EDIT - one week after i posted this, Britain's most successful hedge fund manager Michael Platt has taken a 6.5% stake
tl;dr
At-NAV new SPAC with world-leading expertise in online gambling. Worth a bet on potential to be next DKNG on the hype train
   
+++++++
Hi all - have had a lot of great tips from this sub. Hopefully this pays some of you back. I have been watching and researching this since 23 December when it first filed S1, awaiting the units to be listed - they are available today trading as ADERU
Positions - 500 units @ 10.42 to start. Will be monitoring and building position below $15, especially if attention starts to build ahead of units and warrants splitting and shares coming available to Robinhood.
(My other SPAC positions are OPEN, IPO-E-F, PSTH, FUSE, PIPP, ACTC, CCIV and DMYD, 100 to 1000 shares each mostly around NAV and numerous warrants and options around these.)
As ever, this is not investment advice and do your own research
+++++++
   
26 Capital Acquisition Corp or ADER
is a 240m SPAC with usual terms - 10$ units, 1/2 warrants. Seeking a merger in "gaming and gaming technology, branded consumer, lodging and entertainment, and Internet commerce sectors".
I think this is highly worth a play on the online gambling hype if you can get in at near NAV, based entirely on the management which is unbeatable in its knowledge of the gambling industry
   
CEO Jason Ader
has held director level positions at Las Vegas Sands Corp. ($42bn one of biggest casino groups in world), IGT (£3.72bn multinational gambling firm specialised in software and slot machines) and Playtech (£1.4bn multinational gambling software firm)
Before starting his own fund in 2013 he was regularly ranked Wall Street's top analyst on the gambling and leisure sector
His fund, Spring Owl Capital, is a small activist fund focused on gambling and leisure. They are probably most famous for ousting the CEO of Viacom in 2016 and a crusade against Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer in 2015.
Ader knows the gambling - and online gambling - industry inside out. He drove bWin to a £1.1bn takeover by gambling giant GVC (now Entain) in 2016, and has been driving similar change and demands for improvement at board level at Playtech
The fund mostly manages money for a select group of wealthy families, which could be a positive sign for the SPAC (although I don't know how much skin in the SPAC the fund has, if any)
Here is a video of Ader from November talking about how he's excited about SPACs. He talks about how he has been advising certain States about legalising sports betting and how to maximise value and liquidity by linking up with European companies in the space (Playtech e.g.??).
Ader is extremely bullish on US legalising online casino and more sports betting options, accelerated by need for revenue because of pandemic
   
Rafi Ashkenazi
One of the most highly respected names in the online gambling world, including COO and CEO positions at major online gambling firms such as Playtech and Stars Group (a world leader in online poker and casino). At Stars he led the $4.7bn takeover of Sky Betting to create the world's largest publicly listed online betting firm in 2018. Most recently he led the £10bn merger between Flutter (biggest gambling company in world by revenue, market cap £26bn), and Stars Group (Ader also involved). Also has connections into the booming Israel tech space which is interesting
   
Joseph Kaminkow
Special Advisor to the Chief Product Officer at Aristocrat, a leading gambling software provider and games publisher, previously Vice President of Game Design at Zynga Inc. This guy is a former video game / pinball designer who is credited with revolutionising the slots industry after moving into gambling software from video games in 1999. Regarded as a "legend" and "hall of famer" in this niche. At Zynga he designed so-called 'social casino games' which don't involve real-money gambling but are otherwise basically gambling apps (revenue from microtransactions etc). 130 patents on gambling/gaming design inventions
   
Greg Lyss
This is a very interesting but extremely low profile person. He was Bill Ackman a.k.a SPACman's right hand man at Gotham Capital. Ackman respected him so much that when Ackman set up a personal hedge fund to invest the Ackman family's money, he put Lyss in charge of it. To repeat - Bill Ackman thinks this guy is such a good investor and trustworthy that he put him in charge of investing his family's money. Don't know anything more about him, but I like this association with Ackman, which suggests to me some integrity around management of this SPAC, especially as the gambling world can be very murky.
The other member of the team is the CFO of SpringOwl with 20+ years' hedge fund experience and not notable (although clearly competent)
   
Thesis / potential targets
Based on the above experience and many public comments by Ader over the past year, I would be very surprised if ADER is not looking to merge with an online gambling technology provider / existing online betting website / social casino app / possibly a supporting technology provider
They are activist inventors, and specifically say in the IPO prospectus that they could look for businesses that can benefit from turnaround or are not being run well. I speculate that their deep knowledge of the European / global online gambling industry means they have a target in mind that they think would benefit from their expertise and US liberalisation of gambling legislation.
   
1) Ader believes the listing of UK-listed gambling companies in US is immediately big in terms of market cap because of the premium on online gambling stocks in US. He has pitched DraftKings to takeover Playtech and called on Playtech to spin off non-core business. This makes me wonder if he would spin off some element of Playtech to list in US to cash in on gambling hype.
This might be Finalto.com / TradeTech which is an online financial platform owned by Playtech. Playtech has been trying to sell this for 200 - 240m since August so it fits. This company provides liquidity and trading to brokerages and runs markets.com a trading site. I wouldn't be that excited although apparently the business has been booming during COVID and there could be a decent pop just on fintech hype.
   
2) This could be a 'picks and shovel' type data/B2B betting software play a la DMYD, or something like e.g. Israel based CRM software Optimove which works with some of biggest online gambling cos and has links to Ashkenazi. This would be interesting but probably not a huge pop
   
3) Possibly - given Ader's links to Sands - an online gambling tie-up with one of the big Vegas casinos who are desperate to get into the online betting space (see MGM's attempt to buy Entain for $8bn last week). Interestingly, Sands' owner Sheldon Adelson, previously a major opponent of online betting, has just died. Ader predicted a few months ago that Sands would be moving in this direction.

“There’s no stopping online gaming,” Ader said [before Adelson's death]. “(Las Vegas Sands’) initiatives to stop online gaming, at this stage, are largely historic. There hasn’t been a lot of spending recently to do that, especially post-pandemic.”
“I think the company will see the value created by DraftKings and FanDuel and Penn (National) Gaming and others. They’re not foolish,” Ader added. source

   
4) Ader is very confident that Macau will legalise online gambling in next year or two. Sands is big in Macau, the biggest gambling market in the world. A SaaS-type product positioned to capitalise on Asian gambling would be MASSIVE - at present however, China's attitude to gambling and local regulations mean this is unlikely
   
5) I also wonder if they might try to take legitimate one of the offshore bookmakers with big customer databases and brand recognition but which have been grey-area/illegal under US gaming legislation. For example, Five Dimes recently announced a settlement with the FBI to attempt to transition into newly legalised US markets. This might have the most hype potential
   
Potential upside
This is entirely a play on management experience and the meme factor / hype around online gambling in the US. I think if they pick a good target - which given their experience and connections seems likely - and get the right publicity and attention from retail investors looking for the next DKNG this could easily 3x and maybe 5-6x if on DKNG-type hype levels.
There is currently little spotlight on this and it is a good time to get in at NAV
   
Potential Downside

• Ader has been vocal that he thinks US online betting is overvalued and in a bubble - why is he starting his own SPAC in the space then? Does he just want to cash in while the hype is at all-time high or does he have a legitimate business goal?
  
• If he just wants to dump a part of Playtech which he does not like onto retail investors, this is a bad deal.
  
• Other targets could be e.g. hotel industry or other leisure sector which would be zero sexiness to retail. Given Ashkenazi and Kaminkow's background this seems unlikely though
  
• Usual SPAC caveats apply about potential difficulty finding a target, locking up your money for unspecified period of time, and the fact I may have completely misread the potential and my above thesis might be totally wrong
  

30 years old. I have had a gambling problem since childhood when I used to bet on penny slots (we call them fruit machines in the UK). My gambling problem was especially bad when I was a student, where I'd go through short booms then long busts every time I got my student loans, and had to live by shoplifting, sometimes for months at a time. I was a member of two different GA groups in the UK although I never actually stopped gambling for very long. If I am totally honest with myself I think I have never been more eight-ten months without gambling, since I was a teenager.
I had to leave the UK for my work in 2014, and now I live in Asia. I am very lucky that I work very hard, am good at my job, and I have a huge disposable income. I am able to save 50-70 percent of the money I make in a month now. Unfortunately since I left the UK I still managed to gamble away maybe 2/3rds of the money I save, every time I fall back into gambling.
In 2021 I got involved in cryptocurrency, although this led to more gambling. I was able to run up a sizable sum, although I lost half of it one night playing games drunk. I decided to YOLO into Gamestop stocks hoping by a miracle I would make back the amount I lost, and what do you know? I actually did. I could have cashed out back at my highest peak (still down by 100k or more lifetime, but ahead by a few thousand this year and that is what is important, right?)
But being the gambler I am I let it ride and didn't sell my GME investment until it was only worth slightly less than what I paid for it. I feel terrible as at one point I was up almost five figures but that still wasn't enough for me.
Between that and the gambling in crypto (like actual gambling, online casinos, not just holding BTC), I lost 25% of my network since December. It is the equivilant of almost a years worth of savings for me, assuming I went a whole year without gambling, which I never have done. So it is quite a blow.
This time I really want to turn a new leaf. I always try to remember how grateful I am that I have such good opportunities, that I can make and save so much money. I want to try and become the person I should have been if I never ever gambled... although who knows what that would be like?
The good news is;
I have no debt or dependents. I have a good job. I still have a lot of money in the bank, a lot of food in the fridge. In practical terms the amount I gambled in the last two months doesn't change my life at all (which is what makes it so illogical).
The hurdles are:
1) I live alone. 2) I have no family and very few friends around me. 3) I am constantly isolated and bored. Except for New Years Eve I havent seen anyone outside of my work in almost two months. 4) I live in a country with very little English support, no GA meetings, nothing like that. 5) Because of my living situation cutting off my access to money is impossible. 6) I have never been able to find any anti-gambling software I couldn't find my way around.
Like I said I spent time in GA so I know all the wisdom and sayings. I know what I should do but
I want to get better and I want to share that with someone.
I have been considering going to a doctor to try and get anti-depressants or something? But I don't know if I am depressed and keep lapsing into gambling because I'm depressed, or just temporarily depressed because of the money I lost.
You know how it is? After a long gambling binge it is very hard to go back to normal life and normal feelings.
I would like to talk to somebody. If anybody has time. I wanna remember this and share this.
I am one day without a bet. Thanks for listening.

