As a member of the infamous MIT Blackjack Team, Jeff Ma created an ingenious method for counting cards—using talent, creativity, math, and teamwork to win millions in Las Vegas. (Card-counting, by the way, is not illegal; casinos just don’t like it). Ma was the inspiration for the best-selling book Bringing Down the House and the...
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As a member of the infamous MIT Blackjack Team, Jeff Ma created an ingenious method for counting cards—using talent, creativity, math, and teamwork to win millions in Las Vegas. (Card-counting, by the way, is not illegal; casinos just don’t like it). Ma was the inspiration for the best-selling book Bringing Down the House and the hit movie, 21, which topped the box office in its first two weeks. He is also an accomplished entrepreneur having started four different companies including GolfSpan (sold to Demand Media), CircleLending (sold to Virgin), Citizen Sports (sold to Yahoo) and tenXer (sold to Twitter).
Beyond his work as an entrepreneur, Ma has been at the forefront of the “Moneyball” movement working with professional sports teams like the San Francisco 49ers and the Portland Trail Blazers and media powerhouses like ESPN and Major League Baseball Advanced Media, helping them to make better decisions using data and analytics. His business bestselling book, The House Advantage: Playing the Odds to Win Big in Business, draws on his unique experiences at the table and in the sports world to create a truly accessible book about analytics.
Ma has also been a pioneer in the world of sports betting serving as ESPN first sports betting expert in 2013 and then later launching the Bet the Process podcast. Bet the Process has become one of the top sports betting podcasts and is referenced by mainstream properties like ESPN and Fox.
In addition to his work as an entrepreneur, Ma has held two executive roles, serving as VP of Data Science and Analytics at Twitter leading all central work in this area. Most recently, Ma served as Vice President of Microsoft for Startups overseeing Microsoft’s program to accelerate the success of developers, startup founders, and students around the world.
Ma continues to be fascinated by the intersection of sports, media, analytics and technology and is exploring new opportunities within the startup space.
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“The key to winning—whether it’s blackjack or business—is understanding probabilities and making decisions based on data, not emotion.”
Speaker Programs
What is ChatGPT and What Does it Mean for You?
Jeffrey Ma and his MIT blackjack team were pioneers in the use of data and analytics - the foundation for modern AI. The former head of data science at Twitter and the author of a ...more
Jeffrey Ma and his MIT blackjack team were pioneers in the use of data and analytics - the foundation for modern AI. The former head of data science at Twitter and the author of a bestselling business book on the topic, Ma continues to be at the forefront of modern AI, having just completed a stint as an executive leading all the startup work at Microsoft. In this role, Ma worked closely with OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT. In this thought-provoking and funny presentation, Ma uses his colorful experiences to explain and demystify new advances like ChatGPT while giving the audience the building blocks to understand how data and artificial intelligence can help any business. With a uniquely accessible approach to the topic, Ma tells stories with data, showing audiences how to use these tools to make better decisions, overcome cognitive bias and drive innovation. ...less
How to Win With Data
Jeffrey Ma and his MIT blackjack team were pioneers in the use of data and analytics. The former head of data science at Twitter and the author of a bestselling business book on the topic, ...more
Jeffrey Ma and his MIT blackjack team were pioneers in the use of data and analytics. The former head of data science at Twitter and the author of a bestselling business book on the topic, Ma continues to be at the forefront of what Newsweek calls "a new age of numbers in corporate America.” In this thought-provoking and funny presentation, Ma tells stories with data, showing audiences how to use analytics to make better decisions, overcome cognitive bias and drive innovation. With compelling examples and practical insights from the worlds of media, sports and business, Ma shares a blueprint that organizations large and small can use to win with data. ...less
Unlocking Innovation
Not only did Jeffrey Ma devise the innovative system that helped him and his friends from MIT win millions of dollars, but he also started—and successfully exited—four different companies, selling his startups to Richard Branson, ...more
Not only did Jeffrey Ma devise the innovative system that helped him and his friends from MIT win millions of dollars, but he also started—and successfully exited—four different companies, selling his startups to Richard Branson, Yahoo and Twitter along the way. Ma recently led a team at Microsoft working with startups to unlock innovation in the enterprise, and in this new speech he shares important lessons learned in his career both as an entrepreneur and an executive—lessons in confidence, teamwork, trust, creativity and goal-setting—that will help you and your organization unlock innovation, challenge convention and grow. ...less
Ten Times Better: Maximize Performance through Big Data
Data, gleaned through technology, is not only supposed to help us do our jobs, but do them better. Sometimes, it can even make us ten times better than the average employee. Through the lens of ...more
Data, gleaned through technology, is not only supposed to help us do our jobs, but do them better. Sometimes, it can even make us ten times better than the average employee. Through the lens of his experiences in blackjack, pro sports consulting, and Hollywood, Jeffrey Ma discusses the importance of setting goals as well as tracking your progress and productivity along the way, and how gaming, analytics, and competitive tracking can lead to more useful, constructive feedback and more motivated teams and employees. ...less
Books
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