The global online gambling industry is estimated to register lucrative growth over the forecast period 2019-2025. Factors that augment the business growth of the market include high internet penetration coupled with the increasing use of mobile phones. Moreover, ease of access to online gambling, legalization & cultural approval, corporate sponsorships, and celebrity endorsements are further fueling the growth of the market. Apart from this, the growing availability of cost-effective online gambling mobile applications across the globe is also driving the market growth. The recent COVID-10 outbreak, which prompted several governments to prohibit social gatherings and announce full lockdown, has impacted a segmental performance of the industry.
Request a Free Sample of our Global Online Gambling Market: https://www.omrglobal.com/request-sample/online-gambling-market
The report analyzes the global online gambling market on the basis of type and geography. Based on the type, the market is segmented into sports betting, casinos, poker, and bingo.Sports betting contributes significant revenue to the global online gambling industry; however, it has been hit hard by the spread of the deadliest virus across the globe. Several sports events and tournaments including Indian Premier League (IPL) 13, UEFA Euro Cup 2020, Summer Olympics 2020 have been either postponed or canceled, providing a heavy blow to the several online sports betting companies. Further, amid the virus crisis and no sports tournaments or events in place, bettors are shifting to other gambling types such as pokers and casinos. Thereby, fueling the other segmental growth of the market.
A full Report of Global Online Gambling Market is Available at: https://www.omrglobal.com/industry-reports/online-gambling-market
The global online gambling market is analyzed on the basis of the geographical regions that are contributing significantly towards the growth of the market. The market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World (RoW). Europe is expected to be the major region in the global online gambling market owing to the legalization of gambling in countries such as France, Germany, Spain, and Italy. Moreover, other factors that fuel the regional business growth include the significant presence of major players, such as William Hill PLC, Cherry AB, 888 Holdings PLC, and several others in the region; and high penetration of the internet coupled with the high smartphone penetration across the region. Asia-Pacific is estimated to be the fastest-growing region in the global online gambling market due to the growing use of internet services and the relaxation of regulations pertaining to online betting & gambling.
Global Online Gambling Market Segmentation
· Type
· Sports Betting
· Casinos
· Poker
· Bingo
Regional Analysis
· North America
· United States
· Canada
· Europe
· UK
· Germany
· Italy
· Spain
· France
· Rest of Europe
· Asia-Pacific
· China
· India
· Japan
· Rest of Asia-Pacific
· Rest of the World
Companies Studied
· 888 Holdings PLC
· Bet365 Group Ltd.
· Betsson AB
· Cherry AB
· GVC Holdings PLC
· Kindred Group PLC
· Ladbrokes Coral Group PLC
· Flutter Entertainment PLC
· The Stars Group Inc.
· William Hill PLC
For More Customized Data, Request for Report Customization @ https://www.omrglobal.com/report-customization/online-gambling-market
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Positions: $RSI 30 03/19 30C
Proof: https://imgur.com/a/swCCMjz
​
*This post is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as investment, financial, or other advice.*
​
TLDR: Rush Street Interactive ($RSI) is the #1 nationwide online casino company and the #3 or #4 sports book depending on the state. Short selling, unwarranted institutional wariness of share dilution and the general market focus on sports book instead of online casino has left $RSI grossly undervalued. A massive blow out at Q4 earnings will result in analyst upgrades and a rapid repricing by market makers and institutions seeking exposure to the emerging sector.
​
**Overview**
"Sports book is really just kind of a warm up in a lot of ways for an online casino where the real money is made" - Niccolo De Masi, CEO dMY technologies
​
Rush Street Interactive ($RSI) operates the BetRivers.com online casino and sports book. They are now fully licensed and operating in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Colorado, Iowa, and Virginia. They own and operate a casino in New York and already have a New York license making them well positioned for liberalization there. They merged with a dMY Technology Group SPAC on Dec. 31st 2020 with 240 million on the balance sheet to spend on growth.
The online casino business is fundamentally more profitable than sports betting because the average value of a casino player is estimated at $600 while a sports book player could be as little as $20. Estimates put the online casino market at DOUBLE the size of the online sports book market and the online casino industry is really just getting started as more states liberalize.
$RSI is expert at new market entry; they have been first to market in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, and Colorado and even when they aren't first they are capable of capturing market share in competitive markets such as New Jersey. They also have products which women play which accounts for at least half of the market in online casino. The female market is one that the pure sports book plays miss out on.
Also for some fucking reason they operate a casino and sports book in Colombia (rushbet.co) and may make large expansions into other parts of south America as legalization continues. This means they have the expertise necessary for global expansion in the future although the states remains their primary focus and growth driver.
​
**The Financials and Strategy**
Unlike other companies in the space Rush Street is already profitable in 2020 and has a strong focus on Return On Invested Capital (ROIC). Q3 gross revenue was $71.9 Million. Q4 revenue is going to be a blow out. Combing through state gambling revenue data and breaking that down by market share my estimate is that Q4 revenue could be as high as $120 Million.
Paired with this blow out will be a **guidance raise to $500 Million for 2021**, which is 2/3 of DraftKings 2021 guidance of $750M.
https://imgur.com/a/xkfcayC
​
What is striking when compared to $DKNG is that their advertising spend was only a quarter of revenue in Q3 while $DKNG spent 155% of their revenue. This will change as they begin to focus on growth, but it shows they are very good at getting return on ad spend. This company should actually be valued close to $DKNG based on growth potential once guidance is raised.
https://imgur.com/a/RQQXtGg
​
Their focus on attracting **female gamers** is also important to their long term growth potential. The sports book plays with cross sells to casino such as $DKNG will not be able to grow through the female demographic in the same way. **This cannot be understated** as one of the major strategic advantages of $RSI.
https://imgur.com/a/xzJj26n
​
As I said before I expect their trend of rapid growth to continue for Q4 earnings, certainly going to be a blow out based on looking at state gambling revenue numbers. My estimate is that their revenue will be around 110M for Q4. I also expect guidance to be raised to 500M for 2021 due to strong performance in existing markets and the recently opened Michigan market as well as their sports book launch in Virginia.
https://imgur.com/a/ckTqHhh
​
**Short sellers have entered the chat**
The short interest on $RSI sits at 5.08 M shares as of 01/14/21 representing a 30% increase. Now why would a company already valued at 2.8 Billion and with a comparative valuation of 8-10 Billion compared with $DKNG and $PENN be so heavily shorted at such a low market cap? My conclusion is that an institution with 10s of millions to throw at shorting this stock wants to take advantage of fear of share dilution from warrant calling or to establish a better entry prior to earnings.
​
**Commander in GILF Cathie Wood is Bullish on the sector**
On Feb. 2nd ARK disclosed that they had purchased 620,300 shares of $DKNG. This is extremely bullish for the sector. I am highly confident that after Q4 earnings ARK will be purchasing shares in $RSI as well due its strategic advantages relative to $DKNG and exposure to the female demographic. For such a small market cap company this will be a major catalyst.
​
**Institutions are bullish**
Fidelity has increased their holdings to 14% as of today: https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001793659/8f10b0d8-a3d2-447c-bc75-87587d0a4670.pdf
Alliance Bernstein holds a 6% position reported today: http://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001793659/e883778d-e759-4a85-91c1-3242ed110720.pdf
​
**Final notes**
Jerome "The Bus" Bettis, Steelers legend and hall of fame running back, is their brand ambassador... This company knows their target audience and how to appeal to them, likely more 'classic' ambassadors to come to attract even more boomer and Gen X degenerates. Keep in mind these are the gamblers with big money to spend, the average age of an online casino gambler is 42.
This stock has been grossly underpriced due to short selling. The terms of the SPAC deal were not unfavorable and all the insiders held their shares through the merger banking on growth in the market - **management owns 77% of the company**. This is a true value play on a well managed company in an emerging industry with a market size in the hundreds of billions. I plan to hold shares long term.
​
I will post a part 2 breaking down their latest S-1 filing and Q4 revenue by state when they release their Q4 earnings date.
​
Do your own research.
References:
https://www.legalsportsreport.com/sports-betting/revenue/
https://fintel.io/doc/sec-rush-street-interactive-inc-ex991-2021-january-05-18632-947
https://s26.q4cdn.com/794539746/files/doc_presentations/2020/RSI-Investor-Presentation-15-Oct-2020.pdf
https://ir.rushstreetinteractive.com/news/news-details/2020/RUSH-STREET-INTERACTIVE-ANNOUNCES-THIRD-QUARTER-2020-RESULTS-AND-RAISES-FULL-YEAR-GUIDANCE/default.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQWEhWuPmzU
https://www.thestreet.com/investing/draftkings-surges-as-stake-bought-by-ark-next-generation
​
Positions: $RSI 30 03/19 30C
I will be adding 3/19 25cs each week until earnings.
Exit strategy: "What's an exit strategy?" - u/deepfuckingvalue

