Megathread: Long-Concealed Records Show President Trump’s Losses and Years of Tax Avoidance | Part II
President Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017, the New York Times reported Sunday, citing tax-return data. Megathread Part I
Nabokov's informative interview about his art, life and opinions in The Paris Interview
INTERVIEWER: Good morning. Let me ask forty-odd questions. NABOKOV: Good morning. I am ready. INTERVIEWER: Yoursense of the immorality of the relationship between Humbert Humbert and Lolita is very strong. In Hollywood and NewYork, however,relationships are frequent between men offorty andgirls very little older than Lolita. They marry—to no particular public outrage; rather, public cooing. NABOKOV: No,it is not my sense of the immorality of the Humbert Humbert-Lolita relationship that is strong; it is Humbert’s sense. He cares, I do not. J do not give a damnfor public morals, in America or elsewhere. And, anyway, cases of men in their forties marryinggirls in their teens or early twenties have no bearing on Lolita whatever. Humbert was fondof “‘ittle girls”—not simply “younggirls.” Nymphetsare girl-children, not starlets and “‘sex kittens.” Lolita was twelve, not eighteen when Humbert met her. You may rememberthat by the timesheis fourteen, he refers to her as his “aging mistress.” INTERVIEWER: Onecritic (Pryce-Jones) has said about you that “his feelingsare like no oneelse’s.”” Does this make sense to you?Or does it mean that you know your feelings better than others knowtheirs? Or that you have discovered yourself at other levels?Or simply that your history is unique? NABOKOV: I do notrecall that article; but if a critic makes such a statement, it must surely mean that he hasexplored thefeelings of literally millions of people, in at least three countries, before reaching his conclusion. If so, I am a rare fowl indeed.If, on the other hand, he has merely limited himself to quizzing members of his family or club, his statement cannot be discussedseriously. INTERVIEWER: Anothercritic has written that your “worlds are static. They may becometense with obsession, but they do not break apart like the worlds of everydayreality.”” Do you agree? Isthere a static quality in your view of things? NABOKOV: Whose “reality”? “Everyday” where? Let me suggest that the very term “everyday reality” is utterly static since it presupposesa situation that is permanently observable, essentially objective, and universally known. I suspect you have invented that expert on “everydayreality.” Neither exists. INTERVIEWER: He does (names him). A third critic has said that you “diminish” your characters “to the point where they become ciphers in a cosmic farce.” I disagree; Humbert, while comic, retains a touching and insistent quality—that of the spoiled artist. NABOKOV: I would put it differently: Humbert Humbertis a vain and cruel wretch who manages to appear “touching.” That epithet, in its true, tear-iridized sense, can only apply to my poor little girl. Besides, how can I “diminish” to the level of ciphers, et cetera, characters that I have invented myself? One can “‘diminish” a biographee, but not an eidolon. INTERVIEWER: E.. M. Forster speaks of his major characters sometimes taking over and dictating the courseof his novels. Has this ever been a problem for you, or are you in complete command? NABOKOV: My knowledge of Mr. Forster’s works is limited to one novel, which dislike; and anyway, it was not he whofathered thattrite little whimsy about characters getting out of hand;it is as old as the quills, although of course one sympathizes with his people if they try to wriggle out of that trip to India or wherever he takes them. My characters are galley slaves. INTERVIEWER: Clarence Brown of Princeton has pointed out striking similarities in your work. Herefers to you as “extremely repetitious” and that in wildly different ways you are in essence saying the same thing. He speaks of fate being the “muse of Nabokov.” Are you consciously aware of “repeating yourself,” or to put it another way, that you strive for a conscious unity to your shelf of books? NABOKOV: I do not think I have seen Clarence Brown’sessay, but he may have something there. Derivative writers seem versatile because they imitate many others, past and present. Artistic originality has only its own self to copy. INTERVIEWER: Do you thinkliterary criticism is at all purposeful? Either in general, or specifically about your own books? Is it ever instructive? NABOKOV: The purposeofa critique is to say something about a book the critic has or has not read. Criticism can be instructive in the sense that it gives readers, including the authorof the book, some information about thecritic’s intelligence, or honesty, or both. INTERVIEWER: Andthe function of the editor? Has one ever had literary advice to offer? NABOKOV: By “editor” I suppose you mean_proofreader. Amongthese I have known limpid creatures of limitless tact and tenderness who would discuss with me a semicolon asif it were a point of honor—which, indeed, a point of art often is. But I have also comeacross a few pompous avuncular brutes who would attemptto “make suggestions” which I countered with a thunderous “‘stet!”’ INTERVIEWER: Are you a lepidopterist, stalking your victims? If so, doesn’t your laughter startle them? NABOKOV: Onthe contrary, it lulls them into the state of torpid security which an insect experiences when mimicking a dead leaf. Though by no meansan avid reader of reviews dealing with my ownstuff, I happen to rememberthe essay by a young lady who attempted to find entomological symbols in my fiction. The essay might have been amusing had she known something about Lepidoptera. Alas, she revealed complete ignorance, and the muddle of terms she employed proved to be only jarring and absurd. INTERVIEWER: How would you define youralienation from the so-called White Russian refugees? NABOKOV: Well, historically I am a “White Russian” myself since all Russians wholeft Russia as my family did in thefirst years of the Bolshevist tyranny because of their opposition to it were and remained White Russians in the large sense. But these refugees were split into as many social fractions and political factions as wasthe entire nation before the Bolshevist coup. I do not mix with “black-hundred” White Russians and do not mix with the so-called ‘“‘bolshevizans,” that is “pinks.”” On the other hand, I have friends among intellectual Constitutional Monarchists as well as amongintellectual Social Revolutionaries. My father was an old-fashioned liberal, and I do not mind being labeled an old-fashioned liberal, too. INTERVIEWER: How would you define youralienation from present-day Russia? __ NABOKOV: As a deep distrust of the phony thaw now advertised. As a constant awareness of unredeemable iniquities. As a complete indifference to all that moves a patriotic Sovetski man of today. As the keen satisfaction of having discernedasearly as 1918 (nineteen eighteen) the meshchantsvo (petty bourgeois smugness, Philistine essence) of Leninism. INTERVIEWER: How do you now regard the poets Blok and Mandelshtam and others whowerewriting in the days before you left Russia? NABOKOV: I read them in my boyhood, more than a half century ago. Ever since that time I have remainedpassionately fond of Blok’s lyrics. His long pieces are weak, and the famous The Twelve is dreadful, self-consciously couched in a phony “primitive” tone, with a pink cardboard Jesus Christ glued on at the end. As to Mandelshtam,I also knew him by heart, but he gave me a less fervent pleasure. Today, through the prism of tragic fate, his poetry seemsgreater than it actually is. I note incidentally that professors of literature still assign these two poets to different schools. There is only one school: that of talent. INTERVIEWER: I know your work has been read andis attacked in the Soviet Union. How would you feel about a Soviet edition of your work? NABOKOV: Oh, they are welcome to my work. As a matter of fact, the Editions Victor are bringing out my Jnvitation to a Beheading in a reprintof the original Russian of 1935, and a New York publisher (Phaedra) is printing my Russian translation of Lolita. 1 am sure the Soviet Governmentwill be happy to admit officially a novel that seems to contain a prophecy of Hitler’s regime, and a novel that condemnsbitterly the American system of motels. INTERVIEWER: Haveyouever had contact with Soviet citizens? Of what sort? NABOKOV: I have practically no contact with them, though I did onceagree,in theearly thirties or late twenties, to meet—out of sheer curiosity—an agent from Bolshevist Russia who was trying hard to get émigré writers andartists to return to the fold. He had a double name, Lebedev something, and had written a novelette entitled Chocolate, and I thought I might have some sport with him. I asked him would I be permitted to write freely and would I be able to leave Russia if I did notlike it there. He said that I would be so busyliking it there that I would have no time to dream of going abroadagain. I would,he said, beperfectly free to choose any of the many themesSoviet Russia bountifully allows a writer to use, such as farms, factories, forests in Fakistan —oh,lots of fascinating subjects. I said farms, et cetera, bored me, and my wretched seducer soon gave up. He hadbetter luck with the composer Prokofiev. INTERVIEWER: Do you consider yourself an American? NABOKOV: Yes, I do. 1am as American as April in Arizona. The flora, the fauna, the air of the Western states, are my links with Asiatic and Arctic Russia. Of course, I owe too much to the Russian language and landscape to be emotionally involved in, say, American regionalliterature, or Indian dances, or pumpkin pie on a spiritual plane; but I do feel a suffusion of warm,lighthearted pride when I show mygreen U.S.A.passport at European frontiers. Crude criticism of American affairs offends and distresses me. In homepolitics I am strongly antisegregationist. In foreign policy, I am definitely on the government’s side. And when in doubt, I always follow the simple method of choosing that line of conduct which may be the most displeasing to the Reds and the Russells. INTERVIEWER: Is there a community of which you consider yourself a part? NABOKOV: Notreally. I can mentally collect quite a large number of individuals whom I am fondof, but they would form a very disparate and discordant group if gathered in real life, on a real island. Otherwise, I would say that I am fairly comfortable in the company of American intellectuals who have read my books INTERVIEWER: Whatis your opinion of the academic world as a milieu for the creative writer? Could you speak specifically of the value or detriment of your teaching at Cornell? naBoxov: A first-rate college library with a comfortable campus arounditis a fine milieu for a writer. There is, of course, the problem of educating the young. I remember how once, between terms, not at Cornell, a student broughta transistor set with him into the reading room. He managedto state that (1) he was playing “classical”? music; that (2) he was doing it “softly”; and that (3) “there were not many readers around in summer.” I was there, a one-man multitude. INTERVIEWER: Would you describe yourrelationship with the contemporary literary community? With Edmund Wilson, Mary McCarthy, your magazine editors and book publishers? NABOKOV: The only time | ever collaborated with any writer was when I translated with Edmund Wilson Pushkin’s Mozart and Salieri for the New Republic twenty-five years ago, a rather - paradoxical recollection in view of his making such a fool of himself last year when he had the audacity of questioning my understanding of Fugene Onegin. Mary McCarthy, on the other hand, has been very kind to me recently in the same New Republic, although I do think she added quite a bit of her own angelica to the pale fire of Kinbote’s plum pudding. I prefer not to mention here myrelationship with Girodias, but I have answered in Evergreen his scurvy article in the Olympia anthology. Otherwise,I am on excellent terms with all my publishers. My warm friendship with Catharine White and Bill Maxwell of The New Yorker is something the most arrogant author cannot evoke without gratitude and delight. INTERVIEWER: Could you say something of your work habits? Do you write to a preplanned chart? Do you jump from one section to another, or do you move from the beginning through to the end? NABOKOV: The pattern of the thing precedesthe thing.I fill in the gaps of the crossword at any spot I happen to choose. These bits I write on index cards until the novel is done. My schedule is flexible, but I am rather particular about my instruments:lined Bristol cards and well sharpened, not too hard, pencils capped with erasers. | INTERVIEWER: Is there a particular picture of the world which you wish to develop? The past is very present for you, even in a novel of the “future,” such as Bend Sinister. Are you a “nostalgist’? In what time would you prefer to live? NABOKOV: In the coming days of silent planes and graceful aircycles, and cloudless silvery skies, and a universal system of padded undergroundroadsto which trucksshall be relegated like Morlocks. As to the past, I would not mind retrieving from various corners of spacetime certain lost comforts, such as baggy trousers and long, deep bathtubs. INTERVIEWER: You know, you do not have to answerall my Kinbote-like questions. NABOKOV: It would never do to start skipping the tricky ones. Let us continue. INTERVIEWER: Besides writing novels, what do you, or would you, like most to do? NABOKOV: Oh, hunting butterflies, of course, and studying them. Thepleasures and rewardsofliterary inspiration are nothing beside the rapture of discovering a new organ under the microscope or an undescribed species on a mountainside in Iran or Peru. It is not improbable that had there been no revolution in Russia, I would have devoted myself entirely to lepidopterology and never written any novels at all. INTERVIEWER: Whatis most characteristic of poshlust in contemporary writing? Are there temptations for you in the sin of poshlust? Have you everfallen? NABoKov: “Poshlust,” or in a better transliteration poshlost, has many nuances, and evidently I have not described them clearly enough in mylittle book on Gogol, if you think one can ask anybody if he is tempted by poshlost. Corny trash, vulgar clichés, Philistinism in all its phases, imitations of imitations, bogus profundities, crude, moronic, and dishonest pseudo-literature—these are obvious examples. Now, if we want to pin down poshlost in contemporary writing, we mustlookfor it in Freudian symbolism, moth-eaten mythologies, social comment, humanistic messages, political allegories, overconcern with class or race, and the journalistic generalities we all know. Poshlost speaks in such concepts as “Americais no better than Russia” or “Weall share in Germany’s guilt.” The flowers of poshlost bloom in such phrases and terms as “the momentoftruth,” “charisma,” “existential” (used seriously), “dialogue’’ (as applied to political talks between nations), and “vocabulary” (as applied to a dauber). Listing in one breath Auschwitz, Hiroshima, and Vietnam is seditious poshlost. Belonging to a very select club (which sports one Jewish name—thatofthe treasurer) is genteel poshlost. Hack reviews are frequently poshlost, but it also lurks in certain highbrow essays. Poshlost calls Mr. Blank a great poet and Mr. Bluff a great novelist. One of poshlost’s favorite breeding places has always been the Art Exhibition; there it is produced by so-called sculptors working with the tools of wreckers, building crankshaft cretins of stainless steel, zen stereos, polystyrene stinkbirds, objects trouvés in latrines, cannon balls, canned balls. There we admire the gabinetti wall patterns of so-called abstract artists, Freudian surrealism, roric smudges, and Rorschach blots—all of it as corny in its own right as the academic ‘“‘September Morns” and “Florentine Flowergirls” of half a century ago. Thelist is long, and, of course, everybody has his béte noire, his black pet, in the series. Mine is that airline ad: the snack served by an obsequious wench to a young couple—sheeyeing ecstatically the cucumber canapé, he admiring wistfully the hostess. And, of coursé, Death in Venice. You see the range. INTERVIEWER: Are there contemporary writers you follow with great pleasure? NABOKOV: There are several such writers, but I shall not name them. Anonymouspleasure hurts nobody. INTERVIEWER: Do you follow some with great pain? NABOKOV: No. Manyaccepted authors simply do not exist for me. Their names are engraved on emptygraves, their books are dummies, they are complete nonentities insofar as my taste in reading is concerned. Brecht, Faulkner, Camus, many others, mean absolutely nothing to me, and I must fight a suspicion of conspiracy