The House Advantage

As part of the notorious MIT Team depicted in Ben Mezrich's now classic Bringing Down the House, Jeff Ma used math and statistics to master the game of blackjack and reap handsome rewards at casinos. Years later, Ma has inspired not only a bestselling novel and hit movie, but has also started three different companies—the latest of which, Citizen Sports, is an innovative marriage of sports, betting, and digital technology—and launched a successful corporate speaking career. The House Advantage reveals Ma's cutting-edge mathematical insights into the world of statistics and makes them applicable to a wide business audience. He argues that numbers are the key to analyzing nearly everything in the world of business, from how to spot and profit from global market inefficiencies to having multiple backup plans in anticipation of every probability. Ma's stories and business lessons are as intriguing as they are universally applicable.

Review Praise for The House Advantage:“From the minute I met Jeff Ma, I knew that my life was about to change; a mathematical genius who had turned Vegas upside down with a system that has since made him an international sensation, Jeff taught me more about money in a single neon-laced weekend than I could ever learn from a library full of CEO biographies. A perfect companion to Bringing Down The House, Jeff’s book opens a window into a world where high-level statistics mingle with heart-pounding gambling tales. To put it simply- this is a business book like no other you’ve ever read before.”-  From the Forerword by Ben Mezrich, NY Times Bestselling author of Bringing Down The House and The Accidental Billionaires"Few things like experiencing the ups-and-downs of beating the casinos at blackjack can better equip one to understand risk and reward in visceral and concrete way. The House Advantage  is an efficient and enjoyable read that reflects Jeff's nuanced understanding about how to run the numbers in a real-world context. " – Nate Silver, Statistician and Founder of FiveThirtyEight.com"Jeffrey Ma has written a work of philosophy in the guise of a business book...The House Advantage is an urbane blend of human observation and math smarts, business sense and common sense." - William Poundstone, author of Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It) “The House Advantage sets the standard for explaining how the use of data and analysis is revolutionizing how businesses and sports teams will be successful in the future. Jeff uses his unique combination of theory and business savvy to illustrate this important trend in a way that is packed with entertaining stories and practical examples to get started. Sports and business executives ignore this ground-breaking book at their peril.?... About the Author Jeffrey Ma was a member of the MIT blackjack team, which utilized sophisticated card-counting strategies to beat casinos at blackjack worldwide in the mid-1990s, and was the basis for the main character of the book Bringing Down the House and the film 21. He has been the technology lead for two internet startups and was an options trader on the Chicago Board of Options Exchange. He co-founded PROTRADE, a sports stock market website, and consults for professional sports teams including the Portland Trail Blazers and the San Francisco 49ers. He lives in San Francisco, CA. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. From Publishers Weekly Ma, the math whiz and subject of Ben Mezrich's bestselling Bringing Down the House, turns his savvy to business. A former professional card counter on the MIT blackjack team, Ma used statistics to beat the game, and his enthusiasm for the power of data and for overcoming emotion to make the best decisions proves persuasive. Though his lessons aren't particularly new, his methods and thrilling stories of card counting in Vegas gives his book a compelling boost. He instructs leaders to recall that past performance, like a dealt blackjack hand, has an impact on the future; to avoid groupthink and a hot hand, or overconfidence, at all costs; and to prioritize what the data says. Even those who do not consider themselves math types can benefit from posing business issues as follows: a simple question helps focus a complex mathematical model and that complex mathematical model helps solve a very important business problem. It's a spirited—if simplified—approach to decision making. (July) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.