Positions: $RSI 03/19 30C
Proof: https://imgur.com/a/swCCMjz
This post is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as investment, financial, or other advice.
TLDR: Rush Street Interactive ($RSI) is the #1 nationwide online casino company and the #3 or #4 sports book depending on the state. Short selling, unwarranted institutional wariness of share dilution and the general market focus on sports book instead of online casino has left $RSI grossly undervalued. A massive blow out at Q4 earnings will result in analyst upgrades and a rapid repricing by market makers and institutions seeking exposure to the emerging sector.
Overview
"Sports book is really just kind of a warm up in a lot of ways for an online casino where the real money is made" - Niccolo De Masi, CEO dMY technologies
Rush Street Interactive ($RSI) operates the BetRivers.com online casino and sports book. They are now fully licensed and operating in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Colorado, Iowa, and Virginia. They own and operate a casino in New York and already have a New York license making them well positioned for liberalization there. They merged with a dMY Technology Group SPAC on Dec. 31st 2020 with 240 million on the balance sheet to spend on growth.
The online casino business is fundamentally more profitable than sports betting because the average value of a casino player is estimated at $600 while a sports book player could be as little as $20. Estimates put the online casino market at DOUBLE the size of the online sports book market and the online casino industry is really just getting started as more states liberalize.
$RSI is expert at new market entry; they have been first to market in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, and Colorado and even when they aren't first they are capable of capturing market share in competitive markets such as New Jersey. They also have products which women play which accounts for at least half of the market in online casino. The female market is one that the pure sports book plays miss out on.
Also for some fucking reason they operate a casino and sports book in Colombia (rushbet.co) and may make large expansions into other parts of south America as legalization continues. This means they have the expertise necessary for global expansion in the future although the states remains their primary focus and growth driver.
The Financials and Strategy
Unlike other companies in the space Rush Street is already profitable in 2020 and has a strong focus on Return On Invested Capital (ROIC). Q3 gross revenue was $71.9 Million. Q4 revenue is going to be a blow out. Combing through state gambling revenue data and breaking that down by market share my estimate is that Q4 revenue could be as high as $120 Million.
Paired with this blow out will be a **guidance raise to $500 Million for 2021**, which is 2/3 of DraftKings 2021 guidance of $750M.
https://imgur.com/a/xkfcayC
What is striking when compared to $DKNG is that their advertising spend was only a quarter of revenue in Q3 while $DKNG spent 155% of their revenue. This will change as they begin to focus on growth, but it shows they are very good at getting return on ad spend. This company should actually be valued close to $DKNG based on growth potential once guidance is raised.
https://imgur.com/a/RQQXtGg
Their focus on attracting **female gamers** is also important to their long term growth potential. The sports book plays with cross sells to casino such as $DKNG will not be able to grow through the female demographic in the same way. **This cannot be understated** as one of the major strategic advantages of $RSI.
https://imgur.com/a/xzJj26n
As I said before I expect their trend of rapid growth to continue for Q4 earnings, certainly going to be a blow out based on looking at state gambling revenue numbers. My estimate is that their revenue will be around 110M for Q4. I also expect guidance to be raised to 500M for 2021 due to strong performance in existing markets and the recently opened Michigan market as well as their sports book launch in Virginia.
https://imgur.com/a/ckTqHhh
Short sellers have entered the chat
The short interest on $RSI sits at 5.08 M shares as of 01/14/21 representing a 30% increase. Now why would a company already valued at 2.8 Billion and with a comparative valuation of 8-10 Billion compared with $DKNG and $PENN be so heavily shorted at such a low market cap? My conclusion is that an institution with 10s of millions to throw at shorting this stock wants to take advantage of fear of share dilution from warrant calling or to establish a better entry prior to earnings.
Cathie Wood is Bullish on the sector
On Feb. 2nd ARK disclosed that they had purchased 620,300 shares of $DKNG. This is extremely bullish for the sector. I am highly confident that after Q4 earnings ARK will be purchasing shares in $RSI as well due its strategic advantages relative to $DKNG and exposure to the female demographic. For such a small market cap company this will be a major catalyst.
Final notes
Jerome "The Bus" Bettis, Steelers legend and hall of fame running back, is their brand ambassador... This company knows their target audience and how to appeal to them, likely more 'classic' ambassadors to come to attract even more boomer and Gen X degenerates. Keep in mind these are the gamblers with big money to spend, the average age of an online casino gambler is 42.
This stock has been grossly underpriced due to short selling. The terms of the SPAC deal were not unfavorable and all the insiders held their shares through the merger banking on growth in the market - **management owns 77% of the company**. This is a true value play on a well managed company in an emerging industry with a market size in the hundreds of billions. I plan to hold shares long term.
I will post a part 2 breaking down their latest S-1 filing and Q4 revenue by state when they release their Q4 earnings date.
Do your own research.
References:
https://www.legalsportsreport.com/sports-betting/revenue/
https://fintel.io/doc/sec-rush-street-interactive-inc-ex991-2021-january-05-18632-947
https://s26.q4cdn.com/794539746/files/doc_presentations/2020/RSI-Investor-Presentation-15-Oct-2020.pdf
https://ir.rushstreetinteractive.com/news/news-details/2020/RUSH-STREET-INTERACTIVE-ANNOUNCES-THIRD-QUARTER-2020-RESULTS-AND-RAISES-FULL-YEAR-GUIDANCE/default.aspx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQWEhWuPmzU
https://www.thestreet.com/investing/draftkings-surges-as-stake-bought-by-ark-next-generation
Positions: $RSI 03/19 30C
I will be adding 3/19 25cs each week until earnings.
Exit strategy: "What's an exit strategy?" - u/deepfuckingvalue
Forgot to add: http://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001793659/8f10b0d8-a3d2-447c-bc75-87587d0a4670.pdf Fidelity just doubled their position to almost 15%

How the Hunt Brothers Cornered the Silver Market and Then Lost it All

TL:DR: yes its long. Grab a beer.

​
Until his dying day in 2014, Nelson Bunker Hunt, who had once been the world’s wealthiest man, denied that he and his brother plotted to corner the global silver market.
Sure, back in 1980, Bunker, his younger brother Herbert, and other members of the Hunt clan owned roughly two-thirds of all the privately held silver on earth. But the historic stockpiling of bullion hadn’t been a ploy to manipulate the market, they and their sizable legal team would insist in the following years. Instead, it was a strategy to hedge against the voracious inflation of the 1970s—a monumental bet against the U.S. dollar.
Whatever the motive, it was a bet that went historically sour. The debt-fueled boom and bust of the global silver market not only decimated the Hunt fortune, but threatened to take down the U.S. financial system.
The panic of “Silver Thursday” took place over 35 years ago, but it still raises questions about the nature of financial manipulation. While many view the Hunt brothers as members of a long succession of white collar crooks, from Charles Ponzi to Bernie Madoff, others see the endearingly eccentric Texans as the victims of overstepping regulators and vindictive insiders who couldn’t stand the thought of being played by a couple of southern yokels.
In either case, the story of the Hunt brothers just goes to show how difficult it can be to distinguish illegal market manipulation from the old fashioned wheeling and dealing that make our markets work.
The Real-Life Ewings
Whatever their foibles, the Hunts make for an interesting cast of characters. Evidently CBS thought so; the family is rumored to be the basis for the Ewings, the fictional Texas oil dynasty of Dallas fame.
Sitting at the top of the family tree was H.L. Hunt, a man who allegedly purchased his first oil field with poker winnings and made a fortune drilling in east Texas. H.L. was a well-known oddball to boot, and his sons inherited many of their father’s quirks.
For one, there was the stinginess. Despite being the richest man on earth in the 1960s, Bunker Hunt (who went by his middle name), along with his younger brothers Herbert (first name William) and Lamar, cultivated an image as unpretentious good old boys. They drove old Cadillacs, flew coach, and when they eventually went to trial in New York City in 1988, they took the subway. As one Texas editor was quoted in the New York Times, Bunker Hunt was “the kind of guy who orders chicken-fried steak and Jello-O, spills some on his tie, and then goes out and buys all the silver in the world.”
Cheap suits aside, the Hunts were not without their ostentation. At the end of the 1970s, Bunker boasted a stable of over 500 horses and his little brother Lamar owned the Kansas City Chiefs. All six children of H.L.’s first marriage (the patriarch of the Hunt family had fifteen children by three women before he died in 1974) lived on estates befitting the scions of a Texas billionaire. These lifestyles were financed by trusts, but also risky investments in oil, real estate, and a host of commodities including sugar beets, soybeans, and, before long, silver.
The Hunt brothers also inherited their father’s political inclinations. A zealous anti-Communist, Bunker Hunt bankrolled conservative causes and was a prominent member of the John Birch Society, a group whose founder once speculated that Dwight Eisenhower was a “dedicated, conscious agent” of Soviet conspiracy. In November of 1963, Hunt sponsored a particularly ill-timed political campaign, which distributed pamphlets around Dallas condemning President Kennedy for alleged slights against the Constitution on the day that he was assassinated. JFK conspiracy theorists have been obsessed with Hunt ever since.
In fact, it was the Hunt brand of politics that partially explains what led Bunker and Herbert to start buying silver in 1973.
Hard Money
The 1970s were not kind to the U.S. dollar.
Years of wartime spending and unresponsive monetary policy pushed inflation upward throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s. Then, in October of 1973, war broke out in the Middle East and an oil embargo was declared against the United States. Inflation jumped above 10%. It would stay high throughout the decade, peaking in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution at an annual average of 13.5% in 1980.
Over the same period of time, the global monetary system underwent a historic transformation. Since the first Roosevelt administration, the U.S. dollar had been pegged to the value of gold at a predictable rate of $35 per ounce. But in 1971, President Nixon, responding to inflationary pressures, suspended that relationship. For the first time in modern history, the paper dollar did not represent some fixed amount of tangible, precious metal sitting in a vault somewhere.
For conservative commodity traders like the Hunts, who blamed government spending for inflation and held grave reservations about the viability of fiat currency, the perceived stability of precious metal offered a financial safe harbor. It was illegal to trade gold in the early 1970s, so the Hunts turned to the next best thing.
📷