30 years old. I have had a gambling problem since childhood when I used to bet on penny slots (we call them fruit machines in the UK). My gambling problem was especially bad when I was a student, where I'd go through short booms then long busts every time I got my student loans, and had to live by shoplifting, sometimes for months at a time. I was a member of two different GA groups in the UK although I never actually stopped gambling for very long. If I am totally honest with myself I think I have never been more eight-ten months without gambling, since I was a teenager.
I had to leave the UK for my work in 2014, and now I live in Asia. I am very lucky that I work very hard, am good at my job, and I have a huge disposable income. I am able to save 50-70 percent of the money I make in a month now. Unfortunately since I left the UK I still managed to gamble away maybe 2/3rds of the money I save, every time I fall back into gambling.
In 2021 I got involved in cryptocurrency, although this led to more gambling. I was able to run up a sizable sum, although I lost half of it one night playing games drunk. I decided to YOLO into Gamestop stocks hoping by a miracle I would make back the amount I lost, and what do you know? I actually did. I could have cashed out back at my highest peak (still down by 100k or more lifetime, but ahead by a few thousand this year and that is what is important, right?)
But being the gambler I am I let it ride and didn't sell my GME investment until it was only worth slightly less than what I paid for it. I feel terrible as at one point I was up almost five figures but that still wasn't enough for me.
Between that and the gambling in crypto (like actual gambling, online casinos, not just holding BTC), I lost 25% of my network since December. It is the equivilant of almost a years worth of savings for me, assuming I went a whole year without gambling, which I never have done. So it is quite a blow.
This time I really want to turn a new leaf. I always try to remember how grateful I am that I have such good opportunities, that I can make and save so much money. I want to try and become the person I should have been if I never ever gambled... although who knows what that would be like?
The good news is;
I have no debt or dependents. I have a good job. I still have a lot of money in the bank, a lot of food in the fridge. In practical terms the amount I gambled in the last two months doesn't change my life at all (which is what makes it so illogical).
The hurdles are:
1) I live alone. 2) I have no family and very few friends around me. 3) I am constantly isolated and bored. Except for New Years Eve I havent seen anyone outside of my work in almost two months. 4) I live in a country with very little English support, no GA meetings, nothing like that. 5) Because of my living situation cutting off my access to money is impossible. 6) I have never been able to find any anti-gambling software I couldn't find my way around.
Like I said I spent time in GA so I know all the wisdom and sayings. I know what I should do but
I want to get better and I want to share that with someone.
I have been considering going to a doctor to try and get anti-depressants or something? But I don't know if I am depressed and keep lapsing into gambling because I'm depressed, or just temporarily depressed because of the money I lost.
You know how it is? After a long gambling binge it is very hard to go back to normal life and normal feelings.
I would like to talk to somebody. If anybody has time. I wanna remember this and share this.
I am one day without a bet. Thanks for listening.

TL:DR

• This is Part 1 of my two part deep dive on DraftKings (Ticker: DKNG, I will refer to the company as “DK”)
• This first part introduces you to (1) me, (2) the company, (3) my thesis on the company, and (4) digs into how they make money.
• The second part (already released, you can read it here - but get through part 1 first :) ) will go in depth to explore the question “Can we 10x from here?”
• DK is an exciting, disruptive company working to change how we experience watching sports and make it better.
• I am not a financial advisor and this is not investment advice. These are just my opinions to help facilitate learning and discussion.

Hello, welcome to my first deep dive write up.
My name’s Mark and I’m an accountant with a passion for investing. About two years ago, I used to work as an auditor at a public accounting firm and have been behind the scenes at many different publicly traded and privately held companies in the U.S. My goal is to bring my unique perspective from that past experience, my current experience working in a new role at a large corporation, and my understanding of accounting to help break down some of the most exciting growth stocks on the market today.
I’m a long-term investor. I am focused on finding great companies and holding them for a long time. I’m willing to endure volatility, crazy price drops, and everything that comes with this approach as long as the facts that led me to originally invest and believe in that company have not changed. If you want to learn more about this approach. I recommend reading the book “100 Baggers” by Chris Mayer.
Introduction
I think it’s fitting that my first stock pick has to do with sports. Sports has been a part of my life since I could walk at the age of 2. First with baseball and soccer, and then later in my childhood with golf. I’ve always played American football and basketball for fun as well and have always been an avid fan of all the major sports in the US.
I started playing fantasy sports (mostly just fantasy football) about 6 years ago and have always enjoyed it. Traditionally, with fantasy football you draft a team at the beginning of the year and those are your players for the rest of the season. If you have a bad draft, oh well. You can try to improve your team with trades and free agent additions but it is tough. Leagues usually consist of 10-14 teams (each managed by an individual) and there’s obviously only one winner at the end of the season (about 4 months after the draft). This can lead to the managers of the lower performing teams losing interest as the season wanes on. I believe DraftKings’ (DK) founders saw this issue and saw an opportunity. Enter, daily fantasy sports. Now, with the DK platform you can draft a new team every week. Or if you want, every day. This allows fans of fantasy sports to engage at whichever point of the season they want and at varying financial stakes.
The Thesis Statement
For every stock pick I make, I want to provide a quick thesis statement that can serve as a reminder for why I’m buying and holding that stock for the long term. I’ll always aim to make it just a few sentences long so it can easily be remembered and internalized. This helps during times when the price may sporadically drop and you need to remember why you’re holding this position.
The thesis statement I have come up with for DK is as follows:
“DraftKings: The leader in allowing fans to engage financially with their favorite sports, teams, and players. Having money at stake makes the game a lot more interesting to watch. The era of daily fantasy sports games, online sports betting, and online betting (outside of sports), is just getting started and DK is as well positioned (or better positioned) than anyone to capitalize off of this trend.”
Notice how I said “allowing fans to engage financially” as the first sentence and not necessarily “allowing fans to gamble”. There’s a reason for that. According to US Federal Law, Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) contests have specifically been exempted from the prohibitions of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). DK has always been, and I believe will continue to be DFS contests 1st, sports betting 2nd, and other forms of gambling/entertainment 3rd. It is noteworthy that states at an individual level can still deem DFS contests illegal if they so wish, but as of this writing (11/26/20), 43 of the 50 US States allow DFS contests and DK, accordingly, is offering DFS contests in all 43 of those US States.
I’ll try to clarify the difference between DFS contests and sports betting real quick:
DFS Contest – Pay a pre-set entry fee to enter a contest. All entry fees go towards “The Pot”. “Draft” 9 players to be on your “Team” for 1 week. Enter your “Roster” into a contest with other players (could range from 1 other person to 1,000s of people, the DK user can choose). Whichever “Roster” amasses the most points for that week out of all contestants wins. The winner will get the highest payout, and depending on the nature of the contest, other top finishers will receive smaller payouts as well.
Sports Gambling – Team A is considered a 10 point favorite to defeat Team B. This means that Team A is expected, by the professional gambling line setters, to outscore Team B by 10 points. This is known as a point spread. You can bet on the underdog or the favorite. If you bet on the favorite, they have to win by more than 10 points for you to win the bet. If you bet on the underdog, you will win the bet as long as the underdog keeps the game within less than a 10 point defeat.
These are just a couple simple examples to help you see the difference. Sports Gambling (the 2nd priority of DK) is a very lucrative market just as the DFS contests are. However, in the US, Federal Laws and regulations are a lot stricter on Sports Gambling than they are on DFS. As of this writing (11/27/20), 22 states (including the District of Columbia) out of 51 possible allow sports gambling.
DK is still in the infancy stages of getting their sports gambling business going. In the 22 states where they could potentially operate, they currently have a sports gambling offering in 11 of those states. The sports gambling business model for DK can be broken into two main offerings – mobile sports betting, and retail sports betting. Mobile sports betting means you can place a sports bet online from the comfort of your own home, while retail sports betting means you must go to a casino and place a bet with the sportsbook in person. I personally believe mobile sports betting is the real potential cash cow for DK out of the two types of sports betting offerings due to the convenience and ease of access. DK is currently working on and encouraging customers to lobby their state lawmakers to legalize sports gambling in more states.
How DK makes money
At the very least, before you invest in a company, you better understand how they make money. In Chris Mayers’ excellent book, 100 Baggers, that I mentioned above, he continually references top line revenue growth as one of the main common indicators of a possible 100 Bagger. This isn’t to tell you that any stock I pick will be a 100 Bagger just because it has great top line revenue growth, but if I am looking at a growth stock to hold for the long term, revenue growth is one of the first things I look at.
For DK, their means of making money is quite simple. I already went into detail above about DFS Contests and Sports Gambling. In DK’s latest 10-Q filing with the SEC (filed 11/13/20), revenue is broken out into two main streams: Online Gaming and Gaming Software.
Online Gaming (82% of Total Revenue for 9 months ended 9/30/20):
Online gaming is the true core business of DK and includes the aforementioned DFS Contests, Sports Gambling and additional gambling (non-sports) opportunities. DK refers to their additional gambling (non-sports) as “iGaming” or “online casino”.
For the 9 months ended 9/30/20, Online Gaming revenue totaled $239M, up 30% YoY from $184M in the same prior year period. Keep in mind, that this is an increase that happened during a COVID-19 global pandemic that delayed and shortened many professional sports seasons.
Online gaming revenue is earned in a few ways that are slightly different, but very similar overall. In order to enter a DFS contest, a customer must pay an entry fee. DFS revenue is generated from these entry fees collected, net of prize payouts and customer incentives awarded to users. In order to place a sports bet (sports gambling), a customer places a wager with a DK Sportsbook. The DK Sportsbook sets odds for each wager that builds in a theoretical margin allowing DK to profit. Sports gambling revenue is generated from wagers collected from customers, net of payouts and incentives awarded to winning customers. The last form of online gaming revenue is earned in similar fashion to a land-based casino, offering online versions of casino games such as blackjack, roulette, and slot machines.
Gaming Software (18% of Total Revenue for 9 months ended 9/30/20):
While the Online Gaming revenue stream mentioned above is a Business to Consumer (B2C) model, the Gaming Software revenue stream is a Business to Business (B2B) model. The Gaming Software side of the business was born out of the acquisition of SBTech, a company from the Isle of Man (near the UK) founded in 2007 that has 12+ years of experience providing online sports betting platforms to clients all over the world. The acquisition occurred as part of the SPAC driven IPO in April of 2020 that combined “the old DK company” with SBTech so that they now are “the new DK company” listed as DKNG on the NASDAQ. SBTech is a far more important part of the story than just being 18% of today’s revenue. The reason for this is because DK will eventually (planned mid-late 2021) be migrating all of their DFS and gambling offerings onto SBTech’s online platforms. Currently, for DFS, DK uses their own proprietary platform but that will move to SBTech with the migration. Currently, for online gambling, DK uses Kambi, the same online gambling platform that services Penn Gaming (PENN), a DK rival. But that’s enough about the software migration for now, back to the Gaming Software revenue.
The Gaming Software revenue stream for DK is essentially a continuation of SBTechs’ B2B business model. DK contracts with business customers to provide sports and casino betting software solutions. DK typically enters two different type of arrangements with B2B customers when selling the gaming software:

1. Direct Customer Contract Revenue: In this type of transaction, the software is sold directly to a business (casino for example) that wants to use the software for their own gambling operations. This revenue is generally calculated as a percentage of the wagering revenue generated by the business customer using DK’s software and is recognized in the periods in which those wagering and related activities conclude.
2. Reseller Arrangement Revenue: In this type of transaction, DK provides distributors with the right to resell DK’s software-as-a-service offering to their clients, using their own infrastructure. In reseller arrangements, revenue is generally calculated via a fixed monthly fee and an additional monthly fee which varies based on the number of gaming operators to whom each reseller sub-licenses DK’s software.

