Players sounds so dumb to be honest. I understand that there are sanctions against Russia, but its a esports team that has been around for a long time, just changing the name won't do much. Atleast the gambit players can compete on an international stage. I am a big fan of Hobbit, he has a long career with gambit. Should be a sure win against Movistar Riders. Team Liquid vs Godsent should be the closest match in the group. Maybe Taco brings some Mob skills to the game and they could win this one. BIG vs Party Astronauts looks to me like a sure win for BIG again. Gambit/BIG are my two favourites in this group.

Kind of sad that crypto scams are now the second largest in the world, but also not so surprising. Crypto currencies had a huge boom last year and many different coins made triple digit returns. These returns made cryptos even more popular with news coverage growing and new investors joining every day, trying to get a piece of the action. The rise in investors unfortunately also means a rise in scammers who must have watched the trend very closely. For many years the amazon gift card scam must have been the most profitable for scammers. But eventually awareness is spread and its not so successful anymore. Together with the rise in scammers it means they need to look for new more profitable ways to make money. Creating new cryptos with the sole purpose to scam investors is terrible, I wish there was a better protection for new investors. That's why for me the largest part of a crypto portfolio should be made up of mainstream coins like BTC and ETH, only a small fraction should be used to go for new alt coins.

I do believe that the Russian economy can survive at the moment, even if the sanctions are getting worse. At the beginning of the Ukraine Russia war it seemed very bad for Russia with all the sanctions, the biggest one removing Russia from swift system. The concern were that Russia is going to default on its foreign currency debt. This didn't happen luckily. American banks still keep open channels with Russia and coupon payments have been made. So Russia is not completely isolated and the debt prices recovered considerably. As for all dealings in rubble, Putin can just print more of them.
The main export for Russia is Oil and Gas, while some countries and companies said they are not going to make new contracts with Russia for future supply, the old contracts are still valid and being paid. Many countries in the European Union made it clear they are not going to stop relying on Russian imports. It's one thing to try and hurt Russia, but you can destroy your own economy because of it. Fuel prices are through the roof in Europe, inflation is rising. I think the West will keep trading with Putin and stabilise the Russian economy.

It seems that UFC title fights are still the goal for Conor Mcgregor. The 50m payday for him would be a nice bonus, but only if he has nothing to lose anymore. Ending your career for a 50m fight seems not a good opportunity if you still have a chance to get the title back. For Jake Paul this is a big promotion campaign to build up his image and brand name. There isn't really much to lose for him. The money he will make back through social media quickly. And he has good chances of winning, due to size, younger age and the main restriction it's only a boxing match. What I don't understand is that why isn't he offering 1 boxing match with Conor and if he wins he would make MMA fight. In MMA there is no chance for Jake Paul to win, it would be 1-1 after the two fights and nobody won or lost. Like this Jake Paul could hype the fights even more. I think for him it's all about promoting himself and increasing his follower base.

I am glad that the majority of the politicians voted against it. The proposal came from the green and leftist parties together, luckily they have no majority in the European Parliament. The conservatives and liberals voted against. But still 24 politicians support the ban is alarming. I didn't expected such a big resistance against bitcoins. The bitcoin came a very far way in the last years, to me it's mainstream now. Almost anybody has atleast heard once about bitcoins before. Also it's hard to imagine what would have happened to the bitcoin price if it got banned in Europe. Losing the European market overnight probably would have sent the price down 20%.

Yes that could, many monitors already have a camera inside, than you just need 1-2 more to film the PC and keyboard from behind. It's a bit like becoming a professional steamer. For some players this could be a no go, like you can't do on your phone while lying on the couch or at night in bed. Cheating would still be an issue though if stakes are too high. You could have a partner for example who watches the game life and feeds it into a chess computer, giving real time information directly into the earphone of the player. I think most important would be to focus on blitz games, there the games are much faster and less time to manipulate. It will also take a anti cheat software that compares your rank to the way you play. Like if you are winning too many games, or make some very good moves which would indicate a higher rating.

One of the big moves we see right now is more and more celebraties to work together with casinos and promote them. This trend will likely grow more and more thus year. For me it's a good way for advertising in today's time. Having giveaways and promotions is one  way to keep gamblers happy at the casino and it will also attract some new customers who haven't heard about them before. The thing with celebrity marketing is that offers a whole new market for the casino. There are millions of followers on twitter, Facebook or Instagram for the celebrities and some of them have never heard about crypto casinos before. The advertising today is a lot more about using social media channels to reach customers. And celebrities together with the biggest influences have the furthest social media reach. Having famous names working together with online casinos also makes the community look more advanced and matured.

