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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. For our last few minutes, we turn the page and invite your calls on something completely different: sports betting. On January 8th, if you didn't know, New York State launched legal online sports betting, which drew in quickly $150 million on the first weekend alone. That is really a lot in that industry for a couple of days. With sports betting now legal in most states, it is around 30 states. New Yorkers, the Empire State, was late to this game about gaming.

New York now joining in, we're going to open up the phones for call-in for some of you who have participated, specifically on what has worked and what hasn't worked for you. Give advice to New Yorkers who are now going to do this for themselves at 212-433-WNYC. I don't mean betting advice, like who to bet on to beat the odds in the NFL playoffs this weekend or anything like that, rather how to manage a legal online betting life; if you have a betting life. You have a little fun with it but it doesn't become destructive to you and your family. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.

New Jersey, I'm speaking primarily to you because New Jersey has had sports betting online legally since 2018. Jersey listeners, want to share some advice for those who are now going to start getting into legal online sports betting in New York State? 212-433-WNYC. Maybe some things to watch out for. I've never done this, but I'm hearing these ads on the radio and seeing them on TV where they're offering these deals that are meant to suck you in and have you bet not just once but be ready to bet more and more and more. One of them offers up to $500 in bet credits for new customers. That's one I've seen.

Another one, I'm not going to name the individual company, touts a $50 free bet with your first deposit plus deposit bonus up to $1,000. Too good to be true, too tempting, or? How have you managed these things? How have you gotten into sports betting if you do any sports betting? Jersey listeners or anyone else in any of the 30-ish legal states for sports betting, how are you managing your betting lives? When do you decide how much to bet? How do you decide what to bet on? Do you go for any of these in-game opportunities?

I gather that when-- and again, I'm ignorant about this. I gather that when you are watching a particular game you can make bets even while the game is going on about how an individual player is going to do or how the game might turn out based on the score at the moment, things like that.

New Jersey online betters or anyone from any other legal online betting state, how about a little betting advice to your New York neighbors who can now do this legally as of January 8th? Boy, are there are a lot of New Yorkers new to it. According to the company called GeoComply, which provides geolocation services for most of the sportsbooks in the US, they say they tracked 1.2 million accounts created in New York State just over the past two weeks since online sports betting became legal in New York. Seth in Jersey City. Hi, Seth. You're on WNYC.

Seth: Hey, Brian. Thanks for taking my call. I didn't want to call in at first. I don't want to be known as the guy who just calls in about sports betting. Next time I call in on a more wholesome subject, please take my call.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, I promise.

Seth: Anyway, I just make sure to not put too much money into the app and make small bets and don't get my hopes up too high, and it's just a little bit of fun.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Judd in Union, you're on WNYC. Hi, Judd.

Judd: Hi. I'm just calling to say that almost all the promotions are just for new users. The trick is to download the app, do the new user promotion, and then once you're done with it delete the app and never use it again.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much, that's one way to go. Michael in Hoboken, you're on WNYC. Hi, Michael.

Michael: Hi, Brian. Just to follow up on those prior callers, that is absolutely the case, and importantly, read the fine print because a free bet is not necessarily a free bet. If you lose your first one they'll give you site credit, and so therefore it's not the equivalent of cash. You can look at all the different sites and what they're offering and try to maximize those benefits again. Ideally, use a spreadsheet. That's my advice.

Brian Lehrer: What do you look for to bid on in your case, if you want to say?

Michael: Well, importantly what to avoid is any of the offers that have sort of outrageous payouts because there are infinitesimally small odds that you're going to win that. I try to look at something fairly simple like moneyline, whether the team you're wagering on is win or lose, and also consider in-game betting. As the odds shift there are ways in which you can hedge. If the odds were outrageous on one team and then over the course of the game those odds shift dramatically, you can hedge your bet. Those are all ways in which to mitigate the risk of loss.

Brian Lehrer: Michael, thank--

Michael: Really, that should be the game; is to reduce loss. Thank you, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Dave in Hillsdale, is it? Dave, you're on WNYC. Hi there.

Dave: Good morning, Brian. I just want to echo what I've been hearing so far from the other callers. I'm strictly a baseball fan. I'm really not much interested in football or basketball, so my betting activity is from opening day till the end of the World Series, and that's when the offers start coming in. They want to get me in there to bet football and basketball and soccer. It's just a matter of restraint. I don't see it as credits on a website; I see it as cash when I pay it out and when I get it back, and I just keep my bets reasonable.

Brian Lehrer: Do you set up sort of a budget for yourself if you have to go into your cash? Assuming you're losing that, you're just going to only devote X dollars?

Dave: Yes. I keep my bets small. I go for parlay bets, a couple of-- I've been very lucky on betting on who's going to hit a home run or not. I don't know why and yet it's totally unpredictable. As John Sterling always points out-

Brian Lehrer: The Yankees announcer, he says-

Dave: -you can't--

Brian Lehrer: -you can't predict baseball. Dave, thank you very much. Good luck predicting baseball, and hope you don't lose too much. Patrick in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Patrick.

Patrick: Hi, Brian. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. What you got?

Patrick: I'd like to echo that the-- I live in New Jersey so when betting came to New Jersey there was a lot of promotions when these sportsbooks opened up. You'd get up to a $1,000 free bet. They're not refunding your cash if you lose, but what they do is they give you site credit that you can use within the next week or the next month. What that does is allow you to take a little bit riskier of a bet in hopes that you will obviously hit and win, which in many cases I've been lucky enough to win.

If you do lose that promotional bet then you have to make some smart decisions. Usually, because you're given site credit, you don't want to lose that credit because that is the money that you put in. In cases that I have lost, you just look for moneyline bets that have pretty good odds like -200 or -150, so you look for favorites. I stick to the NFL and bet on-- You always bet Tom Brady to win or Aaron Rogers to win. That's a sure bet.

Brian Lehrer: Patrick, thank you very much. Nothing is a sure bet but I hear you. He's playing the favorites as a way to be conservative. All right, here's a good bet. We have great producers on The Brian Lehrer Show. Lisa Allison, Zoe Azulay, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, Max Bolton today. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen works on our daily podcast.

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