Whether you are a corporate manager, sports coach or blackjack player, the ability to interpret numbers is a powerful skill. That’s the message sports Web site founder Jeffrey Ma – who used card counting to beat the Las Vegas odds as a member of the infamous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) blackjack team – will bring to DePaul University Oct. 23.

Ma will speak at 1:30 p.m. in Room 314 of DePaul’s Lewis Center, 25 E. Jackson Blvd. The free, public event is sponsored by the Department of Management at DePaul’s College of Commerce.

In the early 1990s, Ma and his MIT teammates developed sophisticated mathematical techniques to rake in $3 million at the Las Vegas blackjack tables before the casinos discovered and shut down their legal, but discouraged, card-counting scheme. The team’s adventures were chronicled in the 2003 New York Times non-fiction bestseller, “Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions.” Author Ben Mezrich identified Ma as “Kevin Lewis,” a pseudonym, in the book). The story has been optioned by actor Kevin Spacey to be developed into a forthcoming movie that will be called “21”.

Ma, who graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1994, now applies the same quantitative theories used by the blackjack team to ProTrade, a fantasy sports Web site that harnesses innovative sports statistical analyses to trade players like stocks. He regularly shares his numbers-based evaluation of athletic talent with Sports Illustrated, MLB.com and ESPN. Ma also has developed a series of cutting-edge analysis tools and performance metrics to help managers make smarter decisions.

In his talk at DePaul, Ma will discuss how gathering the right data, analyzing it rationally and following through on the answers it suggests can improve decision-making and the bottom line in any type of business. He also will explore how math and computers are having a profound impact on business, sports and other fields by quantifying answers to many complex questions that experts once thought could not be calculated.

“Ma’s application of quantitative methods is instructive for current and future managers in both business and sports,” said Scott Young, chair of DePaul’s Department of Management. “In the sports world in particular, he is on the cutting edge of the application of analytical approaches.”

For event information, call Nell Shields, Department of Management, (312) 362- 5202.

Editors’ note: Journalists interested in covering the talk should contact Robin Florzak, DePaul Media Relations: 312/362-8592.