Andrew Pridgen

Andrew Pridgen

Online Gambling Industry and Sports Betting Reporter  |  CALIFORNIA-NEVADA

Muck Rack profile

Andrew is a failed comedian-turned-newspaper reporter and magazine journalist in California and Nevada, where he learned to play blackjack, sweat the fifth leg of a parlay on a Sunday night, and use news sources to follow up on injury reports for placing bets. His stories have appeared in McSweeney's, Powder Magazine, Lake Tahoe News, Tahoe Quarterly, Teton Gravity Research, Sisu Magazine, Grist Magazine, and Mashable. His debut novel Burgundy Upholstery Sky (2016) tells a harrowing tale of life in a casino shortly before sunrise.

Notre Dame, Clemson Coaches Criticize California’s Shelter-in-Place Laws as State Reaches Pandemic Breaking Point

Notre Dame, Clemson Coaches Criticize California’s Shelter-in-Place Laws as State Reaches Pandemic Breaking Point

Though the college football nation awaits the result of No. 2 Notre Dame’s match vs. No. 3 Clemson in Saturday’s ACC Championship Game, it was the two programs’ coaches who made headlines Friday with their comments about the Rose Bowl. Earlier this week, the College Football Playoff commissioners discussed whether […]

Relaxed Registration Rules Push Illinois Handle to New Heights in October

Relaxed Registration Rules Push Illinois Handle to New Heights in October

The Illinois Gaming Board released its October numbers on Thursday, reporting more than $435 million in handle—a single-month record in the state’s fourth full month of operations. More than 94% of the reported October handle was wagered online, according to the IGC. Online sports gambling operators shattered September’s record of […]

Philadelphia Startup Helps Meet Needs of an App-Based Gambling Nation

Philadelphia Startup Helps Meet Needs of an App-Based Gambling Nation

The rise in bettors’ demands for more data and analytics can be traced directly to the emerging market of products and services that cater to them. Whether it’s Amazon’s Next Gen Stats, which uses “machine learning” crunching thousands of similar scenarios to produce and display in-game probabilities for the NFL, […]

College Hoops Heavyweight Bout Villanova vs. Virginia Canceled

College Hoops Heavyweight Bout Villanova vs. Virginia Canceled

To draw the nation’s pandemic-stricken eyes back to NCAA basketball, a marquee matchup between No. 7 Villanova and No. 17 Virginia was cooked up for a prime time shot at Madison Square Garden. And, like more than 150 college games before it this young season, it too has been called […]

All It Took Was a Tweet: BetOnline Settles Biden Winners

All It Took Was a Tweet: BetOnline Settles Biden Winners

After six weeks of delays, dozens of lawsuits, a handful of recounts, and one lame-duck president who’s yet to admit he lost, Panama-based BetOnline became the last major sportsbook to settle the 2020 Election on Tuesday morning. The announcement came via tweet, ending more than a month of radio silence […]

Online Sports Gambling in Iowa Sets Record For Third Month in a Row

Online Sports Gambling in Iowa Sets Record For Third Month in a Row

Iowa has now joined Colorado, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and New Jersey as states with three-straight record-setting months of wagering this fall. November brought the Hawkeye State $87.2 million total handle, a 6.4% increase on October’s total $81.9 million across Iowa’s 19 casinos—thirteen of which offer online wagering. The hold was 9.34%, […]

Disney Goes All-In With Caesars, DraftKings, and SEC Deal in Effort to Save ESPN

Disney Goes All-In With Caesars, DraftKings, and SEC Deal in Effort to Save ESPN

Last week, Disney officials announced several initiatives that will pivot the media behemoth toward a future focused on online sports gambling. At its Investor Day last Thursday, Disney executives highlighted ESPN’s multi-year partnership with Caesars Entertainment signed in September. The deal includes link integrations from ESPN’s digital platforms to William […]

Florida’s Keyontae Johnson Collapses Mid-Game, Baylor’s Men’s Program on Pause with COVID Concerns

Florida’s Keyontae Johnson Collapses Mid-Game, Baylor’s Men’s Program on Pause with COVID Concerns

University of Florida standout forward Keyontae Johnson, the Southeastern Conference’s preseason player of the year, was taken off the floor on a stretcher and hospitalized after he collapsed during a timeout in a game vs. rival Florida State on Saturday in Tallahassee. School officials said his parents accompanied Johnson, head […]