Chapter 6 pages 82-85

Chapter 6
Blacksaw does Costa Rica


The falling of the World Trade Center in NYC gave me a few days to adjust the media schedules to resume around the 3rd week of September considering sports were temporarily put on hold. It only took me a couple of days to call the radio stations and the media buyers that were working for me and have them postpone the schedules. Once this was done than it was time to restructure the media schedules and to Claude’s credit he gave an affirmative blessing to increase the media schedules once sports resumed. It was a very sensitive time but business life goes on and the gambler wasn't about to call it a year because a few nuts with a penchant for destruction had made world news. I figured this would be a good time to give back and make donations from every new account to aid a worthwhile charity for victims and the family members of victims that perished in the disaster. Claude had his reasons deciding not to do so because it would look too much like he was capitalizing off of a horrific event. I respected his point of view here because it was a damned if you do damned if you don't but in my opinion it would have been a great opportunity to reach out and start establishing relations with a politically supported charity.

All of my preparation leading up to the 2001 radio campaigns for BOS was paying off big time now because communications were so solid that every single media that I worked with came through with adjusting the schedules, adding supplemental spots to jump start the campaign that had its momentum stolen from an unavoidable event. I had Bob adjusting the ad copy, and by the night of the 13th of September I had completed all of my professional responsibilities and over the course of the next ten days I just had to monitor current events to insure that only one weekend of NFL football was delayed while we still maintained advertising in collegiate markets where college football was not postponed.

So with the slow time numerous employees were given time off and I took advantage of the timing by exploring Costa Rica and celebrating my 34th birthday. That Friday, I went out with Chuck Bauer meeting up with him at the Hotel Del Rey bar. I did a few laps around the bar while getting the standard physicals by about 4-5 gorgeous female doctors, nurses or candy stripers who would grab your nuts and have you cough to make sure you were healthy enough to have a drink. I love the Hotel Del Rey's concern for physical health. Well this night I meet up with Chuck and tell him that my birthday is in a couple of days and I wanted to know if he wanted to head out for the weekend to Puerto Viejo. He was all for heading out of town but preferred to do some sport fishing out on the Pacific Coast while I wanted to explore the Caribbean. I wanted to go fishing also but for those sexy Caribbean ladies. So we knew we wouldn’t be traveling together but for my birthday he hands me a $100 bill and with a good hearty laugh says, “get yourself something nice here” so I have no other choice but to have a little bit of fun with the lady of my choice as an early birthday gift. Well as I am walking around the bar this beautiful dark skinned black girl is constantly calling my name and I cannot figure out where I know her from. Than it finally hit me. I did have one act of infidelity while I was in a committed relationship down on the island of Curacao and damned if this wasn't the same girl. Happy hostess in Curacao moved her herself on up to better times in Costa Rica where I think she was studying medicine also because she gave me a complimentary physical once I acknowledged her. Damn it was good to see her and I let her know too because we had a great time in Curacao and I thought compelled to give her my $100 bill so she could continue to pursue her medical dreams. A couple hours with Miss Columbia was a great precursor to the birthday. Damn beautiful girls form Columbia!

A few days later was one of the many non-professional highlights of my trip. I ended up at the All-Star café for a Reggae night which always seems to bring out the hot looking girls. Well that night after a considerable amount of drinks I convinced Doogie to take a trip with me out to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica to Puerto Viejo. Now ever since I had gotten to Costa Rica everyone warned me about the Caribbean side. “Don’t go over there the Jamaicans will machete your head off!” Talk about drastic measures for being pale skinned. Well I had lived in South Central Los Angeles and I saw how the press portrayed that area improperly so I figure it was the same here. So that night at the All-Star Café which was a great sports bar, Doogie and I decide we were on our way to Puerto Viejo the next day and that is the night I met Caroline Thomas or Carla for short.

Carla wasn’t my wife to be that I would eventually bring home from Costa Rica but Carla was a great girl. She had a beautiful face, nice braids, cute voice and a big firm ass that you could bounce quarters off of. George would comment that her ass looked like a couple of hams stuck together and I think between him and Doogie over the years her ass was enough to take up both sides of a love seat. If they keep talking they will say I had to take her out in a pick-up truck because the front seat just wasn’t enough. I’m sticking to the story that it wasn’t that big but I will forever be contradicted on that one. In her defense it was nice, just not something George liked on the surface but I certainly had no problems sticking my nose between those honey baked ass cushions. Problem was neither one of us could really understand each other since she spoke very little English and I spoke even less Spanish. Regardless it’s amazing at how good of a time we always had considering the language barrier eliminated all arguments.

Chapter 5 pages 82-83

The delays by Infinity Broadcasting and Susquehanna were met and aided by September 11 events where the Twin Towers came tumbling down in NY City. This was a brief period in time where gamblers needed a week to reflect and the NFL, most of College Football and sports for that matter shut down for about a week. The gamblers would be back in full force though and we were ready for them.

As for the events, I remember waking up in the morning and heading off to the gym at 6 am central time. By the time I came back to my condo I was ready to see the sports updates on CNN headline news which was one of the few English speaking channels that I could count on for home country news. There it was the very gigantic towers that I had stood outside of just a few years earlier were tumbling down. It just didn’t seem right and I certainly didn’t want to make any personal judgments right away but a few things I did know; gamblers would not be signing up for a short while, air travel was going to be more complicated, and going back home permanently in a week was not going to happen. I was really missing Sparky right now and I ended up spending more time with George’s dog Jake taking him for an occasional walk hoping Sparky knew I had not abandoned her. I would even call Odinga to see if she could visit Sparky after all this was her dog and I got her in a heavy buyout which never has bothered me despite paying about a hundred times more than what anyone would pay for a dog that was destined for the pound.

That week was used to re-group and relax. The first couple of days I was constantly on the phones speaking with the utmost courtesy to all the media as I didn’t want to offend anyone with talk about the business of gambling coming back on the air when so many people had just been brutally murdered in a fiery death by some sick individuals but we must live on and I had a job to do. I was amazed at the courtesy of the media. They worked with us by taking spots off the air although there were some stations that couldn’t do it but just about all of them ended up complimenting us spots once we resumed advertising just over a week later in September heading into a weekend of football.

And the gamblers came back in full force as if nothing happened.

Chapter 5 pages 79-82

Claude’s stubborn streak wasn’t necessarily a negative. Fact is he was demanding and got a lot out of people. If you spent a day with Claude you were exhausted by the end of the day because he pushed your mind until you had nothing left to give. I was showing up every morning at 7am with the armed guards opening up the marketing office and sticking around till late in the afternoon and early evenings and I would be spent cause Claude would mentally exhaust me and that I appreciated.

We ended up getting on the air after I gave Claude my guarantee that the creative would work and it did. Claude would always try to put everyone else on the line when it came to taking risks. It was his way to make you pay if it didn’t because he didn’t want to part with a penny even if the business was making tons of money. While at BOS for me it was all risk no reward which is not a good position to conduct business.

Another major problem arose prior to the kick-off of the college games in late August when the phone company was threatening to shut down the phones for non-payment. Claude was in Florida seeing his doctor and left Shaun and Geraldine in charge. Luckily there were some very professional people at BOS that continued to get results while Claude was gone but there were also others that felt it was play time led by Shaun and Geraldine. Gaynor although CEO in title was still down the food chain and not allowed to make decisions. He was the puppet that was going to get BOS to go public where Claude would have hundreds of millions of dollars at his disposal. Which I guess he would eventually dispose as much of those funds as possible into his personal bank accounts or buy gold bars to hide throughout the world. I always thought he would make a commitment to be the best once he got those public funds but something must have been wrong because he wanted to win and once he got the dollars the company didn’t improve.

Well Shaun and Geraldine sweated-out this decision on whether to pay the phone bill or not to the very last minute. I recall the cousins talking about this in the VIP room while in a meeting with Shaun. They finally did it, made a decision without Claude and the phones would be free to ring that weekend. The sales office was pulling in about 2000 new customers a day to the tune of approximately $600,000 plus in initial sign up money a day.

