This week is the beginning of the baseball season. To celebrate, I’ve decided to touch the third rail. Baseball has long banned gambling to preserve the integrity of the game. This made a ton of sense historically because of the fear that players would gamble to lose games rather than Continue Reading
March Madness and the Middle East
It’s that time of year again, where everyone who doesn’t pay attention to basketball all season long pretends they’re an expert and fills out a tournament bracket. I’ll get to some thoughts on this year’s field a little later, but this March is a little madder than usual given events Continue Reading
Debunking Super Bowl Quarterback Myths
Since it’s Super Bowl week, I decided to update some data analysis around how Super Bowl teams acquire their starting quarterback. There is a widely held view that you have to have a “franchise” quarterback like a Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes. Don’t get me wrong – that helps a Continue Reading
Christian McCaffrey: A Case Study In Risk Management
Risk management doesn’t just apply to insurance or investing. It is necessary in anything from managing your health (should I eat that fried Twinkie?) to managing supply chains (do we need a backup supplier?). Today I am going to discuss how risk management can help you win your fantasy football Continue Reading
Is Private Equity Buying Into Peak NFL?
Editor’s Note: My annual NFL predictions follow at the end of this article. The NFL recently confirmed that they will let private equity buy small stakes in NFL teams. This caused much consternation that private equity will somehow ruin the NFL. Today, I will argue the opposite. Buying into the Continue Reading
Why It’s The Perfect Time For The NBA To Cut To 65 Games
With the NBA season coming to a close, the last big piece of news before next season is the finalization of the new TV contracts. We know TV revenue will go up dramatically, which creates a golden opportunity to rethink the economics of the sport. My proposal is to reduce Continue Reading
How to Reform Sports Gambling
Sports gambling is spiraling out of control, sort of like, well, an addict spiraling towards rock bottom. In just the last few weeks alone, there have been scandals about a NBA player sabotaging his performance to win bets, a finance employee for the Jacksonville Jaguars stealing tens of millions from Continue Reading
Introducing Ohtani Life & Annuity
Shohei Ohtani recently signed the biggest contract in baseball history at 10 years for $700M. However, it wasn’t quite as big as it seemed. He deferred most of his money for ten years which, at a 4.4% discount rate, means he will earn the equivalent of $460M over ten years. Continue Reading
NFL Season Predictions and Fantasy Draft Advice
I know a lot of people are drafting their fantasy football teams this weekend and I just looked back and it’s been one, two, three, wow, four years since I wrote my tips to win your league. So I thought I’d do a quick update for the holiday weekend and Continue Reading
How the Saudis Can Ruin American Football
We’re going to do a non-insurance post today with football season approaching. The Saudis have “disrupted” golf and are looking to do the same to soccer. Could they do the same to pro football? It seems impossible but…it’s actually not that hard once you take a moment to think about Continue Reading