During the first week of a three week tour to Costa Rica I met another non-employee like myself. His name was Sting, a journalist for his own online website called www.gambling911.com. I was very cordial with Sting upon that first visit and really didn’t know anything about what he did. After years of following his website, I would have to conclude, you don’t have to like the guy cause he will print everything you say but the guy gets good press. I have followed his site, advertised on his site, and read his columns. There is no doubt in my mind that there are some online gaming companies that certainly benefited from Sting’s online media. Also over the years I have seen Sting make a few appearances on national television as a source for online gaming information and you might know him better as Christopher Costigan. Recently I consulted for an online gaming firm and the marketing director for the company did not like the way Sting wrote and refused to advertise on his site. Fact is I never really like everything top sports radio, talk show host, Jim Rome has to say but the fact is he has a loyal audience and will get results whether its Lays potato chips, Bose stereo systems, online gaming, Viagra, or any other advertiser that is male focused on his show. If adult stores were allowed to advertise blow up dolls on Rome I am convinced a few thousand more blow up dolls would be sold on a regular basis to frequent jungle dwellers.
You can hate a person in business but they can still get you results. You can like a person and they can be your worst liability.
The setting for BOS was filled with wonderful people, beautiful, raw, second world settings that were all brought back down to earth by the Ripner family. The latter really made for a sour experience in what was a life I enjoyed.
As for business I was brought in to bring some order to the advertising as everything was being placed by Claude and his assistant Caroline. Shaun seemed to be just getting his feet wet and needed some tutoring while he was barely able to get a handle on the print advertising. One of the major complaints that disturbed Claude during the fall of 2000 was why his radio wasn’t getting results. He had invested in excess of $500,000 and was short on results. He called me into his office and asked me to identify the problem, get my insight on what I knew about radio and to correspond more with the radio stations.
Admittedly, I was nervous the first day I dealt with Claude when he summoned me to his office to inquire what I knew about radio. I was excited, confident, and nervous because this was a big opportunity. I was sitting in the classic low chair on the other side of the desk where most people would have to look up to him; luckily my height offset this position a bit. It’s normal for most executives to have their seat higher than the ones on the other side of the desk; it gives a psychological negotiating advantage. Take notice the next time you go into a car dealership and end up in the General Sales Manager’s office. My only worry was being able to get him to understand my strategies and have the confidence to spend money which was my greatest challenge. As a professional advertiser you live advertising every day and take for granted the reasons that you do certain things and translating that to someone like Claude was difficult. He was accomplished so you it was tough to tell him there was a better way based on experience without coming right out and critiquing his methods.
There is an old saying, “Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach”. I could certainly do and I would eventually be summoned to teach. I tried my best but lacked patience and look where my first pupil Pete Wilson ended up? I also backed off on the teaching with Pete because too much information and BOS could replace me for cheaper labor. In advertising I have ran into a lot of businesses that try to pick your brain for free ideas and then they try to run with the plan only to end up mired in eventual problems because problem solving cannot be taught, only dealt with.
One on One Sports Radio was a major syndicated radio show that was being run and per Claude’s request I would get one of our spokesmen from the Jim Feist Group to do weekly radio interviews with Papa Joe Chevallier. As for the lack of results, there were no immediate answers as I had no idea about content or schedules of the radio campaign. I informed Claude that making improvements was a matter of me listening to the spots which he got me a recorded spot; then I dissected the problems of the media plan and ad creative.
Identifying the problem was advertising 101 and easy for me since I concentrated on advertising as a profession. The spots were horrible and not appropriate. The voice on the radio spot in my opinion was very dry, sorry Lee Klein (XTRA Sports 1150 Los Angeles). The ad copy was written with the intent to sell how trustworthy BOS was with their Lloyd’s of London insurance policies on each account, which was non-existent. The spots were also not appropriate as a nighttime sports talk show host in Los Angeles was doing spots on the San Diego station. At the time San Diego’s XTRA Sports 690 was the king of local radio on the west coast. It was created by media legend Chet Forte of ABC Sports and Monday Night Football and also is the station that launched the career of the top sports talk show host for what seems forever, Jim Rome. More people listened to the San Diego station with its booming 70,000 watt antenna on the hillside of Tijuana that reached the great northwest on a clear night. So having Lee Klein as the voice of the commercial made no sense. Our first choice to replace him was Arnie Spandier; although Arnie was from the Los Angeles station he was a very excitable person and spoke passionately about sports betting. Unfortunately Arnie’s services were already locked up by my good friend Robert Elkman in the San Fernando Valley just north of Los Angeles for Jaguar Sports which was cleaning up with hundreds of new accounts from radio.
The creative was non-existent in the radio commercials also. Claude had no clue on radio advertising he wanted to sell facts and figures on the air which I confirmed with the representing agency. I was convinced the spots just needed some excitement to entice the audience to call in or log onto the internet at BOS to find out about betting on a game. My analogy would prove to be correct and the pending changes made radio very successful. Claude once said if he could he would say gamble, bet, gamble, bet, wager, 888-999-BETS, and 888-999-BETS for the entire 60 second commercial if he could. After 10 seconds of that I am sure the audience would be getting a headache and turning the channel; If not 10 seconds then 30 seconds of it for sure.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Chapter Two; pages 30-32
A couple of my favorite characters in the sales room were the two college kids, Doogie and Max; A couple of intelligent young men that were taking time off and seeing the world, smoking weed, and surfing after graduating. I didn't need to twist their arms to spend more time at the Del Rey and other local nightspots; they were afternoon shift guys anyways that could sleep in.
Doogie was a smart-ass recent college grad. He was a tanned young surfer from Rhode Island. Doogie clowned around on the phone with the prospective gamblers and wasn't very businesslike but he did convert a higher percentage of customers that called in than most sales representatives. Doogie liked to get under people's skin in the sales office and he was successful with many people even catching the ire of George a few times. Despite being a presentable young man, Doogie was an unfinished product. As a young guy he wanted to nail every girl that moved in Costa Rica and for all of his efforts he struck out at an alarmingly high rate. To his credit, he never stopped swinging for the fences believing in his potential with every girl. I doubt he has changed either as he brought that same attitude with him to San Diego the last time I saw him. I still don’t think there is a girl out there that can destroy his confidence while he still continues to swing for the glory.
Max was exceptional on the phones. When he spoke gamblers probably thought he was the guy in charge with an answer for everything and if he didn't know the answer he would at least sound like he knew it. His ability on the phone must have caught the attention of ownership because Max was one of the few guys that could go from sales to customer service and wagering at any time. Normally the sales people never got involved with wagering and were told to not take any calls for wagering but to transfer the calls. Max was a surfer also but his real passion seemed to be potato chips and weed which made Costa Rica perfect for him. He never seemed to have any problems with the ladies either. Where Doogie was still in the evolution process Max was a smooth talking young man.
I believe the youngsters were eating some magic marijuana brownies when they gave me the nickname Hacksaw after the big burly Professional wrestler Jim “Hacksaw” Dugan who carries around a 2x4 to the ring. I am not sure why they gave me the nickname.
A couple of the other sales representatives included Peter Wilson, Tom, and DD.
Pete was a decent guy while he was in sales. He was a recovering addict of some sort often leaving for lunch to attend his support group meetings. I don’t know what it’s like to be an addict but to regularly attend support group meetings is commendable because he was trying to clean up. Pete was very businesslike on the phone and we got along real well the first year in the sales room. Once Pete moved on over to be my marketing assistant he tried too hard to be just like Claude and that has gotten him into some trouble. There was only room for one Claude at BOS and I think the company would be still up and running had others tried not to imitate him. Pete is also the last one at large that is wanted by the Federal Courts in Dallas.
Pete was a well spoken guy in his late 30’s that had been rejected by the US. Rumor has it he was accused of some trouble and rather than face the penalties of a felony he chose the out clause and flew to the Caribbean before heading to Costa Rica. Whether he was innocent or guilty he never got a chance to find out. Furthermore I heard news in Curacao and in Costa Rica that had him being booted off the island of Curacao. Now Curacao is more peaceful than Costa Rica and to be evicted from that island paradise you would definitely have to perform an act of complete social debauchery. I am no one to judge but the abuse of alcohol and drugs might have been part of the reason for his eviction as Pete hinted towards that in one of our many conversations.
Tom and DD were a nice couple from Arizona and Colorado respectively. I enjoyed their company as they invited me over for dinner frequently and we would be known to take more than a few trips to the local watering holes when I was in town and one memorable trip to the Pacific coast tourist spot of Manuel Antonio. Those two would also save me from the “Barrio Arms” as I would soon move into their three bedroom apartment which Claude paid for. BOS under Claude paid for a lot of apartments and houses around the office to lure good English speaking salesman and workers.
DD was a sweet beautiful young girl in her late twenties that many people would confuse as a local. She was great for getting “the local discounts” with her brown skin and excellent handle of the Spanish language. She got stopped at the Del Rey entrance a few times also. She was well spoken, good sense of humor, responsible drinker, and nice body. Any guy would be lucky to have DD as a girl friend.
Opposites attract as in the case of Tom and DD. Tom was a car salesman. He was a top guy in the BOS sales office. He had no problem converting one call after another into a new customer. Tom was a big burly guy a bit shorter than me with a left hand that George called the mule kick due to its intense power which he enjoyed unleashing playfully into your shoulder. Guys would be flying when they were hit by the mule kick and it had an intense sounding thud to boot. Tom was about 45 years old and his face and body showed the wear and tear of hard drinking and age. Tom was a funny guy, quite sociable and extremely personable. Most everyone liked Tom unless you were on his wrong side of humor; he was great to be around. The last report on Tom had him back to selling cars in Prescott, Arizona. Unfortunately Tom had a short life in Costa Rica as the combination of his love for liquor, the nightlife, and the cheap prices were an ugly combination. His desire to party wasn't bad enough to keep Tom from showing up every morning at 6am, ready to take sales calls which he turned into hundreds of customers a week.
Tom was also the reason for George’s sales office rules which were quite simple yet hilariously effective. Rules of the sales office, “how you show up is how you have to stay, if you’re drunk, stay drunk. If you’re high, stay high. If you’re sober, stay sober”. These rules were adopted after Tom got the shakes so bad he dropped his phone during a sales call. After he dropped the phone he was sent down stairs into the Mall San Pablo for a small vodka bottle and he was just fine after that churning out customers more customers than anyone else in the office. I think Max approved of these rules too cause he was always high. Max always had a high number of sign-ups so the rules were extremely effective. Between Tom and Max they would have been terrible subjects for the study of how weed and alcohol effects office production.
Doogie was a smart-ass recent college grad. He was a tanned young surfer from Rhode Island. Doogie clowned around on the phone with the prospective gamblers and wasn't very businesslike but he did convert a higher percentage of customers that called in than most sales representatives. Doogie liked to get under people's skin in the sales office and he was successful with many people even catching the ire of George a few times. Despite being a presentable young man, Doogie was an unfinished product. As a young guy he wanted to nail every girl that moved in Costa Rica and for all of his efforts he struck out at an alarmingly high rate. To his credit, he never stopped swinging for the fences believing in his potential with every girl. I doubt he has changed either as he brought that same attitude with him to San Diego the last time I saw him. I still don’t think there is a girl out there that can destroy his confidence while he still continues to swing for the glory.
Max was exceptional on the phones. When he spoke gamblers probably thought he was the guy in charge with an answer for everything and if he didn't know the answer he would at least sound like he knew it. His ability on the phone must have caught the attention of ownership because Max was one of the few guys that could go from sales to customer service and wagering at any time. Normally the sales people never got involved with wagering and were told to not take any calls for wagering but to transfer the calls. Max was a surfer also but his real passion seemed to be potato chips and weed which made Costa Rica perfect for him. He never seemed to have any problems with the ladies either. Where Doogie was still in the evolution process Max was a smooth talking young man.
I believe the youngsters were eating some magic marijuana brownies when they gave me the nickname Hacksaw after the big burly Professional wrestler Jim “Hacksaw” Dugan who carries around a 2x4 to the ring. I am not sure why they gave me the nickname.
A couple of the other sales representatives included Peter Wilson, Tom, and DD.
Pete was a decent guy while he was in sales. He was a recovering addict of some sort often leaving for lunch to attend his support group meetings. I don’t know what it’s like to be an addict but to regularly attend support group meetings is commendable because he was trying to clean up. Pete was very businesslike on the phone and we got along real well the first year in the sales room. Once Pete moved on over to be my marketing assistant he tried too hard to be just like Claude and that has gotten him into some trouble. There was only room for one Claude at BOS and I think the company would be still up and running had others tried not to imitate him. Pete is also the last one at large that is wanted by the Federal Courts in Dallas.
Pete was a well spoken guy in his late 30’s that had been rejected by the US. Rumor has it he was accused of some trouble and rather than face the penalties of a felony he chose the out clause and flew to the Caribbean before heading to Costa Rica. Whether he was innocent or guilty he never got a chance to find out. Furthermore I heard news in Curacao and in Costa Rica that had him being booted off the island of Curacao. Now Curacao is more peaceful than Costa Rica and to be evicted from that island paradise you would definitely have to perform an act of complete social debauchery. I am no one to judge but the abuse of alcohol and drugs might have been part of the reason for his eviction as Pete hinted towards that in one of our many conversations.
