Pablo Torre Finds Out

He's a hedge-fund exec by day... and a blacklisted sports-betting savant by night. On the eve of your March Madness pool, Galen Hall breaks down his Oceans 11-style strategy that dominated a ruthless, $18.7 million NFL pick-'em contest — including game-theory negotiations with a multi-national syndicate and speaking through the podcast void to "Juicy K." Turns out, optimizing for underdogs across a portfolio of brackets comes down to psychology more than math.

• Previously on PTFO: The Best Bettor in NBA History on How to Solve a Gambling Crisis
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Is an (alleged) MMA fighter-in-chief less bad than Evil Barbie on her love plane? Is Washington just performative sadism now? And are you still Stephen A.-curious? Plus: Chuck Lidell's workout room, a re-patriated blankie, Benihana, Huggie Bear, Bernie Sanders as a bouncer, Dean Cain as a football player... and Frank Ocean gossip.

• Subscribe to The Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller

• Previously on PTFO: The Goalie Who Went to Hell and Back
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In an era devoid of accountability for the Epstein class and sports owners (and in-between), Pablo finds a kindred spirit in the OG blogger turned ESPN insider turned fellow independent muckraker who's not afraid to call out the backroom dynamics of Adam Silver during wartime: If billionaires can't police themselves, does cheating matter? Do the people who run the sport... really love the sport? If there's no effort to be decent, where do the lies end? And if Steve Ballmer's already negotiating, what is his minimum viable punishment?

• Previously on PTFO: Ballmer's Tree-Money, the Whistle-Blowers and the Document You've Been Waiting For

• "Bron got me on sea bass"

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(Pablo Torre Finds Out is independently produced by Meadowlark Media and distributed by The Athletic. The views, research and reporting expressed in this episode are solely those of Pablo Torre Finds Out and do not reflect the work or editorial input of The Athletic or its journalists.)

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How did millions travel from the Clippers to Aspiration to Kawhi Leonard? Amin Elhassan and David Samson join Pablo — live onstage at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, right where Adam Silver was just sitting — to examine new and extremely credible evidence.

Previously on PTFO:

• Part I: The Silent Superstar and the Rotten Apple Tree
• Part II: An Argument with Mark Cuban
• Part III: The Mystery Investor, the No-Show Payday and the "Smoking Gun"
• Part IV: Steve Ballmer, the Other Cuban and the $118 Million Infusion
• Part V: Steve Ballmer's "Inconceivable" Donation, the $20 Million Guarantee and a Head on a Spike
• Part VI: An IRL Showdown with Mark Cuban
• Part VII: The Briefcase, Ballmer's Social Network and Aspiration's House of Cards
• Part VIII: Uncle Dennis, Ballmer's $50 Million Sprint and the Side Deal That Wouldn't Die

• Subscribe to Pablo's newsletter for exclusive access, documents and invites
• Subscribe to "Nothing Personal with David Samson"
• Subscribe to "Basketball Illuminati" with Amin Elhassan

(Pablo Torre Finds Out is independently produced by Meadowlark Media and distributed by The Athletic. The views, research and reporting expressed in this episode are solely those of Pablo Torre Finds Out and do not reflect the work or editorial input of The Athletic or its journalists.)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is A.I. gonna boom, bust or just become Excel? And how screwed are we either way? Plus: Peyton Manning, Lamar Jackson, Geraldo Rivera's vault, a young Tim Pawlenty, vibe-coding NFL scouts... and Filipino Jell-O.

Further content:

• "A.I. as Normal Technology" (Columbia University)
https://knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-as-normal-technology

• "The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis" (Citrini Research)
https://www.citriniresearch.com/p/2028gic

• "Nobody Knows Anything" (Derek Thompson)
https://www.derekthompson.org/p/nobody-knows-anything

• "This Is How the A.I. Bubble Will Pop" (Derek Thompson)
https://www.derekthompson.org/p/this-is-how-the-ai-bubble-will-pop

• "Fear of A.I. Eliminating Jobs Makes Its Way to Football (Mike Florio)
https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/fear-of-ai-eliminating-jobs-makes-its-way-to-football

• Previously on PTFO: How Artificial Intelligence Is Already Changing Sports, with Daryl Morey and Sendhil Mullainathan

• Subscribe to "The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny"

• Subscribe to "Plain English with Derek Thompson"
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