Gambling With an Edge - guest academic Mark Johnson

This week's guest is Mark Johnson.  Mark was a recent post-doctorate at UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research. His research is ongoing, looking at the similarities, and differences between Esports professionals, and professional gamblers.

podcast

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Show Notes

[00:47] What was Mark Johnson doing at UNLV? Why UNLV?

[03:55] What books other than Richard’s Gambling Wizards has Mark used in the research?

[05:40] Considering how young eSports is, was Mark able to find literatures on eSports?

[07:35] Differences between professional gamblers and professional eSports players

[13:51] How is the way gamblers earn money different than eSports players?

[17:00] How much can top eSports players make?

[18:51] Gambling on eSports through skins?

[23:14] Challenges of estimating how much other gamblers made outside of tournaments.

[26:03] eSports Players disguising themselves and the “barcodes” players.

[33:49] Love of the game and the learning curve

[34:56] Intrinsic talent indicators in eSports.

[41:24] Cheating, hustling, and doping in eSports

[48:30] The dramatic value of a single pixel glitch in a tournament.

[53:23] Handicaps in eSports

[58:17] The different issues between gambler teams and eSports teams

Gambling Wizards: Conversations with the World’s Greatest Gamblers:  http://amzn.to/2wBanDn

Mark’s podcast: http://www.roguelikeradio.com/

Mark's website: http://www.ultimaratioregum.co.uk/

Twitter: @UltimaRegum