The Best One Yet - 🎲 “SportsCenter Casino” — ESPN’s new betting app. De Beers’ diamond vault. Apple’s Google bribe.

Episode Date: November 15, 2023

ESPN launched its first sports betting app yesterday to crack the dominance of DraftKings and FanDuel — It just might work, media and tech can be teammates.Diamond prices have plummeted 40% this year, so De Beers it’s stockpiling them to prop up prices — Diamonds are forever… but they’re also not forever.Google just accidentally shared an embarrassing number: 36% — That’s the awkward cut Google pays Apple for any revenue made while you surf a Safari browser.$AAPL $GOOG $DIS $PANDYSubscribe to our newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletterWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on Youtube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, Ceviche Wednesday, November 15th. And today's pod, it is the best one yet. It's a T-boy. Nick, for the first time in... Forever? Years, probably?

For the first time in a long time, there was zero inflation last month. Yeties from September to October, on average. Prices of anything did not rise. Markets interpreted that as great news. They think the Fed has slayed inflation. The Godzilla. inflation monster, it hath been slayed. Investors love that news, and we love our three stories. Jack, first story for the show. What do we got? For our first story, yesterday, ESPN officially launched their

sports betting app. Because tech and media aren't rivals. Tech and media are teammates. For our second story, Google, just accidentally admitted in court. A really embarrassing secret number. Here it is. What was that number? What was it? 36%. 36%. Yes. Yes. You're just. You. It's just a really embarrassing. You're Yetis, Google and Apple are having an affair. For our third and final story, if you've been thinking about proposing to your boo, if you're thinking about getting engaged, now is the time. Now is the time. Why is that, Jack?

Because diamond prices are down right now. Diamonds are forever. But diamonds also are not forever. But they're also forever. At the same time, they're also not forever. We'll explain in the story. We got more to explain. We'll explain in the story.

Yeties, before we hit the... that wonderful mix of three stories. A fantastic mix of stories, wild mix of stories, Jack. Nick and I want to talk about the latest activity for today's kids. Jack and I want to talk about the newest after-school program for children. Here it is. Creator camps. Creator camps.

Camps to teach kids how to become YouTube creators. Get this, Yeties. The Washington Post has discovered a bunch of creator camps popping up across the country for children. That's like arts and crafts are out. YouTube training is in. And why is this trend happening? Why is it check? Well, the Harris poll recently asked American kids what they want to be when they grow up.

But guess what they said? They asked little Johnny, what do you want to be when you grow up? But he didn't say firefighter. He didn't say doctor and he did not say president of the United States. They said they wanted to become YouTubers. Nearly 30% want to grow up to be YouTubers. Three times more kids chose influencer than astronaut. Three times more kids.

would rather have one of these lights in front of their faces than go to the moon. Now, here's an actual schedule. The Washington Post found from an actual creator camp. 8.30 a.m. video editing in Capcut. 10 a.m. vlogging 101. After lunch, you learn how to storyboard a 30-second video clip. Yeties, the campers aren't playing Capture the Flag at this camp. Oh, they're rehearsing CTAs to get you to subscribe.

Remember to smash that like button, comment, and subscribe. Mom, you haven't liked my comment yet. And why are so many kids interested in becoming in YouTubers? Well, Jack, it's because the kids believe they can get rich creating YouTube videos. And that's why Creator Camp is so expensive. Yeties, it is $230 bucks a week to go to a YouTube after-school program. It's $900 bucks a month to go to pre-teen TikTok training. Yeties, this summer, little Susie could be roasting marshmallows with her camp friends.

Or she could be filming them for a Snapchat collab. Just ask your camp counselor, Mr. Beast. He's the one who always makes a... funny face. Can I please have permission to hit our three stories? 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. 3%. That's a fat tip. Tea Boy City on your at list.

If you know, you know, because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more. So just start the show. For our first story, ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports. Should I say that? The worldwide leader in sports. ESPN. That's what I was going for.

Yet he's ESPN just long. their first ever sports betting app. We're going to tell you the connection between the sports betting industry and Orion's belt. But first, Jack, if we're going to talk about sports betting, we should talk about something we have learned about sports betting, shouldn't we? Sports betting should be about entertainment. You shouldn't bet on sports thinking you're going to make money.

