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.

Viva las Vegas
I’m not sure if I did it because it just was that way or because I thought it would make a good story, but within 36 hours after the goodbye office job dinner I found myself sitting on a plane to Vegas.
A nice 10 day journey, which I had booked at the start of the year. I can still remember telling my (ex) girlfriend I booked Vegas. I expected her to be happy for me, but that was probably naïve. Women, especially (ex) girlfriends, are not happy when impulsive young men leave for Vegas.
Once in the plane I felt this feeling of excitement, this was exactly what I should do; live life the fullest.
Once I arrived took a cab, the driver kept asking me if he should pull over somewhere to buy some booze or cannabis. Cannabis was recently legalized, but coming from Holland I was not too impressed with that. I wouldn’t be the type to go on a mad one by myself the first night and friendly instructed him to drive me to the hotel. It was around midnight by the time I could check in and there was my first surprise. 350$ added resort fees per room. Well that’s a nice welcome to Vegas I thought by myself. However the room was nice and I was buzzing to be in this city. Two days later I was joined by two good friends who I’d always go on poker trips with.
We mostly had been to Dublin, but Vegas was new for everyone.
On the second day I’m playing day 1 of a 500$ event, it was literally the softest event I’ve ever played. Some people barely knew how to hold their cards, yet paid 500 dollars to play. Poker is a crazy world.
After advancing to day 2 with an under average stack I got a text from Gary. Now Gary is the biggest character you will ever meet. Brings me back to the story of how I met him.
I’m in Dublin and it’s my first big poker event, there’s this kid who literally looks like a 15 year old. I figure he must be good at poker to put up this kind of money at his age. We happen to be at the same table within 30 minutes he makes a crazy kamikaze bluff, it was literally a suicidal play.
24 hours later I walked into him in Regency hotel in Dublin where the tournament back then was held, he’s all sweating and looking exhausted. I ask him: ‘How are you doing man? Did you advance yesterday in the tournament?’
‘Awh no bro, I busted out the tournament (I was not surprised). I have been playing here ever since, I haven’t slept yet. I’m down 2 grand for fuck sake.
I wish Gary the best of luck and recommend him to go to sleep, at that time I didn't know I would tell him the exact same at least another 300 times in the five years after.

This reddit post from a Canadian I've quoted below has a list of American examples:

Tesla Motors uses a direct selling model. Dealerships don't like that, so they lobby state governments to ban direct selling of cars. In other industrialized nations, it is perfectly legal.
MADD lobbies Congress to raise the drinking age to 21 in all 50 states. In most other industrialized nations, it's between 15-18, and French kids can drink a glass of wine with their dinner.
"Grey market" vehicles that don't pass US crash and emissions testing could be imported if they were at least 15 years old. Mercedes-Benz USA saw their sales tank since people were importing European cars, so they lobbied Congress to raise the restriction to 25 years.
Florida voters lobby Congress to keep the Cuban embargo going.
Sheldon Adelson and Las Vegas Sands lobby Congress to keep online poker illegal because it cuts into their profits. In almost every other industrialized nation, you can play in a for-money online casino and bet on sports too.
Taxi drivers lobby state governments to ban or restrict rideshare companies like Uber. They're pushing back in Europe, as well, so it's a bit different.
Health insurance corporations lobby Congress to water down plans for universal health care.
H&R Block and Intuit lobby Congress to prevent free or automatic tax preparation, and direct deposit of tax returns. E-file and direct deposit are very popular in my home country of Canada.
Google Fiber tries to expand into more cities. Some municipalities even create a fibre optic network to break through their local monopolies. Those monopolies lobby state governments to impede their progress or even ban competition (like in North Carolina).

That doesn't include other examples such as:

• Police and Liquor industries lobbying to keep Cannabis illegal (when it's decriminalized or legalized in many countries).
• Private prison companies lobbying to create intentionally convoluted laws so they can get as many prisoners as possible (when other countries lack private prisons).
• Cable/Internet Companies that lobby against net neutrality (when other countries have net neutrality).
• Car companies lobbying against Public Transportation (when it's widespread in other countries.).

Are there any examples of Canadian industries lobbying against the best interests of the public so they can screw everyone over and preserve their profits?