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics; chart by Priceonomics

As an investment, there was a lot to like about silver. The Hunts were not alone in fleeing to bullion amid all the inflation and geopolitical turbulence, so the price was ticking up. Plus, light-sensitive silver halide is a key component of photographic film. With the growth of the consumer photography market, new production from mines struggled to keep up with demand.
And so, in 1973, Bunker and Herbert bought over 35 million ounces of silver, most of which they flew to Switzerland in specifically designed airplanes guarded by armed Texas ranch hands. According to one source, the Hunt’s purchases were big enough to move the global market.
But silver was not the Hunts' only speculative venture in the 1970s. Nor was it the only one that got them into trouble with regulators.
Soy Before Silver
In 1977, the price of soybeans was rising fast. Trade restrictions on Brazil and growing demand from China made the legume a hot commodity, and both Bunker and Herbert decided to enter the futures market in April of that year.
A future is an agreement to buy or sell some quantity of a commodity at an agreed upon price at a later date. If someone contracts to buy soybeans in the future (they are said to take the “long” position), they will benefit if the price of soybeans rise, since they have locked in the lower price ahead of time. Likewise, if someone contracts to sell (that’s called the “short” position), they benefit if the price falls, since they have locked in the old, higher price.
While futures contracts can be used by soybean farmers and soy milk producers to guard against price swings, most futures are traded by people who wouldn’t necessarily know tofu from cream cheese. As a de facto insurance contract against market volatility, futures can be used to hedge other investments or simply to gamble on prices going up (by going long) or down (by going short).
When the Hunts decided to go long in the soybean futures market, they went very, very long. Between Bunker, Herbert, and the accounts of five of their children, the Hunts collectively purchased the right to buy one-third of the entire autumn soybean harvest of the United States.
To some, it appeared as if the Hunts were attempting to corner the soybean market.
In its simplest version, a corner occurs when someone buys up all (or at least, most) of the available quantity of a commodity. This creates an artificial shortage, which drives up the price, and allows the market manipulator to sell some of his stockpile at a higher profit.
Futures markets introduce some additional complexity to the cornerer’s scheme. Recall that when a trader takes a short position on a contract, he or she is pledging to sell a certain amount of product to the holder of the long position. But if the holder of the long position just so happens to be sitting on all the readily available supply of the commodity under contract, the short seller faces an unenviable choice: go scrounge up some of the very scarce product in order to “make delivery” or just pay the cornerer a hefty premium and nullify the deal entirely.
In this case, the cornerer is actually counting on the shorts to do the latter, says Craig Pirrong, professor of finance at the University of Houston. If too many short sellers find that it actually costs less to deliver the product, the market manipulator will be stuck with warehouses full of inventory. Finance experts refer to selling the all the excess supply after building a corner as “burying the corpse.”
“That is when the price collapses,” explains Pirrong. “But if the number of deliveries isn’t too high, the loss from selling at the low price after the corner is smaller than the profit from selling contracts at the high price.”
📷

The Chicago Board of Trade trading floor. Photo credit: Jeremy Kemp

Even so, when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission found that a single family from Texas had contracted to buy a sizable portion of the 1977 soybean crop, they did not accuse the Hunts of outright market manipulation. Instead, noting that the Hunts had exceeded the 3 million bushel aggregate limit on soybean holdings by about 20 million, the CFTC noted that the Hunt’s “excessive holdings threaten disruption of the market and could cause serious injury to the American public.” The CFTC ordered the Hunts to sell and to pay a penalty of $500,000.
Though the Hunts made tens of millions of dollars on paper while soybean prices skyrocketed, it’s unclear whether they were able to cash out before the regulatory intervention. In any case, the Hunts were none too pleased with the decision.
“Apparently the CFTC is trying to repeal the law of supply and demand,” Bunker complained to the press.
Silver Thursday
Despite the run in with regulators, the Hunts were not dissuaded. Bunker and Herbert had eased up on silver after their initial big buy in 1973, but in the fall of 1979, they were back with a vengeance. By the end of the year, Bunker and Herbert owned 21 million ounces of physical silver each. They had even larger positions in the silver futures market: Bunker was long on 45 million ounces, while Herbert held contracts for 20 million. Their little brother Lamar also had a more “modest” position.
By the new year, with every dollar increase in the price of silver, the Hunts were making $100 million on paper. But unlike most investors, when their profitable futures contracts expired, they took delivery. As in 1973, they arranged to have the metal flown to Switzerland. Intentional or not, this helped create a shortage of the metal for industrial supply.
Naturally, the industrialists were unhappy. From a spot price of around $6 per ounce in early 1979, the price of silver shot up to $50.42 in January of 1980. In the same week, silver futures contracts were trading at $46.80. Film companies like Kodak saw costs go through the roof, while the British film producer, Ilford, was forced to lay off workers. Traditional bullion dealers, caught in a squeeze, cried foul to the commodity exchanges, and the New York jewelry house Tiffany & Co. took out a full page ad in the New York Times slamming the “unconscionable” Hunt brothers. They were right to single out the Hunts; in mid-January, they controlled 69% of all the silver futures contracts on the Commodity Exchange (COMEX) in New York.
📷

Source: New York Times

But as the high prices persisted, new silver began to come out of the woodwork.
“In the U.S., people rifled their dresser drawers and sofa cushions to find dimes and quarters with silver content and had them melted down,” says Pirrong, from the University of Houston. “Silver is a classic part of a bride’s trousseau in India, and when prices got high, women sold silver out of their trousseaus.”
According to a Washington Post article published that March, the D.C. police warned residents of a rash of home burglaries targeting silver.
Unfortunately for the Hunts, all this new supply had a predictable effect. Rather than close out their contracts, short sellers suddenly found it was easier to get their hands on new supplies of silver and deliver.
“The main factor that has caused corners to fail [throughout history] is that the manipulator has underestimated how much will be delivered to him if he succeeds [at] raising the price to artificial levels,” says Pirrong. “Eventually, the Hunts ran out of money to pay for all the silver that was thrown at them.”
In financial terms, the brothers had a large corpse on their hands—and no way to bury it.
This proved to be an especially big problem, because it wasn’t just the Hunt fortune that was on the line. Of the $6.6 billion worth of silver the Hunts held at the top of the market, the brothers had “only” spent a little over $1 billion of their own money. The rest was borrowed from over 20 banks and brokerage houses.
At the same time, COMEX decided to crack down. On January 7, 1980, the exchange’s board of governors announced that it would cap the size of silver futures exposure to 3 million ounces. Those in excess of the cap (say, by the tens of millions) were given until the following month to bring themselves into compliance. But that was too long for the Chicago Board of Trade exchange, which suspended the issue of any new silver futures on January 21. Silver futures traders would only be allowed to square up old contracts.
Predictably, silver prices began to slide. As the various banks and other firms that had backed the Hunt bullion binge began to recognize the tenuousness of their financial position, they issued margin calls, asking the brothers to put up more money as collateral for their debts. The Hunts, unable to sell silver lest they trigger a panic, borrowed even more. By early March, futures contracts had fallen to the mid-$30 range.
Matters finally came to a head on March 25, when one of the Hunts’ largest backers, the Bache Group, asked for $100 million more in collateral. The brothers were out of cash, and Bache was unwilling to accept silver in its place, as it had been doing throughout the month. With the Hunts in default, Bache did the only thing it could to start recouping its losses: it start to unload silver.
On March 27, “Silver Thursday,” the silver futures market dropped by a third to $10.80. Just two months earlier, these contracts had been trading at four times that amount.
The Aftermath
After the oil bust of the early 1980s and a series of lawsuits polished off the remainder of the Hunt brothers’ once historic fortune, the two declared bankruptcy in 1988. Bunker, who had been worth an estimated $16 billion in the 1960s, emerged with under $10 million to his name. That’s not exactly chump change, but it wasn’t enough to maintain his 500-plus stable of horses,.
The Hunts almost dragged their lenders into bankruptcy too—and with them, a sizable chunk of the U.S. financial system. Over twenty financial institutions had extended over a billion dollars in credit to the Hunt brothers. The default and resulting collapse of silver prices blew holes in balance sheets across Wall Street. A privately orchestrated bailout loan from a number of banks allowed the brothers to start paying off their debts and keep their creditors afloat, but the markets and regulators were rattled.
Silver Spot Prices Per Ounce (January, 1979 - June, 1980)
📷

Source: Trading Economics

In the words of then CFTC chief James Stone, the Hunts’ antics had threatened to punch a hole in the “financial fabric of the United States” like nothing had in decades. Writing about the entire episode a year later, Harper’s Magazine described Silver Thursday as “the first great panic since October 1929.”
The trouble was not over for the Hunts. In the following years, the brothers were dragged before Congressional hearings, got into a legal spat with their lenders, and were sued by a Peruvian mineral marketing company, which had suffered big losses in the crash. In 1988, a New York City jury found for the South American firm, levying a penalty of over $130 million against the Hunts and finding that they had deliberately conspired to corner the silver market.
Surprisingly, there is still some disagreement on that point.
Bunker Hunt attributed the whole affair to the political motives of COMEX insiders and regulators. Referring to himself later as “a favorite whipping boy” of an eastern financial establishment riddled with liberals and socialists, Bunker and his brother, Herbert, are still perceived as martyrs by some on the far-right.
“Political and financial insiders repeatedly changed the rules of the game,” wrote the New American. “There is little evidence to support the ‘corner the market’ narrative.”
Though the Hunt brothers clearly amassed a staggering amount of silver and silver derivatives at the end of the 1970s, it is impossible to prove definitively that market manipulation was in their hearts. Maybe, as the Hunts always claimed, they just really believed in the enduring value of silver.
Or maybe, as others have noted, the Hunt brothers had no idea what they were doing. Call it the stupidity defense.
“They’re terribly unsophisticated,” an anonymous associated was quoted as saying of the Hunts in a Chicago Tribune article from 1989. “They make all the mistakes most other people make,” said another.
p.s. credit to Ben Christopher
​

I figured I would write this up because I keep seeing people making these unfair and misleading first movenetwork effect arguments over and over again, they are just lies. Being first mover or having network effect are not magic things that make everything oke and removes all competition.