Because the reality is you're really not going to make that much money, typically. Most of the time, the better loses money. That's the reality. On the other hand, the house tends to make a good bit of money, don't they, Jack? The house always wins, so they're in it to make money. Well, the biggest house in sports just finally launched their sports betting app, and it went down yesterday. ESPN Betts. That app is live in 17 states now. Sports Center just got turned into a casino.

One set, Jack, did you see that? Scott Van Pelt is running the blackjack tables. Chris Berman sitting over at the slap machine. One second, Dan Patrick just threw some dice at me, man. Yet he's. ESPN's always been the worldwide leader in sports. Now they want to be the worldwide leader in sports betting, too. Because you don't want to just watch Yukon play Syracuse.

You want to put money on Yukon beating Syracuse. And now you can do both on ESPN. Now yet he says, as Jack and I jumped in T-boy style, as we studied the sports betting competitive landscape, we noticed a connection with astrology. We noticed an Orion's belt of sports betting. That Orion's belt, it's between. between New York, Boston, and Connecticut. And Jack and I will explain the connection.

Yeah, it is. Since the Supreme Court legalized sports betting in 2018, it's grown to a $9 billion a year revenue industry. But Jack, who are the two sports betting giants who happen to control the entire industry? Draft Kings and Fandul. They each control 35% of the U.S. sports betting market. New York City happens to be the headquarters of Fandul. They boast that they're America's number one sports book. And up in Boston is the head. headquarters of Draft Kings. They boast that they're the official betting partner of the NFL. And so far, nobody has been able to crack that Draft Kings fan duel domination. But then Nick and I looked at the

map. What is exactly in the middle of New York City and Boston? Well, Jack, I'm checking the map right now. And right between New York and Boston is the town of Bristol, Connecticut. The city of Bristol, Connecticut, which is the home of ESPN. The headquarters of ESPN. So the big three of sports betting now forms a perfectly straight line from Boston to Connecticut to New York City. Jack and I are not ancient Greek philosophers and we are not astrologers, but we are pretty sure that that straight line from New York to Bristol, Connecticut, to Boston is the same as Orion's belt. The capital of sports betting is the Amtrak Northeast corridor. Yes, sports betting is dominated by like a 200-mile stretch of I-95. and it looks just like Orion's belt.

So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies over at ESPN? Tech and media don't have to be rivals. Tech and media can be teammates. Yet he's key point Jack and I should share with you. ESPN doesn't actually own this sports betting technology. ESPN licensed their name to a casino for $1.5 billion. It's Penn National Gaming that's going to handle all the betting on this app. ESPN just does the content.

Well, the way Jack and I see it, this is a playbook that we've seen before, a tech company and a media company teaming up to both be bigger. Specifically, a tech company and media company helping each other out. Yeah, because ESPN right now, it's struggling because of cord cutting. ESPN needs to make new money in new ways. And Penn National Gaming, they're also struggling in the sports betting industry. Penn is the perennial number three in sports betting. So Besties, here's the playbook. ESPN is going to bring their 200 million,

monthly sports fans, and Penn is going to bring their fully functional sports betting app. Because when tech and media need each other, they don't have to be rivals. They can be teammates. For our second story, we've got some drama. We just got word of a secret relationship between Apple and Google. Yeties, when you search for something on Google, Apple gets paid. Yes, it does. Apple gets paid a lot of money. It gets 36% to be exact. But, Jack, in order for us to really tell the story, we've got to set the scene. What is happening right now in court? Google is defending itself in an antitrust case.

It's the people of the United States versus Google. It's the biggest tech case in years. Is Google a monopoly? That is the core question. It's going on right now. And this week, one witness took the stand on behalf of Google and made a huge mistake. Yeah, one witness for Google just accidentally revealed a very secret number.

The mistake was so bad that Google's lawyers visibly cringed when he let the words come out of his mouth. Like, we saw this going on. This was like a scene from my cousin Vinnie. You know what we're talking about, Jack? The defense is wrong. My clock is ticking. And here's what the witness confessed by accident. The witness confessed that Google pays Apple 36% of its revenue that it makes from Safari web browsers.

So let me put that. context for you. Okay. Jack can you sprinkle on some context I was going to ask you. So Google makes money through ad sales. But if those ad sales happen in a Safari browser, which is Apple's browser, Google has to send 36% of the money they made to Apple's bank account. Sit down, stand up and write a check to Tim Cook again, Jack. Now, when Nick and I heard this news, we had to ask ourselves, why is Google so embarrassed? Why have they taken such great lengths to keep this information a secret? Let's think about this for a second. This got revealed. Like, no one knew this information before, but when it got revealed, Google was really upset about this.