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If you haven't had time to listen to seven hours of podcast interviews, or you didn't retain everything you heard, here are some key points. I didn't think to do this until just now, so I'll be posting it as a work in progress and updating it throughout the afternoon. That way more people will have a chance to read up before the premiere.
Karishma Patel, 37, Personal Injury Trial Lawyer, Houston, TX -First generation Indian-American Her mom was as a legal assistant, and got her a filing job at her law firm when she was 14. "I didn't have other options. I was basically told I was going to be a lawyer and I didn't disagree."She has watched every season and regularly listens to RHAP. She sits close to the TV to study the inflections on people's faces when something is said to them, so that she can think about what that means. But, her parents and husband don't share her enthusiasm for the show. Asked if it's her dark pleasure she says, "It is completely bright. It is a beautiful pleasure of mine, but it is mine and mine only. I haven't been able to find people to share it with." -Doing the show has caused her conflict. "Not only is it not expected, it's not allowed. It's kind of like being a disobedient Indian girl. You're not supposed to be doing this. What you're supposed to be doing is having babies. But I don't care. I'm a risk taker. I'm here to prove to myself that I don't need to listen to anybody else. I don't need permission from anybody else. This is my journey and I'm going to take it. I hope that people watching out there can see that an Indian woman's value does not come from doing what she's told." -She doesn't currently have children, and she says she has some decisions to make as she enters a crossroads and the next stage of her life. -Her law firm told her they'll replace her if they're able to find someone, and she can have her job back if they don't. "I didn't flinch." -Her strategy is to be non-threatening and play a social game. She doesn't look 37, and she wants to use that youthfulness to be disarming. She wants to build relationships other people believe in. She defines success by other people vouching for her loyalty when they go off and have private conversations with one another. "That means I got 'em, because it's actually the other way around." Asked if she wants to find someone she can trust, "I'm not going to be capable of it. I'm too skeptical for that. I overthink things, so I'm not going to be able to trust somebody the way I want to be trusted... If I do, that's the end of my game."
My take: Oh my God. Poor Karishma. Her story hurts my heart. She reminds me so much of myself in her isolation, her defiance and her deep feelings. I worry that her fear of trusting people could get in the way of her forming genuine bonds. But, there's nothing she can do. Society has made her the way she is. I hope she gets a lot of screen time so she can be a star of her favorite show.
Missy Byrd, 24, Military Veteran/App Developer, Tacoma, Washington -Originally from Georgia. Her family was 'decently poor.' She played basketball for the Air Force Academy because she thought it was her ticket out. -She had a brain tumor. She stopped menstruating for a year and two quarters. "I'm not dating anyone but I have breast milk. I'm a literal cow... I would look down and my shirt would be wet, and I thought, 'Dang you're clumsy. I knew you were clumsy, but you're clumsier today than you were yesterday. But it was - it was - uhh - milk." She had crying fits. She developed a stutter and couldn't look at people. Doctors told her she was just stressed. When her dad died she couldn't process emotions normally. She was about to go to the French version of the Air Force Academy, École de l'air, after graduation but because of her mental instability she was removed from school. The military shipped her to the same Air Force base as Sandra (Fort Lewis.) "I don't want to be there. Super sad. Check into the post office - fuck this. Check into the dorms - hate that." The doctor there found the tumor. She got an MRI and all weekend she believed she might have cancer. Over the next year and a half she eliminated the tumor and the symptoms using vitamins. She enlisted and worked logistics. -She made a list of the things she wanted to do now that she was going to live. "The first thing was go see Beyonce. Beyonce costs way too much money for a normal person to go see, but if you've just almost had a near death experience you go see Beyonce, bro!" She was feet away. She drove across the country. She tried weed. -She had an idea for an app, but didn't even have the computer literacy to use social media. She found a veteran's association and asked if she could intern. "They said, 'No, you should build this out yourself. We want to work for you.' I said, 'No, the fuck you don't. Okay, lemme call my grandma.'" She wrote a grant proposal and won a $1,500 office space in the center of Seattle. "Just to do whatever I want. It was like a laboratory for a child. I had Play-Dough up there. I had a white board... Just mind blowing shit when I could have been dead." -She'd seen every episode of Survivor at least three times. She started watching because her Air Force Academy basketball team was getting decimated, and she related to Foa Foa getting decimated in Survivor: Samoa. She added the show to her list. Josh suggests, "The bugs are eating you because they want some of that magic." -She isn't going to tell people her story until she's in the Final 3. "That's that Final 3 magic." She doesn't want to overly rely on strategy. She doesn't want to win individual challenges. She to build a social game and find ways to relate to everyone.
My take: She's so full of exuberance. There's not a negative bone in her body right now. She's too young and her life experience is too necessarily limited to talk around three years of her life. If she shares her story, the beauty of her perspective will cause everyone to fall in love with her and want her to do well. If she doesn't, people will sense that she's hiding a lot. I think she'll figure that out and course correct within the first day. Since she was at the same Air Force base as Sandra and she was a massive fan, does that suggest she knows her?
​
Ronnie Bardah, 35, Professional Poker Player, Henderson, Nevada-Born and raised in Brockton, Massachusetts, 20 minutes south of Boston. They were the only Israeli family in town. 50% of the people in Brockton were from Cape Verde, and he considers himself an "honorary Cape Verdian." A couple of his friends were shot and killed at a young age. -He was a good kid and had a good heart, but he was always hustling. In Junior High he was flipping Oatmeal Cakes and Fudge Rounds for a profit. Slinging baseball cards. Both his parents gambled. They were always at the dog tracks or Mohegan Sun. He had his friend make him a fake ID and got stuck with the name Alaja Jones. He went by Al and started playing the casinos. Quit his job at Sears Automotive to play poker full time.-He played Atlantic City, Vegas, then internationally. He had his first big score in 2010 when he took 24th place in the main event for $320,000. Got to keep $150,000 after taxes. "Poker's a hard way to make an easy living. Lots of people try. We risk every day. You have to get to a point when you can manage your bankroll and I've never gone broke in the 16 years I've played." -In one of the most viewed poker hands of all time, he was bluffed out of a million dollar pot by a supermodel on a poker TV show filmed in Monaco. "She made a sick play. She had no idea what she was doing but all the stars were aligned."-He watched Borneo when it aired and got back into it when fellow poker player Anna Khait was on. He calls Jean-Robert, "kinda a lazy guy...He's really good at befriending multi-millionaires." "Anna Khait... is probably the least poker player out of all of us. She played for a couple years." "And then Garrett - He's a very, very smart, smart kid... Self-made millionaire. One of the very, very few." -He only drank water for 7.5 days and lost 25 pounds for his health and to get an idea of the conditions of the show. He thinks he'll thrive in the survival situation. "People like being around me. I like to fucking bust balls and joke." He thinks old school alliances are a good plan, but you have to adapt. He says that like in poker, Survivor players can have every advantage, but they have to really smell it. -He wants Vince out. "There's an Asian Zeke in there. What value does he bring besides ruining people and getting in people's heads? He's a liability in challenges. He looks like a little corn puff. We gotta get him outta here. Sorry to sound so mean but it's the truth."
My take: Ruuuuude. He has no way of knowing how other people on the cast are talking in their interviews, and may assume the trash talk is standard. If he were playing on some seasons it would be. But, in this particular season it sets him apart in an unflattering way, and it seems a part of the tough persona he's built up to escape a scary situation growing up and enter a fantasy career. We'll see whether his tribe thinks he's a straight talking character or a jerk.
​
Tom Laidlaw, Former NHL Player, Brampton, Ontario, Canada -He was with the New York Rangers for 7 years and the LA Kings for 4. Now he has his own podcast, True Grit Life (truegritlife.com). Does it with a friend, Kevin Allen, who writes for USA Today. Does motivational speaking. -Growing up on a dairy farm outside Toronto there was a pond to water the cows. It froze over in the winters and he'd play hockey because there wasn't much else to do. Went to Northern Michigan University - four year hockey captain, ranked #1 team in the country. Drafted as a 20 year old. "My buddy had a horse farm. We were cleaning horse shit out of the stalls. There were no cell phones back then. This is 1978. My father got a call at our farm house from the New York Rangers at the draft. Back then nobody went to the draft - it was just teams. They said I'd been drafted in the sixth round. He calls the farm house where I'm working. They bring me up. He says, 'Son, you've been drafted by the Rangers.' I said, 'Great. What do I do now?' He says, 'Finish cleaning the shit out of the stalls.'" -When he played intimidation and fighting was strategy. There were guys tougher than him, but he could fight and he could also play. Problem was, he fought a guy once, and from then on the guy wanted to fight him over and over. -Jerry Bruckheimer, big hockey fan, called the NHL and wanted to get some players on the Amazing Race. Tom had kept himself in shape, he had his passport. They ended up asking him about Survivor. He'd watched it before but not for a while. He wasn't so sure he wanted to play a game where you hurt other people, but friends helped him get his head around it. He was very impressed by Christian's toughness in the endurance challenge. To prepare for the show he studied how he reacted to different situations, how to control his heart heart, etc. He wants the mental challenge.
My take: Tom really ticked me off when he spoiled a couple of outcomes of this season. That's a betrayal of the producers, his cast and the viewers. But, if that hadn't happened I would like him. He's an easy-going, charming guy. His life experiences are a bit different than anyone else who's been on the show, which is what you want.
Vince Moua, 27, Admissions Counselor, Merced, CA -His family is Hmong. His parents lived in Vietnam in the destruction left by the war - dead bodies, guns, people who wanted to kill them. They went to refugee camps in Thailand. Then his dad became a Montana farm hand. He met Vince's mom in the US, but she came from the same place. -Vince is from small town Merced, California - the 209. Few people he knew went anywhere but the UC system and community college. He went to Stanford, one of only 7-10 Hmong. He realized the significance someone can bring to people from the same community. He tried to be pre-med but realized "no, not today." The issues of access he cared about came well before people got to the hospital. He ended up going with education. His mom was a teacher, "But when I was growing up she said, 'Yo, if you become a teacher Imma disown yo ass.' To all of us. But, that's always kinda been my jam." -He lived in South Korea for five years. He taught English in a town. Then in Seoul ahed worked with low and middle income students who wanted to study outside of Korea. -He's a Survivor superfan, who even mentions on his Tinder account that he plans to be on Survivor. His parents were worried about him doing TV because he's not out as gay to his extended family. He comes from a clan where his dad is the "top dog" and Vince is "the next top dog." In the Asian American/Pacific Islander community when you come out, it's your family who faces - in a sense - dishonor. For a long time he distanced himself from his family, hoping they'd all be less hurt if they found out and disowned him. He always tried to find friends who would be there for him should his parents not be. A year ago his mom asked him rhetorically if he was gay. "I was try'n to go around it. I was like, 'Gurl, you don't wanna know! Yo ass keeps asking!' But she kept asking, asking. So finally I told her 'Yeah, I am!' and she was crying. My dad was like, 'Oh, my son!'" But, Vince is fine with who he is and wants to show kids like him that "let's hope that it gets better." Now his parents just want him to win. -He'd like to play an old school strategy but "I'm not afraid to cut a bitch." With the tribe he's going to be Homeboy Vince from the 209, but when he talks to the camera he's going to tell people "Don't underestimate your narratives." This past year with Crazy Rich Asians, he wants people to know that there are some Crazy Hood Ass Asians.
My take: What a character. Vince has a clear point of view - Hmong, blue collar, gay - which is unique to him in Survivor lore. Even though double minorities have sometimes had trouble fitting in socially on Survivor I think somehow he's going to pull it off. As unlikely as this sounds I could even see him being a Cochran-esque winner.
Aaron Meredith, 36, Personal Trainer, Warwick, Rhode Island -He's very keyed up at Ponderosa. Rambling so fast it sounds like you're listening to 1.5x. He's read four books so far - Relentless by Tim Grover, Can't Hurt Me by Dave Goggins, Iron Cowboy by James Lawrence, Harry Potter. -He was an engineer at a building insulation plant. He was miserable, too antsy sitting at a desk. Couldn't focus. So, he drove up and down the East Coast popping kettle corn - from Maine to Florida - traveling with carnies. Bartended for a while. He'd played college football and baseball, lifted since high school, and he and his friends wanted to get "huge and jacked and ripped." The owner of the gym suggested he become a personal trainer. He ended up working mostly with middle aged women and it taught him empathy. Now he owns two women's-only fitness studios. He puts supportive women around one another and offers them the positivity to seek self-growth. -He's also a party boat emcee. Lights, DJ, bar, drinks. He's an extremely social person. -He'd first applied at 23 - 6 or 7 times over the years. He was in the mix for Cook Islands and David vs. Goliath. -He's been married 7 years and has a 5 year old son. His son is a huge fan of Survivor. Libby Vincek is his favorite player. Kara Kay was his next favorite. Aaron is already sure Molly will be his son's favorite. "He has a type. He He likes the attractive blondes. He says, 'I like them because they have a nice face.' I like mommy because she has a nice face too." The boy was very concerned about his dad going on the show. He said, "Dad, I don't want anyone to laugh at you and make fun of you." Aaron said he wanted to win. His son said, "But you might not win." When they watch the show he'll always ask, "Do they like him? Do they like her?" If Aaron is portrayed in a negative light he'll have to sit down with his son and talk. He doesn't want to play a deceitful game, but he will, because he doesn't care how he's portrayed.
My take: His story about his son is one of my favorites from all these interviews. I hope he gets to work with Molly. His adrenaline is too high. I hope he calms down a lot when the game starts. But, someone so social and sweet hearted who can win challenges and take themselves to the end has got to be a contender to win.
Chelsea Walker, 27, Digital Content Editor, Los Angeles, CA -Chelsea just took the cast photo and they put her in the third spot from the bottom, a good omen because a weird number of winners have been in that position. "Your girl's number three. I got this!" -She's a Jersey girl. She went to the University of Maryland. "I didn't do Survivor: Maryland or anything." She studied Broadcast Journalism. She knew the generic emails for NBC Universal and emailed random people until someone replied. Now she's been in LA a year. She did coverage of award shows. Now she works at IMDB, where she helps Kevin Smith with his show. She just interviewed people at SXSW. -She's been watching Survivor since she was 8. She's cried in every interview because this means so much to her. She's trying to explain that at the point she starts crying again. "It's been such a dream of mine and To be told no year after year after year - these past six years have been a total mindfuck. I've basically been called every single year. I've been to finals three times. Survivor is my one true love, but the one year they didn't call me I got really pissed off so I tried out for Big Brother. I ended up becoming the alternate and got my key being filmed and all of that crap. But I don't like that show anyway." -In September 2017 she was at a WeHo bar for her friend's birthday when, "Oh shit that's Jeff Probst." Her girlfriends all know she's obsessed, so she pulled the waiter over and asked what that guy was drinking. So, Chelsea sent another one over. "I told my friends, 'Take my credit card. Split the bill, because I can't come back after I do this. As soon as the waiter drops off the drink I'm like, 'Jeff, this one's on me. You can buy me the next one at finals.' And I just walked out of the restaurant... That was a big move!" They didn't call her again that year, but Jeff still remembered when they talked this year. -She's been working out at four different gyms - weights, pilates, yoga. Push ups. Memorized puzzles. Reading How to Win Friends and Influence People, which she keeps in.a Bible sleeve so people will think she's religious. She also carries Harry Potter because she would trust someone who read HP. She wants to keep it cool. Make one on one connections. Eventually find idols - and not tell anyone she has one - and make calculated moves. "I don't want to be a Jacob. No offense."
My take: Hearing this girl cry from joy because she's so happy to be on the show makes me emotional. She's a real go getter. I wish I were that damn fearless. Truly, I wish I were more like her. I hope her pure zest for life comes across on TV and she doesn't get stuck with a purple edit just because of her age and gender. I also hope no one decides to get threatened by her as a competitive girl and vote her off premerge. I think she'll go far. Hope so.
Dean Kowalski, 28, Account Executive, New York, New York -Referring to himself in the third person, "Dean is 28 years old. As we mentioned, he lives in New York and he prides himself on being a well rounded person when it comes to interests, abilities, personalities... If I'm listening to Drake and Lil Wayne, I gotta go home and cry to This Is Us.. I can play basketball but also think about our place in the universe." He likes to tag basketball courts with a peace symbol with a ball on it which he makes using a stencil. -He structures most of his interview with Josh around an Outwit, Outplay, Outlast format, explaining why he excels at each. -He grew up in an affluent suburb. His dream was to play in the NBA. He was 5"9 3/4, so he set his eyes on college basketball as a realistic alternative. In order to get looks from colleges he went to a school 30 minutes away - top five in the country, Nike would fly them around for games and give them free Jordan sneakers. He was one of only 4 white guys in the whole school and the only one on the team. He played with Kyrie Irving, the #1 overall draft pick. "My friend said you look like the Make a Wish Kid who just wants to be on the team for a day." He played at Colombia University, where he was co-captain his senior year despite averaging two minutes a game. He became a teacher, then did sales for a tech startup in New York. He now sells ads for Google. -He's a fan, but far from a superfan. He started watching Brenda's season. (He thinks it was Nicaragua, but it was actually Carmoan.) He works with a superfan who freaked out when they had a meeting at H&R Block with Carolyn Rivera and they went out to Bourbon Street with her. He kept watching for five years and thought he could do well. He hates when people are all talk, so he sent in a tape. For the video he interviewed random strangers on the street, who had never met him or seen the show, and asked them, "Why am I going to win it?" A barber, a construction worker. He's going to tell people he's in marketing, not sales - people have sales.
My take: I'm just not that into him.
Elaine Stott, 41, Factory Worker, Rockholds, NY -When Josh asks her not to touch the table she asks him, "You seen that Bart Simpson commercial, right? Don't touch my Butterfinger? I'm already hungry thinking about it." -"I had a pretty rough way to go growing up." Her single dad raised her and her three brothers. She was the youngest. "I was raised like one of the boys. Know what I mean? Daddy didn't know how to raise no little girl." He worked 16-17 hour days. The kids raised themselves. "When little children make their own decisions, they make poor ones." She was a hellion. -She's originally from Woodbine, Kentucky, Nick Wilson's hometown. Her god sister went to school with him and she knows him through the grapevine. "We rode on different sides of the track. 20 years ago he coulda been my lawyer, because I was on the other side of the law. I'm not bad. I've just done some things." Public intoxication several times. "I come from a dry county. It's like Footloose. We cross the state line to get a beer and when you come back you're in trouble." She stole a newspaper stand once and had to do community service. "I was a little bit mean." -She went to live with her grandpa and cleaned her act up, by which she means that she started smoking a little weed and playing sports - basketball, softball, track. She played softball and judo in college. "I couldn't do nothing real technical. We had Brazilians on the team who could do flying arm bars. But if I got these claws on you and got ya on the ground I'd waller you to death." In casting she put this guy Will in an armbar. She was gonna choke him but didn't know if she should. -When she graduated, her girlfriend was a college Freshman so she went to all the same parties and ballgames for four years. Then she realized she needed a job. Now she drives a Ford truck for a factory. She's been there 15 years. She works 12 hours, 7 days a week. -Growing up her mom "was always in my life in some sense. She'd never miss a birthday. She'd be homeless, but she'd still call." Elaine and her brothers bought her cars, and places to live, and got her jobs. "In a sense I've been mourning the loss of my mom my whole life." Once Elaine was homeless herself and there was snow on the ground. It was cold, and her teacher took her in. Gave her Christmas presents. Made her go to prom. Survivor was a thing they shared, and the teacher was gonna be Elaine's loved one. But within a one year period the woman lost her daughter, her husband, her dog and then had a stroke. Now "she walks like Frankenstein" and can't go. Elaine got Probst to talk to her, and she can't wait to watch. In October Elaine's biological mom went into a coma. She was on life support, but Elaine wouldn't unplug her. Her mom came out of it and seemed to be doing a lot better only to die very suddenly of a heart attack. -Her girlfriend and her girlfriend's two sons are gonna be watching. The 18 year old doesn't know because he can't keep a secret. The 13 year old helped her lose 20 pounds doing crossfit to come out here. She wants the money, but she really wants "some of that soul searching, that life adventure, that life changing - some of that. You know what I mean? Gimme some of that soup! Lemme eat some of that up! I want this show to build me up, because I feel like it can. I sure hope to hell it don't tear me down."
My take: About 12 sobbing emojis in a row. She's my favorite. If she gets voted out premerge I'm going to go into mourning. And how can you not sort of expect that? I am going to be so upset if they just dismiss her because she's older and looks out of shape and sounds country. If that happens, I want another Second Chance season next year.
Elizabeth Biesel, 26, Olympic swimmer, South Kingstown, Rhode Island -Josh says that Elizabeth was outright identified by one of the other contestants because they'd been watching YouTube videos about how to be a better swimmer. Others guessed she was an Olympian based on her rings tattoo. -She's from the Ocean State. They lived a block away from the beach, so they wanted her to take swimming lessons. She was a rambunctious child and swimming was the only way they could calm her energy. She started breaking records when she was 7 or 8. When she was 13 she made her first national team. At 15 she went to the Olympics. She got good early. Women peak around 22-23, and she ended her career at 24. You couldn't make much money doing it. She swam one of the longer, more grueling races, and her body said "no more." She listened to her body and retired. Some athletes lose their love for swimming because they're embittered by losing by 1/100th of a second, or they leave injured. She left on a good note. Still, if she could swim competitively for the rest of her life, she would. Now she doesn't know who she is or what she's going to do with the rest of her life. Every hour of the day used to have a purpose. Now her days are wide open. She can't keep eating 5,000 calories a day. "It's sort of like I'm mourning the death of Elizabeth Biesel the swimmer." -She was a Survivor fan as a kid because Richard Hatch was from Rhode Island. In her area "Every single household that had a television set was watching Survivor." When they asked her if she'd do the show, she felt pure joy. She said absolutely right away. She's excited about the competition of Survivor. No heated Olympic pools. You're stripped down to your core. She's amazed by the scope of the production apparatus. She's not a schemer. She wants to be a challenge beast - not the best woman but the best overall. She'd love to have a Wendell and Dom relationship with another woman. But, she wants to avoid the drama as long as she can.
My take: Could Chelsea be Wendell to her Dom? She's so wholesome. She's just so "Olympics." I love her and everything she represents. I'd love to see her rocket through the swimming competitions, lapping everyone else. Go Elizabeth.

