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A daily podcast delving into the biggest stories of the day throughout the sports betting and igaming sector.
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As SPC Summit Lisbon draws even closer, attention now turns to the greatest show in gaming. On the latest episode of the iGamingDaily's limited series Path to Lisbon, we will be looking back at a keynote speech from the former NFL quarterback Dan Marino at jeans SPC Summit North America in New Jersey. During the session, the Miami Dolphins superstar talked with Dylan Slaney, the CEO of Light and Wonder, about his charitable foundation, work with the NFL. and partnership with P2Gaming. Marina is just a taster for some of the exciting keynote speakers lined up for SBC Summit Lisbon. Headlining the Superstage on day one of the conference will be Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. In the fireside discussion, Sir Tim will focus on how his vision of a globally connected network of computers has revolutionised the way we share information. Also slated to speak is a skateboarding pioneer Tony Hawk. who will be looking back on his career, as well as providing insights into his approach to sustaining success and innovation over the years. For more information, check out the SPC Summit Lisbon website. Links will be left in the episode description below. I'd like to introduce Dylan Slaney, CEO of iGaming for Light and Wonder. I should say self-confessed fanboy of Dolphins and Dam Marina as well. So this is gonna be interesting. I'm gonna try and stay calm, and not get too overexcited. But we're in the presence of a true NFL legend today. His stats speak for himself. 32,000 yards, give or take. Nine Pro Bowl appearances. He got inducted into the College Hall of Fame in 2002 and was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2005. And whilst we know him as Dan Marino for his exploits on the NFL field, today is not only about that. but also about things that he's been, I guess, preoccupied with for the last 30 years with something called the Dan Marino Foundation. So without further ado, true legend of the NFL, 17 seasons with the Miami Dolphins, 30 years of stories with the Dan Marino Foundation, the man himself, Dan Marino. Hello. Hey Dylan. How's everybody having a good day? Pretty good. Yeah. All right. Me too. Yeah. Awesome. So that's... Let's start with the foundation. I mean, it's 30 years in the making. Yes. Well, first of all, thanks for having me here and being able to talk about my foundation. But it started really years ago when my son Michael got diagnosed when he was two years old with autism. And we just felt like we could do things not only for Michael, but because being the quarterback, the platform I had for other families and kids, that were, you know, Dealing with autism, you know, not only the kid who's with autism, the families and everybody, we decided to start the foundation and raise money and try to do the best we can for kids with developmental disabilities. And that's kind of really how it started. And I've been blessed to have companies, businesses, friends, all kind of people really help us to raise money helping always, you know, with the kids and family. So to me, it's very important, something I've enjoyed doing. Family's great to me. So it's really important. Yeah. It's amazing to see all the stories. If you want to go online, the Damarino Foundation, lots of great sort of collateral on there. Go on, subscribe to the newsletter as well, because that comes out every month. And again, you can see just the continuation of all the great stories and all the great work that the foundation's doing. It's interesting that you sat next to a legendary quarterback, but the Dan Marino Foundation also has its own legendary quarterback as a CEO that's been there for 23, 24 years, Mary? Mary Parton, yeah. Mary Parton's been there a long time, but she's really made a great difference in what we're doing because she's really dedicated to it. She's been an incredible leader for our group and we've done a lot of great things. We're dealing with kids now. One of our main things we're doing now is transition kids into you know, in the workplace and the work and we have companies down in South Florida that have been incredible to me, like Publix, Walgreens, some law firms, just to name a few hospitals that take on our kids from our school that we have and put them to work. And it just gives them self-esteem. It gives them, you know, a reason to go out and make friends and do the things that they need to do to feel important in life. That's kind of where our program is right now. It started originally with speech therapies, occupational therapies for adolescent kids. When that started, we have a developmental center in Weston, Florida, near Fort Lauderdale. That was our original thing, and now we've kind of transitioned into this space where we're trying to get the kids out socially, working and feel good about their lives. That's amazing to see, and there's probably as much online. about the Dan Marino Foundation, it was about down the quarterback for the Dolphins as well. I can see Tony and Jenny over there from Pichu Gaming as well. Pichu Gaming are about to launch some Dan Marino branded content into the R-Gaming space as well, which has got some of the profits from those games. We'll also go to the Dan Marino Foundation as well. So thank you Tony and Jenny for supporting this amazing cause. So