It's best to never decide under pressure, there will always be new opportunities around. This year I didn't buy any alt coins so far. Last year I added a few dodge coins, but mainly focused on ETH and BTC. This year I will do the same. The bitcoin prices dropped so much compared to last year that it feels like a must buy for me. So instead of struggling to choose the best alt coin out of the large pool, I will stick to the coins that did really well in the past.
If I had more capital to invest I would also buildup my alt coin portfolio. Unfortunaley I am still repaying a loan and have some issues come up that require me to set aside more fiat money this year. For expenses I prefer to save up the money in the currency I need it in. That's why investing now money I need in a couple of months is not really a option. For all the money I can share to invest my hierarchy is 1. Bitcoins, 2. ETH and only after that I would go for alts right now.

In case you need the money right now than its a good time to sell, but if you don't need the money than you should plan first what you will invest in. Crypto currencies would be a good choice, prices are fairly cheap compared to last year. However, I would invest all my money in cryptos only. Diversification is very important when it comes to investing. Spreading out the money across different asset classes reduces risk of the portfolio. Another factor to consider before selling is taxes, everytime we sell something with a profit there are taxes to be paid. So selling something for a small profit just to see the profit being eaten by taxes is not good.
The property you live in I would always keep, and if there is another property that is being rented out with good tenants in a good condition I would also keep it. Having a steady reliable Cashflow is important in case there is a problem with the job. Selling commodities could be a good idea, but then again if you just want to be rich on your bank account and leave the money as cash around. Then there won't be any return coming and you are losing money each year due to inflation. Maybe investing all the money into your own business could be an alternative, only it's profitable.

I agree, any company in today's world needs to do financial forecasts. Casinos don't differ in that form from other companies. Without reliable forecasts what the costs, what the expected deposit and withdrawals, what returns and what the taxes will be, a casino can just gamble to make a profit. Forecasts are also be a good tool to help in identifying the optimal strategy for the next month. For example, if higher withdrawals are expected in the future than it would make sense to offer a new promotion and attract new customers. The most important step for a successful casino is to keep existing customers happy and active. Every casino can run a promotion for new gamblers and attract a lot of one time depositors, but what helps to keep the casino profitable is that the gamblers play regularly. For that a casino need to have some benefits, like a ranking for VIP players, the more they gamble the higher their rake. Also it's important to have an fast responding customer support team that helps gamblers with all their problems.

I agree with you, while the total amount of mined bitcoins will eventually reach 21m, it doesn't mean that the world has full access to all these 21m. Due to theft and people losing access to their wallets the number of available bitcoins will be lower. That shouldn't be a big concern right now though. You could argue that the price should be higher, but that's just a matter of time.  The finite numbers of Bitcoins is what will make the price rise over time. As long as new bitcoins are being mined there exists a minimum price for bitcoins, given by the energy and running cost of miners. We are of course well above that price. So the rise in mining cost together with the halving means that prices have to rise more and more. At the moment its hard to say what the real price is, because the world is facing such uncertain times.

For me it feels wierd to trade with borrowed money. I am not an expert in trading, so the risk of losing money in a trade is there and I can't imagine how I would feel if that money I lost wasn't even mine. For a very successful traders it can make sense to trade with borrowed money, because they leverage their returns like that. Similar to how the hedge funds operate, take a cheap loan and multiply your profits. The problem is that the risk of the trade multiplys also. Taking out loans means we need to repay the interest and if we didn't make a return for a while we could be forced to close out our position and be screwed. When trading only with our own equity we have more freedom, in times of falling prices we could just sit out the dip and wait for prices to recover. Interest rates are still cheap at the moment, what makes loans seem cheap right now. But interest rates have to rise to fight the higher inflation, which will make refinancing more expensive in the future. The only way were I could consider trade with borrowed money was if it is from family or very close friends. I would share all profits with them and make sure that they understand before there is a risk they could lose some of the money.

I understand the problem we face online when it comes to KYC. For the majority it's another step where they have to share personal information online, it's seems unnecessary because the majority is honest and would not engage in illegal activities. Only a small fraction misuse the Internet for their illegal purposes. It's like a paradox, to make the Internet a safer place, it becomes more risky for the individual. Every time we share our personal information online, it gets stored and could be stolen in case of a security breach. Unfortunately I don't see any way around it in the future. The number of transactions humans are doing online is going to keep rising. More and more things will be bought and sold online. Casinos are a natural part of that. For that also the need to better identify ourselves online will grow.

