Anyone who has ever tried to launch a new business with limited capital knows how difficult it can be to find adequate funding. It takes a lot of effort and patience, as well as a commitment to be willing to burn the candle at both ends to get things off the ground. However, as difficult as it can be, finding backers is not impossible. There are unique and creative ways to try to attract investors’ attention, as long as you’re willing to dedicate enough time and can accept a lot of “thanks, but no thanks” before getting a yes.

One of the most common sources of funding for startups, or even for business expansion, are angel investors. There are a number of options, such as AngelList and SeedInvest, but don’t expect to simply pitch your idea and receive an immediate response. Make sure you’ve done your research and can present a well-defined plan. Then, be prepared to continually push your idea on the platforms, trying to make contact with as many people as possible. Even if you don’t find the financial support you need directly through the platform, you will have exposure and angel investors might see your project, forwarding it to their own network of contacts for consideration.

Kickstarter and Indiegogo are two examples of crowdfunding investment solutions that have seen entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life with a great deal of success. Instead of relying on one or two angel investors with extremely deep pockets, these platforms allow hundreds or thousands of individuals back a project, even if they can only put up a small amount of money. Since launching 12 years ago, Indiegogo has helped entrepreneurs attract well over $1 billion, while Kickstarter, which launched 11 years ago, has raised over $4.6 billion. The key is to offer an incentive that has tangible value to the consumer to get them to pledge even $100-$200. If potato salad can find incredible backing, there’s not much that can’t be achieved through crowdfunding platforms.

Angel investors and crowdfunding are fairly well-known forms of finding investments for a startup but they’re not the only options. Visit local business schools (or non-local schools if you want to take a road trip), especially those that have a lot of entrepreneurs among the alumni and faculty. That information shouldn’t be too difficult to find out – the names can be found on the website. From there, you only need to spend some time investigating those names to determine if they would make viable sources. Also keep positive – if you get rejected, ask if they can recommend your project to their own networks.

2020 was a rough year for lots of people, but a few verticals from the gambling business ended up making positive news regardless. Here’s the five gambling business stories that interested you most in 2020.

Dan Snyder ousted by scandal? Updated Washington Redskins name odds

In a bit of a cross-over with the sports section, the Washington Football Team finally met it’s point of return with its former team name in July, 2020. With allegations of misconduct around Washington’s head office rising, team owner Dan Snyder finally gave in and decided to drop its past racist name.

Facebook group shutdown over gambling operations

Coolbet, the Estonian based online sportsbook recently acquired by GAN, has an unusually high customer retention, and that’s in part due to an old-school approach. Endre Nesset, Director of Sport for Coolbet, joined our Becky Liggero Fontana to explain how old ideas, marketed correctly, can still work very well.

That old idea comes in the form of trading positions and offering very attractive margins to players. Nesset explained:

“Coolbet does things a bit differently. We encourage our guys to trade positions, not only rely on markets and third parties. The bookmakers that we have, the compilers we have, they’re not afraid to take positions and we encourage them to take positions, whether it’s outside kind of the standard market frames.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k48JFw2S_xE?feature=oembed&w=640&h=360]

Australia’s online gamblers could find themselves unable to use credit cards to fund their wagering if the banking industry adopts the findings of a new report. 

One year ago, the Australian Banking Association (ABA) announced a consultation to solicit community views on the use of credit cards for gambling transactions. The findings of that consultation have now been released and they could spell trouble for the country’s online betting licensees. 

The Every Customer Counts report is based on 40 written submissions from betting operators, gambling counsellors, consumer advocates, academics and government agencies, along with 813 individuals who responded to the short-form web survey.

Most of these responses came down firmly on the side of prohibiting credit card-based gambling, with the report noting the prevailing view that “the associated risks were considered to significantly outweigh any potential benefits for customers, especially for vulnerable populations.”

Think of famous poker players and perhaps Dan Smith wouldn’t be the first name on anybody’s lips. It’s easy for a certain generation to picture Texas Dolly, a.k.a. Doyle Brunson when they think of a poker player. For the next generation, it might be Daniel Negreanu or Phil Ivey. But for modern fans, one of the first names that will arise thereafter might be Dan Smith. It certainly should be.

Truly an everyman in poker terms, the best player never to win a WSOP bracelet has flown under the bracelet for years but sits in fifth place on the all-time money list for tournament players, has won $36.7 million and is a genuine poker idol.

Who is Dan Smith, though, and which game was he very nearly a professional instead of poker? Let’s step into the time machine and get up to 88 mph to find out.

The Young Master Smith

If you’re yet to do your Christmas shopping, or you’re dreading the arrival of your in-laws on the single day you’re permitted visitors this Yuletide period, then you may need a little kick-start to get your week going. We feel you.  

At times such as these, the words of poker winners or losers might fall on deaf ears, after all, reality can certainly bite. But what about a movie? Christmas is the time of year people put their feet up, plop themselves down in front of a film and take the best from their year to a backdrop of whip-smart dialogue and dramatic flair on the small screen.  

We’ve picked seven quotes from seven movies that should gladden your hearts and provide with the inspiration to get through to Christmas in the festive spirit.   

1.              “Money won is twice as sweet as money earned.” 

Some sports movies are great, others are bad. But can a sports movie ever be both?  

If you’re genuinely asking that question, then you cannot have seen the 1987 movie, Hotshot, starring Jim Youngs, Billy Warlock and… Pelé!  

