We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Phil McGlothlin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Phil, thanks for joining us today. So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?

The biggest trend we see in the industry is the legalization of sports gambling in many states throughout the US. Residing in North Carolina where sports gambling was recently approved, we seek to educate those who want to gamble on sports but are unsure how. We teach people to play smart and provide indicators that will show advantages or disadvantages on any given game.

Our concerns are for those that are not disciplined in their betting habits, thus potentially setting themselves up for failure.

A good example is what we call chasing money. When a bettor moves off of a consistent strategy because of a loss, bettors sometimes bet anything on a whim in an attempt to get back to even. This rarely pays off and increases the debt of the bettor.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Myself and good friend (Cliff Shepherd), embarked on creating a gambling podcast once the legalization of sports gambling was gaining steam in North Carolina.

We both live in the Charlotte, NC area and are both graduates of Marshall University where we grew our love of sports. We have gambled on various sports for numerous years and our knowledge has been gained through trial and error. Experience is the greatest educator, through both good and bad.

As we educate those wanting to learn more, we also provide our picks daily on multiple sporting events along with detailed reasoning when applicable.

We are very proud of our win/loss records of the picks we have shared. We feel this the best way to gain listeners and feedback. We are not a pick provider (service), thus we do not charge or will ever charge a fee for our picks.

Our goal is to provide education and entertainment in a field in which we strive.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

We utilized a friend who works for a marketing firm to help get us started. Once we had the podcast up and running, we realized that we had to find multiple ways to be heard.

After a couple of months of stagnant growth through social media, we joined a sports gambling forum in which sports bettors share their insight and also learn from others on the site. After the other forum members realized we were providing consistent and positive information, the traffic on our website quadrupled over one weekend.

If there is one thing we learned, it’s to utilize all avenues of social media to increase recognition. It just takes one good day, to get the ball rolling.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Straight up transparency. We don’t boast on a good day and we don’t sulk on a bad day. This path is based on a consistent approach and we teach that you’re never as good as your best day and you’re never as bad as your worst.

We have let it be known that we are not looking for any type of quid pro quo when giving out our picks. We play every game we post, thus if we’re as good as we expect to be, then our pockets will be lined based on our own processes.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thevigpodcast.com
• Instagram: thevigpodcast
• Facebook: The Vig Podcast
• Other: www.covers.com / TheVigPodcast

Image Credits
Cliff Shepherd Phil McGlothlin TPC Scottsdale University of Notre Dame Marshall University University of North Carolina West Virginia University Washington Nationals Los Angeles Dodgers