https://www.gamingtoday.com/industry/article/64175-Coin_Cloud_expands_into_The_Plaza_Casino_and_Lucky_Dragon
So smart that casinos have bitcoin in their business plan as a way to bring money from all over the world into their casino. Chinese will go nuts on getting their money out of the country into a US casino.

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.

Albeit a week late, I want to share my 2021 portfolio for documentation purposes and for whoever is interested. I aimed to balance risk in this portfolio with some growth names and legacy plays. Down to brass tacks, I am putting my money in the highest quality companies (in my view) across a diverse set of industries I find attractive. Some of these names are overvalued in the short term. However, I have realized I am not in the business of beating Wall Street’s pricing, but would rather hold high-quality companies that I believe will grow faster that the market in the long term. In other words, I am totally fine paying a short-term premium for growth and quality. Below is a summary of the portfolio and big picture reasoning behind each investment. I'm definitely open to any feedback.

Company	Ticker	Entry Price	Exposure
ARK Genomic Revolution ETF	ARKG	$93.26	6.60%
CrowdStrike	CRWD	$211.82	11.78%
Disney	DIS	$181.18	10.53%
Enphase Energy	ENPH	$175.47	7.98%
Evolution Gaming Group	EVVTY	$101.02	12.77%
Facebook	FB	$273.16	11.05%
Redfin	RDFN	$68.63	10.41%
Teladoc	TDOC	$199.96	9.60%
Sea Ltd	SE	$199.05	14.09%
Waste Connections	WCN	$102.57	5.19%

ARK Genomic Revolution ETF (BATS: ARKG) - Invests in companies advancing genomics. The companies held in ARKG may develop, produce or enable: CRISPR, Targeted Therapeutics, Bioinformatics, Molecular Diagnostics, Stem Cells, Agricultural Biology.

• Innovative industry. Since 2003 the cost to sequence a human genome has dropped from nearly $3bn to less than $1,000. ARK believes that as costs continue to drop, genomic sequencing will become a standard of care in oncology. It will introduce more science into healthcare decision making, enable personalized medicine, and accelerate drug discovery. ARK estimates that genomic sequencing revenues will grow 43% at an annual rate, from $3.5bn last year to $21bn in 2024.
• Cathie Wood. She’s a beast stock picker. Out of all the ETFs she runs, her closest competitor trailed by 60%. Her worst ETF still doubled investors' money. Her strategy is to make investments into companies that she considers incredibly transformational and she has seen success doing it.

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) - Cybersecurity technology company that provides endpoint security, threat intelligence, and cyber attack response services.

• Best in class technology. Remember about a week ago a bunch of Russian hackers breached SolarWinds? The same hackers also tried to hack CrowdSrike at the same time but were unsuccessful. I’ve wandered on to a bunch of cybersecurity forums, and the general consensus is CrowdStrike has developed the best cybersecurity solution by miles. CRWD is the undisputed leader in cybersecurity.
• “Pick-and-shovel” investment into the world’s increasing digitization. Even in the absence of COVID, cybersecurity remains a key component of the world’s increasing digitization as cyberthreats have been an ongoing issue from the onset of the internet. In the last decade we have seen a bunch of hacks where companies have exposed sensitive customer information. It seems companies are just starting to realize the importance of cybersecurity.

Disney (NYSE: DIS) - Worldwide entertainment company that you all are probably familiar with.

• Reopening trade. In 2019, parks generated 45% of total operating income for DIS. Full reopening and attendance in parks will be slow, but certainly benefit DIS when it happens. The company has been executing on several other segments in the meantime (i.e. streaming). It has proved competitive, increasing the margin of safety if parks take longer to reopen.
• Fast-growing streaming division. DIS has proved agile as it successfully launched a streaming service, Disney+, that has already gained 86mn+ subscribers which was the company’s original 5 year target. This is promising as it shows management can adapt to rapidly changing technology trends.

Enphase Energy (NASDAQ: ENPH) - Designs and manufactures software-driven home energy solutions that span solar generation, home energy storage and web-based monitoring and control.

• Shift to clean energy; ENPH emerging as market leader. Going into 2021, sentiments towards solar have been at an all time high. This trend is expected to continue, especially after the Georgia run-off results. Solar firms are expected to benefit from extended tax incentives on both the consumer and producer ends.
• Technological advantage. ENPH has developed the industry leading solution and is rapidly taking market share from its primary competitor, SolarEdge. Pricing reflects this, but it's expected to continue. Among key competitors, Enphase has been one of the lowest cost producers. Its low-cost structure is a major contributing factor to its improving margins.

Evolution Gaming Group (OTC: EVVTY) - Swedish company that develops, produces, markets and licenses integrated B2B live casino solutions for gaming operators.