Tom and DD were a nice couple from Arizona and Colorado respectively. I enjoyed their company as they invited me over for dinner frequently and we would be known to take more than a few trips to the local watering holes when I was in town and one memorable trip to the Pacific coast tourist spot of Manuel Antonio. Those two would also save me from the “Barrio Arms” as I would soon move into their three bedroom apartment which Claude paid for. BOS under Claude paid for a lot of apartments and houses around the office to lure good English speaking salesman and workers.
DD was a sweet beautiful young girl in her late twenties that many people would confuse as a local. She was great for getting “the local discounts” with her brown skin and excellent handle of the Spanish language. She got stopped at the Del Rey entrance a few times also. She was well spoken, good sense of humor, responsible drinker, and nice body. Any guy would be lucky to have DD as a girl friend.
Opposites attract as in the case of Tom and DD. Tom was a car salesman. He was a top guy in the BOS sales office. He had no problem converting one call after another into a new customer. Tom was a big burly guy a bit shorter than me with a left hand that George called the mule kick due to its intense power which he enjoyed unleashing playfully into your shoulder. Guys would be flying when they were hit by the mule kick and it had an intense sounding thud to boot. Tom was about 45 years old and his face and body showed the wear and tear of hard drinking and age. Tom was a funny guy, quite sociable and extremely personable. Most everyone liked Tom unless you were on his wrong side of humor; he was great to be around. The last report on Tom had him back to selling cars in Prescott, Arizona. Unfortunately Tom had a short life in Costa Rica as the combination of his love for liquor, the nightlife, and the cheap prices were an ugly combination. His desire to party wasn't bad enough to keep Tom from showing up every morning at 6am, ready to take sales calls which he turned into hundreds of customers a week.
Tom was also the reason for George’s sales office rules which were quite simple yet hilariously effective. Rules of the sales office, “how you show up is how you have to stay, if you’re drunk, stay drunk. If you’re high, stay high. If you’re sober, stay sober”. These rules were adopted after Tom got the shakes so bad he dropped his phone during a sales call. After he dropped the phone he was sent down stairs into the Mall San Pablo for a small vodka bottle and he was just fine after that churning out customers more customers than anyone else in the office. I think Max approved of these rules too cause he was always high. Max always had a high number of sign-ups so the rules were extremely effective. Between Tom and Max they would have been terrible subjects for the study of how weed and alcohol effects office production.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Chapter Two; pages 27-29
Roy bragged a lot, yapping about his athletic exploits, specifically his 46 inch vertical leap in basketball. I think George heard enough and took a handful of giggling sales guys and Roy out to the basketball court with a tape measure. He promptly measured off 46 inches on the basketball hoop pole and put up a piece of tape at the 46 inch mark on the pole than called the short, bald, Jersey boy on his claims.
The look on Roy’s face was priceless. He was staring at the reality of 46 inches straight in the eye, almost, as the tape came up to his chest. He was now very confused and wondering up in that simple brain of his, “how would anyone dare call him out”, after all he was a tough Squirrel from the Royal New Jersey Navy and the world full of Arizona desert yokels, baby faced college boys, and one California sunshine softy presumably would never call out his street toughness. Maybe measuring sticks were not universal and varied between Costa Rica and New Jersey. Roy was backed into a corner like a defenseless mole on rock based ground surrounded by a bunch of laughing hyenas mocking him to scurry away on his stubby little legs. He defended himself as best as he could with dull buck mole teeth to no avail.
Initially, he refused to take a leap of shame by stating that it was stupid, he didn’t need to prove anything to anyone, and it had been a long time since he had jumped. These words of “mole threat” were targeted towards each and every salesman if they didn’t back off. There was no escaping this challenge with George, his immediate superior pressing. Roy looked up into the heavens for either a little help from above or a sudden raging typhoon to save his scrawny self from embarrassment. The little mole was left with only one choice by the laughing hyenas that wanted to see a leap and he took to his first attempt at 46 inches. His first leap was a little bit short of the Spud Webb (former Atlanta Hawk and NBA slam dunk champion at 5’6” in height) exaggerations as he peaked out at a meek 13 inches amidst a mild bunch of snickering onlookers. Guys were laughing as Roy would have tripped over a John Holmes erection. Not to be completely embarrassed Roy started making excuses about stretching and getting a running start. George, although smiling was trying to keep a straight face while offering to help Roy out with his stretches while heckling and laughing was getting into full gear from the hyena like salesmen. After enough egging on the pack of laughing salesmen convinced Roy he needed to take another shot and would be vindicated if he came close. The second leap was significantly greater but a real tear jerker at 19 inches as Roy tried to bend and tuck his knees up under his ass hoping to somehow squeeze out another 33 inches of vertical leap. The laughter was so hard that guys were crying as Roy’s face turned beet red while George lambasted him for trying to cheat his leap by tucking and bending his legs.
Needless to say Roy was soon out of the sales office as he self-deported himself to customer service rather than face a sales staff on a daily basis that was ready to call out any of his other claims as bullshit.
George was great to be around and I figure to maintain contact with him throughout the rest of my life. In a recent meeting at a local watering hole in Costa Rica he shared with me his opinion that the best years for online sports betting were behind us along with other stories of the Costa Rican online gaming lifestyle. Fact is the industry and the lure of Costa Rica brought many celebrities down to BOS over the years. Three prominent members from the cast of “That 70's Show” appeared for the grand opening of the VIP facilities, former “Bay Watch Babe”, Tracey Bingham showed up for the party also. Not that they were gamblers but there were many famous names that bet online with BOS. One celebrity, a prominent world boxing champion partook in one of George’s barbecues and was kind enough to pose for a picture of the big guy (George) knocking him to the ground with a posed right hook. That was some of the high profile fun of Costa Rica but in reality the wild excitement of the early years was behind but the day for turning online gaming into legitimate business will make it greater than before.
Legitimizing the industry means giving back and taxing. I predict than online gaming can be enjoyed by all and it will create programs that will benefit people by giving back some of the profits. I am a firm believer that all business has a responsibility and that responsibility is respect for the consumer. Business is not all about take; you have to or should give back.
George introduced me to one of the most well known night spots in Costa Rica. The Del Rey Hotel a modest hotel with some of the warmest friendliest women you would ever want to meet for a few dollars. I know George will not get into any trouble for me mentioning his venturing over to the local brothel because his girlfriend Lorraine accompanied us to the lovely house of competitive females in their tight provocative clothing, manicured nails, lip gloss, make-up, and more. The funny thing about the Hotel Del Rey is they don’t like letting non-working girls in the door; there were ladies that would accompany us to the Del Rey that were checked for their health cards at the door which kept them at the front door just long enough to convince security that they were not unhealthy evening entertainment but just casual drinkers that were joining their male mates.
Any and every night could be a fun night in Costa Rica which really made the online gaming industry exciting. It was great for socializing too outside of the office with other executives, employees and sales people.
I always wanted to get as much information as possible beyond my personal knowledge on the gaming industry plus just buying a sales guy drinks all night was a great motivator for them to get me the information I needed in regards to getting a good feel for the customers. The information I needed most in the sales room was tracking customers. There was no science to it but basic information about magazines, radio, internet, etc. could lead me in the right direction of what was working and the method used in most call centers was just asking the customer where they heard about BOS. The trick was not to lose the potential gambler with too many questions on the phone because the gambler just wants to set up a betting account he has a game in mind that he wants to jump on immediately and will say anything to get to the part where he deposits money. I understood this and didn’t want to lose a single customer. So a quick answer of magazine, radio, etc. might be the only information a sales representative can get from the in-a-hurry customer that was all too anxious to sign up but didn't have the time to chit chat and give the exact specific about where he heard about BOS. Signing up gamblers for an offshore gaming company was like shooting fish in a barrel for a sales person but the sales person did need to know who he could rush through the sign up and who he could take his time with to get vital information. The sales reps knew that if they got me basic enough information I could figure out enough to know what advertising was working.
The look on Roy’s face was priceless. He was staring at the reality of 46 inches straight in the eye, almost, as the tape came up to his chest. He was now very confused and wondering up in that simple brain of his, “how would anyone dare call him out”, after all he was a tough Squirrel from the Royal New Jersey Navy and the world full of Arizona desert yokels, baby faced college boys, and one California sunshine softy presumably would never call out his street toughness. Maybe measuring sticks were not universal and varied between Costa Rica and New Jersey. Roy was backed into a corner like a defenseless mole on rock based ground surrounded by a bunch of laughing hyenas mocking him to scurry away on his stubby little legs. He defended himself as best as he could with dull buck mole teeth to no avail.
Initially, he refused to take a leap of shame by stating that it was stupid, he didn’t need to prove anything to anyone, and it had been a long time since he had jumped. These words of “mole threat” were targeted towards each and every salesman if they didn’t back off. There was no escaping this challenge with George, his immediate superior pressing. Roy looked up into the heavens for either a little help from above or a sudden raging typhoon to save his scrawny self from embarrassment. The little mole was left with only one choice by the laughing hyenas that wanted to see a leap and he took to his first attempt at 46 inches. His first leap was a little bit short of the Spud Webb (former Atlanta Hawk and NBA slam dunk champion at 5’6” in height) exaggerations as he peaked out at a meek 13 inches amidst a mild bunch of snickering onlookers. Guys were laughing as Roy would have tripped over a John Holmes erection. Not to be completely embarrassed Roy started making excuses about stretching and getting a running start. George, although smiling was trying to keep a straight face while offering to help Roy out with his stretches while heckling and laughing was getting into full gear from the hyena like salesmen. After enough egging on the pack of laughing salesmen convinced Roy he needed to take another shot and would be vindicated if he came close. The second leap was significantly greater but a real tear jerker at 19 inches as Roy tried to bend and tuck his knees up under his ass hoping to somehow squeeze out another 33 inches of vertical leap. The laughter was so hard that guys were crying as Roy’s face turned beet red while George lambasted him for trying to cheat his leap by tucking and bending his legs.
Needless to say Roy was soon out of the sales office as he self-deported himself to customer service rather than face a sales staff on a daily basis that was ready to call out any of his other claims as bullshit.
George was great to be around and I figure to maintain contact with him throughout the rest of my life. In a recent meeting at a local watering hole in Costa Rica he shared with me his opinion that the best years for online sports betting were behind us along with other stories of the Costa Rican online gaming lifestyle. Fact is the industry and the lure of Costa Rica brought many celebrities down to BOS over the years. Three prominent members from the cast of “That 70's Show” appeared for the grand opening of the VIP facilities, former “Bay Watch Babe”, Tracey Bingham showed up for the party also. Not that they were gamblers but there were many famous names that bet online with BOS. One celebrity, a prominent world boxing champion partook in one of George’s barbecues and was kind enough to pose for a picture of the big guy (George) knocking him to the ground with a posed right hook. That was some of the high profile fun of Costa Rica but in reality the wild excitement of the early years was behind but the day for turning online gaming into legitimate business will make it greater than before.
Legitimizing the industry means giving back and taxing. I predict than online gaming can be enjoyed by all and it will create programs that will benefit people by giving back some of the profits. I am a firm believer that all business has a responsibility and that responsibility is respect for the consumer. Business is not all about take; you have to or should give back.
George introduced me to one of the most well known night spots in Costa Rica. The Del Rey Hotel a modest hotel with some of the warmest friendliest women you would ever want to meet for a few dollars. I know George will not get into any trouble for me mentioning his venturing over to the local brothel because his girlfriend Lorraine accompanied us to the lovely house of competitive females in their tight provocative clothing, manicured nails, lip gloss, make-up, and more. The funny thing about the Hotel Del Rey is they don’t like letting non-working girls in the door; there were ladies that would accompany us to the Del Rey that were checked for their health cards at the door which kept them at the front door just long enough to convince security that they were not unhealthy evening entertainment but just casual drinkers that were joining their male mates.
Any and every night could be a fun night in Costa Rica which really made the online gaming industry exciting. It was great for socializing too outside of the office with other executives, employees and sales people.
I always wanted to get as much information as possible beyond my personal knowledge on the gaming industry plus just buying a sales guy drinks all night was a great motivator for them to get me the information I needed in regards to getting a good feel for the customers. The information I needed most in the sales room was tracking customers. There was no science to it but basic information about magazines, radio, internet, etc. could lead me in the right direction of what was working and the method used in most call centers was just asking the customer where they heard about BOS. The trick was not to lose the potential gambler with too many questions on the phone because the gambler just wants to set up a betting account he has a game in mind that he wants to jump on immediately and will say anything to get to the part where he deposits money. I understood this and didn’t want to lose a single customer. So a quick answer of magazine, radio, etc. might be the only information a sales representative can get from the in-a-hurry customer that was all too anxious to sign up but didn't have the time to chit chat and give the exact specific about where he heard about BOS. Signing up gamblers for an offshore gaming company was like shooting fish in a barrel for a sales person but the sales person did need to know who he could rush through the sign up and who he could take his time with to get vital information. The sales reps knew that if they got me basic enough information I could figure out enough to know what advertising was working.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Chapter Two; pages 24-26
As for the customer service room they were really active when the phones were ringing off the hooks with new prospects and gamblers looking to bet as they took the overflow calls from wagering. I am not sure what they did with customer service other than being told to be on the alert for scammers and making sure not to mention any key phrases like “Would you like a payout today sir?” Unfortunately gamblers attract scammers because gamblers sometimes have the money spent before they bet and in the world of offshore gambling they get a bonus when signing up. Some would be so obvious that they would sign up make a few bets and try to cash out which was stated in policy that when getting a bonus one had to play a minimum amount of bets. This was fair otherwise the gamblers could deposit a $1000 leave it at the sports book for a day and withdraw the next day with 10-20% interest. I have always thought that the sports books should dismiss the bonuses and pay that 10-20% in taxes because a government guarantee would carry a lot more weight with customer trust for the foreign businesses.