First mover advantage

There are more disadvantages to being first mover in this space and tech in general than advantages, the first mover advantage is arguably even a myth. Most of today’s behemoths – from Google and Facebook to Instagram and TikTok – were not first-movers. Moreover, the last 20 years have seen a flood of first-movers failing, with companies like Nokia, Yahoo and G.M. all facing dire straits or going under completely. These are not outliers.
First mover disadvantages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-mover_advantage#Disadvantages_of_being_a_first_mover
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Network effect

Network effect matters, it matters a lot. But there is no such thing as an insurmountable network effect, especially in the current crypto space. There are plenty of examples of disruption of very dominant actors in different industries. Microsoft was a monopoly and Apple managed to take a huge chunk of market share. Yahoo was the dominant search engine and Google took over. Nokia had a 50% market share in the mobile phone industry... Nobody uses MySpace anymore...
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Why network effects in crypto are not that significant.
The size of the crypto industry is tiny compared to many other industries and seeing the potential it has. There is so much room to grow. The crypto industry is now at a $1 trillion marketcap. That's a whole industry of a revolutionary new technology that's not even worth half of Apple, one company, alone (https://companiesmarketcap.com/). And there are so many use cases not realized yet. I would argue there hasn't even been real adoption yet, the top applications are DeFi which is for the vast majority used by speculators and yield farmers and not real users, gambling and scams. And there are 22.6M developers in the world while there are only 80k Solidity developers on Ethereum.
There are also NEGATIVE network effects. Instead of 'more users = better experience = more users joining' you get 'more users = worse experience = users leaving'. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect#Negative_network_externalities) We have already seen negative network effects happen and they come to light the best when we are in a bull run (more users join). In 2017 Bitcoin was congested and transaction times and fees skyrocketed (worse experience). The narrative changed from 'p2p cash' used by merchants etc. (usage of Bitcoin in daily transactions was shilled heavily before the network got congested) to 'SoV' only. And people moved over to other solutions and Bitcoin dominance dropped (users leave). Ethereum had similar issues around that time, Cryptokitties alone pretty much stopped Ethereum from working. And currently Ethereum has major issues with congestion and high gas fees as a result. These negative network effects are only going to become worse the more users try to join unless the issues are fixed.
Bitcoin was promised Lightning Network to solve it's scalability issues but as far as I know it is not being adopted after 3-4 years of development and pushing for adoption. So Bitcoin is currently going to stay a SoV only and/or there will be heavy network congestion this bull run.
Ethereum is moving to PoS to solve this but ETH 2.0 is at the very least still a year away, this is way too late for the mass of new users that are coming in. Layer 2 scaling solutions are promised to keep Ethereum running properly until ETH 2.0 but we have yet to see this really happen.
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How Cardano plays into this

Cardano was inspired by Bitcoin and learned from the mistakes of both Bitcoin and Ethereum. They took all the good things, got rid of all the bad things and improved. They took Bitcoins monetary policy and security properties for example and improved on e.g. scalability, energy consumption and decentralization. Cardano has the same if not better properties as Bitcoin to be a SoV, let that sink in. They learned from Ethereums problems that arose over the years like the DAO hack and used a rigorous principles first approach using academic peer review, formal methods and a functional programming language to prevent these problems from occuring, this is going to be the industry standard for development (to understand why peer review and formal methods matters see In Defense of Peer Review and what formal methods are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_methods). And created Plutus and Marlowe to minimize bugs/mistakes which were often made using Solidity. They learned from UTxO and account based models and created Extended UTxO which has more benefits. They learned from the terrible fee structure Ethereum has and improved to prevent high fee issues. They learned from the problems Ethereum governance has and made it more decentralized and efficient. They learned that non-profit development running on donations is not sustainable and created an on-chain treasury to fund Cardano development in a decentralized way. The list goes on and on. Also don't forget that IOG is years ahead in research and there is tons of improvements yet to come. The first mover disadvantage here is huge.
There are 22.6M developers in the world and Ethereum has only 80k Solidity developers. Cardano is going to tap into the remaining 22.5M developers and make it easy for Solidity developers to move over to Cardano with IELE, KEVM and the ERC20 converter, see: The Island, The Ocean and the Pond (Soon). You tell me if having 80k developers in a group of 22.6M developers is a network effect anyone should be fearing.
Cardano has an on-chain treasury that is replenished by transaction fees and the reserves. It's worth almost $200M at current ADA price, imagine when ADA is $1 or much much higher. This is a forever sustainable source to fund development. Cardano does not have to rely on unsustainable donations or centralized entities deciding on funding. It will fund projects every 6 weeks and will just keep on chugging along forever. This will attract developers continuously. See Catalyst (link provided by bot in the comments). You tell me if this will bring network effect faster than some enthousiasts building on Ethereum.
IOG's other strategy for adoption is to bring economic identity to billions of people in developing countries. The idea behind this is that there will be less resistance than in developed countries to adopt the technology because these countries need it the most (most are unbanked and don't have financial services or good solutions for other problems like identification, land registry, etc. unlike people in the US or EU), don't have incumbents who will resist, have a young population who can adopt new technology more easily and it makes them able to compete in the global market. They also have the fastest growing economies and there is a lot more value to create. And when these countries adopt crypto and show the value it creates for them then developed countries will follow more easily. This will bring millions of users who will use Cardano for real problems they have not to gamble or be a "yield farmer", this is lasting real adoption. IOG has been working in Africa for 3-4 years and is really close to closing a multi million users deal in Ethiopia. See this latest interview with IOG's African Operations Director: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUPKtfTLvAk. And when Fortune 500 companies can easily reach all those millions of people in Africa with their products and services and can play in those markets then they have incentive to use Cardano. Again, you tell me if this is a better way to get adoption and network effect than whatever Ethereum is doing. You tell me if millions of real users is not going to create network effect.
​
Anyone who is not utterly biased will come to the conclusion that Cardano can challenge and pass Ethereum and Bitcoin. Keep using critical thinking. Think for yourself. Do your own research.

I have seen (TSX: FIRE) (OTCQX: SPRWF) get a lot of hype the last few days. It has been the second most actively traded stock on the TSX in the last ten days. They also have a ticker that is literally 🔥 and a brand name that is ultimately supreme. I couldn’t think of a bettedouchier name and ticket for a Cannabis company.

Now the question is, should we buy into the hype?

First, what is $FIRE?
$FIRE = the Supreme Cannabis Company produces marijuana under the banner of its wholly-owned subsidiary 7 Acres. They have a 440,000 square Cultivation facility. They also claim to have a robust R&D and genetics program, advance processing and automated packaging capabilities, and is Health Canada licensed for the sale of cannabis 2.0 products. They claim they have emerged as one of the world’s fastest-growing, premium plant driven-lifestyle company by effectively deploying capital to build a diversified portfolio of successful cannabis brands. I personally feel like every Cannabis company says the same thing so that’s nothing new.
Long story short, Supreme grow and hold Cannabis supplies their partners who produce specific products. Their partners are 7Acres, Blissco, Truverra, Sugar Leaf and Hiway (see picture below).
In FY2020, Supreme Cannabis brought +35 cannabis consumer products to 10 provinces across Canada, formed an industry leading sales partnership, maintained a strong wholesale business and completed its first international medical cannabis export.

Here is a screenshot of what each “partner” is licensed to sell and where they can sell it.

​
All of them look like relatively decent partners that produce product and supply it to primarily Canada. They got licensed in 2019 to sell cannabis oil, weird that the stock dropped so much after that. Weed stock hype died down the last year I think, but with the resurgence I feel like this stock is in a decent position.
Summary: Looks pretty run of the mill, nothing revolutionary, nothing bad. At least they have partners, a product and a decent grow operation.

Financials:

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https://preview.redd.it/zw8ze7o8dwf61.png?width=2612&format=png&auto=webp&s=c069d60dfc3a424ae19c653ced14c4b03de4dfa8
Comparing FIRE to other major and small cap weed companies there is nothing overly concerning/amazing. Fire did post a loss in its most recent financial year of CA$139m and a latest trailing-twelve-month loss of CA$93m shrinking the gap between loss and breakeven. Note they did offer a big 100m fundraiser to generate capital for new partnerships, expansion.
I personally am of the belief that you need to attack to grow a business. Especially in crowded sectors such as Cannabis. I would rather see them look to create change and shake it up. You NEED to do something after having your market cap shrink as much as they have. Also keep in mind losses aren’t inherently bad as a company needs to invest to grow, but they do they to post positive earnings. They have their earnings coming up soon, so this is where momentum can change, if they can post a good quarter, I feel like the stock could explode. They are projected to grow 77.82% per year, plus the CEO has a good track record so it looks promising (more of that below).
But do note do not have a ton of cash to keep them fluid, so this earnings report is super important. They’ve missed their last four quarters and they need to start producing some profit.
Their earnings report will be announced Feb 11, 2021. People might be accumulating and generating hype on the hope of a good earnings report. This is similar to what happened with $SCR. Score absolutely blew up after they had a good earnings report after several consecutive quarters at a loss. Keep in mind this isn’t always the case (just look at AMD).
Summary: If you're willing to wager on this earnings reports being positive, this is nothing to worry about. If you're super adverse to risk, I would maybe stay away. Could be huge upside, but it is a gamble.