The reason? This information makes Google look weak. Yeties, Google is worth $1.7 trillion. They like to project strength. After all, they have a monopoly on internet search across the world. If you want to use Ask Jeeves, go ahead. You're going to have to Google it to find Ask Jeeves. And yet, Google is paying Apple billions of dollars, just just for the right to be on iPhones and MacBooks. Vesies, you don't have to take a business school negotiations course to realize that Apple has the power in this relationship, not Google.

Apple is like a mob boss who demands a big cut of anybody who's making money in his neighborhood. On the other hand, Google, they kind of look like your little local laundromat. They got to pay Apple just to like stay around for a while. That's what they're doing. And they're not complaining about this 36% cut either. They're just complying with Apple's demands. They're keeping it secret. That's how embarrassed they are about this whole thing.

And the reason Google tolerates this really awkward business dynamic with Apple? Because Apple controls the ultimate threat to Google. Yeah. Apple could set Microsoft's Bing as the default search browser on Safari. How would that feel? How do you like them apples? How do you like them apples? That's what I'm thinking. Yet is Google is desperate to not let that happen.

So Google follows Apple's rules and pays whatever Apple demands. Google, it always looked like the biggest kid. the block. But on your iPhone, Apple's kind of pushing it around. Oh, those are some nice Oreos you brought from home. I'll take three of them. Make it four. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Google? There is no power like platform power. Yeties, you want to know why Zuck and Google and Bill Gates, why they all want to make physical things? Why do all these software icons eventually try to make hardware too? It's because when you control the hardware, you control distribution. Yet these tech hardware gadgets are a platform, and the platform decides what people see on your screen.

That is why Google pays Apple $19 billion a year to be the default search engine on your Apple iPhone. And that's why Google also pays 36% of the ad revenue they get when it's on Apple's Safari browser. To quote Batman begins, Apple, that's power money can't buy. Because there's no power like controlling the platform. There's no power like platform power. For our third and final story, the world's historic diamond monopoly has so many unsold diamonds right now that they're stockpiling them. Because diamonds apparently are not forever.

No, they're not. But they also are. We'll get to it in the takeaway. We'll explain it. I mean, Jack, are we going to make things awkward here? We should, you know, well, let's just say it. Yeties, if you've been dating for a while, now's the time. There's no better time to propose.

We're not saying that because of love reasons. We're saying that because the price of diamonds has dropped. Earlier this year, we told you about the great diamond drop. Prices of diamonds were down 40% in the past year. And Jack, what type of diamonds experiencing the biggest diamond drop? Engagement ring diamonds. Yet he's head on over to Costco. Buy two engagement rings. Why not?

At one point, it was probably cheaper to buy a diamond than a dozen eggs. It was like, do you want a solitaire or do you want a frittata? And honestly, it was like kind of a hard question. Well, here's the news, Yetis. De Beers, the global diamond monopoly will not let prices of diamonds fall any longer. Because De Beers just announced that they are stockpiling unsold diamonds to prop up the price and save diamond prices. De Beers is basically going to create an artificial diamond shortage in order to drive the price of diamonds back up higher. Yeah, they're creating a manufactured diamond shortage because they do not like that diamond drop.

And they're big enough that they can swing the whole market by cutting supplies. But yet he's Jack and I saw this story. And being the curious guys that we are, we had to wonder, how are they like literally pulling this off? How does the world's biggest diamond company stockpile thousands of rare stones? What does that even mean? We're not from Chicago. We don't do logistics, but like what are the logistics on stockpiling diamonds, Jack?

The answer is 17 Charterhouse Street, an address in London, England. That is, whip out your Google Maps, and you can check it out right now. The diamond stockpile may be under 17 Charterhouse Street in London. When De Beers was at its strongest. 90% of the world's diamonds passed through that London address. You repeat, nine of your 10 friends probably have an engagement ring that spent time at 19 Charterhouse Street. And at one point, that building held $5 billion worth of De Beers diamonds. That is more than a lift, isn't it, Jack?

That old De Beers headquarters had 10 vaults in the building specifically built to hold diamonds. If you went into one of these vaults, there were walls one foot thick. Jack, I heard if you went into one of these vaults, It would ask you a riddle if you wanted to get to the second vault. Sounds like you don't believe me. It's okay. Because De Beers has a long history of stockpiling diamonds and then releasing them to control and manipulate diamond prices.