BOS rarely fired anyone but people might end up never being seen again should a payout be brought up in subject. This is more of a joke than truth because gamblers usually run out of money before they can take a payout combined with BOS never wanting to do a payout, but then again were they really much different from a lot of operations. In the end BOS would neglect payouts and that is what they are rightfully known for by the public.
BOS security was always monitoring the phones. In the words of Claude, “I don't trust anyone”. Even the sales people would be occasionally monitored and guys would be reprimanded for not asking certain questions from the prospects. Fact is more often than not new gamblers wanted to get signed up ASAP to get some money down on a pending game. If you bugged them with too many questions they would get irate and hang up the phone. On the weekends in 2000 the sales office would sign up more than a 1000 people per day with the sales guys never taking breaks going from one phone call to the next like machines. This business was just over the phone sign-ups. More gamblers were signing up over the web. BOS certainly was and exciting and booming with business in 2000.
The two people I dealt with on a daily basis were Shaun K and Claude for marketing. Shaun really didn’t know much about sports like his older cousin and I was rightfully skeptical about the Marketing Director title. Turns out he really didn't know much about advertising and marketing either. He asked a lot of questions and listened which I will admit the Ripner family consisted of excellent listeners but they consistently, and conveniently forgot about payments. Ask any of them for a payment and they would look at you like you were speaking a mixture of the multiple languages of Nigeria. Both Shaun and Claude occasionally jumped on the telephones in the sales room to sign up new customers, where I spent considerable time during my first trip to Costa Rica. Claude loved each and every customer that signed up with his company. What owner wouldn’t? The company was his baby and as a business owner you appreciate everyone that contributes to your project or should. Problem was Claude was terrible on the phone with customers and the sales manager Big George would have to let him know that it wasn’t in his best interest to be in the sales office. The only one worse on the phones was Cousin Shaun.
That first trip to Costa Rica, Shaun would usually be seen running around trying to look busy while it was apparent he was trying to find himself while wearing his standard faded blue jeans, button up un-tucked shirt which was a poor excuse for concealing his belly, and sneakers. Claude meanwhile would be suit and tie from Monday through Friday and would dress down on the weekends. These were the pioneer days of online gaming and the dress code isn’t nearly as professional as it is today with the suits which BOS executives started wearing in 2001.
Shaun seemed to be a regular guy but would be a victim of power. In the early days he would occasionally be seen with the staff out having a drink or carousing at one of the local casinos. I enjoyed being around him although we did have our occasional run in. He was good about picking up checks and for years I harbored a lot of hatred towards Shaun for saying some vicious things to me in lieu of my mother’s eventual death as a reason to not pay me. I assume he was just ordered to do so by the dictatorial cousin, while others tell me he bragged about fucking me over. I’ll still punch him in the mouth if I ever see him before I act cordial.
The sales room was where the personalities resided; Guys that could talk. There were two women that worked in the sales room. The rest of the women that walked through were there to flirt with the men with money. The sales guys were making around $400 - $600 per week based on a grueling six day work schedule which was a good 2-5x more than what the hard working customer service girls were making. The girls from customer service worked real hard on landing a guy in sales that could take them out for a hot meal and night on the town. Heck even Navy Squirrel Roy got lucky from the customer service girls although he would eventually be demoted to customer service himself.
I really liked the sales guys. The sales manager, Big George was a real joy; A big guy with a colorful past where he was a sales manager for a large Arizona car dealership prior to taking time off to relax in Costa Rica. I could see where George had been successful with sales in the past. He made sure you were comfortable from the get go and was very approachable yet knew when and how to take a stand if you were not taking care of your responsibilities. George would come out and socialize every now and then but for the most part he relegated his social life outside of the office to hosting some of the best damn barbecues in Costa Rica along with his blond girlfriend, Lorraine. To this day I make my hamburgers with chopped onion grilled right in the meat!
Lorraine was an extremely sociable stateside transplant to Costa Rica. She didn’t care much for Costa Rica, as I heard her curse the culture more than a few times and longed for her life back in Texas but stood alongside George. She occasionally worked in the sales office lending support to an office that needed more people, especially over the weekend when thousands of calls would be coming in one after another. She appeared to be around 40 and a beautiful woman. Although very classy Lorraine could have a rough Texas edge to her if someone got on her bad side. I was the victim of the bad side once but mostly I enjoyed her stares and verbal lashings as just an onlooker.
George was around 50. Some say he was in his mid-50’s while he claimed late 40’s. Anyway I would go to the gym with George on most mornings and he was probably in better physical shape than anyone at BOS. I would also see him routinely running with his golden Labrador Jake through the smoggy streets of Costa Rica which means he had to have some decent lungs to run in that thick nasty inner city air. He certainly knew his way around a grill and enjoyed sports just as much as myself. That is probably why we got along so well plus he had a great sense of humor and was the first to call Navy Squirrel Roy on his bullshit.
BOS rarely fired anyone but people might end up never being seen again should a payout be brought up in subject. This is more of a joke than truth because gamblers usually run out of money before they can take a payout combined with BOS never wanting to do a payout, but then again were they really much different from a lot of operations. In the end BOS would neglect payouts and that is what they are rightfully known for by the public.
BOS security was always monitoring the phones. In the words of Claude, “I don't trust anyone”. Even the sales people would be occasionally monitored and guys would be reprimanded for not asking certain questions from the prospects. Fact is more often than not new gamblers wanted to get signed up ASAP to get some money down on a pending game. If you bugged them with too many questions they would get irate and hang up the phone. On the weekends in 2000 the sales office would sign up more than a 1000 people per day with the sales guys never taking breaks going from one phone call to the next like machines. This business was just over the phone sign-ups. More gamblers were signing up over the web. BOS certainly was and exciting and booming with business in 2000.
The two people I dealt with on a daily basis were Shaun K and Claude for marketing. Shaun really didn’t know much about sports like his older cousin and I was rightfully skeptical about the Marketing Director title. Turns out he really didn't know much about advertising and marketing either. He asked a lot of questions and listened which I will admit the Ripner family consisted of excellent listeners but they consistently, and conveniently forgot about payments. Ask any of them for a payment and they would look at you like you were speaking a mixture of the multiple languages of Nigeria. Both Shaun and Claude occasionally jumped on the telephones in the sales room to sign up new customers, where I spent considerable time during my first trip to Costa Rica. Claude loved each and every customer that signed up with his company. What owner wouldn’t? The company was his baby and as a business owner you appreciate everyone that contributes to your project or should. Problem was Claude was terrible on the phone with customers and the sales manager Big George would have to let him know that it wasn’t in his best interest to be in the sales office. The only one worse on the phones was Cousin Shaun.
That first trip to Costa Rica, Shaun would usually be seen running around trying to look busy while it was apparent he was trying to find himself while wearing his standard faded blue jeans, button up un-tucked shirt which was a poor excuse for concealing his belly, and sneakers. Claude meanwhile would be suit and tie from Monday through Friday and would dress down on the weekends. These were the pioneer days of online gaming and the dress code isn’t nearly as professional as it is today with the suits which BOS executives started wearing in 2001.
Shaun seemed to be a regular guy but would be a victim of power. In the early days he would occasionally be seen with the staff out having a drink or carousing at one of the local casinos. I enjoyed being around him although we did have our occasional run in. He was good about picking up checks and for years I harbored a lot of hatred towards Shaun for saying some vicious things to me in lieu of my mother’s eventual death as a reason to not pay me. I assume he was just ordered to do so by the dictatorial cousin, while others tell me he bragged about fucking me over. I’ll still punch him in the mouth if I ever see him before I act cordial.
The sales room was where the personalities resided; Guys that could talk. There were two women that worked in the sales room. The rest of the women that walked through were there to flirt with the men with money. The sales guys were making around $400 - $600 per week based on a grueling six day work schedule which was a good 2-5x more than what the hard working customer service girls were making. The girls from customer service worked real hard on landing a guy in sales that could take them out for a hot meal and night on the town. Heck even Navy Squirrel Roy got lucky from the customer service girls although he would eventually be demoted to customer service himself.
I really liked the sales guys. The sales manager, Big George was a real joy; A big guy with a colorful past where he was a sales manager for a large Arizona car dealership prior to taking time off to relax in Costa Rica. I could see where George had been successful with sales in the past. He made sure you were comfortable from the get go and was very approachable yet knew when and how to take a stand if you were not taking care of your responsibilities. George would come out and socialize every now and then but for the most part he relegated his social life outside of the office to hosting some of the best damn barbecues in Costa Rica along with his blond girlfriend, Lorraine. To this day I make my hamburgers with chopped onion grilled right in the meat!
Lorraine was an extremely sociable stateside transplant to Costa Rica. She didn’t care much for Costa Rica, as I heard her curse the culture more than a few times and longed for her life back in Texas but stood alongside George. She occasionally worked in the sales office lending support to an office that needed more people, especially over the weekend when thousands of calls would be coming in one after another. She appeared to be around 40 and a beautiful woman. Although very classy Lorraine could have a rough Texas edge to her if someone got on her bad side. I was the victim of the bad side once but mostly I enjoyed her stares and verbal lashings as just an onlooker.
George was around 50. Some say he was in his mid-50’s while he claimed late 40’s. Anyway I would go to the gym with George on most mornings and he was probably in better physical shape than anyone at BOS. I would also see him routinely running with his golden Labrador Jake through the smoggy streets of Costa Rica which means he had to have some decent lungs to run in that thick nasty inner city air. He certainly knew his way around a grill and enjoyed sports just as much as myself. That is probably why we got along so well plus he had a great sense of humor and was the first to call Navy Squirrel Roy on his bullshit.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Chapter Two pages 21-23
Based on Claude’s actions one would assume he was a mobster. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, chances are it’s a duck. Claude had the body guards, the money, and allegedly enough fake passports to get anywhere in the world. He had his goons, ran a sports book and dabbled in pharmaceuticals with a call center in Trinidad. Rumor had it he also had numerous girls on the side but by the way he worked I just don’t see where he could find the time. In my opinion he was a mobster because he didn't just look the part. It’s who he is! Then again I could be wrong, I didn’t see everything and Claude certainly didn’t show everything, he was exceptionally private.
The word and signature of Claude was worthless as renegotiating was part of his every day diction, upon one of my first phone conversations with Mr. Ripner he said “he had never, not paid anyone that he owed”. I think the double negative in that statement gave Claude the idea that he was true to his words. I am not sure if he was Claude or one of his many aliases that included “C”, Clyde Rose, or Charlie Victory when he made that ridiculous statement. Fact is he paid a lot of people what he owed them but would also neglect on a number of large debts. The standard practice of negotiating on a large debt which I heard from Shaun K. was “How about if we send you $10,000? It's $10,000 more than what you had when you were introduced to BOS”. That's a nice thought but the problem is when debts are $40,000, $150,000, and $500,000 the offer wasn't too nice so most people owed were not happy with that negotiation, so than BOS would give you the alternative, which was nothing. It’s tough to negotiate with a company that hides behind international borders to default on payments.
Everything I admired about Claude seemed to be an illusion and what you thought was commendable, ultimately you would have to question. He wasn’t an easy man to figure out and he wanted it that way. His admirable qualities also had limitations and stipulations that you never would be aware of until after the fact. He worked hard. Indeed he worked like 10 men but he worked hard on not paying me and was he doing that to others? He was an innovative marketer. The only thing innovative about Claude’s marketing prowess was how he was the first to put his name on other people’s ideas that he promised to pay. Before I got to BOS, they were head and shoulders above the competition in the world of print advertising, I wonder if he took anyone there for a ride? He took a lot of risks with his money that paid off in marketing. Again he would never give anyone the full amount and would use the excuse of the media not working for him to default on payment. Clear Channel in Los Angeles and San Diego were victimized by non-payment of approximately $100,000 in 2000. Claude was a great negotiator. This one is almost true; as mentioned he would use international borders to back out of a deal once the deal was agreed so he knew he had nothing to lose. He was a great listener. I knew I would find something definitive if I thought long enough. He was an excellent listener, although he would never admit that at times when he would say he didn’t hear you request payment for services. His ears performed a biological shutdown when you mentioned a date for deadline and payment. I know he was a great listener because he listened intently to many of my ideas which he would enact. Only problem with my ideas was……. they were my ideas. So usually within 24 hours of hearing a good idea he would put the Claude Ripner stamp of originality on an idea as his own. I didn’t care as long as I was to be paid.
Other parts of the tour included the wagering room which was a great white room with white tiles, white ceiling, white floor, white cubicle desks and black chairs for the betting clerks. Talk about bland. If nothing else it kept the workforce focused on just taking bets. I didn’t venture into the betting room too often but when I did, there were a few managers all over the workers. A lot of the managers were US rejects that enjoyed the power trip of getting to tell shy little young girls and boys what to do. The only thing I would have added to this room would have been padded walls with optional strait jackets for the wager clerks once they entered the room. Just give them a phone headset to speak broken English to the customers and a pencil they could hold with their teeth for pushing buttons on the computers to log into players accounts and input their betting action. The BOS betting room was the room for no individualism.
