The LFG Show
Talking with movers and shakers who grew up with nothing and worked their asses off to achieve success. Let's 🤬 Go!!!!
The LFG Show
From Medellin to Miami: The Degen Economy x Sports Betting w/ Blake Toves
🎰 Inside the Rise of the Degen Economy: Blake Toves on Gambling, Content, and the Future of Digital Monetization
The explosive growth of sports betting has sparked a digital gold rush — and in this episode of The LFG Show, we go all in with Blake Toves, one of the most forward-thinking voices shaping this high-stakes frontier.
Fresh off the flight from MedellĂn and straight to the SBC Summit in Miami, Blake sits down with us to unpack how gambling is colliding with content creation, influencer marketing, and big data to create a new economy — what he calls the “degen economy.” And according to Blake, we're only in the third inning.
🎙️ “People stop trading, but they don’t stop gambling.”
That one line says it all.
In this conversation, Blake breaks down the mechanics of how betting has evolved from backroom bookies to becoming *entertainment itself — livestreamed on Twitch, sold as pick packages on Telegram, and built into the DNA of games like Grand Theft Auto VI, which is expected to pull 5 million users on day one.
We dive deep into:
🎯 The two dominant creator archetypes in the space:
– Degen entertainers who bet live with massive audiences
– Betting gurus who sell pick packages, sometimes making \$500K to \$1M+ per month off just subscriptions and access
📉 Acquisition hacks most brands miss:
Blake shares why running ads through the creator's account — instead of the brand’s — can slash cost-per-acquisition by up to 20%, while maintaining trust and engagement.
Why Europe is 5x ahead of the U.S. in the betting space — and how American creators and marketers can ride the wave as the U.S. plays catch-up.
📱 The growing addiction to action: From sports betting to casino apps to loot boxes in video games, this generation isn’t looking for passive content — they want dopamine on demand. And the industry is responding with aggressive monetization models and infinite content loops.
🔥 Plus, we explore how platforms are shifting. Telegram is the new CRM. TikTok is the new sportsbook. And AI-powered pick systems? They're on the way.
This isn’t just about gambling.
It’s about how psychology, entertainment, and tech are merging into one unstoppable force — and Blake offers a masterclass in how to monetize it.
🧠Whether you’re a creator looking to cash in on betting content, a marketer seeking new acquisition channels, or a founder exploring monetization models in the attention economy, this episode is your blueprint.
---
🎧 Tune in now. Follow Blake Toves.
And get in the game before it’s too late.
This is the next era of digital wealth.
And it's only just getting started.
Timestamps:
0:00
Intro to the LFG Show
Goofs in the Box with Blake Tovis
The Growing Sports Betting Industry
Regulation and Market Maturity
Creator Economy and Influencer Marketing
How to Break Into the Space
Get ready to level your shit up with the LFG show. We travel the globe to bring you heavy hitters from all walks of life. We've been talking some serious business, from the best digital marketers, government contracting experts to top athletic and celebrity doctors We've got it all covered. We're talking to guys with cash in for billions with a B, and the best thing is we're just getting started. So hold on tight. We're about to crank with cash in for billions with a B, and the best thing is we're just getting started. So hold on tight. We're about to crank it up a notch. Get ready for next level networking and masterminds within the LFG community. Scare money, don't make no money, or honey. Hit the subscribe button, drop a like, leave a comment and let's fucking go.
Speaker 3:Guys, we're at the SBC Summit. Don't ask me what it stands for. I think it stands for Sports and Betting Conference. That makes sense. Blake Tovis he came all the way here from Medellin. There's a new endeavor called Goofs in the Box. It's just, man came all the way here from Medellin. There's a new endeavor called goofs in the box. It's just, man from day one, it's taken off.
