$100 Million on the Line: Americans Betting Big on the Presidential Election

0:00This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over 6 years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping next and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now. What's up guys? Welcome to Right About Now. It's our weekly business news of the week here on November 1st, 2024. One week to election day. or I think, or three days to election day. What is it? Whatever it is, it can't happen soon enough. And here as we enter November, there's all kinds of sayings for November, guys.

0:44I know there's like multiple - No shave November. No shave November. There's another one. What's the other one? I don't really want to - I don't want to say it. I don't really want to partake in it. If it's what I think it is. But nonetheless, Chris, what's up, brother? What's up, bro? How you doing? I'm good, man. Hopping from one to the next and having my tasty kombucha here this morning. The stalker said, no way I'm drinking kombucha. Mmm, tasty. It's tasty, yeah. Brianna, what's up? I am doing great. I just read what the other November challenge is, and I'm not saying it out loud. You didn't know what Chris and I were talking about.

1:27I had no idea. I was like, what is it? so i'm like i don't even want to say it i don't want to partake you know you guys can google it it's a new challenge for your husband brianna nope let's just say it's uh triple n's quick no yeah triple n's is that right am i doing my uh yes yeah okay all right yeah yeah we're talking about the same thing so uh we're gonna have we're gonna be like the anti triple n here on right about now when everybody else goes left we go right we don't recommend the NNN challenge. It's not an election year.

2:05Oh, here we are. End of November. Got two months left. My wife is already starting to decorate for holidays for like Christmas. Really? She decorates for Christmas before Thanksgiving. She's one of those. Oh, gosh, no. December 1st, is it? I can't take it much longer than one month. Yeah, it's a thing. But she likes to get it done. I can't fault her for the fact that she likes to kind of get it over with and to enjoy it longer because it's a lot of work. I mean, there's a lot of, with all the shit we have, like seven Christmas trees. Seven? Like some of them, the miniature, like, you know, five foot kind, but two or three of the big daddies.

2:48It's a thing. I was telling the team this morning that we have a house Christmas tree and then we have a to-go Christmas tree. because for the last three years we've done Airbnb for Christmas. We like to go somewhere. So we take the to-go tree to the Airbnb and set it up, but then we also have like our main 30-day Christmas tree. My dad developed a concept. My dad's a creative guy. He's like a master carpenter or general contractor. And he developed a concept that was kind of like a roll-up tree that went flat against the wall. Like it was tall. It was a triangle like the tree and it had decorations on it, but it kind of rolled out on the wall.

3:32Yeah. It had lights on or whatever. On the back. Yeah. Flat on the back. It could be flush. He was like. And he would make those for the corners too. That's awesome. He's like, this is a billion dollar idea, but I know execution's everything and he never. But I thought, I kind of laughed at it when I was a kid because he's had this for like 30 years. But now, I don't know that that's a bad idea. Yeah, I like that idea. For like single people, especially easy or just, yeah, you roll it out, baby. We are like go cut down your Christmas tree in the National Forest family. I don't know. I've been trying to figure out where in South Carolina we can do that.

4:07Griswold style. Yeah, because we, in California, we have the Tahoe National Forest. So it's like 10 bucks, get a permit online, and you go out and you cut down a tree. Look at us jumping straight to Christmas here. I know. Nicole will be proud. We skipped right over Thanksgiving. And Black Friday and all that stuff went straight to it. But, you know, I think it's anything to not talk about elections and everything else. So we'll see. We purposefully have a very limited amount of presidential coverage on the news today. I know. I barely have enough energy to talk about it. But you know why I do have energy?

4:47Because before I got this healthy kombucha, I had my X exponent. It's the powers of the podcast. That's the only way you have energy. Look, it's been a long election year. Look, long season. The reason for the season is exponent. That's what I'm talking about. Anyway, they are the official energy drink provider. They get us through the holidays. They get us through these episodes where we get tired of talking about two candidates battling each other out here. One of these is going to get the belt. we're not going to send this one but one of them is but who gets the belt every time is exponent the official energy drink of right about now and ryan alford keeping me pumped up i had six before the show i'm ready i'm kidding don't drink six i did have a couple and i'm good to go we appreciate exponent one of our newest sponsors here powering right about now and keeping yours truly eyes wide open.

5:47Thanks to them. Go check them out. Exponent Energy. Drink Exponent on Instagram. DrinkExponent.com. That's EXP. But they got the big X. X marks the spot for energy. Appreciate them. I got right to it. Yeah. Speaking of drinks, we have on the docket for the news today, Mountain Dew doing a rebrand. And I dropped a little image there for you guys to check it out. So their rebranded in 2009. And what we heard was that it kind of was a little bit childish and kind of aimed at like your kids' age group, that demographic. And so they're trying to kind of do a little like vintage thing here with the 2025 rebrand.