Claude would later comment to me that he paid his workers better than the average Costa Rican. This was true but he was comparing apples to oranges when comparing his workers to fast food burger flippers as he paid less than his competition. With the millions he was making the workers were lucky to get around $3 an hour while competitors in the same building were getting $5 per hour. The wagering clerks seemed to take on the look of the owner. No smiles, just businesslike, expressionless faces staring at their monitors and being watched upon like little children should they make too much conversation when they were to be sitting and waiting for the next sports bet. I would later compare this to the wager clerks in Curacao that were happy jovial people. It was a positive atmosphere in Curacao and the clerks were getting around $10 per hour. Same could be said for the operation down on the 6th floor at Infinity Sports Book and Casino where the very professional upbeat, best damn owner in the offshore gaming industry! Chuck Bauer took great care of his workers.
Unlike most wagering rooms that I have visited over the years BOS needed to restrict the idle conversation because it was so large with a few hundred wager clerks on duty during busy times. Too much idle chat and the wager clerks would have undoubtedly made more mistakes with an individual’s bets that would be rectified but would irritate the anxious gambler who usually calls in just seconds before his game is about to get started.
The next room was the customer service office and this was a little bit more upbeat room with boys and girls flirting amongst each other led by the customer service manager, Keith. I was impartial with Keith and upon formally meeting with him I noticed he was the reserved fellow on the elevator I met while first entering the BOS offices who had very little to say. I didn't trust him. I socialized with him and on the lighter side I believe he took cheap to a new level. I could safely assume he made his local Costa Rican dates making $3 an hour go Dutch on dates. I also suspected Keith of having a casting couch somewhere in the Mall San Pablo because he always seemed to be with the new female employees while going out on the town. Not sure if it was easier for him to meet women when he was there direct superior or if it was just a cost savings because I never saw him in any of the cat houses. I rarely hung out with him socially but when I did he was nowhere to be found when it was his turn to buy the round or he would just stare blankly hoping no one would notice him while he became the invisible drinker.
The word and signature of Claude was worthless as renegotiating was part of his every day diction, upon one of my first phone conversations with Mr. Ripner he said “he had never, not paid anyone that he owed”. I think the double negative in that statement gave Claude the idea that he was true to his words. I am not sure if he was Claude or one of his many aliases that included “C”, Clyde Rose, or Charlie Victory when he made that ridiculous statement. Fact is he paid a lot of people what he owed them but would also neglect on a number of large debts. The standard practice of negotiating on a large debt which I heard from Shaun K. was “How about if we send you $10,000? It's $10,000 more than what you had when you were introduced to BOS”. That's a nice thought but the problem is when debts are $40,000, $150,000, and $500,000 the offer wasn't too nice so most people owed were not happy with that negotiation, so than BOS would give you the alternative, which was nothing. It’s tough to negotiate with a company that hides behind international borders to default on payments.
Everything I admired about Claude seemed to be an illusion and what you thought was commendable, ultimately you would have to question. He wasn’t an easy man to figure out and he wanted it that way. His admirable qualities also had limitations and stipulations that you never would be aware of until after the fact. He worked hard. Indeed he worked like 10 men but he worked hard on not paying me and was he doing that to others? He was an innovative marketer. The only thing innovative about Claude’s marketing prowess was how he was the first to put his name on other people’s ideas that he promised to pay. Before I got to BOS, they were head and shoulders above the competition in the world of print advertising, I wonder if he took anyone there for a ride? He took a lot of risks with his money that paid off in marketing. Again he would never give anyone the full amount and would use the excuse of the media not working for him to default on payment. Clear Channel in Los Angeles and San Diego were victimized by non-payment of approximately $100,000 in 2000. Claude was a great negotiator. This one is almost true; as mentioned he would use international borders to back out of a deal once the deal was agreed so he knew he had nothing to lose. He was a great listener. I knew I would find something definitive if I thought long enough. He was an excellent listener, although he would never admit that at times when he would say he didn’t hear you request payment for services. His ears performed a biological shutdown when you mentioned a date for deadline and payment. I know he was a great listener because he listened intently to many of my ideas which he would enact. Only problem with my ideas was……. they were my ideas. So usually within 24 hours of hearing a good idea he would put the Claude Ripner stamp of originality on an idea as his own. I didn’t care as long as I was to be paid.
Other parts of the tour included the wagering room which was a great white room with white tiles, white ceiling, white floor, white cubicle desks and black chairs for the betting clerks. Talk about bland. If nothing else it kept the workforce focused on just taking bets. I didn’t venture into the betting room too often but when I did, there were a few managers all over the workers. A lot of the managers were US rejects that enjoyed the power trip of getting to tell shy little young girls and boys what to do. The only thing I would have added to this room would have been padded walls with optional strait jackets for the wager clerks once they entered the room. Just give them a phone headset to speak broken English to the customers and a pencil they could hold with their teeth for pushing buttons on the computers to log into players accounts and input their betting action. The BOS betting room was the room for no individualism.
Claude would later comment to me that he paid his workers better than the average Costa Rican. This was true but he was comparing apples to oranges when comparing his workers to fast food burger flippers as he paid less than his competition. With the millions he was making the workers were lucky to get around $3 an hour while competitors in the same building were getting $5 per hour. The wagering clerks seemed to take on the look of the owner. No smiles, just businesslike, expressionless faces staring at their monitors and being watched upon like little children should they make too much conversation when they were to be sitting and waiting for the next sports bet. I would later compare this to the wager clerks in Curacao that were happy jovial people. It was a positive atmosphere in Curacao and the clerks were getting around $10 per hour. Same could be said for the operation down on the 6th floor at Infinity Sports Book and Casino where the very professional upbeat, best damn owner in the offshore gaming industry! Chuck Bauer took great care of his workers.
Unlike most wagering rooms that I have visited over the years BOS needed to restrict the idle conversation because it was so large with a few hundred wager clerks on duty during busy times. Too much idle chat and the wager clerks would have undoubtedly made more mistakes with an individual’s bets that would be rectified but would irritate the anxious gambler who usually calls in just seconds before his game is about to get started.
The next room was the customer service office and this was a little bit more upbeat room with boys and girls flirting amongst each other led by the customer service manager, Keith. I was impartial with Keith and upon formally meeting with him I noticed he was the reserved fellow on the elevator I met while first entering the BOS offices who had very little to say. I didn't trust him. I socialized with him and on the lighter side I believe he took cheap to a new level. I could safely assume he made his local Costa Rican dates making $3 an hour go Dutch on dates. I also suspected Keith of having a casting couch somewhere in the Mall San Pablo because he always seemed to be with the new female employees while going out on the town. Not sure if it was easier for him to meet women when he was there direct superior or if it was just a cost savings because I never saw him in any of the cat houses. I rarely hung out with him socially but when I did he was nowhere to be found when it was his turn to buy the round or he would just stare blankly hoping no one would notice him while he became the invisible drinker.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Chapter Two; pages 18-21
My first roommate, Roy was a wonderful bullshitter from the get go, within the first 15 minutes of meeting, this clown informed me that he played minor league baseball in Puerto Rico after a standout career as a shortstop in college before managing to squeeze in some time to be a Navy Seal. I played enough baseball to start asking specific questions that Roy realized avoiding me would be in his best interest to cover up his tracks of re-inventing his life. Also there are no minor league baseball teams in Puerto Rico, plus you have to have some athletic ability to play it’s a bit more complex then get your mother’s permission from his assumed Little League playing days. I figured BOS owed someone a favor, or this was one screwed up company bringing aboard the poster child for the offspring of women that perform in the Tijuana donkey shows. Roy was a short, bald, stocky guy, in mid-twenties with a thick New Jersey accent. He would try to bust my balls for his lack of height saying if he was 6’4” instead of 5’5” (with platform heels) he would be playing NBA basketball with his 46 inch vertical leap. Out of respect for the NBA, Roy lacked height, brains, and talent. Our relationship was much like a Chihuahua and a St. Bernard, I rarely ever acknowledged his yapping but would occasionally show some teeth, letting him know to steer clear before I lift my leg to cool him off. Poor Roy would find out that the rest of the sales offices wasn't impressed by his stories either and would call him out on his bullshit and be the butt of a lot of jokes in sales. I enjoyed the hilarious manner which only a bunch of salesmen with too much time on their hands in a foreign country could devise.
Well a couple of days after hanging out in that smelly roach infested apartment, Navy Seal, sports jock extraordinaire Roy got robbed by petty thieves in Costa Rica. I don’t mean to demean Ticos (name for Costa Rican males) but they are generally rather short and skinny in stature. I am befuddled on how they overpowered the finest that the US Navy has to offer. So from here on out I must refer to the newest Naval program which I think Roy meant, The Navy Squirrels. I think it was also the New Jersey Pond Navy where Roy was all by himself in a floating tub like Beaver Cleaver and Whitey constructed in the 1960’s sitcom “Leave it to Beaver”.
So far not a very good impression for a self proclaimed first class organization but I stuck it out since I was envisioning the bigger picture of presenting the strategies I drew up in 1999 of revolutionizing the way online gaming advertises through consolidation and BOS was the heavyweight champ of all online sports books in 2000.
After taking my nap at the “Barrio Arms” where I rarely slept, my first official impression of BetOnSports was a bunch of non-social unhappy employees (with the exception of the sales office) on the 9th and 10th floors of the Mall San Pablo in San Jose, Costa Rica. BOS was a huge operation with a couple thousand employees that drove plenty of revenue into the mall and supported jobs of more than just the employees. The mall business was nicely subsidized by the workers of the 6th through 10th floors which were full of sports book employees. The tour of the top two floors led off with going through the security door and past the armed guards with sawed off shot guns. Talk about tough looking. Scary part was the guys with he shot guns probably didn’t even know how to use them other than to just hold them. I imagine they weren’t loaded or at least hope they wouldn’t be. After the armed guards the tour included executive offices, the VIP room, wager room, customer service room, sales office, and Claude’s office. His first office was a dimly lit large corner office with fine furniture, a beautiful grand mahogany desk, bathroom off to the side and burgundy painted walls. Behind his black leather chair was a view of the lush green Costa Rican mountains and a framed poster of “Poverty Sucks” to his right with a gentleman sipping a martini. It was a beautiful office. The type of office reserved for the very successful. The VIP room/board room one floor down where Claude spent a lot of time was equally impressive with more beautiful mountain views, fine furniture and occasional Ripner family members with Claude’s son and daughter running around. Just like any other father he loved his children and they got special treatment with toys lying around both offices. The toys lying around were rather humorous I thought. It’s too bad because for all of Claude’s greed those children might have to grow up without a father around.
Claude had an image. He looked like a gangster, a big stocky man, over 6 feet tall with the receding hairline, strong handshake, square jaw, serious scowl and a thick New York accent with bodyguards accompanying him everywhere. A lot of guys said that Claude was one guy they would not want to tangle with. I on the other hand believe the bodyguards were for his own protection because in retrospect I believe he stole a lot from others that wanted redemption. Rumor had it, before I showed up a syndicate beat Claude for over a million dollars and rather than pay up he made up some new rules that prohibited professional players from playing. The syndicate, not being too happy sent a few guys down to Costa Rica to collect and Claude’s body guards threw them a beating dumping them out in the fields outside the mall in a bloody mess. Guys like Claude need to protect themselves cause there is always going to be someone that is going to come looking for them when you continually steal, default on a contract, or make up a new rules for his customers that benefited him after the fact. He was vicious and didn’t care who he stepped on!
On the flip side Claude was a damn good business man or thief, I am not quite sure which one though. He's the 2nd greatest thief I have ever known. Biggest thief for sure considering the mass of wealth he accumulated. The greatest thief I know retired before turning 40 and went into legitimate business. I think that is the key to being a good thief. Amass your wealth than do everything you can to go legitimate because you’re flirting with time when it comes to stealing. Claude just never could get enough and went well into his 40's stealing as if he would never get caught.
Well a couple of days after hanging out in that smelly roach infested apartment, Navy Seal, sports jock extraordinaire Roy got robbed by petty thieves in Costa Rica. I don’t mean to demean Ticos (name for Costa Rican males) but they are generally rather short and skinny in stature. I am befuddled on how they overpowered the finest that the US Navy has to offer. So from here on out I must refer to the newest Naval program which I think Roy meant, The Navy Squirrels. I think it was also the New Jersey Pond Navy where Roy was all by himself in a floating tub like Beaver Cleaver and Whitey constructed in the 1960’s sitcom “Leave it to Beaver”.
So far not a very good impression for a self proclaimed first class organization but I stuck it out since I was envisioning the bigger picture of presenting the strategies I drew up in 1999 of revolutionizing the way online gaming advertises through consolidation and BOS was the heavyweight champ of all online sports books in 2000.