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.
Today's interview is with Tyler M of Moneypicks, a brand that sells sports data.
Some stats:

• Product: Sports data.
• Revenue/mo: $8,000
• Started: May 2019
• Location: Remote
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 0

Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

I am a 27 year old male from the South West United States. From an early age I was always fascinated with the idea of being an entrepreneur. My first business I remember making was creating a CD burning company in 2nd grade. Since then I was constantly brainstorming or thinking of ways to make a buck.
A huge passion of mine is sports, I grew up watching Sportscenter every night and love playing and watching sports. Another thing I love is numbers. They never lie. Statistics and numbers are so eloquent as they can convey so much information for those willing and able to find correlations within raw data.
The business I run is Moneypicks. (Instagram: @Money.picks). I use analytic models to determine the outcome of sporting events. I combine my love of sports and numbers to build proprietary systems that produce winners at a 60%+ rate.
I have a masters degree from a top 10 business school and have a high level knowledge of NHL, Soccer, NFL and MLB. My product is a membership to my site which gives you access to all my picks, and my clients are a wide range of people from different walks of life. My typical customer is a male from the age of 18-35 who loves watching sporting events.
I am currently making $200-$600 per day with almost zero overhead. I provide picks to World Series of Poker Champions, Plumbers, Doctors, Moms and everyone in between. I have been featured on the #1 Betting MMA podcast in the world and hoping to continue to have the opportunity to help teach people how to crush Vegas.
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What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

I started betting on sports during the World Cup South Africa in 2008. Like 99% of bettors I was completely over my head. I spent the next 10 years learning the hard way. I would not be writing this paragraph if I didn’t go through lots of losing. Humans only learn when we fail. Remember that.
Among my friends it got around that I had sharp picks. I started off by texting the picks to my friends for years. When the list of people getting picks got to be too much work a friend suggested I make an Instagram page to get them out.
This is where things get interesting. My page got very popular very fast. I went from 0 followers to 4000 in a little over 3 months doing absolutely nothing besides posting winning bets. A big part of this growth was during the last NHL season I was hitting at 67%. (this is confirmed on my Instagram page if you want to fact check)
Up until May of this year I was giving out all the information for free. I work a full-time sales job and to me, it was just a hobby and the love I got from giving out free winners was enough for me.
I then watched a documentary on Showtime about sports betting. They showed a guy named Vegas Dave (who I have spoken to at length on IG messages before ever watching the documentary) and he was making more money in a few hours than I make in a year at my 9-5. That’s when the lightbulb went off. Because I was providing the same service as him, at a higher level; and I already had an Instagram page with 4000 followers as potential customers.
I never went into this to make money. I was just helping people. Doing this gained the trust of my community before I ever asked for a dollar, so when I finally did start charging business flooded through the door.

