Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Uncle Joe. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Uncle, thanks for joining us today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

My parents supported every dream I ever had. As a child I played multiple sports, which lead to my passion and ability today to be able to discuss various sports topics. No matter the season or weather my parents were always at my games, paid for equipment, drove to tournaments and cheered me on. A huge lesson my father always taught me was be yourself. Never change for anyone and never hide who you are. That lesson translated over to business more than you expect. A lot of people show up to work and have to pretend who they’re for eight hours a day. Every day as The Black Bookie I get to be myself.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started my business in 2018. As a groomsmen at one of my best friends wedding, a friend asked what I was doing with my communication/sports media career. As a graduate from American International College, everyone knew me from doing play by play and color commentary for our mens & women’s basketball team and football team. At that time I had started to slowly transition into sports betting. It was at that moment he said “so call yourself The Black Bookie” And since then I never looked backed. My goal has always been to inform sports bettors on the best way to be profitable long term. Sports betting is a billion dollar industry and is only growing with its legalization. Sports knowledge is only a small piece of being successful at sports betting. Money management and discipline are the ultimate keys.

What sets me apart from a lot of other sports bettors on social media is our transparency. A large portion lie about wins, losses, odds they got the play at, placing actual bets, amount wagered etc… One of our main slogans is “Win Together Lose Together.” I never give out a play for someone to take that I don’t have my hard earned money on. How could I tell someone to trust me on a play if I don’t take it myself? Another part about being honest and actually explaining how sports betting works is to explain you’re going to lose! A lot of handicappers (someone who analyzes sporting events to find an edge) try to sell a dream that they hit 70-80% which is simply impossible.

I am most proud of our growth. Our podcast, The SnoozeYouLose Podcast numbers have increased every year. We’ve had multiple partners and sponsors including an international partner BetStamp. We’ve recently started doing a live show on Millions.co. Because of my background, I love that our platform still offers sports information and insight for every day sports topics for those who don’t sports bet.

If you follow me you’ll get humor, information, wins and losses.

Have you ever had to pivot?

March 2020

I’ll never forget getting ready to watch a college basketball game that I had money on get cancelled. That was the start of the world being shutdown as covid began to sweep our country. I didn’t know what I would do. Not only for income, but entertainment. There was no sports to watch or wager on. For months business was on hold. I directed more toward merchandise and tried to stay relevant through apparel.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Best advice to build social media presence is consistency. If you don’t post quality consistently you’ll get lost. Not because people don’t support you or forgot about you the algorithm won’t push you. You won’t be able to grab enough eyes if you don’t post consistently. Keep improving the quality of your videos. See what has the most success to your audience and then push that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theblackbookie.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/theblackbookie
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/theblackbookie
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/theblackbookie
• Other: The SnoozeYouLose Podcast all streaming platforms