against my brain whenI see blandly acceptedas “great literature’ by critics and fellow authors Lady Chatterley’s copulations or the pretentious nonsense of Mr. Pound, that total fake. I note he has replaced Dr. Schweitzer in some homes. INTERVIEWER: As an admirer of Borges and Joyce you seem to share their pleasure in teasing the reader with tricks and puns and puzzles. What do you think the relationship should be between reader and author? NABOKOV:I do not recollect any puns in Borges, but then I read him onlyin translation. Anyway, his delicatelittle tales and miniature Minotaurs have nothing in commonwith Joyce’s great machines. Nor do I find manypuzzles in that mostlucid of novels, Ulysses. On the other hand, I detest Punningans Wake in which a cancerous growth of fancy word-tissue hardly redeems the dreadful joviality of the folklore and the easy, too easy,allegory. INTERVIEWER: What have you learned from Joyce? NABOKOV: Nothing. INTERVIEWER: Oh, come. NABOKOV: James Joyce has not influenced me in any manner whatsoever. Myfirst brief contact with Ulysses was around 1920 at Cambridge University, when a friend, Peter Mrozovski, who had brought a copy from Paris, chanced to read to me, as he stomped up and down mydigs, one or two spicy passages from Molly’s monologue, which, entre nous soit dit, is the weakest chapter in the book. Only fifteen years later, when I was already well formedas a writer and reluctantto learn or unlearn anything, I read Ulysses andliked it enormously. I am indifferent to Finnegans Wake as I am toall regional literature written in dialect— even if it be the dialect of genius. | INTERVIEWER: Aren’t you doing a book about James Joyce? NABOKOV: But not only about him. What I intend to do is publish a number of twenty-page essays on several works— Ulysses, Madame Bovary, Kafka’s Transformation, Don Quixote, and others—all based on my Cornell and Harvard lectures. I rememberwith delight tearing apart Don Quixote, a cruel and crude old book, before six hundred students in Memorial Hall, much to the horror and embarrassment of some of my more conservative colleagues. INTERVIEWER: What about other influences? Pushkin? NABOKOV: In a way—no morethan,say, Tolstoy or Turgenev were influenced by the pride and purity of Pushkin’sart. INTERVIEWER: Gogol? NABOKOV: I was careful not to learn anything from him. As a teacher, he is dubious and dangerous. At his worst, as in his Ukranian stuff, he is a worthless writer; at his best, he is incomparable and inimitable. INTERVIEWER: Anyoneelse? NABOoKOv: H. G. Wells, a great artist, was my favorite writer when I was a boy. The Passionate Friends, Ann Veronica, The Time Machine, The Country of the Blind, all these stories are far better than anything Bennett, or Conrador, in fact, any of Wells’ contemporaries could produce. His sociological cogitations can be safely ignored, of course, but his romances and fantasias are superb. There was an awful momentat dinnerin our St. Petersburg house one night when Zinaida Vengerov,his translator, informed Wells, with a toss of her head: ““You know, my favorite work of yours is The Lost World.” “She means the war the Martians lost,” said my father quickly. INTERVIEWER: Did you learn from your students at Cornell? Wasthe experience purely a financial one? Did teaching teach you anything valuable? NABOKOV: My method of teaching precluded genuine contact with mystudents. At best, they regurgitated a few bits of my brain during examinations. Everylecture I delivered had beencarefully, lovingly handwritten and typed out, and I leisurely read it out in class, sometimes stopping to rewrite a sentence and sometimes repeating a paragraph—a mnemonic prod which, however,seldom provoked any changein the rhythm of wrists taking it down. I welcomed the few shorthand experts in my audience, hoping they would communicate the information theystored to their less fortunate comrades. Vainly I tried to replace my appearances at the lectern by taped records to be played overthe college radio. On the other hand, I deeply enjoyed the chuckle of appreciation in this or that warm spotof thelecture hall at this or that point of my lecture. My best reward comes from those former students of mine who,ten orfifteen years later, write to me to say that they now understand what I wanted of them when I taught them to visualize Emma Bovary’s mistranslated hairdo or the arrangement of roomsin the Samsa household or the two homosexuals in Anna Karenina. | do not knowif I learned anything from teaching, but I know I amassed an invaluable amountof exciting information in analyzing a dozen novels for my students. Mysalary as you happen to know was not exactly a princely one. INTERVIEWER: Is there anything you would care to say about the collaboration your wife has given you? NABOKOV: Shepresided as adviser and judge over the making of my first fiction in the early twenties. I have read to her all my stories and novels at least twice; and she has reread them all when typing them andcorrecting proofs and checking translations into several languages. One day in 1950,at Ithaca, New York, she was responsible for stopping meand urging delay and second thoughts as, beset with technical difficulties and doubts, I was carrying the first chapters of Lolita to the garden incinerator. INTERVIEWER: Whatis yourrelation to thetranslations of your books? NABOKOV: In the case of languages my wife and I know or can read—English, Russian, French, and to a certain extent German and Italian—thesystem is a strict checking of every sentence. In the case of Japanese or Turkish versions, I try not to imagine the disasters that probably bespatter every page. INTERVIEWER: What are your plans for future work? NABOKOV: [| am writing a new novel, but of this I cannot speak. Anotherproject I have been nursing for some timeis the publication of the complete screenplay of Lolita that I made for Kubrick. Although there are just enough borrowings from it in his version to justify my legal position as authorof the script, the film is only a blurred skimpy glimpse of the marvelouspicture I imagined and set down scene by scene during the six months I worked in a Los Angelesvilla. I do not wish to imply that Kubrick’s film is mediocre; in its own right, it is first-rate, but it is not what I wrote. A tinge of poshlost is often given by the cinemato the novel it distorts and coarsensin its crooked glass. Kubrick, I think, avoided this fault in his version, but I shall never understand why he did not follow mydirections and dreams.It is a great pity; but at least I shall be able to have people read my Lolita playin its original form. INTERVIEWER: If you had the choice of one and only one book by which you would be remembered, which one would it be? NABOKOV: The one I am writing or rather dreamingof writing. Actually, I shall be remembered by Lolita and my work on Eugene Onegin. INTERVIEWER: Doyou feel you have any conspicuousorsecret flaw as a writer? NABOKOV: Theabsenceof a natural vocabulary. An odd thing to confess, but true. Of the two instruments in mypossession, one —my native tongue—I can no longer use, and this not only because I lack a Russian audience, but also because the excitement of verbal adventure in the Russian medium has faded away gradually after I turned to English in 1940. My English, this second instrument I have always had, is howevera stifhsh, artificial thing, which may beall right for describing a sunset or an insect, but which cannot conceal poverty of syntax and paucity of domestic diction when I need the shortest road between warehouse and shop. An old Rolls Royce is not always preferable to a plain jeep. INTERVIEWER: What do you think about the contemporary - competitive ranking of writers? NABOKOV: Yes, I have noticed that in this respect our professional book reviewers are veritable bookmakers. Who’s in, who’s out, and where are the snowsof yesteryear. All very amusing. I am a little sorry to be left out. Nobody can decide if I am a middle-aged American writer or an old Russian writer—or an ageless international freak. INTERVIEWER: Whatis your great regret in your career? NABOKOV: That I did not comeearlier to America. I would have liked to have lived in New York in the thirties. Had my Russian novels been translated then, they might have provided a shock and a lesson for pro-Soviet enthusiasts. INTERVIEWER: Aretheresignificant disadvantages to your present fame? NABOKOV: Lolita is famous, not I. I am an obscure, doubly obscure, novelist with an unpronounceable name. -HERBERT GOLD
TEKK - Tekkorp Digital Acquisition Corp: Who's Who of Gaming Mgmt Teams!
Team has been involved in a substantial number of the digital media, sports, entertainment, leisure and gaming industries’ most significant merger and acquisition transactions, holding key positions at, and transacting with Scientific Games Corp, Inspired Gaming Group, FOX Bets, Ocean Casino Resort, Resorts International Holdings, PokerStars, DraftKings, Mohegan Sun, Caesars Entertainment Corporation, Harrah’s Entertainment,Tropicana Entertainment, Inc., TSG/Sky Betting & Gaming, Facebook, Inc, Wynn Resorts, Dubai World/MGM Resorts Here's all the Bios. These guys are stellar! TEKK closed at $10.30 today. Still cheap! If you don't like to read... you don't like to make money!!!! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Matthew Davey — Chief Executive Officer and Director Mr. Davey has over 25 years of experience within the digital media, sports, entertainment, leisure and gaming ecosystems, as well as experience in the public sector. He is an experienced public company executive officer and board member. He has served in executive management positions across the gaming technology arena. Over the course of Mr. Davey’s career, he oversaw more than ten mergers and acquisitions and over $1.2 billion in debt and equity capital raised to support the companies he has led. Most recently, Mr. Davey was Chief Executive Officer of SG Digital, the Digital Division of Scientific Games Corp. (“Scientific Games”) (Nasdaq: SGMS). SG Digital was established following the purchase by Scientific Games of NYX Gaming Group Limited (“NYX”) (formerly TSXV: NYX), where Mr. Davey served as Chief Executive Officer and Director. The NYX acquisition provided Scientific Games with a vehicle to significantly accelerate the scale and breadth of its existing digital gaming business, including the strategic expansion into sports betting. In his capacity as Chief Executive Officer of NYX, Mr. Davey developed and implemented a corporate strategy that generated strong revenue growth. Mr. Davey shaped company strategy to focus on digital gaming supplier platforms and content that provided various gaming operators with the underlying gaming and sports betting systems for their online gaming business. In 2014, Mr. Davey oversaw the initial public offering of NYX, and his experience in the digital media, sports, entertainment, leisure and gaming industries helped NYX recognize momentum as a public company. After the public offering, from 2014 to 2018, Mr. Davey oversaw seven acquisitions which helped establish NYX as one of the fastest growing global B2B real-money digital gaming and sports betting platforms. These acquisitions included: • OpenBet: In 2016, NYX completed the $385 million acquisition of OpenBet. This was one of the more complex and transformative acquisitions that Mr. Davey oversaw at NYX. Through securing co-investments from William Hill (LSE: WMH), Sky Betting & Gaming and The Stars Group (formerly Nasdaq: TSG, TSX: TSGI), Mr. Davey was able to get the acquisition from Vitruvian Partners completed successfully, winning the deal against much larger and well capitalized competitors. By combining two established and proven B2B betting and gaming suppliers, NYX was well positioned to provide customers with exciting player-driven solutions across all major product verticals and distribution channels. This allowed NYX to become the leading B2B omni-channel sportsbook platform in the market and the supplier to over 300 gaming operators globally with an extensive library of desktop and mobile game titles, including more than 700 on NYX platforms and more than 2,000 on the OpenBet platform. • Cryptologic/Chartwell: In 2015, NYX completed the $119 million acquisition of Cryptologic and Chartwell. The acquisition provided NYX with more than 400 titles of additional leading gaming content, a broader customer base, and direct exposure to PokerStars and Intercasino, part of the Gamesys Group (LSE: GYS) — two of the world’s largest online casino offerings. • OnGame: In 2014, NYX completed the distressed acquisition of OnGame, a premier poker content, platform and service provider. This acquisition provided NYX with one of the best poker products in the industry, access to several regulated jurisdictions, and a valuable talent pool that was instrumental in the growth of NYX. The addition of OnGame further established a path for NYX to continue its growth in both European and U.S. markets. These acquisitions, together with meaningful organic growth, increased NYX’s revenue from $24 million in 2014 to $184 million annualized in 2017. During that time, Mr. Davey helped build NYX to have over 200 customers in the global gaming industry and a team of 1,000 employees. Mr. Davey’s success at NYX ultimately led to its sale to Scientific Games for $631 million in 2018. Mr. Davey joined Next Gen Gaming, the predecessor to NYX, in 2000 as the Vice President of Technology, was appointed as Executive Director in 2003 and named Chief Executive Officer in 2005. Prior to that, he was the Senior Consultant for Access Systems, a company that specializes in the provision of back-end software for licensed online casinos. Prior to joining Access, Mr. Davey worked for the Northern Territory Government specializing in matters pertaining to the internet and e-commerce along with roles in the Department of Racing and Gaming. Mr. Davey received a Bachelor of Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Northern Territory University, Australia (also known as Charles Darwin University). Robin Chhabra — President Mr. Chhabra has been at the forefront of corporate acquisition activity within the digital gaming landscape for over a decade. His prior experience includes leading corporate strategy, M&A, and business development at two of the global leaders in the digital gaming industry, The Stars Group (“TSG”) and William Hill, and a leading supplier, Inspired Gaming Group (Nasdaq: INSE). Mr. Chhabra served on the Group Executive Committees of each of these companies. From 2017 to May 2020, Mr. Chhabra served as Chief Corporate Development Officer at TSG and, from 2019 to August 2020, he also served as the Chief Executive Officer of Fox Bet, a leading U.S. online gaming business which is the product of a landmark partnership between TSG and FOX Sports, a transaction which he led. During that period, Mr. Chhabra led several transactions which transformed TSG into the largest publicly listed online gambling operator in the world by both revenue and market capitalization and one of the most diversified from a product and geographic perspective with revenues of over $2.5 billion. Mr. Chhabra’s M&A experience is extensive and covers multiple global geographies across the digital gaming value chain and includes the following: • TSG/Flutter Entertainment Merger: In 2019, Mr. Chhabra led the TSG M&A team that was responsible for TSG’s $12.2 billion merger with Flutter Entertainment (LSE: FLTR). The merger between TSG and Flutter Entertainment is the largest transaction in the digital gaming industry to date. The combination created the largest publicly listed online gaming company with approximately 13 million active customers and leading product offerings, which include sports betting, online casino, fantasy sports and poker. The combined entity includes some of the world’s most iconic digital gaming brands such as Fanduel, Fox Bet, Sky Bet, PaddyPower, Betfair, PokerStars and SportsBet. TSG/Flutter Entertainment is one of the most geographically diverse digital gaming and media companies with leading positions in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Germany and Georgia. • TSG/Sky Betting and Gaming (“SBG”): In 2018, Mr. Chhabra led the acquisition of SBG from CVC Capital Partners and Sky plc, Europe’s largest media company, in a transaction valued at $4.7 billion. At the time of the acquisition SBG was the largest mobile gambling operator in the United Kingdom and one of the fastest growing of the major operators having doubled its online market share in three years. The acquisition of SBG provided TSG with (a) greater revenue diversification, significantly enhanced expertise and exposure to sports betting just ahead of the judicial overturn of The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) by the