After taking my nap at the “Barrio Arms” where I rarely slept, my first official impression of BetOnSports was a bunch of non-social unhappy employees (with the exception of the sales office) on the 9th and 10th floors of the Mall San Pablo in San Jose, Costa Rica. BOS was a huge operation with a couple thousand employees that drove plenty of revenue into the mall and supported jobs of more than just the employees. The mall business was nicely subsidized by the workers of the 6th through 10th floors which were full of sports book employees. The tour of the top two floors led off with going through the security door and past the armed guards with sawed off shot guns. Talk about tough looking. Scary part was the guys with he shot guns probably didn’t even know how to use them other than to just hold them. I imagine they weren’t loaded or at least hope they wouldn’t be. After the armed guards the tour included executive offices, the VIP room, wager room, customer service room, sales office, and Claude’s office. His first office was a dimly lit large corner office with fine furniture, a beautiful grand mahogany desk, bathroom off to the side and burgundy painted walls. Behind his black leather chair was a view of the lush green Costa Rican mountains and a framed poster of “Poverty Sucks” to his right with a gentleman sipping a martini. It was a beautiful office. The type of office reserved for the very successful. The VIP room/board room one floor down where Claude spent a lot of time was equally impressive with more beautiful mountain views, fine furniture and occasional Ripner family members with Claude’s son and daughter running around. Just like any other father he loved his children and they got special treatment with toys lying around both offices. The toys lying around were rather humorous I thought. It’s too bad because for all of Claude’s greed those children might have to grow up without a father around.
Claude had an image. He looked like a gangster, a big stocky man, over 6 feet tall with the receding hairline, strong handshake, square jaw, serious scowl and a thick New York accent with bodyguards accompanying him everywhere. A lot of guys said that Claude was one guy they would not want to tangle with. I on the other hand believe the bodyguards were for his own protection because in retrospect I believe he stole a lot from others that wanted redemption. Rumor had it, before I showed up a syndicate beat Claude for over a million dollars and rather than pay up he made up some new rules that prohibited professional players from playing. The syndicate, not being too happy sent a few guys down to Costa Rica to collect and Claude’s body guards threw them a beating dumping them out in the fields outside the mall in a bloody mess. Guys like Claude need to protect themselves cause there is always going to be someone that is going to come looking for them when you continually steal, default on a contract, or make up a new rules for his customers that benefited him after the fact. He was vicious and didn’t care who he stepped on!
On the flip side Claude was a damn good business man or thief, I am not quite sure which one though. He's the 2nd greatest thief I have ever known. Biggest thief for sure considering the mass of wealth he accumulated. The greatest thief I know retired before turning 40 and went into legitimate business. I think that is the key to being a good thief. Amass your wealth than do everything you can to go legitimate because you’re flirting with time when it comes to stealing. Claude just never could get enough and went well into his 40's stealing as if he would never get caught.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Chapter Two; pages 16-18/150
Chapter Two
Costa Rica
I showed up at the San Jose International Airport compliments of a coach flight which I upgraded to first class during August of 2000. After dealing with a relatively short line at customs I grabbed my bags and walked outside where I was met by a young, local, BOS employee holding up a placard with my name on it. The local kid appearing to be in his early 20's assisted me with my bags, escorting me to a tiny little red Toyota. It wasn't exactly limousine service to the offices of BOS but who was I to complain? This wasn't my country and most of the cars appeared to be small, red Toyotas anyway. I tried to make conversation with the driver on this drizzling day as he drove me down a simplistic highway system winding through lush green hills with giant billboard advertisements, and numerous brown skinned locals along the side of the highway that lasted for about 5 miles. Once the highway ended we continued through more residential neighborhoods with pot hole filled streets where we seemed to hit every other one. The ride was bumpy and the weather was rather gloomy that morning and all I wanted to do was take a nap after flying all night from Los Angeles with a pit stop in Houston. The driver was very courteous asking if I wanted to grab anything to eat. Since I had never been to Costa Rica before I asked him what was good and he rattled the names off of numerous fast food American places from Burger King to Subway which was not too exciting to me. We finally pulled up onto a very narrow street. Once I got out of the car I was quickly side swiped in the arm by the rear view mirror of a passing car. It was immediately apparent to me that the pedestrian does not have the right of way in Costa Rica and would notice more than the normal amount of people missing and arm from hanging it out the window of a car which is not advisable.
From the car we walked across a rather busy 6 lane street with a divider in the middle past a bunch of exhaust pumping buses to a giant mall, The Mall San Pablo. That day it seemed a little bit dangerous after being side swiped by a car but over the course of the years to follow, I have crossed that street with relative ease. It's just a matter of getting used to the locals and their non-nonchalant use of brakes.
My first visit to BOS was very brief and uneventful with a slow ride up an elevator that seemed to take forever. Up to the 10th floor I went in the Mall San Pablo and waited in the glass enclosed lobby outside of three elevators with the BetOnSports logo nicely painted on the glass. Inside the lobby, three beautiful young receptionists greeted me as if I were a plague when I requested to see Shaun Kelly or Shaun K. as he was referred to. Not quite sure these beauties understood the importance of me walking into those offices. But then again when you’re making $2-3 an hour, doing your nails is probably a higher priority and my first impression probably wasn't all that great after flying all night in my relaxed wardrobe. My flight wardrobe consisted of a purple warm-up suit fitted for Bruce Smith of the Buffalo Bills. Or at least that is what I was told when a good buddy of mine who worked for Smith's agent in Southern California gave them to me as a gift. Finally Shaun came out to get me. Shaun was a short frumpy man with a boyish face and a voice so dry that one had to wonder if the guy ever drank water. His wardrobe was worse than mine with a pair of faded blue jeans, sneakers, and a button down shirt that looked like it just came from the Ralph Furley collection*. I had done 90% of my correspondence with BOS since Caroline had called me that spring through Shaun, and he was the “Marketing Director”. I would also find out that nepotism existed as he was Claude’s cousin.
Over time I would find out that Shaun was a devious virus who seemed desperate to impress his older cousin, making unwise decisions including making numerous braggart statements of how he “fucked over people”. His leadership sent the message to others in the company that the malicious treatment of others was ok. This type of behavior is very unsettling for an industry that is trying to gain trust with the public that it depends upon.
Shaun welcomed me to Costa Rica and suggested I take my bags to a very nice apartment they had set up for me and then return to the offices and he would give me the tour of the place.
I thought it was very nice of BOS to try to make me feel at home. I didn't know I was going through a time warp, back to my early 20's with a roommate and an apartment with third hand furniture just like the early college years. That's right; the biggest and most well known offshore sports book in the industry back in 2000 spared no expenses for their advertising representative in the states and put me up at “Barrio Terrace”. This was certainly different from any business trip I had ever taken before; if the company offered to bring you to their location they paid for first class accommodations not a pink stucco, roach infested apartment with barbed wire on top of the iron gated fence. To this day outside of Costa Rica I have only seen one other residence similar to this one that is located just off of the northbound 110 Harbor Freeway at the Normandy exit right down the street from where the 1992 Los Angeles riots erupted. I also found out very soon that I was on the roommate plan with a lost soul for a roommate. I would find out later from another ad guy that BOS provided these accommodations for everyone they invited down to Costa Rica. When BOS said it was classy they were right, too bad it was 3rd class.
Costa Rica
I showed up at the San Jose International Airport compliments of a coach flight which I upgraded to first class during August of 2000. After dealing with a relatively short line at customs I grabbed my bags and walked outside where I was met by a young, local, BOS employee holding up a placard with my name on it. The local kid appearing to be in his early 20's assisted me with my bags, escorting me to a tiny little red Toyota. It wasn't exactly limousine service to the offices of BOS but who was I to complain? This wasn't my country and most of the cars appeared to be small, red Toyotas anyway. I tried to make conversation with the driver on this drizzling day as he drove me down a simplistic highway system winding through lush green hills with giant billboard advertisements, and numerous brown skinned locals along the side of the highway that lasted for about 5 miles. Once the highway ended we continued through more residential neighborhoods with pot hole filled streets where we seemed to hit every other one. The ride was bumpy and the weather was rather gloomy that morning and all I wanted to do was take a nap after flying all night from Los Angeles with a pit stop in Houston. The driver was very courteous asking if I wanted to grab anything to eat. Since I had never been to Costa Rica before I asked him what was good and he rattled the names off of numerous fast food American places from Burger King to Subway which was not too exciting to me. We finally pulled up onto a very narrow street. Once I got out of the car I was quickly side swiped in the arm by the rear view mirror of a passing car. It was immediately apparent to me that the pedestrian does not have the right of way in Costa Rica and would notice more than the normal amount of people missing and arm from hanging it out the window of a car which is not advisable.
From the car we walked across a rather busy 6 lane street with a divider in the middle past a bunch of exhaust pumping buses to a giant mall, The Mall San Pablo. That day it seemed a little bit dangerous after being side swiped by a car but over the course of the years to follow, I have crossed that street with relative ease. It's just a matter of getting used to the locals and their non-nonchalant use of brakes.
My first visit to BOS was very brief and uneventful with a slow ride up an elevator that seemed to take forever. Up to the 10th floor I went in the Mall San Pablo and waited in the glass enclosed lobby outside of three elevators with the BetOnSports logo nicely painted on the glass. Inside the lobby, three beautiful young receptionists greeted me as if I were a plague when I requested to see Shaun Kelly or Shaun K. as he was referred to. Not quite sure these beauties understood the importance of me walking into those offices. But then again when you’re making $2-3 an hour, doing your nails is probably a higher priority and my first impression probably wasn't all that great after flying all night in my relaxed wardrobe. My flight wardrobe consisted of a purple warm-up suit fitted for Bruce Smith of the Buffalo Bills. Or at least that is what I was told when a good buddy of mine who worked for Smith's agent in Southern California gave them to me as a gift. Finally Shaun came out to get me. Shaun was a short frumpy man with a boyish face and a voice so dry that one had to wonder if the guy ever drank water. His wardrobe was worse than mine with a pair of faded blue jeans, sneakers, and a button down shirt that looked like it just came from the Ralph Furley collection*. I had done 90% of my correspondence with BOS since Caroline had called me that spring through Shaun, and he was the “Marketing Director”. I would also find out that nepotism existed as he was Claude’s cousin.
Over time I would find out that Shaun was a devious virus who seemed desperate to impress his older cousin, making unwise decisions including making numerous braggart statements of how he “fucked over people”. His leadership sent the message to others in the company that the malicious treatment of others was ok. This type of behavior is very unsettling for an industry that is trying to gain trust with the public that it depends upon.
Shaun welcomed me to Costa Rica and suggested I take my bags to a very nice apartment they had set up for me and then return to the offices and he would give me the tour of the place.
I thought it was very nice of BOS to try to make me feel at home. I didn't know I was going through a time warp, back to my early 20's with a roommate and an apartment with third hand furniture just like the early college years. That's right; the biggest and most well known offshore sports book in the industry back in 2000 spared no expenses for their advertising representative in the states and put me up at “Barrio Terrace”. This was certainly different from any business trip I had ever taken before; if the company offered to bring you to their location they paid for first class accommodations not a pink stucco, roach infested apartment with barbed wire on top of the iron gated fence. To this day outside of Costa Rica I have only seen one other residence similar to this one that is located just off of the northbound 110 Harbor Freeway at the Normandy exit right down the street from where the 1992 Los Angeles riots erupted. I also found out very soon that I was on the roommate plan with a lost soul for a roommate. I would find out later from another ad guy that BOS provided these accommodations for everyone they invited down to Costa Rica. When BOS said it was classy they were right, too bad it was 3rd class.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Chapter One pages 11-14/150
I left the Patton Marketing Firm that winter due to my mother’s battle with cancer. I really needed to be closer to her in New Mexico. After all you only have one mother and there were other places to work. I moved out west and was living with the parents temporarily when I decided to start up my own advertising agency. My plan was to do the same things I had done in Michigan with a focus on this relatively new and unknown industry of offshore/online gaming that appeared to have an abundance of disposable cash and not many agencies were familiar with the industry. That made picking up new accounts much easier too. My first account I landed for my own firm was Royal Sports and the marketing director of the time Marty Monroe taught me some very valuable basic lessons on the industry.
1. Gambling is the 2nd oldest profession known to humankind. There is a big piece of pie out there; No sense getting greedy just enjoy your share. He also lightheartedly threw in a joke about pie and the oldest profession known to mankind. Marty has an enjoyable great sense of humor.
2. Be Honest, because the industry was too easy since gaming is a proven form of generating revenue and you are in it for the long haul.
I follow these fundamentals today with regards to advertising for online gaming; although I did have to make some adjustments. Because the industry is so young it has or had a responsibility of being a good citizen, which means pay your bills on time! Obey the rules of advertising and give back to the communities that support you, which means, making donations to various programs/charities in the markets that we targeted to benefit people. Royal was great about charities and sponsored a world champion Little League Team among other programs on the island of Curacao.
Literally a couple of days after landing the account with Royal Sports I got a call from Claude’s assistant Caroline. She requested that I get BOS into about 7 publications that they were having difficulty with. I had a good way with people and out of the seven magazines that had rejected BOS I got agreements with 3 of them to take the advertising. The publications included Men’s Health, Esquire and Departures magazine. One thing about Claude he was a brutal negotiator and paid bottom dollar for every publication that took BOS advertising. He ended up balking at Esquire and Departures because they would not budge off of their rate card discounts.
