advance Signees Reach the Majors
“We believe that over half the players we sign will play a day in the major leagues.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Big League Advance Sells Highly Accurate Pitcher Injury Prediction Models to MLB
“They built a model that was truly revolutionary to where we can predict When a pitcher's gonna get hurt with incredible accuracy to the point where MLB teams are paying for our service now”
Assertion Supported
Schwimer: Francisco Mejía Dropped Lawsuit and Paid Big League Advance's Legal Fees
“Francisco ended up dropping the case. We actually countersued him. We settled the countersuit. He paid a portion of our legal fees for the case, and then wrote a very long apology that was highlighted actually in the Sports Illustrated article that came out ab…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schwimer: Three NBA Teams Asked to Outsource Analytics to Big League Advance
“And two NBA, actually three NBA teams now called us and wanted to fire their entire advanced analytics department and have us be the analytics department for those teams remotely.”
Disclosure
Schwimer: Big League Advance Projects Losing Money on 80% of Player Investments
“Just because I said over half the players will make it, we're still projecting 20% to be profitable. Keep in mind, they had to play three years. Even if they do 10%, they're returning 150,000, because they make 500,000 dollars a year. In order to be successful…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Big League Advance saw 38 of 77 Fund I players reach MLB
“Our first fund of 77 players, and keep in mind, remember, you have less than a 10% chance to make the major leagues if you're throwing a dart in the minor leagues, and we don't get first round picks. So the players that we go after, these non top 300 prospects…”
Opinion
Professional sports teams are extremely cheap about paying for outside analytics
“We quickly found out that teams were not interested in this. They have their own, they're very cheap. Teams are extremely cheap when it comes to this type of stuff. They're not cheap when it comes to paying players, but for outside resources, it's not that gre…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schwimer: Baseball is the only sport where all data is publicly available
“Baseball is the only sport that all the data is publicly available. So it's just about how good your team is.”
Opinion
Sports betting subscription services are a uniquely awful and dishonest industry
“I'm not sure there's a more disgusting, awful industry to get into than the tout service and subscription services.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
JAMBOS achieved a 57% win rate on 2,700 out-of-sample picks
“But our record is still around 57%.”
Opinion
Sports betting demand is ten times larger than what sportsbooks accept
“There's way more money to the tune of Probably close to 10 X of money that wants to be bet than is being willing to be taken. Think about that. There's more money that wants to be bet than is willing to be taken because casinos don't want to take winning bette…”
Disclosure
Pro sports team owners offered JAMBOS equity to run their analytics
“We've been contacted by several team owners in major sports wanting to give us equity in teams at this point, which is a huge avenue for us to do and be able to take over some of these teams and data analytic departments and really use it.”
Opinion
The Rockets, Athletics, and Rays lead sports analytics decision-making
“The Houston Rockets, most certainly. In baseball, the A's do a good job. The Rays, the Tampa Bay Rays do just a fantastic, I mean, every trade they make, we're like, yep, that fits our model.”
Disclosure
JAMBOS is in advanced talks to buy a European soccer team
“We're really close to a European soccer team. Right now. And then there's been faint interest from a football. We're not far down the line there yet, but it's possible we could announce something here in four to six months in terms of ownership of the team.”
Prediction Held up
A 24/7 sports betting news network will launch by 2021
“There's going to be a twenty-four-seven gambling news network. Guarantee that within the next two years. Guarantee it.”
Insight
Schwimer: Process Metrics Predict MLB Success Better Than Standard Moneyball Statistics
“The basic money ball stuff, exactly. And it really didn't matter in the minor leagues in terms of predicting major league success. And what I had to, the lesson I had to learn was it's not, the results are not predictive to future results. It's actually the pr…”
Opinion
Schwimer Considers Paul DePodesta the Greatest General Manager in Baseball History
“And for those of you who don't know, Paul, he's the money ball guy. And I believe the best GM in baseball history for 20 years, took teams to the playoffs, winning records, and then tried to move on.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schwimer: 24 MLB Teams Consulted Big League Advance at 2018 Trade Deadline
“Last year, the trade deadline, or, you know, in 2017, 17 teams called us. This year, 24 teams called us at the trade deadline asking our advice on who are the underrated prospects in this organization.”
