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How to play Scratch Silver
Representatives from Corinthians, Palmeiras, São Paulo, Santos and Juventus met last week at the São Paulo Football Federation to discuss measures in response to the ban on betting advertisements in the city.
One of the proposals could be voted on next week by the city council and would directly affect the city’s clubs.
The meeting brought together 40 professionals from the clubs’ legal, communications and marketing departments, as well as executives from companies in the betting sector. Club officials are concerned about the financial impact of the measures, which could impact sponsorship contracts signed with betting companies.
How to play Scratch Silver
“Markets now exhibit far more casino-like behavior than they did when I was young. The casino now resides in many homes and daily tempts the occupants,” Buffett wrote, noting that extreme volatility makes identifying sound, long-term investments vastly more difficult.
“One fact of financial life should never be forgotten. Wall Street–to use the term in its figurative sense–would like its customers to make money, but what truly causes its denizens’ juices to flow is feverish activity. At such times, whatever foolishness can be marketed will be vigorously marketed–not by everyone but always by someone,” Buffett warned.
Buffett was not always entirely anti-gambling. Before commercial sports betting expanded across the United States, he regularly offered $1 million annually to any Berkshire Hathaway employee who submitted a perfect NCAA March Madness men’s basketball bracket.
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But, as Robinson warns, the opportunity to enter Africa doesn’t come without challenges.
“It’s profitable, it’s growing and it was for sale from a distressed vendor,” he says. “That combination rarely appears in regulated Europe, where scaling a B2C brand means paying up for customers against Flutter and Entain on thin margins.
“Africa isn’t saturated, but I wouldn’t call it easy either. Betway and the local incumbents are well dug in. The difference is that you’re competing for a market that’s still forming, at a fraction of the acquisition cost, and the operating margin is there if you get the payments and the product right. The risk is regulatory and currency rather than competitive.”