Speaker 2:When I first started getting into the briefing industry, what was happening was my fixed costs were always there, and so for me I was looking at how can we kind of one, save on these costs and then, two, how do I not lay people off during down times? But also maybe even the ability to pocket more money during the slow season or even the peak season, since we've done this before, like with our Legion companies where we have virtual staffing, and from Argentina or Columbia, like why don't we do the same thing in the construction business? Now, once we figured it out, so we reduced their fixed costs by 70%, and so now during the downtime they have real seasoned, veteran type of players, but during the uptime they pocket. 70% of their operational costs are now going back in their pocket, and then, when it's time to scale, you have the back end prepared, already ready to go to help them lift off, depending on what state you're in, you're averaging about 12.5% on what you pay out on taxes, insurance, like all the different insurances that you have to pay out, right? So, yeah, you have to pay out an appointment, you have to pay out FICA insurance, medicare, social Security the things that business owners have to eat.
Speaker 2:Roofs to Box is not just limited to roof your home improvement companies. You can use it for any services, right? You can use it for IT. We use them internally for data sales, for hygiene, for analytics. It doesn't even matter what the vertical is Like. Business to box at the end of Good to.
Speaker 3:We've been talking for a bit. Yeah, I heard about you at Puerto Rico Con through a buddy of ours, tom Below. Shout out, tom, he's like I got to meet you and boom, we meet in Fort Lauderdale. How you doing, man, how you liking the show?
Speaker 4:Hey, I'm loving it because you come out here. It's actually one of the smaller sports betting conferences I've been to in America it's emerging, and Europe about five times the size of this, just because they're way ahead of like multiple, multiple years ahead. But that means it's big opportunity here in the united states, especially out here in miami, with all the people, all the flex offenders, all the balcony boys, all the creators that are making money in this industry. So we can talk about that too, if you want yeah, let's definitely talk about that.
Speaker 3:Listen, I I have a domain called the d, the degen economy, degenerate economy. We're not doing shit, but we will be doing shit. I'm a firm believer that it's a vice. It's a vice and we weren't just one by Pornhub stuff over our traffic junkie, right, everyone goes to that site. They say I believe they're fucking right. Honestly, 90, 90 something percent or whatever the hell is, is that site. So the bottom line is and what do you think the growth opportunity is in all of this stuff?
Speaker 4:Well, there's this little meme and you know, you got the Jedi super smart, 1,000 IQ. And then you got the caveman. I think you could take both approaches in this game. You got like the D-gens let's go gambling and they'll stream. Creators will stream, they will have thousands of people watching them who will be betting alongside them. That's where this whole ecosystem is going. I just got done talking to a company. They're going to have a technology that allows the viewers to bet alongside the content creators. Wow, okay, so they're on a blackjack hand. If that, if the creator doubles down, everybody else is doubling down. Okay, so you can go super degen on that.
Speaker 4:And then there are the gurus the guys who, like in the stock market industry, are giving out great tips. You see them on ESPN now, these folks who have an opinion about sports. But there's everyday creators that are forming an opinion and then they're given their insight on which game could be a good one to bet on. And guess what? They're selling that advice in the form of packages. I have data, because from the companies I've worked with, that there are people spending $100,000 a year on sports betting advice, and so it could be a full-time income. There's companies that are making half a million a million a month selling their sports betting advice and they're just out here. One man shows, not even with the va, they're just doing live. They're posting up their slips and everybody's perceiving them as more of an expert. So you got the djent entertainers and you got the experts and everything in between. It's the perfect storm really. Anybody can get into it. If you're not an expert in sports I mean, it'd probably be a dgen with a find a company out here and they'll give you some funds to work with and you could just be at the blackjack table as long as you can drive traffic. You'll get paid every time a individual makes a first-time deposit, and in perpetuity. Some of these companies will pay you a rev share of the net gaming revenues, which is the are. The losses usually could be 30, 40 and uh the. The amount of incentive has actually gone down over the last year, two years. But in america you used to be able to push sports betting signups and get paid 400 500 per new signup up as a deposit, but now that rate is around 150, 200. It's gone down significantly. So I'm really bullish on the industry. My team has been working in it, working with these creators from a sales capacity. And we're out here now. Next year, this place could be honestly double the size, if you look at the CAagger growth of sports betting alone and new companies are popping up.
