Odds Man Out - by Jay Cohen (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Three San Francisco traders become internet gambling pioneers after launching the first truly online sports books, but the fix is in as the professional sports leagues flex their muscle to game the system and turn its founders into fugitives, proving that no bet's a sure thing.

Before the Supreme Court unleashed legal sports betting with its 2018 landmark decision, an unlikely trio of traders from the Pacific Stock Exchange, took a huge gamble and wagered their lives on a bet that online gaming was in America's future. Now Americans, in 2024 alone, wagered nearly $150 billion on sports--with professional sports leagues, casinos, and betting apps all cashing in. But, before this gold rush, these same leagues fought viciously to keep sports gambling illegal.

The revolution began in the mid-1990s, the early days of the internet, when three San Francisco traders dared to pursue a bold, new business venture. Jay Cohen, an options trader who had never placed a bet, found inspiration watching colleague Steve Schillinger turn the fever of the OJ Simpson trial into a wildly popular futures market. With Schillinger and twenty-one-year-old Haden Ware, Cohen set up World Sports Exchange (WSEX.com) in Antigua, a Caribbean Island paradise where sports betting ventures were legal and regulated.

WSEX's futures sports exchange platform and innovative live betting features quickly became the industry's crown jewel. But their explosion into the gambling scene would soon unleash a powerful backlash--the first federal prosecution of internet sports betting. While Cohen willingly returned to the US to fight the charges, his partners stayed behind to handle their booming business while battling the Department of Justice, professional sports leagues, and an army of lawyers, politicians, and lobbyists. Cohen and WSEX fought back and convinced Antigua to challenge the US in the courts of the World Trade Organization, setting off a decades-long battle for justice.

Odds Man Out is an insider's account from WSEX founder Jay Cohen, detailing a sixteen-year rollercoaster ride that ended in tragedy. Were Cohen and his colleagues criminals or ahead of their time? As today's sports leagues ultimately decided to cash in themselves and embrace an industry they once demonized, Cohen's story exposes how a Goliath wielded power and influence to crush the pioneers of internet betting.

Review Quotes

"Jay Cohen was a visionary who understood that the Internet would revolutionize gambling--and he was punished for it. His inside look at the creation of an online 'stock market for sports' becomes a harrowing tale of the American criminal justice system gone awry."--Bruce Schoenfeld, author, Game of Edges

"This book gives a fascinating look into the insides of an operation that was way ahead of its time. The 'FreeJayCohen' movement on the gambling forums was something truly special. Must read!"--Gadoon "Spanky" Kyrollos, renowned professional sports bettor

"A unique, often riveting account of Jay Cohen's battle against a government bent on destroying his brainchild, the pioneering online sports book WSEX. With a supporting cast including future Chief Justice John Roberts and the most famous whale since Moby Dick, Odds Man Out is a cautionary tale for anyone who doubts that behind-the-scenes forces can decide who wins and who loses in our courts."-- Kevin Cook, author of Titanic Thompson, Waco Rising and The Tiger Slam

"Blazing the trail in internet sports betting, Jay Cohen's World Sports Exchange offered sports betting exchange-traded futures twenty-five years before they became the rage. Jay chronicles the bullet he took for the offshore industry in his six-year legal odyssey fighting the federal government at his own personal loss."--Roxy Roxborough, iconic Las Vegas oddsmaker

"Entrepreneurs who are twenty years before their time merely lose. They don't go to jail. In a horrible stroke of irony, the men of World Sports Exchange, invented live betting as we know it and are the forefathers of a now legal American betting industry that brings in billions of dollars every month, but were tortured by a government who chose to fix the game of regulation, which was, at best, ambiguous in its interpretation. In Odds Man Out, Jay Cohen gives a firsthand account of the rise and fall of WSEX and assures us that we will never forget how lives were ruined over merely being first."--Darren Rovell, Sports Business reporter, ESPN, CNBC, The Action Network

"It's not often that we get to hear about an inflection point in history, straight from the mouth of the man at its center. In Odds Man Out, Jay Cohen tells the story of how he and others pioneered online sports betting--today an industry seamlessly enmeshed with professional sports--and paid the price.

Taking the reader behind the scenes for the genesis and rise of the World Sports Exchange, his indictment as part of the 'March Madness' prosecutions, and his gamble to return to the United States for his day in court, this book offers an invaluable glimpse into how tech, sports, gambling, and the legal system collided. Reading this book drives home just how far the sports betting world has shifted since Murphy vs NCAA, and reminds us that pioneers may not always be celebrated."--David G. Schwartz, historian and author, Something for Your Money: A History of Las Vegas Casinos

"Jay Cohen's fast-paced, well-written memoir, Odds Man Out, tells the harrowing tale of the options-trader turned entrepreneur who helped start the huge business of online sports betting legally in Antigua, and what happened when the American judicial system decided to make an example of him. It should make your blood boil, and will."--William D. Cohan, bestselling author of Power Failure

"The vast army of fans who enjoy sports gambling, owe a debt--of gratitude, yes, but a financial one, too--to the author. They were pioneers, wrongly targeted by the same sports institutions that now mint money using their innovation, technology, and frameworks. This riveting read is both tragic and triumphant, the story of enterprise, international intrigue, power, and situational ethics. And it helps explain the biggest story in sports so far this century."--Jon Wertheim, Sports Illustrated senior writer and 60 Minutes correspondent

"Viewed through the prism of gambling's overtly symbiotic present-day relationship to American professional sports, the story of Jay Cohen's confrontation with the justice system seems comically quaint. He was ultimately sentenced to a prison from which he could see the lights of Las Vegas, for innovating a popular and profitable sports betting system for something millions of Americans now do every day without fear of recourse. But, because of the time at which he did this, and the vortex of personalities and ambitions his activities touched, he lost everything. His story is tragic and poignant."--Jim Lampley, Hall of Fame broadcaster

About the Author

Jay Cohen is the co-Founder and former President of World Sports Exchange, the first fully online betting site. World Sports Exchange opened in January 1997 and closed in April 2013.

On February 28, 2000, Cohen was the first person to be convicted in federal court for violation of the 1961 Federal Wire Act for operating an online gambling company despite being in Antigua, where the business was licensed and regulated. Cohen served eighteen months in Nellis Federal Prison in North Las Vegas, Nevada. He was released in March 2004.

Cohen was instrumental in Antigua's decision in March 2003 to initiate the dispute resolution process of the World Trade Organization to challenge the US' prohibition on the cross-border supply of online gambling services.

Prior to World Sports Exchange, Cohen worked as an options market-maker for Group One Trading on the floor of the Pacific Stock Exchange.

Cohen moved to Europe and renounced his citizenship in 2012. He currently lives in Eastern Europe with his wife and son. He grew up in Long Island and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley where he majored in nuclear engineering.

Cohen and World Sports Exchange have been featured in The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and on CNBC, HBO Real Sports, 60 Minutes, and ESPN.