• Early mover advantage. Evolution’s lack of competition enables it to rapidly grow in new markets and create a loyal customer base, with high switching costs. The company has effectively grown EBITA margins from 41.6% in 1Q18 to 64.8% in 3Q20. Margin expansion is expected to continue.
• Massive untapped markets. Europe is estimated to be around $2.5bn (EVVTY has 50% market share), Asian market is ~15x the size of Europe (150% YoY growth for EVVTY in Asia). North America’s market is ~$210mn, a 42% increase YoY, with NJ and PA the only states currently operating (NY looks promising). Management thinks the US will be the largest in the long-term.
• Undetected from Wall Street. Evolution has almost no analyst coverage in the US and very minimal coverage in Europe, presenting opportunity for additional growth as institutional money managers recognize this opportunity and draw attention to the stock. Additionally, Evolution has a founder-led management team that is highly aligned with shareholders (mgmt owns over 30% of the stock).

Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) - Enables people to connect through devices. It’s products include Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Oculus.

• Zuck. It’s not a question of who is the next Jobs/Bezos/Gates/Zuck, because Zuck is super young. He has a history of being able to execute: IG acquisition / transition from desktop to mobile / denying multiple acquisition opportunities in his twenties.
• Undervalued. FB is the cheapest among the FAANG stocks, yet has some of the highest growth rates. This is mainly because of its continuous political scandals. With Trump out of office, I think FB has a chance to stay out of trouble and start to realize higher multiples. The antitrust lawsuit is not a threat imo, it is actually an opportunity. If the govt forces FB to break up, we would get shares in the spin-offs, which would be valued at a higher multiple than FB. For example, if Instagram spun off from FB and traded at the same multiple as SNAP, Instagram’s market cap would be larger than FB’s.

Redfin Corporation (NASDAQ: RDFN) - Provides residential real estate brokerage services.

• Digitization of Real Estate (i.e. “iBuying”). Technology in RE is moving from being informational to transactional. Redfin’s iBuying service is dubbed “RedfinNow.” The service basically buys homes from sellers looking for a quick and convenient sale (close deals within 10-30 days). This segment isn’t profitable yet as it is just getting started, but promising as the management adapts to technology trends.
• Inter-US Migration and housing outlook. People are moving out of the cities because of COVID / trying to avoid taxes / etc. which increases demand for Redfin’s services. With interest rates extremely low (and no expectation for them to increase), homebuying demand should continue to grow.
• RDFN most attractively valued compared to Z and OPEN, with the most upside potential given its market cap ~$7bn. Some are predicting RDFN might start offering rental services as well. RDFN has the best LT margin potential.

Teladoc Health (NYSE: TDOC) - Provides virtual healthcare services on a B2B basis to its clients and provides services to consumers directly and through channel partners.

• Competitive positioning in industry ripe for disruption. Healthcare is a huge market yet to be significantly disrupted. COVID has accelerated this disruption. Providers who were once opposed to telemedicine now realize its benefits and several regulatory changes are promising for telemedicines growth potential. Medicare and other government-sponsored coverage is expected to include telemedicine benefits, increasing TDOC’s TAM.
• Livongo acquisition. From the consumer POV, this will increase access to healthcare at a lower cost. Teladoc will have access to a larger amount of data it can interpret to refine its services and monetization strategies.

Sea Ltd (NYSE: SE) - Digital entertainment, electronic commerce, and digital financial services. The Company operates three business segments: Garena, Shopee, and SeaMonkey. The Company’s digital entertainment business, Garena, is a global game developer and publisher with a presence in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Latin America. Garena provides access to mobile and personal computer online games. Shopee provides users with a shopping environment that is supported by integrated payment, logistics, fulfillment, and other value-added services. SeaMonkey business is a digital financial services provider. SeaMonkey offers e-wallet services, payment processing, credit related digital financial offerings, and other financial products.

• Diversified consumer internet company with market-leading position. Sea caters to Southeast Asia and Taiwan, providing its online gaming, e-commerce, and payment platforms. Shopee has overtaken competitors, it is widening its market share lead. ESports is a rapidly growing market (15.7% YoY to $1.1bn in 2020) and Sea is outpacing market growth.
• Pay for quality. The best companies keep going up for years in a row, and I think Sea is in the early stages of being classified as such a company. It’s worth $100bn but has effectively proved its ability to identify opportunities and expand business lines.
• Still early stages of developing its consumer banking business, so we get the security of a bigger, established company with upside for an additional, lucrative business line such as fintech.

Waste Connections Inc. (NYSE: WCN) - Waste services company that provides non-hazardous waste collection, transfer, disposal and recycling services.

• Recession resilient; re-opening trade. The waste management industry is recession resilient, it will always be around.
• Non-hazardous waste collection. With a progressive government likely to push climate initiatives, recycling and non-hazardous waste collection are likely to benefit on the back end.
• WCN has a large moat; there isn’t much of a competitive threat the way the industry operates. Management’s strategy is to generally only spend what FCF is available. This enables the company to make acquisitions while handling its debt load. Great for stable growth.