As mentioned above, SBTech was an international company based in the Isle of Man before being acquired by DK. Thus, the majority of their business in their first 12 years of operating independently has always been international and outside of the United States. This has helped DK, which has historically been US focused, expand it’s international reach.
A perfect example of expanding this international reach occurred recently during October (technically Q4) in which DK’s B2B technology (powered by SBTech) helped enable the launch of “PalaceBet”, a new mobile and online sportsbook offering from Peermont, a South Africa based resort and casino company. The deal was headed by DK’s new Chief International Officer, Shay Berka, who previously spent 10 years working for SBTech as CFO and General Manager. Mr. Berka took on the role of DK’s Chief International Officer upon the merger in April earlier this year. I think this deal shows that DK has integrated SBTech and it’s business very well into the larger business as a whole. They are not wasting any time using their newly acquired resources to expand their reach and bring in new sources of revenue.
This is the end of my first article about DK. My goal is to drop Part 2 later this week. The focus of Part 2 will be an in depth answer of the question – “Can we 10x from here?”
Disclosure: I am/we are long DKNG. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

TL:DR

• This is Part 1 of my two part deep dive on DraftKings (Ticker: DKNG, I will refer to the company as “DK”)
• This first part introduces you to (1) me, (2) the company, (3) my thesis on the company, and (4) digs into how they make money.
• The second part (to be released later this week) will go in depth to explore the question “Can we 10x from here?”
• DK is an exciting, disruptive company working to change how we experience watching sports and make it better.
• I am not a financial advisor and this is not investment advice. These are just my opinions to help facilitate learning and discussion.

Hello, welcome to my first deep dive write up.
My name’s Mark and I’m an accountant with a passion for investing. About two years ago, I used to work as an auditor at a public accounting firm and have been behind the scenes at many different publicly traded and privately held companies in the U.S. My goal is to bring my unique perspective from that past experience, my current experience working in a new role at a large corporation, and my understanding of accounting to help break down some of the most exciting growth stocks on the market today.
I’m a long-term investor. I am focused on finding great companies and holding them for a long time. I’m willing to endure volatility, crazy price drops, and everything that comes with this approach as long as the facts that led me to originally invest and believe in that company have not changed. If you want to learn more about this approach. I recommend reading the book “100 Baggers” by Chris Mayer.
Introduction
I think it’s fitting that my first stock pick has to do with sports. Sports has been a part of my life since I could walk at the age of 2. First with baseball and soccer, and then later in my childhood with golf. I’ve always played American football and basketball for fun as well and have always been an avid fan of all the major sports in the US.
I started playing fantasy sports (mostly just fantasy football) about 6 years ago and have always enjoyed it. Traditionally, with fantasy football you draft a team at the beginning of the year and those are your players for the rest of the season. If you have a bad draft, oh well. You can try to improve your team with trades and free agent additions but it is tough. Leagues usually consist of 10-14 teams (each managed by an individual) and there’s obviously only one winner at the end of the season (about 4 months after the draft). This can lead to the managers of the lower performing teams losing interest as the season wanes on. I believe DraftKings’ (DK) founders saw this issue and saw an opportunity. Enter, daily fantasy sports. Now, with the DK platform you can draft a new team every week. Or if you want, every day. This allows fans of fantasy sports to engage at whichever point of the season they want and at varying financial stakes.
The Thesis Statement
For every stock pick I make, I want to provide a quick thesis statement that can serve as a reminder for why I’m buying and holding that stock for the long term. I’ll always aim to make it just a few sentences long so it can easily be remembered and internalized. This helps during times when the price may sporadically drop and you need to remember why you’re holding this position.
The thesis statement I have come up with for DK is as follows:
“DraftKings: The leader in allowing fans to engage financially with their favorite sports, teams, and players. Having money at stake makes the game a lot more interesting to watch. The era of daily fantasy sports games, online sports betting, and online betting (outside of sports), is just getting started and DK is as well positioned (or better positioned) than anyone to capitalize off of this trend.”
Notice how I said “allowing fans to engage financially” as the first sentence and not necessarily “allowing fans to gamble”. There’s a reason for that. According to US Federal Law, Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) contests have specifically been exempted from the prohibitions of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). DK has always been, and I believe will continue to be DFS contests 1st, sports betting 2nd, and other forms of gambling/entertainment 3rd. It is noteworthy that states at an individual level can still deem DFS contests illegal if they so wish, but as of this writing (11/26/20), 43 of the 50 US States allow DFS contests and DK, accordingly, is offering DFS contests in all 43 of those US States.
I’ll try to clarify the difference between DFS contests and sports betting real quick:
DFS Contest – Pay a pre-set entry fee to enter a contest. All entry fees go towards “The Pot”. “Draft” 9 players to be on your “Team” for 1 week. Enter your “Roster” into a contest with other players (could range from 1 other person to 1,000s of people, the DK user can choose). Whichever “Roster” amasses the most points for that week out of all contestants wins. The winner will get the highest payout, and depending on the nature of the contest, other top finishers will receive smaller payouts as well.
Sports Gambling – Team A is considered a 10 point favorite to defeat Team B. This means that Team A is expected, by the professional gambling line setters, to outscore Team B by 10 points. This is known as a point spread. You can bet on the underdog or the favorite. If you bet on the favorite, they have to win by more than 10 points for you to win the bet. If you bet on the underdog, you will win the bet as long as the underdog keeps the game within less than a 10 point defeat.
These are just a couple simple examples to help you see the difference. Sports Gambling (the 2nd priority of DK) is a very lucrative market just as the DFS contests are. However, in the US, Federal Laws and regulations are a lot stricter on Sports Gambling than they are on DFS. As of this writing (11/27/20), 22 states (including the District of Columbia) out of 51 possible allow sports gambling.
DK is still in the infancy stages of getting their sports gambling business going. In the 22 states where they could potentially operate, they currently have a sports gambling offering in 11 of those states. The sports gambling business model for DK can be broken into two main offerings – mobile sports betting, and retail sports betting. Mobile sports betting means you can place a sports bet online from the comfort of your own home, while retail sports betting means you must go to a casino and place a bet with the sportsbook in person. I personally believe mobile sports betting is the real potential cash cow for DK out of the two types of sports betting offerings due to the convenience and ease of access. DK is currently working on and encouraging customers to lobby their state lawmakers to legalize sports gambling in more states.
How DK makes money
At the very least, before you invest in a company, you better understand how they make money. In Chris Mayers’ excellent book, 100 Baggers, that I mentioned above, he continually references top line revenue growth as one of the main common indicators of a possible 100 Bagger. This isn’t to tell you that any stock I pick will be a 100 Bagger just because it has great top line revenue growth, but if I am looking at a growth stock to hold for the long term, revenue growth is one of the first things I look at.
For DK, their means of making money is quite simple. I already went into detail above about DFS Contests and Sports Gambling. In DK’s latest 10-Q filing with the SEC (filed 11/13/20), revenue is broken out into two main streams: Online Gaming and Gaming Software.
Online Gaming (82% of Total Revenue for 9 months ended 9/30/20):
Online gaming is the true core business of DK and includes the aforementioned DFS Contests, Sports Gambling and additional gambling (non-sports) opportunities. DK refers to their additional gambling (non-sports) as “iGaming” or “online casino”.
For the 9 months ended 9/30/20, Online Gaming revenue totaled $239M, up 30% YoY from $184M in the same prior year period. Keep in mind, that this is an increase that happened during a COVID-19 global pandemic that delayed and shortened many professional sports seasons.
Online gaming revenue is earned in a few ways that are slightly different, but very similar overall. In order to enter a DFS contest, a customer must pay an entry fee. DFS revenue is generated from these entry fees collected, net of prize payouts and customer incentives awarded to users. In order to place a sports bet (sports gambling), a customer places a wager with a DK Sportsbook. The DK Sportsbook sets odds for each wager that builds in a theoretical margin allowing DK to profit. Sports gambling revenue is generated from wagers collected from customers, net of payouts and incentives awarded to winning customers. The last form of online gaming revenue is earned in similar fashion to a land-based casino, offering online versions of casino games such as blackjack, roulette, and slot machines.
Gaming Software (18% of Total Revenue for 9 months ended 9/30/20):
While the Online Gaming revenue stream mentioned above is a Business to Consumer (B2C) model, the Gaming Software revenue stream is a Business to Business (B2B) model. The Gaming Software side of the business was born out of the acquisition of SBTech, a company from the Isle of Man (near the UK) founded in 2007 that has 12+ years of experience providing online sports betting platforms to clients all over the world. The acquisition occurred as part of the SPAC driven IPO in April of 2020 that combined “the old DK company” with SBTech so that they now are “the new DK company” listed as DKNG on the NASDAQ. SBTech is a far more important part of the story than just being 18% of today’s revenue. The reason for this is because DK will eventually (planned mid-late 2021) be migrating all of their DFS and gambling offerings onto SBTech’s online platforms. Currently, for DFS, DK uses their own proprietary platform but that will move to SBTech with the migration. Currently, for online gambling, DK uses Kambi, the same online gambling platform that services Penn Gaming (PENN), a DK rival. But that’s enough about the software migration for now, back to the Gaming Software revenue.
The Gaming Software revenue stream for DK is essentially a continuation of SBTechs’ B2B business model. DK contracts with business customers to provide sports and casino betting software solutions. DK typically enters two different type of arrangements with B2B customers when selling the gaming software:
​

1. Direct Customer Contract Revenue: In this type of transaction, the software is sold directly to a business (casino for example) that wants to use the software for their own gambling operations. This revenue is generally calculated as a percentage of the wagering revenue generated by the business customer using DK’s software and is recognized in the periods in which those wagering and related activities conclude.
2. Reseller Arrangement Revenue: In this type of transaction, DK provides distributors with the right to resell DK’s software-as-a-service offering to their clients, using their own infrastructure. In reseller arrangements, revenue is generally calculated via a fixed monthly fee and an additional monthly fee which varies based on the number of gaming operators to whom each reseller sub-licenses DK’s software.

As mentioned above, SBTech was an international company based in the Isle of Man before being acquired by DK. Thus, the majority of their business in their first 12 years of operating independently has always been international and outside of the United States. This has helped DK, which has historically been US focused, expand it’s international reach.
A perfect example of expanding this international reach occurred recently during October (technically Q4) in which DK’s B2B technology (powered by SBTech) helped enable the launch of “PalaceBet”, a new mobile and online sportsbook offering from Peermont, a South Africa based resort and casino company. The deal was headed by DK’s new Chief International Officer, Shay Berka, who previously spent 10 years working for SBTech as CFO and General Manager. Mr. Berka took on the role of DK’s Chief International Officer upon the merger in April earlier this year. I think this deal shows that DK has integrated SBTech and it’s business very well into the larger business as a whole. They are not wasting any time using their newly acquired resources to expand their reach and bring in new sources of revenue.
This is the end of my first article about DK. My goal is to drop Part 2 later this week. The focus of Part 2 will be an in depth answer of the question – “Can we 10x from here?”
Disclosure: I am/we are long DKNG. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Okay so I decided to create this guide with the hopes of it becoming a sticky thread for all newbies to the online slots world, to read as we deal with the same topics repeatedly and the same answers/advice are given repeatedly. Not that we do not want to help, but these would prevent you from getting into situations before its too late, or blaming casinos when you were in the wrong.
Signing up or Registration
Registration – Please carefully read the general terms and conditions about every "Right" the casino has and please note that you accepted these terms upon signing up, which means you are saying you are okay with it and agree with what the casino state about what they can and cannot do.

