Is BetBash Worth The Price of Admission?
Musings of Sbinfluencer.
Last week, sports bettors from across the country landed in Las Vegas for BetBash: the annual “Sports Gambling Networking Conference” hosted by Spanky.
This year was my first time attending, but I’ve heard my fair share of opinions about the event during my time on Gambling Twitter. Depending on who you ask, BetBash is seen as some combination of:
A circlejerk for professional bettors
Not worth the price point
Worth every dollar
A ripoff
Some people are just too poor to attend
From what I’ve noticed, those who have attended in the past tend to be the ones praising it, while those skeptical would likely never buy a ticket in the first place. Wanting to avoid forming my opinion based on what others think, I decided I would find out for myself. So I bought a general admission ticket for $728 (after fees and processing), booked my flight and hotel, and I made the trip.
This article is my attempt to share my experience, and to answer the question people have asked me numerous times since returning home: Is BetBash worth it?
BetBash is built around four pillars:
Networking
The Sports Gambling Hall of Fame
Education
Fun
The SGHOF is undoubtedly good for the industry, but I will admit I have not been around long enough to fully appreciate it. Plus, I left early Friday morning and didn’t attend the induction ceremony, so I will leave that for others to discuss.
What I was really there for was the networking, education, and some fun. Most of the networking value probably came from attending the open bars and watch parties, but they were not my main reason for attending.
Ironically, I have made more connections through running the Sbinfluencer Twitter account than I ever could have expected. Meeting with some of these people in person, and then connecting with some new ones, was a huge draw for me.
But the educational pillar was what I was most curious about. I’m a believer that learning is living: if you are not learning from people smarter than you, what are you even doing? BetBash offered that opportunity via their panels with bookmakers, bettors, and experts within the industry, each giving a window into the sports betting world that you might have difficulty finding online.
This is where the personal part comes in. For the past year, my role within the industry has been a mix of “unreliable documentarian of Gambling Twitter” and “tout hater extraordinaire.” Trolling and calling out influencers has been my focus: pointing out the absurd, exposing the frauds, and getting a few laughs along the way.
But BetBash was my reminder that there’s more that I can bring to this industry than just clowning bad actors. There are stories worth telling, people worth profiling, and ideas worth exploring. I don’t want to stop being funny or self-aware, as that’s what got me to where I am. But I do want to put more energy into journalism. Real reporting, thoughtful commentary, and deeper dives into the industry adds more to the conversation than just roasting the bad aspects from behind my phone screen.
Day 1
I checked in at The D on Fremont Street on Tuesday afternoon around 4:00 PM. After dropping my bags off at my room, I immediately headed over to Circa to meet up with some internet friends who I was looking forward to meeting in person. Opening night registration was set to begin at 7:00 PM, with an open bar at Overhang to run that night until 10:00 PM.
Upon registering and receiving my name tag and wristband, I figured I would grab a drink and see who else I might run into. After getting a Red Bull and vodka, I tried to step aside from the hundreds of people trying to order a drink.
My first thought after getting my drink was: “Do these guys know how to tip?”
I’m against tip shaming. But it’s an open bar, gentlemen. The Vegas economy is based on service and hospitality, and for better or worse, tips are needed to keep it running. The amount of people not tipping, I honestly found cringeworthy. You’re getting free drinks: throw the bartender at least a dollar for every drink you order. You’d be surprised how far a fiver or more goes when the bartender comes back around.
As I stepped away from the chaos at the bar, I moved aside and lo and behold, I ran into one of the characters from Gambling Twitter that I had to introduce myself to: The Cat himself, Matt Zylbert.
Zylbert is honestly the exact same guy in person as he is online. After slightly trolling him, he proceeded to spit off his infamous O/U records that he knew by heart. I asked him for a picture to commemorate the occasion, and he agreed to waive his fee for me.
I’m not a huge drinker, so I planned on having one drink before heading out to get a poker session in next door at the Golden Nugget. But I met some super cool people at Overhang the first night.
I’m not gonna lie though, I also met some super awkward people who are probably better off sitting behind a computer screen twelve hours a day. But getting to meet some people that night was probably some of the best networking I got in during my stay.
So I finished my drink, grabbed another Red Bull (sans the vodka), and I made my way to play some poker to wrap up my first night.
Day 2
To open up Wednesday morning was a speed networking event at 9:30 AM. And this is where my first slight gripe with the event came in. I had forgotten to register the night before as it was supposed to close at 10:00 PM. I was deep in the $1/$2 streets until significantly later than that, so I figured I wouldn’t be able to attend the event. No sweat, I figured I could get some extra sleep before the seminars were set to begin.