When Claude came back there I was in the VIP room with Shaun and Geraldine who were both retreating fast to his tyrannical yelling. He blasted them, why did they paid the phone bill! It was obvious so gamblers could call in for the weekend games otherwise the phone company would shut the phones down and that was the simple answer. Claude went into a tirade and said these words that I will never forget “You never! Never! Ever! Pay anyone in full!” That blew my mind, with the phone company threatening to shut the phones off for non-payment and with the money that was being sent in on a daily basis why try to call the phone company on a bluff? That was Claude though thinking his money was worth more than the $5 bettor just because he touched it and he treated everyone that way. His money was too good for CBS Radio, too good for Clear Channel, too good for Fox. Earth to Claude these are major global media companies that are worth plenty more than BOS. He never could see it that way. Never respected the media the way they should have been respected and when I would end up resigning within the next 9 months he would regret it eventually as the media companies would stop defending the great offender of airwaves that would consistently be late on payments.

When I first went into dealings with the media companies they wanted all money up front. This was standard. I ended up presenting Shaun K’s argument to the media that they would get all their money up front but not the entire schedule up front. As long as we stayed three weeks ahead in payments they would always be getting their money up front and companies like Infinity Broadcasting with the counsel of CBS legal set the standard of getting paid two weeks in advance. Over at Premiere Radio and the Jim Rome Show we were obligated to pay 3 weeks out and Claude more than a few times was late on that where I would have to plead with him to approve the payment because no money was ever sent out without his approval. Shaun, Gaynor, nor anyone else had the right to have money paid out.

Claude balking with Premiere Radio really pissed me off because here we were getting new sign-ups from the Jim Rome Show at 25% of the cost of other media and instead of paying them on time and building up a great relationship he was demanding free spots and delaying payments by telling me to come back another day to ask for payments which embarrassed me when speaking with Premiere. Furthermore Premiere would never give in under normal circumstances considering we were paying less than their rate card and they had advertisers lining up, even turning away all others in online gaming after I secured a contract for BOS. If Claude ran Premiere I imagine he would have got payment than tore up the contract and sold the spots to another advertiser. Premiere showed a lot of class with BOS and the mis-treatment of the media by BOS didn’t earn them any allies. I am sure media companies ended up helping out the Department of Justice in lining up happy to testify witnesses who were subject to consistent abuse from BOS.

Chaper 5 pages 75-78

The Jim Rome Show was slated to start earlier than Claude desired because of simple supply and demand. The Rome Show was sold out in early November and to meet the minimum requirement of a 13 week schedule we had to start the first week of August. No big deal we still got results. Problem was Claude saw this as not what he demanded and he was used to making demands. In the case of Jim Rome they didn’t get a lot of things. First of all, there was no way Jim Rome was going to do on air endorsements for BOS. Shaun suggested I offer a whopping $1000 a week for the King of Sports Radio. I would have been laughed at and been the joke of the media executives world had I made that a serious offer. So I never bothered to mention that to the Rome people outside of a joke to my new account executive Theresa Gage who took over for Jerry Stehney when Jerry resigned. The Ripners also could not get more than one spot per day for the three hour show this was by order of Kraig Kichen who was putting us on probation and if we were good business that number could be increased in the future. Premiere had that kind of power because their sales people could have sold to any other online gaming company the package BOS got but my presence in LA and persistence was a selling point to them. What BOS did get; new customers that were tracked at 25% of the cost of regular customers which was the deal of the century. Even so Claude didn’t want to pay for the first two weeks of the Rome contract and in order to save the contract I told Claude that I would put my money where my mouth was and he could deduct the first two weeks from my commissions which was $25,000 off of the $50,000 I was to make off of Rome alone. Also I would be credited with the monies that came in from the accounts. After all was said and done I probably would have recouped all of the dollars but the first few weeks where the audience was getting accustomed to hearing the spots helped in weeks three and thereafter, also the Ripners never credited me with customers that re-upped which is to send money after the initial deposit is consumed. Most accounts send in about 400% more than just the initial deposit but in the case of BOS, retention was lower than the industry at about 250%, even than I would have got back the entire $25,000 and then some but I was dealing with a world class chiseler.

Claude making me pay for his early advertising on Jim Rome was his way of telling me about capitalizing on others. When he should have paid for Jim Rome in its entirety he saw it as an opportunity to squeeze money out of me. That is why I wrote the book, maybe I can capitalize off of some publicity and make a few bucks; Just capitalism. Thanks for the lesson Claude. Claude also made numerous comments to me that I was getting an education. The only educating was by me doing some teaching. I would later find out what the education was all about.

The starting of the Rome Show wasn’t too bad but the finals of the US women’s open was a personal beating for me as Big George took $5 from me when Venus Williams routed her sister, Serena in Flushing Meadows. It was a much anticipated match. I made sure I was out of the offices and got to a television to watch the agonizing match. Once Serena lost I knew George and the rest of the sales office would be giving me a heavy dose of humble pie as I assured everyone that Serena would win. I wasn’t worried about the $5. I knew George would hold the $5 up every time I walked into the sales office and he did too.

The U.S. Women’s Open final was a very small defeat for me. The blow that nearly broke the camel’s back and I was the camel would ensue. Corky Flynt started submitting un-approved ad copy for radio. Shaun and Claude were all over my ass about this one. I was ready to resign because I had hired the incompetent. I was ready to take responsibility even though I had email evidence that stated to Corky that the ad copy was absolutely unacceptable. I would end up hiring an attorney to go after her company but in the end I just dropped the case because the media buying company had some very deep pockets and it would be too time consuming. The Ripners were either smart enough or lucky enough to not accept my resignation because the turmoil would get even uglier culminated by September 11, 2001 which was a blessing in disguise for BOS.

Prior to September 11, 2001 in lieu of the problems with Corky Flynt submitting unapproved ad copy we now had a hole of more than half of our advertising campaign because we were pulling off of stations because we could not agree to approved ad copy. Sports stations from Infinity Broadcasting owned by CBS Global Media and Susquehanna radio which had two major stations in San Francisco and Dallas were not accepting the advertising from BOS. I needed to do some quick work and fast that should have been done a month ago but was ignored by Corky Flynt. This is where Brett came through with flying colors. He pushed and pushed and we were constantly on the phone with Infinity Broadcasting executives all the way to the CEO Mel Karmizon. Finally after a few days, Mel agreed to let the matter be settled by the CBS legal department.

I was ready with my cracker-jack education on law that I had studied during personal time on advertising laws, and gaming laws. I repeatedly quoted the Supreme Court ruling and Central Hudson Test which they said they knew about. I figured the more I repeated it the more it would sink in that they could take the money it was just a matter of doing it on their terms and that is exactly the way they wanted it. We did it on their terms. The gambler wants to gamble and all he really needs to hear on the radio is BetOnSports and the phone number 888-999-BETS begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              888-999-BETS      end_of_the_skype_highlighting which we were allowed to say. We couldn’t say, keywords such as “gamble, bet, wager” outside of the name or the vanity phone number.

No problem, Bob Elkington had been around the block before and was a seasoned creative professional and just the guy to trust. I also paid Bob a substantial amount of money for doing the creative out of my commissions which would turn into a loss when BOS defaulted on my commissions.

It took the rest of the week and the early part of the following week which was days prior to 9/11 to convince CBS legal that we were legit, and we were although I would soon find out about a lot of illegitimate activities that were going on that I had been shielded from previously. The final CBS legal verdict was that online gaming was limited to certain things that we could say and could not say on the air and each station had the right to make their individual choice on whether to take the advertising or not. This was a major breakthrough! Problem is Claude didn’t think so. He was relentless with wanting more. That is great for business but sometimes you have to know when to ease up and wait for the opportune moment to ask for more.