• No Deposit bonuses/Signup bonus – Many players are still NDB (No Deposit Bonus) hunters and register simply for these reasons. Please read the NDB/Signup Bonus terms carefully to make sure your country is eligible to receive the NDB/Signup bonus. We had many players getting upset about this factor and then end up closing their accounts immediately out of anger which leads to SE (Self Exclusion) at times. which I will address later in this thread. However, we do have instances where a casino does not list the eligible countries that can or cannot receive the NDB/Signup bonuses.
• More than one player in 1 house Hold – Many casinos only allow one player per house/IP address to register at a casino. You can ask a casino if you and your partnesibling who stays together can both signup and some casinos would give the "Ok". Just make sure you have this in written confirmation via email or something and not live chat.

Claiming Bonuses
Read the bonus terms carefully before claiming any bonuses and look for the following pointers when reading the bonuses rules:

• Wagering – Many casinos have increased their wagering on bonuses lately which makes bonus wagering very difficult to complete these days. Decide whether the wagering attach to the bonus is high or low for you since you know your game play and strategies. Many factors can influence whether you will be able to meet wagering, which is the x amount of wagering, game providers availability and deposit amount just to name a few. Also note that wagering for "certain countries" are higher than others. For me personally I think wagering between x35 – x50 on the "Bonus" amount "Only" is reasonable and fair.
• Max Bet – 99% of casinos have a max bet rule in place when claiming a bonus. Note what the max bet is for the specific casinos as it can range anything from 1 – 5 euro/$ per Spin. Deposit methods can affect the max bet as well as some casinos limit the max bet rule between 1 – 2 euro per spin for deposits using e-wallets, however that same casinos allow a max bet up to 5 euro per spin for credit card/Alternative deposits. Even though a casino state the max bet rule another tricky rule in the terms that we tend to miss is the coin value. Some casinos state that the max "Coin domination/value" should be $0.20 or $0.50 per spin which means if you want to bet higher you would need to adjust the "Level" portion in the slot if the coin domination/value limit is reached according to the terms. If you breach the Max bet rule and it is stated in their terms, you do not have a case, period. There are some casinos who you can explain your situation if it was a mistake and they do sometimes make exceptions.
• Deposit methods – Many casinos lately have restricted the claiming of bonuses using e-wallet deposit methods such as Neteller, Skrill etc. Note they mention these 2 as they are most popular, but that also means any other form of e-wallets are not eligible to claim bonuses. I have seen a lot of players complain that they did not receive the bonus simply because they did not read the terms before claiming the bonus and the deposit has already been made. Also make sure you deposit using your own card, do not use your parents or any other siblings credit card to make deposits as this would cause a problem during verification which in the end results in to winnings not being paid out.
• Deposit Methods Additional Info – Many deposits are available from Casinos or let's say most casinos have the same deposit methods available, however the country that you reside in has the influence on what deposit methods are available and the same counts for withdrawals. So, for instance if AskGamblers website state deposit by phone which is "Boku" is available at that specific casino it does not mean that it will be available for all players, as that is depending on your country. Deposit by phone is mostly available for the UK players basically as an example.
• Max Cash-Out – Many players claim bonuses and after they complete wager, they tend to withdraw immediately. Some players are left with substantial amounts only to find out they can only get x2 the bonus amount (Casinos like "Viks" casino and "Quasar Gaming" have this rule) or x10 their deposit. I understand this is frustrating and upsetting, but the problem is with the player itself. Stop blaming casinos because you could not do the simplest thing in the world which is just take 5 minutes to read the bonus terms.
• Restricted games – Please check which games are allowed and not allowed to be played with bonus funds. Some casinos have a feature where bonus money is not even visible on the restricted games, but other casinos bonus money will show on restricted games. In many instances these would not lead to confiscation of winnings, it just that it would not count towards wagering. They also have a term where they would say that bets place on all "Other" games other that "Slot machines" will be deemed in violation of the terms and condition and your bonus winnings will be voided – So watch out for this one.
• Double up feature – The only thing to say here is that this will not counts towards wagering.
• Cashable and Non-Cashable bonuses – This one is another tricky one, some people call it a "Sticky bonus". This just means where you receive the bonus you can use it to place bets and for wagering purposes, but the bonus amount can never be withdrawn. I find this term ridiculous and always avoid this type of bonuses.
• Bonus Abuse – This is a very complex/broad subject but mention the basic ones (Thanks for forum members tips which I included on this one), the rest you can do your own research about the rest associated with bonus abuse as we all have different opinions
• Bonus per player, per account, per IP address etc. If you take that same bonus twice or more times, using different accounts under your name, then it's an abuse.
• Claiming free spins offers – Deposit to get free spins and withdrawing deposit after claiming free spins but continue to play free spins is also some form of bonus abuse.
• Accumulating bonus rounds and start playing them when your bonus balance reach zero, and you win those money as real cash.
• Anything you can think of that disadvantages the house (Casino).
• Bonus wagering period – This never really is a problem, but just make sure you complete you bonus wagering with the set time frame the casino provided. This can range anything from 3 – 30 days otherwise winnings will be voided.

There are other bonus terms that I have not mentioned but I think the above ones are the most important as these could affect you in terms of confiscation of your winnings should you breach any of them.
Verification
This is pretty much standard for a casino to ask for some form of Identification, proof of address and proof of deposit when requesting a withdrawal. Depending on the amount win, some casinos might not need documents, however when a substantial amount has been won additional verification or security checks might be done which means a longer withdrawal time frame. Verification or KYC is necessary, however I feel when casinos ask for selfies with your ID next to you etc. in my opinion is just ridiculous. Also, I have noticed some casinos requesting your source of income to see where you get the money to make deposits etc. This seems standard and you would need to do it to get your withdrawal, however all of us have different opinions about this verification procedure.
Withdrawals
Many casinos have different withdrawal time frames and when you accept the general terms and conditions you have to a abide by them, by this I mean stop being impatient and complain that the casinos withdrawal time frames are the worst etc. As you knew this before you started playing provided you have read the terms and condition. You decided to deposit and play so then wait for your money, eventually it will come unless you breached some rule, or the casino is a rogue casino.
Here are some of the tips you should note when it comes to withdrawals at casinos:

• Verification – This is standard procedure and you have to do this if the casino request it.
• Time-frames – This one I feel can be interpreted in many ways but let me give you my version of how I View things. When a casino says e-wallets 0 – 1 or 0 – 24 hours. This means that the casinos use that time-frame to process your withdrawal and after it being processed your money should be instantly available. Credit cards that state 3 – 7 business days and this is where some newbies get this wrong – This simply state the time frame they take to process the payment to your card, it does not mean you will get your money within 3 – 7 days, however this is possible. Prepare yourself for the longest waiting period to avoid becoming impatient and upset – So if a casino says 3 – 7 days expect to get it in 10 days max, however you can get it within 4 days, but sometimes casinos just stretch it to process it on the last day possible with the hopes you would reverse the withdrawal and continue to play. This technique of casinos sometimes works. So, if they process your withdrawal it can take another 3 – 5 days to hit your account based on your location and the banks in your country as they have internal controls with foreign currency. There are however hiccups with payment providers/processors etc. but these are at times out of the casinos control. My best is advice is "Patience".
• Reversing Withdrawals – With the timeframes explanation I just gave above and being impatient, players tend to reverse their withdrawals. They continue playing and end up losing their winnings. Stop blaming casinos as this is your own fault that you Lost the funds. You made the decision to reverse the withdrawal. If you really need to play, make a deposit at another casino or sister website and play there while you patiently wait for you withdrawal. Some casinos have the lock feature, so lock down your withdrawal so you do not reverse the withdrawal or play at other casinos which has quicker withdrawal time frames of 0 – 1 hour instead of days. The key here is "Patience".

Self-Exclusion
Self-Exclusion is a big thing these days and most cases substantial amounts are involved that are being confiscated. There are at times very little that us forum members or even AskGamblers can do when a player self-excluded and played at a sister website or similar, as we know the result and of course the house is kind of right. However, I think it's bad that a casino only realizes the self-exclusion portion on a player profile once it reaches withdrawal stage, because I feel they should have something in place that can detect that you self-excluded upon registration or before you even make your first deposit. People with gambling problems tend to self-exclude but the alternative is to read this guide - https://www.askgamblers.com/forum/topic/2152-sos-i-am-addicted-to-gambling-what-to-do/ . My advice is to keep your casino account open and do not play there anymore, because even if you request a permanent account closure, some casinos tend to self-exclude you without you knowing it and this would cause problems in future since you opened another account at their sister website or something.

I spent the last weeks downloading every single app offer on Swagbucks UK to sort through the ones that are, and are not, worth doing. These are all available on Swagbucks 'Discover' page.
If this list helps, and you are not on swagbucks already please consider joining using my referral link here for an extra 300SB when you make your first earnings, worth £3ish, (non ref, no bonus ). If there's anything I've missed please comment!

• Board Kings Android lvl11 - took 1 week, add the max friends, check the Boardkings subreddit for help adding friends
• TikTok - SB for downloading tiktok, joining, and keeping on your phone for 2 days. Easy.
• Elvenar Academy, reach Magical Academy - took 3 days with active gameplay, however can be done 99% passively with very little gameplay whatsoever, as you just need to wait until you have enough books to upgrade the research tree to magical academy.
• Lords Mobile: Kingdom Wars - took about a week to upgrade to 14, active gameplay and regular checking in..
• Club Vegas: Online Slot Machines with Bonus - about 3 days, leave on minimum spins and leave your phone running. Semi-passive.
• Pop! Slots Level 26 - about 5 days, leave on minimum spins and leave your phone running. Semi-passive.
• King of Avalon - about 1 week, join a powerful guild.
• Harvest Land: Farm and City Building - About a week of active gameplay. I'd only advise this if you actually somewhat enjoy the game, as this one can be a slog if you're not enjoying it
• Star Slots - Lvl 110 - this one was long, required leaving phone running spins overnight, unsure if worth the time/effort.

For each of these games there are usually free coin link aggregate websites, or links on the apps official Facebook group - Just google '[Game Name] free credit/coins'. You will find this for many of these games, and it will level you up faster. It is also worth checking any subreddits dedicated to the games, as there are usually helpful redditors about.

• The Walking Dead: Road to Survival (requires 99p spend, but conversion is worth over £2 in Amazon vouchers). I used free Google Play credit I made from Google Opinions app for this. (these 'purchase required' offers are actually a good way to convert your unwanted Google Play credit into over double their value in Amazon vouchers).

Avoid: Trumps Empire (worst game ever, took too long), King's Throne Game of Lust (took too long, and was gross), Game of Kings: Blood Throne lvl22 (almost impossible without purchases, level 20-21 takes 6 months without power-ups apparently), War Games: Commander lvl21 (seems easy enough at the beginning, but then becomes almost impossible without purchases, you won't find out until it's too late)
Note: Make sure to compare between: ayeT, OfferToro, Revenue Universe etc. as some of Swagbucks Partners offer more SB than others for these apps and it changes constantly. Offers come and go, and fluctuate in value all the time. 130SB=£1 in Amazon vouchers at the best conversion rate (converting to £10 vouchers). So figure out if something is actually worth your time.
When you reach the required level: Take a screenshot as proof, close and reopen the game (I read this updates your progress on their servers), and wait 1 week for SB to credit, do not delete the app right away, wait until credited. If no credit after 1 week, contact SB support with the screenshot. Have never failed to be credited, but have had to chase up a couple of times.

