Joe Rogan Admits He Used to Hustle Bookmakers While Calling MMA Fights: ‘I Was Like, Is This Bad?’

Brandon ContesSep 29th, 2021, 4:09 pm

Decades prior to becoming a podcast star and long before MMA became a powerhouse among fight sports in the United States, Joe Rogan was already reporting and commentating on the UFC. Having a leg up on bookmakers’ limited UFC knowledge, Rogan used their ignorance to his advantage.

“I used to gamble on fights when I was calling them in the early days of the UFC,” Rogan said on his podcast. “Cause there was guys that would come in from overseas…and I knew who they were and I would gamble on them.”

“I was like, ‘is this bad?’ Like I’m commentating and I’m also gambling,” Rogan admitted in a moment of morality. “I don’t know if that’s smart because I don’t wanna be biased.”

After questioning if his gambling habits were “bad,” Rogan said he eventually started giving his friend and Onnit partner Aubrey Marcus the inside tips for MMA wagers.

“Guys would come in and I would say ‘oh my god that line is totally wrong, this guy’s a killer.’ And we were at one point at 84 percent,” Rogan told his guest Bert Kreischer. “Where I was just giving him the tips and he was gambling, eight out of ten I would call them right.”

If true, that’s an absurd winning percentage for gambling on anything. Rogan’s first appearance on a UFC broadcast came in 1997. The podcaster didn’t state when he started gambling, but he developed an advantage by owning strong knowledge of a sport not many people knew about. Placing bets on the sport while getting paid to study obscure fighters is akin to insider trading.

Rogan certainly wouldn’t be the first person to bet on a sport they cover. Fans have questioned sportscasters in the past for having what appeared to be more riding on the contest than just a general rooting interest. Whether it’s a radio host ranting about an out-of-market game or a play-by-play announcer expressing distress over a missed extra point. But Rogan’s advantage is more distinct in an obscure sport with less readily available information.