U.S. Supreme Court, (b) a leading position within the United Kingdom, the world’s largest regulated online gaming market, (c) improved products and technology as a result of the addition of SBG’s innovative casino and sports book offerings and a portfolio of popular mobile apps, and (d) expertise in deeply integrating sports betting with leading sports media companies, positioning TSG to create more engaging content, deliver faster growth and decrease customer acquisition costs. • William Hill (LSE: WMH): At William Hill, from 2010 to 2017, Mr. Chhabra served as Group Director of Strategy and Corporate Development where he led several transactions which contributed to William Hill’s transformation from a land-based gambling operator in the United Kingdom to a leading online-led international business. Mr. Chhabra led William Hill’s entry into the U.S. sports betting and online lottery markets with the acquisition of four businesses, including the simultaneous acquisitions of three U.S. sportsbooks, Cal Neva, American Wagering and Brandywine Bookmaking, in 2011 for an aggregate purchase price of $55 million. These businesses ultimately led William Hill to achieve a leading position in the U.S. sports betting market with a market share of 24% in 2019. Additionally, Mr. Chhabra played a key role in structuring William Hill’s successful joint venture with PlayTech Plc (LSE: PTEC) in 2008. The combined entity created one of the largest online gambling businesses in Europe at the time of its formation and led to William Hill’s buyout of Playtech’s interest for $637 million in 2013. Prior to the transaction, William Hill had struggled in its attempt to establish a strong online gaming platform and a meaningful presence outside the United Kingdom. Mr. Chhabra has also successfully completed four transactions worth over $1.2 billion in Australia, the world’s second largest regulated online gambling market, and various partnerships in Asia. Additionally, he completed several technology and media related transactions, including William Hill’s investment in NYX, where he worked with Mr. Davey on NYX’s transformational acquisition of OpenBet. Prior to working in the gaming sector, Mr. Chhabra was an equities analyst and a management consultant. Mr. Chhabra received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Eric Matejevich — Chief Financial Officer Mr. Matejevich is a seasoned gaming executive with extensive experience in both the online gaming and traditional casino industries. From February to August 2019, he served as Trustee and Interim-Chief Executive Officer of Ocean Casino Resort (“Ocean”) (formerly Revel Casino, which had a construction cost of $2.4 billion) in Atlantic City, where he successfully led the management team through an ownership change and operational turnaround effort. Over the course of seven months, Mr. Matejevich managed to reduce the property’s weekly cash burn of $1.5 million to an annualized cash flow run rate in excess of $20 million. Prior to Ocean, from 2016 to 2018, Mr. Matejevich served as the Chief Financial Officer of NYX. At NYX, he focused his efforts on integrating the company’s many acquisitions and multiple debt refinancings to simplify its capital structure and provided liquidity for growth initiatives. Additionally, Mr. Matejevich was instrumental to the executive team that sold NYX to Scientific Games for $631 million. Prior to NYX, from 2004 to 2014, Mr. Matejevich was the Chief Financial Officer of Resorts International Holdings and later, from 2011, also the Chief Operating Officer of the Atlantic Club Casino, a property under the Resorts International Holdings umbrella — a Colony Capital (NYSE: CLNY) entity. As Chief Financial Officer, he provided managerial oversight for all finance functions for a six-property casino company with annual gaming revenue exceeding $1.3 billion, 10,000 gaming positions, 7,000 hotel rooms and over 11,000 staff members during his tenure. Mr. Matejevich led the transition effort to integrate a four-casino, $1.3 billion acquisition from Harrah’s Entertainment and Caesars Entertainment (Nasdaq: CZR). As Chief Operating Officer of Atlantic Club, he lobbied for and was successful in obtaining the first internet gaming legislation passed in the United States. The Atlantic Club was the sole New Jersey casino proponent of the legislation. Prior to serving in various gaming positions, Mr. Matejevich was a Vice President of High Yield Research for Merrill Lynch, where he managed the corporate bond research effort for the gaming and leisure sectors and marketed high yield and other debt transactions totaling $4.8 billion. Mr. Matejevich received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Wharton School and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from The College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Our Board of Directors Morris Bailey — Chairman Over the past 10 years, Mr. Bailey has been a leader in turning around Atlantic City, as well as being among the first gaming executives to embrace online gaming and sports betting in the United States. In his efforts, Mr. Bailey partnered with two of the largest digital gaming companies in the world, PokerStars, part of the Stars Group, and DraftKings (Nasdaq: DKNG). In 2010, Mr. Bailey bought Resorts Atlantic City (“Resorts”) and initiated a comprehensive renovation which allowed for the property to be rebranded and repositioned. In 2012, Mr. Bailey signed an agreement with Mohegan Sun to manage the day-to-day operations of the casino. In addition to Mohegan Sun’s operational expertise and ability to reduce costs via economies of scale, Resorts gained access to their robust customer database. Soon thereafter, Mr. Bailey and his team focused on bringing online gaming to the property. In 2015, Resorts established a platform to engage in online gaming by partnering with PokerStars, now part of the $24 billion Flutter Entertainment, PLC (LSE: FLTR), to operate an online poker room in Atlantic City. In 2018, Resorts announced deals with DraftKings and SBTech to open a sportsbook on-property and online. For 2020 year-to-date, Resorts has performed in the top quartile in internet gross gaming revenue in New Jersey. Mr. Bailey’s efforts in New Jersey helped set the framework for expansion of online sports and gaming throughout the United States. In addition to his gaming interests, Mr. Bailey has over 50 years of experience in all facets of real estate development, asset M&A, capital markets and operations and is the founder, Chief Executive Officer and Principal of JEMB Realty, a leading real estate development, investment and management organization. Mr. Bailey has notable investment experience within the energy, finance and telecommunications sectors through investments in the Astoria Energy Plant, Basis Investment Group and Xentris Wireless. Tony Rodio — Director Nominee Mr. Rodio has nearly four decades of experience in the gaming industry. Most recently, Mr. Rodio served as the Chief Executive Officer and director of Caesars Entertainment Corporation (“Caesars”) (Nasdaq: CZR), one of the world’s most diversified casino-entertainment providers and the most geographically diverse U.S. casino-entertainment company, from April 2019 until its acquisition by Eldorado Resorts, Inc. in July 2020. Mr. Rodio led Caesars through its $17.3 billion merger with Eldorado Resorts, one of the largest transactions in the gaming industry to date. Additionally, Mr. Rodio was instrumental to Caesars’ expansion into the digital gaming industry and oversaw the implementation of new digital segments such as its Scientific Games powered retail sportsbook solution that now operates in various states throughout the U.S. From October 2018 to May 2019, Mr. Rodio served as Chief Executive Officer of Affinity Gaming. Prior to Affinity Gaming, he served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of Tropicana Entertainment, Inc. (“Tropicana”) for over seven years, where he was responsible for the operation of eight casino properties in seven different jurisdictions. During his time at Tropicana, Mr. Rodio oversaw a period of unprecedented growth at the company, improving overall financial results with net revenue that increased more than 50% driven by both operational improvements and expansion across regional markets. Mr. Rodio led major capital projects, including the complete renovation of Tropicana Atlantic City and Tropicana’s move to land-based operations in Evansville, Indiana. Each of these initiatives, among others, generated substantial value for Tropicana. Ultimately, Mr. Rodio’s efforts at Tropicana led to its sale to Eldorado Resorts in 2018 for $1.85 billion. Prior to Tropicana, Mr. Rodio held a succession of executive positions in Atlantic City for casino brands, including Trump Marina Hotel Casino, Harrah’s Entertainment (predecessor to Caesars), the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort and Penn National Gaming. He has also served as a director of several professional and charitable organizations, including Atlantic City Alliance, United Way of Atlantic County, the Casino Associations of New Jersey and Indiana, AtlantiCare Charitable Foundation and the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming Hospitality & Tourism. Mr. Rodio brings extensive knowledge of and experience in the gaming industry, operational expertise, and a demonstrated ability to effectively design and implement company strategy. Mr. Rodio received a Bachelor of Science from Rider University and a Master of Business Administration from Monmouth University. Marlon Goldstein — Director Nominee Mr. Goldstein is a licensed attorney with nearly 20 years of experience in the gaming space. He joined The Stars Group (Nasdaq: TSG)(TSX: TSGI) in January 2014 as its Executive Vice-President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary until his retirement from the company in July 2020 following the merger of TSG with Flutter Entertainment, PLC (LSE: FLTR). Mr. Goldstein also previously served as the Executive Vice-President, Corporate Development and General Counsel of TSG. Mr. Goldstein was also the senior TSG executive based in the United States and was one of the primary architects of TSG’s strategic vision for its U.S.-facing business. During his tenure, TSG grew from an approximately $500 million market-cap company to an approximately $7 billion market-cap company through a combination of organic growth and strategic mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Goldstein participated in numerous M&A transactions and capital markets offerings at TSG, including several transformational transactions in the digital gaming industry. Notable transactions in which Mr. Goldstein was involved include: • TSG/Flutter Merger: In 2019, TSG merged with Flutter for a $12.2 billion transaction value, the largest transaction in the digital gaming industry to date. • TSG/Fox Bet Partnership: In 2019, TSG entered into a partnership with FOX Sports to create FOX Bet in the U.S., a leading U.S. online gaming business. Wall Street Research estimates an approximate $1.1 billion valuation for Fox Bet post-partnership with The Stars Group. • TSG/Sky Betting & Gaming: In 2018, TSG acquired Sky Betting & Gaming, the largest mobile gambling operator in the United Kingdom at the time, for $4.7 billion. • TSG/CrownBet and William Hill: In 2018, TSG simultaneously acquired CrownBet and William Hill, two Australian operators, for a total of $621 million in a multi-part transaction. • TSG/PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker: In 2014, TSG acquired The Rational Group, which operated PokerStars and Full Tilt and was the world’s largest poker business, for $4.9 billion. Through his ability to legally structure large and complex transactions, Mr. Goldstein was integral to TSG’s vision of becoming a full-service online gaming company. Additionally, he assisted in structuring TSG’s capital markets activity, which generated liquidity for acquisitions and strengthened its balance sheet. Prior to joining TSG, Mr. Goldstein was a principal shareholder in the corporate and securities practice at the international law firm of Greenberg Traurig P.A., where he practiced for almost 13 years. Mr. Goldstein’s practice focused on corporate and securities matters, including mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, and financing transactions. Additionally, Mr. Goldstein was the founder and co-chair of the firm’s Gaming Practice, a multi-disciplinary team of attorneys representing owners, operators and developers of gaming facilities, manufacturers and suppliers of gaming devices, investment banks and lenders in financing transactions, and Indian tribes in the development and financing of gaming facilities. Mr. Goldstein brings experience and insight that we believe will be valuable to a potential initial business combination target business. Mr. Goldstein received a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in accounting from Emory University and a Juris Doctorate with highest honors from the University of Florida, College of Law. Sean Ryan — Director Nominee Mr. Ryan is a digital media and technology operator with extensive global experience in online payments, e-commerce, marketplaces, mobile ad networks, digital games, enterprise collaboration platforms, blockchain, real money gaming and online music. Since 2014, Mr. Ryan has been serving as Vice President of Business Platform Partnerships at Facebook, Inc. (“Facebook”) (Nasdaq: FB), where he leads a more than 500 person global organization that manages the Payments, Commerce, Novi/Blockhain, Workplace and Audience Network businesses. Prior to his current role, Mr. Ryan was hired in 2011 as the Director of Games Partnerships to lead and grow the global Games business at Facebook. While the Director of Games Partnerships, Mr. Ryan focused on re-shaping Facebook’s games and monetization strategies to derive more value for Facebook, its users and its partners, including the addition of a Real Money Gaming offering in regulated markets. Mr. Ryan’s team helped accelerate a major trend in engagement through cross-platform games and therefore the opportunity to increase users through establishing games on multiple platforms. Prior to joining Facebook, Mr. Ryan created the new social and mobile games division at News Corp, an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by Rupert Murdoch. While at News Corp, Mr. Ryan led the acquisition of Making Fun, a San Francisco social-game start-up, that created News Corp’s games publishing division. Before joining News Corp., Mr. Ryan founded multiple digital businesses such as Twofish, Meez, Open Wager and SingShot Media. Mr. Ryan co-founded Twofish in 2009, a virtual goods and services platform that provided developers with data analytics and insights for individual application’s digital economies. Twofish was later sold to online payments provider Live Gamer, where Mr. Ryan served on the board of directors. From 2005 to 2008, Mr. Ryan founded and led Meez.com, a social entertainment service combining avatars, web games and virtual worlds. The white label social casino gaming company Open Wager was spun out of Meez and was later sold to VGW Holdings, Mr. Ryan also co-founded SingShot Media, an online karaoke community, which was sold to Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: EA) and merged into its Sims division. We believe Mr. Ryan’s experience will be valuable to a potential initial business combination target and would provide an expanded perspective on the digital gaming landscape. Mr. Ryan received a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Los Angeles. Tom Roche — Director Nominee Mr. Roche has more than 40 years of experience in the gaming industry as a regulator, advisor and independent auditor. Mr. Roche joined Ernst & Young (“EY”) as a partner in 2003 and opened its Las Vegas office. He was subsequently appointed as the Office Managing Partner and Global Gaming Industry Market Leader. In 2016, Mr. Roche relocated to the EY Hong Kong office to supervise the expansion of the EY Global Gaming Industry practice in the Asia Pacific region. Mr. Roche has been integral to numerous transactions that have shaped the current gaming landscape, including: • Wynn Resorts (Nasdaq: WYNN) initial public offering: Mr. Roche was the lead partner on Wynn Resort’s initial public offering, which raised $450 million in 2002. • Harrah’s Entertainment/Apollo Management Group & Texas Pacific Group: Mr. Roche headed the regulatory advisory services on the buyout of Harrah’s Entertainment, the world’s largest casino company at the time, for $17.1 billion. • Dubai World/MGM Resorts: Mr. Roche headed the regulatory and due diligence advisory services to Dubai World in its approximately $5.1 billion investment in MGM. Dubai World bought 