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Transcript of the Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Panel at the Cloud Matsuri virtual convention on Sunday 22^nd November, 2020 at 5pm to 6pm GMT
Panelists:

• Jonathan Clements: Anime Historian
• Mitsuo Fukuda: Director at Sunrise, Inc.
• Hiroomi Ikeya: Assistant Line Producer at Sunrise, Inc.
• Bethan Jones: Interpreter

Clements: Today we are talking about a very special Gundam, Gundam SEED. Special because it has the fantastic achievement of at one point occupying the eight of the top ten anime DVD best-selling slots in Japan, and also was the first Gundam since the original in 1979 to win the Grand Prix from Animage magazine. And today to talk about this eighteen year-old series with us, ahead of its HD remastered release in December 2020, are the director, Mitsuo Fukuda, and the line producer, Hiroomi Ikeya. Thank-you gentlemen, for joining us.
Fukuda: Hello everyone, I am the director of Gundam SEED TV series, Mitsuo Fukuda.
Clements: And Mr. Ikeya, there are many different ways that a producer can work on a production, we have twelve of them listed in our translation guide. So, could you please tell us a little bit about what you did on the production on the production yourself, as a line producer?
Ikeya: I’m Hiroomi Ikeya from Sunrise. At the time of Gundam SEED, I was working on the production desk, so I was more like a production assistant at that point working on the scheduling. Now, I’m a producer, I have a producer, I have more oversight over the whole production, and I liaise with external parties as well, so I’m more of a line producer now.
Clements: And as you may both be aware, we’ve solicited questions from fandom, which means we have an absolutely huge number of them, and we’ll do our best to get through them in the best way that we can. We may well regret letting the fans choose what to ask, but we’re gonna give it go.
Fukuda: No worries.
Clements: Well, let’s see. First I’d like to ask both of you, how you got started working in the anime business?
Fukuda: Well, when I was at high school, I was already interested in manga, in animation, in novels and all of that Otaku culture, and I was at the stage where I had to decide between going onto higher education or going to work, and I failed my exams. So, right at this point where I was wondering what I should do with my life and it was a bit of a loose end, I heard Sunrise were looking for people, and I thought “give it a go” and they hired me. And now, the anime industry is what it is. We have these nice buildings, and it’s a big industry, but back then, it was a tiny little studio, everyone was piled in on top of each other, working from morning ‘til night and it wasn’t a really well respected industry back then.
Ikeya: As a student, I used to make 8mm films, and I loved film. I wanted to work in film, not just animation at that point, but I was interested in live action, I was interested in TV, but I got into Sunrise. In fact, Sunrise was the only place I got into, and I loved robot anime as a child, so it kind of destiny that I should end up working here.
Clements: Now, Fukuda-san, you mentioned that you went straight from school to Sunrise, you joined, if I’m right, in 1979 so you must have been about nineteen year-old, and that was the year that the original Gundam aired. So what was it like working for Sunrise at that time?
Fukuda: When I joined Sunrise, Gundam, the TV series, was still in production so I got to see that up-close. It was a very small studio so it was very up-close, and Tomino-san was basically getting cross a lot.
Clements: So nothing has changed, in fact.
Clements: So when you, yourself, became a director on Gundam SEED, you worked on a large number of other shows and then, I think Gundam SEED was your first Gundam production and you went in as director, but [quoting a fan question] was Yoshiyuki Tomino’s directing style an influence when you directed Gundam SEED?
Fukuda: I actually did storyboards on Victory Gundam.
Clements: Ok, I’m sorry I was misinformed by Wikipedia. But actually, let me just jump in at this point, then. Because this is something that even Gundam fans in Britain may not be aware of. If Tomino had never made Gundam, he would still be a very important figure in the Japanese animation business because of the influence he has in the creation of storyboards of a conte. So same question applies on Victory Gundam, as with Gundam SEED. So what, if anything, did you draw as inspiration from his work?
Fukuda: There was definitely an influence from Tomino-san. The directing techniques that I’ve learnt come from the same studio, the same company that makes these robot anime. And so, to a greater or lesser degree, I’ve always been aware of his influence, and Gundam is Tomino’s worldview, and you can’t make Gundam without that.
Clements: This was the first Gundam series of the 21st series. I know there were little things like G-Saviour and Green Diver, but they weren’t TV shows. The first Gundam show of the 21st Century to go into production, the first of the 21st century, the first after 9/11, a terrorist event in which the Japanese lost 24 lives. So were there any specific influences when it came to the creation of Gundam SEED, beyond the desire to do another Gundam series?
Fukuda: The original Gundam was made right after the Vietnam War and was really influenced by the Vietnam War. The staff who worked on that, were a generation above me, some of them were born during the Asia-Pacific war, some of them were born just after. But, we’re a later generation now, and we’ve only heard their stories, we didn’t experience it, so we wanted a new Gundam that was more inline with what we know, which was 9/11, the Iraq War, Afghanistan—they needed to be part of the new worldview.
Clements: So what was the view from the production desk, were these subtexts something that was considered during production, or was this regarded as a sci-fi show?
Ikeya: Gundam SEED was the first Gundam project that I had been involved in. So at the time for me, it was very much about being involved in Gundam. But looking back, I can see that the theme of encountering people from different ethnicities is there in Gundam SEED.
Clements: And this is a question, which I think the production desk can answer and if not we’ll try Mr. Fukuda. But [quoting a fan question] what was the biggest inspiration for the creation of Kira Yamato?
Fukuda: The idea of Kira Yamato’s character actually came from my wife, Chiaki Morosawa. She had read in the newspaper, the story of an Iraqi soldier fighting for the U.S. Army, in the Iraq War, so he was essentially fighting his own country.
Clements: Since you mentioned your late wife, Morosawa-san, I’d like to ask as well about the decision, that someone must have taken, for this to be an entirely different timeline, this is set in a different century in the Cosmic Era, so there has been some decision made at some point in the writing process for this to be not the Universal Century but, what I’m going to call a different timeline and wait to be corrected. Why was that decision taken with Gundam SEED?
Fukuda: I think there was a lot of discussion about that, but in the end, I think it was Yoshi, the president of Sunrise at the time, who decided that it shouldn’t be part of the same timeline.
Clements: We got some very specific questions about Lacus Clyne, firstly [paraphrasing a fan question] who did you turn to for inspiration for that character?
Fukuda: I didn’t design the characters, so Lacus Clyne wasn’t my idea. She was pretty much entirely Chiaki Morosawa’s idea. I do remember her saying that the idea of Lacus Clyne was that she would be a mirror of other people, and that was why she was necessary to reflect other people’s hearts. As to who she was inspired by, I think there’s a bit of Chiaki Morosawa in there, which is frightening.
Clements: The designs for the Gundam mecha in this show were by Kunio Okawara, Kimitoshi Yamane—designers who’ve been working with Gundam for a very long time. So, the question is [paraphrasing a fan question] how much input did you have into these Gundam designs? Working on the assumption that, presumably, these people are so scary that maybe you don’t want to tell them what to do? Or maybe you had very specific ideas about what you wanted in this show.
Fukuda: I wrote a concept for the mobile suits in Gundam SEED and gave it to Okawara-san. For some of them I did a rough design that I handed over for Okawara-san to work with. The suits themselves were 100% Okawara-san and then Yamane worked more on the ships and the other types of machines.
Clements: And [paraphrasing a fan question] what Mobile Suits from previous series, if any, helped inspired the designs of the Strike Gundam and Freedom Gundam?
Fukuda: No previous Gundams, no.
Clements: And Mr. Ikeya, a question for both of you, but I want to run this one past you from the production desk. [Paraphrasing a fan question] What is your favorite suit from Gundam SEED, and why?
Ikeya: Yeah, I like the Strike Dagger, because I like the mass-produced Gundams, so that’s why I like that particular one.
Clements: Same question for Mr. Fukuda, what’s your favourite Gundam from Gundam SEED? You can’t say all of them.
Fukuda: I actually prefer the ships to the mobile suits, I really like the Archangel.
Clements: Okay, we won’t tell Bandai!
Clements: [Paraphrasing a fan question] So when Kira states that the Freedom—this is now getting very very fan-ish and very specific, we’re not even sure if we’re gonna understand the answer if you have one—but, when Kira states that the Freedom Gundam has four times the power of the Strike Gundam, what quantity is he referring to, and is there a precise range or number you can give? I have to say as well, I didn’t write that question, this has all come in from fandom!
Fukuda: Everything on the Gundams in this series; the weapons, the defense systems, the movement, it all relies on battery power, and the Strike runs out of battery quite a lot. So I think that’s what it refers to when he says that the Freedom Gundam has more power.
Clements: Right, okay, yes. So for those watching in black & white, this is a reference to the fact that power systems on Earth have been shut down by PLANT, so everything has to run on battery, okay , I understand. So, another question here about the Cosmic Era, we’ve got a fan question here that says [paraphrasing a fan question] where did the ideas come for the different continental/regional federations? And here’s a very odd political addendum, do you think we’re moving further towards them?
Fukuda: So when we were writing Gundam SEED, creating the worldview, I was actually working with Yoshino-san, the scenario writer, who used to be a history teacher. And, so we had a lot of discussions, and actually Yoshino-san gave me a lecture on the history of the world over the last 2000 years. So how society’s changed, how religion has changed the world and we had a lot of discussion around this, and that was where the idea for having these federations came from. I think society at that time, when we were making SEED, was quite different to now but we did think a lot about how society was at that time, when we were making it.
Clements: Okay, this is a very generic question that’s been inserted in here, so I’m gonna to throw it at Mr. Ikeya as well as and Mr. Fukuda, but Mr. Ikeya, first. [Paraphrasing a fan question] Do you have a favourite episode of Gundam SEED? And If so, why that one?
Ikeya: I like the first episode of Gundam SEED. There’s the excitement of something new beginning and then how you get to that end part of the episode when the Gundam stands up, symbolising the start of a new Gundam.
Clements: Same question for Mr. Fukuda, but actually, I’m gonna try my luck here and add an addendum of my own, I’d like to know what your favourite episode of Gundam SEED is and why, but also, I’m much more interested in your least favourite episode, is there one episode that was really difficult to get out and has haunted you ever since?
Fukuda: Well, there are no episodes that I don’t like, and they were all hard work, I don't recall any of them being easy. But, the final episode, I directed myself and I did the storyboards myself, so that’s very memorable and was particularly tough but very worthwhile.
Clements: Here is a very long question which I’m gonna have to read out, that’s how long it is. [Quoting a fan question] The World of SEED is rife with upheaval and mistrust, with innocent young people caught up in its events. Given the chaotic times we’re living through in reality, do you feel this gives Gundam SEED a renewed relevance to audiences?
Fukuda: I think you’d have to ask the viewers about that one. The theme of Gundam SEED is war. You mentioned upheaval and mistrust, but what it’s actually depicting is the experience and the story of Kira and his friends, and what it shows them trying to do is to break out of the pigeonholes that they’ve been put into. And at the time, that was a big issue in Japanese schools and in Japanese workplaces, and it was something I thought a lot about as being the basis for fighting between people, so in away, it was a Japanese issue that I was trying to confront with Gundam SEED, and I’m not entirely sure how well that comes across to a global audience because it’s a Japanese psychology.
Clements: True enough, and this leads into our next question which was about the kind of people that you expect to watch Gundam SEED. This has been a very successful iteration of the franchise, and when you were first creating it, was the hope to bring in new fans to Gundam ? To kind of reset to zero? Or were you writing something to cater to the existing fans?
Fukuda: Gundam SEED wasn’t really intended for the existing Gundam fans, it was aimed at a new target audience with the new era, the new Cosmic Era, and also targeting young people that were facing the issues that Gundam SEED deals with. Gundam The Origin was also around at the time, so there was material out there for the existing fans, but I wanted to take a different approach.
Clements: Mr. Ikeya, what do you remember about your time on Gundam SEED? When you look back on it, what are the experiences that you had on that show that still stay with you today?
Ikeya: Well, as Fukuda-san said, each of the episodes was hard work; it was hard work for them because it was a robot anime, and it was hard work because we were working on it for a full year.
Clements: And just to point out, once again, to our viewers, that’s quite rare in the anime business. We were moving at that time into a situation where the average anime show would only run for 1 cour (would run for 13 episodes). So it’s only the very very big shows, the ones that people are really putting their money behind will run for 26 or 52 and in the case—I’m trying to remember how many there were in Gundam SEED, we had Gundam SEED and then we had Gundam Destiny[sic] so it was like a 100 episodes or more, right?
Clements: [Quoting a fan question] If there was something you could go back to change about Gundam SEED in retrospect, what would you change?
Fukuda: I think if I had the chance to go back and change anything, I’d remake the whole thing! I did get to fix a lot when we released the remastered edition. I “tricked” Sunrise into letting me fix a lot, and then after my question he said, I told them that I would maybe fix 500 shots, I ended up fixing a thousand.
Clements: I want to get back onto this HD Remaster, it’s one of the worst kept secrets of the anime business that when something goes from television to DVD or Blu-ray, that sometimes the staff will sneak in and fix stuff. You just have alluded to having fixed like a thousand shots within Gundam SEED, but what kind of changes were you making?
Fukuda: This is secret!
Clements: It’s ok, nobody’s watching!
Fukuda: I did something to pretty much every shot, and I messed around with the editing a bit, and I changed the music a bit. I was trying to make it all the same because what had happened was TV had gone from 4 by 3 to 16 by 9, and I wanted to fit the series to that screen ratio so that it would survive another 10‒20 years. And so, in the process of changing from 4 by 3 to 16 by 9, we had to increase the resolution, pull it all apart (basically backed its cells) and then refilm them, essentially. And then in the process of doing that we made little tweaks along the way, it was a painstaking process.
Clements: And with that in mind, were there any (this is for Mr. Fukuda, again), were there any unexpected challenges when working with the HD Remaster? It sounds like you knew exactly what you were doing but was there anything that took you by surprise, when working with those materials? Such as, for example, losing some of the materials, which I know has happened on some anime shows?
Fukuda: We did lose some of them materials actually, but we did find them all in the end, and it was just a case of pulling everything apart and putting it back together. And we did cut out the recap episodes in the remastered version.
Clements: Now as we’re going to be releasing this series on Blu-ray in English and French very soon, there’s likely to be people watching who haven’t seen Gundam SEED before. With that in mind, how would you describe the series to a potential new viewer?
Fukuda: Well I know that Grendizer was popular in France because of the beautiful animation and the music, and I like that kind of animation too, and I hope that Gundam SEED will fit into that character. I think if you already know Gundam and enjoy Gundam, you’ll like this film, but if you're coming to it new, I hope the people will think of it not as a robot animation but as what it is which is a story of Kira and Athrun.
Clements: I’m afraid with that, we are, in fact, running out of time. We’ve already ran a little bit over actually, so thank you very much for staying with us for this long. Mr. Ikeya, I’m very sorry we didn’t have more questions for you, but sadly my hands are tied by the desires of the fans to know about all sorts of things they’re not supposed to ask about. Mr. Fukuda, thank you very much for talking to us about Gundam SEED, 18 years ago and Gundam SEED, now as well. If you would like to send a message to your fans in Europe, in the style of Japanese interviews, now is your chance to do so. Thank you very much for talking to us, today.
Fukuda: I never thought that this anime that I worked so hard to make 20 years ago would be seen by so many people around the world. So, it’s really fantastic. I wish that I could be in Europe, that I could visit the UK, and France, and the rest of Europe. Unfortunately, that’s not possible right now, but it’s been great to communicate with you online like this, so thank you very much.
Clements: And Mr. Ikeya?
Ikeya: Thank you. Well, as Fukuda-san said, I never imagined that Gundam SEED, that I was working on nearly 20 years ago, would have the impact that it has. And now, it’s coming out on Blu-ray in the UK and in France, which is fantastic. Gundam SEED is of course a robot anime, it is a part of the Gundam universe. But as Fukuda-san said, it’s very much a character drama, as well. So I hope that that’s the impression you will get from it and that that’s how you will watch it.
Clements: And with that, I’d like to thank Mr. Fukuda and Mr. Ikeya for joining us today, and Bethan Jones, our interpreter (one for us always), and thank-you for joining us!