I fully agree with you, Drake should not be blamed if someone tries to copy his bets and then loses money. Drake has a huge follower base and for him to share his betting slips is a form of advertising not a tip to make some free money. When it comes to sports betting there is no guaranteed win, and even though Drake is famous it doesn't mean he has insider information. Everybody should make up his own mind before blindly following celebrities, it is on ourselves to act responsible when it comes to gambling. Like you said Drake is not telling anyone to use their own money and gamble. For him betting a few hundred thousand USD is not much, he has enough money. In my opinion it's still great to see such famous Rappers like Drake to be part of the crypto world. It shows how far crypto currencies and online casinos have come in the last few years. Even the top celebrities are not afraid to give their name for advertising campaign. I am sure in the future we will see even more celebrities to join the crypto and gambling community.

Should be interesting games today. How much did you bet on them? I am always a bit reluctant to bet on these medium tier matches as I am not following the teams too much. Cowana Gaming I have seen before, they are pretty strong and should win today. Next week Cowana Gaming is playing against BIG, I would put my money here on BIG, they are a much stronger team. My favourites are still Alternate aTTaX, even though they are not performing as good this tourney. This is going to be a close match next week against Partydaddlers. Today vs Masonic should be easier for aTTaX.

I wonder if you still find these arbitrage opportunities today, or if they all disappeared. I know from stocks trading that arbitrage opportunities are short lived, because information flow today is so fast. As soon as a trader starts profiting of big trade, others will follow. In the sports betting world I would expect the bookies to identify these opportunities too.
Insider information is probably the only way to be always right in betting. Without it we need to rely on hedging or luck to save us. Luck will eventually run out and can cost us a lot of money. I like to make small very risky bets as a hedge. The investment is small with a potential big payout. Especially during big tournaments having multi segment hedges is a good idea. Betting on a few underdogs is relatively cheap and can help recover our money in case our favourite team doesn't make it.

Meta is a huge company, they have so many personal information through Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and more. The whole company is build around gathering information and tailoring specific ads and information for individuals. All these algorithms could be used for gambling also. It should be very easy for them to categories people into adults and minors, and prevent minors from seeing any gambling content. There could be some out cries from parents who fear for their children, so maybe some additional KYC steps are needed. The gambling market is a large market and very profitable, I am sure Mark Zuckerberg would like to get a piece of it.

In my opinion the effects of sanctions on a superpower are even worse than on the smaller nations like Venezuela or North Korea. A superpower is usually strongly connected in international trade an relys on exports for the economic growth. Once many nations join in on the sanctions the trade will collapse and send the currency downwards. The lower currency makes imports more expensive, which will make force down the economy even more. In my opinion sanctions are important and should be applied, but the severity of them is a issue. The harder the sanctions the more the ordinary people are going to suffer. This might make people more radical and not change the desired politics. I would expect if you ask people in North Korea, Iran or Venezuela how they feel about the sanctions and their attitude towards the West, they will probably blame more the foreign countries than their own leaders.  

I understand bitcoins completely different from you. In my opinion there is buying and selling going on. The way you describe it sounds like there is one big entity behind bitcoins who controls everything. That is definitely not the case, there are tons of different miners out there, all around the world. The miners then sell the bitcoins to the investors and traders. There is not only one bitcoin exchange out there, and they are not all owned by the same person.  The bitcoin community is full of individuals that buy and sell bitcoins on regularly. Saying that there is no buying or no investing going on is not right. For me the numbers of my bitcoin wallet are not easy to remember, I can't store such long numbers in my mind, I need protection.

Looking objectively from above at the situation it was probably not as bad as it seemed at that moment. There is always a way out, a way towards recovery. But like you said, the brain tends to focus on one outcome and intensifies the negative feelings. I don't think it's right to put all the blame on the casinos and the gambling industry. There doctors and institutions that deal directly with gambling addictions, if he really wanted he could have gotten help. Unfortunately he didn't see a way out. Also his parents could have helped and try to convince him to see specialist doctors to better control his spending habits. The parents shouldn't help with paying the debt off, because that could look like a form of enabling. UK is a developed nation that has procedures in place for people who have taken on to much debt and can't repay it anymore. In my country this process takes 4-5 years, and after that all your debt will be written off. It's a tragedy and hopefully helps others in a similar situation to wake up and get help.