Team:

April 27, 2020 the company made a wise move, bringing in Beena The Beauty Goldenberg: Beena is now President & CEO of Supreme Cannabis Company. Goldenberg brings 30 years of CPG experience to her roles at Supreme. For the last 15 years, she worked in the natural and organics space. As the CEO of Hain-Celestial Canada, she grew the business from approximately $40 million to over $300 million by the time she left in 2020.
Here is a statement of Beena speaking pure fire about fire:

I joined Supreme Cannabis as President & CEO in April because I was drawn to the Company’s focus on quality – not just in our products, practices, and facilities – but in the emphasis our people place on continuous improvement across the organization. Since joining, I have seen us make significant progress in transforming ourselves into a premier cannabis CPG company.

It looks like Beena the beauty is in here to shake things up and bring some growth to this company. She noted that 2020 was a tough year for Cannabis growth, but it is clear a lot of investors are bullish on its opportunity in 2021. She came in and made some tough choices which I like, such as restructuring the organizational model, and adjusting the assumed valuations on parts of the business. Good to hear she made some cuts, shook things up and is looking to bring FIRE back to it’s 2018 hype.
I didn’t look into the rest of the team too much, they all look pretty run of the mill executives. If someone wants to look more into the team it would be appreciated.
Otherwise they have a 400 employee team everything looks pretty granola for the size of their operation.
Summary: In Beena the beauty we trust.

Now that you probably know more about FIRE than your degree, the big question is wether there is news to support the recent price action/drive up more in the future?

• Playing with B2B sales. They struck an agreement with Breath of Life International Ltd. to offer Truverra-branded premium medical cannabis to patients in Israel. To date, we have made three shipments of medical cannabis through the agreement. This “capitallight” approach further diversifies our revenue and builds Truverra as a global medical brand.
• ^ This is good because it shows they’re looking for international partners. This is where the real money is IMO, especially if legislation starts to change around the world regarding Cannabis products.
• Earnings on Feb 11
• ^ Gamble, I feel like it will be better, but if it isn’t great, I think the price will take a beating again. If it’s good 🚀
• I’m sure they’re seeking out more partners, opportunity for growth, new CEO is making the right moves. They just need to get their earnings up.
• Opportunity for mergers is another positive option.
• u/Hunterston noted that PepsiCo & Monsanto may have invested interests in the stock. He claims that BOL Pharma got their foot in the canadian market thru Supreme. supreme has sent 4 shipments to them and BOL afterwards sent a shipment to the UK with outstanding results. Potential shipments to Australia? I suspect we can learn a lot on the earnings call so we'll see if this is all true. This could further pump price action.

TDLR
Should you buy? I will buy. I am not comfortable YOLO’ing in this company but I feel like there is decent upside. It really depends on this earnings report, if you get in early you could get some great returns but you could also be investing in a dying company. They aren’t an insanely healthy company, so I would go into this with some skepticism. I have personally been looking for a decent weed play and I feel like this is as good as any for earning potential.
They have a product, earnings, and partnerships + plans, I can definitely see this company experiencing some growth. So much of this is dependant on earnings and it’s a decent company, but it isn’t really revolutionary. The weed sector is still new and so pillared to regulation. Governments are going to be looking for new $ after all the stimulus they’ve been giving so they should be more accepting of emerging sectors, but ultimately bureaucracy does what it will.
I’m not going to lie, one decent reason to buy is their branding. I can just see a lot of you shmelts getting fired up about FIRE because of the ticker and the company name supreme. I know this isn’t the most sound financial logic, but this is memorable and because of the low market cap, unique branding and potential, I can see it getting pumped by communities and P2P conversations.
I am not a financial advisor, make your own educated decisions, but I will likely be buying 5-10k shares to hold for a few years. Hopefully this helped 🚀 🚀 🚀