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General Information

Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: 05-Jun-2020
No. of Players: up to 4 players
Genre(s): Party, Multiplayer
Publisher: Nintendo
Game file size: 2.0 GB

Overview (from Nintendo eShop page)

Discover and play 51 tabletop games from around the world
With board games, card games, sports games, solitaires, and even a piano keyboard, Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics is an eclectic collection of games of games to play and discover on your Nintendo Switch system.
Each game includes how-to-play instructions and trivia tidbits. Defeat all difficulty levels of CPU opponents to become a master of each game! Play on the go, on the TV, or with others locally or online*.
Play solo or with friends
You can play dozens of games together with another person on a single Nintendo Switch system with one Joy-Con™ controller per player** or sharing the touch screen.
Play using multiple systems
You can connect with friends or family locally using your own systems to play most of the games. With just one person owning the Clubhouse Games™: 51 Worldwide Classics game, up to four people can play.
Play with others worldwide
Connect to the internet to play more than 40 games with friends online. You can also choose to get matched up with rivals from around the world. It’s your chance to show off your skills!
Mosaic Mode
In this mode, up to four players can connect locally using their own systems to allow the action to spread across screens in certain games. Place up to four systems side-by-side to build dozens of Slot Cars racetracks or turn a pond into a river for more fishing fun.
Download the Clubhouse Games™ Guest Pass for free
The free Clubhouse Games Guest Pass includes four games to play solo or with friends: Four-in-a-Row, Dominoes, President, and Slot Cars. Plus, up to four people can connect locally with a player who owns the full game*** to play all the 40+ multiplayer games.
All 51 games plus a piano keyboard

• Mancala
• Dots and Boxes
• Yacht Dice
• Four-in-a-Row
• Hit and Blow
• Nine Men's Morris
• Hex
• Checkers
• Hare and Hounds
• Gomoku
• Dominoes
• Chinese Checkers
• Ludo
• Backgammon
• Renegade
• Chess
• Shogi
• Mini Shogi
• Hanafuda
• Riichi Mahjong
• Last Card
• Blackjack
• Texas Hold'em
• President
• Sevens
• Speed
• Matching
• War
• Takoyaki
• Pig's Tail
• Golf
• Billiards
• Bowling
• Darts
• Carrom
• Toy Tennis
• Toy Soccer
• Toy Curling
• Toy Boxing
• Toy Baseball
• Air Hockey
• Slot Cars
• Fishing
• Battle Tanks
• Team Tanks
• Shooting Gallery
• 6-Ball Puzzle
• Sliding Puzzle
• Mahjong Solitaire
• Klondike Solitaire
• Spider Solitaire
• Piano

*Nintendo Switch Online membership (sold separately) and Nintendo Account required for online features. Not available in all countries. Internet access required for online features. Terms apply. nintendo.com/switch-online
**Additional accessories may be required for multiplayer mode. Sold separately.
***Clubhouse Games Guest Pass is available to download for free from Nintendo eShop on the Nintendo Switch system. Up to three players with Clubhouse Games Guest Pass can enjoy a selection of games in local multiplayer with a player who owns the full version of the game. Full version of the game, systems and additional accessories sold separately.

Reviews

Aggregators

• Metacritic - 83
• OpenCritic - 82

Articles

• COGconnected - 86 / 100
• Cubed3 - 8 / 10 stars
• DASHGAMER.com - 8 / 10
• Daily Star - 5 / 5 stars
• Destructoid - 8.5 / 10
• Digitally Downloaded - 4.5 / 5 stars
• EGM - 10 / 10
• Eurogamer - Recommended
• Gameblog - French - 8 / 10
• GamesBeat - 89 / 100
• God is a Geek - 7 / 10
• Hobby Consolas - Spanish - 75 / 100
• IGN Italy - Italian - 8 / 10
• Impulsegamer - 4 / 5
• Metro GameCentral - 8 / 10
• Nintendo Enthusiast - 9 / 10
• Nintendo Life - 8 / 10
• NintendoWorldReport - Unscored
• Polygon - Unscored
• Press Start - 7.5 / 10
• SECTOR.sk - Slovak - 7 / 10
• Spaziogames - Italian - 6.2 / 10
• The Games Machine - Italian - 8.5 / 10
• TheSixthAxis - 8 / 10
• USgamer - 4.5 / 5 stars
• VG247 - 4 / 5 stars
• Video Chums - 8.7 / 10
• Wccftech - 8 / 10

^{This list exported from OpenCritic at 8:10am ET June 5th}

Being Social

• Join the #clubhouse-games channel of our Discord server for all of your discussion needs - https://discord.gg/switch

Cheers,
The /NintendoSwitch mod team
^{Note: We know we totally missed the embargo date the other day so we decided to put this thread up on launch day instead. Enjoy everyone!}

Hi the first time I played pokies was in Sydney at the ‘VIP Lounge’ of a pub. I won 5k it was November of 2017. But it was also the day my addiction to pokies started. It was a kiss of death. Although I had to leave Sydney the next day and didn’t lose the money back at the place I won. I eventually became an addict in my own country. And this year since covid, I played online and lost 80k in total, in debt and lost faith in myself. But I will take it as a price to pay to learn about how to live better without gambling.
I read about the serious situation in Australia (in fact, in many Anglosphere nations, such as Canada US UK) from a documentary and a book titled ‘One Last Spin: the power and peril of pokies’ by Drew Rooke. It is a very good book that explains how the industry works and how players like us are like mice being trapped in a vicious cycle, feeding the fat capitalist mongrel cats who are manufacturing the slot machines.
Below is the link to the documentary.
https://youtu.be/bny1qgKO46A

