Monday was National Boss’s Day, so presumably, Steve Ruddock spent the day celebrating himself. Ruddock, a 15-year veteran of the gambling media, took a leap this past summer and decided to stop writing for other people’s websites (at least on a full-time basis) and become his own boss.
Ruddock is one of the legions of journalists who, particularly since Substack was launched in 2017, has made the move to an independent newsletter. On Aug. 7, he debuted Straight to the Point, his daily Substack rounding up and commenting on gaming industry happenings in the way he wants to.
Within the gambling media, Ruddock has company in the form of Dustin Gouker, Steve McAllister, JohnWallStreet (a blog covering the wider sports, media, and finance industries that frequently touches on gambling), Alun Bowden (who posts sporadically), and various other newsletters helmed by groups of people rather than individuals.
The newsletter movement isn’t quite a new phenomenon — NPR, for example, explored it in depth back in 2020 — but it’s gathering more steam as journalists increasingly lose faith in Twitter/X as a mode of communication and promotion. And Ruddock is taking it further than most by making it his full-time gig.
“Noticing the direction the coverage of the industry is going in, I felt the things I do well were being pushed to the periphery,” Ruddock told Sports Handle. “There are a lot of good reporters in the space, and there’s a rush to put out the news as fast as possible because you’re all competing against one another, and you’re hoping that your social media post is the one that gets shared on Reddit and gets all the clicks. But at the same time, I think you lose a little bit of the flavor of the story and the understanding of what’s actually happening.
“So with the newsletter, I’m able to tie different stories together, link to the other reporting I want to link to, and tell a story that is not quite the story that everyone else is covering.”
A leap of (funded) faith 5v475d
Before he became a writer, Ruddock occupied a different lane in the gambling business: He was a professional and semi-pro poker player, starting in 1999. Around 2008, he began writing about poker and went on to work for a variety of outlets — the last of them being an media site (like the one you’re reading right now).
Ruddock says it was a “wonderful company,” but he felt “out of place.” As a married father of two with a mortgage, he didn’t have an easy time deciding to leave a steady job and place all of his chips (or most of his chips; he still has side gigs, such as editing Gaming Law Review) on Substack. But a crucial bit of success before starting made reg from his previous job a lot easier.
“I’m in a fairly unique situation where I’ve been around for a long time. I’ve never called in any favors before. But I called in some favors for this one,” Ruddock explained. “With a subscriber count of zero and no content whatsoever, I was able to secure three sponsors for the newsletter for 12 weeks, for the initial burst. I was able to use my reputation and my experience in the industry to do that.”
Armed with that financial backing (from Underdog Fantasy, GeoComply, and JackPocket) before publishing a word, Ruddock got cracking on a newsletter that posts at 9 a.m. ET every weekday. The Monday-Thursday editions round up the news across the sports betting and wider gambling world, synthesizing and analyzing it, while every Friday, Straight to the Point becomes a single-subject deep dive/op-ed — the latter half of which is only available to paying subscribers.
A ‘way to get my voice out there’ 5i2u3c
Paid subscriptions are what make Substacks economically viable for writers with massive followings. If you have 1,000 devoted readers willing to pay $10 a month to read your work, you have a six-figure journalism gig (or thereabouts, after Substack and the credit card processors take their cuts).
For Ruddock, a writer with a little over 6,000 Twitter followers working in a very specific, not-quite-mainstream niche, the sponsors had to be the backbone and the paid subs just a bonus. Paid or not, he’s happy with his early subscriber numbers.
“My initial goal was to be at about 500 subscribers at the three-month mark. I’m a little over two months in and stand at 857,” Ruddock said Monday. “So I should break 1,000 sometime in November, based on my current growth.”
Today is the 1-Month Anniversary of Straight to the Point.
The response has exceeded my loftiest expectations, and the has been overwhelming. I’m closing in on 600 subscribers and will soon average 1,000 views/day. Far ahead of my targets.
A 🧵 pic.twitter.com/YBdyMIHKWG— Steve Ruddock (@SteveRuddock) September 7, 2023
His numbers include “more than 50” paid subs at this point, he revealed, at $9/month or $90/year. He’s planning additional content for the paid crowd, with a podcast likely coming, but he has no plans to put any part of his Monday-Thursday newsletters behind the paywall.
“I have no intention of making that paid in any way. That’s just — that’s the way to get my voice out there and continue writing in the industry. It’s something I like to do. And as it’s my own newsletter, I’m able to pick the stories that I think are important and interesting.”
So should we expect more in the gaming media to move to this independent model? Ruddock believes there’s still room for plenty more people to try it and experiment with different approaches — particularly for younger writers who may have the freedom to take a shot on the side, dip a toe, and see how the water feels.
For Ruddock, so far, the temperature is just right.
“The has been really good. I’ve heard from a lot of people, publicly and privately. And I haven’t had anybody tell me I suck yet,” he said with a chuckle, “which is nice.”
Elsewhere in sports betting media news … 273a1g
- Former ESPN and Barstool Sports betting analyst Kelly Stewart — better known in the industry as “Kelly in Vegas” — ed Clay Travis’ Outkick this month, debuting the polarizing media site’s first gambling-focused show on Oct. 5. Stewart can count among her Outkick colleagues the likes of Tomi Lahren and Curt Schilling.
- A ESPN BET expected to launch in November, “many on-air stars are eager to get involved” with it, according to ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro. “The company plans to announce an expanded talent lineup to host and promote its gambling-related products and shows,” reads the article. “ESPN is also considering alternative broadcasts of games focused on betting, similar to the popular version of Monday Night Football hosted by former NFL stars and brothers Eli and Peyton Manning that airs on ESPN2 and ESPN+, and plans to promote betting to its growing fantasy-sports audience.”
