It’s almost tough to decide whether sinking money into a new sports gambling podcast in 2020 is overly risky or incredibly brilliant.
On one hand, most of the year has been filled with cancelled sports, which means no gambling action to help formulate content. On the flip side, the country has never been more on fire for sports, than it was at the end of July when live action finally returned with the MLS, MLB and NBA.
Coincidentally, the Extra Points podcast, co-founded by “Cousin Sal” Iacono, capitalized on the mass need for live sports by launching right when the sports world came back to life.
“I think it was by design,” said Sal. “I wasn’t even going to do anything like this, but the pandemic gave me a lot of time to think about it, and I said, ‘Alright, this is something that I can get going on my own.’ I thought it through and put it together, then mapped out what kind of podcast I’d want. Things were really sketchy when I decided to go forward with it, in terms of creating a business account and things like that. I thought, ‘You know, what’s funnier than if I lose money while putting together a business during a pandemic that heavily relies on sports, only to see that there’s no sports on the horizon?’. I thought that would be a pretty funny way to go down.”
Before you think Extra Points is just another gambling podcast filled with a ton of numbers, stats and trends, think again. In fact, gambling content can often take a backseat to what Extra Points deems more important: entertainment. Alongside Cousin Sal are the duo of Dave Dameshek and Charlotte Wilder. Together, the trio combines for widely entertaining banter, stories, sports and yes, sometimes even gambling content.
“The idea was for it to be sports, comedy and then gambling,” said Sal. “I was on ESPN for two years and my best bet record was like 78 percent, or something ridiculous like that. I did it with Neil Everett on Thursday nights on SportsCenter and it didn’t get as much press as I thought. I was like, this is crazy, this is all I’ve wanted to do since I was 16 years old and it doesn’t get much notoriety.
“I think a couple things hurt it, such as sports gambling not being as accepted as it is today. It made me think, it doesn’t matter as much to win as it does to be funny. There’s plenty of podcasts out there, there’s plenty of websites, you don’t even have to listen to a podcast, you can find and dig up trends and everything you need to know. I want to do more of a personality driven podcast.”
The type of podcast you create doesn’t matter. You could be doing sports, gambling, heck, even history, if multiple personalities are involved I just want to know one thing: do the hosts have chemistry? A podcast can’t survive without it. The biggest reason I’ll continue to listen to Extra Points is because the three hosts have the chemistry to flourish.
“It’s been super fun to get to chat it up with Sal and Dave three times a week,” said Wilder. “I’m a dad at heart, so hanging with two of them and talking about sports feels very natural. I’m biased, but I really feel like we’ve got great chemistry and it’s an honor to be able to argue with them about important things like whether Russell Westbrook’s Iron Maiden shirt is cool or not.”
Sal and Dameshek have been friends for at least 20 years and have worked on various shows together, such as Sports Geniuses on Fox Sports, The Man Show and Crank Yankers on Comedy Central, as well as Jimmy Kimmel Live. Those two were always going to work well together behind the mic, seeing as they’ve been watching and talking about games together for years, even if it was in the parking lot with nobody else listening.
But Sal and Dameshek’s smartest move to date was probably adding Wilder to Extra Points. If their idea of another voice was one that’s snarky, hilarious and knowledgeable, they found the right fit. Wilder’s star is rapidly rising in sports media and her presence on the podcast will only continue that upward trend.
“Charlotte is the Rachel Bonnetta of 2020,” Sal says referencing his FOX Bet Live co-star. “Rachel came from the digital side and she’s terrific. Charlotte lights it up and she’s funny on Twitter. Her interviews are great, too. She has a different point of view for sports and I knew she’d work immediately.”
Getting a podcast off the ground with three well-known personalities may seem relatively easy. In theory, you promote, record, post, retweet the link and bam, sponsors come running, right? Not exactly. Though the podcast has seen great numbers in the short time it’s been available, smooth wouldn’t be the right word to describe the simplicity of getting things started.
“It’s a huge pain in the ass,” said Sal. “Getting everything aligned, and just the logistics of it, if I could just turn on the mic and just talk, that seems to be the easier part, but actually getting these things up and running and in the pipeline is a bit more difficult than I thought. There’s always something to be thinking of, like if I should’ve turned a phrase on the show into a T-shirt. So I’m thinking about merchandising, which is something I never thought I would have to spend time on. The podcast themselves, as long as it doesn’t feel like work to me, I’m excited about it.
“But another thing I think about is, do I create a persona that doesn’t necessarily believe in a whole lot of things I say but has a strong point of view, that people will latch onto? Or do I say, I want to hear both sides of this before I decide, if kids should go back to school and play? Weighing those pros and cons is going to be a constant dilemma for me. But I really would like to keep it real as much as I can.”
Barstool CEO Erika Nardini predicted recently that, “personality is going to matter. And you’re going to find personality in non-traditional places,” when asked about sports media in the post-coronavirus world.
If a situation arises where college football and the NFL are cancelled, I don’t have to tell you the damage it’s going to do to sports gambling podcasts. Without sports, there’s only one way to make a gambling pod more interesting. You guessed it. Personality.
Sal would take a hit if football were to be cancelled, sure, but his product is likely to continue flourishing in a non-sports world because the trio of Extra Points is so damn entertaining.
“I think that’s where we’re different from the stat heads that kind of have to fold their tents immediately,” said Sal. “Obviously, it’s tough, if we relate this back to April and all the talking head shows that stayed alive, if they didn’t have Michael Jordan on the Last Dance for several Sundays, they’d be screwed. We had opposing networks promoting that show, because it was the only thing to talk about.
“If we run out of stuff I don’t want it to be depressing, I want it to be a fun outlet for people to come to laugh. We would have to pivot in that regard. If football goes away AND sports goes away for six or eight months, I think we’d be in a bit of trouble. I have a couple of comedy podcasts on the horizon as part of the Extra Points Podcast Network so hopefully we’ll at least have that running.”
Tyler McComas is a columnist for BSM and a sports radio talk show host in Norman, OK where he hosts afternoon drive for SportsTalk 1400. You can find him on Twitter @Tyler_McComas or you can email him at TylerMcComas08@yahoo.com.