I had to plead with Claude on this one. He seemed to have no confidence in the audience. He had not acknowledged anything from the previous year when we changed up the creative to have a humorous side and took out the business context about “call up and get 13-5 two team parlays, insured by Lloyd’s of London” which was now a no-no to talk about parlays and odds also. We could still get creative enough to say “log onto your computer at BetOnSports and bring Las Vegas right to your living room”. The gambler was smart enough to put together “BetOnSports” to realize this is some sort of website where I can bet on sports and then “bring Las Vegas to your living room” that Las Vegas is the gambling capital of the world so I must be able to really bet on sports over the internet, than the kicker was “call toll free 888-999-B-E-T-S that’s 888-999-BETS!”. You could say bet certainly enough without using in context outside of the name and vanity number.

On the flip side Claude’s failure to acknowledge our victory was his way of motivating to get more. Like I said nothing was enough. Claude had to win at all costs.

Finally Claude gave in. We could have gotten this deal done a good 4 days earlier but his stubborn streak needed me prodding him two to three times a day to just accept the deal. I would go into meetings with Claude over and over with the same argument that we had enough creative to get through to the audience. I wasn’t changing or adjusting my position either, just hoping my argument was getting through to him because we were missing out on stations in Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other major markets with lots of listeners. As a matter of fact Houston had already shown that it could light up the phones with unapproved copy by just saying the name of the company and the phone number. Gamblers are not rocket scientist but then again they are not high school drop-outs that are scrubbing toilets for a living either, although some might have to do that as a second job to pay for their gambling habits if they want to bet while mired in a losing streak.

Chapter 5 pages 73-75

After meeting with Pete, he took me to some new offices on the 10th floor that included the puppet CEO Jay Gaynor and Claude’s cousin Geraldine was now using his office on the 10th floor. I met Jay during the spring and he really seemed not too impressive. He was very reserved and quiet but did smile with those classic British soiled teeth. For the most part he was holed up in a corner office as the CEO but when it came down to decisions I never ever dealt with him it was always Claude. When I would be having a meeting in the VIP room there might be a time when Claude would dismiss Jay for our private marketing/advertising conversations and there were also times when Claude told Jay to wait outside until he was finished with his meetings. As a CEO it had to frustrate Jay to have no real authority but he was a well paid puppet who earned his money. Especially recently he has spent a lot of time under house arrest in Dallas awaiting trial for illegal bookmaking charges. I really never did speak with Jay a whole lot even though we lived in the same condominium building he was rather awkward and never good about responding to a basic hello or good morning outside the office. I assume his desire to get from out of the shadows of Claude probably led to his vociferous ways with US politicians (A BIG NO! NO! Can’t you understand the big red stop sign?) And his eventual doom. Jay was the man that was supposed to get BOS to go public and he didn’t seem to mind misleading others with fudged up numbers in what has been described as a dog and pony show for the people from the European Stock Market.

I cannot emphasize enough how poor it is for any online gaming executive to publically call out a US politician. It’s like a fat woman walking into a men’s locker room telling guys how to shower, shave, fold their towels and clean up after themselves. She contributes nothing to the men’s locker room and it’s not her place to say anything. Likewise, it’s not the right of a non-US citizen to tell politicians who are law making professionals how to do their jobs. It’s probably more annoying when non-citizens try to incite US citizens to take action against lawmakers and BOS would do this with a circulating petition challenging the FCC offices. US citizens can do this on their own as tax payers but non-citizens that do not contribute anything to the society; it’s obnoxious! It’s no wonder the companies that come out in public and tell US lawmakers how to do their job somehow end up in hot water. It’s funny then to hear the online gaming companies talk about how they are being treated unfairly. Contribute first before you talk!

Next to Gaynor’s office was Geraldine. She was a waste of air. As far as I could see she didn’t do anything of any importance although I am sure she played more sports than either of her brothers as she was definitely on the masculine side. I wouldn’t be surprised if she pissed while standing up. She even had the gall to say to me one time, “What you’re doing is nothing special it’s all Claude’s money”. She might have been masculine but the envious streak was without a doubt her feminine side coming out. She would also get herself arrested as part of the online pharmacy scheme where she would have prescriptions forged so product could go out that much quicker. Again greed at work, you can make a lot of money when you can spend money to advertise an online pharmacy. Why screw it up by doing something illegal? Also you could make a lot of money in running an online gaming company. Why screw it up by doing so many illegal things where the list goes on and on of which I am sure the numerous felony accounts that Claude faces in the Texas courts will pose a big challenge for his all-world attorneys to explain them all.

Down in the Board room this time around Claude was all smiles and gave me a big, friendly, warm handshake saying “good to see you Hacksaw!” I was more than surprised. My first thoughts were that he was just stand offish to people that he did not know for less than a year and by now we had frequent meetings. The reality probably was I was delivering a big time ad campaign at a fraction of the cost to him. Little did I know that after a future dictatorial one sided negotiation my fraction would be substantially smaller than the $350,000 I expected to earn for a year’s worth of hard work along with paying my own expenses including air fares, taxis, etc. in travel to and from Costa Rica.

One of the issues I pressed Claude with was re-branding the company to BetOnSports. Why not? He already owned the URL. Claude hated this idea the day I presented it, blasting me that the name of the company was North American Sportsbook Company or NASCO and it was to be used in all radio ad copy just like it was used in print. One day later in the 9th floor board room, Claude announces that all ad copy for creative starting with radio from here on out would be branded as BetOnSports and NASCO would be phased out. I never was one to worry about who gets credit for what but I wanted to ask Claude if he remembered our conversation less than 24 hours ago? His turn around was the single greatest turn around I ever saw in him. This was a small victory for the company that would be overshadowed by a series of ugly events over the next two weeks.

Chapter 5 pages 70-73

Chapter 5

Office Wars, the Terrorist Strikes Back, and the Return of the Gambler (The 2001 Betonsports.com football season)


The summer of 2001 was not one that I want to recall much of considering it took a brutal toll on my personal life and for all of my sacrifices I was shortchanged on the money end by BOS, Big Time! Even worse that summer Odinga, the girlfriend left me along with her son. Even after we broke up I had a great talk with her son telling him I would always be there for him as I played a fatherly role with him. Hopefully the proceeds from this book will pay for his soon to be college education.

Towards the end of the summer I was working from sun-up to sun-down and when the sun went down on the weekends, the play time was starting to begin. With the girlfriend gone now, I was living alone in Torrance with Sparky and I was hurting. I tried not to show it either, so masking it with multiple sex partners was an excellent remedy for the pain.

When Shaun found out I broke up with the girlfriend he thought it was great so I could have a single focus on work. He really was an asshole when it came to dealing with people.

When my mother found out about the break up with Odinga whom she liked, she sent my younger brother, James to California to make sure I was ok, and I sent Jim home with a terrible hangover. Jim showed up in California asking me what had happened and I really wasn’t worried too much and told him apathetically, “Sooner or later they all come around”. Wow was I wrong!

Jim recently married and I was not the greatest of influences on him at this time. Within hours of getting off the plane we were down at Shooters Beach Bar in Redondo Beach baking in the sun while knocking down drinks with my best buddy in SOCAL, Rosie and a few friends all full of ecstasy. It was a blur of an afternoon where my head didn’t quite clear up until we got back to my apartment to blast off a few mini-sticks of dynamite that I had imported from the island of Curacao. It wasn’t dynamite but they were big red sticks with fuses on them that would knock out a chunk of sand or turf wherever they landed. I figured since I was leaving the neighborhood soon I didn’t mind leaving a little present to some of the racist neighbors I had in Torrance.