The plot is very simple. Jim Youngs plays Jimmy Kristidis, a no-hope footballer who idolizes Pelé but is not succeeding where he wants to on the pitch. In desperation, this rich New Yorker travels to Brazil in order to track down Pelé (oddly renamed ‘Santos’ for the purposes of the movie) and get him to teach the young player how to bridge the gap between try-hard and pro.  

Youngs is an interesting story before he landed the part of Jimmy, only auditioning as a laugh before landing a few small parts. This was his first starring role and while the film only got a lukewarm reception at the box office, it was popular with football fans.  

Illinois gambling regulators want to impose a $5m penalty against video gaming terminal (VGT) operator Accel Entertainment for violating state regulations in the firm’s now-scrapped deal with sports betting operator DraftKings. 

On Friday, the Illinois Gaming Board (IGB) filed a complaint for disciplinary action against Accel, which operates a VGT network spanning some 2,335 locations – restaurants, bars, truck stops, etc. – across the state. 

The IGB accuses Accel of “offering and providing payments and other things of value to licensed video gaming establishments as illegal inducements or incentives to locate, keep or maintain” Accel’s VGTs. The IGB says Accel is guilty of violating the Video Gaming Act and the IGB’s Adopted Rules for Video Gaming, for which the IGB seeks a penalty of $5m. 

Accel struck a deal with DraftKings in August to promote the latter firm’s new Illinois betting app to VGT customers. The promos were to air via Accel’s VGT screens, with DraftKings paying Accel $200 for each ‘qualified’ new bettor who signed up and met certain wagering benchmarks. 

Sports betting operator SportPesa wants to put Kenya’s gambling regulators behind bars for continuing to take action against the company despite a court order. 

This weekend, Kenyan media reported that Milestone Games Ltd had filed legal papers seeking the six-month imprisonment of seven members of the Betting Control & Licensing Board (BCLB). The seven are accused of violating a Nairobi High Court order requiring the regulator to temporarily cease enforcement actions against Milestone. 

The seven individuals targeted in the court filing include BCLB chair Cyrus Maina and board members Peter Kanaiya, Sabrina Kanini, Daniel Koech, Joy Masinde, Peter Mbugi and Paul Njaga. Milestone claims the seven are displaying “utter disdain for court orders and the judicial process” and seeks to bar all seven from holding public office until the matter is resolved. 

Milestone received a BCLB license in October, after which it launched an online betting site bearing the SportPesa brand. The site was shut down the same day it launched after the BCLB raised questions over ownership of the SportPesa brand.

Plato is quoted as once having said, “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” While the format for listening to music has changed significantly over the 2,400 years, the reason behind the melodies and harmonies hasn’t. Today, streaming music services are the preferred option, giving the listener the ability to pick and choose from tens of millions of songs in a matter of seconds. There are a number of choices available when it comes to selecting the right streaming platform, and the decision ultimately falls on a number of criteria.

When reviewing different streaming music platforms like Amazon Music or Spotify, or any of the hundreds of others available, it helps to consider a couple of factors. Price isn’t too much of a game-changer since most of the services cost about the same. What’s important is the amount of content, playlist configurability, quality of the audio and platform support – if the service is available to be used on anything from smart devices to vehicle media systems.

Playlist configurability is straightforward; if the platform allows you to create a personal library that is accessible from all of your devices, then it has an advantage. However, it’s important to keep in mind that there are some limitations to content not controlled by the platform. Some artists refuse to license certain content, while others don’t want any of their songs available on streaming services. Taylor Swift is known for this, having forced Spotify to remove all of her songs in 2014 before she allowed them to be put back on two years later.

When considering audio quality, the higher the bitrate, the better the quality. Songs on Amazon Music and Spotify have bitrates that put the songs in the category of “high definition,” but Spotify’s premium service goes higher with some of the content. However, getting high-definition audio doesn’t matter if your output device – the tablet, smartphone, etc., – doesn’t support it. If all you ever use to listen to streamed music are standard headphones, you will never hear the difference between standard definition and HD formats of the same song.

A thrilling collection of games saw clubs such as Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Leicester all get three points as some of the cream of last season’s crop started to rise to the top of the Premier League table.

Let’s start our detailed look at the drama at Goodison Park as Carlo Ancelotti and Mikel Arteta enjoyed vastly different work anniversaries.

Everton 2-1 Arsenal

Carlo Ancelotti saw his side march into the top four after dogged display of both attack and defence at home to a desperate looking Arsenal side. A year ago, Arsenal plumped for the inexperienced former Gunners midfielder Mikel Arteta as their new manager after the disastrous spell under Unai Emery.

It’s been a long time since Will Kassouf was making happy headlines in poker, especially in terms of winning a major tournament, but this weekend he is doing exactly that by taking down the Irish Poker Master Main Event, winning €215,163 in the process.

It feels like about 20 years since Kassouf was courting controversy in the 2016 WSOP Main Event (yes it really was only four years ago). Back then, it was arguments with Griffin Benger, stand-offs with tournament director Jack Effel and of course, the infamous “Nine High Like a Boss” hand:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THA5LjEyW9UVideo can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: Nine-High, Like a Boss | 2016 WSOP Main Event: Day 5 | PokerGO (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THA5LjEyW9U)

Flash forward 50 months and it is a very different story. There has, of course, been an awful lot of water under several bridges since then. Kassouf, who became a Grosvenor Poker pro, was a one-man poker brand in the year that followed his utterance of that nine-high hand. He was everywhere, and for everywhere was lost in the ‘Black Mirror’ of technological celebrity.