Odds Man Out: Jay Cohen’s World Sports Exchange Story

Jay Cohen’s memoir Odds Man Out recounts how he and partner Steve Schillinger founded World Sports Exchange (WSEX) in Antigua in 1995, developed live in‑game wagering and market-style betting, and faced a 1998 federal indictment that led to his conviction under the 1961 Federal Wire Act.

Cohen trained as a nuclear engineer at the University of California, Berkeley and worked as a trader on the Pacific Stock Exchange before launching WSEX with Schillinger. The company drew U.S. customers from its Antigua base after Cohen says he received legal advice that operating the site for American bettors was lawful under federal and international rules then in place.

WSEX introduced features now common in online wagering: live betting that allowed wagers during events, point-and-click interfaces, and exchange-style markets where customers could trade futures and adjust positions as events unfolded. Early markets included high-profile legal and sports events and multi-day golf tournaments, which Cohen describes as a major source of customer activity.

In the late 1990s a law firm representing professional sports organizations raised integrity concerns about WSEX, and the Department of Justice under Attorney General Janet Reno brought criminal charges in 1998. Cohen returned to the United States from Antigua to defend the business, saying he was acting on the advice of lawyers and on federal precedent he believed supported the operation.

At trial, Cohen contends that Judge Thomas Griesa excluded evidence that would have given jurors additional context about the business and its legality. The court convicted him under the 1961 Federal Wire Act. He received a federal sentence of 21 months.

The memoir traces the indictment, trial, and the decline of WSEX, which ceased operations in 2013. Cohen served his sentence and later renounced U.S. citizenship. He now lives in Eastern Europe with his wife and young son and says he has no current ties to the modern sports-betting industry and faces difficulty finding work.

Odds Man Out presents Cohen’s account of WSEX’s operations, the strategies used to attract bettors, and the courtroom battles that followed. The book places those events in a timeline of online wagering from early browser-based services to later regulated sports betting and newer online formats.

The memoir includes Cohen’s reflections on the business and its legal treatment. The book states, ‘We thought it was the right time,’ describing the decision to offer new wagering formats. Later passages ask why organizations that opposed offshore betting then now engage in commercial partnerships, a point the book raises as part of Cohen’s account of the legal campaign against WSEX.