Episode 0048 - Preview of the 2019 Betting on Sports America Conference in New Jersey

In this episode of the Knup Sports Show -- Ryan does a short "preview" of the 2019 Betting on Sports America conference that takes place April 23-25 in New Jersey at the Meadowlands.

Show Notes

 

Ryan Knuppel: 00:00 Hey what's up guys? It's Ryan Knuppel here, host of the Knup Sports Show. I'm back. Today, it's a pretty cool episode. Today I don't have anybody on. I'm not talking to anybody. I am simply going to preview the Betting on Sports America Conference. I'm heading to this conference next week. Today as I'm recording it is Wednesday. I am heading next week on Monday flying out to New York New Jersey heading to this conference, and I couldn't be more excited for it. First of all, thanks for tuning in. I appreciate each and every one of you listening to this. It means a lot to me to grow listeners to this podcast. I mean podcasting is something it comes natural to me. I love talking, I love talking sports. I love talking to people with people. It's kind of a natural progression of what I do offering content to people. My business kind of creates podcast content, video for others. This kind of serves as my home court, my home field, my home turf of podcasting. Thanks for tuning in, I appreciate it.

Ryan Knuppel: 00:59 Again, today all I'm going to do is just talk. I'm talking about the Betting on Sports America conference. I'm super excited for this thing. I mean I've been in this industry now for gosh 15 years in some way or another. It's kind of funny because over the last 10 15 years, I've kind of been pretty quiet about it. I don't know if that's because it's always sports betting has always kind of been frowned upon or illegal in the United States. When people ask me what I do, I've kind of been a little shyer about it. "I write about sports. I'm in the sports industry" and usually leave out the sports betting detail. That's always kind of felt weird to me, like I'm trying to hide something, or like it's not a real business which obviously I'm making mid six figures with my business and having a great, great growth pattern, great success that it obviously is a business. Just talking about it being in the sports betting area has been just harder for me I guess.

Ryan Knuppel: 01:56 Now, it's really ironic and really fun to see where the industry is moving here in the United States. Now, all of a sudden it's mainstream. Everybody's talking about sports betting and how it's legalizing in different states, and how "Now we're going to be able to bet from anywhere." I'm sitting here in my mind like, "Yeah this is my life. This is what I've lived for the past 15 years." All these conversations that are starting to happen now, these new sites popping up, these new people joining in the conversation is really exciting to me. It's really kind of given me new life and new purpose in this industry. This conference I mean it's set up to be the biggest in the United States so far, like 175 speakers all lined up, 60 exhibitors, I think over 1500 attendees are going to be there. There's going to be like 100 plus sports betting operators, sports clubs, all sorts of people are going to be there.

Ryan Knuppel: 02:52 The coolest part is there's going to be people that I haven't met in person but I've worked with online for years over a decade in some cases. I already have several people that I'm lined up to meet, super excited to meet them in person when I'm going. That's really why I'm going. I'm super excited to go. My wife and I are going to go. She's not going to attend all the conferences, but she is going to the networking events. I had to buy a little special ticket for her. She can go to the conference, but she's probably just going to go to the networking events, since they are in pretty cool spots. I'll tell you a little bit more about those in a second. Let's preview this event a little bit. Let's talk about it before I go and then again I'll join on and I'll kind of give you a recap of how it went. First of all, where is it at?

Ryan Knuppel: 03:37 It's at the Meadowlands Expo in New Jersey. Never been there, never been up north east, so I'm super excited to go to New Jersey and New York area. This venue should be first class, should be awesome. Like I said, I've never been there, so we're going to see what's up. Also heading to New York, like I said some of the networking events are down there. I'll talk about those in a second. I'm heading down there a few times. Then after the event, my wife and I are staying for two to three more days, and we're just going to experience New York. We're going to stay in Manhattan, go check out Central Park, do all the tourist-y stuff that you would do down there. If any of you listeners have great restaurants or are possibly in New York, hit me up. I'd love to hear what you have to say there. Shoot me a message on social media wherever you can find me anywhere, @ryanknuppel or at Knup Sports, at Knup Solutions wherever you want to find me. Let me know what should I do in New York?

Ryan Knuppel: 04:30 What should I see in my two, three days that I'm there after the event? Excited about that. I mean the schedule of this event it's really a three day event. It's Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday for the most part. Tuesday is kind of slow. It's going to be more, I think there's a sports betting master class that I'm really looking forward to going to. How much this really applies to me I don't know, but I'm here to learn guys. I just want to learn. I want to soak it all up. I want to understand what people are talking about in the space. There's a betting masterclass that's going to look at how odds are formed and things like that, things that I probably already know, but now they're teaching the United States people and sports book operators and upcoming people how this stuff works. I'm really curious to hear what that's all about.

