Jeff Ma
Jeff Ma or (Jeffrey Ma) was a member of the MIT Blackjack Team in the mid 1990s. 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)[1] and does consulting work for professional sports teams including the Portland Trail Blazers and San Francisco 49ers.[2] He cofounded Citizen Sports, a sport-information website and iPhone application based in San Francisco, which was acquired by Yahoo! in May 2010.[3]
His first book, The House Advantage: Playing the Odds to Win Big In Business, was published in July 2010 by Palgrave Macmillan.
Ma makes a cameo in 21 as a blackjack dealer named Jeffery at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.[4] Jim Sturgess's character, Ben Campbell, refers to Jeffery as, "my brother from another mother."
[edit] References
- ^ Justin Berton (2008-03-27). "Hollywood deals Jeff Ma a good hand with '21'". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/27/DDQEVM8MQ.DTL. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
- ^ Zack O'Malley Greenburg (2006-10-16). "Picking Winners". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2006/1016/056.html. Retrieved 2008-03-29.
- ^ Jason Kincaid (2010-03-17). "Yahoo Acquires Citizen Sports". TechCrunch. http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/17/yahoo-acquires-citizen-sports/. Retrieved 2010-03-17.
- ^ IMDB (...). "IMDB". [1]. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt478087/. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
[edit] External links
- Jeff Ma at the Internet Movie Database
- "New film '21' counts on the real deal for inspiration", USA Today, March 26, 2008.
- Jeffrey Ma at AtGoogleTalks
- "Jeff Ma Publishes 'The House Advantage'", Hyphen magazine.
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