When I woke up around 10:30 AM, I opened up my phone to see a few messages on Twitter, as well as an e-mail for who I was set to match up with for the speed networking. Apparently I had registered online before arriving to Vegas, so there was some confusion on my end. I assumed if you did not register in person, that you were not going to be able to attend.
So I was the asshole who didn’t show up and made everyone I was matched with sit at an empty table for 15 minutes. Not the end of the world, but I would have shown up if I had known that filling out the questionnaire online weeks earlier was sufficient for attending the event, and not just registering in person the night before.
After responding to a few messages of “Where are you? You missed the speed networking,” I headed over to Circa around noon to get ready for the day’s seminars. Honestly, the seminars were what I was most looking forward to, despite picking some of the more casual and entertaining ones that day.
The first seminar I was set to attend was the College Football Preview with Brett McMurphy and Tim Murray. With college football being my main focus as a bettor, I figured maybe this seminar would be a good way to get some deeper insights or a few tidbits of information that I wouldn’t be able to find online.
I enjoyed Tim and Brett’s discussion, but as someone who is heavily focused on betting CFB futures, let’s just say some of the information shared about betting futures wasn’t practical.
Brett mentioned some trends for past champions, as well as “bad juice” on high win totals. I take it most people there aren’t going to Brett for betting advice, but I felt like he was out of his area of expertise when discussing futures and win total pricing.
One positive I took away from this seminar was the mention of more emphasis of load management in the regular season with the extended College Football Playoff. I’m not exactly sure how incorporate this into my model, but it’s definitely something I will be paying attention to as the season progresses.
Overall, I’d give this seminar a B, but I don’t think I took much from it that would help me with my college football betting in 2025. Having said that, it definitely got the juices flowing in getting me more excited for the start of the season.
The next seminar I attended was the Secrets of Enhancing Networking Opportunities with Mike Slater. Even though I missed the actual speed networking event, I guess it somewhat worked out that I could still get some insight, but without having to sit in a loud, crowded room at 9:30 AM. After all, most of the people I really wanted to network with while there I was fortunate to get to meet on the first day.
While Mike is a great speaker, he didn’t have much to offer in terms of sports betting knowledge. But hearing him speak gave me an epiphany in realizing how important social media, especially Twitter, is when it comes to networking and relevance in the sports betting world.
If it wasn’t for Twitter, it’s likely I (and many others) would have never even heard of BetBash. It’s even more likely that not a single person at the conference would have any idea who I was if it wasn’t for my posts on social media.
My advice to anyone who is hesitant when reaching out to others is simple: Just do it. You have nothing to lose, and the answer is always no if you don’t ask.
Send a private message to someone, and it’s more than likely they will respond back. Worse comes to worse, you lose nothing except for maybe a temporary hit to your ego. Networking via Twitter has led me to make the most important connections I have within the sports betting industry. And to do most of it from behind a semi-anonymous burner account is even crazier. Imagine what you can accomplish face-to-face.
I have no shame in admitting it, but the last seminar of the day was the one I was most looking forward to: NFL Futures with George “Riley” Panagakis and Matt Zylbert.
Both GRP and Zylbert are two of my favorite characters on Gambling Twitter. While I don’t necessarily recommend tailing either of their plays, both of these gentlemen are authentic and genuinely themselves… even if it is to their own detriment at times.
GRP’s 45-minute monologue played out as if it was a Carrot Top comedy show combined with a sports betting seminar. There were numerous quotes that had me dying, but my personal favorite was from George: “Here’s where I’m a genius, but I still lost money.”
It was a good, light-hearted way to end the seminars for the day, and if GRP and Zylbert wanted to become sports betting’s version of Penn and Teller, I’d go see them every time I visited Vegas.
After the seminars, a few guys and myself grabbed a ride to Naked City Pizza, where they had some free food and were giving away an entry for the Westgate CFB contest.
As we were getting into the car, I realized I had left behind my wallet… a slight bit of fear and paranoia came over me, mainly because I felt dumb for splitting a ride while now having no money.
Luckily on the way there, I received a random phone call from a Vegas area code, and it was from the security department at The D. Shout out to their staff for not only reaching out to me, but securing my wallet with all of my money still in tact. I wouldn’t have been able to reenter Circa without my ID, not to mention the potential troubles with getting on my flight home. So I just want to say a big thank you again to their staff for saving me from numerous potential headaches.
Unfortunately, I didn’t win the contest giveaway. But it was still a cool experience off the strip or downtown where I got to meet some more people and discuss college football. We headed back to the D, I grabbed my wallet from security after filling out some paperwork, and then proceeded to get in another poker session at the Golden Nugget to end my night.