Ryan Knuppel: 05:14 I think there's a esports insider thing. I'm not a big esports guy but hey, I may sit in and listen as well. Then the big piece on Tuesday night is the pre registration networking free drinks at the 40/40 Club, Jay-Z's club in New York. That's going to be awesome. I'll talk again about that in a bit. Then on Wednesday really the fun begins. The exhibit's open, a bunch of tracks you can go to, a bunch of conferences that just has a whole number of tracks that you can pick and choose from and pop into and go to. I haven't laid out my detailed schedule on what I'm doing as far as tracks go, but I'm sure I'll pop into many of them, learn so many things, and go from there. There's an affiliate insider master class, I'm excited to hear this. I've been in the affiliate space forever. I serve many affiliates, I work with affiliates. All my clients are affiliates or many of them. This is going to be a good one. I'm excited to learn something here and hopefully take something back to my clients from this as well.

Ryan Knuppel: 06:16 Then there's more networking afterwards I think at the Meadowlands rooftop bar that night for the official party and reception. Then we fast forward to Thursday and there's more tracks, the sports betting track, a state of the nation track, demystifying sports betting track. There's a whole bunch of different sessions in there that I'm going to go there as well to learn and just learn more, and then a closing networking party at the Sky Room in New York. This is supposed to be one of the most beautiful roof top bars in New York going from there. Then on Friday, I think there is a horse racing networking event, but I'm probably not going to that unless the week goes differently than planned and all of a sudden I need to go to this or want to go to this. We'll see how that goes. As far as the speakers go, like I said, there's over 170 of them. There's a ton of speakers that are speaking in some manner at this event.

Ryan Knuppel: 07:09 There's a whole number that I'm really excited to hear, probably a list of 30 40 already that I have that I'm like, "Man I want to hear them. I want to talk to them." A couple of them I'll give you why and maybe a couple stories about why I want to talk to them or hear them speak. I'm excited for Ryan Howard and Brian Westbrook being a part of that Capital group that's going to talk. For one, I mean I'm kind of from the mid west and Ryan Howard is a St. Louis guy. I've been a baseball fan forever, so excited to hear what he has to say being an ex pro athlete. Brian Westbrook I have friends here in Orlando that are really good friends with Brian, so I'm excited to kind of talk to him and let him know that I have common friends, common interests and common friends back here in Orlando.

Ryan Knuppel: 07:53 Then another one I want to hear is [Nick Bonaddio 00:07:56] from [Fanduel 00:07:57] Group. I've had him on a podcast interview in the past on this show actually, and talked to Nick back I don't know it was probably a year ago. I'm excited to connect with him in person, talk to him after he speaks and just see what he has going on. I'm excited to hear from Brian Musburger of the VSiN Network. I mean I know that's an exploding area, exploding network, so I'm excited to hear what he has to say. Then there's just guys in the industry.

Ryan Knuppel: 08:21 There's guys that are, I'm a media guy, I'm talking, I'm writing, I'm in the content business. Chris Grove, Dustin Gouker, Brett Smiley, Dan Back all these kinds of guys I mean there's hundreds of them at this event. Those are some of the names that I'm excited to hear what they have to say and meet them in person. Some of them I have already met, but I'm excited to meet others in person as well as we go. Again, the speaker list is huge. I'll put a link in the show notes here of all the speakers that are out there and of the agenda of this thing so you can check it out. It's going to be quite an experience and quite and event. I'm really excited about it.

Ryan Knuppel: 08:59 Now, I think the biggest piece that I'm excited about, and probably the biggest reason I'm going is for the networking. I love to network. I think in this industry in any industry it's true that your net worth is your network. I'm excited to meet people. I'm excited to connect with people. I'm excited to connect others with other people. That's one thing that I enjoy doing, meeting people, understanding what they need, and then looking into my extended network and seeing who can help them. Even if it's not me that can help them, sometimes it is, but sometimes it's not. Sometimes I have somebody in my network that can help them. I'm excited to do a lot of that and just connect people with the right people from this event, and do what I can my small part in the networking space. I'm going to attend all those events. I'm going to be there the whole time, very excited.

Ryan Knuppel: 09:46 The first one like I said, Jay-Z's trendy sports bar. Oh man, I cannot wait for this. In New York City, never been to New York I mean let alone going to a Jay-Z sports bar. It's going to be awesome. It looks like a great place. Like I said, my wife is going to be able to go with me, so she'll be able to experience all of this as well. If you're going to be there, if you're listening to this and you're going to be there, please, please, please look me up, shoot me a message. Let's find the time to connect at any of these networking events. Even if we just talk for a few minutes, I'd love to say hello and just get to know you and understand what you are doing in this industry. Again, it's a fun industry, and I've been in it a long time. Now, I'm really interested in what you're doing as well. The second one is the Betting on Sports America official networking party.