28.4 million MGM shares, or 9.5 percent of the casino operator, for $2.4 billion. It then invested $2.7 billion to acquire a 50% stake in MGM’s CityCenter Project, a $7.4 billion 76-acre Las Vegas development of hotels, condos and retail outlets. • MGM Growth Properties (NYSE: MGP) initial public offering: Mr. Roche provided tax and structural transaction services to MGM Resorts in the creation of MGM Growth Properties, a publicly traded REIT engaged in the acquisition, ownership and leasing of large-scale destination entertainment and leisure resorts. MGM Growth Properties raised $1.05 billion in its 2016 initial public offering. Mr. Roche also directed EY advisory services to boards and management teams for profit improvement and technology related initiatives. In addition, Mr. Roche provided advisory support to the American Gaming Association on several research projects, including those specifically related to sports betting, the revocation of The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) and anti-money laundering best practices in the gaming industry. Equally, he has assisted government agencies in numerous international locations with enhancing their regulatory approach to governing the industry especially in the online gambling sector. Prior to joining Ernst & Young, Mr. Roche served as Deloitte’s National Gaming Industry Leader and as the co-head of Andersen’s Gaming Industry Practice in Las Vegas. In 1989, Mr. Roche was appointed by then Governor of the State of Nevada, Robert Miller, to serve as one of three members of the Nevada State Gaming Control Board for a four-year term, where he was directly responsible for the Audit and New Games Lab Divisions. As a board member, he spent a substantial amount of time assisting global jurisdiction regulators enact gaming legislation in the design of their regulatory structure. During his career, Roche has been involved in numerous public and private offerings of equity and debt securities. His background includes providing casino regulatory consulting services to casino licensees and to federal and state agencies including the National Indian Gaming Commission and the Nevada State Gaming Control Board, and industry associations such as the Nevada Resort Association and the American Gaming Association. We believe Mr. Roche’s highly regarded reputation as a gaming auditor and advisor in the gaming industry will be valuable for us and a potential business combination target. Mr. Roche is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and is licensed by the Nevada State Board of Accountancy and Mississippi State Board of Public Accountancy. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Southern California.
Looking for a startup idea? Here's a problem to solve.
Hey everyone! I've been really geeking out on finding problems that I think could be turned into meaningful businesses. I'm sharing all my ideas here if you're interested. Here's what I've been thinking about lately -
Keeping track of betting lines is a pain
“I love sports betting but it’s hard to keep track of the betting odds on all the different betting apps. I’ve created a spreadsheet and do it manually, but I still need to search through all the sites to get the information. I’d definitely pay for something that did this automatically.” - Anonymous sports better seeking a solution. Market Background/Opportunity Size: Changes in sports betting law have created amazing entrepreneurial opportunities! It's like the goldrush here given how young this market is and how quickly things are changing in the US. On May 14, 2018, the United States supreme court ruled the federal law prohibiting states from authorizing sports betting, protection act PASPA, unconstitutional. It is now up to individual states to decide if they want to authorize and regulate sports betting in their state. 18 states have fully legalized sports betting with 4 more passing bills just this year to legalize it (they aren’t operational yet). Even though less than half of the US has legalized sports betting, the market cap was sitting pretty at $104.41 billion and expected to reach $155.49 billion by 2024 (this is an estimate, it was tough to nail down). This market is much larger if you include other global players like the UK, Australia, etc… who have already legalized sports betting. It’s clear that trends for this industry are going in the right direction and there’s still a strong opportunity for the first-mover advantage to take place. Major Players:
Draft Kings
Founded in 2012
700 employees
Publicly traded
Fan Duel
Founded in 2009
1,000 employees
412.6m raised
Bet 365
Founded in 2000
4,500 employees
Bootstrapped (if anyone has more info on this, please share)
Note: there are over 100 sports betting services on the market The Opportunity: As mentioned above, there is a huge problem with keeping track of all the different betting lines that exist - resulting in many people (unsuccessfully) using a spreadsheet. Here’s an article that explains why tracking betting lines is important. The TL;DR is this, placing your bet on a site that has the most favorable odds results in you getting the highest return on that investment. Most people are doing one of these two things:
Nothing. Rather than checking to see where they can get the best returns, they are just using their core betting app and taking the odds they are given. Depending on the bet size, that leaves hundreds of dollars on the table.
Manually tracking the odds each betting site is offering and compiling the odds in a spreadsheet. This results in a lot of time spent switching between sites and transposing numbers.
Current Solutions:
Manually tracking betting lines in a spreadsheet or on paper
Notes: At their core, Action Network is a sports analysis and media company. One of their features is line tracking across all the major bookmakers but it’s relatively hidden and poorly advertised.
How to Get Your First 10 Customers:
Define Your Early Adopter: Your TAM is anyone who participates in sports betting, but I’d focus your efforts on finding people who acutely experience this pain. People who are spending a lot of time and money on sports betting have the most to lose. More specifically, hunt for people who’ve already created solutions to this problem themselves - like those using homegrown spreadsheets.
Look for CDIs: When looking for channels to find potential users I ask myself “where do my potential customers hang out?”. In this case, I’d look at online communities like Sports Book and Sports Betting subreddits. By simply asking the question, “How do you track betting lines?” you’ll be able to start conversations with potential users about unmet needs.
Create an Online Ad: I’d next test an offer to see if you can acquire potential users to sign up for your service. This can be as simple as creating a landing page (using marketing language from the conversations above) and run a paid ad to your target audience to collect emails.
Build a Wizard of Oz Test: Now that you have a list from running the ad above, I’d see if you can monetize it. Contact people and charge a small fee to run a small wizard of oz test - you could manually pull lines based on the bets they're watching and send it to them in a daily email. Or, there’s likely a no-code tool you could use to scrape the data from existing sites and organize it for them.
I can see a freemium model working for this as well, so you may not need to monetize immediately. One great option would be to charge the bookmakers a fee for every bet you send to their platform. Challenges:
Is there a problem worth solving? Although this idea logically makes sense, there are flags raised because no company has solved the problem yet. Typically, you can validate some form of demand based on market signals or other competitors, but this seems like a blue ocean (both a good and bad thing). Follow the plan above and you should be able to tell quickly if you’re on the right track.
Can you build it? The technology to create a product as this exists. That said, it may be difficult to pull data from the major bookmaker’s sites. The fact that Smart Lines doesn’t work with any of the major bookmakers left me scratching my head and wondering why.
Legal Challenges? Sports betting is highly regulated like most industries that are birthed from law changes. Even being associated with this space is likely going to create some challenges. I'm not an expert in this space, so it's hard to say exactly what legal challenges may arise, but getting accessing other bookmaker's data and facilitating the betting process are two great places to start your investigation.
Additional Opportunities: There appears to be no shortage of companies trying to become the next big bookmakers. But, there’s plenty of opportunities this burgeoning market has opened up beyond just being a bookie. With this market in its infancy, you can bet (pun 100% intended) that there’s going to be a lot of room to expand your offerings. Whether it be sports betting tips, predictions, tools or even becoming a bookie yourself, there’s money to be made here. While doing research on this, I found many people are struggling with keeping track of their bets and recording their results. This could be an easy addition to a solution to tracking betting lines. Here’s what some people said - https://imgur.com/a/aPTXuBd Thanks for reading everyone! I'll monitor the comments for any questions and stuff - would love feedback.
HOW YOU CAN MAKE MONEY ONLINE IN 2021 It seems this pandemic we have been hit with has had a big effect not only in our health but also with our jobs and income, With lots of us now looking at how to make money online and in particular ways to make money at home. Learning how to make extra money online is more important than ever seeing as lots of people, Me included still are not that keen on leaving the house. Would you like to know how to make extra money online and earn an extra £500 per month on top of your normal wage? If you are looking for ways to make money at home and in particular how to make money online then this is the post for you. All of these methods I have used personally and I have always made money from them. It seems weird writing 2021 but after the year everyone on earth has had in 2020 I think everyone is looking forward to moving ahead. What better way to move ahead than to take on new ways to make money at home and in particular an extra £500 per month on top of your normal wage. Some of my posts may contain affiliate links. This simply means if you purchase something after clicking one of the links I may receive a commission at no extra cost to yourself. Many thanks for the continued support. So without further ado lets jump in and see how we are going to go about making that extra money online. 1: MATCHED BETTING: I have said this before but putting it simply Matched Betting is the number one when it comes to the easiest way to make money at home. If you are not making extra money online by using Matched Betting then you are missing out on some serious extra cash. Matched betting is the action of placing a for and against bet on a football team or other sport and using this to gain the bookmaker bonuses. It is 100% legal and is netting some people up to £1500 Per month. When looking around for how to make money online this comes top of most google searches. There is a mom I know on one of the Matched betting forums who is earning approx. £1200 per month from the comfort of her own home while her children nap. It’s crazy and sometimes I feel people ignore this as they just think it is normal betting or it is not entirely legal but trust me it is. If you are interested in learning a bit more then check out my guide on Matched Betting, it goes a bit more into how it works. This is my main way of how to make money at home and it has worked really well for me. I even taught a friend how to do it and he now makes around £400 extra per month in his spare time. Or if you want to start making extra money online straight away then simply click on the banner below to get free access to Profit accumulator a site which has helped 300,000 customers by showing them how to make money online from Matched Betting. Profit Accumulator literally walks you through each matched bet with full text and video guides to and will have you making extra money online in an hour or so. Check them out. 2: VIRTUAL ASSISTANT So if you do a search on how to make money online I’m pretty sure that Virtual assistant will be close to the top of the search options. There is a very good reason for that. We are now living in an ever-increasing digital age and this is getting more and more common especially with the pandemic as companies are working out that it saves them money having their staff work from home. This also means lots of businesses will need digital assistants or Virtual assistants to assist them with their day to day business needs. So how do I start making extra money online from being a virtual assistant and what will I need to do? A virtual assistant could do any number of tasks online such as answering and replying to emails. Creating Facebook adverts, Decluttering emails, Setting up meetings and or organizing an online diary. There are plenty of virtual assistants who specialize in certain areas and I know of a couple of VA’s that specialize in making Pinterest pins for a blog and scheduling them out. Assuming you have a laptop or pc and a good internet connection as well as some personal skills such as good literacy, typing skills and organizational skills then you should have the basics to get started. Rebecca Lake over at Bosssinglemama.com has a great guide to getting started as a virtual assistant as she has great first-hand experience in this field. Go check it out. 3: SELL GOODS ON EBAY Let me add before I get started that I hate eBay, Don't get me wrong I have made money with eBay and from time to time it is a good way of earning some quick cash but out of all the ways of how to make money online, this is one of my least favorites. The reason is simply that there are lots of stupid people out there who bid for no reason or argue the item didn't arrive or is not as described and this can be annoying as well as very time-consuming. Don’t let this put you off though as it may have just been my experience but it’s not for me. However, if you are looking to get started with ways to make money at home then this is a good a place as any. The best place to start making extra money online with eBay is to have a clear out around the house and get together all the stuff you are probably thinking of just throwing out. Have a search around the site and see what other people have listed these types of items for. Once you have sold your stuff you can then reinvest that money by buying some packing products off the site and then look for stuff to buy and resell. Look around at car boot sales and thrift stores to get your bargains and then relist at a profit on eBay, Don’t forget to add the cost of your eBay fees and Paypal fees into the equation. When I first started looking at how to make money online eBay was one of the first places I came to. 4: CASINO OFFERS Hold on, I’m not suggesting you go down to your local casino. That is not a great way to make money, In fact, your more often than not lose all of your money. This is a cheeky way of gaining profit from the online casino bonuses offered to new customers. It works in a very similar way to Matched betting in that new bonuses are offered out to new customers and with a bit of background knowledge and trickery, you can obtain most of the profit from those bonuses without losing any money. It might sound too good to be true but it is from the brainchild of the guys over at Profit accumulator. Quite a lot of money earned within a day or two. Simply sign up with Bonus Accumulator, and they will walk you through your first couple of casino offers and then you will get access to their site which includes guides for all online casino offers as well as a very good forum for members. Sign up below and see how easy it is to make a good consistent profit. When I was learning how to make money online I didn’t have something as easy and accessible as Bonus accumulator. Hit the link below to learn more. 5: PINTEREST VA As with being a virtual assistant as I mentioned above, you could also specialize in one certain area if you are looking at how to make money online. Pinterest is essentially a search engine and requires not only great titles and descriptions but also very good graphics and visuals that stand out from the crowd when your potential customers are scrolling through it on their phone. This is where the problem lies for most bloggers or business owners, we are not overly creative and have probably not used graphics sites such as Canvas before. Luckily I have used Canvas and have now got pretty good at it, however, in the beginning, a Pinterest VA would have been very handy. A Pinterest VA can not only create pretty pins linking back to your site or blog but also they can schedule them out for you saving you more time to concentrate on other areas. My advice when trying to start out is to join some blogging groups on Facebook and create a profile. Then just put yourself out there. As a new VA, you could always offer out your services very cheaply just to get some experience behind you. Kristin from Believe In A Budget has a great post here on how she became a Pinterest VA and how to make money online from learning how to do it yourself. 