NEW INFO 5 Results from share redemption are posted. Less than .2% redeemed. Very bullish as investors are showing extreme confidence in the future of PLBY.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/playboy-mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-120000721.html
NEW INFO 4 Definitive Agreement to purchase 100% of Lovers brand stores announced 2/1.
https://www.streetinsider.com/Corporate+News/Playboy+%28MCAC%29+Confirms+Deal+to+Acquire+Lovers/17892359.html
NEW INFO 3 I bought more on the dip today. 5081 total. Price rose AH to $12.38 (2.15%)
NEW INFO 2 Here is the full webinar.
https://icrinc.zoom.us/rec/play/9GWKdmOYumjWfZuufW3QXpe_FW_g--qeNbg6PnTjTMbnNTgLmCbWjeRFpQga1iPc-elpGap8dnDv8Zww.yD7DjUwuPmapeEdP?continueMode=true&tk=lEYc4F_FkKlgsmCIs6w0gtGHT2kbgVGbUju3cIRBSjk.DQIAAAAV8NK49xZWdldRM2xNSFNQcTBmcE00UzM3bXh3AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA&uuid=WN_GKWqbHkeSyuWetJmLFkj4g&_x_zm_rtaid=kR45-uuqRE-L65AxLjpbQw.1611967079119.2c054e3d3f8d8e63339273d9175939ed&_x_zm_rhtaid=866
NEW INFO 1 Live merger webinar with PLBY and MCAC on Friday January 29, 2021 at 12:00 NOON EST link below
https://mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/press-release-details/2021/Playboy-Enterprises-Inc.-and-Mountain-Crest-Acquisition-Corp-Participate-in-SPACInsider-ICR-Webinar-on-January-29th-at-12pm-ET/default.aspx
Playboy going public: Porn, Gambling, and Cannabis
!!!WARNING READING AHEAD!!! TL;DR at the end. It will take some time to sort through all the links and read/watch everything, but you should.
In the next couple weeks, Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp is taking Playboy public. The existing ticker MCAC will become PLBY. Special purpose acquisition companies have taken private companies public in recent months with great success. I believe this will be no exception. Notably, Playboy is profitable and has skyrocketing revenue going into a transformational growth phase.
Porn - First and foremost, let's talk about porn. I know what you guys are thinking. “Porno mags are dead. Why would I want to invest in something like that? I can get porn for free online.” Guess what? You are absolutely right. And that’s exactly why Playboy doesn’t do that anymore. That’s right, they eliminated their print division. And yet they somehow STILL make money from porn that people (see: boomers) pay for on their website through PlayboyTV, Playboy Plus, and iPlayboy. Here’s the thing: Playboy has international, multi-generational name recognition from porn. They have content available in 180 countries. It will be the only publicly traded adult entertainment (porn) company. But that is not where this company is going. It will help support them along the way. You can see every Playboy magazine through iPlayboy if you’re interested. NSFW links below:
https://www.playboy.com/
https://www.playboytv.com/
https://www.playboyplus.com/
https://www.iplayboy.com/
Gambling - Some of you might recognize the Playboy brand from gambling trips to places like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Cancun, London or Macau. They’ve been in the gambling biz for decades through their casinos, clubs, and licensed gaming products. They see the writing on the wall. COVID is accelerating the transition to digital, application based GAMBLING. That’s right. What we are doing on Robinhood with risky options is gambling, and the only reason regulators might give a shit anymore is because we are making too much money. There may be some restrictions put in place, but gambling from your phone on your couch is not going anywhere. More and more states are allowing things like Draftkings, poker, state ‘lottery” apps, hell - even political betting. Michigan and Virginia just ok’d gambling apps. They won’t be the last. This is all from your couch and any 18 year old with a cracked iphone can access it. Wouldn’t it be cool if Playboy was going to do something like that? They’re already working on it. As per CEO Ben Kohn who we will get to later, “...the company’s casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth.” Honestly, I stopped researching Scientific Games' sports betting segment when I saw the word ‘omni-channel’. That told me all I needed to know about it’s success.
“Our SG Sports™ platform is an enhanced, omni-channel solution for online, self-service and retail fixed odds sports betting – from soccer to tennis, basketball, football, baseball, hockey, motor sports, racing and more.”
https://www.scientificgames.com/
https://www.microgaming.co.uk/
“This latter segment has become increasingly enticing for Playboy, and it said last week that it is considering new tie-ups that could include gaming operators like PointsBet and 888Holdings.”
https://calvinayre.com/2020/10/05/business/playboys-gaming-ops-could-get-a-boost-from-spac-purchase/
As per their SEC filing:
“Significant consumer engagement and spend with Playboy-branded gaming properties around the world, including with leading partners such as Microgaming, Scientific Games, and Caesar’s Entertainment, steers our investment in digital gaming, sports betting and other digital offerings to further support our commercial strategy to expand consumer spend with minimal marginal cost, and gain consumer data to inform go-to-market plans across categories.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tMDAA1
They are expanding into more areas of gaming/gambling, working with international players in the digital gaming/gambling arena, and a Playboy sportsbook is on the horizon.
https://www.playboy.com/read/the-pleasure-of-playing-with-yourself-mobile-gaming-in-the-covid-era
Cannabis - If you’ve ever read through a Playboy magazine, you know they’ve had a positive relationship with cannabis for many years. As of September 2020, Playboy has made a major shift into the cannabis space. Too good to be true you say? Check their website. Playboy currently sells a range of CBD products. This is a good sign. Federal hemp products, which these most likely are, can be mailed across state lines and most importantly for a company like Playboy, can operate through a traditional banking institution. CBD products are usually the first step towards the cannabis space for large companies. Playboy didn’t make these products themselves meaning they are working with a processor in the cannabis industry. Another good sign for future expansion. What else do they have for sale? Pipes, grinders, ashtrays, rolling trays, joint holders. Hmm. Ok. So it looks like they want to sell some shit. They probably don’t have an active interest in cannabis right? Think again:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/09/24/playboy-gets-serious-about-cannabis-law-reform-advocacy-with-new-partnership-grants/?sh=62f044a65cea
“Taking yet another step into the cannabis space, Playboy will be announcing later on Thursday (September, 2020) that it is launching a cannabis law reform and advocacy campaign in partnership with National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Last Prisoner Project, Marijuana Policy Project, the Veterans Cannabis Project, and the Eaze Momentum Program.”
“According to information procured exclusively, the three-pronged campaign will focus on calling for federal legalization. The program also includes the creation of a mentorship plan, through which the Playboy Foundation will support entrepreneurs from groups that are underrepresented in the industry.” Remember that CEO Kohn from earlier? He wrote this recently:
https://medium.com/naked-open-letters-from-playboy/congress-must-pass-the-more-act-c867c35239ae
Seems like he really wants weed to be legal? Hmm wonder why? The writing's on the wall my friends. Playboy wants into the cannabis industry, they are making steps towards this end, and we have favorable conditions for legislative progress.
Don’t think branding your own cannabis line is profitable or worthwhile? Tell me why these 41 celebrity millionaires and billionaires are dummies. I’ll wait.
https://www.celebstoner.com/news/celebstoner-news/2019/07/12/top-celebrity-cannabis-brands/
Confirmation: I hear you. “This all seems pretty speculative. It would be wildly profitable if they pull this shift off. But how do we really know?” Watch this whole video:
https://finance.yahoo.com/video/playboy-ceo-telling-story-female-154907068.html
Man - this interview just gets my juices flowing. And highlights one of my favorite reasons for this play. They have so many different business avenues from which a catalyst could appear. I think paying attention, holding shares, and options on these staggered announcements over the next year is the way I am going to go about it. "There's definitely been a shift to direct-to-consumer," he (Kohn) said. "About 50 percent of our revenue today is direct-to-consumer, and that will continue to grow going forward.” “Kohn touted Playboy's portfolio of both digital and consumer products, with casino-style gaming, in particular, serving a crucial role under the company's new business model. Playboy also has its sights on the emerging cannabis market, from CBD products to marijuana products geared toward sexual health and pleasure.” "If THC does become legal in the United States, we have developed certain strains to enhance your sex life that we will launch," Kohn said. https://cheddar.com/media/playboy-goes-public-health-gaming-lifestyle-focus Oh? The CEO actually said it? Ok then. “We have developed certain strains…” They’re already working with growers on strains and genetics? Ok. There are several legal cannabis markets for those products right now, international and stateside. I expect Playboy licensed hemp and THC pre-rolls by EOY. Something like this: https://www.etsy.com/listing/842996758/10-playboy-pre-roll-tubes-limited?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=pre+roll+playboy&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&organic_search_click=1 Maintaining cannabis operations can be costly and a regulatory headache. Playboy’s licensing strategy allows them to pick successful, established partners and sidestep traditional barriers to entry. You know what I like about these new markets? They’re expanding. Worldwide. And they are going to be a bigger deal than they already are with or without Playboy. Who thinks weed and gambling are going away? Too many people like that stuff. These are easy markets. And Playboy is early enough to carve out their spot in each. Fuck it, read this too: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimosman/2020/10/20/playboy-could-be-the-king-of-spacs-here-are-three-picks/?sh=2e13dcaa3e05
Numbers: You want numbers? I got numbers. As per the company’s most recent SEC filing:
“For the year ended December 31, 2019, and the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s historical consolidated revenue was $78.1 million and $101.3 million, respectively, historical consolidated net income (loss) was $(23.6) million and $(4.8) million, respectively, and Adjusted EBITDA was $13.1 million and $21.8 million, respectively.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Licensing segment contributed $44.2 million in revenue and $31.1 million in net income.”
“In the ninth months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Direct-to-Consumer segment contributed $40.2 million in revenue and net income of $0.1 million.”
“In the nine months ended September 30, 2020, Playboy’s Digital Subscriptions and Content segment contributed $15.4 million in revenue and net income of $7.4 million.”
They are profitable across all three of their current business segments.
“Playboy’s return to the public markets presents a transformed, streamlined and high-growth business. The Company has over $400 million in cash flows contracted through 2029, sexual wellness products available for sale online and in over 10,000 major retail stores in the US, and a growing variety of clothing and branded lifestyle and digital gaming products.”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
Growth: Playboy has massive growth in China and massive growth potential in India. “In China, where Playboy has spent more than 25 years building its business, our licensees have an enormous footprint of nearly 2,500 brick and mortar stores and 1,000 ecommerce stores selling high quality, Playboy-branded men’s casual wear, shoes/footwear, sleepwear, swimwear, formal suits, leather & non-leather goods, sweaters, active wear, and accessories. We have achieved significant growth in China licensing revenues over the past several years in partnership with strong licensees and high-quality manufacturers, and we are planning for increased growth through updates to our men’s fashion lines and expansion into adjacent categories in men’s skincare and grooming, sexual wellness, and women’s fashion, a category where recent launches have been well received.” The men’s market in China is about the same size as the entire population of the United States and European Union combined. Playboy is a leading brand in this market. They are expanding into the women’s market too. Did you know CBD toothpaste is huge in China? China loves CBD products and has hemp fields that dwarf those in the US. If Playboy expands their CBD line China it will be huge. Did you know the gambling money in Macau absolutely puts Las Vegas to shame? Technically, it's illegal on the mainland, but in reality, there is a lot of gambling going on in China. https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/10/19/magic-johnson-and-uncle-buds-cbd-brand-enter-china-via-tmall-partnership/?sh=271776ca411e “In India, Playboy today has a presence through select apparel licensees and hospitality establishments. Consumer research suggests significant growth opportunities in the territory with Playboy’s brand and categories of focus.” “Playboy Enterprises has announced the expansion of its global consumer products business into India as part of a partnership with Jay Jay Iconic Brands, a leading fashion and lifestyle Company in India.” “The Indian market today is dominated by consumers under the age of 35, who represent more than 65 percent of the country’s total population and are driving India’s significant online shopping growth. The Playboy brand’s core values of playfulness and exploration resonate strongly with the expressed desires of today’s younger millennial consumers. For us, Playboy was the perfect fit.” “The Playboy international portfolio has been flourishing for more than 25 years in several South Asian markets such as China and Japan. In particular, it has strategically targeted the millennial and gen-Z audiences across categories such as apparel, footwear, home textiles, eyewear and watches.” https://www.licenseglobal.com/industry-news/playboy-expands-global-footprint-india It looks like they gave COVID the heisman in terms of net damage sustained: “Although Playboy has not suffered any material adverse consequences to date from the COVID-19 pandemic, the business has been impacted both negatively and positively. The remote working and stay-at-home orders resulted in the closure of the London Playboy Club and retail stores of Playboy’s licensees, decreasing licensing revenues in the second quarter, as well as causing supply chain disruption and less efficient product development thereby slowing the launch of new products. However, these negative impacts were offset by an increase in Yandy’s direct-to-consumer sales, which have benefited in part from overall increases in online retail sales so far during the pandemic.” Looks like the positives are long term (Yandy acquisition) and the negatives are temporary (stay-at-home orders).
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921006093/tm213766-1_defa14a.htm
This speaks to their ability to maintain a financially solvent company throughout the transition phase to the aforementioned areas. They’d say some fancy shit like “expanded business model to encompass four key revenue streams: Sexual Wellness, Style & Apparel, Gaming & Lifestyle, and Beauty & Grooming.” I hear “we’re just biding our time with these trinkets until those dollar dollar bill y’all markets are fully up and running.” But the truth is these existing revenue streams are profitable, scalable, and rapidly expanding Playboy’s e-commerce segment around the world.
"Even in the face of COVID this year, we've been able to grow EBITDA over 100 percent and revenue over 68 percent, and I expect that to accelerate going into 2021," he said. “Playboy is accelerating its growth in company-owned and branded consumer products in attractive and expanding markets in which it has a proven history of brand affinity and consumer spend.”
Also in the SEC filing, the Time Frame:
“As we detailed in the definitive proxy statement, the SPAC stockholder meeting to vote on the transaction has been set for February 9th, and, subject to stockholder approval and satisfaction of the other closing conditions, we expect to complete the merger and begin trading on NASDAQ under ticker PLBY shortly thereafter,” concluded Kohn.
The Players: Suhail “The Whale” Rizvi (HMFIC), Ben “The Bridge” Kohn (CEO), “lil” Suying Liu & “Big” Dong Liu (Young-gun China gang). I encourage you to look these folks up. The real OG here is Suhail Rizvi. He’s from India originally and Chairman of the Board for the new PLBY company. He was an early investor in Twitter, Square, Facebook and others. His firm, Rizvi Traverse, currently invests in Instacart, Pinterest, Snapchat, Playboy, and SpaceX. Maybe you’ve heard of them. “Rizvi, who owns a sprawling three-home compound in Greenwich, Connecticut, and a 1.65-acre estate in Palm Beach, Florida, near Bill Gates and Michael Bloomberg, moved to Iowa Falls when he was five. His father was a professor of psychology at Iowa. Along with his older brother Ashraf, a hedge fund manager, Rizvi graduated from Wharton business school.” “Suhail Rizvi: the 47-year-old 'unsocial' social media baron: When Twitter goes public in the coming weeks (2013), one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his photos from the internet. In IPO, Twitter seeks to be 'anti-FB'” “Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia looks like a big Twitter winner. So do the moneyed clients of Jamie Dimon. But as you’ve-got-to-be-joking wealth washed over Twitter on Thursday — a company that didn’t exist eight years ago was worth $31.7 billion after its first day on the stock market — the non-boldface name of the moment is Suhail R. Rizvi. Mr. Rizvi, 47, runs a private investment company that is the largest outside investor in Twitter with a 15.6 percent stake worth $3.8 billion at the end of trading on Thursday (November, 2013). Using a web of connections in the tech industry and in finance, as well as a hearty dose of good timing, he brought many prominent names in at the ground floor, including the Saudi prince and some of JPMorgan’s wealthiest clients.” https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/technology/at-twitter-working-behind-the-scenes-toward-a-billion-dollar-payday.html Y’all like that Arab money? How about a dude that can call up Saudi Princes and convince them to spend? Funniest shit about I read about him: “Rizvi was able to buy only $100 million in Facebook shortly before its IPO, thus limiting his returns, according to people with knowledge of the matter.” Poor guy :(
He should be fine with the 16 million PLBY shares he's going to have though :)
Shuhail also has experience in the entertainment industry. He’s invested in companies like SESAC, ICM, and Summit Entertainment. He’s got Hollywood connections to blast this stuff post-merger. And he’s at least partially responsible for that whole Twilight thing. I’m team Edward btw.
I really like what Suhail has done so far. He’s lurked in the shadows while Kohn is consolidating the company, trimming the fat, making Playboy profitable, and aiming the ship at modern growing markets.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-twitter-ipo-rizvi-insight/insight-little-known-hollywood-investor-poised-to-score-with-twitter-ipo-idUSBRE9920VW20131003
Ben “The Bridge” Kohn is an interesting guy. He’s the connection between Rizvi Traverse and Playboy. He’s both CEO of Playboy and was previously Managing Partner at Rizvi Traverse. Ben seems to be the voice of the Playboy-Rizvi partnership, which makes sense with Suhail’s privacy concerns. Kohn said this:
“Today is a very big day for all of us at Playboy and for all our partners globally. I stepped into the CEO role at Playboy in 2017 because I saw the biggest opportunity of my career. Playboy is a brand and platform that could not be replicated today. It has massive global reach, with more than $3B of global consumer spend and products sold in over 180 countries. Our mission – to create a culture where all people can pursue pleasure – is rooted in our 67-year history and creates a clear focus for our business and role we play in people’s lives, providing them with the products, services and experiences that create a lifestyle of pleasure. We are taking this step into the public markets because the committed capital will enable us to accelerate our product development and go-to-market strategies and to more rapidly build our direct to consumer capabilities,” said Ben Kohn, CEO of Playboy.
“Playboy today is a highly profitable commerce business with a total addressable market projected in the trillions of dollars,” Mr. Kohn continued, “We are actively selling into the Sexual Wellness consumer category, projected to be approximately $400 billion in size by 2024, where our recently launched intimacy products have rolled out to more than 10,000 stores at major US retailers in the United States. Combined with our owned & operated ecommerce Sexual Wellness initiatives, the category will contribute more than 40% of our revenue this year. In our Apparel and Beauty categories, our collaborations with high-end fashion brands including Missguided and PacSun are projected to achieve over $50M in retail sales across the US and UK this year, our leading men’s apparel lines in China expanded to nearly 2500 brick and mortar stores and almost 1000 digital stores, and our new men’s and women’s fragrance line recently launched in Europe. In Gaming, our casino-style digital gaming products with Scientific Games and Microgaming continue to see significant global growth. Our product strategy is informed by years of consumer data as we actively expand from a purely licensing model into owning and operating key high-growth product lines focused on driving profitability and consumer lifetime value. We are thrilled about the future of Playboy. Our foundation has been set to drive further growth and margin, and with the committed capital from this transaction and our more than $180M in NOLs, we will take advantage of the opportunity in front of us, building to our goal of $100M of adjusted EBITDA in 2025.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
Also, according to their Form 4s, “Big” Dong Liu and “lil” Suying Liu just loaded up with shares last week. These guys are brothers and seem like the Chinese market connection. They are only 32 & 35 years old. I don’t even know what that means, but it's provocative.
https://www.secform4.com/insider-trading/1832415.htm
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mountain-crest-acquisition-corp-ii-002600994.html
Y’all like that China money?
“Mr. Liu has been the Chief Financial Officer of Dongguan Zhishang Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd., a regional designer, manufacturer and distributor of LED lights serving commercial customers throughout Southern China since November 2016, at which time he led a syndicate of investments into the firm. Mr. Liu has since overseen the financials of Dongguan Zhishang as well as provided strategic guidance to its board of directors, advising on operational efficiency and cash flow performance. From March 2010 to October 2016, Mr. Liu was the Head of Finance at Feidiao Electrical Group Co., Ltd., a leading Chinese manufacturer of electrical outlets headquartered in Shanghai and with businesses in the greater China region as well as Europe.”
Dr. Suying Liu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp., commented, “Playboy is a unique and compelling investment opportunity, with one of the world’s largest and most recognized brands, its proven consumer affinity and spend, and its enormous future growth potential in its four product segments and new and existing geographic regions. I am thrilled to be partnering with Ben and his exceptional team to bring his vision to fruition.”
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201001005404/en/Playboy-to-Become-a-Public-Company
These guys are good. They have a proven track record of success across multiple industries. Connections and money run deep with all of these guys. I don’t think they’re in the game to lose.
I was going to write a couple more paragraphs about why you should have a look at this but really the best thing you can do is read this SEC filing from a couple days ago. It explains the situation in far better detail. Specifically, look to page 137 and read through their strategy. Also, look at their ownership percentages and compensation plans including the stock options and their prices. The financials look great, revenue is up 90% Q3, and it looks like a bright future.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgadata/1803914/000110465921005986/tm2034213-12_defm14a.htm#tSHCF
I’m hesitant to attach this because his position seems short term, but I’m going to with a warning because he does hit on some good points (two are below his link) and he’s got a sizable position in this thing (500k+ on margin, I think). I don’t know this guy but he did look at the same publicly available info and make roughly the same prediction, albeit without the in depth gambling or cannabis mention. You can also search reddit for ‘MCAC’ and very few relevant results come up and none of them even come close to really looking at this thing.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gOvAd6lebs452hFlWWbxVjQ3VMsjGBkbJeXRwDwIJfM/edit?usp=sharing
“Also, before you people start making claims that Playboy is a “boomer” company, STOP RIGHT THERE. This is not a good argument. Simply put. The only thing that matters is Playboy’s name recognition, not their archaic business model which doesn’t even exist anymore as they have completely repurposed their business.”
“Imagine not buying $MCAC at a 400M valuation lol. Streetwear department is worth 1B alone imo.”
Considering the ridiculous Chinese growth as a lifestyle brand, he’s not wrong.
Current Cultural Significance and Meme Value: A year ago I wouldn’t have included this section but the events from the last several weeks (even going back to tsla) have proven that a company’s ability to meme and/or gain social network popularity can have an effect. Tik-tok, Snapchat, Twitch, Reddit, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter. They all have Playboy stuff on them. Kids in middle and highschool know what Playboy is but will likely never see or touch one of the magazines in person. They’ll have a Playboy hoodie though. Crazy huh? A lot like GME, PLBY would hugely benefit from meme-value stock interest to drive engagement towards their new business model while also building strategic coffers. This interest may not directly and/or significantly move the stock price but can generate significant interest from larger players who will.
Bull Case: The year is 2025. Playboy is now the world leader pleasure brand. They began by offering Playboy licensed gaming products, including gambling products, direct to consumers through existing names. By 2022, demand has skyrocketed and Playboy has designed and released their own gambling platforms. In 2025, they are also a leading cannabis brand in the United States and Canada with proprietary strains and products geared towards sexual wellness. Cannabis was legalized in the US in 2023 when President Biden got glaucoma but had success with cannabis treatment. He personally pushes for cannabis legalization as he steps out of office after his first term. Playboy has also grown their brand in China and India to multi-billion per year markets. The stock goes up from 11ish to 100ish and everyone makes big gains buying somewhere along the way.
Bear Case: The United States does a complete 180 on marijuana and gambling. President Biden overdoses on marijuana in the Lincoln bedroom when his FDs go tits up and he loses a ton of money in his sports book app after the Fighting Blue Hens narrowly lose the National Championship to Bama. Playboy is unable to expand their cannabis and gambling brands but still does well with their worldwide lifestyle brand. They gain and lose some interest in China and India but the markets are too large to ignore them completely. The stock goes up from 11ish to 13ish and everyone makes 15-20% gains.
TL;DR: Successful technology/e-commerce investment firm took over Playboy to turn it into a porn, online gambling/gaming, sports book, cannabis company, worldwide lifestyle brand that promotes sexual wellness, vetern access, women-ownership, minority-ownership, and “pleasure for all”. Does a successful online team reinventing an antiquated physical copy giant sound familiar? No options yet, shares only for now. $11.38 per share at time of writing. My guess? $20 by the end of February. $50 by EOY. This is not financial advice. I am not qualified to give financial advice. I’m just sayin’ I would personally use a Playboy sports book app while smoking a Playboy strain specific joint and it would be cool if they did that. Do your own research. You’d probably want to start here:
WARNING - POTENTIALLY NSFW - SEXY MODELS AHEAD - no actual nudity though
https://s26.q4cdn.com/895475556/files/doc_presentations/Playboy-Craig-Hallum-Conference-Investor-Presentation-11_17_20-compressed.pdf
Or here:
https://www.mcacquisition.com/investor-relations/default.aspx
Jimmy Chill: “Get into any SPAC at $10 or $11 and you are going to make money.”
STL;DR: Buy MCAC. MCAC > PLBY couple weeks. Rocketship. Moon.
Position: 5000 shares. I will buy short, medium, and long-dated calls once available.