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As standard – apologies for the length! I’ve found it quite a cathartic experience, and I seem to have managed to merge elements of the reddit, US and UK R29 templates so please feel free to skip over any boring sections!
Background:
I’m British, working for a British Company in the US on a three-year posting (one year in). My salary is actually £33,000 but due to the increased cost of living here, I get an additional £10,000 allowance for living costs, and my rent/utilities are paid directly by my company. This puts my equivalent salary at $93,000.
I’m aware this is an incredibly fortunate position to be in, especially with COVID, however when I return to the UK, I will be paid my UK salary only, so this is a short-term benefit.
The company can split my pay between my UK and US accounts, and currently 95%ish of it is going to my UK account. This % split was only set up after lockdown as we are currently spending much less on travel/socialising here so are taking the opportunity to focus on building our UK savings. My husband, J, was fortunate enough to get local employment when he arrived in country. He earns an additional $46,000 net which we live on.
For ease/consistency, I have converted all costs at 1.3 as this is roughly the average conversion since I’ve lived here – I will write UK next to any cost/savings that are based in the UK.
Section One: Assets and Debt
J and I (now) combine all our finances, so except for my pension pot, and a small F* Off Fund (FoF - we have one each), everything else is split 50/50. This will likely change when we go back to the UK as we’ll have better access to our own bank accounts.
My personal Net Worth is $72,400
Retirement Balance
UK $104,000
I’ve contributed to work pension schemes since I started working full time age 18. This has been set at around 5% since I joined my current employer 7 years ago, and they contribute around 27%. I’m actually guaranteed £4,000 per year once I retire for as long as I live so have multiplied this by 20 on the assumption the retirement age actually stays at 68 and I make it to my late 80’s. This amount will increase over the years with inflation and as I contribute further to it. I can choose to retire earlier, plus take up to a 25% tax free lump sum on retirement, but that will affect the annual pay-out amount.
Equity
UK $52,000 equity, $157,300 left on the mortgage
J and I bought ($197,600) with just over a 10% ($20,000) deposit 3 years ago aged 24 and contributed half each. I managed to save this as I was living at home until we bought, and J got a help to buy loan through his previous workplace. He’s since cleared this.
Savings account balance
$29,700 made up of:
US $6,700 for fun money here (currently planned for another car – we’ll sell our existing one)
UK $6,500 in premium bonds as my FoF, $13,800 in our joint savings account to upsize when we get back to the UK, $2,600 in one of my side saving accounts as a potential future maternity pot. This is joint but kept in a separate account from the house savings.
Around $22,000 of this has been saved since the beginning of lockdown
Checking account balance
US $120 (+ $1,190 in checking, -$1,070 on AMEX). All our savings accounts are easy access, so we try to keep the balance as low as possible and tend to spend the full amount each month. [We end the week with this back up to $1,559]
UK $660
Credit card debt (and how you accumulated it)
0 – we use our AMEX for our everyday spending, so I’ve included it in our checking account as we usually pay it off each week and use it in place of our checking account. J had CC/loan debt in the UK from the house deposit and wedding which he cleared down before we moved out here.
Student loan debt (for what degree)
0 - neither of us went to University
Anything else that's applicable to you
We paid outright for a second-hand car that is worth around $6,000
Section Two: Income & Further Background
Income Progression:
I started at my current company 7 years ago working as a personal assistant and started on $24,000. I stayed in this role for 2.5 years before promoting into a finance role and onto $31,000. After a year I was temporarily promoted (with pay rise) within my team to a higher finance role and after a further 6 months was permanently promoted into the role and onto $35,750. There’s usually an annual pay rise of around 2%, which I’ve received between each promotion, but as this last promotion pay rise wasn’t as high as usual, my last few annual pay rises have been higher to bring me to my now salary of $43,290. I’ve spent the last three years at the same level, but have changed teams to gain more experience which will be needed for the next promotion which I’ll hopefully be able to get when I return to the UK – this will take me over the $50,000 mark.
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
UK – I get paid once a month, receiving $3,783 after tax, national insurance and pension contributions. This also includes the extra living allowance. $3,510 is paid into my UK account, $273 is paid into the US
US – J gets paid fortnightly, and earns a net salary of $3,546 per month (assuming 2 pay periods per month)
Any Other Monthly Income Here
UK - We receive around $598 per month from tenants in our house in the UK. The letting agents take all management and admin fees directly from the rent before we get paid. This amount can be less if any work needs doing on the property, but again the letting agent will pay directly and just transfer us a reduced amount. We also have to pay tax on any rent received and still need to pay last year’s bill, but we haven’t calculated it yet.
Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?:
Not from family. My parents don’t have degrees, and whilst they supported my siblings going, it was our own personal choice. If we didn’t go, we were expected to work full time.
My school did expect me to go. I was in the last school year before UK University tuition went up, so the only advise they could give was to go now as you won’t be able to afford it in the future. I had a place to study events management but turned it down a week before the deadline. Bar sometimes feeling like I missed out on the University life experience (aka. freshers week), I have zero regrets not going.
Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
My siblings and I were always encouraged to save including contributing to pensions when we started working, and prioritise this and bills over spending our money, but conversations didn’t go much further than that.
What was your first job and why did you get it?:
Weekly paper round from age 12 to 16 which gave me $10 a week to pay for my phone credit and to build savings. I started working part-time in a supermarket from age 16 earning around $250 a month, but this was mainly spent shopping and in the pub!
Did you worry about money growing up?:
No – my parents operated on a “what we do for one, we do for all”, so with a house of five kids, we certainly weren’t living the life of luxury, but we never went without, and it encouraged me to earn some of my own money from an early age.
Do you worry about money now?:
No, J and I are in a really good position and try to make sensible decisions so that we can still cope if our circumstances change.
At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?:
Fully when I bought the house and moved out age 24, although I obviously gained the support from J. I’ve always had to use my own money for wants and non-essentials (phone bill, own laptop, “fun” clothes). I was given a few years grace on rent as my parents helped my siblings at Uni, but this stopped when I turned 21. I’ve always bought my own cars/insurance and would contribute to the household, including buying some food and replacing furniture in my room.
Our parents continue to support us anyway they can, which included letting J and I move back in rent free last year whilst we were replacing our kitchen.
Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income?:
My dad saved around $1,200 from when I was a child which I received aged 18 – this went into savings and then towards my first car and laser eye surgery.
My brothers and I also received $1,950 each from a great aunt when she died, which was a complete surprise (the will was contested so this was several years later). Our much younger half-brother didn’t receive anything, so we split this equally with him. The money left went towards mine and J’s wedding and we also received around $5000 additional from various family members towards our wedding and honeymoon. This was also not expected, and we budgeted not to receive anything, but this was a bonus and it relieved some of the pressure on us to save.
Section Three: Expenses
UK – I auto-transfer $1,170 across various accounts to pay for our UK bills. J & I both kept some bills in our own names to try to maintain our individual UK credit scores as well as our joint one. J’s parents are also looking after our two cats whilst we’re in the US, so we transfer them some money. We’ve discovered our UK entertainment subscriptions work over here so we haven’t cancelled them and pay them from the UK accounts, which is a benefit as they’re usually cheaper.
$910 to our joint account to cover – Mortgage ($986 – includes $130 monthly overpayment), Landlord Insurance ($32), Pet Insurance ($45), our life insurance ($22 – it pains me that the cats cost twice as much as we do. Obviously, they don’t have the NHS covering their medical costs, but they also don’t have a mortgage to pay off….), J’s UK phone bill ($35) – he’s still tied into his contract. The rent income comes into this account so that covers any delta and builds a pot to pay the tax bill. It works out at around $388 per month saved for this. We also pay around ($150) annually to cover IT costs including Microsoft office, McAfee Security and Dropbox storage.
$143 to my bills account to cover – my UK phone bill ($23), a second UK phone bill that I need to cancel as they wouldn’t transfer my existing number to them ($6), Trade Union membership ($19), Netflix ($12), Annual magazine subscription ($19). Any money left over for is for UK online orders and so we have money available when we visit home.
$65 to J’s account to cover – Amazon Prime ($10), Spotify ($20), Audible ($15) and annual Xbox Live ($50)
$52 to J’s parents for the cats.
UK Savings – we have $2,340 to split across the savings. The split varies each month, but as I’ve hit my FoF goal the focus will be on getting J’s to the goal amount and then joint savings.
US – TV, WiFi and Hulu ($131), Phone Bills ($167), Car Insurance ($110), Naked Wines ($40), HelloFresh ($523), Annual Renters Insurance ($152). We currently get Disney+ free with our phones, but this will end soon, and I expect we’ll start paying for it as well.
US Savings – I usually transfer between $500-$1,000 into savings when J gets paid but will vary this based on how much we have left in the checking account from his last pay and what bills are due. We’ll also raid this as needed for big purchases or if we’re running low in on cash in the checking account.
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Day 1 – Saturday
0900 – I’ve been waking up on and off for a few hours, but the alarm has gone off, so I drag myself out of bed. J and I are booked into a second-hand book sale from between 11 and 12 so we need to actually get out of the house this morning. I tidy up a bit, have a shower and miss a call from my mum whilst I’m in there. I check J is up before calling her back and have a good catch up with her and my Nan.
1115 – We’re a little later than planned, but we make it to the sale. I picked the second slot so that there would still be a good selection of books available and am pleasantly surprised by the amount and overall COVID set up. We spend almost an hour browsing and come away with 15 books between us. $60.01
1210 – We left the apartment without eating breakfast, but there’s a restaurant open next to the sale that we haven’t tried before so we pop in and have a burger each. Discover there’s a cocktail bar underneath and make note to head back and try that soon. $41.92
1600 – J has spent the afternoon building Ikea furniture we bought last week and hiding in the bedroom watching YouTube videos whilst I clean, watch The Haunting of Hill House and drink copious amounts of tea. We bought our car in a bit of a rush when we arrived and to replace his Rightmove house obsession, J spends a lot of his time looking at cars available here. Last week he found an American muscle car that looks in good shape and isn’t extortionate, so in his argument to “buy American, eat American, drive American” whilst we’re here, he’s arranged a visit check it out and test drive it. We’re meant to be there at half past, but we had the wrong address and there’s been an accident so it’s actually an hour’s drive, and we don’t get there until 1715 - Oops. I do not want to like the car, but I’m honestly sold – I knew our current car wasn’t the best, and planned to cope with it for the three years, but this is such an improvement and feels like a fun car to drive on road trips. We arrange to come back next week to buy the car and head back home. Thankfully, the traffic has cleared so it only takes 40mins. We while away the journey by listening to an episode of My Dad Wrote a Porno.
1830 – We stop by Giant to pick up some essentials (loo roll, seltzer, beer, milk) and food for the rest of the weekend. $103.25. I cook pork chops, roast potatoes, asparagus and gravy for dinner, and we spend the evening chilling in front of Netflix with wine before heading to bed at midnight.
Daily total: $205.18
Day 2 – Sunday
0830 – I wake up and sneak out of bed without disturbing J, make myself a cup of tea and settle down to finish off The Haunting of Hill House. J hates scary shows/films, so I try to watch things before he’s up, but he still needs to be in the house otherwise my imagination will go wild. The show finishes and I hear no sign of movement, so I make another cup of tea and discover The Princess Diaries 2 is on freeform so obviously I watch this.