6:31It's got the word mountain. It was abbreviated before, Now the whole word is back.

6:40It's the old logo change for iconic brand. I could see him in the boardroom. All right. Sales are slumping a little bit. I was thinking about, you know, an influencer campaign. No, let's redo the logo. Magic. There it is. I do like, hey, go back to your roots. Go back to the. I still like do the do. You know, that was the tagline back in the day. and the previous logo is kind of like that Batman, like shattered. Bam. Yeah. Now it's like back to the glowing for the mountains. I like it. I think it's a vibe. I think it's cool. It's just. It reminds me of Irish Spring. Yeah. I was going to say it feels familiar.

7:25Yeah. I don't know why that's like jumping at me for some reason, but. That should be a mashup, a brand mashup. Do the do while you're doing the do. Coming do the do in Ireland with our soap. Hey, that's pretty good. Irish accent from Chris. I didn't know you had it in you. I like that. Can you talk the whole episode that way? I can try, but it would be a struggle. Yeah, so Irish Springs old packaging looked very similar, but they have since also rebranded. man i guess soap sales are slumming it too yeah yeah i will say of all the sodas being an energy drink guy being an exponent energy drink guy you know like i gotta feel something of all the sodas that i actually feel like i feel the caffeine mountain dew is one of them you drink like three diet mountain deus pretty good i drink a mountain do and I feel like the I feel like when I'm drinking it and it's like that bright color you know it's all artificial um it makes me feel like I'm gonna get like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or something neon yeah what's so funny is yellow number five yeah oh boy and look you know that's what's so funny they're going back to the mountains which you know it kind of instills this natural like whatever is there a more is there a more sort of uh artificial flavor Yeah, I'm like, did they switch to cane sugar and not corn syrup with the rebrand?

9:00Because I'm thinking people are cutting down because of health reasons, not the branding. Yeah, yeah. The mountain's not full of anybody. Maybe that mountain do zero. I don't know. But do the do. And I do think that I can't help but think that like traditional soda is hurting a little bit with the fight against sugar and everything. I think that's why Coke Zero, Coca-Cola, I mean, they're spending bukus on Coke Zero everywhere. If you see, I can't remember actually the last I saw a Coke original commercial versus a Coke Zero commercial. I see a lot. It is because it's funny you say this. In the package room this morning, younger guy is probably 25.

9:38He was talking about, oh, yeah, I quit drinking regular soda. I used to trash diet soda and I only drink diet because I'm trying to be healthier. And I'm like, all right. Bro, drink some water. that too yeah yeah i i just can't put that sentence together i'm trying to be healthier so i switch to diet soda like maybe switch to iced tea baby steps yeah okay okay i'm not really a soda drinker i'm a la croix girl through and through i can't i gotta have a little sweetness in my like the croix doesn't have it it's just fizzy water with a flavor i don't have water It's naturally. I'll tell you what, LMNT that the electrolyte drinks, they just came out with a canned sparkling electrolyte drink.

10:27That's kind of been a good little soda replacement for me. There you go. I have to try it. I replaced my soda with soda. The Coke Zero, I posted that. We talked about it a couple weeks ago. Cherry Coke Zero. You replaced your soda with an energy drink. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Or kombucha. My thing is this. I would rather. Just be real, Ryan. Just tell everyone it's a Bud Light. It's fizzing. It's not Bud Light, I swear. It's not out of the question that it could be, but it is not today. We did just refill the cake. Yeah, that's not it, though. If I'm going to drink my calories, I'm going to drink them in a craft beer or a glass of wine.

11:08Yeah, I agree. That's why I went to zero. Like, zero has zero calories. I know the chemicals that are unhealthy. I've cut back. I don't need the lesson. However, if you're going to drink a soda, I can't help but think that zero is better than a sugared one. They both have the chemicals that are nasty, but at least one doesn't have 180 calories and four tablespoons or a pile of sugar this high or something. There's another reason to drink Exponent. They got zero, no adaptogens. They have adaptogens, but no bad stuff. I'm staring at a can. They're getting bonus. I love these guys, but they're getting bonus today because it fits in.