That left my only remaining agreement with the western regional sales manager Richard Beach, for Men’s Health Magazine. With the verbal approval of Shaun Kelly, the marketing director and Claude’s signature, the Men's Health deal was signed for $85,000 per issue. At the time I had moved permanently back to Los Angeles and was taking full advantage of the media professionals in the city. Men’s Health would not go smooth at all. It was just a bad business decision to run 3 spreads and after the first month when results were not coming in BOS defaulted on the 3rd payment as the 2nd issue had already been printed and paid for. Ironically, the spread in Men's Health cost the same as Sports Illustrated, only difference was the shelf life as readers of both magazines tended to spend the same amount of time per each issue. I also notice Claude lacked understanding of the branding process which was necessary for Men’s Health to succeed for his company. Claude wanted immediate responses like most impatient business owners and Men’s Health was not the right media. Claude really wasn’t too different then most business owners in this respect that they want quick responses but he was different in that he ran a giant company which had grown very fast. For Men’s Health to succeed there needed to be a long term commitment. Personally I was never big on Men’s Health or print for that matter for online gaming but sometimes you just have to appease the man with the money and I had yet to prove myself. My preference for media at the time was radio. Radio was more proactive and better for direct response but the magazines were easier to comprehend for BOS ownership. Part of the deal for getting into the Men’s Health was BOS wanted to fly me down to Costa Rica during August of 2000 so I could familiarize myself with their operations. I ended up volunteering to work in the sales office to get familiar with the operations and my knowledge of electronic media caught Claude’s attention as we would soon revolutionize the focus for BOS from print to electronic media.
1. Gambling is the 2nd oldest profession known to humankind. There is a big piece of pie out there; No sense getting greedy just enjoy your share. He also lightheartedly threw in a joke about pie and the oldest profession known to mankind. Marty has an enjoyable great sense of humor.
2. Be Honest, because the industry was too easy since gaming is a proven form of generating revenue and you are in it for the long haul.
I follow these fundamentals today with regards to advertising for online gaming; although I did have to make some adjustments. Because the industry is so young it has or had a responsibility of being a good citizen, which means pay your bills on time! Obey the rules of advertising and give back to the communities that support you, which means, making donations to various programs/charities in the markets that we targeted to benefit people. Royal was great about charities and sponsored a world champion Little League Team among other programs on the island of Curacao.
Literally a couple of days after landing the account with Royal Sports I got a call from Claude’s assistant Caroline. She requested that I get BOS into about 7 publications that they were having difficulty with. I had a good way with people and out of the seven magazines that had rejected BOS I got agreements with 3 of them to take the advertising. The publications included Men’s Health, Esquire and Departures magazine. One thing about Claude he was a brutal negotiator and paid bottom dollar for every publication that took BOS advertising. He ended up balking at Esquire and Departures because they would not budge off of their rate card discounts.
That left my only remaining agreement with the western regional sales manager Richard Beach, for Men’s Health Magazine. With the verbal approval of Shaun Kelly, the marketing director and Claude’s signature, the Men's Health deal was signed for $85,000 per issue. At the time I had moved permanently back to Los Angeles and was taking full advantage of the media professionals in the city. Men’s Health would not go smooth at all. It was just a bad business decision to run 3 spreads and after the first month when results were not coming in BOS defaulted on the 3rd payment as the 2nd issue had already been printed and paid for. Ironically, the spread in Men's Health cost the same as Sports Illustrated, only difference was the shelf life as readers of both magazines tended to spend the same amount of time per each issue. I also notice Claude lacked understanding of the branding process which was necessary for Men’s Health to succeed for his company. Claude wanted immediate responses like most impatient business owners and Men’s Health was not the right media. Claude really wasn’t too different then most business owners in this respect that they want quick responses but he was different in that he ran a giant company which had grown very fast. For Men’s Health to succeed there needed to be a long term commitment. Personally I was never big on Men’s Health or print for that matter for online gaming but sometimes you just have to appease the man with the money and I had yet to prove myself. My preference for media at the time was radio. Radio was more proactive and better for direct response but the magazines were easier to comprehend for BOS ownership. Part of the deal for getting into the Men’s Health was BOS wanted to fly me down to Costa Rica during August of 2000 so I could familiarize myself with their operations. I ended up volunteering to work in the sales office to get familiar with the operations and my knowledge of electronic media caught Claude’s attention as we would soon revolutionize the focus for BOS from print to electronic media.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Chapter One pages 10-13/150
Claude built an impressive sports gambling empire that covered over 200,000 square feet of office space and facilities to cater to gamblers throughout the world. He used the media and media professionals like me to induce gamblers to log onto his site BetOnSports and many other sites that he was partnered with and held ownership. The majority of people that gambled through BetOnSports were treated fairly but along the way enough people were robbed of time, services, and money by BetOnSports and ultimately the owner is responsible which turns out to be Claude. Claude might have gone too far when greed got the best of him and he allegedly stole from investors after selling his company in a public offering on the European Stock Exchange. The sale apparently wasn’t a clean sell with excessive fudging of numbers by his CEO and puppet Mr. Jay Gaynor a scrawny man that seemed more appropriate in an accountant’s office as opposed to running a multi-million dollar corporation. Claude’s luck ran-out when he was nabbed by international law enforcement officials while vacationing off the coast of Venezuela for numerous violations ranging from tax evasion to money laundering. Now he sits in that steamy hot Dallas jail cell waiting to do battle with federal prosecutors in the battle of his life. The man has plenty of money; some say more than a hundred million and will be able to get the best in legal counsel. Rumor has it his attorneys have influential contacts in allied governments that can influence the case.
I know I will never be selected for jury duty because I was one of many theft victims by Mr. Ripner’s company. I was robbed for over $300,000 worth of services. I provided professional consulting and media for Claude on a regular basis in Costa Rica and as a representative in the US. Ironically all of Claude’s troubles could have been avoided had he listened to me about building relationships and paying taxes to the US government but Claude wanted it all, no amount of money was enough for him, he had a sickness for greed. Rather than establish good relations with the US which produced most of his customers he preferred to establish relations with European investors and then promptly took his investors for an Enron joy ride.
Some people thought Claude was a marketing genius but working with him over the course of two years and watching him from afar a few more years, I know that not to be true. As an amateur marketer he was no different than a big time car dealer that is good and needs to feed his ego by winning the battles of negotiation. Claude could negotiate but run a top notch advertising campaign; He could not. He depended on others. He was human and being a great business owner takes considerable dedication and hours. Prior to my presence I thought Claude was brilliant also. I read numerous magazines and saw the illusion of brilliance with massive amounts of advertising in regular magazines. This would overshadow my skepticism about periodicals that were mailed for free to my address because they all ranked the same 5 sports books in their top 5. I also questioned the internet advertising. There were self-proclaimed watchdog organizations which I had never heard of before. Companies like the International Gaming Association and the Offshore Gaming Council. Who were these organizations? What gave them credibility? All I could see was a logo.
I believe Claude stole more ideas then he actually produced. He would promise to pay someone for their consultation but then neglect payment hiding behind international borderlines for protection. Once Claude neglected a payment the chances of contacting him via telephone or internet were less than a junior college football team winning the Rose Bowl. If the opportunity was there to neglect payment he chose not to pay. I could safely presume that Claude’s single goal was to win at all cost and amass a fortune in the process with no regard for who he stepped on. He amassed his fortune and in his wake lie a lot of people holding onto bills that were unpaid by Mr. Ripner and his company. Fact is Claude was BetOnSports. He was a major hands on owner. No money was sent out without his approval. No decisions were made without his approval. If you made a decision and Claude wasn't part of it or if he didn't choose to remember being part of it he would stick you with the bill or use the decision of an employee or contracted professional to default on a payment. He seemed immune to responsibility. When it came to getting freebies Claude was right between the Pope and the US President. Problem is most people and companies never realized they were giving Claude a complimentary service until after the fact.
I first found out about BetOnSports and Claude Ripner, the iron fisted owner while working as a partner with Doug Patton, my great mentor and teacher along with gambling buddy at the Patton Marketing Firm just outside of Detroit, MI. BOS an abbreviation for BetOnSports was a new client that was referred to us through one of Doug's buddies, Mr. Mark Wolf, a land developer that had recently taken on a large project in Costa Rica where he met up with Claude Ripner, the owner of BOS. I wagered through Mark who was a questionable character himself known to fill the pockets of prominent athletes at the local University. Mark let me use his log in name and password to gamble at BetOnSports. Mark had a substantial amount of money in the account which I would later find out was just a $100,000 line of credit, which is a violation of US law.
While not gambling Doug and me placed media for cable television in various Midwestern markets for BOS. During that fall we proposed numerous other opportunities including advertising with Sports Illustrated and Time Warner. After a long hard negotiation on behalf of BOS with Sports Illustrated we finally had a deal that Claude had pre-approved. We were to run a full page ad in Sports Illustrated during the fall of 1999. Doug faxed the contract to Claude and we got no response. Finally after making numerous phone calls to Costa Rica, Claude’s assistant Caroline informed us that Claude had no idea Sports Illustrated was a weekly magazine and the minimal shelf life was his reason to back out of the deal. She also told us that Sports Illustrated was too expensive at $85,000 an issue and Mr. Ripner thought that would be too much to spend for a week. The Account Executive at Time Warner/Sports Illustrated was pissed! He made considerable concessions to get BOS into the magazine even going to the highest offices of Time Warner to get approval which included legal time spent to analyze the business.
This waste of time by Claude was extremely unprofessional and Doug wanted nothing more to do with BOS or online gaming saying they were just shopping for deals which was a sign the client would undercut an agency given the chance. Doug proved to be very prophetic. Time Warner was equally annoyed and would ban the industry for nearly 7 years before a relatively unknown company in 1999 would break down the Sports Illustrated barrier with their intelligent use of marketing strategies.
This move by Ripner who was now nicknamed “The Ripper” by Doug and I was hideous considering he was such a supporter of print advertising and to back out of arguably the best publication in sports where he could reach the greatest masses of his target market made zero sense. The idea that a one week shelf life made any difference showed his lack of understanding advertising because Sports Illustrated readers tend to spend the same amount of time on each magazine as other monthly magazines due to its superior quality. This decision was an early clue for me that Claude needed help. I would later find out that Sports Illustrated was less than double of what he was paying in Maxim Magazine at the time with almost 3x the audience, not to mention Sports Illustrated subscribers are sports maniacs, sports gamblers, and sports fans compared to the guys that are looking for a nice trendy shirt or “what's going on at the Frat House” crowd that subscribes to Maxim. This was Claude; I don’t believe he was a marketing genius. He was more like an arm chair quarterback when it came to advertising that liked to take credit for other's ideas. He wasn’t too different in marketing than many business owners who have egos. Everything had to be Claude’s idea. If he liked something he would never tell you on the spot but would bring it up in a meeting soon after it had been presented, as his idea. As opposed to a marketing genius, I would describe him more as a thief of other people’s ideas because he didn’t pay for those ideas despite promises. Had he paid for the ideas than he would be a brilliant business owner in my eyes. Simple truth the more I got to know Claude the less he understood about advertising. Ironically as a sports book owner he really didn’t know squat when it came to sports either. I doubt if he could name 5 starting quarterbacks in the National Football league without doing his research. Fortunately to run a sports book you don’t need to know about sports. Just be good a good businessman and that was Claude up until the day he got caught for legal violations.
While at the Patton Marketing Firm I put together a plan to go after the offshore gaming companies. It was a young industry, they had plenty of money, I figure they were bound to grow and were dependent upon good advertising for their growth. The problem with most of the offshore sports books were they didn't have big enough budgets to really brand their industry to the masses. I wrote up a plan to start consolidating dollars of competitors to get more bang for their buck. Fact is the industry was probably getting less than 5% of the sports bettors in the US and if the industry consolidated some ad dollars to raise industry awareness and focus on the entire market; in simple math terms 20% of 5% is less than 10% of 50%. Unfortunately my partner, Doug wasn't sold on going after the industry as he preferred to have local accounts due to the non-payment of a Dominican sports book we were dealing with and the waste of time by BOS that appeared to have embarrassed the seasoned advertising executive.
I know I will never be selected for jury duty because I was one of many theft victims by Mr. Ripner’s company. I was robbed for over $300,000 worth of services. I provided professional consulting and media for Claude on a regular basis in Costa Rica and as a representative in the US. Ironically all of Claude’s troubles could have been avoided had he listened to me about building relationships and paying taxes to the US government but Claude wanted it all, no amount of money was enough for him, he had a sickness for greed. Rather than establish good relations with the US which produced most of his customers he preferred to establish relations with European investors and then promptly took his investors for an Enron joy ride.
Some people thought Claude was a marketing genius but working with him over the course of two years and watching him from afar a few more years, I know that not to be true. As an amateur marketer he was no different than a big time car dealer that is good and needs to feed his ego by winning the battles of negotiation. Claude could negotiate but run a top notch advertising campaign; He could not. He depended on others. He was human and being a great business owner takes considerable dedication and hours. Prior to my presence I thought Claude was brilliant also. I read numerous magazines and saw the illusion of brilliance with massive amounts of advertising in regular magazines. This would overshadow my skepticism about periodicals that were mailed for free to my address because they all ranked the same 5 sports books in their top 5. I also questioned the internet advertising. There were self-proclaimed watchdog organizations which I had never heard of before. Companies like the International Gaming Association and the Offshore Gaming Council. Who were these organizations? What gave them credibility? All I could see was a logo.
I believe Claude stole more ideas then he actually produced. He would promise to pay someone for their consultation but then neglect payment hiding behind international borderlines for protection. Once Claude neglected a payment the chances of contacting him via telephone or internet were less than a junior college football team winning the Rose Bowl. If the opportunity was there to neglect payment he chose not to pay. I could safely presume that Claude’s single goal was to win at all cost and amass a fortune in the process with no regard for who he stepped on. He amassed his fortune and in his wake lie a lot of people holding onto bills that were unpaid by Mr. Ripner and his company. Fact is Claude was BetOnSports. He was a major hands on owner. No money was sent out without his approval. No decisions were made without his approval. If you made a decision and Claude wasn't part of it or if he didn't choose to remember being part of it he would stick you with the bill or use the decision of an employee or contracted professional to default on a payment. He seemed immune to responsibility. When it came to getting freebies Claude was right between the Pope and the US President. Problem is most people and companies never realized they were giving Claude a complimentary service until after the fact.