look, let's roll back the clock and talk about how you became this legend of the NFL and Miami Dolphins and where did the passion for football actually come from? Well, I mean, thank you for that. Passion for football came when I was a little kid. I grew up in the city of Pittsburgh, a section called Oakland, a very competitive neighborhood. Love the game. I love baseball also. And when I was a young kid, as I grew up being a baseball fan, football fan, I felt like it's something I wanted to do and try to have a career in. And that's where it started. I was blessed to have a great family that was around me, very supportive. My dad was, I tell people this all the time, I had coach Schuller as a coach, had Jackie Sherald, University of Pittsburgh, but the best coach I ever had in my life was my father. Like he was my guy. And we were talking about it back there, Tony, earlier. He's like, did you guys ever have sports psychologists? I'm like, no, no sports psychologists, but my dad was my sports psychologist. You know, he was the best coach ever. And that's kind of where it started. Went to Central Catholic High School, played football there, baseball there, had a lot of success, went to the University of Pittsburgh, and then was fortunate enough to get drafted, you know, by the Miami Dolphins. So that's kind of, you know, where it went. You've got to have a lot of love and passion for what you do, no matter what it is in life. And I always have had passion for football, baseball, and sports, and trying to be successful. And also now, as we talked about earlier, I have a passion for the foundation. And that's what it's about. Amazing to see. And obviously being a Dolphins fanboy, I was looking at the... Fanboy? Fanboy, exactly. Yeah. I was looking at the Fish Tank podcast that you finally went on. The Fish Tank. Okay. In December. Yes. And... You were on there talking about... He must be a big fan if he's watching the fish tank. Oh, nice. Just keep on going, keep it moving. Yeah, that's right. Go ahead, go ahead. But thank you for going on it. I think it took them five years to get you on it or something like that? No, they didn't ask me for a little while. Yeah, yeah. No, not five years. I think I do one thing for them every year. Amazing, amazing. But on there, there was a great segment where they were talking about confidence and how within the Dolphins teams that you were around, you were known for, I think what they called... a legendary status for your confidence. And you were talking about where that passion and where that confidence came from. Can you just talk a little bit about? Well, I think it's like anything in life. The more success you have, the more confident you get. And I think from a young kid, I had a lot of success and I was very successful in high school level, college level. And when I got to the Dolphins, I felt like I was gonna have a chance to be a good player, a really good player. And confidence comes from being successful at things you're doing and understanding and being in tough situations, all those things, preparing well, and so you're ready, so when it comes up. And then if you do those things, you achieve those things, then you know you can do them again. Like really, that's the thing is, you know, people talk to me about like the two minute drive and I, you know, at the end of games, winning, coming back from overtime, all those things, really comes from doing it originally. Like I did it a couple of times when I was a rookie, and then... this situation comes up again, I know we can do it. Let's go out there and get it done. That's the kind of attitude you have. And if you've done it before, the people, they're going to follow you, your teammates and everything. They know you can do it. So it's a group effort. It's amazing to listen. And also on there, you were talking about the winning mentality, but also the hatred of losing. Yeah, and that every game that you won and every game that you lost you went back into the you know Go back into the film room and probably even more so today with the technology changes that happened around NFL that yeah There's so much more information that the NFL players today can consume to be better even if you win But even to be better if you lose well the tech, you know, the technology now is incredible what they have the players I mean when I first started it was actually the real the real film When 83 and then a couple years after that it went to the video which made it a lot more a lot easier to study. And that's all part of the game now. It's been that way. So it makes it a lot more, the availability for the players now with these videos and all the things they can take home, the iPads, they can study at home as much as they can when they're in the facility. So that's all a big adjustment now that the league has seen. And I think it's awesome for the game. Yeah, amazing. And you've talked to the past as well about what it was like to be coached by Don Schuylier. I think he used the one word tough to describe him. Okay. Can you share a little bit of insight about what it was like to be around? I mean, you know, Coach Schuylier, well, he's a legend. He's the winningest coach of all time. And thank God, Bill Belichick got let go so he won't break his record. I don't know if there's any Patriots fans here, but I'm happy that happened actually. Or Belichick fans, sorry. Coach Schuylier was... A special guy, you know, the one thing he did for me when I first came