The Ledger
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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…”
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…”
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%.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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”
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…”
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.”
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…”
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…”
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…”
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.”
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.”
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…”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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…”
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.”
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.”
Big League Advance expects over 50 Fund I players to reach MLB
“We're expecting over 50 out of the 77 to get to me.”
Schwimer: JAMBOS football and baseball models backtested better than college basketball
“Obviously we don't have any track record in those sports. This will be our first season for it, but the model back tests at a better rate than our college basketball.”
Schwimer: Proprietary football data gives JAMBOS a much bigger edge than baseball
“In NFL and college football. We have data that nobody else has. And so that's why I think those two sports will have a far better advantage than baseball.”
JAMBOS spends over $5 million annually on data and payroll
“We're all in more than five million bucks here, probably on an annual basis.”
Vegas sportsbooks slashed Michael Schwimer's betting limits to $300 within 16 days
“16 days, I was shut out of all the books, because I didn't realize it's not a liquid market. The sports betting market is not liquid. At all. And so what that means is at the time I was cut down to 305 hundred per bet instead of 10,000 a bet.”
BetCRIS and BookMaker effectively set the worldwide sports betting market
“So we're using the market consensus line, which is defined by this company, BetChris and Bookmaker. They kind of set the worldwide market for this stuff right now.”
JAMBOS will shut down its service if market adjustments eliminate its edge
“And if the closing lines are jumping many, many points to where we're losing, we are going to shut down the subscription service because we can no longer provide positive expected value plays to our subscribers.”
JAMBOS expects its sports betting edge to disappear within two years
“We're only going to have this advantage for a year or two, I think. There's only a very short number of time where subscribers can take advantage of this.”
Schwimer: Improper bet sizing is sports bettors' biggest mistake
“That's the biggest thing that gamblers, sports bettors do wrong is they don't size their bets properly.”
Schwimer: Paul DePodesta Is Big League Advance's Second-Largest Shareholder
“Skip to the end. He's a, he's the second largest shareholder besides myself and a partner.”
Schwimer: Big League Advance Has Signed 128 Minor League Players
“Of the 128 players we've signed now, and that probably 300 ish we've offered, or more”
Big League Advance Videotapes Contract Signings With 20-Question Comprehension Checks
“We videotape the signing before the signing and ask them all these questions. Do you understand if you make five hundred million dollars, you will owe us twenty five million in your career? Assuming they do a deal for five percent. Do you understand if you nev…”
Schwimer: Over 75% of BLA Signees Were Outside Top 300 Prospects
“Over 75% of the players that we sign Aren't top 300 prospects in baseball when we sign them”
Schwimer: Former Goldman Sachs Employees Failed at Minor League Player Investing
“There were some Goldman guys that quit and tried to do it. They have a couple players, then they left, because they realized they couldn't do it.”
Schwimer: Big League Advance is pushing for player protection laws in Delaware
“We're pushing for a law to make sure these players are protected. And so we are going to try to get that through Delaware this year.”
Schwimer: All Big League Advance players in the majors have paid in full
“We have many, many players in the major leagues. They've all paid on time and in full.”
Two Soccer Federations Offered BLA Multi-Million Dollar Contracts Before Qatar World Cup
“Two soccer federations have reached out to us. We have nobody that has any experience in soccer, by the way. Two soccer feders reached out to us, offering us multi-million dollar year contracts to help them in advance of the World Cup in Qatar using advanced a…”
Schwimer: Less Than 10% of Minor Leaguers Reach Major League Baseball
“There's 7000 minor leaguers. And less than 10% will play one day in the major leagues, and less than three percent will actually get to arbitration and make, make big money.”
Schwimer: Minor leaguers are not represented by the MLBPA
“Minor leaguers are actually not covered under the Major League Baseball Players Association. They're not represented at all.”
Schwimer: Big League Advance Raised $130M for Second Fund
“We raised one hundred and thirty million dollars for the second fund in order to do it over a much longer period of time.”
Schwimer: Sam Hinkie and Paul DePodesta Invested in BLA's Second Fund
“Sam Hinckley, who ran the 70 Sixers, is in our fund. Paul D. Podesta, obviously, and now here we are with the second fund.”
Schwimer: Former Lakers analytics director Jason Rosenfeld joined Big League Advance
“Jason did leave the Lakers, came to work for big league advances, our chief strategy officer running the entire analytics team.”
Schwimer: BLA's second fund will invest in 500 players
“You know, we're going to have 500 players in that fund.”
Schwimer: JAMBOS grades picks using market consensus lines, not cherry-picked odds
“So when we release a pick and email instantly goes out to our subscribers and it's time stamped with the line that the pick is in. We also now use the market consensus line. Which is the average. So we're not cherry picking the very best line.”