Saturday afternoon in Vegas. Picture it. People lounging by the pool, playing a few hands of blackjack, watching some football.
Now picture Matty Simo and Toni Law hustling through Circa and Westgate, running picks for more than 1,000 clients scattered across the country — all hoping to hit it big in football contests that boast prize pools north of $21 million.
Welcome to the world of football contest proxies, where a cottage industry born in the back of a Las Vegas sportsbook has evolved into a legitimate business model that makes the American Dream look a lot like … well, submitting other people’s football picks.
“We started at a sports betting information company, which is where we found out about the SuperContest way back in the day,” Simo said, referring to the granddaddy of all football handicapping contests. Back then, it was the largest contest of its kind in the world.
“So we’d each proxy for a few people, which means basically running their picks down to the casino every week,” he said.
That was 20 years ago. Today, Football Contest Proxy — the company Simo and Law built from scratch — handles more than 3,200 contest entries annually. It’s a far cry from their humble beginnings, when they thought proxying would be a nice little side hustle.
The Derek Stevens effect
The transformation of their side gig into a full-time operation has a lot to do with one man: Circa owner Derek Stevens.
When Stevens launched the Circa Million in 2019, he didn’t just create a competitor to the SuperContest. He rewrote the playbook. While the SuperContest had always operated on a percentage payout model, with the prize pool depending on entries, Stevens guaranteed his prize money upfront.
“His whole thing is guaranteed prize money,” Simo said. “The SuperContest had never done that.”
The timing couldn’t have been more dramatic. COVID hit in 2020, creating massive uncertainty about whether people would even travel to Vegas to register. But Stevens doubled down, maintaining his guarantees when nobody knew if contestants would show up.
“Derek, especially during COVID, when there’s no guarantee of how many people are going to get out to Vegas to sign up for these contests, he still put up the money,” Simo said.
The gamble paid off. The SuperContest, once king of the mountain with payouts that had reached $1.3 million for first place, saw its numbers dip. Meanwhile, Circa’s contests exploded.
Then Stevens did what any good disruptor does — he disrupted himself. A year after launching the Million, he introduced Circa Survivor, targeting a market that had largely existed underground, with people mailing cash in envelopes to dubious operators.
“He wanted to have the largest legal contest in the world, which he has done,” Simo said.
Today, Circa’s combined contests guarantee over $21 million in prizes, with the Survivor contest alone offering $15 million promised to the last person standing this year.
The proxy life
So how exactly does one become a professional football pick runner?
For starters, you need to be in Las Vegas. Contest rules require in-person registration and picks must be submitted from within Nevada — either at the sportsbook or through geo-locked mobile apps. That’s where proxies come in.
“We would just set up a time to meet with you,” Law said. “You’d have to come into Las Vegas and personally sign up for the contest.”
The financial model is straightforward: from $99 an entry (if you get your weekly picks in early) up to $299 (for extended time on the picks). It’s competitive pricing in a market that’s grown from a handful of old-school handicappers doing favors for friends to multiple professional services vying for clients.
The logistics, however, are anything but simple. While they could technically use mobile apps to submit picks, Matty and Toni stick to what she calls “a really awesome system that works for us.” Every Friday and Saturday during football season, they’re at the sportsbooks, entering picks for their clients.
What started as two former Pregame employees (Simo was head writer, Law worked in marketing) thinking they could make some extra cash has evolved into something neither quite expected. Both have been able to leave their other jobs and focus solely on the proxy business.
“I was hopeful, but it was a slow process,” Law said. “We both had other jobs and, luckily for us, we both are able to just do this and make a decent living at it.”
The key to their growth? A combination of old-school hustle and new-school marketing. For instance, Law manages their Instagram presence, creating videos that resonate with younger bettors.
They resonate with older ones as well. The business even signed up broadcasting legend Brent Musburger.
You are looking live
“I spend time up in Montana in the fall, so I’m not around Circa, where I always participate in the Survivor contest,” Musburger, 86, told InGame. “They’re just so efficient at what they do, and they’ll remind me if I haven’t got my picks in — helpful to hurry up and make up my mind.”
Musburger said even though he could input his picks himself while in Nevada, he deadpanned that “being an old man, the computer isn’t always easy to use.”
Musburger said he’d have three entries in the Circa Survivor and that he’d “wander over” to Westgate to get a SuperContest entry in as well.
“Full disclosure — I had two entries last year and was eliminated after two weeks,” he said. “I picked the Bengals and they were upset by the Patriots. Of course, shame on me for not remembering that the Bengals don’t start well.”
Musburger believes these contests are a perfect way to get in some action without having to worry about going too far down the rabbit hole.
“One nice thing about the contests is you put money in at the first of the year and it’s cash you can afford to lose,” he said. “That takes away the risk of becoming addicted to it. You paid for it, away you go.”
Even though the NFL regular season doesn’t kick off for another three months, Musburger already has his eyes on opening week.
“I do have one pick I’m pretty sure about,” he said. “For one of my entries, I’ll be riding with the Arizona Cardinals in New Orleans. Just so everybody knows why — it’s kind of an anti-New Orleans pick with a rookie coach and rookie quarterback. I’m making a stand against them in Week 1.”
Fade Musburger at your own risk.
“I love the contests,” he said. “Over at Westgate, I made a few hundred dollars on the contest back in the day, but that’s nothing compared to what Circa is offering with their Survivor.”
Westgate strikes back
The success of Circa’s contests hasn’t gone unnoticed at the Westgate, home of the original SuperContest. Like an aging heavyweight trying to reclaim the title, Westgate has introduced new wrinkles: a college football contest and a $5,000 high-roller survivor contest.
But Stevens, ever the showman, countered with a $100,000 entry contest, the Grandissimo.
It certainly seems Simo and Law are riding quite the wave. Stevens keeps upping the ante and, as more states legalize sports betting that ironically creates more out-of-state demand for Vegas contest entries, their services are more essential than ever.
“The more money that Derek guarantees, I feel like it’s just going to get bigger and bigger every year,” Law said.
Law and Simo get plenty of time off from their business. When the NFL isn’t in season, neither are they. Simo says he spends most of his time with wife and daughter, and Law gets in a ton of traveling.
Not a bad life for two people who figured out how to turn being in the right place at the right time into a business model.
And, really, isn’t that the most Vegas story of all? While everyone else is trying to beat the house, Simo and Law figured out how to work with it. They’re not picking winners. They’re just making sure the picks get placed.
