He Invented Online Betting...Then Went To Prison For It - Jay Cohen
He Invented Online Betting...Then Went To Prison For It - Jay Cohen  
Podcast: Open Book with Anthony Scaramucci
Published On: Tue Jul 07 2026
Description: He built a betting exchange three decades ahead of its time, got prosecuted for it while John Roberts almost took his case, and served time for something states are now making legal one by one. This week on Open Book, Jay Cohen, the man the pro sports leagues crushed, tells me what really happened and why the house always wins in the end. Jay Cohen is the co-Founder and former President of World Sports Exchange, the first fully online betting site. 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 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. Get his wonderful new book (out today), Odds Man Out: The Untold Story of How Professional Sports Crushed the Pioneers of Online Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge, a global alternative investment firm, and founder and chairman of SALT, a global thought leadership forum and venture studio. Pre-order my next book, All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump, out on the 17th of September in the UK and the 22nd of September in the US: ⁠https://www.scaramucci.net/allthewrongmoves Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices