Zack Ward.
Editor's note: This interview first appeared in Human Capital, a newsletter by Washington Bureau Chief Melanie Waddell about the people who shape the financial regulatory space.
It's been a few weeks since the Supreme Court gave the go-ahead for states to legalize sports gambling, but actor Zack Ward isn't a fan. He thinks sports gamblers should stop betting — and start investing instead.
Ward wants to ensure the AllSportsMarket (ASM) exchange — an experimental offering that allows investors to buy and sell shares of sports teams — gets a go-ahead from the SEC. He believes sports betting has a "massive downside: It corrupts people, the game, the players."
On the heels of the Supreme Court ruling in mid-May, states are already rolling the dice on professional sports betting. Ward — who is CEO of Global Sports Financial Exchange and has appeared in TV shows and in films including "A Christmas Story" and "Transformers" — chatted with me via phone Thursday from his home in Studio City, California. He is shooting a TV series in Washington state called "Z Nation," an action/drama zombie series.
The ASM exchange is operated by The New Sports Economy Institute, a California nonprofit.
Ward's main beef with sports betting: "It doesn't increase the GDP, it sucks money like a vacuum and goes into offshore accounts. It's the opposite of what the country needs."
Offshore sports betting is a "$200 to $400 billion" market, Ward said. Creating an exchange in the United States offers an "alternative to gambling, creates another revenue stream for teams, for the leagues, individuals, and helps [facilitate] financial literacy."
As it stands now, there are two ways to play on the ASM exchange: a "learning market" where investors get $2,500 in free money to learn the ropes, and a "real money" or "pilot market" version, where investors can put in $2,500 per year to buy shares in teams in the NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA — and the shares "go up and down based on their [team's] performance," Ward said.