The second day Jim came out to check up on me kind of flowed straight from the first night with more drinking and partying as we ventured off to Orange County for a Booze Cruise in the Newport Beach Harbor. The cruise was a blast. Plenty of women mostly taken or not my type as I prefer a serious tan but the booze was flowing and there were plenty of old friends to hang out with and enjoy the evening on a big floating 60 foot yacht. By the time the cruise was over I convinced Jim that we should return to LA County considering we didn’t want to be drinking and driving and still had to cover the 40 mile ride back up north. After grabbing a bite to eat and downing some water we drove back to my apartment then grabbed a cab down to the Lighthouse Bar on Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach, CA. Jim was having a blast reflecting back on his single days but appeared to be a bit nervous in having to go out with me. Meanwhile, I was trying to work out my game with women that had not seen much practice in the past three years while devoted to my recently walked out love. At the Lighthouse I hit on a few girls with less rejection than I had gotten the day prior which was a good sign. I was striking out but seeing the ball better and that helped me get ready for upcoming weekends in Costa Rica.

Just prior to the flight to Costa Rica I met up with an old college bed buddy from Ohio State and than a couple of fat cousins out of TGI Fridays in Torrance for a three way blowout before heading back to Central America all primed and ready for enjoying 100% of the culture this time around. When a guy has been off the market for long enough he can’t expect to get back into the game and lead off with Beyonce. Need to get in a few warm up tosses with old steadies and have to lower the standards too, so I won’t sicken you with details.

Upon my return to Central America I was ready physically, mentally, and playfully. My previous two trips I refrained from indulging in some of the nicest female natural assets and I was ready to enjoy!

This time I was picked up by the Chief Operations Officer, JR, a Dutchman who I had met in the spring and kept in contact with. This time to Costa Rica was the first time I started to feel a bit different and it started with meeting JR at the airport. I felt something strange that I have never felt before at BOS. I think it was respect. Heck! I earned it!

I was immediately brought to a nice Condominium which I was to share with JR. JR was an average sized, soft spoken guy with big legs from playing soccer for years. He had also held a gaming license in Europe for over 25 years. He was at BOS to expand on his bookmaking talents that he brought from Holland to take them to the next level of online gaming. We had a nice condominium just a short walk from the Mall San Pablo and between us and work was the All-Star café along with a handful of other bars that ranged from punk, reggae to nightclubs blasting Ricky Martin’s La Vida Loca. I am only too happy that I never was in Costa Rica during the mid-90’s and the “Macarena”. We also had a very strange roommate by the name of Michael who was certainly a budget tech guy that worked on the phone systems. Michael was a tall skinny character. He was a strange cat that was overly friendly and would sit in the living room with all the lights out snorting cocaine when you came home at night. He didn’t last long and for that matter I was only to spend 3 weeks in Costa Rica before heading back to Southern California to get my little canine girl Sparky back from friends.

I went over to the Mall San Pablo this time unaccompanied and walked straight into the reception area where this time I was met by Peter Wilson who welcomed me with open arms while he kept repeating “thank you, I thought you would never get here”. He was getting worked hard and getting paid little. For the past couple of months Claude and Shaun put Peter into the marketing department to assist me with anything I needed since I was now the head of electronic media and a large chunk of the BOS budget. Pete was thrown into the wolves, he had no clue to the world of advertising and more often than not Pete was abused like a red headed step child by the Ripners to take care of the communications because Shaun was probably too busy hiding in his office and really couldn’t comprehend the trade talk of electronic media. Claude and Shaun understood print and with the football season coming soon they needed to tend to print rather than learn the intricacies of electronic media.

After a brief hug and hello, an excited Pete took me on a tour of the renovations done at BOS since my last visit. They erected a state of the art 10th floor playground with a full bar, casino tables, restaurants, gym, VIP guest rooms, covered pool and sun deck on the top floor. None of this was for employees and I chose to work out in the public gym on the 4th floor of the mall which had superior equipment. I am not sure but this might have been an innovative move by Claude. (It was.) The pool, bar, and casino were beautiful. The VIP rooms were unfinished and so were the restaurants. Originally this elaborate facility was meant for big bettors but eventually the brain trust started thinking and realized that media giants such as The Jim Rome Show, which was bringing in more new customers than any single source of media was the type of people they needed to schmooze in Costa Rica.

Chapter 4 pages 67-69

I did encounter a few setbacks in my preparation for the 2001 campaign. I failed to get on KFXN in Minneapolis. That state was just tough to crack. I got my way in the Bible belt with the Carolinas and Louisiana. I convinced the good folks up in Washington State which was a bruiser of a state when it comes to moral laws. Of the top 50 sports stations in the country I failed in Minneapolis, Seattle, and Tampa. I was able to get the consolation prize in both Seattle and Tampa as we settled for highly rated talk radio programming and 2nd rate sports talk show respectively.

In 2000 Claude wanted to be on WQAM in Miami. In 2001 the crown jewel was WFAN-New York. This was the big sports radio station in his hometown of New York City. Claude already had the crown jewel with the Jim Rome Show but WFAN was his personal big prize. So I spent a lot of time working with top executives at WFAN. Since I had already dealt with Mel Karmizon the CEO of Infinity Broadcasting and co-CEO of Viacom through Brett the doors were open at WFAN, an Infinity station to deal directly with the top guy. I cannot remember the guys name because we never cut the deal but we spoke frequently for a few weeks during the summer of 2001 trying to iron out a deal. I was able to arrange a time to meet with him when he came out to Los Angeles. We met at Brett Rateaver's office on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles just down the street from Peterson Publishing and Larry Flynt's Hustler building. During our meeting, the President of WFAN demanded a $1,000,000 commitment from BOS to get on the air. I knew Claude wanted WFAN and it was the top local station in the country in the #1 market in the country so I wanted it also because the numbers were 2nd to only Jim Rome. I responded to the President of WFAN by saying that I couldn't get him a larger budget than what was placed on Rome but I could come close. Our meeting ended as I informed both Brett and the president of WFAN to not hold their breath and I would see what I could do and come back to them with a reasonable offer.

I tried to convince Claude that the $1,000,000 commitment was reasonable and we should seriously consider offering WFAN at least $400,000. This was extremely tough for Claude to swallow. He could only relate to KNBR in San Francisco and KTCK in Dallas. Both of those stations BOS alone was spending in excess of $105,000 for a ten week campaign. Also Jim Rome had a weekly audience of 2,000,000 listeners; WFAN had about 1/5 of the audience. I emphasized the limitations that Premiere Radio had put on us by limiting us to one spot per day and with WFAN we would be running around 15-20 spots per week. This just never sank in with Claude and he told me to counter with $200,000 for WFAN but not a penny more. Unfortunately the deal died which I consider one of my biggest failures when it came to online gaming advertising. I should have pushed harder. Based on our results from Jim Rome I estimated WFAN with a $400,000 buy would have been 2nd to Rome and one of our top local stations.

The preparation for the 2001 campaign certainly took its toll on my personal life. I was committed to taking advantage of the opportunity afforded to me by BOS. I would work around the clock putting together schedules, lining up talent, writing scripts, negotiating terms for advertising with the media, traveling to radio stations, media companies, etc. By the time the 2001 ad season was to start I was prepared 10x over and could rattle off all of the stations we were on, the times when the spots were to play, the talent recording the spots or announcing them live, the rates, the talent fees, the sales representatives, the laws of each state, the terms of agreement, the ad copy, and the breakdowns based on each of the brands. I knew everything short of the station’s mascot and I knew some of those too. What I did that year they needed about 20 professionals to replace me. I also was paying bottom dollar which Claude loved and I did it by consolidating the dollars from all the brands. We also eliminated a lot of competition by consolidating dollars and setting up a group consisting of the sports books in the Mall San Pablo just like the BCS which reserves the top bowl games for the big money schools conferences and tries to shut out the small schools with less revenue.



*There are a lot of good and bad online gaming companies out there. If I were to recommend one where you can expect the best in customer service, get treated fairly and most importantly get paid with no run around I would recommend Diamond Sportsbook International. I am very familiar with them and know you will be treated with the utmost respect!