Ryan Knuppel: 10:29 This is right there at the Meadowlands I believe it's a roof top networking party. It's the home of the FanDuel Sportsbook, they're in New Jersey. We're going to kind of get a behind the scenes tour of the Sportsbook. We're going to see some awesome views of The Hudson, to The Manhattan, complimentary food and drinks of course. We're just excited for this one as well. That's on I believe on Wednesday. Then on Thursday is the closing networking party. This one is from the roof top bar in Manhattan at the Sky Room, that's going to be amazing as well. Again, complimentary food and drinks, the sports betting hall of fame right around there. That's going to be cool to see. Oh man, just all sorts of great experiences and great times. If you're at any of these, if you're planning on going to any of these, please hit me up, holler at me. I'd love to get together with you. What are my goals of this? Why am I going to this event? Why am I so excited about this event?

Ryan Knuppel: 11:20 I've kind of talked about most of this already, but let me lay out what my goals are for this event. First of all, as I just said from the networking, I want to meet and connect with as many people as possible. I have already started a list. I'm a planner, I'm an organizer. I'm a kind of a freak type project managing guy. I've already started a list of people and when I'm going to meet them, how I'm going to meet them, when I'm going to connect with them. You're probably already on that list, but if you're not, please let me know if you're going to be there, holler at me and we will connect and talk and understand how maybe we can help each other. You never know, the more people you talk to, the more understanding of others you are, and the more ways you can figure out how to help each other get to where you want to be in business. Then the second reason I'm there is to get to where I want to be in business, right?

Ryan Knuppel: 12:07 I mean again, I provide content. My business provides content in this space. I do consulting. I want to become a speaker, all of the stuff in the sports betting industry. I'm going here to find new clients. I'd love to find some new work. I'd love to partner with some people and provide content for them, do some consulting for them, speak at their events. I'm going to connect and really find more work. I'd love to grow at this event. I can't imagine a better spot, a place where hundreds or thousands of people in my niche are going to be ... oh man, it's just going to be amazing. I can't wait. I really hope to grow a few clients and go from there. The third reason is to simply learn. I want to learn everything I can. I want to soak up all of the information and advice and tips that come from this. Even if it's not necessarily in my wheelhouse, I think the more you know, the wider your knowledge base is, the more powerful you are.

Ryan Knuppel: 13:03 I'm excited to learn just learn all about the sports betting industry. I feel like I know a lot, but you can never know it all. Understanding how New Jersey is doing with the legalized sports betting, what other states are coming on board, and just how that whole thing is working is very intriguing to me. Excited to learn from all the experts here at this event. Then lastly, I mean it's kind of a goal of mine to speak at this event next year. I'm kind of going to try to connect with people. I'm going to soak up every ounce of how this works. Hopefully, you'll see me back at Betting on Sports America 2020, and you'll see me on that speaker list, that's kind of one of my goals. I'm going to try to make that happen from this event here. There you go, that's a lot to hear.

Ryan Knuppel: 13:50 That's a preview of the 2019 Betting on Sports America Conference in New Jersey taking place next week April 23rd through the 25th I believe are the dates, April 23rd through the 25th. Excited to fly into New York, New Jersey, excited to go to this conference, learn and connect with each and every one of you. If you enjoyed this, please share it on social media, or just let me know. Holler at me on LinkedIn, anywhere. Let me know that you did listen to it. Lastly, a quick little plug, I'm also looking to interview anybody that wants to talk about what they do, talk about sports betting, talk about this industry, that's what this show's here for. It's an open platform that I can talk to people and just do what I want. I would really love to connect with you. Hit me up, let's talk. Let's schedule an interview time. Maybe we can even get your product or service or whatever you do out to a broader audience.

Ryan Knuppel: 14:44 My goal is to help you do that with this podcast. Thanks again for tuning into the Knup Sports Show. I am Ryan Knuppel. From here, from there have a great day. We'll talk to y'all soon. Bye-bye.

Resources

Betting on Sports America 2019 website Interview with Nik Bonaddio on my show. I refer to Knup Sports often in my show. That's our sports passion site. Check out KnupSports.com here. If you are looking for my services you can find more information on the Knup Solutions website. Listen to more episodes of the Knup Sports Show.

Contact Ryan

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanknuppel Email: [email protected]