Speaker 4:The thing about it 2018 happened in the united states. They legalized sports betting. Not just that, it just let everybody in the vc world green light. It green lit them to start investing. If you look at all of the deposits of, you know, 10 million, 50 million, 60 million into these different fantasy and sports betting companies, you just look at the activity, the investor activity. That should tell you everything you need to know about where this industry is going. And that money has to be sent somehow. It's got to be spent on the creators. It's got to be spent on all the different affiliates that could be running advertising campaigns. There are people here who drive 100,000 new first-time deposits every single month and they get paid anywhere between $100, $200 per deposit.
Speaker 3:Is there a residual component to that too in some of these?
Speaker 4:cases. There is Some of these companies, though they don't allow for that, especially the more established ones.
Speaker 3:I heard you could do that overseas though Some overseas markets there, but not the US right. Sorry.
Speaker 4:Yep, yep. And you know there's a lot of regulation. About half the presentations here because there are some around here are around regulation and the overarching message is guys, let's behave ourselves while the party's still going and if we do so long enough we can all make a bunch of money. But if we are too aggressive then we might just ruin the situation that we're all in, and that's just one of the number one takeaways, like putting higher age restrictions on the platforms.
Speaker 4:Imagine before, like in the porn industry in Texas, there is a specific sites I don't know of any because I don't visit them but they have, like these id verifications. I think only fans may have this as well. You have to verify that you are in fact, over the age of 18 or 21. Now imagine that was brought that type of regulation was brought to the sports betting industry, okay. Or a casino site. Or even like accessing a site not playing, but just accessing the site alone. You need to verify your identity. That's the type of sweeping regulation that could happen, that could mess up everybody's. You know, profit, wet dream, and that's just the stuff that they talk about here at these events. So that's why it's best to stay informed and go to these events because you can not be blindsided whenever you're running a campaign, spending lots of money per day.
Speaker 3:So yeah, yeah, no, I love it. And I saw the agenda and I got here a little bit late, but anytime an industry is booming like this, it's kind of like wild west, right? What inning do you think we're in right now?
Speaker 4:2020 was the beginning. People want to give a year to it. 2019, 2020 was really the beginning, when you start seeing people selling their picks, making crazy amounts of money. I think we're in the third inning of it Third, fourth inning and it is going to depend on a lot of what happens with video games, I feel, because a lot of the spenders are the 18, the 30-year-old bracket. They're the ones that are responding most to the advertising and what they consume and how the culture has shifted within that demographic. That should give you awareness of where this industry is going. Demographic that should give you awareness of where this industry is going.
Speaker 4:Speaking broadly, the game grand theft auto, like vice city, the newest grand theft auto that takes place in a miami simulated environment. They're expecting five million users. Why that's relevant five million users, day one why that's relevant is because there's going to be gambling aspects. I believe word on the street is gambling aspects to that. I heard about that too. Yeah, and so when you have such like all that embedded in somebody's day-to-day life, it's not like somebody just stops gambling. Um, people can stop trading, but they don't necessarily stop gambling. Yeah, and if there's more things for them to gamble on, there's more opportunities, then it's just going to be. You know, most companies that we see at this event, I mean they're going to experience record growth because of the tide, not because of their individual marketing efforts, but the tide is raising all ships.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love that. So two more questions Right, and this is great. This has been a great insight, love that. So two more questions right, and this is great. This has been a great insight. Can you explain because our audience, a lot of internet markers, is a whole wide array what exactly is when you talk about the creator economy? What is the definition of the creator economy?
Speaker 4:you pay creators. If you want a small cack, okay, if you really like small cack, you pay these creators. Gary Vee said it Influencer spend is one of the most profitable, but not as many people are getting the same deals they got four years ago, five years ago. So it's evolving, it's changing and so creators have to be innovative with how they make their money and many will go through phases of selling themselves out and then regaining trust again and then selling themselves out again. So because whenever you sell yourself out, if you try to sell something else to the people that you've been selling to, you're like the cost could go up.
