Alex Monaco, Host of 'The Bettor Half Hour,' joins Cheddar News to discuss what viewers can expect from MSG's 'Bet-A-Palooza,' and what casual sports fans should know about sports betting.

Between Bells

What to Know About Sports Betting Ahead of Super Bowl 56

and welcome back everyone to between Bells on cheddar news in this segment, brought to you by msg giving fans an inside look into the world of sports betting and a huge week coming up for sports fans of course, also for sports bettors as well as the Cincinnati Bengals, going to face the L. A rams at Super Bowl 56 next sunday, but the hype will be going on all week long. So joining us now, Alex Monaco, host of the better half hour Alex, great to have you here. Msg is better appaloosa is actually premiering later today. So tell us what viewers can expect to see with this leader this week long betting festival that's happening here. First off, thanks so much for having me very excited to be here. And yes, it is better appaloosa as advertised in the name, it is going to be tremendous. So basically we're going to do a crossover of multiple shows in our sports betting space and we're going to be basically introducing the state of new york and everyone who's a sports betting fan or just a sports fan, into our world a little bit. So it's a crossover of all of our hosts and we're gonna be doing a couple of betting casts as well with the Warriors on february 10th and the Blazers on february 12th where we will be betting during games and basically introducing throughout the week, everything related to the Super Bowl as you know, this is the most bet sport of the entire year, I think there's going to be around $6 billion bet 23 million americans expected to put a wager on this game and of course you have so many fun prop bets as well throughout the game and that's also surrounding the game, the over under on national anthem time, the Gatorade color of when the winning coach gets it thrown on him. So there's a lot of, a lot to take in and a lot to bet on. And so we're basically going to be taking everyone in and educating while we're having fun. I love that. Now you guys at Msg have a lot of experience at this. You have to year round sports betting shows you also have a seasonal one as well with daily programming and takeaways with all of them. So tell us a little bit more about these shows and really, what type of sports better are you hoping to reach here? Well, yes, I host the five o'clock one on monday through thursday. It's called the better half hour and that's a very educational approach. I've been in sports betting for a while, I have a b minus joke, I've been trying to get half my bar mitzvah money back and from Vegas who always wins. So I've learned through losing and I try to educate people as we know, Vegas was not built off winners. So you're in a space that's definitely a climbing mount Everest at times. So I try to be educational and explain the intricacies of games, of course, we talked football, we talked basketball, I went around the world this past weekend talking some soccer UFC as well. So I try to just educate as well as be entertaining with the better because it's a lot of numbers. So throw in my pop culture references here and there and of course the betting exchange, which is a very dynamic roundtable type discussion, have some great host, Jeff, the new yorker, Katie mocks and of course former new york jet eric Coleman and they do a lot of fun games and make it very gamified and they have a lot of interesting and exciting segments that are also informative as well and we're really trying to capture the millennial audience and I always say, you know, let's not go crazy, let's put some breakfast money on this or you know, if we could get a little Uber eats meal instead of eating in, that's a win. So money management is something I like to express as well and and it's a marathon, not a sprint. Yeah, brunch money, always an important one in all of this. You know, it's been amazing to sort of see the adoption, the widespread adoption of sports betting across the country with new york recently coming on board and now new york is really sort of the powerhouse now when it comes to sports betting Alex, what does this mean for veterans sports bettors out there and and maybe what does this mean for the accessibility of sports betting to potential and casual bettors out there. It's interesting, it's now at your fingertips and that can be very exciting but it can also be a little dangerous. So as I said, you know, you want to make sure you can only bet when you afford to lose. I mean you look at the state of new york, it did over a billion dollars in just a couple of weeks of legalized sports betting. So that's absolutely incredible. Now I would say it's exciting in a sense as well as just a whole new basically genre of how to talk sports and I think they encapsulate that very well in the betting exchange when you get that professional athlete view as well. And I think it's just gonna gamify and attract even more people because again if you can make a couple of 100 couple 100 bucks a week or even just again take take your significant other out on a date when you otherwise couldn't because you're doing well betting, I think that opens up a lot of opportunity for more people to have a vested interest in the game. Now I will say it's important to be careful with betting on your favorite team because I'm from san Diego. So I've experienced more losing than winning. So I don't even I even lost a football team to L. A. So you know you just want to be careful and not get too emotional because then that's, you know how Vegas will get you. But ultimately, I think it's a very exciting thing and it will just attract a whole new audience. Yeah, look, I'm from colorado, I have learned my lesson never to bet on any of my Denver teams because I'm always in the hole as a result of that Alex, I have a minute or so left with you. What should maybe the everyday casual sports fan know about sports betting, what sort of opportunities does it present and what should they be aware of here? Well, kind of like I mentioned, you know, be aware of the Vegas wins more than they lose. I jokingly say I'm trying to be one of Danny, Ocean's Ocean's 11, trying to get terry Benedict jackpot back a little bit over there in Vegas, but I would say it's being aware that you can educate yourself on the game and it's it's also a topic of conversation as well in the world of sports and I think with daily fantasy as well, you have an ability, if you don't really know what betting on the spread is like the Bengals or plus four and that confuses you, you can just pick some of your favorite players and try to craft lineups on your local sports book and again, I just think it opens up the horizon now that it's legal to not really have to know a guy who knows a guy if you want to do this, you can do it completely legal and I think that's a win for everybody. Absolutely, definitely. Exciting week ahead for us, Alex Monica, host of the better half hour on MsG good to have you here, Alex, thanks so much for joining us. Guys want hot takes and insights for the latest of the world of sports will catch better appaloosa all this week on MsG networks.