I first found out about BetOnSports and Claude Ripner, the iron fisted owner while working as a partner with Doug Patton, my great mentor and teacher along with gambling buddy at the Patton Marketing Firm just outside of Detroit, MI. BOS an abbreviation for BetOnSports was a new client that was referred to us through one of Doug's buddies, Mr. Mark Wolf, a land developer that had recently taken on a large project in Costa Rica where he met up with Claude Ripner, the owner of BOS. I wagered through Mark who was a questionable character himself known to fill the pockets of prominent athletes at the local University. Mark let me use his log in name and password to gamble at BetOnSports. Mark had a substantial amount of money in the account which I would later find out was just a $100,000 line of credit, which is a violation of US law.
While not gambling Doug and me placed media for cable television in various Midwestern markets for BOS. During that fall we proposed numerous other opportunities including advertising with Sports Illustrated and Time Warner. After a long hard negotiation on behalf of BOS with Sports Illustrated we finally had a deal that Claude had pre-approved. We were to run a full page ad in Sports Illustrated during the fall of 1999. Doug faxed the contract to Claude and we got no response. Finally after making numerous phone calls to Costa Rica, Claude’s assistant Caroline informed us that Claude had no idea Sports Illustrated was a weekly magazine and the minimal shelf life was his reason to back out of the deal. She also told us that Sports Illustrated was too expensive at $85,000 an issue and Mr. Ripner thought that would be too much to spend for a week. The Account Executive at Time Warner/Sports Illustrated was pissed! He made considerable concessions to get BOS into the magazine even going to the highest offices of Time Warner to get approval which included legal time spent to analyze the business.
This waste of time by Claude was extremely unprofessional and Doug wanted nothing more to do with BOS or online gaming saying they were just shopping for deals which was a sign the client would undercut an agency given the chance. Doug proved to be very prophetic. Time Warner was equally annoyed and would ban the industry for nearly 7 years before a relatively unknown company in 1999 would break down the Sports Illustrated barrier with their intelligent use of marketing strategies.
This move by Ripner who was now nicknamed “The Ripper” by Doug and I was hideous considering he was such a supporter of print advertising and to back out of arguably the best publication in sports where he could reach the greatest masses of his target market made zero sense. The idea that a one week shelf life made any difference showed his lack of understanding advertising because Sports Illustrated readers tend to spend the same amount of time on each magazine as other monthly magazines due to its superior quality. This decision was an early clue for me that Claude needed help. I would later find out that Sports Illustrated was less than double of what he was paying in Maxim Magazine at the time with almost 3x the audience, not to mention Sports Illustrated subscribers are sports maniacs, sports gamblers, and sports fans compared to the guys that are looking for a nice trendy shirt or “what's going on at the Frat House” crowd that subscribes to Maxim. This was Claude; I don’t believe he was a marketing genius. He was more like an arm chair quarterback when it came to advertising that liked to take credit for other's ideas. He wasn’t too different in marketing than many business owners who have egos. Everything had to be Claude’s idea. If he liked something he would never tell you on the spot but would bring it up in a meeting soon after it had been presented, as his idea. As opposed to a marketing genius, I would describe him more as a thief of other people’s ideas because he didn’t pay for those ideas despite promises. Had he paid for the ideas than he would be a brilliant business owner in my eyes. Simple truth the more I got to know Claude the less he understood about advertising. Ironically as a sports book owner he really didn’t know squat when it came to sports either. I doubt if he could name 5 starting quarterbacks in the National Football league without doing his research. Fortunately to run a sports book you don’t need to know about sports. Just be good a good businessman and that was Claude up until the day he got caught for legal violations.
While at the Patton Marketing Firm I put together a plan to go after the offshore gaming companies. It was a young industry, they had plenty of money, I figure they were bound to grow and were dependent upon good advertising for their growth. The problem with most of the offshore sports books were they didn't have big enough budgets to really brand their industry to the masses. I wrote up a plan to start consolidating dollars of competitors to get more bang for their buck. Fact is the industry was probably getting less than 5% of the sports bettors in the US and if the industry consolidated some ad dollars to raise industry awareness and focus on the entire market; in simple math terms 20% of 5% is less than 10% of 50%. Unfortunately my partner, Doug wasn't sold on going after the industry as he preferred to have local accounts due to the non-payment of a Dominican sports book we were dealing with and the waste of time by BOS that appeared to have embarrassed the seasoned advertising executive.
Chapter One "The Rise and Fall of BetOnSports" pages 6-9/156
Chapter One
Entering the World of Online Gaming
My career in the offshore gaming industry started during the pioneer days of the industry back in 1999. Most operations during the early years were offshore sports books founded by street bookmakers who took most of their action via the telephone. The bookmakers would eventually utilize the internet to run a clean business which was questionable based on the 1961 Telephone Wire Act which made it illegal to place bets over the telephone. Other than that law the US government really had no jurisdiction over offshore based gaming companies. Still today the laws are very unclear and in the early years laws that prohibited online gambling were non-existent outside of the 1961 Wire Act.
One of the original companies WWTS was abbreviated for World Wide Tele-Sports. My first client for my ad firm was Royal Sports and they took all of their action via the telephone up until 2001. Offshore sports books was a more appropriate term for some of the giant companies today that operate online gaming companies in places that extend from the island of Malta to Panama City, Panama and in other locales throughout the world where a licensee of some good software can promote gambling over the internet but no city was alive like San Jose, Costa Rica.
The city of San Jose, Costa Rica was abuzz back at the turn of the century as the capital of offshore gaming. San Jose today compared to than is a ghost town for online gaming with only a few companies left behind as most companies have fled under government pressures stemming from the United States. Just about every time you would go out no matter where you went to a bar, restaurant, hotel, or cat house you would find offshore gaming owners, employees and even a few consultants like myself blowing a lot of cash while enjoying the power of the US dollar in Costa Rica. It was a fun time, a wild time, and a profitable time. Unfortunately the leader of the era didn't want to transition the industry into a new era of legal acceptance from the country (USA) that supported better than 80% of the revenues for the online gaming industry. Today atop the Mall San Pablo is vacant office space that once housed the shrine of online gaming highlighted by a roof top swim pool with the logo of BetOnSports at the bottom of the pool. This is where my career began.
It was my job to convince media executives that running advertisements for these companies was not illegal. Most law makers had no idea offshore sports books even existed and laws were non-existent. I made sure media executives were equipped with legal rulings to insure my clients could advertise in the United States and with no precedence I had to find cases which had relative interpretations. I did considerable research on the subject and introduced a 1998 Supreme Court Case in 2000 which interpreted correctly was favorable to the offshore gambling companies.
The Supreme Court case was the New Orleans Broadcasters Association versus the United States and the key interpretation was the Central Hudson Test which states that if a company is legal and licensed in the location where the gambling takes place than the people of the United States have the right to hear about the business. The Supreme Court was referring to the Louisiana Casinos advertising in South Carolina and my interpretation was the offshore gaming companies were licensed in countries like Costa Rica and with the player's money being deposited into an account in Costa Rica than the action takes place in Costa Rica as opposed to where ever the gambler resides, more often than not in the US.
I loved sports gambling as a profession because it kept me around sports. It also kept me from gambling as I was always entertained by how the house performed. It always has been fun but you don’t have to be a sports nut like myself to run a sports book or an online gambling establishment. Sports betting is strictly about the numbers and a handful of experts in Las Vegas that establish the odds. Fact is the house may experience a losing streak but the house eventually always wins. There have been a few underfunded sports books that were not prepared to handle losses and have been put out of business so there are exceptions. One sports book named Fair Deal in the Caribbean was a one man operation where the general manager had to work from the first game to the final buzzer 7 days a week trying to make the company thrive. The company failed and was slow to make payments to winning customers but luckily a neighbor sports book assumed all of the debts and nothing was ever publicized about the default.
As an advertising agency owner, I have dealt with many very nice people, especially in Curacao, Panama, Jamaica, and Costa Rica. One gentleman, Mike Finerty of L-Book Sports in Curacao who sold his company for a few million dollars told me to always get money up front from anyone in the online gaming industry, even him. I tend to only see the good in people but those words of warning should not have been ignored by me because………………………….
Unfortunately for the offshore/online gaming industry too many shady characters have used the internet and international borders to take bets and have basically stolen money from everyday people like you, your neighbor, and anyone else that understands how to use the internet or telephone. Furthermore ad agencies, production houses, national and global media companies have also been subject to some bad apples in the industry that didn’t feel the need to pay up for services rendered while hiding behind alias names thousands of miles away from their customers in a different country. One of the most corrupt bookmakers ever to come through the industry that I have met is Claude Ripner. Claude founded BetOnSports and the company thrived off of the work of many excellent professionals that unfortunately couldn’t get along which led to the demise along with a few viruses in the company that couldn’t make the transition from street bookmaker to legitimate business practices.
Claude was a cutthroat businessman in my opinion that ended up in the legal arms of the United States penal system because of his greed. He was also aided by those closest to him that were eternally trying to gain his approval by being more cutthroat but his protégés were not nearly as careful about adhering to the law. Claude probably looked the other way in certain cases because it was about making and saving a few bucks, anything for more profit.
Entering the World of Online Gaming
My career in the offshore gaming industry started during the pioneer days of the industry back in 1999. Most operations during the early years were offshore sports books founded by street bookmakers who took most of their action via the telephone. The bookmakers would eventually utilize the internet to run a clean business which was questionable based on the 1961 Telephone Wire Act which made it illegal to place bets over the telephone. Other than that law the US government really had no jurisdiction over offshore based gaming companies. Still today the laws are very unclear and in the early years laws that prohibited online gambling were non-existent outside of the 1961 Wire Act.
One of the original companies WWTS was abbreviated for World Wide Tele-Sports. My first client for my ad firm was Royal Sports and they took all of their action via the telephone up until 2001. Offshore sports books was a more appropriate term for some of the giant companies today that operate online gaming companies in places that extend from the island of Malta to Panama City, Panama and in other locales throughout the world where a licensee of some good software can promote gambling over the internet but no city was alive like San Jose, Costa Rica.
The city of San Jose, Costa Rica was abuzz back at the turn of the century as the capital of offshore gaming. San Jose today compared to than is a ghost town for online gaming with only a few companies left behind as most companies have fled under government pressures stemming from the United States. Just about every time you would go out no matter where you went to a bar, restaurant, hotel, or cat house you would find offshore gaming owners, employees and even a few consultants like myself blowing a lot of cash while enjoying the power of the US dollar in Costa Rica. It was a fun time, a wild time, and a profitable time. Unfortunately the leader of the era didn't want to transition the industry into a new era of legal acceptance from the country (USA) that supported better than 80% of the revenues for the online gaming industry. Today atop the Mall San Pablo is vacant office space that once housed the shrine of online gaming highlighted by a roof top swim pool with the logo of BetOnSports at the bottom of the pool. This is where my career began.
It was my job to convince media executives that running advertisements for these companies was not illegal. Most law makers had no idea offshore sports books even existed and laws were non-existent. I made sure media executives were equipped with legal rulings to insure my clients could advertise in the United States and with no precedence I had to find cases which had relative interpretations. I did considerable research on the subject and introduced a 1998 Supreme Court Case in 2000 which interpreted correctly was favorable to the offshore gambling companies.
The Supreme Court case was the New Orleans Broadcasters Association versus the United States and the key interpretation was the Central Hudson Test which states that if a company is legal and licensed in the location where the gambling takes place than the people of the United States have the right to hear about the business. The Supreme Court was referring to the Louisiana Casinos advertising in South Carolina and my interpretation was the offshore gaming companies were licensed in countries like Costa Rica and with the player's money being deposited into an account in Costa Rica than the action takes place in Costa Rica as opposed to where ever the gambler resides, more often than not in the US.
I loved sports gambling as a profession because it kept me around sports. It also kept me from gambling as I was always entertained by how the house performed. It always has been fun but you don’t have to be a sports nut like myself to run a sports book or an online gambling establishment. Sports betting is strictly about the numbers and a handful of experts in Las Vegas that establish the odds. Fact is the house may experience a losing streak but the house eventually always wins. There have been a few underfunded sports books that were not prepared to handle losses and have been put out of business so there are exceptions. One sports book named Fair Deal in the Caribbean was a one man operation where the general manager had to work from the first game to the final buzzer 7 days a week trying to make the company thrive. The company failed and was slow to make payments to winning customers but luckily a neighbor sports book assumed all of the debts and nothing was ever publicized about the default.
As an advertising agency owner, I have dealt with many very nice people, especially in Curacao, Panama, Jamaica, and Costa Rica. One gentleman, Mike Finerty of L-Book Sports in Curacao who sold his company for a few million dollars told me to always get money up front from anyone in the online gaming industry, even him. I tend to only see the good in people but those words of warning should not have been ignored by me because………………………….
