Playtech Founder Teddy Sagi Funds Smart Energy Start-Up

Gambling boss Teddy Sagi is planning to invest $3 million into a smart energy start-up, it has emerged. Sagi, an Israeli-born businessman, is the founder of gambling software developer Playtech and has also recently invested in a number of other technology and real estate businesses over the past several years.

The billionaire investor will now fuel $3 million into Israel-based start-up SmartGreen. Founded in 2014 and based in the city of Rehovot, the company develops and distributes a system that both monitors and optimizes energy consumption. SmartGreen has been marketing software as being suitable for deployment across factories, commercial properties, and hospitals, among a number of facilities that require higher energy consumption.

Reportedly, high-profile clients including HP Inc., McDonald’s Israeli branch, and Israeli supermarket chain Shufersal Ltd. have opted for SmartGreen’s products. London’s Camden Market, which Mr. Sagi purchased back in 2014, has also been revealed as one of the clients of SmartGreen.

According to the smart energy start-up’s official website, its software reviews and detects an organization’s sources of energy waste, and then optimizes the performance of these energy consumers to eventually reduce consumption by up to 25%.

Mr. Sagi’s $3 million investment comes after the smart energy consumption firm previously raised nearly $2 million to fund its activities.

Mr. Sagi’s Recent Non-Gambling Endeavors

The Israeli tech billionaire, whose net worth currently stands at $2.7 billion (Forbes: December 2017) has steered his investment interests away from the global gambling industry. As mentioned above, he entered into real estate with the 2014 acquisition of Camden Market. The businessman bought the popular marketplace for £400 million. He has revealed that he plans to invest over £300 million in Camden Market and to develop the area into a popular real estate and technology hub with office space to accommodate different business activities.

Mr. Sagi’s real estate interests expanded into Germany earlier this year. Back in May, the businessman bought a controlling stake in German real estate developer and owner Brack Capital Properties. He paid around $280 million for a 44% stake in the property firm.

The purchase of Camden Market was among the first signals that Mr. Sagi would look to diversify his business interests in areas different from gambling. Here it is also important to note that the businessman has gradually and significantly reduced his stake in Playtech over the past year.

Late last year, he announced that he would reduce his stake in the company he had found to just 21.6%. He offloaded further 4% of Playtech’s float in March. In June, he sold 11.5% of the gambling software developer to raise around £340 million to fund real estate acquisitions. That latest sale left him with a 6.1% stake in Playtech. He was the largest shareholder in the gambling company back in October 2016 with a 33.6% stake.

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Financial Analyst Jim Cramer Says Fold on Bitcoin, Visit ‘Fabulous Las Vegas’ Instead

CNBC “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer is warning bitcoin investors that the digital currency comes with a substantial amount of risk and uncertainty. That likely isn’t news to most who have bought into the cyber coinage, as bitcoin’s price has fluctuated wildly over the last few months.

Fortunately for most bitcoin investors, the fluctuation has been to their benefit. The currency was trading for over $18,000 this morning, up over 2,200 percent from December 7, 2016’s going rate of $772. After typing this sentence, the price of a single bitcoin fell below $17,000.

The drastic movement in the decentralized digital currency is why Cramer believes you’re better off visiting Las Vegas and gambling.

“It’s kind of like Monopoly money,” Cramer opined this week. “It’s just pure gambling at this point. I mean if you want to gamble, go to Vegas. Las Vegas is fabulous.”   

Cramer has been bullish on gambling stocks in recent months, and specifically casino operators doing business in Macau. “It was just a matter of time before these stocks returned to form,” he stated in the wake of China’s crackdown of VIP junkets bringing high rollers to the enclave. “I like them all.”

Good Bet for Believers So Far

Critics of bitcoin say the currency has little to no real-life application. During its early years, vendors accepted the payment, but now many no longer take bitcoin, as it’s unclear (as demonstrated by today’s wild swings) how much actual value they’re receiving.

However, bitcoin remains a practical currency for internet gamblers and online casinos. For offshore websites, bitcoin’s anonymous nature is particularly attractive. The cryptocurrency is accepted at online casinos and sportsbooks including Bovada, Ignition Casino, Slots.LV, and more.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan recently compared bitcoin to a legal tender used by the Continental Congress prior to the formation of the US dollar in 1792.

“A significant share of it was creating real goods and services, despite the fact that it was ultimately worthless,” Greenspan told CNBC this week. “Humans buy all sorts of things that aren’t worth anything. People gamble in casinos when the odds are against them. It has never stopped anybody.”

However much of a risk bitcoin may pose, value-wise, each $700 gamble to date has garnered over $16,000, and that’s a streak any gambler would gladly take in Las Vegas.

Is It Really Money?

“Currencies” are defined as “something that is used as a medium of exchange,” and legal tender that comes with “general acceptance.” Bitcoin seems to satisfy the first stipulation, but not necessarily the latter.

Financial analysts are beginning to convey that bitcoin is more of a “store of value” than an actual currency. Others, like JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, says it’s nothing more than a “fraud.”

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Internet betting firms settle suits over NYX Gaming acquisition

Three gambling companies have agreed to end their legal battle over the proposed acquisition of NYX Gaming by Scientific Games. The Las Vegas-based firms hope to join forces and become a leader in ...

Sports Integrity Hotline Launched in US Ahead of Potential PASPA Repeal

A sports integrity hotline has been established in the United States and Canada by the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) to allow athletes, team personnel, fans, and the general public to anonymously report suspected misconduct or any other sports integrity concerns.

Founded in 2010 and based in Qatar, the ICSS is a nonprofit organization that’s focused on “safeguarding sport.” The group says on its website that it “works with multiple sectors” and “plays an integral role in addressing the most prominent challenges facing the world of sport today.”

The NCAA and the big four professional sports leagues (NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB) have long cited sports integrity concerns as their primary reason for opposing legalized sports betting in America.

Though commissioners of three of the pro leagues have recently eased their predecessors’ hardline stances, the NCAA and NFL remain adamantly opposed to repealing or lifting the current federal sports gambling ban.

The ICSS hotline, managed by a third-party firm called WhistleBlower Security, will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When a tip is received, an analyst will review its merits and investigate. The security expert will then share the information with appropriate authorities, including law enforcement agencies, if warranted.

PASPA Prepping

On Monday, the US Supreme Court heard New Jersey’s argument that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) is an unconstitutional federal law that violates anti-commandeering interpretations of the 10th Amendment. Should the court agree when it issues its verdict sometime in the first half of 2018, as many as 20 states would be likely to legalize sports gambling by 2025.

That would presumably raise the NCAA and NFL’s integrity concerns. New Jersey and sports betting legalization proponents argue just the opposite, and say a regulated industry is far safer than the largely offshore and underground options currently available throughout most of the US.

To ease worries and better monitor sportsbetting activity, numerous real-time data companies have recently emerged. Sportradar is one of the leaders in the US, as the integrity services supplier has struck deals with the NFL, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, and ESL (Electronic Sports League).

NFL Hypocrisy

Despite his league’s reaching an agreement with Sportsradar, a company backed by billionaires Mark Cuban and Michael Jordan, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell still isn’t convinced that his approval of sportsbetting is in the game’s best interest.

“We still strongly oppose legalized sports gambling,” Goodell stated an owners meeting this year. “The integrity of our game is number one. We will not compromise on that.”

Goodell is under the opinion that widespread sportsbetting would make everyone from players to water boys susceptible to being approached by outside interests for inside knowledge on a team. NFL owners apparently are less concerned, however, as all but one approved relocating the Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas.

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