6: OFFER SITES OHMYDOSH: Making extra money online and more specifically making around £500 per month is no easy feat. Offers sites are great at making you £20 here and £30 there but to do £500 per month you will need to combine 2 or 3 of these sites and hit them hard. It is possible though. You can certainly make £250 per month easily. When looking back at what I did when I was working out how to make money online as I found offers sites and the first one I came across was OhMyDosh. Offers sites are basically cashback sites that reward you with cash into the account when you sign up for certain things or do simple surveys etc. It is super easy and you can very quickly in one afternoon make a cheeky £50 or so with very minimal effort on your part. OhMyDosh is one of the easiest offers sites to navigate in my humble opinion. This makes all the difference as well when you are new to the site so I stuck with OhMyDosh for quite a while. You can sign up here for OhMyDosh if You use my special link you will also get a £1 sign up bonus for free. A nice little start to your profit without having to lift a finger. Pin This For Future Reference: SWAGBUCKS: Swagbucks is a very similar website to OhMyDosh accept it is a little more well known. You simply complete offers and surveys in exchange for Swagbucks which when you hit a certain amount of you can exchange for gift cards etc. It can get incredibly addictive as Swagbucks have a few daily targets for you to hit and achievements along the way. It becomes your goal to hit those achievements every day. If you sign up using my Swagbucks Link you will receive 300 Swagbucks for free. What a great way to start towards earning your first gift card. Swagbucks also have a chrome app button which you can install on your computer which can help you earn more each day giving you greater chances of earning some fantastic gift cards for yourself or your loved ones. INBOX POUNDS: Inbox Pounds is the last site you should try in the offers sites. When It comes to making extra money online then combining the 3 offers sites I have mentioned is the best way to maximise your income. Some of the offers will be the same but just skip those and move onto the next one. Inbox pounds also has a different variant called inbox dollars for our friends across the pond. The easy stuff is a section that I like on Inbox pounds whereby you can go on and answer easy questions or a simple survey for between 50pence to £1.50. You will be surprised how quickly these all add up. Dont miss out on making extra money online and earning some really quick cash, sign up using my referral code and start earning now. 7: BLOGGING Blogging is one of the top answers when searching for how to make money online. Although blogging is not a quick way to make money and it is certainly not the easiest it is one of the more rewarding ways to make money at home. If you are starting a blog just to make money you need to know that for most people it can be more than a year before they start seeing income and for others maybe less. It really does depend on how much effort you put into your blog. Take my blog for example. I work really long hours in my main job and a lot of the time I dont work on my blog until the weekend and then I am tired so just dont put too many hours in. It took me around a year before I started earning money. Other people may put in 4 or 5 hours a day every day and they will progress faster. With blogging though and when it comes to making extra money online with your blog, you need a bit of patience. If you have a passion for something then it is usually quite easy to turn this passion into a blog. It always helps if whatever you are writing about is something you really enjoy. If this is something that sounds good to you then I have written a few blogging guides to get you started here. Starting out blogging can be a bit of a minefield so I’m hoping these guides help. You can start your very own blog from as little as £5.99 per month. Siteground is who I use to host this blog and I have found them really great to work with. see their link below. Seeing as starting a blog is so cheap then there is nothing to stop you making extra money online from your new blog. 8: BECOME A PROOFREADER If you are always looking at how to make money online and keep seeing the same old stuff then try learning about how to get paid to become a proofreader. This is one of those great ways to make money at home by simply using your computer. Here in the UK I occasionally read a newspaper called the daily mail. I read it via an online app and every single page I read has grammatical errors and misspellings and it drives me mad (Frantically goes back through this post to look for misspellings!!) They clearly dont have anyone proofread their posts before they go onto the app and it makes me not read it as much. Im sure this is that same for other people. This can lead to you losing business so paying someone to Proofread emails, documents and other such media can be valuable and companies will pay you to to do this. Getting started Proofreading is a little harder but I would suggest setting up some profiles on sites such as People Per Hour Fiverr.com or Upwork. You can then offer up your services cheaply which will help if you have no experience. A lot of proofreading jobs will need you to have a degree unfortunately however there are lots of free courses online to help you get a good feel for Proofreading and can give you some background knowledge. If you love reading and spot mistakes easily then proofreading can be a great way of making extra money online. Read this beginners guide here and see how you feel about it. 9: TEACH ENGLISH ONLINE It sounds like you need to go off and get some kind of degree but trust me you don’t. You already have the gift of being able to speak perfect English and if you are looking at how to make money online then that is the skill you can use to do exactly that. I found out about this when my wife and I were hosting foreign students at our home. We got chatting to them and one group, in particular, said that a lot of the older students already speak good English but were struggling with conversational type language and how to sound more natural which must be an incredibly hard thing to do. They said that a lot of the students pay up to £20 per hour just to chat to you online and for you to give guidance on how they can sound more natural with their day to day chat. It sounded like a great idea of how to make money online so I got more information from them. Lots of companies are looking for people just like you to teach their students English and to reward you well for doing just that. It can all be done from the comfort of your own home with skype or in a zoom type meeting. Make sure to provide yourself with a quiet room and make sure there are going to be no distractions such as mobile phones going off or family members popping their heads in. So where do you go to find out more information and start making extra money online? Well, Education First is the biggest company and one im sure you will have heard of. You can build your own schedule although it does have to fit in somewhat with the hours the student is available. You can also teach the same student each time so you can build up a rapport and have a little fun with it. Click the link above and learn how to make extra money online by teaching students. 10: PUBLISH ANEBOOK With that handy website Amazon, you can write your own E-book and publish it on their site. The great thing is you dont even need to write it yourself if you dont want to as you can pay people to write it and also get people to design a cover for your E-book as well. The best way to prepare is to do a search on what keywords are doing well on searches within amazon and then base your E-book around those. As long as you are helping people learn something or solving a problem then you should see sales quite easily. It might help if you put your E-book up for free for a few weeks to gain some interest and some good reviews before applying a price. This E-book right here is the perfect example. How to write an E-book and sell it on Amazon step by step guide. Just remember you do not have to be an expert in something just a little more knowledgeable than your average Joe. 11:FREELANCE WORK In the current economic climate, we all find ourselves in, it makes sense to look for ways of how to make money online. Freelancing with skills you already have in your day job or skills you have in your hobbies can translate quite well when it comes to making extra money online. You can create a profile on sites such as Fiverr and Upwork and list the skills you have. You may be able to use a program like Canva really well to create Pinterest graphics or Wedding invites. There are people on Fiverr who get paid to play video games with lonely people which is a bit weird but shows that if you don’t think you possess a skill then you are probably wrong. FINAL THOUGHTS ON MAKING MONEY ONLINE IN 2021 This global pandemic has taught me one thing and that is the importance of making extra money online and having a passive income is paramount. How to make money online is now a more searched for term on Google now then it was at the beginning of the year. Everyone’s jobs have been and still are at risk and to have a second or third source of income is like a safety net in case the worst happens. Make sure you pick and try one of the making extra money online tips from above and see how you get on. I would love to hear some progress feedback in the comments.
Looking for a startup idea? Here's a problem to solve
Hey everyone! I've been really geeking out on finding problems that I think could be turned into meaningful businesses. I do have an ask, but before I do that I'll provide some value first :)
Keeping track of betting lines is a pain
“I love sports betting but it’s hard to keep track of the betting odds on all the different betting apps. I’ve created a spreadsheet and do it manually, but I still need to search through all the sites to get the information. I’d definitely pay for something that did this automatically.” - Anonymous sports better seeking a solution. Market Background/Opportunity Size: Changes in sports betting law have created amazing entrepreneurial opportunities! It's like the goldrush here given how young this market is and how quickly things are changing in the US. On May 14, 2018, the United States supreme court ruled the federal law prohibiting states from authorizing sports betting, protection act PASPA, unconstitutional. It is now up to individual states to decide if they want to authorize and regulate sports betting in their state. 18 states have fully legalized sports betting with 4 more passing bills just this year to legalize it (they aren’t operational yet). Even though less than half of the US has legalized sports betting, the market cap was sitting pretty at $104.41 billion and expected to reach $155.49 billion by 2024 (this is an estimate, it was tough to nail down). This market is much larger if you include other global players like the UK, Australia, etc… who have already legalized sports betting. It’s clear that trends for this industry are going in the right direction and there’s still a strong opportunity for the first-mover advantage to take place. Major Players:
Draft Kings
Founded in 2012
700 employees
Publicly traded
Fan Duel
Founded in 2009
1,000 employees
412.6m raised
Bet 365
Founded in 2000
4,500 employees
Bootstrapped (if anyone has more info on this, please share)
Note: there are over 100 sports betting services on the market The Opportunity: As mentioned above, there is a huge problem with keeping track of all the different betting lines that exist - resulting in many people (unsuccessfully) using a spreadsheet. Here’s an article that explains why tracking betting lines is important. The TL;DR is this, placing your bet on a site that has the most favorable odds results in you getting the highest return on that investment. Most people are doing one of these two things:
Nothing. Rather than checking to see where they can get the best returns, they are just using their core betting app and taking the odds they are given. Depending on the bet size, that leaves hundreds of dollars on the table.
Manually tracking the odds each betting site is offering and compiling the odds in a spreadsheet. This results in a lot of time spent switching between sites and transposing numbers.
Current Solutions:
Manually tracking betting lines in a spreadsheet or on paper
Notes: At their core, Action Network is a sports analysis and media company. One of their features is line tracking across all the major bookmakers but it’s relatively hidden and poorly advertised.
How to Get Your First 10 Customers:
Define Your Early Adopter: Your TAM is anyone who participates in sports betting, but I’d focus your efforts on finding people who acutely experience this pain. People who are spending a lot of time and money on sports betting have the most to lose. More specifically, hunt for people who’ve already created solutions to this problem themselves - like those using homegrown spreadsheets.
Look for CDIs: When looking for channels to find potential users I ask myself “where do my potential customers hang out?”. In this case, I’d look at online communities like Sports Book and Sports Betting subreddits. By simply asking the question, “How do you track betting lines?” you’ll be able to start conversations with potential users about unmet needs.
Create an Online Ad: I’d next test an offer to see if you can acquire potential users to sign up for your service. This can be as simple as creating a landing page (using marketing language from the conversations above) and run a paid ad to your target audience to collect emails.
Build a Wizard of Oz Test: Now that you have a list from running the ad above, I’d see if you can monetize it. Contact people and charge a small fee to run a small wizard of oz test - you could manually pull lines based on the bets they're watching and send it to them in a daily email. Or, there’s likely a no-code tool you could use to scrape the data from existing sites and organize it for them.
I can see a freemium model working for this as well, so you may not need to monetize immediately. One great option would be to charge the bookmakers a fee for every bet you send to their platform. Challenges:
Is there a problem worth solving? Although this idea logically makes sense, there are flags raised because no company has solved the problem yet. Typically, you can validate some form of demand based on market signals or other competitors, but this seems like a blue ocean (both a good and bad thing). Follow the plan above and you should be able to tell quickly if you’re on the right track.
Can you build it? The technology to create a product as this exists. That said, it may be difficult to pull data from the major bookmaker’s sites. The fact that Smart Lines doesn’t work with any of the major bookmakers left me scratching my head and wondering why.
Additional Opportunities: There appears to be no shortage of companies trying to become the next big bookmakers. But, there’s plenty of opportunities this burgeoning market has opened up beyond just being a bookie. With this market in its infancy, you can bet (pun 100% intended) that there’s going to be a lot of room to expand your offerings. Whether it be sports betting tips, predictions, tools or even becoming a bookie yourself, there’s money to be made here. While doing research on this, I found many people are struggling with keeping track of their bets and recording their results. This could be an easy addition to a solution to tracking betting lines. Here’s what some people said - https://imgur.com/a/aPTXuBd Here’s my ask - I’m looking for feedback on whether posts like these are valuable enough to turn into a business. I’d like to send out a vetted problem/idea like this each week if there’s enough interest. If you would like posts like these each week, please either DM me or reach out to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). If you reach out, I’ll give you another free problem/idea as thanks for your time!