11:46Plant powered. Yes. They got none of the bad stuff, all the good stuff. Those things are amazing. I've been drinking one in the afternoon and I feel like I have gotten so much more productive, like end of day, 2 to 4 p.m., cranking stuff out. I'm just getting this perfect to not bother Sawyer. Yes, I got the thumbs up. We got perfect synergy here on the set and I don't want to disturb the Chi or Sawyer. so yeah i agree so enough enough exponent we love them you know it go check them out but here's the brands do this shit all the time and they think all right the logo change and it it it gives it a fresh little pop it gives you some some news it's kind of more of a pr play i don't think they're gonna fool anybody into thinking this is truly natural mountain dew but you know i do like the chris's comparison to irish bring that'd be a good uh brand mashup of sorts and in addition we have one more marketing news uh coming to you guys today and that is goldfish crackers has done a limited edition um where they release it's the same the same cracker goldfish as you No one loves them, but they are called Chilean Sea Bass.

13:09And it says their whole marketing campaign is adult sounding name, same goldfish taste. So it's not actually flavored Chilean Sea Bass. It's just called Chilean Sea Bass and they are sold out. They sold out like immediately. You can't even get them anymore. I mean, people will collect anything. think i was that's what i was gonna say let's have some collectors or something yeah and then it's like i mean you're gonna have that bag of crackers that go stale like that he's just like a regular but 30 years ago when these came out then it's gonna be on that show where they eat stuff you know on youtube like they eat stuff that's like 50 years old or something they open it up to see if it's any good it's pretty my kids watch that i'm watching it's pretty fascinating They got like one of those cake.

14:02You remember those old cake makers that you make little bake cake things? Oh, like an easy bake oven? Easy bake oven. Yes. They were making one from like 1960. It didn't go over well. I had an easy bake oven. Easy bake. I'm sure you did. I did. Little baker. My very first job was being a baker's apprentice when I was 16. Did you wake and bake? As a child. I plead the fifth. That was quick. Chilean Seabass Crackers. Look, this is another good PR play. I like it. I like it. From a marketing perspective, it's hard to get attention. You know, in today's world, this is a nice little attention play.

14:49I have no idea where they came up with Chilean Seabass. I was trying to get the play off, like, the name, and I don't think there is one. It's just it sounds very fancy. Next, they're going to have like escargot. Escargot crackers. I love that it's just like cheddar flavor. Like the same old, same old you've always gotten labeled Chilean. I was hoping it was kind of like they actually tried to make the flavor. Because there's been a lot of that too. These funky flavors of different things. But, oh well. Do you want to take us into basketball? Oh, sure. You didn't even want to set it up? I mean, I do, but I'm a little nervous.

15:32My basketball, I'm not up to my basketball speed here. Oh, yeah. Gatorade signing a new deal with Duke's basketball star Cooper Flagg. Yep. He's one of the highest rated recruits coming into this season playing for Duke. Shocker. The good get better. And so he's signing an all deal with Gatorade. All these guys are signing deals. He's projected to be the overall first pick of the draft straight out of college. So they all have to play one year. And, you know, with the new NIL deals, these players can get paid for their name, image, and likeness. And it used to be sort of against the rules. They've finally come around on that.

16:19I think they did. I still think it's the wild, wild west a little bit. They don't have the regulations around it that they need to. it used to be you knew like the$500 handshakes were happening behind the scenes. And so that's gone, which is good. It's now in front of the scenes, but you've got guys signing these huge deals before they, you know, even get to the pros. And I think people should look, be able to profit on your own name and image. I mean, that's pretty much what influencer marketing is. But at the same time, there's this slippery slope where you've got different players on the team getting paid different amounts, different deals.

16:53it can cause some turmoil sometimes between teams or has the potential to do that i don't know that that's been proven yet i do think an offensive lineman understands the quarterback like in college football might get a bigger deal just like they do in the pros you know how rare their talent is but i think you're seeing more and more of these deals even take place before these athletes make it to college so because i can tell you this before they make it out of college yeah yeah i mean I have the outline of a book called Raising a Brand because literally there's a strategy to this. And I don't know if any of our kids will be pro athletes.

17:31Nash, our youngest, probably has the most potential just based on athleticism at his age. And I've already bought. I own every one of their own Instagram handles, all their own. I did this probably four years ago, like NashAlford.com, HudsonAlford.com, at HudsonAlford on Instagram, on TikTok. I own all. That's crazy. I have all their usernames and their URLs already because, you know, planning ahead. Not only because for, you know, athletics, but for just personal brand's sake to own these things because you never know when they get taken. crazy that that's an asset that you should look into for your children ahead of time i haven't thought about that so for yourself too i didn't do that in college i had to build a website on my name like a domain like a personal brand site yep well there's 20 million brianna halls there's only one true chris hansen and he's not on dateline you do have that one i'm the new one yeah he's the newest one he's not chasing the uh i do like probably twice a month someone's like oh chris hansen jayline mbc yeah like yeah bro it's my uncle yeah but cooper flag that it's a pretty uh recognizable and And memorable name, but you'll be hearing a lot more of it.