Unfortunately for the offshore/online gaming industry too many shady characters have used the internet and international borders to take bets and have basically stolen money from everyday people like you, your neighbor, and anyone else that understands how to use the internet or telephone. Furthermore ad agencies, production houses, national and global media companies have also been subject to some bad apples in the industry that didn’t feel the need to pay up for services rendered while hiding behind alias names thousands of miles away from their customers in a different country. One of the most corrupt bookmakers ever to come through the industry that I have met is Claude Ripner. Claude founded BetOnSports and the company thrived off of the work of many excellent professionals that unfortunately couldn’t get along which led to the demise along with a few viruses in the company that couldn’t make the transition from street bookmaker to legitimate business practices.
Claude was a cutthroat businessman in my opinion that ended up in the legal arms of the United States penal system because of his greed. He was also aided by those closest to him that were eternally trying to gain his approval by being more cutthroat but his protégés were not nearly as careful about adhering to the law. Claude probably looked the other way in certain cases because it was about making and saving a few bucks, anything for more profit.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Introduction, The Early Years
Introduction:
The Early Years before Offshore Gaming
I grew up on the embankment of the Mississippi River in the Midwest. It was a modest upbringing with freezing cold winters and steaming hot barefoot summers. My parents were together for their entire lives. I attended church every Sunday morning with the exception of football season. Instead I would bypass the Sunday services for standing room only football viewing at the Osco Drug Store to watch the games on their display televisions. I went to private schools up through college. Then, I got a decent education from the University of Arizona and The Ohio State University where I graduated with a BA in English. Along the way I have been around bookmaking and sports gambling for the past 20 years since my late teens.
I have won as much as $4000 betting on a single football game while traveling to Las Vegas right after my 21st birthday which had me hooked because the first three bets came in with relative ease. I got 15 points with the University of Washington against Southern California and Rodney Peete. After being down by 14 points after two possessions, Cary Conklin led the Huskies back to within a 2 point conversion of outright victory in the waning seconds but USC held on for a nail biting 21-20 victory. While partying in Caesar’s Palace I decided to lay another $2200 on “over 6 ½” for game one of the 1988 World Series and won the game three innings before Kirk Gibson limped to the plate and launched one of the greatest game ending home runs in MLB history off the great Oakland reliever, Dennis Eckersley. While bragging on the telephone inside of the old Dunes a man next to me suggested the Cleveland Browns minus 2 ½ points against the New York Jets and I jumped on that for $2200 before heading off to the airport as the original Dawgs stingy defense led by all-pro cornerbacks, Hanford Dixon and Frank Minnefield would go on to crush the Jets 19-3. When all was said and done I had cleared $8000 in winnings, averted an attempted mugging by two cowboys right about where the current MGM exists who had followed me from Caesar’s and lost my plane ticket back to Santa Barbara which was the least of my problems considering the sizable wad of cash I had just attained. That first trip to Vegas was heavenly but I would give everything back and then some over the course of the next 8 years. It’s just one of the expectations of gambling, the house is eventually going to win.
The early downside to gambling saw me going nearly $8000 in the hole to a local bookie if not for a beautiful 99 yard fumble return in the final minute of a late night University of Hawaii football game versus the Air Force Academy, so I am well educated on luck. Every time I see the commercial about the United States Air Force being heroes I think back to what that Falcon football player in white with blue trim uniform must have looked like returning money back to the personal bank account of yours truly along with a game winning touchdown in 1988. I thought I was down $8000 so I packed it in with Hawaii just about to go into the end zone and was on the elevator out of the hotel before a buddy chased me down in the lobby of the Santa Barbara Inn to tell me the mind boggling news. One minute I am about to throw up feeling the angst of losing and the next moment I am elated and celebrating. That’s sports gambling. It has highs and lows like nothing else I have ever experienced. The highs are incredible and addictive. The lows are a nightmare.
I have run parlay cards out of a sports bar I worked at in Huntington Beach, California. I even ran a sports book in college. I broke the nose of a wealthy young nephew (of an extremely prominent Los Angeles sports legend who was bookmaking) for hitting a girl I was with than pulling a knife one me while he was extremely drunk. After getting up from the KO, the nephew of the sports legend jumped the wall and ran from the neighborhood in Westminster, California back to Santa Monica and stiffed me for a about two grand. I got him back a few years later when I was betting through another guy that happened to be his partner. I got in the hole for about the same amount of money and just one time I happen to call in and caught the nephew filling in for his partner so that debt was repaid.
The verdict is still out on whether sports gambling has been good to me or bad. It allowed me to buy a sailboat and build an advertising firm based on working with the online gaming companies. Live in beautiful bachelor’s dream house on the sunny beaches in Los Angeles County. Travel to tropical paradises that include Aruba, Curacao and Costa Rica. Meet a lot of great people, including sports celebrities, major media executives, friends, and my future ex-wife. And write this book. The bad side has been: I lost that boat within 9 months, been heavy in debt numerous times for cash, lost some good friends, and met the wife. Along the way I also worked with one of the most unethical bookmakers the world knows today. So I have definitely seen sports gambling up close and personal well before I entered the world of online gambling.
The story you are about to hear is about the life in the online gaming industry. None of the online gaming identities are of actual people but based off of characters I have run across in the industry. Some events are true, others are fictional. That is for you to decide. The company BetOnSports was an actual company where the author has a documented history, but is no more and the use of this company is to show how a great company can go wrong.
The Early Years before Offshore Gaming
I grew up on the embankment of the Mississippi River in the Midwest. It was a modest upbringing with freezing cold winters and steaming hot barefoot summers. My parents were together for their entire lives. I attended church every Sunday morning with the exception of football season. Instead I would bypass the Sunday services for standing room only football viewing at the Osco Drug Store to watch the games on their display televisions. I went to private schools up through college. Then, I got a decent education from the University of Arizona and The Ohio State University where I graduated with a BA in English. Along the way I have been around bookmaking and sports gambling for the past 20 years since my late teens.
I have won as much as $4000 betting on a single football game while traveling to Las Vegas right after my 21st birthday which had me hooked because the first three bets came in with relative ease. I got 15 points with the University of Washington against Southern California and Rodney Peete. After being down by 14 points after two possessions, Cary Conklin led the Huskies back to within a 2 point conversion of outright victory in the waning seconds but USC held on for a nail biting 21-20 victory. While partying in Caesar’s Palace I decided to lay another $2200 on “over 6 ½” for game one of the 1988 World Series and won the game three innings before Kirk Gibson limped to the plate and launched one of the greatest game ending home runs in MLB history off the great Oakland reliever, Dennis Eckersley. While bragging on the telephone inside of the old Dunes a man next to me suggested the Cleveland Browns minus 2 ½ points against the New York Jets and I jumped on that for $2200 before heading off to the airport as the original Dawgs stingy defense led by all-pro cornerbacks, Hanford Dixon and Frank Minnefield would go on to crush the Jets 19-3. When all was said and done I had cleared $8000 in winnings, averted an attempted mugging by two cowboys right about where the current MGM exists who had followed me from Caesar’s and lost my plane ticket back to Santa Barbara which was the least of my problems considering the sizable wad of cash I had just attained. That first trip to Vegas was heavenly but I would give everything back and then some over the course of the next 8 years. It’s just one of the expectations of gambling, the house is eventually going to win.
The early downside to gambling saw me going nearly $8000 in the hole to a local bookie if not for a beautiful 99 yard fumble return in the final minute of a late night University of Hawaii football game versus the Air Force Academy, so I am well educated on luck. Every time I see the commercial about the United States Air Force being heroes I think back to what that Falcon football player in white with blue trim uniform must have looked like returning money back to the personal bank account of yours truly along with a game winning touchdown in 1988. I thought I was down $8000 so I packed it in with Hawaii just about to go into the end zone and was on the elevator out of the hotel before a buddy chased me down in the lobby of the Santa Barbara Inn to tell me the mind boggling news. One minute I am about to throw up feeling the angst of losing and the next moment I am elated and celebrating. That’s sports gambling. It has highs and lows like nothing else I have ever experienced. The highs are incredible and addictive. The lows are a nightmare.
I have run parlay cards out of a sports bar I worked at in Huntington Beach, California. I even ran a sports book in college. I broke the nose of a wealthy young nephew (of an extremely prominent Los Angeles sports legend who was bookmaking) for hitting a girl I was with than pulling a knife one me while he was extremely drunk. After getting up from the KO, the nephew of the sports legend jumped the wall and ran from the neighborhood in Westminster, California back to Santa Monica and stiffed me for a about two grand. I got him back a few years later when I was betting through another guy that happened to be his partner. I got in the hole for about the same amount of money and just one time I happen to call in and caught the nephew filling in for his partner so that debt was repaid.
The verdict is still out on whether sports gambling has been good to me or bad. It allowed me to buy a sailboat and build an advertising firm based on working with the online gaming companies. Live in beautiful bachelor’s dream house on the sunny beaches in Los Angeles County. Travel to tropical paradises that include Aruba, Curacao and Costa Rica. Meet a lot of great people, including sports celebrities, major media executives, friends, and my future ex-wife. And write this book. The bad side has been: I lost that boat within 9 months, been heavy in debt numerous times for cash, lost some good friends, and met the wife. Along the way I also worked with one of the most unethical bookmakers the world knows today. So I have definitely seen sports gambling up close and personal well before I entered the world of online gambling.
The story you are about to hear is about the life in the online gaming industry. None of the online gaming identities are of actual people but based off of characters I have run across in the industry. Some events are true, others are fictional. That is for you to decide. The company BetOnSports was an actual company where the author has a documented history, but is no more and the use of this company is to show how a great company can go wrong.
Table of Contents/Epilogoue
The Rise and Fall of BetOnSports
Copyrighted 2007
Hacksaw Publications
The Table of Contents Page
Foreword 3
Introduction 4
1. Entering the World of Online Gaming 7
2. Costa Rica 16
3. The Lobster 43
4. Online Gaming, Big Businesses, Big Budgets 51
(and BetOnline)
5. Office Wars, The Terrorist Strikes Back 70
And The Return of the Gambler
(The 2001 Sports Book Ad Campaigns)
6. Blacksaw Does Costa Rica 83
7. The Greed Ruins 102
8. The Zoo 106
9. The 6th Floor 117
10. The Award Winners 123
11. Post Costa Rica Wrap Up 130
12. A Look into the Future of Online Gaming
(Author’s Opinion) 139
13. Who is Claude Ripner? 142
14. Education 145
Epilogue 146
Foreword:
The book has been edited from its original version due to references that might be construed as sensitive to certain characters. The book is based on numerous actual events and experiences through the eyes of a former advertising executive consultant that has traveled throughout the online gaming industry to various companies throughout Central America and the Caribbean since 1999 while working for marketing firms in North America. The book also consists of “hear say” and educated opinion where noted. The consultant established major relationships with US media companies which are all true (documented), contributed to the rise of a giant in the online gaming industry (documented) and gives an account of past historical events that theoretically led to the fall of a an online gaming industry giant.
The goal of the book is for entertainment purposes and to inspire the audience to ask questions on why the featured (now defunct) online gaming company in this book has defaulted on payments to the customers. Answers to these questions can diminish the chances that this will happen again.
Some characters that represent people in the online gaming industry are fictitious names while the US based media characters and celebrity personalities are actual people, illustrating how deeply the online gaming industry penetrated mainstream media into the homes of the people of the United States. Furthermore company names, locations and descriptions of locations have been altered due to the sensitivity of an industry that is sometimes described as volatile.
Furthermore the author takes the audience into the wild and exciting lifestyle of online gaming professionals in exotic tropical locations.
Copyrighted 2007
Hacksaw Publications
The Table of Contents Page
Foreword 3
Introduction 4
1. Entering the World of Online Gaming 7
2. Costa Rica 16
3. The Lobster 43
4. Online Gaming, Big Businesses, Big Budgets 51
(and BetOnline)
5. Office Wars, The Terrorist Strikes Back 70
And The Return of the Gambler
(The 2001 Sports Book Ad Campaigns)
6. Blacksaw Does Costa Rica 83
7. The Greed Ruins 102
8. The Zoo 106
9. The 6th Floor 117
10. The Award Winners 123
11. Post Costa Rica Wrap Up 130
12. A Look into the Future of Online Gaming
(Author’s Opinion) 139
13. Who is Claude Ripner? 142
14. Education 145
Epilogue 146
Foreword:
The book has been edited from its original version due to references that might be construed as sensitive to certain characters. The book is based on numerous actual events and experiences through the eyes of a former advertising executive consultant that has traveled throughout the online gaming industry to various companies throughout Central America and the Caribbean since 1999 while working for marketing firms in North America. The book also consists of “hear say” and educated opinion where noted. The consultant established major relationships with US media companies which are all true (documented), contributed to the rise of a giant in the online gaming industry (documented) and gives an account of past historical events that theoretically led to the fall of a an online gaming industry giant.
The goal of the book is for entertainment purposes and to inspire the audience to ask questions on why the featured (now defunct) online gaming company in this book has defaulted on payments to the customers. Answers to these questions can diminish the chances that this will happen again.
Some characters that represent people in the online gaming industry are fictitious names while the US based media characters and celebrity personalities are actual people, illustrating how deeply the online gaming industry penetrated mainstream media into the homes of the people of the United States. Furthermore company names, locations and descriptions of locations have been altered due to the sensitivity of an industry that is sometimes described as volatile.
Furthermore the author takes the audience into the wild and exciting lifestyle of online gaming professionals in exotic tropical locations.
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