Take us through the process of designing your product.

The interesting feature of this business is that there is no product. I sell information.
There are certain key metrics for various sports. In hockey some are goals for, GAA, day of the week, etc. In baseball its ERA, WHIP, Runs for and against, etc. My 10+ years of experience has allowed me to identify these key metrics. And then use the published data available to us, and reconstruct it into a formula that can accurately predict games down to the final score.
These formulas are 100% proprietary information that I developed on my own through trial and error and meticulous back testing. It was not an easy process and the amount of time and energy I have poured into perfecting the formulas for each sport is in the thousands of hours.
Although i do have a formal education in the way of a Bachelors and a Masters degree, I never took any stats classes or even bothered to care about learning to use excel until i realized i could use it to gain an edge in Sports Betting. If I had realized this in college I would have 100% taken Statistics and Excel focused classes. Because i got a late start on this i had to turn to Youtube / Google to learn the concepts, then applied my own ideas and thoughts from years of pouring over sports analytics.
This is a super important point because every single person reading this has the power to learn something totally foreign to you right now. Never before in history have we had access to so much information. You can’t ever lose that thirst for learning new things. Some of the most successful people in the world all have that in common.
It’s very important to remember one thing, I am predicting the outcomes of events that will be played by humans. Humans are irrational. All the stats can point to one outcome and if the pitcher’s girlfriend cheated on him last night, or the starting goalie goes down with an injury, then you can throw all the numbers out the window. Stats are an important tool for your tool box but they are not everything.
Like any type of investing the most important quality you can possess is discipline. Financial discipline, to always bet the same amount on every game. Emotional discipline, to not chase your losses and to bet an amount that does not elicit an emotion response if you lose. This can be a slippery slope just like the stock market, and you have to be robotic with your decisions. I don't take a team because I like their jerseys, im taking that team because they have won 7 of the last 8 on Tuesday Nights, facing a left handed pitcher with an ERA of 5.00 or higher.
My startup costs have been minimal. I paid a lawyer to form an LLC, paid for a website to be designed and hosted for 3 years. Also working with a marketing agency to produce the content for my IG page. I would say my overhead is less than $750 per month. I also buy sports memorabilia to give away to my members on a monthly basis.

Describe the process of launching the business.

Launching the business was a fluid process. As mentioned previously I began the Instagram page in November of 2018. I was just stealing people’s memes and reposting them and then also posting results from my bets.
As this started to grow, I had marketing agencies reach out to me to try and work with me. I rebuffed most until one that really caught my eye contacted me. I have been working with them ever since. My page started to get much more professional after I began working with this agency:
BEFORE :
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AFTER:
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At the same time I started working with this agency, I began looking for a web developer on Fiverr.
Once I find someone good to work with, I paid him $500 to make my website. If you are thinking about starting your own business, Fiverr can be a great place to turn to for various things. I paid for everything with money from my day job.
I am very lucky to have an amazing day job, but no matter if you have the best job in the world or the worst. We ALL have time to make things happen outside the 9-5. I think that too many people get wrapped up in the idea that they are too busy.
I wake up at 6am to work an hour on Moneypicks every day, and then work from 5pm until I go to sleep. Believe it or not I actually have a third and fourth business that I make time for. If you really want it then put away the xbox and Netflix when you get home from work. Spend your weekends grinding. My mantra: Live like a prince now to live like a king forever.
In May, I officially launched as a paid service. The reaction was insane. I made $3000.00 in the first week and $8000.00 the first month. I got to 100 clients in only 36 days. It blew my mind. It was like a dream.
I offer 3 different packages as of today. Daily for $12.50, Weekly for $50.00 and Monthly for $150.00. What you get in this package is access to the members area of my website and a betting school within that members area. The packages only differ in the length of time you can access the members area. I do not have it setup on a recurring basis simply because the amount of time I would spend dealing with customer service issues is not worth the headache or extra few bucks I might make.
My prices are on the low end in the industry, the opposite end of the spectrum people pay $500 per pick or $15,000 per month. The two guys that charge this amount are much older and from a different era, I don't believe they utilize the technology that my generation wields and they don't connect to their community.
My biggest learning lesson was just trying to go too fast once I got it in my head I wanted to start charging for my information. I had lots of issues with the website. I blame myself for not spending enough time testing the site as much as I should have. Luckily I have lots of communication channels with my customers and an awesome relationship with them, so they understood about any issues that did arise.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

My biggest recommendation for growth is to just stick with it. I posted on my Instagram page every single day. Bad days and good days. I engaged with people. I posted memes. Tried to stay relevant with any and all sports news. But really the biggest thing that attracted customers was that they were making lots of money taking my picks.
The steps I took to increase traffic and sales was just to say yes to opportunities. I had a lot of different sports accounts reach out to partner on different projects. I would usually say yes just to gain exposure. I partnered with the #1 MMA betting podcast in the world @fistfulofcashpodcast and that was a great move.
I also have been buying sports memorabilia and giving it away as a free gift to one random member each month. I do random discount codes and email old clients that left the service just to check in with them. I post a lot of DMs from clients, when I’m doing well or they are showing love.
Sometimes i will post a random charity link and i'll put it out there on my IG that if you send me a screenshot of you donating to them then i'll give free picks for that day. But one of my main focuses is to just teach people how to bet properly. Las Vegas makes billions of dollars fleecing money off of the average joe, I want to show people how to turn the tables.
The number one way I retain clients is by being honest and truthful. This industry is 95% con artists and scams. So when I post my results, or try and teach people how to be better at this then it really reinforces why the clients are working with me.
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How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

The business today is thriving. I am excited about the direction it is heading and think that the growth of the industry will do good things for Moneypicks.
I have had 69,000+ website views and sold 275+ memberships. I am working to grow my facebook presence and am looking to do some SEO on my website. My instagram following is nearing 5000 followers and I am excited about the prospect of breaking that number.
The day to day operations start with waking up early at 6am to answer DMs and work on a morning post of my results. I will then post that to generate some sales and input data to analyze that days slate of games.
I will post my picks a few hours before games then let everyone know picks are up via a story post on my instagram and letting the telegram group known to login to the website. During the evening I post story posts that show the results of the bets and respond to DMs again in the evening.
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Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

I have learned a ton during this process. Balancing multiple ideas, jobs, businesses can be fun but you can also make mistakes and miss opportunities if you have your eggs in too many baskets.
One opportunity I missed recently was a client who is a World Series of Poker Champion and Gold Bracelet winner had made a final table in a tournament in Vegas this summer. He texted me to get him some Moneypicks gear ASAP so he could wear it on a nationally viewed event. I missed him by a day! I didn’t move quick enough.
A lot of times you need to act quickly. Opportunity does not wear a wristwatch. Good decisions I have made were working with a marketing agency that can help manage my social media and create content for the company so that I could focus on other tasks.
A major trend that has helped me immensely is the huge popularity of sports and the proliferation of sports betting. It is becoming legal across the country and the industry will grow immensely over the next 5 years.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

• Instagram
  
• Google Sheets
  
• Wordpress
  
• Telegram
  
• Fiverr
  
• Excel
  
• Paypal
  
• ESPN
  
• baseball-reference
  
• teamrankings
  
• Gmail
  

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

“Your wish is your command” by Kevin Trudeu. I went from making $0 per month from moneypicks to making $8000 per month literally weeks after listening to this podcast.
The law of attraction is something I have been practicing in my life without realizing it, and this podcast showed me how to harness it.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

Make it about something more than money. Care about the people. Build a community. Build a brand! Money is great, but knowing that you are impacting hundreds maybe thousands of people in a positive way is really great. In an ideal world i would love to have a way to get in front of even more people to teach them how to properly invest but also some of the information I have learned along the way. I think building a platform is a greater opportunity than creating a business that simply makes money. Money is a means to an end, but true fulfillment comes from reaching for something greater.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

I am looking for someone who can create content on illustratoPS, IG marketing, growth marketing, SEO. I am also looking for someone who can scrape data from the web into google sheets/excel. Anyone with connections that you might think can grow the company.

Where can we go to learn more?

• www.Betmoneypicks.com
  
• Instagram: @money.picks
  
• money.picks.team
  

If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.
For more interviews, check out starter_story - I post new stories there daily.
Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM

As a popular kind of home entertainment, gambling has an abundant history, and every gamer has the prospective to end up being a winner in the blink of an eye. There is absolutely nothing else rather like the rush of adrenaline that can accompany the gambling experience! The video gaming market has actually grown greatly for the past 20 years, and the lure of gambling has actually drawn increasingly more individuals to the gambling establishments along with racetracks and Web gambling website. Gambling is an interesting leisure activity in lots of aspects, and the list below will present you to a few of the historic, analytical, and amusing pointers and trivia that make this leisure activity unique.
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Did You Know?
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1. A minimum of 65,000,000 individuals in the United States play poker regularly.
   