Chapter 4 pages 65-67

Tommy along with Chuck were two owners that appreciated my work, paid me with regularity and planned on having me around for years to come. I also really liked Tommy's family as his daughter and sons were both a joy to be around socially.
A couple other offices included MVP and Jaguar. Jaguar was interesting because they had considerable success in radio in San Diego County during 2000. I noticed it was the excitement of Arnie Spandier the afternoon host on Los Angeles 1150. Sonny the owner of Jaguar a social gentleman in his late 50’s was very nice but let me know that he was happy with his current agency, Bob Elkington out of Sherman Oaks, CA. It turned out that Bob would be one of my greatest allies in working with all the Mall San Pablo companies in 2001. Sonny would be the first of Claude’s partners to leave and he did so before the 2001 season. Turns out Claude accused Sonny of stealing which was the norm for Claude, who accused everyone of stealing as a way to establish fault on someone else before allegedly stealing their company. Rumor has it Claude locked Sonny out of his offices and took over the offices hiring a young guy named Tim Bradley out of Providence, Rhode Island.

Brad as I referred to him seemed to be a nice guy but then again I thought that about everyone. Some would disappoint me some would please me to know them. As great as it is to know Chuck it’s equally as disappointing to know Brad. Brad would later end up running a questionable online pharmacy out of the Dominican Republic for the Ripners and later be the head guy at another current gaming company. Rumor has it Claude stole the database from BOS after the company went public, tore up his non-compete agreement and opened up the doors to another gaming company. I approached the company as a prospective client and thought I would speak with Brad over the phone but he refused to take any of my phone calls or return any of my emails. I guess I must have upset him along the way in life. I am like any other human being and usually I tend to piss off women and authority figures. I never would have figured this with Brad. After he just moved from Providence down to Costa Rica I invited him out drinking more than a few times to help him get acquainted with Costa Rican social life. I also set him up on live interviews with WSKO sports talk radio in his hometown where he would talk sports betting on the air with the show’s hosts. This would prove to be great for his business partnership as the head of Jaguar sports with a heavy influx of new customers from the Rhode Island area. It also established a trend of utilizing contests to get complimentary programming time on the air in exchange for services which included betting account prizes from the sports books.

One of the ongoing list of problems with being a partner of Claude was his company, BOS was stealing from you. I was aware that the phone systems were set up to intercept calls going into the sales offices for all of the partners. People would call in for the partner companies of Infinity, Millennium and Gibraltar to the BOS sales office to sign up, instead of transferring the call the word was to sign them up. Jaguar usually avoided this since Claude owned 100% of Jaguar. When I informed Shaun of this he just gave me the keep quiet sign with the finger to the mouth and ssshhhhh. Other forms of deception would include charging for media and not paying the media company or the agent that was responsible for the media placement. This made the partners of Claude look bad and he would use bad performances against the other partners to squeeze them out of money. I have to assume this one on Shaun because one of his numerous excuses for not paying me included the partners were not paying which I doubted because the partners were always prompt on payments with me before Shaun force them to filter the payments through BOS.

More tough work was to come when I returned to Los Angeles. ABC/ESPN, Citadel, and Jefferson-Pilot were easy accounts to handle. The companies felt at ease accepting the business based on the contracts with Fox Sports Radio and the Jim Rome Show. There was some caution on the part of Clear Channel stations especially with XTRA Sports 690 and 1150 in southern California. Claude didn’t want to be on those stations considering he had knowingly stiffed them in 2000 and the stations had hesitation with taking the business from other online gaming companies closely related to BOS. XTRA 690 San Diego was in my opinion the best sports radio station in the country with great personalities that included Lee “Hacksaw” Hamilton and Steve Hartman of today’s XTRA Sports 570 in Los Angeles which is a combination of the old 1150 and 690. Hartman also co-hosts for a Los Angeles television network with the esteemed Jim Hill. XTRA 690 was the station the late Chet Forte from Monday Night football built and the station that put Jim Rome on the map en route to be the top sports program in the country. And I cannot pass up XTRA 690 without mentioning Bill Werndel, the best local on air product endorser I dealt with. I could not leave these stations out because I wanted to get my clients results and this would be a nice media platform for Infinity and Millennium to get out from under the shadow of BOS.

When I proposed Southern California during the first weeks of the 2001 football season, Chuck Bauer and Tommy Miller jumped all over the idea. They spent around $30,000 a week between the two southern California stations and the results were very positive.

Claude’s perception of California was a huge underestimation that was mind boggling considering the history of California and gambling. I proposed Southern California stations to the Claude and his response was, “The stations do not work, southern Californians are not gamblers, they play at the beach instead of betting on football”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Southern Californians built the gambling capital of the world, Las Vegas. I-15 was the original bloodline for money into Las Vegas and even today nearly 30% of the revenue generated in Las Vegas is from California. For many years it was more than 50%. Southern Californians gamble. Folks forget that there is more to Southern California than the beach bums in San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles counties. Riverside County, San Bernadino County and San Fernando Valley are not beach adjacent communities so filling up a sports bar with avid football fans is a common sight on Sundays in Southern California. Furthermore working in the beach adjacent southern California sports bar system during my early twenties it was standing room only on NFL Sundays and there were plenty of sports bar customers making phone calls on the payphone before cell phones became common.

Chapter 4 pages 62-64

After my proposal I was immediately passed around the San Pablo Mall to other holdings of Claude’s partners. That is when I started to really establish a great relationship with Chuck Bauer the owner of Infinity Sports Book and Casino, probably the smartest, most motivated online gaming owner in the industry at the time. We certainly do not see eye to eye on everything about the online gaming industry but we did agree on how to deal with customers. Treat them as if they are your lifeline. Chuck would leave Infinity a few years later to help out his mother after his beloved father passed. To this day I still believe in Chuck and I know his followers and employees believe in him as he is a top advisor for “BetOnline” today in Panama. He is also a young guy. He was in his late twenties when I met him in 2000. Chuck would regularly speak in person with his customers and would not get off the phone with any unhappy customer until they were happy. The offices of Infinity were small by comparison to BOS with wagering clerks, sales, customer service representatives, and linesmen all in the same room which was about 1500 square feet. Chuck was the only owner in the Mall San Pablo that paid me in full for my services. Chuck was everything that Claude wasn’t in a successful online gaming owner. He was respectful, humble, and good to his employees, not to mention he loved sports as much as I did. Ironically he isn’t even a citizen of the United States but dang he loves college football, especially SEC football and the legend of Paul “Bear” Bryant. His employees were much the same, charismatic, happy, enjoyable to be around and that is why when I wasn’t in the sales, VIP, or marketing offices of BetOnSports, I spent quite a bit of time down on the 6th floor with the good folks of Infinity who have mostly moved over to BetOnline based on referrals from Chuck Bauer.

As a matter of fact, I just spoke the other day with Andrew, the General Manager of BetOnline. Andrew is a friendly Jamaican fellow that had been around the Caribbean working for various online gaming companies. He came immediately when Chuck announced he was advising for BetOnline, and re-iterated my thoughts in a phone conversation about Chuck being a winner for the industry. What more would an employee want than a boss that takes care of his employees while walking the walk with hard work and getting the same performance out of his employees.

Chuck might have been the most personable person in the office and he was a workhorse. He didn’t always have time to spend out on the town for a young fellow. He did go out occasionally but Andrew took the role of leadership for Infinity when it came to going out on the town if Chuck was not present. He acted the part taking care of the hard working Infinity employees by buying them drinks while hanging out at the All-Star café across the street or at one of the many other establishments throughout San Jose.

When anyone asks me about a good online gaming company to play with I make sure to let them know about “BetOnline”. Chuck has a new name at BetOnline, as his buyout from BOS forced him to relinquish his name because it was very strong with his customers. If you call BetOnline with a problem there is a chance you will be speaking with Chuck and if not you will speak with one of his employees that represents themselves in the same manner Chuck does with the utmost respect for each and every person that might encounter a problem with their account.

