Hamman bought a few truckloads of furniture this year that he didn’t want or need. “It cost me about $1.5 million,” he says with a sheepish grin. “I try to forget those details.”
Hamman was on the hook for all those ottomans and recliners because Ohio State upset Oregon in January’s NCAA football championship. His company, SCA Promotions, underwrote a contest staged by an Ohio furniture chain promising free goods if the Buckeyes won. Hamman bet they wouldn’t.
It was a rare loss for him. For three decades, he’s been figuring the odds of these kinds of things: that Serena Williams would win a Grand Slam; that an average Joe would sink a halfcourt basketball shot; that Lance Armstrong would win a bunch of Tour de France races (without doping).
A droll 77-year-old with a lumbering gait and a head of unruly white hair, Hamman is a sort of cross between a bookie, insurance executive, and math professor, without actually being any of them. Dustin Hoffman portrays him in The Program, a movie about the Armstrong scandal.
When a car dealer offers a free Camaro to the local fan who kicks a 35-yard field goal at a college football game, it takes out a short-term insurance policy to cover its potential losses. SCA Promotions is one of those unofficial insurers, weighing the chance the unlikely will happen and charging a fee to reimburse Tri-County Chevrolet if it does. Companies such as SCA are like auto insurers that collect premiums against the chance a safe driver will have a costly collision, except there’s no tragedy and the potential payoffs for the contestant are enormous: In 2014, Quicken Loans and Warren Buffett offered a $1 billion jackpot if someone picked a perfect March Madness bracket.
This story is from the November 2 - November 8, 2015 edition of Bloomberg Businessweek.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the November 2 - November 8, 2015 edition of Bloomberg Businessweek.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Instagram's Founders Say It's Time for a New Social App
The rise of AI and the fall of Twitter could create opportunities for upstarts
Running in Circles
A subscription running shoe program aims to fight footwear waste
What I Learned Working at a Hawaiien Mega-Resort
Nine wild secrets from the staff at Turtle Bay, who have to manage everyone from haughty honeymooners to go-go-dancing golfers.
How Noma Will Blossom In Kyoto
The best restaurant in the world just began its second pop-up in Japan. Here's what's cooking
The Last-Mover Problem
A startup called Sennder is trying to bring an extremely tech-resistant industry into the age of apps
Tick Tock, TikTok
The US thinks the Chinese-owned social media app is a major national security risk. TikTok is running out of ways to avoid a ban
Cleaner Clothing Dye, Made From Bacteria
A UK company produces colors with less water than conventional methods and no toxic chemicals
Pumping Heat in Hamburg
The German port city plans to store hot water underground and bring it up to heat homes in the winter
Sustainability: Calamari's Climate Edge
Squid's ability to flourish in warmer waters makes it fitting for a diet for the changing environment
New Money, New Problems
In Naples, an influx of wealthy is displacing out-of-towners lower-income workers