2. Playing cards as we understand them today are still considerably affected by the French, despite the fact that playing cards were created in China. According to French tradition, the cards with Spades represent royalty. Diamonds represent Merchants, Clubs represent Peasants, and Hearts represent the Clergy.
   
3. Previous United States President Richard M. Nixon utilized cash he had actually won playing poker in the Navy throughout World War 2 to fund his run for Congress in 1946. He should have been an excellent gamer, for it is never ever affordable to get associated with politics!
   
4. 87% of individuals who went to Las Vegas throughout the year 1996 bet.
   
5. Studies expose that 38% of individuals who reside in the United States have actually checked out Las Vegas, usually to bet.
   
6. The video game called craps generally has a few of the very best bets in the gambling establishment.
   
7. Poker competitions that occur on the Internet and on tv have actually triggered the Texas Hold 'em variation of poker to have a massive rise in appeal.
   
8. There is one slots in Las Vegas, Nevada, for each 8 individuals who live there. In 2005, the approximated population for the Las Vegas Valley is 2 million individuals. That's a Great Deal Of slot deposit pulsa !
   

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1. Blackjack, or 21 as some individuals call it, continues to be the most popular table video game in both online and offline gambling establishments. It is likewise the video game with the very best chances.
   
2. You will see lots of variations of video poker in a gambling establishment, however each of them is based upon the video game of 5 Card Draw.
   
3. In the English gambling dens throughout the 18th century, one staff member had the regrettable task of dice swallower. That's right - dice swallower! He was to swallow the dice if and when a law enforcement officer robbed the den.
   
4. If played properly, video poker can use a few of the very best chances in the gambling establishment.
   
5. The very first slots on the planet was developed by a Mr. Charles Fey in the year 1899. He was an automobile mechanic who desired his consumers to have something to entertain them while they waited on their cars and trucks.
   
6. Groucho Marx, among the Marx Brothers, liked to play poker. He kept his poker cash on him at all times, bring it in a 'grouch bag". This is how he got the label of Groucho.
   
7. There are just 2 states in the United States that do not use legalized gambling. These are Hawaii and Utah.
   
8. 57% of individuals in the United States purchased a lottery game ticket in the last 12 months. This truth, which was found by a Gallup Survey audit on gambling, shows that the lotto is the most popular kind of gambling in the United States.
   
9. 68% of the folks in Las Vegas who bet play the fruit machine.
   
10. 24% of those residing in the U.S.A. confess that they have actually taken part in prohibited gambling.
    
11. When studying the portions of individuals who check out Las Vegas, it was found that the biggest portion group, 22%, was comprised of elderly people, those who are 65 and older.
    
12. Among the biggest slots payments ever tape-recorded occurred in Las Vegas back in 1998. A lady who had actually invested around $300 at a gambling establishment that day struck a $27.6 million dollar prize! Not surprising that fruit machine are so popular!
    
13. Many historians have actually concerned the conclusion that the famous and vibrant figure of the Wild West referred to as Wild Costs Hickock was not an excellent poker gamer.
    
14. In the United States, it is not possible to secure a patent on any type of gambling maker.
    
15. The card video game of Texas Hold 'Em was bet the extremely very first time in a Texas city called Robstown. This took place in the early 1900s. Texas Hold 'Em was given Texas from Las Vegas by a little group of Texas bettors.
    
16. Back in the 1970s, the typical age of individuals who delighted in gambling establishment gambling varied from 30 to 55. Nowadays, that age varieties from 17 all the way approximately 70.
    
17. 80% of a study group stated that all gambling ought to be legal, which gambling establishments are completely alright.
    
18. A word of caution - You are not permitted to utilize your cellular phone at a video gaming table. This is usually real in all gambling establishments. Obviously, if you are dipping into an online video gaming table, you can do what you want.
    
19. The biggest gambling establishment worldwide lies on the borders of Hartford, Connecticut in the United States. It is called the Foxwoods Gambling establishment.
    
20. Las Vegas has 2 labels - Las Vegas and Lost Earnings.
    
21. Slots vary from cent slots all the way as much as those that vary from $50 to $500 for each spin! These expensive slots are generally found in what is called the 'High-stakes gambler' space or spaces of a gambling establishment. As a basic guideline, you will not see a lot of these makers.
    
22. In 2007, more than $170 billion dollars was put in bets in Las Vegas by bettors. 'Your home', or the gambling establishments, won about $7 billion dollars of that cash.
    
23. Online video gaming is cool. Where else can you play video poker in your pajamas?
    
24. Gambling Establishments in Las Vegas are under no legal responsibility to settle any of their gambling financial obligations.
    
25. The state of Nevada in the U.S.A., house of Las Vegas, made gambling legal in the year 1931.
    

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- Throughout that very same year, the Hoover Dam was being constructed by the United States federal government.
- They didn't desire the men who were dealing with the dam to get included with gambling, so a whole town, Stone City, was constructed as a location for the dam employees to live.
- It was made prohibited to bet in Stone City in the hopes that these employees would not misuse the 50 cents an hour they were being paid.
- Today, Stone City is the only city in the state of Nevada where it is unlawful to bet.
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1. To this day, the Italians and the French will still argue over who developed the video game of Blackjack.
   
2. Countless individuals are utilizing the Web to bet 24 hr a day, 7 days a week.
   
3. Those who play the slots online along with offline will discover that a bulk of the time, they will win regularly playing online.
   
4. In horseracing or any kind of sports gambling, you require to win a portion of about 52.4% of the bets you make in order to recover cost. This is due to the fact that a commission is charged by the home on every bet.
   
5. There is no rhyme, rhythm, or pattern to playing the slots. It is nearly difficult to forecast when you are going to win.
   
6. When playing poker, the Dead Man's Hand is Aces and Eights.
   
7. The majority of people who take a holiday to Las Vegas gamble for 4 hours a day, every day they exist.
   
8. Some state that the video game of live roulette was created by a male called Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician and creator. Others state he simply chose what order the numbers would enter.
   
9. And still others declare that the video game of live roulette originated from China. Another group swears that live roulette was created by a group of Venetian monks! It appears that nobody understands the genuine reality.
   
10. Although a line of slots might look similar, each of them looks various on the within.
    
11. Dice are the earliest video gaming tool offered to utilize today.
    
12. Blackjack was prohibited in America back at the turn of the 19th century. Currently an extremely popular video game, it holed up as folks continued to play it unlawfully. The restriction was raised in 1939 as Nevada prepared to present Las Vegas to the world.
    
13. Craps is an American video game, however was developed as a variation of a European video game played in the 17th and 18th century that was referred to as 'risk'.
    
14. Legend has it that a fellow by the name of Francois Blanc made a deal with Satan in order to discover the expected 'tricks' of the roulette wheel. The basis of this legend is that when you accumulate all of the numbers on the wheel, you wind up with the number 666, a number that has actually constantly represented the devil.
    
15. Fruit machine can exposing countless possible mixes for each minute the video game is played. This is because of the random number generator, or RNG, that is inside the maker.
    
16. Craps got its odd name from a label provided to the French Creoles of New Orleans, Johnny Crapauds.
    
17. There are 2 kinds of dice, gambling establishment dice and 'pharmacy' dice. Gambling establishment dice are specifically made by hand to guarantee that they are well balanced and are a best cube. Pharmacy dice are smaller sized than gambling establishment dice, and are made by equipment.
    
18. Historians have actually discovered paperwork that informs us Napoleon actually delighted in playing a video game or more of 21, or blackjack when he remained in exile.
    
19. If you build up all of the opposing sides of one dice, you will constantly develop an overall of 7.
    
20. Live roulette has guidelines that are much easier to follow and comprehend than many other types of gambling.
    
21. Video poker has actually belonged of the gambling world since the early 1970s.
    
22. The video game of Baccarat was as soon as had fun with Tarot cards.
    
23. Caribbean Stud Poker is a poker variation that is incredibly popular worldwide. It was established from a 16th century video game called Primera.
    
24. There are 38 numbers on an American roulette wheel, 0, 00, 1 to 36.
    
25. There are 37 varieties of a French roulette wheel, 0 to 36.
    
26. Those who reside in Nevada wager around $846 each year at the gambling establishments.
    
27. The video game of Baccarat was created throughout the midlifes by Felix Falguiere, an Italian bettor.
    
28. Among the fastest growing types of home entertainment all over the world is gambling establishment gambling.
    
29. There are 11 various methods to make a wager in the video game of live roulette.
    
30. The British call fruit machine 'slot machine' and 'one-armed bandits'.
    
31. The game of chance of strip poker came from New Orleans, Louisiana around 1830.
    
32. Backgammon is the earliest taped video game in history. This video game, which came from Mesopotamia, is called by several names.
    
33. Gambling has actually ended up being a $40 billion dollar each year market in simply the United States alone.
    

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Things You Most Likely Never Ever Learn About Gambling
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1. Blackjack tables have a little in common with baseball video games. The seats at the table that are around the dealership are referred to as 'bases', and are referred to as very first, 2nd, and third base.
   
2. Baccarat concerned Las Vegas in 1959 at the old Sands hotel. It most likely was not well like by the hotel owners, as the Sands wound up losing $250,000 the opening night on the baccarat tables!
   
3. There are 3 various ranges of baccarat. They are called 'Chemin de fer', or train, 'Baccarat Banque, or Adeux Tableaux, and Punto Banto, which implies North American Baccarat.
   