Sports betting is essentially the act of placing a wager on the overall result and predicting sports results. The likelihood of sports wagers varies widely by culture, with a majority of bets being placed on sporting events that are won by a certain margin. Sports betting can take place on a single event such as an NBA or NFL game, a Formula One race, or any other competitive sporting event. In many cases sports betting can also take place on non-competing teams and/or players in order to handicap the competition. Gambling has long been regarded as an acceptable form of gambling by many people, including many law makers. Gambling comes under the heading of sports betting in the United States law because the US government recognizes that it can generate revenue for its citizens through regulation of sports betting. Many states in the US have legalized sports betting, although they generally do not include online gambling, lottery bets, or other non-regulated forms of sports betting. Internet gambling is illegal in most states, but Las Vegas is the only city that openly promotes sports betting by allowing online bookmakers to participate in the LVAC Sportsbook Select program, which is used by hundreds of bookies across the country. The US State Department does not recognize online gambling, however, and individuals caught participating in this activity can face serious criminal charges. In Las Vegas, a sportsbook allows customers to place bets on a variety of different sporting events, including basketball, football, baseball, tennis, golf, swimming, horse racing, and skating. The odds at which these wagers are placed are based on the sportsbooks' understanding of each sporting event and the probability of that event occurring. In order to place a successful bet, the gambler must be able to understand the odds on the game or event. The odds at which a bet is placed may vary significantly from bookmaker to bookmaker. In order to place a profitable bet, the gambler must use all available information, including the odds, to make his or her best bet. With so many sports betting options available today, bookmakers have made it possible for bettors to enjoy their favorite recreational activities while still earning money. There are literally thousands of sites on the Internet where bookmakers allow bettors to place sports bets. Many of the sites feature daily, weekly, and even monthly payouts. The terms and conditions for placing sports wagers on such sites vary, but most include the following basic information: the name of the bettor, his or her credit card or e-mail account information, the wager amount, the date and time of the game, whether the game will be played in an online casino or on a television set, and whether or not the game will be played in more than one game. In addition, bettors must read carefully over the terms and conditions and follow all instructions provided. Some online sports betting websites offer betting programs that include a variety of different games, including college football, baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, and NASCAR racing. These programs also typically include a schedule of games for the different sports involved. Most bettors must register at the website in order to place a bet. Others must join a VIP program, which allows them to place larger sports bets that would not be eligible under regular rules. Online sportsbooks also allow bettors to look up current news and odds for sports events within their books. This information allows them to place bets based on news and odds. The best sportsbooks can offer a wide range of information and provide updates on game scores and odds for millions of sports events. Before making a bet, it is important to find out if the website and the bookmaker have good customer service, because in the end, it is you who will have to keep track of your winnings or losses. And most importantly, do not forget to check if the site and the sportsbook can actually produce the numbers you're looking for; that way, you won't get stuck paying too much for sports betting odds.
A week in the life of your favorite firearm dealer 8/10/2020 PLUS ADDED PANDEMIC GUN SHOW COVERAGE!
Monday 8/10/2020 to Thursday 8/13/2020 I won't do the play by play. It's more fun to just amalgamate the highlight reel of the week. I get call after call from people looking for 380 and 9mm ammo. One notable dialogue at 8PM 1: You have any 380 ammo? Me: Yes, I have 7 boxes yet 1: How much? Me: 20 to a box, 50 each 1: Great we can come pick it up now! Me: It's 8PM and I've already left for the day. Come in tomorrow 1: But we need it now. Me: I'm not heading back to work to sell a box of ammo. 1: Oh come on! I called you! You should be able to help me! Me: I am, during normal business hours. But if you really want 2 boxes - $100 bill and I'll head back in. 1: ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS? YOU JUST TOLD ME IT WAS TWENTY! Me: Twenty to a box, 50 bucks each box times two boxes 1: That's highway robbery! That's price gouging! Me: Go look online. Nobody has any 380 ammo. And if they do it is $1 or $2 per round. 1: That's ridiculous! You're not the only guy in town that has 380 ammo! (Editors note: She calls back the next day asking for 380 ammo. Apparently I am the only guy in town that has 380 ammo. I tell her there's a new policy. No ammo sales to people who have not bought firearms.) One of my surgeon customers calls me telling me his lead nurse who hates guns wants to buy a gun. I tell them to come on down. Her whole family and the doc come in and I have this dialogue. 1: Can you suggest a gun for someone who hates guns? Me: That's like a vegan walking into a steakhouse and saying "whats a good steak for a vegan?" - there's no real good way to do it and everything I can suggest you is sold out and then some. 1: Well what do you have here? Me: That's a Glock 17, here take a look. (Unload and show clear, hand her a Glock 17) 1: OH MY GOD THIS IS SO HEAVY! Me: That's one of the lightest full size firearms ever made. 1: Do you have something with a safety? I love safeties. The more the better. If you have a gun with 150 safetys, that's something I would be interested in. (I glare at the doc) Me: I've only got three or four different model pistols left in stock. Here try out this springfield XD-S..... 1: I don't like this thing in the grip here the bump.... Me: You mean the grip safety? 1: yes 1: What happened to "I love safties the more the better" (Doc nearly inhales his surgical mask from laughing) She hates guns and wants to go rent a bunch of guns before buying any guns but I explain the problem is you can go rent something, fall in love with it and the dealer can't get one for a year. Case in point: Glock 19's, Sig 365's and Springfield Hellcats. She believes she is not ready to buy a gun until she rents one. I tell her go to a range and go rent one and find out what she likes. She has just taken a "safety course" offered by the local girl and a gun chapter. The local girl and a gun chapter is run by a middle aged woman who has NRA instructor creds that is the WORST FIREARM INSTRUCTOR I HAVE EVER MET IN MY LIFE with the possible exception of James Yaeger. The last time I was at one of her events she was using the "mugger in a hoodie" paper targets and she instructed all the women to shoot him in the balls during one course of fire. Now, I wasn't wearing my Caltech shirt that day but the fast math and trig is as follows. Person shooting at a target 10 feet from the bench at a downward angle with a backstop of dirt 50 feet behind the bench... I was trying to fix someone's gun before I could do anything. I am concentrated on fixing this pistol and the first volley of gunfire breaks my concentration. I then hear the sound of dozens of 9mm projectiles hitting the concrete and skipping off the property. I drop the pistol and shout at the top of my lungs a cease fire and evetyone looks at me funny Me: KAREN! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? 1: Oh they're just girls, let them have their fun! Me: ALL THE BULLETS ARE LEAVING THE PROPERTY! 1: What? No! How? (I point at all the ricochet gouges on the concrete of the gun club) 1: Ohhhhhh This woman is barely qualified to run a dairy queen much less instruct neophyte gun owners. Holy fucking shit. Why are people going to her? She's open, and she's a woman that has credentials that "can teach". Yeah. One day I head to lunch at the local pizza joint for lunch with Megan. Eddie makes a nice pizza and I sit down and have a pie. We rap about business as I eat my antipasato and wait for my freshly prepared clam pie to cool down a bit. It's not on the menu but he makes it special for us. Me: hey eddie how's business? ed: It's steady, lots of takeout. Me: Its a tough economy I'd take it! ed: Hey now! Me: You doing okay? ed: yeah I found that derringer I wanted at the last gun show! Me: Oh really? ed: Yeah! Someone ceracoted it tiffany blue and magenta Me: Whoa whoa whoa! Please! I'm trying to eat here! Disgusting! (Megan is drinking water and nearly does a spit take) This is the world we're living in now. Speaking of the new world... I wind up working a deal with a friend and we split 100k pcs of once fired lake city 5.56 brass. A local military contractor was doing some testing and they had a fucking ton of it and this is what was left. We got it for the cost of manpower to scrape it up and load it, clean it, tumble it and sort it and deprime and resize it. My friend has two kids that are doing online learning with school, so he made them a deal. He cut the kiddos a deal to help him clean and resize and deprime the brass as labor. We're into this stuff CHEAP. So we can sell it cheap or whatever the fuck we want in this market. I tell Ray I've got the perfect ad. We get some projectiles, some powder and primers and we run an ad. "5.56 ammo! $275/thousand! Some assembly required!" and Ray laughs his ass off. The we got it was it was loaded into some wooden ammo crates that were left over at the contractors facility. They're heavy, not cost effective to ship and came with 5000 pcs of brass each. Ray gets an idea. He has discovered that if we portion it out and throw out or sell the wooden crates, we save a ton of money on shipping. I wonder where he got this idea from. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nozIkRy0v-M The kiddos load all the brass into USPS flat rate boxes in no time flat and we've got ourselves loaded ready to roll product that can ship immediately. His kids did the legwork in the loading on account of my bad back and I'm tasked with lining up buyers. No problem. I start working the local gun boards, my customers, myspace, etc. You know the usual spots. This is where the wheels come off the wagon. I get a guy who comes right out the gate asking for 9k and then he blurts out "How much do you have, I'm interested in all of it" Little hint for the readers. Anyone that says they're interested in everything you have are interested in nothing you have. They're blowing smoke 99% of the time and the 1% of the time that someone does buy everything you have, you're making a killing off them or they're making a killing off you. You know the old saying in poker - if you sit down at the table and you can't find the sucker in 5 minutes, you're the sucker? It's like that. Anyhow, my ad reads as follows: $125/thousand 5.56 Brass Lake City cleaned, sorted, resized, trimmed and polished - DILLON 1050 READY! The guy calling me wanting 9k then asked how much I had left - he lines up 9 of his friends and they want to take ALL of it and divvy it up. Pick up today or when the guys can get off of work and come get it, they're working back asswards logistics as to who's truck is going to haul all of it, who's loading it and unloading and they plan to show up at 630 tonight after work to come get it. At 445 I get a message - hey can you send me a picture again one of my friends wants to check something and I send it over. And that's when the entire deal falls apart because this butthead read 5.56 brass lake city NATO headstamp $125/thousand and thought he was getting loaded 5.56 NATO spec ammo for 12.5 cents a round in 2020, told all his friends about it and shot his mouth off like a damn fool. Now he has to explain to every single one of his friends that no you're not getting 10,000 rds of 5.56 NATO ammo for $1250. Wasting my fucking time. That was my Thursday. All these people begging for ammo are driving me nuts. Yes, I have 250,000 rds of ammo. No I am not going to bend over backwards and sell it to you cheap just to be a nice person/earn your business/because your sister gave me a handjob in high school. God damn. Lady calls me looking for 380 ammo. She needs some for her CCW class that Karen is teaching and I tell her I have some left. She comes in and I tell her it's $50 a box. She leaves without buying anything. There's other miscellany but you get the gist of it. NOW here's the meat and potatoes you've wanted! The tale of the gun show! Friday 8/14/2020 I take inventory. I'm down to about 500 guns in stock and I pack as much as I can and get it ready for the show. I've got some Sigs left, a handful of Glock and a mishmash of everything else. I head to bed early knowing full well the next show will be a total shitshow. I have not done a show in a big city for nearly six months. This will be epic or epic fail. Saturday 8/15/2020 I pull chocks at 430AM, hit the flying J for diesel and pull into the local grocery store for a sandwich at 7AM right around the corner from the gun show. They fuck up my sandwich. Serves me right for buying morning of. Fuck me to tears. I start loading into the show and the entire front of the building is set up with crowd control barriers and it takes me an extra 40 minutes to thread the needle of my hand truck and loadout. I get the table setup as fast as I can and by 9AM the doors are open and we are off to the races. I will do hour blocks instead of my previous play by play for simplicity. 9AM: Right out the gate I have people asking me for Sig 365's. I have a used one with three mags and a holster I have tagged at $650. The guy asks me if I can do any better. I ask him if he's feeling lucky. I run the 4473 bet with him. He fills out the form straight on the first shot, no corrections - and he gives me $650, he gets $50 back with his ID. If there's a correction to be made, I keep half a yard. He says its a bet. He loses. As I write that up at $650, I have another guy snag a regular 365 for $700. Both their background checks clear quickly. The morning is not off to a bad start, I think to myself. I'm about to be proven wrong massively. One of my old friends from high school asked me to liquidate some of his collection and I told him that I would selectively cherry pick some stuff and haul it to the show since I didn't want to commit large amounts of table space for other people's guns. He's got a super clean Century M70 underfolder. It's clean even by century standards but I don't want to buy that gun. I have it out on the table and an old romanian guy starts checking it out. 1: What country is this from? FC: I'm not a big AK guy, it's a century so I'm guessing maybe yugoslavia or maybe romania - I don't think that its a bulgarian one, but you're welcome to take a look 1: Does it say cugir? FC: It does not 1: How do you know it does not say cugir? FC: I can see the side of it it does not say that 1: Where does it not say? FC: If you look at the side of the receiver, Century has shitty electropencil that is parkerized over that you can barely read 1: Do you have some oil I can put on there to rub on it so I can read it? FC: Look, I'll read it. What do you want to know? 1: Does it say cugir? FC: it does not. 1: What does it say? FC: Century M70 AB2 7.62 x 39 Georgia Vermont 1: it does not say cugir? I am romanian if it says cugir is romanian FC: It does not say that 1: Come on then make me a deal! (1 taps the price tag marked at $850) FC: It's the first 20 minutes of the show, I'm not making anything on the deal it's a favor for a friend of mine. I think that gun sells down here for top dollar. 