These vaults, they had a rooftop helipad for emergencies and a security force on site. This was where they were keeping all their diamonds. But yet is De Beers is not as powerful as it once was. So it's moved their diamonds to different undisclosed vault locations. And De Beers wouldn't say yesterday where exactly they're keeping their... current stash. But our guest is 17 Charterhouse Street, London, England. We sent an analyst to confirm that, and we haven't seen him in two weeks. It's possible he just got engaged at that address, Jack. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the diamond industry?

Diamonds are not forever, but diamonds are forever, too. Yeties, why are diamond prices dropping right now? It's because the diamond industry is facing a whole bunch of threats. First, inflation-weary U.S. customers are trying to save money. Second, China's economy is slowing down. Plus, there's been a dip in the number of proposals after a surge during the pandemic. Oh, and then, Jack, don't forget about lab-grown diamonds, which are threatening real diamonds. And Gen Z doesn't even want diamonds, apparently. Genzi apparently hates diamonds.

So add it all up, and it looks like diamonds are not forever, contrary to De Beers' tagline. However, Yetis, if you look at the situation from a financial perspective, diamonds actually are forever. Because by stashing supplies in their vault for as long as they want, De Beers says they can save and restore diamond prices. And then in the future, when prices of diamonds have popped back up, De Beers is going to release that stockpile and sell those diamonds at a really high price. So when you look at consumer trends right now, diamonds are not forever. But when you look at the business model of diamonds, diamonds are forever. Jack, can you and that, by the way, a really cool shade of blue shirt over there.

Whip up the takeaways for us for Civeche Wednesday. It's called Outer Space Gray, actually. And for our first story, ESPN's betting app finally launched yesterday. They teamed up with Penn National Gaming. It's tech and media. They're not being rivals. They're being teammates. For our second story, Google accidentally let slip that they pay Apple 36% of all their Safari revenue.

Because Apple has platform power. And our third and final story is De Beers. This monopoly is hoarding diamonds in a vault rather than let them sell for low prices. Because diamonds are not forever. But diamonds are also forever. But they're not forever. But they are forever. You decide America.

But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, big news about the government shutdown. the new Speaker of the House managed to pass a bipartisan spending bill with Congress. The U.S. Senate is expected to pass it next. Then the president will sign it, which means we would avoid a government shutdown. And second, Airbnb just made its first acquisition as a public company. Airbnb acquired an AI startup called Game Planner.

Airbnb hopes an artificial intelligence concierge can help plan your next vacation. And finally, the newest brand collab we're seeing, it's McDonald's. Donalds and Crocs. Crocs just unveiled $75 purple grimace clogs that even Bieber would wear. It's called fashion, honey. Now time for the best fact yet. This one sent in by Ryan Clay from lovely Houston, Texas. We are celebrating the 23rd birthday of the International Space Station.

Happy birthday to the International Space Station. It's been 23 years. That is amazing. What a milestone. For 23 years, this like hotel conference center in outer space is orbiting planet Earth. It's a Marriott in the galaxy, Jack. 23 straight years of continuous humans in space on the space station. There we go. It's incredible. And since the year 2000, when it launched, 273 different people from 21 different countries

have spent time in the space station. It's a testament to the power of international cooperation. It's perhaps the greatest symbol of international cooperation outside of the UN. And we still have no idea how they go to the bathroom without gravity. Hopefully that's tomorrow's best fact yet. That's great. I think they use baggies. Yeties, you look fantastic today.

And remember, if you did just get engaged, you actually should send us your pictures, right? We love seeing those ring picks. Or fill out our shout-out form. We'll give you a shout-out on this pod. if you know, you know, Jack and I, we'll see you tomorrow. And before we go, a happy birthday to Yeti, Henry Lynn, who saw Brandon birthday in Chicago doing logistics, and Henry has been listening for years.

And congratulations to Kelsey Kelter, who's got a new job at the Sustainability Roundtable in Boston. Just outside Boston. And to anyone who wants a shout out on this podcast, what do you got to do, Jack? We got a link in the episode description. All you got to do is fill out a simple form. Or go to t-boypod.com.

Jack and I got a tab right there. can fill out your form. And to anyone else, celebrate something today, make it a T-Boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. Nick and I both own stock of Apple and Airbnb, and I own stock of Crocs and Disney.