4. Blackjack team play was developed by a guy referred to as Al Franesco.
   
5. The absolutely nos on roulette wheels are called the 'Home Edge'. The nos were initially contributed to the wheel by its developer in order to increase your house chances.
   
6. Caribbean Stud Poker discovered its method to the United States in the 18th century. It initially appeared in Louisiana, and after that spread out west.
   
7. Nowadays, you can find out how to play Craps on your Iphone!
   

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1. A pair of dice has a number of labels. They can be called 'Boxcars', 'Snake Eyes', 'Mississippi Marbles', or 'Memphis Dominoes'.
   
2. The fastest growing market on the planet in Indian video gaming, which is a $27 billion each year market in simply the United States.
   
3. The name 'Blackjack' was originated from a variation of the initial video game guidelines, in which a gamer who had the black Jack of Spades got a payment.
   
4. The worst live roulette bet, and why? It's referred to as the 5 number bet, 0, 00, 1, 2, 3, and when made, your home edge leaps from 5.26% to 7.89%.
   

​

1. The video game of Baccarat gets its name from the worst hand possible, absolutely no.
   
2. The initial name of Blackjack was 'Ving-et-un', which equates into the word 'blackjack'.
   
3. The biggest win at an online gambling establishment was $1, 683,524.64.
   
4. A sailor had 27 wins in a row playing Craps at a Las Vegas gambling establishment back in the 1950s. The chances of this occurring are 12,467,890 to 1!
   
5. The video game of Bingo came from Italy throughout the year 1530.
   
6. In Australia and New Zealand, the term "Housie" is utilized for Bingo.
   

​
Gambling Trivia You Never Ever Would Have Thought
​

1. In the whole time the video game of Keno has actually been played, a reward of $500,000 has actually been won 4 times, 2 times by the very same gamer.
   
2. Live roulette is the earliest of all gambling establishment video games.
   
3. Keno was utilized in ancient China to raise money that was utilized to develop the Great Wall of China.
   
4. Keno pertained to the United States in the 19th century.
   
5. It is possible to come up with 1,474, 200 various Bingo cards.
   
6. Playing cards as we understand them today initially appeared in Europe at some point throughout the 1300s.
   
7. Modern Bingo was developed from a video game called Beano. When a gamer wrongly called out "Bingo" instead of "Beano", the name caught on all over.
   
8. A little more than 70% of the high-stakes gamblers in Vegas who take pleasure in playing Baccarat are Asian lenders and Asian industrialists.
   
9. Keno returns to the Han Dynasty in Chinese history in between 205 and 187 B.C.
   
10. In South America and Europe, the video game of Baccarat passes the name of Punto Banco. Punto Banco is generally a high-stakes gambler video game.
    
11. The age of the youngest individual to win the World Series of Poker centerpiece was a tender 24.
    
12. It is possible to make 2,598,960 poker hands from a basic 52-card deck.
    
13. The chances of being dealt the hand called a 'pocket set' in Poker are 16 to 1.
    
14. There are just 4 possible Royal Flush hands in a basic 52-card deck.
    
15. The chances of getting a Royal Flush hand are 649,740 to 1.
    
16. More than 70 million decks of basic playing cards are offered each and every year.
    
17. That sandwich you consumed the other day got its name from a poker gamer. The Earl of Sandwich enjoyedsl poker a lot he was loathe to leave the video game table, even to consume. So, he would have somebody bring him bread and some meat, and the sandwich was born!
    
18. The label for a set of eights in the video game of poker is Pocket Snowmen.
    

​
At what duration in history did individuals begin to bet? The specific duration is unidentified however think it or not, pairs of dice have actually been discovered in Egyptian burial places over 4,000 years of ages! Likewise, gambling video games were played in ancient China, where Poker is believed to have actually come from. In 1492 throughout the Columbus landing, Native Americans were sports banking on the result of a video game looking like LaCross. So when did it all begin in America? Keep reading.
Early America
Gambling in America began with the very first English inhabitants in the 1600's. Their customs consisted of card video games that became part of the noble way of life. Nevertheless, when Puritans colonized in Massachusetts Bay they had the liberty to produce their own culture that included hostility towards gambling. They disallowed the ownership of dice, cards, and gambling table video games in their neighborhoods. However, gambling dominated in other regions. Numerous English colonists thought about gambling to be an ideal type of home entertainment.
The Transformation
The nest of Virginia was the very first to recognize that lottery games might raise capital for city governments. Ultimately all 13 nests were raising lottery game earnings. Profits assisted develop Universities like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Lottery games likewise moneyed churches and libraries. Establishing Dads George Washington, Ben Franklin, and John Hancock were promoters of particular lottery games for public works tasks. When the Revolutionary War began, the Continental Congress elected a $10 million lotto to fund the war.
Westward Ho
Throughout the early 1800's the pubs and roadway homes permitted dice and card video games, producing the very first variation of gambling establishments. As America's population started to increase, gambling establishments ended up being more extravagant. The Mississippi River was a significant trade route where merchants and business owners brought their money. Gambling on riverboats ended up being a preferred activity and New Orleans ended up being the gambling capitol of America. In 1849 gambling followed the leaders to California throughout the gold rush. Gambling facilities started to thrive there and west of the Mississippi, consisting of Nevada. In the late 1800's Live roulette was embraced from France and the Slots was developed.
Much of the general public seen gambling as a social ill since it was connected to alcohol addiction and prostitution. Reformers persuaded jurisdictions to close down the Dens of Iniquity. The majority of states terminated lottos also. Riverboat gambling dried up with the development of the railway. By the end of the century just Nevada enabled gambling.
20th Century
In 1910 Nevada lastly shut the door on gambling, which left horse race betting the only legal entity in America. In 1912 Arizona and New Mexico were given statehood under the condition that gambling stay outlawed. Throughout the 1920's restriction age, the general public's thirst for gambling matched that of alcohol. Gambling establishments holed up in addition to the speak easys. In 1931 Nevada legislated gambling once again and stayed the only state to do so up until the latter half of the century. Gambling thrived underground as the mob made heavy financial investments in Nevada, and succeeded by managing off track wagering and the numbers lottery.
Throughout the 1950's the U.S. Senate examined arranged criminal offense's link to unlawful gambling. Ultimately the mob left Las Vegas. States put bookmakers out of business by legislating off track wagering and numbers video games. Atlantic City authorized gambling in 1976, the Indian Video gaming Act was authorized by congress in the late 1980's. Dockside riverboat gambling picked up, racetracks set up slots while Las Vegas transformed itself by constructing mega resorts throughout the 1990's.
Century 21
The American Video gaming Association reported that there are 832,988 slot machine expanded over 1,151 gambling establishments and racetracks throughout 44 states with more en route. There is another breed of gambling appearing and it is on the internet such as here slot deposit pulsa. It appears that the American culture's thirst for gambling matches that of the Egyptian Pharaohs! America has actually welcomed gambling as an appropriate kind of home entertainment.

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.
Today's interview is with Tyler M of Moneypicks, a brand that sells sports data.
Some stats:

• Product: Sports data.
• Revenue/mo: $8,000
• Started: May 2019
• Location: Remote
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 0

Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

I am a 27 year old male from the South West United States. From an early age I was always fascinated with the idea of being an entrepreneur. My first business I remember making was creating a CD burning company in 2nd grade. Since then I was constantly brainstorming or thinking of ways to make a buck.
A huge passion of mine is sports, I grew up watching Sportscenter every night and love playing and watching sports. Another thing I love is numbers. They never lie. Statistics and numbers are so eloquent as they can convey so much information for those willing and able to find correlations within raw data.
The business I run is Moneypicks. (Instagram: @Money.picks). I use analytic models to determine the outcome of sporting events. I combine my love of sports and numbers to build proprietary systems that produce winners at a 60%+ rate.
I have a masters degree from a top 10 business school and have a high level knowledge of NHL, Soccer, NFL and MLB. My product is a membership to my site which gives you access to all my picks, and my clients are a wide range of people from different walks of life. My typical customer is a male from the age of 18-35 who loves watching sporting events.
I am currently making $200-$600 per day with almost zero overhead. I provide picks to World Series of Poker Champions, Plumbers, Doctors, Moms and everyone in between. I have been featured on the #1 Betting MMA podcast in the world and hoping to continue to have the opportunity to help teach people how to crush Vegas.
image

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

I started betting on sports during the World Cup South Africa in 2008. Like 99% of bettors I was completely over my head. I spent the next 10 years learning the hard way. I would not be writing this paragraph if I didn’t go through lots of losing. Humans only learn when we fail. Remember that.
Among my friends it got around that I had sharp picks. I started off by texting the picks to my friends for years. When the list of people getting picks got to be too much work a friend suggested I make an Instagram page to get them out.
This is where things get interesting. My page got very popular very fast. I went from 0 followers to 4000 in a little over 3 months doing absolutely nothing besides posting winning bets. A big part of this growth was during the last NHL season I was hitting at 67%. (this is confirmed on my Instagram page if you want to fact check)
Up until May of this year I was giving out all the information for free. I work a full-time sales job and to me, it was just a hobby and the love I got from giving out free winners was enough for me.
I then watched a documentary on Showtime about sports betting. They showed a guy named Vegas Dave (who I have spoken to at length on IG messages before ever watching the documentary) and he was making more money in a few hours than I make in a year at my 9-5. That’s when the lightbulb went off. Because I was providing the same service as him, at a higher level; and I already had an Instagram page with 4000 followers as potential customers.
I never went into this to make money. I was just helping people. Doing this gained the trust of my community before I ever asked for a dollar, so when I finally did start charging business flooded through the door.

Take us through the process of designing your product.

