{{Short description|American blackjack player}} {{Infobox person | name = Jeff Ma | birth_date = 1973 | alma_mater = Massachusetts Institute of Technology | occupation = Chief Digital Officer, Troon | notable_works = ''The House Advantage: Playing the Odds to Win Big In Business'' }}
'''Jeffrey Ma''' (born 1973) is a former member of the MIT Blackjack Team in the mid-1990s.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.wired.com/playbook/2010/09/qa-jeff-ma|title=Jeff Ma, Former MIT Blackjack Whiz, Riffs on Fantasy Sports, Statgeeks, Yahoo |date=September 2010|work=Wired News|accessdate=25 June 2012}}</ref> He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy. He attended MIT 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)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/27/DDQEVM8MQ.DTL |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080329121201/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/27/DDQEVM8MQ.DTL |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 29, 2008 |title=Hollywood deals Jeff Ma a good hand with '21' |accessdate=2008-03-29 |author=Justin Berton |date=2008-03-27 |work=San Francisco Chronicle}}</ref> and does consulting work for professional sports teams including the Portland Trail Blazers and San Francisco 49ers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2006/1016/056.html |title=Picking Winners |accessdate=2008-03-29 |author=Zack O'Malley Greenburg |author-link=Zack O'Malley Greenburg |date=2006-10-16 |work=Forbes}}</ref> He cofounded Citizen Sports, a sport-information website and iPhone application based in San Francisco, which was acquired by Yahoo! in May 2010.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2010/03/17/yahoo-acquires-citizen-sports/ |title=Yahoo Acquires Citizen Sports|accessdate=2010-03-17 |author=Jason Kincaid |date=2010-03-17 |work=TechCrunch}}</ref>
His first book, ''The House Advantage: Playing the Odds to Win Big In Business,'' was published in July 2010 by Palgrave Macmillan. 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kepplerspeakers.com/speakers/?speaker=Jeffrey+Ma |title=Jeff Ma Corporate Speaker|accessdate=2012-10-31 |author=Keppler Speakers}}</ref> He made a cameo in the film ''21'' as a blackjack dealer named Jeffrey at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt478087/ |title=21 (2008) |accessdate=2008-04-30 |publisher=Internet Movie Database}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2008-03-25-jeff-ma-21_N.htm|title=New film '21' counts on the real deal for inspiration|last=Bowles|first=Scott|date=March 25, 2008|work=USA Today|accessdate=25 June 2012}}</ref> Jim Sturgess's character, Ben Campbell, refers to Jeffrey as "my brother from another mother." He is the CEO and Founder of {{Proper name|tenXer}}, a San Francisco-based startup, with the vision to "make work better and your work better". {{Proper name|tenXer}} was sold to Twitter now X, in April 2015.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/02/confirmed-twitter-buys-tenxer-for-under-50m-to-improve-its-tools-for-engineers|title=Twitter Buys TenXer For Under $50M To Improve Its Tools For Engineers|date=2 April 2015 }}</ref>
Ma joined ESPN 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''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://twitter.com/bettheprocess?lang=en|title=Bet The Process (@BetTheProcess) {{!}} Twitter|website=twitter.com|language=en|access-date=2017-12-15}}</ref> podcast, a "sports gambling and analytics podcast," and began appearing on The Tony Kornheiser Show podcast, picking college and NFL football games. In November 2018, Ma was appointed Senior Vice President of Product and Analytics at Duetto.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hospitalitynet.org/appointment/79017326.html|title=Jeff Ma has been appointed Senior Vice President of Product and Analytics at Duetto|last=Net|first=Hospitality|website=Hospitality Net|language=en-us|access-date=2020-02-24}}</ref>
In May 2020, Ma became Vice President for Microsoft for Startups, a unit focused on recruiting startups to use Microsoft technologies.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://startups.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/ma/|title=Jeff Ma Takes Helm of Microsoft for Startups Global Team|access-date=2020-09-21}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-seeks-startup-partnerships-in-battle-with-amazon-over-cloud-11600077601|title=Microsoft Seeks Startup Partnerships in Battle With Amazon Over Cloud|newspaper=Wall Street Journal |date=14 September 2020 |access-date=2020-09-21 |last1=Tilley |first1=Aaron }}</ref>
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== {{Reflist|40em}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|8009312}} * [https://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2008-03-25-jeff-ma-21_N.htm "New film '21' counts on the real deal for inspiration"], ''USA Today'', March 26, 2008. * [https://www.youtube.com/profile?user=AtGoogleTalks#p/u/15/uMxnxifmsuw Jeffrey Ma] at AtGoogleTalks * [http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/archive/2010/08/mit-blackjack-whiz-jeff-ma-publishes-house-advantage "Jeff Ma Publishes 'The House Advantage'"], ''Hyphen magazine''.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ma, Jeff}} Category:1973 births Category:American blackjack players Category:American chief executives Category:American people of Chinese descent Category:Living people Category:MIT School of Engineering alumni Category:Phillips Exeter Academy alumni Category:Place of birth missing (living people) Category:Delta Upsilon members Category:American sports podcasters