I hate to say it but one person that I referred to Chuck beat him for about $23,000 while betting numerous money lines during the New England Patriots run to their first Super Bowl title in January of 2002. The guy got in and out quickly winning and never did give Infinity Sports Book and Casino a chance to win it back. Chuck paid the guy promptly upon request and I never heard any complaints. A few months later I am sitting around my friend’s apartment in Redondo Beach and he gets a personally signed letter from Chuck thanking him for his business. So that is exactly what you can expect from BetOnline these days great service and you get paid when you win with no stipulations or delays.

An example of good media and good business going hand in hand is BetOnline and www.Gambling911.com. I have read some great articles by Sting in favor of BetOnline. The articles seem to flow naturally because it’s so damn easy to talk about the truth as opposed to candy coating garbage. I have done both. I candy coated BOS till I couldn’t take it. As ugly as BetOnSports became there are great companies like BetOnline and great media like Rome and Gambling911.com.

Across the hall from Infinity was Tommy Miller at Millennium Sports book and casino. Tommy was a quiet small man with a very course voice due to years of smoking. Tommy when not busy was very interesting to speak with about his other ventures in Aruba and Curacao. Poor Tommy always talked about getting out of the online gaming business dating back to 2001 but his health was a problem as he suffered from cancer and needed the money to pay the medical bills. I also think Claude pressured him to stick around by his tactics with other owners that he ousted with no compensation. Tommy wanted to be as independent as possible from BOS by paying his own bills and dealing directly with me instead of working through BOS. He knew his place though around Claude as he was cast in a big shadow.

I thought Tommy was a nice guy but there was also hearsay that said otherwise. I heard rumors that he managed a company in Curacao and stole the database to start up Millennium in Costa Rica. He also apparently had a history of acquiring substantial amounts of prescription drugs and distributing them but again that is all hearsay.

Chapter 4 pages 59-62

Sadly to say I would have to deal with more ugly human realities over the course of the next year in the Mall San Pablo and have to buy a ticket for a Dutch girl that was fired by Millennium, one of the companies that was partnered with Claude. The girl was the mother of three children that was verified by her former employer, another client of mine at Royal Sports in Curacao.

As for business my main responsibility in Costa Rica during May of 2001 was to present to Claude a national electronic media campaign. I went down to the VIP room and Claude was as usual very quiet and stoic. I presented him with the Jim Rome Show, Fox Sports Radio and support by local radio with strategy of using all of their brands to fill up category limits for online gaming companies advertising on the stations to eliminate the competition along with utilizing the top local talent again eliminating competition while getting the first right of refusal for 2002. Neither, Claude or Shaun had any idea who Jim Rome was so I explained to them their familiarity with Rome was irrelevant and all that mattered was the 2 million avid sports junkies that listened to Rome every week. Then I compared Rome to print media that meant more than two issues of Maxim Magazine which had about a 750,000 circulation back then and the monthly costs for doing Rome was less than Maxim. That caught their interest and upon completing my proposal Claude lifted one finger and immediately Shaun gasped with eyes bulging out stunned that I had just gotten a one million dollar budget. Seconds later Claude raised a second than a third finger. I went down there really just hoping to get the budget for The Jim Rome Show of $500,000. I didn’t want to be embarrassed like I was in 1999 with Time Warner and Sports Illustrated. Getting $3,000,000 was beyond my wildest dreams and I was pre-planning in my mind to buy a house in the south bay of Los Angeles and taking my girlfriend and her son on vacation once I completed the 2001 campaign. My agreement with Claude was I would get 10% cash commission off of the top and I would get paid once the media was paid. The media was to be paid directly. The normal agency commission was 15% but my proposal with figures I received from the media were just too impressive. I believed this was going to be a financially lucrative year for all of the sacrifices I had made in the past for my business.

One thing for sure when it came to working with sports celebrities the Ripner’s were clueless. They requested a national endorser for the Rome show. I originally brought them the “Golden Boy”; NFL Hall of Famer, former Heisman Trophy winner out of Notre Dame and Vince Lombardi favorite Paul Hornung. When I first left Paul Hornung a message and he called back I immediately answered his every question with “Mr. Hornung”. The guy is a legend and I was in awe. All football fans should know him and those involved in sports gambling should know Paul Hornung since he was suspended for a season in the 1960’s for gambling. I told Shaun and Claude, Hornung wanted $100,000 for the endorsement deal but I had a hunch he would settle for $50,000. Shaun started laughing saying that no one was worth $100,000 to endorse and that they could get handicappers from Las Vegas to endorse BOS for a fraction of the price. This is true but then again you get what you pay for. Pay a premium for Paul Hornung who can make national news at anytime during the football season as the voice of Notre Dame Football or get Jim Fiest the annoying little fella that sends out obnoxious mailers to prospective gamblers around the country that has gotten more than a few guys in trouble from wives, parents and girlfriends.

Shaun and Claude had no idea who I was talking about in Paul Hornung and I am not sure they knew anything about Heisman Trophies, Notre Dame, the Packers or Vince Lombardi. To make matters worse Claude had this love affair for a Las Vegas handicapper with a slicked back thick head of hair and a cable television show with the production quality on par with the Saturday Night Live skit, “Wayne’s World”. The handicapper named Wayne allegedly got lucky with one of the customer service girls and Doogie would constantly ask the girl, “How was Wayne’s root?” With Mr. Las Vegas on the horizon my mind was now working hard to convince Claude to go with option number two, Steve “Mongo” McMichael. Mongo was fresh off an all-pro NFL career and was the top afternoon radio sports talk show host in Chicago after playing for years with the Bears. “Mongo” achieved national broadcasting fame with the World Wrestling Federation watched by millions on TNT and TBS. I ended up getting my way with a bit of concessions. The concessions were Mr. Las Vegas would do the television endorsements and Randy White the former Hall of Fame Defensive Tackle from the Dallas Cowboys would split the Rome show spots with “Mongo”. Now Randy has great football credentials but when it came to personality even in Texas, “Mongo” a former All-American at the University of Texas outdistanced Randy White by about 100-1 when it came to signing up new customers. As for the Mr. Vegas television experiment, it failed so miserably that BOS failed to capitalize on the power of television advertising which would launch Party Poker to the top of the food chain in the world of online gaming while BOS would plummet in the years to come after a key event in 2003. Had television shown signs of prominence than I believe Claude would have invested heavily into television. I made it a point to stay away from television due to the strategy which was similar to the early radio with bland ad creative. TV though in my opinion is the ultimate medium for gaining social acceptance in the US market.

Chapter 4 pages 57-59

I continued into the Central American night on a mission of whooping it up at an assortment of bars that would conclude at the Del Rey Hotel. Seeing that I was partying for two people (Tom and I), I picked up two beautiful black girls and brought them back to the apartment. By the time I got back to the apartment everyone was asleep. Meanwhile, I was fired up on hormones and alcohol. The good thing about my entry into the apartment was it was almost sunrise and Tom and DD would need to be eventually awakened by someone so they could head off to the airport. On the downside I am not sure they were expecting the ruckus that would ensue. DD always complained about the damn birds that were waking them up in the early morning just outside their window. She wanted to kill that bird. As bad as that little bird was it was not nearly as wild as being awakened by yours truly giving two Spanish speaking chocolate beauties some phallic discipline as I chased them out of the apartment while butt ass naked slapping them in the hind quarters with my manhood.