The interesting feature of this business is that there is no product. I sell information.
There are certain key metrics for various sports. In hockey some are goals for, GAA, day of the week, etc. In baseball its ERA, WHIP, Runs for and against, etc. My 10+ years of experience has allowed me to identify these key metrics. And then use the published data available to us, and reconstruct it into a formula that can accurately predict games down to the final score.
These formulas are 100% proprietary information that I developed on my own through trial and error and meticulous back testing. It was not an easy process and the amount of time and energy I have poured into perfecting the formulas for each sport is in the thousands of hours.
Although i do have a formal education in the way of a Bachelors and a Masters degree, I never took any stats classes or even bothered to care about learning to use excel until i realized i could use it to gain an edge in Sports Betting. If I had realized this in college I would have 100% taken Statistics and Excel focused classes. Because i got a late start on this i had to turn to Youtube / Google to learn the concepts, then applied my own ideas and thoughts from years of pouring over sports analytics.
This is a super important point because every single person reading this has the power to learn something totally foreign to you right now. Never before in history have we had access to so much information. You can’t ever lose that thirst for learning new things. Some of the most successful people in the world all have that in common.
It’s very important to remember one thing, I am predicting the outcomes of events that will be played by humans. Humans are irrational. All the stats can point to one outcome and if the pitcher’s girlfriend cheated on him last night, or the starting goalie goes down with an injury, then you can throw all the numbers out the window. Stats are an important tool for your tool box but they are not everything.
Like any type of investing the most important quality you can possess is discipline. Financial discipline, to always bet the same amount on every game. Emotional discipline, to not chase your losses and to bet an amount that does not elicit an emotion response if you lose. This can be a slippery slope just like the stock market, and you have to be robotic with your decisions. I don't take a team because I like their jerseys, im taking that team because they have won 7 of the last 8 on Tuesday Nights, facing a left handed pitcher with an ERA of 5.00 or higher.
My startup costs have been minimal. I paid a lawyer to form an LLC, paid for a website to be designed and hosted for 3 years. Also working with a marketing agency to produce the content for my IG page. I would say my overhead is less than $750 per month. I also buy sports memorabilia to give away to my members on a monthly basis.

Describe the process of launching the business.

Launching the business was a fluid process. As mentioned previously I began the Instagram page in November of 2018. I was just stealing people’s memes and reposting them and then also posting results from my bets.
As this started to grow, I had marketing agencies reach out to me to try and work with me. I rebuffed most until one that really caught my eye contacted me. I have been working with them ever since. My page started to get much more professional after I began working with this agency:
BEFORE :
image
AFTER:
image
image
At the same time I started working with this agency, I began looking for a web developer on Fiverr.
Once I find someone good to work with, I paid him $500 to make my website. If you are thinking about starting your own business, Fiverr can be a great place to turn to for various things. I paid for everything with money from my day job.
I am very lucky to have an amazing day job, but no matter if you have the best job in the world or the worst. We ALL have time to make things happen outside the 9-5. I think that too many people get wrapped up in the idea that they are too busy.
I wake up at 6am to work an hour on Moneypicks every day, and then work from 5pm until I go to sleep. Believe it or not I actually have a third and fourth business that I make time for. If you really want it then put away the xbox and Netflix when you get home from work. Spend your weekends grinding. My mantra: Live like a prince now to live like a king forever.
In May, I officially launched as a paid service. The reaction was insane. I made $3000.00 in the first week and $8000.00 the first month. I got to 100 clients in only 36 days. It blew my mind. It was like a dream.
I offer 3 different packages as of today. Daily for $12.50, Weekly for $50.00 and Monthly for $150.00. What you get in this package is access to the members area of my website and a betting school within that members area. The packages only differ in the length of time you can access the members area. I do not have it setup on a recurring basis simply because the amount of time I would spend dealing with customer service issues is not worth the headache or extra few bucks I might make.
My prices are on the low end in the industry, the opposite end of the spectrum people pay $500 per pick or $15,000 per month. The two guys that charge this amount are much older and from a different era, I don't believe they utilize the technology that my generation wields and they don't connect to their community.
My biggest learning lesson was just trying to go too fast once I got it in my head I wanted to start charging for my information. I had lots of issues with the website. I blame myself for not spending enough time testing the site as much as I should have. Luckily I have lots of communication channels with my customers and an awesome relationship with them, so they understood about any issues that did arise.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

My biggest recommendation for growth is to just stick with it. I posted on my Instagram page every single day. Bad days and good days. I engaged with people. I posted memes. Tried to stay relevant with any and all sports news. But really the biggest thing that attracted customers was that they were making lots of money taking my picks.
The steps I took to increase traffic and sales was just to say yes to opportunities. I had a lot of different sports accounts reach out to partner on different projects. I would usually say yes just to gain exposure. I partnered with the #1 MMA betting podcast in the world @fistfulofcashpodcast and that was a great move.
I also have been buying sports memorabilia and giving it away as a free gift to one random member each month. I do random discount codes and email old clients that left the service just to check in with them. I post a lot of DMs from clients, when I’m doing well or they are showing love.
Sometimes i will post a random charity link and i'll put it out there on my IG that if you send me a screenshot of you donating to them then i'll give free picks for that day. But one of my main focuses is to just teach people how to bet properly. Las Vegas makes billions of dollars fleecing money off of the average joe, I want to show people how to turn the tables.
The number one way I retain clients is by being honest and truthful. This industry is 95% con artists and scams. So when I post my results, or try and teach people how to be better at this then it really reinforces why the clients are working with me.
image
image
image
image
image
image

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

The business today is thriving. I am excited about the direction it is heading and think that the growth of the industry will do good things for Moneypicks.
I have had 69,000+ website views and sold 275+ memberships. I am working to grow my facebook presence and am looking to do some SEO on my website. My instagram following is nearing 5000 followers and I am excited about the prospect of breaking that number.
The day to day operations start with waking up early at 6am to answer DMs and work on a morning post of my results. I will then post that to generate some sales and input data to analyze that days slate of games.
I will post my picks a few hours before games then let everyone know picks are up via a story post on my instagram and letting the telegram group known to login to the website. During the evening I post story posts that show the results of the bets and respond to DMs again in the evening.
image
image
image
image

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

I have learned a ton during this process. Balancing multiple ideas, jobs, businesses can be fun but you can also make mistakes and miss opportunities if you have your eggs in too many baskets.
One opportunity I missed recently was a client who is a World Series of Poker Champion and Gold Bracelet winner had made a final table in a tournament in Vegas this summer. He texted me to get him some Moneypicks gear ASAP so he could wear it on a nationally viewed event. I missed him by a day! I didn’t move quick enough.
A lot of times you need to act quickly. Opportunity does not wear a wristwatch. Good decisions I have made were working with a marketing agency that can help manage my social media and create content for the company so that I could focus on other tasks.
A major trend that has helped me immensely is the huge popularity of sports and the proliferation of sports betting. It is becoming legal across the country and the industry will grow immensely over the next 5 years.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

• Instagram
  
• Google Sheets
  
• Wordpress
  
• Telegram
  
• Fiverr
  
• Excel
  
• Paypal
  
• ESPN
  
• baseball-reference
  
• teamrankings
  
• Gmail
  

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

“Your wish is your command” by Kevin Trudeu. I went from making $0 per month from moneypicks to making $8000 per month literally weeks after listening to this podcast.
The law of attraction is something I have been practicing in my life without realizing it, and this podcast showed me how to harness it.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

Make it about something more than money. Care about the people. Build a community. Build a brand! Money is great, but knowing that you are impacting hundreds maybe thousands of people in a positive way is really great. In an ideal world i would love to have a way to get in front of even more people to teach them how to properly invest but also some of the information I have learned along the way. I think building a platform is a greater opportunity than creating a business that simply makes money. Money is a means to an end, but true fulfillment comes from reaching for something greater.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

I am looking for someone who can create content on illustratoPS, IG marketing, growth marketing, SEO. I am also looking for someone who can scrape data from the web into google sheets/excel. Anyone with connections that you might think can grow the company.

Where can we go to learn more?

• www.Betmoneypicks.com
  
• Instagram: @money.picks
  
• money.picks.team
  

If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.
For more interviews, check out starter_story - I post new stories there daily.
Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.
Today's interview is with Tyler M of Moneypicks, a brand that sells sports data.
Some stats:

• Product: Sports data.
• Revenue/mo: $8,000
• Started: May 2019
• Location: Remote
• Founders: 1
• Employees: 0

Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

I am a 27 year old male from the South West United States. From an early age I was always fascinated with the idea of being an entrepreneur. My first business I remember making was creating a CD burning company in 2nd grade. Since then I was constantly brainstorming or thinking of ways to make a buck.
A huge passion of mine is sports, I grew up watching Sportscenter every night and love playing and watching sports. Another thing I love is numbers. They never lie. Statistics and numbers are so eloquent as they can convey so much information for those willing and able to find correlations within raw data.
The business I run is Moneypicks. (Instagram: @Money.picks). I use analytic models to determine the outcome of sporting events. I combine my love of sports and numbers to build proprietary systems that produce winners at a 60%+ rate.
I have a masters degree from a top 10 business school and have a high level knowledge of NHL, Soccer, NFL and MLB. My product is a membership to my site which gives you access to all my picks, and my clients are a wide range of people from different walks of life. My typical customer is a male from the age of 18-35 who loves watching sporting events.
I am currently making $200-$600 per day with almost zero overhead. I provide picks to World Series of Poker Champions, Plumbers, Doctors, Moms and everyone in between. I have been featured on the #1 Betting MMA podcast in the world and hoping to continue to have the opportunity to help teach people how to crush Vegas.
image

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

I started betting on sports during the World Cup South Africa in 2008. Like 99% of bettors I was completely over my head. I spent the next 10 years learning the hard way. I would not be writing this paragraph if I didn’t go through lots of losing. Humans only learn when we fail. Remember that.
Among my friends it got around that I had sharp picks. I started off by texting the picks to my friends for years. When the list of people getting picks got to be too much work a friend suggested I make an Instagram page to get them out.
This is where things get interesting. My page got very popular very fast. I went from 0 followers to 4000 in a little over 3 months doing absolutely nothing besides posting winning bets. A big part of this growth was during the last NHL season I was hitting at 67%. (this is confirmed on my Instagram page if you want to fact check)
Up until May of this year I was giving out all the information for free. I work a full-time sales job and to me, it was just a hobby and the love I got from giving out free winners was enough for me.
I then watched a documentary on Showtime about sports betting. They showed a guy named Vegas Dave (who I have spoken to at length on IG messages before ever watching the documentary) and he was making more money in a few hours than I make in a year at my 9-5. That’s when the lightbulb went off. Because I was providing the same service as him, at a higher level; and I already had an Instagram page with 4000 followers as potential customers.
I never went into this to make money. I was just helping people. Doing this gained the trust of my community before I ever asked for a dollar, so when I finally did start charging business flooded through the door.