19:00Good player. Very rangy, I would say. He's kind of like one of those 6 '8 kids that shoots, runs, and jumps well. Does it all well. Dribbles well. Like, not just like a big guy. And not just a guard. So, that's why he's likely a first-round draft pick. And I'm sure this is a seven-figure deal already. So there's real money being thrown around with NIL. And I think of it really back to just, it's just, it's influencer deals, but they have their influence is driven by their athletic ability and the eyeballs because Cooper flags is on Duke's team. And think about the aware, like how often does Duke get shown on television?

19:46And how often does he get shown on television? So how many impressions is that for his awareness? because that's the way you think about these deals is no he's not gonna have a gatorade logo on his not yet on his duke jersey but the more known he is the richer this deal is for gatorade and so that's the way you have to think about it and that's the way you know they signed these deals thinking about okay if a player is going to new mexico state or they're going to ohio state Who do you think is getting the bigger deal? Ohio State, bigger name, more impressions on television, more known. And so the player combined with the school and then the personalities.

20:34And this is where, you know, like parents out there listening are like, you know, your kids are. It's not about just being showy, but being approachable to brands, being willing to do content and do things like being open to this stuff. because it's not natural. I mean, you think about even doing podcasts. Some people, it takes getting in front of the camera and doing those kind of things. The faster that you can get comfortable with that, the bigger your deals will be because there's guys that get bigger deals that might have a little less following. They have a huge personality. They have a true following and not just sort of a, oh, I'm following him because he's a good player, but because of his personality and things like that.

21:12So things to think about, things that these brands think about when they sign the deals. and this guy's just at the top of the class. I don't know what his personality is, but he's just going to be out there so much. They're tying to it early because he has a first-round draft pick. He'll have a pro deal and everything else. It is interesting. I think that it's good for these players to benefit from all of their hard work before they have to wait until they become a pro because I think that's kind of what's happened in the past. They've almost been penalized for not yet being at that level. And then if they do get injured or their career gets cut short, they never got to benefit from it the way that they should have.

21:55Other than the free$300 ,000 scholarship that they get. But, you know, that's sort of, I mean, that's the one thing that's sort of getting lost in all this. And I agree with you, by the way. And the scholarship isn't in comparison to million-dollar deals. So I get it. But at the same time, we're kind of losing the core of this, which is why you typically did it, which was to get the education. But now it's coming pretty much pro sports and pre-pro sports colleges. We don't have to hide about it anymore. It just is what it is. Yeah, college is a really interesting topic. We won't go down that rabbit hole, but the landscape is changing a lot.

22:36Yes, it is. um well we thought this was interesting um this morning on the radical team we discovered that robin hood the app you can now bet on who which candidate you think will win the u.s presidential election uh so we put this this is our only election coverage um but we just thought it was interesting that now you can place a monetary bet on who you think is going to win i'm at i thought they'd had this stuff out there they'd have the i think polymarket you could do it in vegas but robert's rolling it out on the app now okay nice so 60 so it's essentially 63 chance trump win 38 man i reading that data right yeah at least according to how they're doing it i wonder if that's just purely if that's based on sentiment or polling or if that's just based on the bets being made i think it's based on the bets being made on the app but i'm not certain all right let's see i mean i'll i kind of want to take kamala for 38 cents even though i i've been very vocal about who i want to win who i voted for but it seems like it could be like good money like good spread there yeah good spread if it's as close as they say it is That's a good bet to make.

24:00Now, I tend to think it might be going the other way and hope that it is, but just saying. Because, look, that's what happens. People vote. You don't gamble with your heart. You gamble with your head. That's what happens with, like, football stuff. Oh, yeah, I love that team. They're definitely going to win by that much. You're just totally going all heart and not, like, logic. So, I don't know. Is it really trending that heavy to Trump in your mind, Chris? I don't know, man. I don't know what to believe. Yeah. Because, you know, if you're based on social media, it's like, well, is the algorithm just showing me certain things?

24:48I do feel in the last week I have seen more criticism of her, even I feel from the media. Yeah. So I could see, and let's be real, you still have a lot of people heavily swayed by the media. So I could see, you know, that. But, again, I don't really know what to believe. There's just so much. If you go to a media outlet that's pro Kamala, and it will make you think that she's absolutely winning. Like, they're not showing. I go to a site that I felt used to be pretty down the road. It might even have leaned Republican 10 years ago, but Drudge Report. And God, it is so left now. I can't barely even read it.

