Preston Johnson's Lessons in Decision-Making, Human Connection, and Setbacks

Key Quotes

"I look by the time I was wrapping up betting and then took on the the Crawl Town challenge I I couldn't beat NFL anymore I couldn't beat baseball for years prior to that I was pretty good still in in basketball and college football it had always been my bread and butter but even I had a winning season my last college football year but the year prior I had my first ever losing season and then now with like I've just been away from it for four years pretty much and you have NIL and transfer portal stuff and I I don't I think I feel like I was playing catch up and playing from behind and I'm not 100 sure I'd even be a winning better if I did jump back into it so I think that's my biggest worry is in putting a ton of time and effort into that only to like just punt money away to other people so that's that's like the main thing."

Preston Johnson explains his reluctance to return to sports betting, citing the difficulty in beating the market and the significant changes in college sports like NIL and the transfer portal. Johnson expresses concern that he might not be a winning bettor if he were to re-enter the field after a four-year hiatus, indicating a pragmatic approach to his past profession.

"I think more pertinent to like your audience and what you guys are trying to do here with your podcast but just general decision making skills and thinking probabilistically and um sticking to a process and those types of skills or something that we learned really quickly are important and um I can tell a little bit more about why I left and stepped away in the summer a little later but those are skills that translate across as Jeff mentioned before on the pod like a ton of different industries and businesses and companies and so um obviously sport being the one that I've been attached to the last few years and then prior with betting you know working with a team again down the roads probably something in my um sights whether it's soccer football or or basketball or something."

Johnson highlights the transferable skills gained from his experience in sports betting and managing a football club, specifically decision-making and probabilistic thinking. He suggests these skills are valuable across various industries and that he might pursue opportunities in sports management or team operations in the future.

"I think my experience from like traveling back and forth and having all of the um pressure of being in charge of a professional team in England and um having people that were there versus those that weren't or were against you and like really developing connections with people that you know when you're at your lowest points and I know you you have Jeff actually called me we didn't get a chance to catch up but he called me and we spoke for a little while and we'll make we'll make it work next time you guys are in Vegas I used to go up there or next time you're down here in Newport Beach we'll make it happen but I think the human connection emotional kind of element to how um I've grown the last few years I think is something that I want to take with me even maybe outside of work or business but just like generally life stuff that I think is really important."

Johnson reflects on the importance of human connection and emotional growth developed during his time managing a professional football team. He emphasizes that these connections, particularly during difficult periods, are crucial and something he wishes to carry forward in his life, beyond professional endeavors.

"I think one thing I've learned and this is part of the reason I left in the summer and I'll give some context for a couple of minutes and then we can we can move on to some fun stuff but I did I learned I think to be true to myself and and I'll explain that so I was in charge CEO they call it like chairman over there for for three years and made like the final decisions on things for three seasons we had the good year two we got promoted on the lowest weekly budget in the league similarly tried to do the same in league one but this last summer it was evident that our ownership group didn't want to keep burning the cash to fund the club and so there was a transition that was going to be happening."

Johnson explains his decision to leave his role as chairman of a football club, citing a divergence in strategy with the ownership group regarding financial investment and decision-making processes. He learned the importance of staying true to his own principles, particularly concerning evidence-based and probabilistic decision-making, which conflicted with the club's new direction.

"I think the biggest kicker was is another reason why I keep blowing smoke up Jeff's ass but I appreciated him calling a week back just because I I feel bad that like you know you guys were part of the investor group we had this really out of the box idea similar to Wrexham where if you can bring in international fans to a local English football club that otherwise has another club five 10 miles away there's not that many fans but if you can internationalize it and actually create money because most of these clubs lose money every year then we have a chance if we spend efficiently to win and Wrexham they've had all of the money from the TV show and Ryan Reynolds and all that fame they've been promoted three straight years now they're in the Championship that was basically our thesis but around NFTs and can you build an NFT international community around a football club it didn't work we bought the club a week or two later Russia invaded Ukraine the markets died combined with we weren't good enough first year to be an interesting team."

Johnson elaborates on the ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful strategy for the football club, which involved internationalizing the fanbase through NFTs to create revenue. He attributes the failure to a combination of market collapse following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the team's poor performance in its first year, which failed to generate interest.

"I think that there I think I think before the end of this coming year I don't know if it'll go into effect yet but I think we will see a big change in the NCAA and NIL and I don't know which I don't know like I think there will be some sort of new agreement or framework or something that changes because I think right I mean that's my bold prediction like it'll be is right right now we're kind of in this in between period kind of feels like and I think it'll either go full on embracing it or it'll kind of go the other direction."

Jeff Ma predicts a significant shift in the NCAA's Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policies within the coming year. Ma suggests that the current "in-between period" will likely resolve into either a full embrace of NIL or a move in the opposite direction, indicating a period of potential regulatory change.