Jeffrey Ma (born 1973) is a former member of the

MIT Blackjack Team The MIT Blackjack Team was a group of students and ex-students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and other leading colleges; they used card counting techniques and more sophisticated strategies to beat casinos at bla ...

in the mid-1990s. He graduated from

Phillips Exeter Academy Phillips Exeter Academy (often called Exeter or PEA) is an Independent school, independent, co-educational, college-preparatory school in Exeter, New Hampshire. Established in 1781, it is America's sixth-oldest boarding school and educates an es ...

. He attended

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

where he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1994. He was the basis for the main character of the book '' Bringing Down the House'' (where he was renamed Kevin Lewis) and the film '' 21'' (where he was renamed Ben Campbell). Ma also co-founded PROTRADE (a sports stock market website that has since been shut down) and does consulting work for professional sports teams including the

Portland Trail Blazers The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (N ...

and

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...

. He cofounded Citizen Sports, a sport-information website and iPhone application based in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, which was acquired by

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in May 2010. His first book, ''The House Advantage: Playing the Odds to Win Big In Business,'' was published in July 2010 by

Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offi ...

. Ma is a regular speaker at corporate events and conferences where he talks about how to use data and analytics to make better business decisions. He made a cameo in the film ''21'' as a

blackjack Blackjack (formerly black jack or ''vingt-un'') is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as " twenty-one ...

dealer named Jeffrey at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.

Jim Sturgess James Anthony Sturgess''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at ancestry.com (born 16 May 1978) is an English actor and singer-songwriter. His first major role was as Jude in the musical romance drama film ''Acros ...

's character, Ben Campbell, refers to Jeffrey as "my brother from another mother." He is the CEO and Founder of , a San Francisco-based startup, with the vision to "make work better and your work better". was sold to

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

now X, in April 2015. Ma joined

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

in November 2014 as their Predictive Analytics Expert. Per this arrangement, he does weekly TV appearances on ''SportsCenter'' and contributes as a writer on ESPN.com. In 2017, he started the ''Bet the Process'' podcast, a "sports gambling and analytics podcast," and began appearing on

The Tony Kornheiser Show ''The Tony Kornheiser Show'' is a sports podcast talk show out of Washington, D.C., hosted by Tony Kornheiser. In 2012, Kornheiser was ranked No. 8 of the 100 most important sports talk radio hosts in America by '' Talkers Magazine''. In 2016, ...

podcast, picking college and NFL football games. In November 2018, Ma was appointed Senior Vice President of Product and Analytics at Duetto. In May 2020, Ma became Vice President for

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

for Startups, a unit focused on recruiting startups to use Microsoft technologies. As of 2024, Ma is the Chief Digital Officer at Troon, the largest golf and club-related hospitality management company in the world in terms of number of clubs managed.

References

External links

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"New film '21' counts on the real deal for inspiration"
''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

'', March 26, 2008.
Jeffrey Ma
at AtGoogleTalks
"Jeff Ma Publishes 'The House Advantage'"
'' Hyphen magazine''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ma, Jeff 1973 births American blackjack players American chief executives American people of Chinese descent Living people MIT School of Engineering alumni Phillips Exeter Academy alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Delta Upsilon members