House of Strauss

Eric (@HLinsight) is a real life pro sports gambler. He also has profound reservations about sports gambling’s introduction to the mainstream. I can confidently say that the conversation you’re about to listen to isn’t happening at any of the other mainstream sports media sites. This is a candid look at why betting sports, as fun as it is, is mostly a sucker’s bet.

Topics include…

* Parlays and other tricks apps use to keep you hooked

* How the limiting of winners makes sustained success nearly impossible

* Tout scams, busty pick advice, and other ways to get rich off worthless tips

* Sports bet advertising that targets youth

* Betting on games vs. events that are determined by inside info (Draft picks)

* Can games be rigged in this era due to gambling?

* Pro social gambling vs. anti social gambling

* How do we feel about betting on the 2024 election? Good opportunities there?

House of Strauss is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe

In addition to being co-host of the Light Years podcast, Saam is tasked with running Creator Growth at Playback, an interactive sports streamer app. This means that a lot of this millennial’s waking hours are spent on trying to figure out the sports viewership habits of Zoomers.

This is the foundation of our conversation in this pod: What’s up with young people? What programs are they gravitating to and why? And are their habits upending traditional notions of what “mainstream” media even is? But first, true to Bay Area form, we start with expressing our annoyance at the conventional takes of Purdy-hating, “NFL Film Watchers.”

Topics include…

* “Film Watchers” don’t have an edge on the data

* Is NFL Twitter worse for the fake smart takes than NBA Twitter

* How the beat writer has to pretend to not care if the team loses

* Ya, I cared when the Warriors lost

* My regret over my ESPN the Magazine Draymond “hit piece”

* How ESPN cut the Nike loses Steph Curry article from the Magazine

* Will Compton farting at the Washington Post over his Bussin’ with the Boys Trump interview

* Legacy media trying to recap these Trump and Harris Youtube show interviews

* The filming over everything makes athletes more paranoid in the locker room now.

House of Strauss is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe

My live video with Chris Best is available here as well, so it seems. Great talk, enjoyed being the one who answers the Qs this time.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe

Your guy Big Wos is back, with candid takes on the state of NBA media. This was a great conversation wherein we discussed the following:

* A variety of ESPN NBA moves (Woj leaving, Lowe ousted, Shams hired)

* Shams on First Take shows why we didn’t really need Woj anymore

* Why does ESPN value news breaking so much!

* I can now freely say that Brian Windhorst is great

* The friendly fire of an ESPN article attacking ESPN host Kendrick Perkins over his NIL business

* Is Perkins’ business sleazier than SOP for college education loans?

* Will we see more Matthew Sluka situations where players simply quit over NIL issues?

House of Strauss is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.houseofstrauss.com

When Tim Kawakami and I get together, we’re going to talk sports media. Considering that Tim just recently left the Athletic, where used to be my boss, and joined the ambitious SF Standard, we’ve got much to discuss. Also, for those who like Niners talk, we’ve got a whole lot of it in the back half of this pod. My teaser is that Tim dispels a commonly believed false notion or two. Enjoy!

Nate Jones, NBA agent and footwear entrepreneur at Move Insoles, is here to discuss a shocking corporate ouster at Nike. We get into how Nike modernized at its own expense, lost core customers, and ultimately fired a CEO they were just recently so enamored with. What lessons can be learned from the shoe apparel giant’s issues? What parallels do we see to recent problems at Disney and overall entertainment? Is this what happens when a corporation sacrifices art in pursuit of efficiency?

Oh, and we also discuss why the hell Nike’s not making more of the Caitlin Clark moment. Enjoy..

House of Strauss is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe

Big content Friday at HoS! Today we’ve got YouTube superstar Saagar Enjeti on to discuss content trends. Saagar has been steadfast about not doing ads to support his business. What’s behind that philosophy? And why is he thrilled about the prospect of legacy media’s demise? Also, Saagar asks me some questions about what’s going on in the sports media space. Enjoy!

House of Strauss is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.houseofstrauss.com

Had a fantastic time catching up with our friend Moynihan, co-host of The Fifth Column and all around podcasting force at The Free Press.

This podcast is roughly two hours, one of which we’re making free. For whatever reason, we found the World War 2 revisionism controversy of Daryl Cooper on Tucker Carlson to be a fruitful subject. Why did the political horseshoe arrive at trashing Winston Churchill?

Topics include but aren’t limited to…

* Today’s protestors are physically weak compared to the high T 60’s protestors

* How television shook up America in the 1960s

* Jonestown

* The Martyr Made Hitler vs. Churchill imbroglio

* The “theyification” of Tucker Carlson

* Can a “founding myth” be mostly real?

* We’ve exited peak “wokeness.” Is that simply the result of Elon Musk buying Twitter?

* What are the free speech implications of American culture getting shifted by one guy’s impact on one social media platform?

* Can Michael draw a line between his old shop Vice collapsing and Republicans doing better with young males?

* Jesse Jackson

Sports Analytics King Neil Paine is on to address some of the questions on our mutual minds. Am I correct that people are less into politics this election? Is Kamala Harris a classic backup QB promotion? Is baseball back in American culture (Thanks to Judge and Ohtani)? Is Ohtani paradoxically more fun now that he’s not pitching? Is Aaron Rodgers too old to be good? Is a “system quarterback” even a real thing? What NFL players have “shadow value”? We discussed these subjects and much more in a talk that was, in my opinion, quite enjoyable.

House of Strauss is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe

Ryan Glasspiegel is back, and we’ve got many a media topic to discuss. Did politics influence the Samantha Ponder ouster at ESPN (I say ‘no’)? What do we make of the presidential betting odds? How do we feel about how politics is all “vibes” and no substance these days? Topics include but aren’t limited to…

* Sam Ponder: Was there any politics aspect to the ESPN firing?

* Defending Pat McAfee against Awful Announcing

* Trump/Kamala gambling odds

* What's more important in elections: vibes or policy?

* I am fascinated by the character that is Tim Walz

* FS1 shakeup

* Simmons/Klosterman and the gambling topic

* Ryan has another WBD/NBA lawsuit prediction

* Am I a Caleb Williams skeptic amid the hype?

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.houseofstrauss.com/subscribe