If the girlfriend were to ask me today in a profound President Bill Clinton response I could exclaim, “I did not have sex with two girls in Costa Rica!” I might have gotten a similar impeachment though for a lack of agreeable interpretation. Tom as usual was jovial and came out of his room laughing while DD wore the look of shock that she would soon get over and chalk up to more Costa Rican madness as she had seen plenty in the 12 months they spent in Central America. If only Tom and DD were witnesses to that act I would have been ok, but at the time a newcomer to BOS, a young 22 year old kid that would later become the customer service manager had just relocated from the UK and was living in the apartment also. The young man’s name was Jaime and he would become a longtime employee with BOS until the day they closed their doors as the head of customer service and the influential Jaime spread the legend. Heck, according to other executives at BOS Jaime picked up the slack when I was not around, staying out till the early hours of the morning and making a name for himself at the local brothels. I get a warm feeling in my heart knowing that there was at least one young kid that was influenced for better or worse by my actions outside of the BOS offices. Once in the office, even with sales I was exceptionally professional. I had a mentor also and he would end up taking his act on the road to Thailand. If Jaime is reading this he will be pleased to know that I have stepped up my act but with a little bit more class than our early encounters that bright sunny spring morning in 2001.

Four years later while having a very nice dinner in Costa Rica during a business trip with my boss, Lance Hanish from a Santa Monica ad firm, my longtime friend Johnny Ray or JR for short, a former executive with BOS, his wife Marilyn and their son Marty; this guy comes up to the table and soon as he hears my name blasts out a robust “BLACKSAW!!!!”. Then he went right into the story of the two black girls and my phallic discipline chasing these two girls out of the apartment, down the stairs and past the security guard to catch a taxi in the early hours of Tom’s escape from Costa Rica without a stitch of clothing on my bare ass. I am not sure if the boss heard the guy speaking because I immediately jumped in trying to drown the guy out and doing my best to shush the guy.

The guy’s name was Eddie King, a local radio DJ that did internet radio for an online gaming company. When I returned to Southern California I listened to his show regularly a couple of times a week for an hour a day when I could. He had a great show. It’s too bad his employer let him quit because he was great on the air. We would often email each other during commercials as we shared laughs about our perception of life in Costa Rica which could be just as twisted as that morning when Blacksaw was borne. Sometimes while he knew I was listening he wouldn’t bother with the email and just say exactly what he had to say to me over the airwaves. Not sure what Mr. King is doing these days but he should be on the air for an online gaming company because he could draw a crowd. He certainly didn't like Jim Rome out of professional competitiveness. I think with the right platform and dedication to the craft Eddie could draw a better crowd and compete with Rome. But that is a big “if” because Rome is proven. Much like you hear about great playground basketball players that should be in the NBA; if those players made the sacrifices to be the best they would be there, those that come up short just don’t always make the sacrifices.

In regards to Tom, George took him to the airport for his final departure from the San Jose International Airport. Later Shaun was considerate enough to say what I did was nice while re-iterating that Tom and DD were adults and not BOS’s responsibility to take care of them. Just a sign that Shaun might not be a total ass and has what I thought was a glimmer of human decency. As a business owner myself if someone in my company makes a mistake than as the owner I have to take responsibility because I hired them. If I promise someone to fly them to and from a specific job I don’t fly them in and then tell them once the job is finished they are on their own. People have different perceptions on how to run a business and part of the greater Ripner family business plan included, once you get everything you can out of someone despite any prior agreements you are not responsible to uphold your end of the bargain because it might cost money, every penny that is not paid is another penny maintained in the grander scheme of becoming a billionaire. I wondered if $50,000,000 was not enough to live off of by the Ripner needs.

Chapter 4 pages 52-57

Although Corky deceived me on ad creative, she was integral with her persistence of low rates and was the first person I ever heard coin the term, “BOS”. She constantly referred to BetOnSports as BOS and the term would eventually stick. Prior to BetOnSports and BOS they were known as the North American Sports Betting Company or NASCO. Claude loved that name.

Now I had the Rome show, Fox Sports, and just about every major local radio station ready for my pending presentation that I would reveal in my upcoming trip to Costa Rica in May of 2001. I presented to Claude my strategy of focusing on national radio advertising and supporting it with local programming. I flew down to Costa Rica and stayed at the same three bedroom apartment I was at before with Tom and DD. This time when I came to the airport there was Tom with a big grin waiting for me with one of the Tico employees driving. Tom was a super friend and a great salesman. He supplied me with plenty of first hand information from customers after I had left my first trip to Costa Rica which only lasted until early September of 2000.

Unfortunately, Tom a 45 year old worn out party veteran was suffering from the Costa Rican nightlife. On our last trip we often went out drinking and smoking some of Costa Rica’s finest. This time I was stunned to see Tom in really bad shape. He was throwing up at the office, falling down in the office. It was a bad situation. Meanwhile Claude and Shaun ignored the problem Tom was having as an employee. According to Shaun, Tom was not needed until the start of football season. This annoyed me because the sales employees were flown into Costa Rica with the agreement that when their services were completed they would be flown home upon their request when they completed the season. Tom was certainly entitled to this respect considering he was one of the finest salesmen in the office bringing in millions of dollars in new accounts. I was appalled by Shaun’s response to the problem when I brought it up.

On top of Tom's health problems neither he nor DD had much money considering the simple wages they earned. An airplane ticket home would cost them over a week's worth of work. An argument could be made that Tom didn’t help matters by spending all of his money on booze but that wasn’t true. Tom was actually very frugal in spending money and would usually buy a couple of small bottles of guaro or vodka and chug them without the benefit of a mixer from the local discount stores on the lowest floor of the Mall San Pablo. So he was not paying bar prices by any means and if he did go out to the bars he would spend nothing more than a few thousand colones or $10 – 20 at most making sure he chugged a few beers before heading out and usually did the brown paper bag walk en route to the bars. DD did her best to save by cooking at home and managing the dollars so they could buy a couple of plane tickets back home. But the reality that faced them at home was they would have no money to get an apartment, car, or anything else due to their dilapidated funds. The choice for Tom and DD was let Tom kill himself with booze or fly back home and than once they got home it's live with the parents or be homeless. Watching the Ripner’s neglect this responsibility sickened me.

I was making decent money and was due a lot more plus I had a nice comfortable home situation back in Torrance, California with my lovely girlfriend Odinga, her son, Deron whom I took on the fatherly role and our family pet, my personal pride and joy “Sparky” a Halloween born mutt that came out of an alley exactly 1 block away from where the 1992 LA riots in South Central Los Angeles erupted. She has the softest fur with a lovable friendly demeanor that endeared her to all the dogs and people in the neighborhood. Meanwhile back to reality in Costa Rica, Tom was in bad shape. I couldn’t stand seeing him drink himself to death anymore. I took on the responsibility of getting Tom and DD two tickets to Arizona so they would have enough money to get an apartment when they got home.

I knew Tom and DD were going to be taking off a day before me in the spring of 2001. I figured it’s time to go out with a bang! Tom and I ended up starting out at the All-Star Cafe, where Tom faded fast and opted out with an early night. He was in horrible shape and just couldn't handle one more drink. Since Tom couldn’t hold up his end of the bargain with the drinking, carousing and playing around I pledged to him that night I would honor him by pulling double time. This was probably the night that the legend of Blacksaw took full flight. I had been nicknamed Hacksaw during the 2000 football season and during the spring Doogie and Joel started calling me Blacksaw for my love of women. My girlfriend was born in Zaire with a deep dark skin tone and I love the Williams sisters in tennis, especially Serena. More times than I can count while having sex I fantasized about Serena Williams. Thank you Serena and sorry to any women I have offended.

Chapter 4 pages 52-55

I have always believed living in Los Angeles was the key because there were no other representatives of the industry actively pushing online gaming business like myself at the time on US soil that travelled with regularity to see the clients in foreign territories. Unlike most of the marketing executives in the industry I was very confident that I was conducting business with the highest of ethics and at no time did I break any laws, thus had no fear of backlash by authorities. I believed in the online gaming industry. I still do today although I feel it has been necessary for the US government to put up opposition since the industry has failed to take initiative to give back to the country that is its greatest supporter. The citizens of the United States made the online gaming industry what it is today. Thus the citizens of the United States should get some programs funded by online gaming for all of their support. Business is not all about taking, you have to give back and most of the industry has failed to do so. There are some very good companies in the industry that have shown excellent charitable contributions to US charities which should be acknowledged.