in, I met him after we got, you know, I got drafted and went down to Miami and, you know, he gave me kind of confidence or kind of put me on the spot right away, like very demanding, saying, look, I'm going to give you the playbook. I want you to go home this summer. I want you to work out and study this playbook as if you're going to come back and be the starter. So it gave me like that little extra oomph, you know, to prepare and get ready for it. And when I came back, you know, it took me a few weeks, but I ended up becoming, you know, the starter for the Dolphins. And I think it was kind of genius of him to do that. And he also made me call my own plays when I was in camp and in practice. And back in 83 and 80, you know, those years, they didn't really do that much. And it put a lot more pressure on me to learn. So to me, he was genius that way, but he was a tough guy. He was a very fair guy. Coach Sheila was a guy whose office was always open if you wanted to go talk to him about anything. He was there for you. He didn't always agree what you wanted to ask him for. But incredible man, he's passed away, but I love that guy. I'm not sure after the Tom Brady roast that Bill Belichick will be back on the NFL team very, very soon anyway. But anyway, yeah, I forgot. You can watch that on the fly. I haven't seen the roast yet. So I guess I should. Everybody's been talking about it. Everybody needs to watch it and form their own opinion on whether it's good or bad, right? But look, it was also when we got the chance to meet you a few years ago. I hope you don't mind me sharing this story, but in your house, there's a picture of all sportsmen, women, coaches, autobiographies, books about winning mentality. And I think it was a gift from your wife for one of your birthdays, took a picture of it. Oh, for the books. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah, it's pretty cool. Can you share some thoughts about some of the other influences outside of the NFL that have influenced your career and cover-like thinking? So he wanted me to talk about the bookshelf. It looks like a bookshelf. Well, I mean, I think, well, she saw it. And I was in it with, you know, great players like Jordan and Muhammad Ali and boxing, golf, you know, all that, you know, Serena Williams. And I just thought it was cool to be in that group of, you know, people. And she bought it for me as a gift. And it's up there in the house. And, you know, someday maybe we'll sell it or something. I'm trying to be a little funny here. I mean. At least I got a gear. Send it this way. I'll buy it off you. Look, it's been amazing to spend time with you and you get a sense of, I guess, this great guy who was just stellar throughout his 17 seasons career with the Dolphins. And we were talking earlier that I think if this guy went onto an NFL pitch today with the protection or protection that you're allowed from referees at the moment that... He'd probably be posting sort of like five and a half, 6,000 yards every, every single season. Well, you were mentioning that, uh, what it would be like to throw it to, you know, waddle and, um, Tyreek Hill. And now we got, uh, OBJ, we got OBJ and I was like, yeah, that'd be awesome. I would love that. And I probably could throw for 6,000 yards, but if you gave me Duper Clayton and those three guys and they had all five of them, I would definitely throw for 6,000 yards, but that's weird. Just talking earlier, you know, I don't have to prove it so I can say whatever I want. Doesn't matter. Right? Sounds good though. It sounds great, doesn't it? Yeah. Don't have to prove it. When you look at the quarterback class that's just come in through the draft into the NFL and you look at some of the trials and tribulations of some of the young quarterbacks that have come in over the last couple of years, and then you look at success stories like Brock Purdy being taken last in the draft and quote unquote doing his job for the 49ers. What advice would you give young quarterbacks who are going into the NFL today? So if you talk about the guys like the kid from USC, Williams, Caleb Williams, the guy picked by Chicago, I mean, he's coming in there. He knows he's a good player. I'll tell you what, he's gonna be a great player because his skill set's unbelievable. But mainly for all those guys that get drafted high, it's just believe in yourself, do what you're doing, what you've done to put you in that position. Work hard, be humble. Humble to your teammates. Enjoy the fact that you're in that position. You know, don't take it for granted. A lot of times, all of us in this room, we've taken things for granted in our life. I remember taking for granted, you know, playing and playing, starting every week. And all of a sudden, I, you know, I tore my Achilles. And I had to go through that rehab. And I look back on it. I was like, you know, I was taking my career for granted. And it might have been over. It wasn't over, but it could have been over. And I think that's the. kind of the message I would give to the young quarterbacks that are coming to the league today. And work your butt off because they're making a lot of money right now. And there's an opportunity not only for quarterbacks, for all the players to have an incredible career and be set financially for the rest of their lives. So pretty cool. Amazing advice for any of our quarterbacks and for anybody else in life as well. So really appreciate it. Well, look, thank you for those of that marina.