1100 – J gets up and makes us scrambled eggs and smoked salmon for brunch. There was meant to be a bread roll with this, but according to J it had gone off. Silently complain that I didn’t pick up some bagels whilst we were shopping last night. We stick The Office on in the background and binge far too much of it whilst I multitask and convert our savings/bills spreadsheet into $ for the intro to this.
1630 – I had grand plans to spend the day cleaning and assumed J’s mum would do her weekly skype call with us at 3, neither of which has happened, and I only realise this now. I suggest we message some friends to see if they fancy an afternoon pick-me-up, but they are hanging from last night, and I remember I’m doing interviews in the morning so probably not the smartest move. I have a shower, wash and sort my hair out to save time in the morning.
1800 – I get an email reminding me that I have items in my basket on an online order and that they’ve given me 15% off. Seems rude not complete it – J has a quick browse to see if there’s anything he likes but nothing takes his fancy. So it’s just non-wired bras for me and a very cute bee print quilt set. It’s a UK based store so I pay using my UK bank account. $123
1900 – J cooks dinner tonight, a HelloFresh recipe for firecracker meatballs with rice. We stick The Office on in the background, finish the rest of last nights wine and the entire series, getting to bed at half 11.
Daily total: $123
Day 3 – Monday
0630 – Alarm goes off. Ugh. It disturbs J, so I apologise for waking him, hit snooze and repeat 5 minutes later. Rather than getting straight up, I waste half an hour browsing Facebook before washing and getting ready. As an attempt to look semi presentable, I put actual work clothes on, straighten my hair and put on some mascara and powder.
0755 – I make it onto the laptop and do some prep before the interviews. Checking my emails, I spot that I’ve been paid my US pay today. The annual pay rise has come through and there’s a small backdate from last months pay, so I have an additional $127 this month. I clear a few more emails and make a cup of tea before starting the interviews.
1215 – Interviews are done, and as a panel we have discussed and come to a decision. We all need to type up our outcomes for HR, but I take a lunch break before my brain melts. J heats up leftover meatballs and rice from last night and we watch an episode of The Good Place whilst we eat. J’s heading into the office this afternoon so I tidy up, stick the dishwasher on and faff about on reddit before getting back to work at 1. Go straight back into a call with my Line Manager to touch base before he goes on leave – he lets me know he put me forward (and I have been approved) for a bonus for my efforts since joining last year, and the added COVID response. I’m touched and proceed to spend a while mentally spending it. I’m debating between a pair of Louboutin’s and a spin bike…. Slightly different ends of the spectrum I know. Keen to hear any inspiration! It should be around $1000 after tax so reasonably substantial.
1630 – J comes home and attempts to get in, but I appear to have locked him out. I get up, open the door and see that he comes baring this week’s HelloFresh box, which is a relief as I hadn’t seen any delivery emails (we had a few go missing in our apartment block when we started). I have a small break to see how his afternoon has been and reply to some messages with friends about possible Halloween costumes for a small gathering we’re going to. We jokingly consider a group The Office effort, which results in numerous gifs being shared. In a moment of inspiration, J passes me his shirt, tie and blazer to put on… turns out I’m a pretty convincing Sexy Toby. I get changed back into my own clothes and head back to work for a bit.
1930 – J finished work earlier so cooked again. Tonight’s is a HF spicy shrimp pasta. It’s a bit disappointing even with him adding extras from the cupboard. We eat and watch the Umbrella Academy before heading to bed at 11.
Daily total: $0
Day 4 – Tuesday
0730 – alarm goes off, get up, washed, dressed. No interviews today so back to COVID home working uniform of no make-up and trackies. Make a cup of tea and am at my desk for 0830 – in and out of meetings until 10 and spend the rest of the morning trying to catch up on my inbox. J’s headed into the office, so I take the opportunity to listen to the Hamilton soundtrack as I work. Get through the first track before admitting defeat that despite my amazing multitasking skills, I can’t actually sing along and type coherent emails. Settle for the LOTR soundtrack instead.
1215 – make it to lunch and reheat last night’s leftovers (we order HelloFresh for four people for the leftovers, as before we were just ordering in lunch every day). Realise I haven’t physically left the flat for longer than I care to admit, so take my lunch onto the balcony and eat it whilst reading through a money diary on reddit. Remember I have a meeting at 1, so sign back in ten mins before and read through the emails in a vague attempt to sound prepared.
J buys himself and his boss lunch in the office, but his boss will pay him back so $12.17
1900 – long afternoon, managed to start nothing on my actual to-do-list, so feel like I haven’t achieved anything. Yay. J got home half an hour ago (I didn’t lock him out today!) and switched the oven on as he walked past, so I take the opportunity to get up and cook once it’s done preheating. Pork tenderloin with coleslaw and mash tonight. It comes with a cherry jam sauce which I’m not the biggest fan of, so I make it into a fruity gravy. It takes longer to cook than I planned, and I can feel myself getting more and more annoyed with everything from a general mix of feeling stressed and hangry. J sticks toy story 4 on as we eat which doesn’t help my mood (as let’s face it, it’s the worst one). Our friends message asking if we’re watching the debates – J had planned to but had forgotten so quickly changes over to watch it. I have no words.
We make plans to watch the next debate in a group with alcohol, debate bingo and the next day booked off work to recover.
Head to bed at 1120 – still waste time on Facebook despite being shattered.
Daily total: $12.17
Day 5 – Wednesday
0830 – Alarm goes off. I didn’t get to sleep up until 12.30 and J disturbed me at 1.30 when he came to bed so extra sleep was needed. I check my phone, message my stepsister a happy birthday and stick on my dressing gown to make sure I’m online for my 9am meeting. Thankfully, no one has an update, so the meeting is cancelled, and I have time to shower and put clothes on before I properly start work.
1230 – Lunchtime. I have the remaining shrimp pasta and J makes a BBQ chicken sandwich with other leftovers in the fridge and we stick on another episode of The Good Place whilst we eat. We finish up, work for an hour and then drive into the office. J needs to stay in for a while, but I’m only in to sign a cheque so I take the opportunity to walk back home. It’s a glorious sunny day, but with a nice breeze so it’s an enjoyable walk until I’m almost back at the flat and have to walk up a hill and then 5 flights of stairs. It’s a fast reminder of just how unfit I am, and I have to have a quick lie down to recovecool down before getting back to work.
1730 – J and I have plans to meet up with our friends K and J(.2) tonight. In an act of attempting to keep some form of sanity, J and J.2 are heading out to a bar for a “Gentleman’s Club” and I’m heading round to K & J.2’s flat for wine and chick flicks. J gets home from work, kisses me hi and bye and heads straight back out. K’s getting her hair cut, so I continue working until half 6 before walking up to her apartment. I make a pit stop on route to pick up a bottle of white wine as she’s running low. The card machines are down so it’s cash only – I have a mild panic, but thankfully I find some notes in my purse - although I’m pretty sure I withdrew them pre-lockdown! $17
0200 – After a night of homemade mac’n’cheese, wine, films and putting the world to rights, I get ready to head home just as J.2 stumbles back into the flat. It’s lovely to see him, but the state he’s in makes me a bit concerned about what J is going to be like when I get home. Thankfully, when I make it back and he’s already curled up on his own side of the bed, passed out and lightly snoring away. I take off my makeup, do my teeth, get into bed and fall straight asleep.
*I’ve checked the banking app and J spent $50.50 on food and drink. The “club” made their way to our apartment around 9pm and worked their way through our booze which explains the low spend but high drunkenness.
Daily total: $67.50
Day 6 – Thursday
0700 – J’s alarm goes off. He rarely sets alarms and has an amazing ability to sleep though them, so I kick him awake to switch it off. He hits snooze rather than switching it off, so I wake up again 5mins later. Ugh. He actually manages to switch it off the second time.
0830 – My alarm goes off. I’m tired and thirsty, but other than that feeling pretty ok. J is not and I leave him snoozing in bed as I start work. It’s a slow morning (thankfully) and I periodically check on J to see if he’s feeling any better. General consensus is no. The leftovers in the house are not hangover friendly so we put in an order with Panera Bread. $32.25. J has a choose two, but I brought home some mac’n’cheese from last night so just order some crisps and a smoothie to go with it. It takes longer than expected to arrive, but it means a 1230 lunch in front of The Good Place. We finish and go back to work, J heads into the office again.
1400 – I’ve struggled to get back into the swing of things, and as there haven’t been too many emails coming in I take the opportunity to have a break and lie down on the bed (I work flexi hours and have a very high balance so this is done guilt-free). This lie down turns into an hour-long nap and I wake up feeling better, but still while away some time on reddit before deciding to make it back to work at 4.
1920 – J messaged to say he’s on his way back and I’ve already heated the oven, so I finish for the night and start making dinner. Tonight’s HF menu is a creamy lemon butter chicken with courgette and giant couscous. It’s reasonably simple to make, but one of our favourites. I multitask and clean down the kitchen as I go.
2000 – Dinner is eaten, J has made us a cup of tea and we’re settled back into The Good Place. Yesterday was payday into my UK account so I log into the internet banking and transfer to the savings accounts (the bill transfers are set up to auto-transfer on the 1st). $1,170 to J’s savings so he’s now at his FoF goal, $650 to the maternity pot, and $780 to the joint savings. The annual renter’s insurance has also come out of our US checking account today, but that’s counted in the expenses. We both head to bed at 11.
Daily total: $32.25
Day 7 – Friday
0730 – J’s alarm goes off, he’s heading back into the office this morning so it’s valid today and we both actually wake up for it. We both chill on our phones until my alarm goes off at 0830. Up, washed, dressed and on the laptop in time for my 9am meeting. I’m closing off last months accounts and updating forecasts so get stuck into multiple spreadsheets.
1440 – I’d gotten into a good rhythm with the updates, and without J here, I hadn’t realised the time, so I only stop now for lunch. It’s last nights leftovers so couscous and chicken, plus an apple left over from J’s Panera order yesterday. J didn’t take anything in so has stopped by Safeway $14.13 and the work café $9.48. I get the figures from the banking app and realise J has been paid – win. I have an hour break and head back online.
2020 – I’ve been in the swing of things today. It’s a long winded, but simple task so I’ve had Greys Anatomy on in the background as I work. I’d normally have left some of it until Monday, but I have a few urgent requests in today that need the updated figures so it made sense to get it all cleared – it’s also quite therapeutic so feels like a nice way to end the week . J and I have plans to see friends tomorrow, so I don’t feel too bad about not having plans for a Friday night and working for most of it instead. Still, we make the most of it being payday and order in some Steak Frites for dinner and I treat myself to a chocolate cake slice as well. $80.25. We spend the rest of the evening relaxing, finish watching The Good Place (a very emotional finale) and make it into bed for half 11.
Daily total: $103.86
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Total Expenditure: $543.96
Food & Drink: $257.70
Groceries: $103.25
Clothes/Home: $123.00
Other: $60.01
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Lastly, reflect on your diary!
This is a pretty average week for us during COVID. We usually go out drinking over every other weekend, but that extra spending would balance out with the home/other expenditure as I try to make sure we spread our spending out. The AMEX balance is a bit higher than the usual weekly amount as J and I both ordered a trunk club a few weeks and kept a few of the clothes but the system errored which delayed us processing our returns (and them billing us). As we’ll looking to buy the car soon, it also feels like a better decision to leave the balance on the card and keep more cash available – I’m not concerned as we’re only just into the new credit statement period and J’s will get an extra pay period this month which will clear it.
Pre-COVID, this is actually lower than our weekly spend, as we also had most of my salary coming into the US account as well and were spending most of it socialising, travelling and just enjoying living in a city. If we had to, we could cut our costs and save a lot more, but we’re here to enjoy ourselves and so long as we can eat and pay the mortgage, we’re happy. We’ve also already reached our total savings goal for our time out here, so anything extra is a bonus.