1: I give you 600 cash FC: Come see me at the end of the show maybe I'll be amenable to discounting but not this early 1: You know problem with topcover right? (FC looks at topcover, it's slightly off from the hole and detent. Why? IT'S A CENTURY! WHAT DID YOU FUCKING EXPECT?!?! The care and attention to detail that only Jim Fuller from Rifle Dynamics or maybe a Bulgarian Arsenal offers? Fuck you.) FC: This gun is gonna sell this weekend as is where is, even if you think it's not right. 1: Come on make me deal! FC: I don't negotiate with terrorists or people spending under $10k. This ain't over $10k. 1: I have cash! FC: Got $850? We'll write it up right now. (1 walks away and comes back 3 minutes later) 1, while holding a wad of cash: Come on make me a deal! FC: What's your offer? 1: I will go $700 FC: Come see me at the end of the show on Sunday and I'll see what I can do. (1 gets yelled at by the county exhibition authority for not wearing a face mask correctly and he adamantly refuses to adjust his mask and starts a full blown screaming match with the poor county employee who VERY politely asked him to wear his face mask properly. As he is engaged in this animated debate, two individuals who I will call 2 and 3 show up. 2 and 3 want the underfolder AK. 2 and 3 are what we would call hip hop/droopy jean enthusiasts, their dialogue is presented word for word without adjustment. They were dropping the hard r, not me so please don't call me names for reporting the truth.) 2: ohhhhh snapppp this is what I came here lookin for! 3: damn nigga thats a straight up choppa right there you should buy that 1: HEY I WAS HERE FIRST I AM MAKING DEAL! BACK OFF! FC: No, you walked away - these two gentlemen are here and now they're interested in that gun and I'm giving them my time. 1: BUT I WAS HERE FIRST HOLDING CASH! 2: back off nigga I'm here to check out stuff motherfucker i'm gonna mess you up 3: yeah man back the fuck off before my nigga messes you up god damn shieeeeeeit 1: I AM HERE! HOLDING CASH! YOU GOING TO DO BUSINESS WITH ME? FC: You walked away. This is what happens when you walk away. It's their turn...... 1: BUT I AM HERE WE ARE MAKING DEAL (FC does an ACTUAL facepalm and presses his forehead and feels a headache beginning. A deep sigh) FC: You two.....you're killing me here. 1: I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF MAKING DEAL AND YOU DON'T WANT TO DEAL! FC: You want to see deal? I'll show you deal! (FC grabs AK from the hip hop enthusiasts and looks right at them while holding an order pad in right hand and rifle in other) FC: You got $750 cash? 2: nigga I got $750 cash right here (pulls out wad of 100's) 3: oh shit that guy gonna get fuckin SWOOPED FC: You want me to write this up right now? $750 cash. And I'll throw in 4 mags (I pull out 4 mags loaded with x39 brown bear) 2: I GET THE MAGS AND THE AMMO FOR THAT PRICE? FUCK NIGGA YOU GOT A DEAL! (he counts out $800 in c-notes and drops his ID on the table) FC: You got yourself a rifle. (I look back at angry romanian) FC: That's a deal. You passed. Move faster next time. 1: I AM STANDING HERE! HOLDING CASH! (1 throws down a stack of cash on the table, some falls behind on my table. I pick it back up and place it on his stack) FC: You dropped some back here, don't want you thinking I shorted you or stole your money. I've got to write up these gentlemen, we're here until 5 today if you need anything else 1: (shouts at me in angry romanian while gesticulating like George Costanza complaining to Elaine about taking credit for the big salad) FC: I'm sorry about that guy, he's got some issues. That man needs therapy not another gun 2: all good nigga all good that mofo gonna get his ass beat someday FC: Today I didn't even have to use my AK, I got to say it was a good day 3: sheeeeeit he knows ice cube! this nigga og! FC: Catholic school for the win! (we fist bump) I piss off at least one person every show. Sometimes it's good to get it out of the way in the first hour, lets you concentrate on the bigger picture things. Three down. 10AM: Guy points at a green Glock 43 and Glock 19 Gen 4 that I have. They're each tagged at $725. Cash comes out and I write up the sale. Three women in a row snag black Glock 43's from me at $700 each. We are cranking now! Eight down before lunch. This is getting wild. 11AM: Colt Lightweight Commander - tagged at $1050. Sells for cash. Colt Combat Unit - tagged at $1450 Sells for cash. Glock 19 MOS Gen 4 - tagged at $825. Sells for cash. Two of them back to back. Gen 4 straight 19 tagged at 775 sells on Amex. Background checks begin to start bogging down. Thirteen down before I can even touch my sammich. 12PM: I write up three ruger LCP's in a row at $300 each. I eat half my sandwich as I sell a Kel Tec Sub 2000 at $825. Springfield Hellcat tagged at $735 goes out on a mastercharge. Eighteen before I'm done with lunch. Sheeeeit. 1PM: My old buddy Rusty Shackleford sends me some of his collection he does not want the hassle with selling. Three ugly as sin Glock 21's, three semi clean Glock 17's and two super like new 17's. 1PM is profitable as I manage to sell everything except for a 21 and 17. People are paying $650 for PD trade 21's and $700+ on trade in Glock 17's. Why? They're the only ones in the show. Not glocks in general, I mean 21's and 17's. Twenty four down and I have yet to finish my sandwich. 2PM: I have an immigrant from another country come over and try to buy a gun. He's super patient waiting for me to finish with customers that DO NOT STOP. Springfield XD goes out at $600. That's 25. He hands me the clipboard and I immediately stop everything I'm doing and I look down at the form. Not only has he forgotten 10A and 12.d.2 but he's put the city in the county box and answered the firearm is not for him and he's been convicted of misdemeanor DV. I sigh and hand the form back to him for corrections. FC: Okay, what county are we in? 1: (names city) FC: What COUNTY are we in? 1: oh! USA! FC: What COUNTY is this city in? 1: (names city) FC: We're in (names county) 1: Ohhhhh thats right FC: Who's this gun for? You or someone else? 1: Me FC: Is there any reason you've indicated you are NOT the actual purchaser? 1: Not good at reading the form I guess FC: Strike out intiial and date the change 1: Okay FC: Have you been convicted of a misdemanor crime of domestic violence? 1: No it was just a misdemeanor FC: Is there a reason why you said "yes I have been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence?" 1: oh man I screwed that up FC: Initial and date the change (He fixes the front of the form and signs on 14 and dates on 15. I turn the page. He's written his passport number expiration date in the ID field and indicated that NICS has denied him) FC: Is there any reason you wrote your passport expiration date and number here? 1: Well I'm supposed to do that, right? (FC points to line that says SECTION B MUST BE COMPLETED BY SELLER) 1: Oh man FC: Is there any reason you checked DENIED on the NICS result box? 1: did I do that? (FC points to the box where he's put a big bold X under DENIED) 1: Was I not supposed to do that? (FC hands him another form to complete) 3PM: It is now over an hour to get this 4473 done. His wife and child have to help him with the form. I finish my sammich as I look at the front of his form and it is still marked "firearm is being purchased for someone not me" and he has to correct it. I turn the page. The date is marked 9/8/2020. FC: What day is today? 1: Saturday FC: No I mean what day is today, what calendar day? (1 pulls out his phone) 1: Oh. You want me to do another form? FC: No, strike out using a single line. And using WORDS - write the date. 1: gotcha (FC looks down at the form. the date is struck out using a single line. It now reads in words SATURDAY 9/8/2020) FC: What day is it? 1: It's saturday. FC: Saturday the......... 1: Fifteeenth? FC: Then explain why this says 9/8/2020? 1: Oh man you want me to do another form? FC: Just fill it out using WORDS AS THE DATE - MONTH/DAY/YEAR 1: okay I got you (FC hands the form back for correction) 1: I got it now! Man was that hard! (FC looks down at the form. SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 8 2020) FC: Take out your phone (1 takes out his phone and presses the home button) FC: Look at the date. What does it say and look at what you wrote. 1: Oh man FC: Is it possible for us to get the correct date? 1: Yeah man I'm so sorry.... FC: Take out your phone and write out the date in letters and words EXACTLY AS YOUR PHONE DISPLAYS IT 1: Okay I can do that (FC looks down at the form. 3:23 SATURDAY AUGUST 15. Fuck it, this is as good as it gets.) FC: Close enough. Give me your ID. (I write up my last Glock 19. It's tagged at $825. He pays cash without blinking.) I mean, I've seen some shit but WOWWWW. That's 26. 4PM: The rest of my glocks fly off the table. NIB Glock 36 - tagged at $725, gone. NIB Glock 30SF, tagged at $700, gone. NIB Glock 30, tagged at $700, gone. The only thing left on the table are 17 Gen 5 MOS's at $875 and 43X's at $775 and 44's at $400. That's 29 by 4PM. One guy does not have current ID so I have him go on the fish and game website on his phone and get a fishing license that gets me his up to date address. After 20 minutes he emails me a screencap and he's on his way home with his Glock 30. 5PM: Time to go home! I drop a stack of guns off at the local dealer for transfer on my way out the door and I make it home just before 7PM after stopping at the grocery to pick up dinner. I have a platter of fried chicken and mac and cheese. It is delicious. I get to bed early, tomorrow is going to be a long fucking day. Sunday August 16th 737AM. I wake up and get my ass to my desk. I need to replenish some of the table. I grab stacks of more guns and get them loaded up and I swing by the grocery store deli on the way to the show. It's 8AM and they are out of bread. As in the bakery has not baked them any bread for sandwiches. For fucks sake. They make me a wrap instead. And they make it WRONG. I am not happy. 10AM: Get to the show and uncover my tables and get cranking. A millennial wants a Ruger LC380 and her fucking debit card does not work. This is why you bring cash to gun shows. It's fucking useless when technology fails AND YOU HAVE NO BACKUP. She transfers money from wells fargo to her boyfriends account at chase and he tries to use the ATM to get her cash. No dice. I swear to jebus, if you take debit cards away from this generation all of them will starve to death and die alone. Gun number 30 for the weekend is hard fought but it's done. 11AM: Crank off a Sig 1911 for a guy. He sends a stand in to pick it up for him since his son is exempt from waiting period but he isn't. It goes like this. 1: I'm gonna buy this gun instead FC: why? 1: that's none of your business FC: Yes it is. Purchase of firearm with intent to resell is unlawful 1: What I do with the gun after I get it, if I want to sell it to my dad is my business not yours FC: No dice. Take a hike Dad: Lets just do it his way, he wants to give it to the other dealer that's what we'll do. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I write up 31 for the weekend. My jack sack is full of cash. 12PM: I got a guy come over, former law enforcement wanting to buy his kid a gun. He wants to do the paperwork and pay me and the gun is for his kid. I say if the gun is for the kid, he needs to do it. I shake off the forms and get the kid on the clipboard and everything goes smooth and I rack up a sale for a trade in FN FNS. That's 32. 1PM: Old school NYPD beat cop comes over wanting a deal on a springfield 1911 Long Beach Operator 1: They're 1911's! They're not popular anymore! Make me a deal! FC: ANYTHING with a barrel and a trigger is popular right now. Best deal you're getting is on the tag, which is 1250 plus tax and call in that puts you right near 1350. 1: Come on, hook a brother up! FC: That's the rate on everything, we're selling it out as fast as we can get it! Excuse me as I help these other people...... 2PM: Lady comes by and says she wants a shield EZ. I ask her why. She says her man and her firearm instructor says she cant rack the slide. I pick up a Sig 220 off the table and tell her to show me. She racks the slide. I ask her how does it feel to rack a slide properly? She spends the rest of the day wondering why they lied to her. Another lady asks me for suggestions for a first gun. I ask her what she's shot before. Answer: Nothing. She cannot rent guns and try them out because every range is booked for firearm rentals for the next 2 months out. Yeah......... Brooklyn 99 comes back over and taps on the LB operator 1: Come on man, hook a brother up! FC: That's the price, the LB operators are a sexy gun and they're not coming out of the warehouse very often 1: Come on brother! I'm just looking for a deal! How about 1200 all in? FC: Cash or card? 1: Card FC: No dice. 1: Come on brother! (more pleading for a discount) At this point the crowd at the table has heard this guy trying to get a discount for a few minutes and I've had enough. FC: Let me ask you a question 1: Sure thing FC: Do you have pictures of my nephews on your phone? 1: No FC: Did you spend thanksgiving dinner at my house? 1: No FC: Are you a named beneficiary on my will? 1: No FC: Then guess what? You're not my brother. Hell, without your money you're not even my customer. You could hear the snickers from the peanut gallery as I gave the guy a dressing down. I wasn't about to let him off the hook. I still had an out in the deck to play and I was going to use it. FC: Now, if you want this gun - you want it at a discount, I respect that. Here's what I"ll do. You feeling lucky? 1: Always! FC: Here's the clipboard. Give me a straight form, no strike outs, no errors, no mistakes, NOTHING that needs correction - I'll give it to you for 1200 on a card flat. I hand the pen back to you to fix something, I write it at 1400 all in. $200's the action, you in or you out? 1: getoutttahere FC: I'm serious. You want the discount, get the form right and you got what you want. If there's even one error, I keep the two bills. 1: It's a bet! Lets go! I've done this hundreds of times without a problem! I hand him the clipboard and he starts filling out the form. The peanut gallery is now fervently watching for the results as if it were not already a foregone conclusion. The fans had no idea but they were watching a fixed horse race. My dealer neighbor at the next table over chimes in. Neighbor: hey, are you seriously taking action? FC: ALWAYS! Neighbor: What's the money? FC: two bucks Neighbor: High stakes! FC: You haven't seen high stakes yet. Neighbor: You're a character. I'm glad that romanian guy didn't get that rifle yesterday, he was such a pain in the ass. Like even I was annoyed by it and it wasn't even my stuff. FC: I know, right? You snooze, you lose. Neighbor: But really, can I get in on the 4473 bet? FC: You can take the bookmaker out of the catholic school but..... NYPD: I'm all done! Lets see my new $1200 gun! (I pick up the forms and his ID and credit card and look at the forms. 12.d.2. is blank. I hand pen back to him and point at 12.d.2.) FC: Forgot 12.d.2. That's $1400 on your Amex, sign here. NYPD: MOTHERFUCKER THAT WASN'T ON THERE LAST TIME! FC: When was the last time you filled out that form? NYPD: 2012 FC: That's why. Here's your new gun, thank you for your action. Neighbor: How often does that bet win? FC: My house edge on that bet is 100%. Neighbor: Shit. That's fucking hilarious. Now I know how you got that watch. I just picked up a 50th anniversary sub myself (he shows me his sub and we rap about horology for a bit.) 33 down. 3PM: ONE HOUR TO GO! I write up a shield 2.0 9mm for a lady and her hubs for $650. One lady gets unhinged when I tell her she's not going to get her gun today on account of background check volume. She starts terrorizing me with WHY CANT I GET MY GUN TODAY?!?!?!??!?! This isn't dealing with Al-Quaeda, this is Al-Karen. Last minute sale 10 minutes before the show closes cleans me out of Ruger LC9's tagged at $450. 