Hi boardgames, I'm Zack Hiwiller. I've been posting here a long time, so I hope you will excuse one self-promoting post that has some honest discussion in it.
This week, I launched my first board game Kickstarter for Scribbletown, a tight, thinky roll-and-write game that I first signed to a publisher in 2016(!) but which got caught up in some unrelated business turmoil. The rights reverted back to me this past year, so I'm taking the dive into self-publishing on my own.
If you would like to check out the Kickstarter, it is live right now. There are links for the TTS module and a free print-and-play sample in the campaign. I certainly won't mind if you go check it out. But that's not why I'm here. There have been threads every few days about the rising costs overall of Kickstarters and I want to see if I can help shed some light.
Picture by Aspie Gamer Girl
I want to talk a little bit about the costs involved in designing and publishing a game.
Scribbletown's price is $35. It's a price I came to after a lot of work and deliberation. I knew I wanted big, etched dice from the first prototype I made. Since playing Let's Make a Bus Route, I knew I wanted everyone to have laminated boards. Since playing On Tour, I knew I wanted to support more than 4 players out of the box. These production goals rise the cost significantly and allow me to at least bill the game as "deluxe", but the quality of components aren't the problem.
Print Run Sizes: There are tiers of publishers in terms of what size print runs they can support. When everyone was freaking out about Stonemaier not printing enough Wingspan copies upon release, that first run was something like 10,000 copies. Wingspan wouldn't even be a big production run by the standards of the biggest hits in the industry. It's impossible to know what the sales are of other games, but for the names of games most of you recognize, that wouldn't be an outrageously-sized print run.
Most manufacturers will not take a print run under 1,000 copies. It isn't worth the fixed cost of creating dies and such to do so. The smaller the print run, the higher the unit cost. If I were able to print 2,000 copies of Scribbletown, I could do so around 25% cheaper than 1,000 copies. Additionally, consider all of the costs of design, development, art, advertising (oh God the marketing costs), and other business expenses are all fixed so on a per-unit basis they are higher when you print fewer. It makes games with smaller print runs much more expensive to make than would be seen just by looking at the component costs.
Consider that not having a built-in audience from previous projects mean that new publishers have to spend more on marketing to be seen. My costs for marketing have exceeded my cost for art.
Kickstarter Inertia: Let's say I could get 2,000 backers. (Fingers crossed). I couldn't go in and retroactively lower the cost of pledges by 25%. Kickstarter doesn't allow for that(*). So instead, I use the economies of scale to produce stretch goals (and hopefully bank some profit that will cover unexpected costs). But being successful at the original (higher) price lets publishers know that the market will bear that price, so there is no incentive to lower the price even at higher print run volumes unless they believe there was untapped consumer surplus at lower prices.
I think you see this in the exploding prices for minis games. They have enormous fixed costs (in comparison), so the price at the minimum order number is high. But when those campaigns go gangbusters, it just proves to everyone else that people will pay those high prices. The cycle gets vicious.
A handful of folks have pledged a dollar just to comment on my campaign or message me that they would never pay $35 for a roll-and-write, regardless of the components or complexity. Then they cancel their dollar pledge. I get it. Things can only be priced at what the market will bear. Money is always tight for everyone. But we don't know what the market will bear in advance, so you base it off of the cost of doing business and the price of games with a similar weight, complexity, and audience. I'm hoping people will see Scribbletown and compare it to medium-light and mid-weight Euros rather than the filler fare they currently see roll-and-writes as. In that case, $35 is a steal.
Shipping Costs: I could make the game with cheaper (and fewer) components and lower the price marginally, but I can't lower the shipping costs significantly. Even if I were to lower the weight by 25%, shipping wouldn't get 25% cheaper. Did you know that the costs of shipping have gone up _significantly_ in the last year? Most campaigns are already charging less for shipping than the actual total costs of shipping and handling and just absorbing the cost as part of the unit cost.
And psychologically, there is more pause given for a $20 game with $15 shipping than there would be with a $35 game with $15 shipping, even if they end up being a similar weight/volume. Lowering the overall price makes the shipping look _more_ expensive because of the ratio of price to shipping. I suspect it makes people want to wait for a retail release that may never come so that they can avoid the shipping costs.
My goal for this project is to break even and pay myself $0/hour for the hundreds of hours of design and production prep (and sleepless nights) that has gone into this project. Why? Because it will help me build for whatever the next project will be. I'm hoping to make this work long-term. But even with Kickstarter, with the ease of use of the global supply chain, with middleware services and etc that make it possible for anyone to do this, the momentum issues of starting from a small audience put new publishers behind the eight ball and make just surviving look greedy.
TL;DR:
- The more copies you can print, the lower the costs, the more units you can amortize fixed costs over and the cheaper it can be for consumers.
- New publishers without a built-in audience can't print large numbers, so their costs will be necessarily higher per-unit.
- Kickstarter doesn't allow you to change prices mid-campaign, so a campaign will likely charge whatever they think they can make do with at the smallest possible print run, even if they end up having a larger print run. This creates a cycle where that price becomes the norm even if the publisher benefits from economies of scale.
- It's hard for new and small publishers. Be kind. We know you are price sensitive. If we have success, then some day we can get into distribution and you can benefit from the scale that allows us to make games for stores that don't charge shipping. But we have to get there first.
If you want to take a gamble on a new game, try supporting independent publishers. Your marginal dollar means so much more to us than it does to those who can afford big print runs.
- Shameless end plug: Scribbletown on Kickstarter. :-) Feel free to AMA. I may write about the costs of pitching designs to publishers versus self-publishing sometime in the future.
Another picture by Aspie Gamer Girl. Check out her channel on Youtube for content in both English and Spanish. She's great.
(*) I recently pledged in a campaign that offered discounts during the KS by providing credits in the pledge manager. That's an interesting approach and I hope to see it more often in the future.

