What does Tyler from Rachel & Gabby’s season of The Bachelorette do for work?
Tyler’s LinkedIn claims he is the owner of “Spirit Ball.” No such company is registered with that name in New Jersey.
We also found that Tyler’s older brother is the owner of an LLC whose business purpose is “amusement game of chance.” Ahah! The smoking gun. It’s not Tyler’s business, it’s his brother’s! We sat on this hot tip, closely guarding our secret until the right moment for our big reveal. Then, night one brought an unexpected twist. 
While it appears Tyler’s brother is the mastermind and majority owner of the Norris carnival game empire, it’s possible that Tyler still has a cut. If we were betting women, we’d guess that “Spirit Ball” is the name of the specific booth Tyler owns and operates (albeit under the umbrella of his brother’s LLC).
How does a carnival basketball game owner make money?
In order to separate you from your hard-earned rollercoaster and funnel cake money, seasonal game owners hire high school and college students on their summer break to operate the games and, more importantly, get your attention. According to his LinkedIn, Tyler was a game operator at the Wildwoods Boardwalk in college.
We couldn’t find a picture of him in that role, but here he is successfully getting our attention as an ice cream man.
In order to maximize profits, the next strategy in the game owner’s playbook is to keep you from winning.
“Carnival rims may be smaller than normal and oval-shaped, not round, and may be positioned higher than regulation to prevent a score other than with a difficult high-arching swish. Balls are overinflated to make them super-bouncy.
‘And there may be netting or other items behind the rim designed to interfere with your depth perception,’ notes Glenn Hester, a Georgia police officer and magician who investigates carnival games fraud. He’s got a book too, Carnival Cop.”
–AARP.org
If you do win, hopefully you were playing for the joy of the game and not the prizes. An investigation of carnivals found that a game that cost $1.50 to play had an average prize value of 45 cents. Other booths may lure you in with something actually valuable, but offset their cost with improbable odds (perhaps using the strategies discussed above). Although, some crafty carnies have gamed that element as well. Ten years ago a different pair of Jersey brothers had to pay a $100,000 fine after pleading guilty to using counterfeit NBA and NFL jerseys as prizes for their Wildwoods Boardwalk carnival games.
We have no reason to believe that Tyler and his brother are doing anything shady, we’re just providing you with general information about how carnival games work.
Tyler and his family have deep roots in the Wildwood area
Tyler’s parents appear to have owned a restaurant near the boardwalk. Another of his brothers (not the one who owns the carnival games) is currently campaigning as a Republican to keep the town committee seat he was first elected to in 2020.
Tyler went to high school in the area, where he played baseball.
Baseball explains the eye black. We can only think of one explanation for the rest of the caption. Note: We’re using a screenshot here because Tyler deleted this post while we were writing this article.
If Tyler makes it to hometowns, the Wildwoods Boardwalk will be a great date location. That is, if The Bachelorette is family-friendly enough to film there. Wildwood told the Jersey Shore cast to go kick sand.
xo Your Nosy Friends, Love Game Fraud Investigators
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xo Your Nosy Friends, Small Blog Owners
