# Jeff Ma

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{{Short description|American blackjack player}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Jeff Ma
| birth_date         = 1973
| alma_mater         = [Massachusetts Institute of Technology](/source/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](/source/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](/source/Wired_News)|accessdate=25 June 2012}}</ref> He graduated from [Phillips Exeter Academy](/source/Phillips_Exeter_Academy). He attended [MIT](/source/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](/source/Bringing_Down_the_House_(book))'' (where he was renamed Kevin Lewis) and the film ''[21](/source/21_(2008_film))'' (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](/source/San_Francisco_Chronicle)}}</ref> and does consulting work for professional sports teams including the [Portland Trail Blazers](/source/Portland_Trail_Blazers) and [San Francisco 49ers](/source/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](/source/Forbes)}}</ref> He cofounded Citizen Sports, a sport-information website and iPhone application based in [San Francisco](/source/San_Francisco), which was acquired by [Yahoo!](/source/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](/source/TechCrunch)}}</ref>

His first book, ''The House Advantage: Playing the Odds to Win Big In Business,'' was published in July 2010 by [Palgrave Macmillan](/source/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](/source/blackjack) dealer named Jeffrey at the [Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino](/source/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](/source/USA_Today)|accessdate=25 June 2012}}</ref> [Jim Sturgess](/source/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](/source/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](/source/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](/source/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](/source/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](/source/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](/source/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](/source/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

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Jeff Ma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Ma) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Ma?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.