https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/WNRS/news/Winners-Subsidiary-VegasWINNERS-Names-Howard-Lefkowitz-Former-CEO-of-VEGASCOM-and-Senior-Executive-at-Earthlink--Home-Sh?id=287012
LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / January 21, 2021 / Winners, Inc. (OTC PINK:WNRS) subsidiary VegasWINNERS Inc., which provides sports betting enthusiasts with high quality analysis, research, data, guidance and professional advice, announces the hire of Howard Lefkowitz, former CEO of VEGAS.com and senior executive of Earthlink and Home Shopping Network as its President.
Lefkowitz brings to VegasWINNERS considerable marketing and technical experience in Internet business, television, and film. He served as vice president of business development and marketing for Earthlink. He worked with Dick Clark Productions to bring the first interactive primetime show to network TV. He also worked with Ted Turner's WTBS to create that station's first original show. A well-respected entertainment industry visionary, Lefkowitz has also consulted for NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox, as well as Warner Bros and MCA/Universal. Lefkowitz was also a senior executive at multichannel retailer HSN, and later served as president of one of the multibillion-dollar company's subsidiaries. During his nine-year tenure as president and CEO, VEGAS.com became the most visited and successful site for city hospitality and information on the web. Under his leadership VEGAS.com became a highly profitable, globally renowned brand with sales of nearly $400 MM annually. VEGAS.com grew to millions of unique visitors per month and operated back-of-house systems, including box offices, for many of the largest hotels in Las Vegas.
Mr. Lefkowitz will lead monetization, marketing, technology and day to day operations of VegasWINNERS.
Wayne Allyn Root, CEO of VegasWINNERS stated, "Howard has been my friend and neighbor for nearly twenty years. His expertise across multiple industries and disciplines, combined with his rich history of innovation and leadership will be of tremendous value to VegasWINNERS! We are delighted to have him on our winning team."
Last year, Grand View Research reported that in 2019 the global online gambling market size was valued at USD 53.7 billion and that they expected it to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.5% from 2020 to 2027. Later they projected revenues in 2027 to reach $127.3 billion by 2027. Active companies in the market include DraftKings Inc., Playgon Games Inc., Scientific Games Corporation, Landcadia Holdings II, Inc. and Penn National Gaming, Inc.