While the bracelets and nametags for BetBash served a purpose at Circa, they served a secondary purpose for me while playing poker to distinguish who was in town for the event. While playing poker that night, I sat next to a man named Steve from Newfoundland. Our conversation while playing cards for the next few hours was the one of the highlights of my trip.
What’s fascinating about BetBash compared to discussing sports or betting with friends or casual gamblers, is that you can have an entire conversation about sports betting with no mention of sports whatsoever.
Steve was wise beyond his years, and our conversation was genuinely one of the best I can remember having at a poker table in over a decade of playing. For me, making connections like that with a complete stranger were what this was all about. And I left the table that night thinking about how my experience had been so far.
Day 3
Having stayed up entirely too late playing poker, I opted to sleep in for my scheduled first seminar on Thursday. But the second seminar at 1:00 PM for Circle Back, I definitely didn’t plan to miss.
Circle Back is a show dedicated to covering the weekly drama and discussions on Gambling Twitter, and they have given me a platform for my content on numerous occasions, for which I am incredibly grateful.
Rob Pizzola is a class act. He was one of the first people to come up and introduce themselves to me on Day 1 of BetBash, and he is just as nice in person as he has always been to me in our online conversations.
Rob is who I look up to most in the sports betting industry. I don’t think he knows this (or if he even cares), but if there was one sports betting podcast I would consider a dream to go on, Circles Off was it. While it was certainly not my best work, I am still forever grateful for that opportunity, and I wanted to be there to support them.
The panel for this episode included Chris Dierkes (Flup), Joey Knish, Rob, and hosted by Jacob Gramenga. I remember following Chris on Twitter from my main account a few years ago, and to see how far he has come within the industry has been a fun journey.
I wasn’t sure if the episode was gonna hit the same live, but it was honestly really enjoyable. Joey was the MVP of the show, and if you’re not a Knish fan: I’m sorry, but we can’t be friends.
Shout out to all of the guys at the Hammer. I wish for your continued success, and thanks again for highlighting my content on your show from time to time. My offer is still out there to be a guest panelist if GRP isn’t around to fill in.
The last seminar I attended was Inside the Player Journey: Understanding When and Why Bettors Get in Trouble - and How We Can Build a Smarter Ecosystem. While this was the seminar I was hoping to get the most out of, it pains me to say it was my least favorite of them all.
Genuinely, I want sports betting and the industry as a whole to be represented in a fair and positive manner, while calling out some of the bad actors and absurdities we see on a daily basis. What was most depressing about this seminar was the turnout: maybe 15-20 people showed up, and the ballroom had a somber, empty feel to it.
To add insult to injury, hearing the panel discuss problem gambling was disheartening. They didn’t really touch on some of the issues I was hoping would be discussed, and it was even more discouraging to know the laws and regulations surrounding sports betting in our country are in the hands of people who likely have never placed a wager in their lives.
The seminar did improve towards the end when they opened it up to the floor for discussion. But just as it was getting interesting, the hour had ended and the seminar had come to an end. I left the room with a sour taste in my mouth, as I view building a smarter ecosystem as one of my main goals within the industry, particularly when it comes to pick buying/selling. I commend the panelists for their presence, but I wish regulators and legislators were willing to learn more from those who attended BetBash.
After the seminars had ended, I headed down to the sportsbook for a watch party. There was some complimentary food and drinks, and I had some more discussions with friends recapping the day and discussing futures betting. After that, I got one last poker session in before turning in (relatively) early for a good night of sleep.
Conclusion: Is BetBash worth the price?
In my opinion, it is 100% worth it… if your goal is networking and to have fun. That does not mean the price point is not steep for the average sports bettor.
But for where I am at, it felt like money well spent. I made one deal (hopefully to be announced soon) that paid for the entire cost of my trip. And for the direction I want to go within the industry, it felt like money well spent.
While I didn’t get as much out of the education portion as I had hoped, that probably came down to the seminars I chose to attend. Next year, I will try out some different panels to get a better feel for the overall value in the education being provided.
Shout out to Spanky for hosting BetBash. I know every year after the dust settles, people send out a million tweets glazing him. But it really is an extraordinary accomplishment to put on and coordinate an event of this size.
There are too many people to name, but to everyone I connected with while there, you are what made it worth it for me to attend, and I will undoubtedly return for years to come.
In the end, BetBash forced me to think about my own place in the sports betting world. Am I just the guy dunking on bad picks and ridiculous personalities? Or can I be the guy who documents this industry, tells some of its stories, and gives people a view of the ecosystem they do not normally get to see?
I left Vegas leaning towards the latter. And for me, that clarity alone was worth the price of admission.