Speaker 4:If a brand has been spending money with you for years, they could just decide not to work with you anymore because they're not getting the same results. It's costing them way more now and I think more brand integrations are, and what that looks like is a YouTuber would have a brand inside of their YouTube video, but not just there. We all seen that where they're sponsored um in the middle of a YouTube video. But brands will actually go as far as using the creator's Instagram account, hooking it up to their ad account and running ads through that that influencers account, because it decreases Someone told me this, uh their cpa cost per acquisition by 20 by just that simple difference alone of running it through the influencer's account versus one that they just made. So that alone cuts, cuts costs on the on a cpa, because a lot of the internet marketers that be watching this are like okay, how do I use these influencers to get more traffic? Don't pay them for promotion. Ask them how you can integrate your product with them. Use their profile attached to an existing app, like media buying assets, whether it's running ads from their YouTube channel, even, and having YouTube in-stream ads running ads from their TikTok. Find a way to just get their little partner ID integrated within your business manager. And you know, for the media buyers that have done this, I mean they could probably confirm in the comment section.
Speaker 4:And then a lot of underutilized email lists too, Because the company that I actually came here like to do business with WAP business with WAP. They have about $100 million a month worth of customers processing on their platform, Thousands of creators, but if I look through all these creators are, I'd say, 1% of them. Less than 1% are actually utilizing the email list at all. They're not even emailing people. So you as an affiliate could come through and work with these creators and try to utilize every single avenue. You can Just completely take over their list and understand how this list was created and how they need to be talked to, and you'll thrive with using creators and influencers.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love that. That's relevant to what we do with data monetization squeeze as much use as possible. The last question I have for you again a lot of internet marketers, affiliates, watching our channel here how do? If they're involved in traditional e-com or Legion, how would you recommend they get into this space? Like, where do they start?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so there are networks of influencers. There's influencer networks marketplaces where you can buy them, buy spots. You can experiment, okay. Before you spend any money, though, it's worth looking at your competitors and seeing. Just ask yourself, okay, of the content I'm seeing on their ads, what percentage of them are using influencers? I know of this brand that last time I talked to them they're doing 200K a month in spend in immigration law, and they have a Mexican influencer, a famous Mexican singer. She's multi-skilled and they just partnered with her, and all this influencer is doing is getting on a live stream with the main business owner or the main owner of this law firm, and then they're just reusing that content and like they could just do it as a one-off.
Speaker 4:You don't have to keep paying these influencers like time and time again. You just need one asset that you can reuse again and again in your campaigns. So, and how do you find out if they're hot or not? Well, oftentimes the metrics tools that are available won't give you the full story you have to. I like to look at their reels and see the types of views that they're getting on their reels on their Instagram, and then that usually tells a pretty decent story. And um, I just asked them directly if their followers are fake or not. Probably not any unique advice that I just gave, but this is pretty, it's good to know, bro.
Speaker 3:This was great. I'm about to. I'm about to put a bet on the next game. You got me motivated, guys. If you want to learn more about it, that's the move. All right, pac, we're going to put your information here. What's the best way people can get in touch? Because, at the end of the day, if you want to jump into something new, you've got to know who the fuck the experts are, what they're doing. It'll help collapse time way where people get in touch with you that want to get involved and learn more about this space yeah, they can.
Speaker 4:Follow me at blake tobez and send me a dm. I follow back. Usually most people that don't look like weirdos or anonymous um. So if you got a legit account, follow me and then we can, yeah, have a chat, have a conversation boom.
Speaker 3:I love it, man. Dj and economy. Third inning we're going on strong. Let's go play some fucking bet. Let's fucking go go. Good shit, man, that was good. Thank you. We should do a podcast or something like a real one.