The Jim Rome show was a major prize for BOS considering less than two years earlier the online gaming industry was banned by the Jim Rome Show. Rome is about as anti-gambling as one can be always blasting gamblers as being less than desirable but the fact is the jungle dwellers that listen to the Rome show are gamblers. I think the gambling jungle dwellers enjoy the abuse that Jim gives them on the air much like a high powered executive enjoys an occasional ass whipping from a pint sized dominatrix. I met Jim Rome on the elevator at the Sherman Oaks studios along with other members of his team. While on the elevator Mr. Rome with the big voice was none too happy to know that I wasn’t going to use the complimentary tickets to his Tour Stop in Phoenix but would instead opt to meet up with a friend I hadn’t seen in years to play some golf. I am not sure whether Rome was being sarcastic or just joking when he asked Kraig if he could have the day off to go golfing instead of doing his tour stop. He might have been a bit spiteful considering he knew I was representing an industry that he loathed. Needless to say his first impression was not that great but bottom line, his show is the best in sports radio based on the number of listeners he draws and the talent that his team gets to do interviews. Also the world of gambling needs guys like Rome to instill the order or checks and balances. If no one ever questioned gambling than I believe fixed games would be far more prevalent.


The Rome show led to an immediate referral to Fox Sports Radio, which took the business immediately. Now we had two major names in sports media that would aid in opening up the doors to numerous other media companies throughout the United States. The 2nd phase of my plan was to go after all the local sports radio programming throughout the country. I was able to communicate through hundreds of radio stations by subcontracting with national media buyers for the major conglomerates of Clear Channel, ABC/ESPN, Infinity Broadcasting owned by CBS Global Media, Susquehanna, Citadel, Entercomm, Jefferson-Pilot and other independent stations throughout the US along with handling quite a few stations personally.
The account executive for Premiere Radio, Jerry Stehney was great. In good faith he made an introduction to a network of radio media buyers in Los Angeles which firm I will not name due to the lack of professionalism by one person led by Corky Flynt. Corky was a fast talking female in her 40’s that had been around the radio game for some time. She had great contacts and she really did a bang up job. Her problem though is she didn't care about the client only the money and almost cost me the account due to her deceitful nature. She just wanted to get spots on the air rather than getting approved spots on the air. One of many problems with online gaming advertising is one has to be very respectful on how they present themselves to both media companies and the public. Gambling is a lucrative business, just short of a license to print cash and you do not want to step on any toes or upset any anti-gambling groups because it’s too easy to run a clean business. So I had to get ad copy that was approved by both BOS and the media. This was no easy task and Miss Flynt certainly was not up to the task and she tried to force the square peg into the round hole by submitting non-approved radio ad copy hoping that the client down in Costa Rica would never hear the spots. Claude might not have been a marketing genius but he paid close attention to details when it came to getting a return on investments and knowing what advertising was representing his company in the US would never be an oversight. He called for stations to send ad copy of the creative or taped spots. When they started coming in I was extremely embarrassed, angry, and upset.

Fortunately Corky's top media buyer and my whipping boy of the time was the national sales representative for Infinity Broadcasting, Brett Rateaver. I questioned Brett's character for giving me a really inflated bad rate on one station that was a 1000% higher than what another sports book was getting. He went from goat to my own personal hero with the way he cleaned up Corky's mess after I relieved her of duties and Brett oversaw the 5 other national media buyers. Through adversity Brett came through with flying colors displaying the utmost professionalism despite our early disagreements. I apologized to him later for making harsh remarks towards him about what I thought were unprofessional tactics. I assume Brett made a lot of money off of the BetOnSports account. He forgave me over the phone but I feel the need to come out with a public admission stating that if you ever run across Brett Rateaver from Infinity Broadcasting or formerly from Infinity Broadcasting, you should want to do business with him because he goes the extra mile and then some. Everyone makes mistakes but professionalism is priceless and Brett is one hard working professional.

Chapter 4 pages 50-52

Chapter 4
Online Gaming, Big Businesses,
Big Business



I did such a bang up job on cleaning up the half million dollar radio investment in 2000 that Shaun called me while I was still in Tampa the day after the Super Bowl between the Baltimore Ravens and the NY Giants. I was nursing the hangover of Super Bowl week when Shaun informed me I would be their agency of record for radio and as much media as I could acquire them. Unlike US businesses the offshore gaming companies would say get as much as possible. Then you would do exactly that and often they didn’t have the money to invest in the early years. When you asked for a budget they were raw stating if something works they would invest. One had to get used to these communications because working with US businesses, most of them have a budget in mind. Back then if you were told to get as much as you could and submitted a budget for a million dollars most of the companies would back out.

My focus at the time was electronic but was not limited to that media alone. I was free to do billboards, print, etc. but electronic was where I felt the client was best served since there were limited competitors. One thing about the Ripners they were advocates of being at work early and got the jump on the rest of the industry preparing back in February for the 2001 season. Sports Books had a window for success in advertising; 80% of the customers sign up between late August and October that coincided with the start of football season with the first two weeks of September as the peak for new sign-ups. As the industry has evolved the public is more used to online gaming sites and sign ups are more spread out.

I dove into the 2001 campaigns with a greater passion than anything in my life including sports which was my lifelong love. I enjoyed the challenges in the upcoming months working all night to achieve a goal of putting together the best ad campaign the industry had ever seen, which I would accomplish. My strategy was to go after every major sports radio station in the United States starting out with the national shows than supporting them with local shows. I also had the ability to place media for other brands owned by BOS that included Millennium, Infinity, and Jaguar.

My immediate strategy was to lock up the largest national sports talk show in the country. The Jim Rome show. I worked tirelessly for the first few months making frequent trips from my home in Torrance, California to Sherman Oaks and other locations in the south bay to meet up with media executive Jerry Stehney. I convinced Shaun to budget $500,000 for the Jim Rome show and would get approval. The $500,000 commitment for 13 weeks was enough for Jerry to get me in front of Kraig Kichen, the President of Premiere Radio. I came into Kraig’s office one day dressed in total California business wear of shorts, loafers and polo shirt. I would never dress again like this for a major media executive but I was extremely confident and prepared to present to Kraig. I also wanted to portray the image of the industry which at the time was extremely laid back. Kraig is a brilliant businessman.

After all he is the leader of a company that put together national programming that includes Rush Limbaugh, Jim Rome, Art Bell and Dr. Laura Schlesinger (who karate kicked me). I think the five foot tall Dr. Laura was taking a kick boxing class or something and wanting to see how high her leg could kick. I got a good giggle of out her playful aggression towards me in the building lobby as did she.

Kraig did his homework on BOS and I shared with him the short history of the industry and the importance of doing business with an industry leader as opposed to a non-established company that could be embarrassing had they failed to hold up their end of the bargain and pay winners. At the time I was sold on the legitimacy of BOS and I sold it to Kraig. I did this despite the default on payment one year prior to Clear Channel stations XTRA Sports 690 and 1150 in San Diego and Los Angeles respectively which were affiliates of the Jim Rome Show. I asked Shaun about this default and he claimed the agency kept the money and defaulted. Knowing Shaun now, I have to assume he lied to me. At the time I trusted Shaun and probably was blinded by my own greed too. Kraig knew about the default and was adamant about payment up front or no deal.

Kraig shared with me the reasons on why he took the business:

1. I provided him with precedence of working with a station that had previous prohibitions with assumed laws in the state of Florida with WQAM in Miami. In 2000 I broke down the barriers with WQAM and this laid a lot of groundwork to work with bigger and better programming.

2. I provided him with a legal document out of the Cornell University law website on the New Orleans Broadcasters Association versus the United States.

3. $500,000 up front.

4. I lived in Los Angeles County and if he had any problems he didn’t need to worry about international borders because he could easily locate me.