25:36I just go there sort of to, you know, at least get the other side. And they do have, when I get past the election stuff, some of their other articles are pretty interesting. But God, they would have you believe that, you know, Trump's lost his mind, not going to win, and everybody's bailing. But it's like that. But then, like you said, Chris, I'm on social media and I know it's the algorithm and stuff like that. Everything else and the and the more middle of the road media seems to be sort of throwing a little more darts at her. Yeah. So it's who the hell knows what to believe. Well, and then you got like Trump on Joe Rogan.

26:10Obviously, that's huge. And I read this morning that her campaign said they would only do it if he went to them in an hour maximum length. Yeah. So he said they're not going to do it. I mean, yeah, it's a podcast, but do Joe Rogan podcast is huge and a lot of people follow him heavily. So I wouldn't be surprised if that also could have swayed some folks or, you know, and I think it's fair to say you probably have a lot of people that listen to Rogan that aren't Trump people, a little bit more free thinking. so maybe you had some some of the listeners getting a different side of him that they're not exactly exposed to if they're used to just watching the mainstream media yeah i think if this was any other candidate on the right it would be a landslide victory for sure for what the for for the economy and inflation and all that stuff that would bury her like and like christy gnome or tulsi gabbard or female would make it really interesting if there was another female republic I think the only reason it might be, and I still think it might end up being a landslide comparatively, you know, like what's a landslide in an election?

27:17You're always going to have it fairly even because there's a lot of Democrats are never going to vote Republican. But it I still think it might be a landslide, but it got it would be a earthquake landslide if if his name wasn't Trump. so this is super interesting in regards to this bet it says more than a hundred million dollars has been legally wagered on the presidential race days out from election day bettors will bet on anything man that's all that's my buddies that gamble they will gamble on anything they probably saw this this morning and immediately jumped on robin hood and placed bets.

27:56I'm not going to lie. I was tempted, but Robin Hood doesn't have a great reputation after the whole GameStop, when they shut down trading and all that. So you could win your bet, but you might not get your money out with Robin Hood's reputation. This is interesting. So according to NPR's Planet Money, of the 15 presidential elections between 1884 and 1940, the betting market has correctly called the race in 11 of the 15. I like those odds. Yeah. It's just what is the betting market? Is it Robin Hood? Well, this is the betting market. Back in 1840. Yeah, so there's Kalshi. It's in the saloon. There's a couple of them.

28:47Robin Hood and Kalshi are the two big ones. I got my six shooter and my bet in. uh all right we'll see what happens a couple weeks ago we had talked about the tiktok chase bank glitch that was trending on tiktok and when now it's coming full circle as jp morgan chase starts suing the customers who allegedly stole funds in the atm glitch scam that went viral Yeah, our YouTube video. And if you get time to plug the YouTube channel, we have one of the fastest growing business podcast YouTube channels. Get over there and check that out right about now. Just search that on YouTube. But that was one of our biggest videos.

29:32Go figure. A couple thousand views. And it was all about this. And we either fueled more of it or got people to stop. I'm not sure which one. But go figure. You're going to get sued if you steal. Oh, man. Yeah. Writing bad checks. Shocker. Shocker. They go after you. I was really surprised that two of the people that are getting sued are businesses in Florida that participated in this game. That caught my eye, too. Yeah. Well, it didn't take much to open a business. I mean, you know. Yeah, they probably formed a LLC and just wrote blank checks just to. Yeah. Just to get some. I would imagine these people probably will no longer be able to bank with Chase.

30:22Yeah, well, they'll probably be in prison. This one person says Chase alleges that a man deposited a$335 ,000 counterfeit check, resulting in a$290 ,000 debt after multiple withdrawals. So how is he going to pay that back? He's going to need a lawyer. Yeah. I just can't believe that I get it because I've, I think I've seen this with my bank. You know, once you bank with them for a while, they'll, they'll credit you before the check. So I get it. And a few grand, three or four grand, five grand, something. But the fact that they allowed this on the$335 ,000 check, or even down further in the article, two$240 ,000 checks.

31:06It's like, it's kind of like Chase's fault to that point. Like, dude, you're out of software. allows that yeah yeah bank error in your favor uh not really but still chase is suing to get the funds returned yes wild wild also how'd you get that much money on the atm i thought the atm had like a limit it does well they're probably walking in getting the teller to give them then rush the atm they might have doing like going to different atm's thousand dollars a day or something for a week. Maybe they're breaking off the bank teller cut too. You know, it runs deep. Speaking of deep, deep in the TikTok industry, TikTok's founder has now become China's richest man.