35 down. One guy snags a Glock 43X from me for $775. 36 for the weekend makes me a happy boy. I look at all the sales in cash and credit cards and I've booked quite the fat stack of cash. I've done a month's worth of business in TWO DAYS. 4PM: Show is closed. I start packing up. The dealer across from me has Gen 5 Glock 34's tagged at $1000, 9mm at $575/thousand and 380 at $750/thousand. We rap about the state of the industry. It's just gonna get worse closer to the election. I pack up and get all my stuff loaded up. 530PM: Homeward bound........I wish I was........HOMEWARD BOUND.............. 730PM: I get back to my desk and dump off a fucking STACK of 4473's. I make a bank drop for the cash and I unload and head back home. I'm starving, so I decide to have the deli re-make their culinary abortion of a wrap. 8PM: The deli is out of bread AGAIN. Are you fucking kidding me? The deli is out of bread at 8AM and 8PM? What is this bullshit..... the deli clerk takes an entire loaf of italian sandwich bread and uses it to make me a single sandwich. My colon is about to hate me. I'm waiting in line to have the cashier comp me as I see a big tall gun guy from the gun club walk in. I yell and wave since I'm wearing a mask and he comes over. 815PM: Tim O'Toole is a big giant irish gun nut criminal defense attorney that I know from the gun club. He is an aggressive and in your face about how wrong you are if you are wrong and at 6'6" he cuts an imposing presence on any courtroom he walks into. He's just bought a house in my neighborhood and we start chatting guns. He asks me if I have a Glock 17 Gen 3 9mm barrel for his latest build and I tell him that I've probably got 3 sitting on my desk. I jump on my phone and check pricing. Wholesale + $5 for him since he helps out a lot out at the gun club and he says it's a deal. He goes and gets groceries and I eat my meat tornado of a sandwich at home. Monday August 17th 10AM: Tim comes by right on time for his barrel and asks what else I have. I have a Glock 43 come off layaway and go back into rotation and he snaps up that and a 43X and a whole litany of extra parts, glock 17 gen 3 firing pin, channel liner, trigger bars, extra mags, etc. My 1 item sale I set up in line at the grocery store is now a 15 item $2500 sale. And he wants even more stuff that I can't get! We rap about the best legal film ever made, My Cousin Vinny. He gets every judge to approve his demand to videotape depositions and witness statements. Why? "I shot the clerk" - you have to watch the movie to understand this reference. Every time a judge asks him why he wants it on tape he simply says "I shot the clerk" and since we are in the deep south and every judge that's been stuck in the Louisiana mud knows the film My Cousin Vinny, his motion is approved. I laughed my ass off. I told him I was very much looking forward to regaling the federal judge with some witty banter that went along the lines of "the two utes" and he laughed his ass off. I really wanted to pull that stunt. 11AM: Lady comes in to pick up a layway and she can't fill out the 4473 and wear a mask at the same time. She also cannot stop talking. She drives me nuts but I hold it together long enough to get her stuff worked up. She also asks me to get her a Glock 23 Gen 4. I tell her it won't be cheap and it's probably going to set her back $850 by the time I beat the bushes and line one up. She says no problem, Visa okay? Done. I get a Glock 23 Gen 4 off one of my dealer buddies in NC and get it squared away. 12PM: Lunctime. It's Salmon Hollandaise special at this new market just down the road from me and I stop in and say hi. It's like a small version of Eataly. I went to high school with the owners daughters and he's got 5 million bucks into this concept. Wine bar, cafe, grocery, NY bagels delivered daily, ramen bar, raw bar, restaurant, the whole 9 yards. Amazing. The fish is delish and on the way out I run into a guy I went to ELEMENTARY school with that's now the general manager. He offers me a job managing the seafood department and I am seriously considering it given how screwed up the gun market is. 1PM: Back at my desk, have eaten the salmon and the hollandaise has found a home in my thighs. I am fat and sassy. I sell the remaning 380 I have to a customer picking up a Sig P238 and she's super stoked to get a gun. 2PM: Random walk in. Local restaurant owner that I sold a Sig 227 to a few months ago wants me to put in an SRT kit. He's disassembled the entire frame and wants me to put it togther. I explain that an SRT install is normally 5 minutes. This is easily a 45 minute job to reassemble and that's IF he has all the parts. He says he has all the parts. I begin putting the gun back together. He does not have all the parts. He goes home and says he will look harder for the missing part. 3PM: I look online for the missing part. It's $5 and 4 weeks to ship and in stock at most vendors. This sucks. I call some favors and I know of one in the mid atlantic area I can get here in a week in case he can't find it. As I get off the phone he walks in with the missing part. Just an FYI for the readers. In ten years, I have had "bag o gun" come through the door on three previous occasions. First: Sig 229 from local PD. Chief took it apart, couldn't put it back together. Had no backup gun and had to go on duty in a few hours, I was asked to put it together. Second: My buddy Bruce in PA. He detail stripped his 220 and got it wrong. I put it back together and sent it back to PA. Third: Rusty and his 226. See above. He missed some parts. I put it back together and sent it back to Texas. If anyone thinks they see a pattern here it's because there IS a pattern here. I start work on the 227 and this thing is a bitch and a half. The ejector, which is a 25 cent stamped metal part is not to spec. Sig's QC sucks. Their 3mm hole PRECISELY stamped in one place isn't 3mm and isn't precise. The sear pin that has to go through the left side of the frame, through the ejector, through the left side of the sear, through the sear reset spring, through the other side of the sear, through the safety lever and through the right side of the frame is NOT COOOPERATING because the ejector is too tight. I have to beat on this thing with a drilling hammer to get it to go. 45 minutes of anger and frustration later, 227 is back in action with the garbage one piece E2 grips. For this pain, I bill $100. He tells me he should have had me do it in the first place. I say he's right but it's a tough job doing Sig classic pistols right. They're a very challenging platform. 4PM: I ship off some more 5.56 brass and pay my buddy Ray. I head home. 5PM: Beef jerky time. I hope you all enjoyed these stories. They have not been embellished because they need no embellishment. Stay tuned for my next story where I post about the state of the firearm industry! God bless and have a wonderful Saturday. PS - and this is how you do a "week in the life" thread, you fucking imposter. https://www.reddit.com/guns/comments/i759qj/a_week_in_the_life_of_your_favorite_firearm/
Hey everyone! I've been really geeking out on finding problems that I think could be turned into meaningful businesses. I do have an ask, but before I do that I'll provide some value first :)
Keeping track of betting lines is a pain
“I love sports betting but it’s hard to keep track of the betting odds on all the different betting apps. I’ve created a spreadsheet and do it manually, but I still need to search through all the sites to get the information. I’d definitely pay for something that did this automatically.” - Anonymous sports better seeking a solution. Market Background/Opportunity Size: Changes in sports betting law have created amazing entrepreneurial opportunities! It's like the goldrush here given how young this market is and how quickly things are changing in the US. On May 14, 2018, the United States supreme court ruled the federal law prohibiting states from authorizing sports betting, protection act PASPA, unconstitutional. It is now up to individual states to decide if they want to authorize and regulate sports betting in their state. 18 states have fully legalized sports betting with 4 more passing bills just this year to legalize it (they aren’t operational yet). Even though less than half of the US has legalized sports betting, the market cap was sitting pretty at $104.41 billion and expected to reach $155.49 billion by 2024 (this is an estimate, it was tough to nail down). This market is much larger if you include other global players like the UK, Australia, etc… who have already legalized sports betting. It’s clear that trends for this industry are going in the right direction and there’s still a strong opportunity for the first-mover advantage to take place. Major Players:
Draft Kings
Founded in 2012
700 employees
Publicly traded
Fan Duel
Founded in 2009
1,000 employees
412.6m raised
Bet 365
Founded in 2000
4,500 employees
Bootstrapped (if anyone has more info on this, please share)
Note: there are over 100 sports betting services on the market The Opportunity: As mentioned above, there is a huge problem with keeping track of all the different betting lines that exist - resulting in many people (unsuccessfully) using a spreadsheet. Here’s an article that explains why tracking betting lines is important. The TL;DR is this, placing your bet on a site that has the most favorable odds results in you getting the highest return on that investment. Most people are doing one of these two things:
Nothing. Rather than checking to see where they can get the best returns, they are just using their core betting app and taking the odds they are given. Depending on the bet size, that leaves hundreds of dollars on the table.
Manually tracking the odds each betting site is offering and compiling the odds in a spreadsheet. This results in a lot of time spent switching between sites and transposing numbers.
Current Solutions:
Manually tracking betting lines in a spreadsheet or on paper
Notes: At their core, Action Network is a sports analysis and media company. One of their features is line tracking across all the major bookmakers but it’s relatively hidden and poorly advertised.
How to Get Your First 10 Customers:
Define Your Early Adopter: Your TAM is anyone who participates in sports betting, but I’d focus your efforts on finding people who acutely experience this pain. People who are spending a lot of time and money on sports betting have the most to lose. More specifically, hunt for people who’ve already created solutions to this problem themselves - like those using homegrown spreadsheets.
Look for CDIs: When looking for channels to find potential users I ask myself “where do my potential customers hang out?”. In this case, I’d look at online communities like Sports Book and Sports Betting subreddits. By simply asking the question, “How do you track betting lines?” you’ll be able to start conversations with potential users about unmet needs.
Create an Online Ad: I’d next test an offer to see if you can acquire potential users to sign up for your service. This can be as simple as creating a landing page (using marketing language from the conversations above) and run a paid ad to your target audience to collect emails.
Build a Wizard of Oz Test: Now that you have a list from running the ad above, I’d see if you can monetize it. Contact people and charge a small fee to run a small wizard of oz test - you could manually pull lines based on the bets they're watching and send it to them in a daily email. Or, there’s likely a no-code tool you could use to scrape the data from existing sites and organize it for them.
I can see a freemium model working for this as well, so you may not need to monetize immediately. One great option would be to charge the bookmakers a fee for every bet you send to their platform. Challenges:
Is there a problem worth solving? Although this idea logically makes sense, there are flags raised because no company has solved the problem yet. Typically, you can validate some form of demand based on market signals or other competitors, but this seems like a blue ocean (both a good and bad thing). Follow the plan above and you should be able to tell quickly if you’re on the right track.
Can you build it? The technology to create a product as this exists. That said, it may be difficult to pull data from the major bookmaker’s sites. The fact that Smart Lines doesn’t work with any of the major bookmakers left me scratching my head and wondering why.
Legal Challenges? Sports betting is highly regulated like most industries that are birthed from law changes. Even being associated with this space is likely going to create some challenges. I'm not an expert in this space, so it's hard to say exactly what legal challenges may arise, but getting accessing other bookmaker's data and facilitating the betting process are two great places to start your investigation.
Additional Opportunities: There appears to be no shortage of companies trying to become the next big bookmakers. But, there’s plenty of opportunities this burgeoning market has opened up beyond just being a bookie. With this market in its infancy, you can bet (pun 100% intended) that there’s going to be a lot of room to expand your offerings. Whether it be sports betting tips, predictions, tools or even becoming a bookie yourself, there’s money to be made here. While doing research on this, I found many people are struggling with keeping track of their bets and recording their results. This could be an easy addition to a solution to tracking betting lines. Here’s what some people said - https://imgur.com/a/aPTXuBd Here’s my ask - I’m looking for feedback on whether posts like these are valuable enough to turn into a business. I’d like to send out a vetted problem/idea like this each week if there’s enough interest. If you would like posts like these each week (and pay a small fee), please either DM me or reach out to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). If you reach out, I’ll give you another free problem/idea as thanks for your time!
Operating with a license in a country that allows international gambling, BookMaker can legally offer sports betting to customers in the United States and to people from all around the world as well. US gaming laws, most notably the Wire Act of 1961 and 2006’s UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) prevent sportsbooks in regulated states to accept bets from those outside of state lines. Is Bookmaker EU legal in the US? Bookmaker EU is a licensed, regulated sportsbook based in San Jose, Costa Rica, and it has lots of betting options that will appeal to US sports fans. However, gambling debts were unenforceable under English law until the Gambling Act 2005. Many bookmakers are members of IBAS, an industry organisation used to settle disputes. Bookmaking is generally illegal in the United States, with Nevada being an exception due to the influence of Las Vegas. Is BetUS legal in the United States? Online gambling […] The best US sportsbooks should be well-stocked with popular sporting events and teams. A decent bookmaker in the USA should also have variety so there’s something for every user. A Functional Site. All links and tabs should be working so members can navigate smoothly through the website when they bet with USA sportsbooks online. Yes it is sir. Bookmaker (SBR Rated A+) is a very solid book and will treat you right if you so do to use there services. remember Bookmaker.eu by its former name: BetCRIS. That operation got mired in legal trouble, and eventually the site opened with a headquarters in Costa Rica under a somewhat legitimate gaming license. Bookmaker.eu has been taking sports, casino, and poker bets since the 1980s, with online versions of these games appearing What can we help you with? BookMaker; LEGAL LEGAL