Take us through the process of designing your product.

The interesting feature of this business is that there is no product. I sell information.
There are certain key metrics for various sports. In hockey some are goals for, GAA, day of the week, etc. In baseball its ERA, WHIP, Runs for and against, etc. My 10+ years of experience has allowed me to identify these key metrics. And then use the published data available to us, and reconstruct it into a formula that can accurately predict games down to the final score.
These formulas are 100% proprietary information that I developed on my own through trial and error and meticulous back testing. It was not an easy process and the amount of time and energy I have poured into perfecting the formulas for each sport is in the thousands of hours.
Although i do have a formal education in the way of a Bachelors and a Masters degree, I never took any stats classes or even bothered to care about learning to use excel until i realized i could use it to gain an edge in Sports Betting. If I had realized this in college I would have 100% taken Statistics and Excel focused classes. Because i got a late start on this i had to turn to Youtube / Google to learn the concepts, then applied my own ideas and thoughts from years of pouring over sports analytics.
This is a super important point because every single person reading this has the power to learn something totally foreign to you right now. Never before in history have we had access to so much information. You can’t ever lose that thirst for learning new things. Some of the most successful people in the world all have that in common.
It’s very important to remember one thing, I am predicting the outcomes of events that will be played by humans. Humans are irrational. All the stats can point to one outcome and if the pitcher’s girlfriend cheated on him last night, or the starting goalie goes down with an injury, then you can throw all the numbers out the window. Stats are an important tool for your tool box but they are not everything.
Like any type of investing the most important quality you can possess is discipline. Financial discipline, to always bet the same amount on every game. Emotional discipline, to not chase your losses and to bet an amount that does not elicit an emotion response if you lose. This can be a slippery slope just like the stock market, and you have to be robotic with your decisions. I don't take a team because I like their jerseys, im taking that team because they have won 7 of the last 8 on Tuesday Nights, facing a left handed pitcher with an ERA of 5.00 or higher.
My startup costs have been minimal. I paid a lawyer to form an LLC, paid for a website to be designed and hosted for 3 years. Also working with a marketing agency to produce the content for my IG page. I would say my overhead is less than $750 per month. I also buy sports memorabilia to give away to my members on a monthly basis.

Describe the process of launching the business.

Launching the business was a fluid process. As mentioned previously I began the Instagram page in November of 2018. I was just stealing people’s memes and reposting them and then also posting results from my bets.
As this started to grow, I had marketing agencies reach out to me to try and work with me. I rebuffed most until one that really caught my eye contacted me. I have been working with them ever since. My page started to get much more professional after I began working with this agency:
BEFORE :
image
AFTER:
image
image
At the same time I started working with this agency, I began looking for a web developer on Fiverr.
Once I find someone good to work with, I paid him $500 to make my website. If you are thinking about starting your own business, Fiverr can be a great place to turn to for various things. I paid for everything with money from my day job.
I am very lucky to have an amazing day job, but no matter if you have the best job in the world or the worst. We ALL have time to make things happen outside the 9-5. I think that too many people get wrapped up in the idea that they are too busy.
I wake up at 6am to work an hour on Moneypicks every day, and then work from 5pm until I go to sleep. Believe it or not I actually have a third and fourth business that I make time for. If you really want it then put away the xbox and Netflix when you get home from work. Spend your weekends grinding. My mantra: Live like a prince now to live like a king forever.
In May, I officially launched as a paid service. The reaction was insane. I made $3000.00 in the first week and $8000.00 the first month. I got to 100 clients in only 36 days. It blew my mind. It was like a dream.
I offer 3 different packages as of today. Daily for $12.50, Weekly for $50.00 and Monthly for $150.00. What you get in this package is access to the members area of my website and a betting school within that members area. The packages only differ in the length of time you can access the members area. I do not have it setup on a recurring basis simply because the amount of time I would spend dealing with customer service issues is not worth the headache or extra few bucks I might make.
My prices are on the low end in the industry, the opposite end of the spectrum people pay $500 per pick or $15,000 per month. The two guys that charge this amount are much older and from a different era, I don't believe they utilize the technology that my generation wields and they don't connect to their community.
My biggest learning lesson was just trying to go too fast once I got it in my head I wanted to start charging for my information. I had lots of issues with the website. I blame myself for not spending enough time testing the site as much as I should have. Luckily I have lots of communication channels with my customers and an awesome relationship with them, so they understood about any issues that did arise.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

My biggest recommendation for growth is to just stick with it. I posted on my Instagram page every single day. Bad days and good days. I engaged with people. I posted memes. Tried to stay relevant with any and all sports news. But really the biggest thing that attracted customers was that they were making lots of money taking my picks.
The steps I took to increase traffic and sales was just to say yes to opportunities. I had a lot of different sports accounts reach out to partner on different projects. I would usually say yes just to gain exposure. I partnered with the #1 MMA betting podcast in the world @fistfulofcashpodcast and that was a great move.
I also have been buying sports memorabilia and giving it away as a free gift to one random member each month. I do random discount codes and email old clients that left the service just to check in with them. I post a lot of DMs from clients, when I’m doing well or they are showing love.
Sometimes i will post a random charity link and i'll put it out there on my IG that if you send me a screenshot of you donating to them then i'll give free picks for that day. But one of my main focuses is to just teach people how to bet properly. Las Vegas makes billions of dollars fleecing money off of the average joe, I want to show people how to turn the tables.
The number one way I retain clients is by being honest and truthful. This industry is 95% con artists and scams. So when I post my results, or try and teach people how to be better at this then it really reinforces why the clients are working with me.
image
image
image
image
image
image

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

The business today is thriving. I am excited about the direction it is heading and think that the growth of the industry will do good things for Moneypicks.
I have had 69,000+ website views and sold 275+ memberships. I am working to grow my facebook presence and am looking to do some SEO on my website. My instagram following is nearing 5000 followers and I am excited about the prospect of breaking that number.
The day to day operations start with waking up early at 6am to answer DMs and work on a morning post of my results. I will then post that to generate some sales and input data to analyze that days slate of games.
I will post my picks a few hours before games then let everyone know picks are up via a story post on my instagram and letting the telegram group known to login to the website. During the evening I post story posts that show the results of the bets and respond to DMs again in the evening.
image
image
image
image

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

I have learned a ton during this process. Balancing multiple ideas, jobs, businesses can be fun but you can also make mistakes and miss opportunities if you have your eggs in too many baskets.
One opportunity I missed recently was a client who is a World Series of Poker Champion and Gold Bracelet winner had made a final table in a tournament in Vegas this summer. He texted me to get him some Moneypicks gear ASAP so he could wear it on a nationally viewed event. I missed him by a day! I didn’t move quick enough.
A lot of times you need to act quickly. Opportunity does not wear a wristwatch. Good decisions I have made were working with a marketing agency that can help manage my social media and create content for the company so that I could focus on other tasks.
A major trend that has helped me immensely is the huge popularity of sports and the proliferation of sports betting. It is becoming legal across the country and the industry will grow immensely over the next 5 years.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

• Instagram
  
• Google Sheets
  
• Wordpress
  
• Telegram
  
• Fiverr
  
• Excel
  
• Paypal
  
• ESPN
  
• baseball-reference
  
• teamrankings
  
• Gmail
  

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

“Your wish is your command” by Kevin Trudeu. I went from making $0 per month from moneypicks to making $8000 per month literally weeks after listening to this podcast.
The law of attraction is something I have been practicing in my life without realizing it, and this podcast showed me how to harness it.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

Make it about something more than money. Care about the people. Build a community. Build a brand! Money is great, but knowing that you are impacting hundreds maybe thousands of people in a positive way is really great. In an ideal world i would love to have a way to get in front of even more people to teach them how to properly invest but also some of the information I have learned along the way. I think building a platform is a greater opportunity than creating a business that simply makes money. Money is a means to an end, but true fulfillment comes from reaching for something greater.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

I am looking for someone who can create content on illustratoPS, IG marketing, growth marketing, SEO. I am also looking for someone who can scrape data from the web into google sheets/excel. Anyone with connections that you might think can grow the company.

Where can we go to learn more?

• www.Betmoneypicks.com
  
• Instagram: @money.picks
  
• money.picks.team
  

If you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!
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