​
P.S. I have two other accounts - one with about 40 growth stocks and another with about 10 big names / ETFs. However, this portfolio has the largest allocation for 2021. My first time trying a more concentrated approach.

Playboy is returning to the stock market Thursday after 10 years as a privately held company, but the iconic brand looks far different than it did when it left in 2011. Founder Hugh Hefner died in 2017, the company stopped printing its famous men’s magazine last year and current CEO Ben Kohn has repositioned the firm as a consumer-products company rather than a publishing business. “We’re not trying to be a magazine company. That doesn’t make sense to me,” Kohn, who will be one of the firm’s largest shareholders, told Seeking Alpha in an exclusive interview. “What makes sense to me is being the lifestyle platform that this business originally was.” Playboy recently agreed to merge with special purpose acquisition company Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp. (MCAC) in a SPAC deal that values the company at about $381 million. The stock will begin trading Thursday on the Nasdaq under the ticker “PLBY.” MCAC raised some $50M through an initial public offering in June, and its shares rose more than 30% since the IPO to close Wednesday at $13.34 (see chart below).
As for Playboy, the firm still offers articles, adult pictorials and videos via Playboy.com, but Kohn said consumers also buy $3 billion a year of Playboy-branded products that the firm sells on its own or through licensees. He said that even in Playboy’s heyday as a men’s magazine, the company owned or licensed consumer businesses that ran the gamut from casinos to cufflinks that featured its iconic rabbit logo. Kohn, who helped that Playboy private in 2011, said that when he first met the company’s legendary founder, “Hef said to me: ‘I might not be the best editor or the best publisher, but I am goddamn the best marketer.’ I think that’s what we’ve brought back to the company, which is really [to be] an aspirational lifestyle business.” Despite the print magazine’s demise, 68-year-old Playboy remains one of the world’s best-known brands, with 97% of people around the globe recognizing the rabbit logo. Some 90% of customers are under 40, and women make up more than 40% of e-commerce sales. Playboy-branded products sold online range from underwear to calendars to sex toys. Offline, a Chinese company operates more than 2,500 brick-and-mortar Playboy clothing stores in the Asian nation, while a partnership with Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ:CZR) runs the Playboy Club London casino. The revamped Playboy operates in four verticals:
Sexual Wellness. This includes products like Playboy condoms and sex aids. The company also recently signed a $25M deal to buy Lovers, a chain of 41 U.S. brick-and-mortar “sexual-wellness” shops.
Style and Apparel. The Playboy name is one of China’s top men’s fashion brands, sold through brick-and-mortar stores and more than 1,000 e-commerce sites.
Gaming/Lifestyle. Beyond its London casino, Playboy has partnerships with online-gambling software companies Microgaming and Scientific Games Corp. (NASDAQ:SGMS). The company is also working on online sports gambling, while in the lifestyles arena, Playboy sells furniture via Wayfair (NYSE:W).
Beauty and Grooming. Kohn said Playboy “has been an arbiter of beauty for 68 years,” and currently sells or is developing perfumes, skincare products and cosmetics.
The CEO said that simply by tapping into the growing direct-to-consumer trend, the company can get a bigger share of the existing $3B revenue pie for Playboy-branded products while growing sales organically. “We can drive the lifetime value of our consumers up because we can offer them multiple different products, whereas a licensee can only offer them one product,” he said.
Playboy recently released earnings for 2020’s third quarter and first nine months that showed big year-over-year gains. For instance, the company reported that net revenues rose 86% year on year in the third quarter to $35M, allowing the Playboy to turn a $1.3M profit vs. a $3.4M loss during the same 2019 period. And for 2021, the company is guiding to more than $160M in revenues and $40M of EBITDA. Kohn said that when you add in more than $100M in working capital from the SPAC transaction and $180M of prior years’ carried-forward losses that will cut taxes, he sees big opportunities for growth ahead. “The runway that’s in front of us is really endless,” he said.
https://seekingalpha.com/news/3661149-playboy-stock-is-going-public-and-ceo-ben-kohn-says-potential-is-endless

Overview

Well, I'm sure everyone has seen the news. The end of MassForTheDead is upon us. I started in early November. After doing all the story quests and some other things I ended up with only 3 5-star people, and sort of quit because the odds were horrible. I can't remember the exact number of rolls, but I saved every single Choas Stone.  
I quit around Thanksgiving, it isn't that the game isn't fun, but the odds were horrible and the prices made no sense. I will get into the problems with this game later, but eventually, I started back up before Xmas. I had better luck this time, while I didn't get any xmas people, but I had decent luck getting other 5-stars.  
It's a fun game, but it has many problems. As a developer, I somewhat expected it to fail, but I really was hoping that it wouldn't. I actually mentioned many of the reasons behind it in my review on google play. I shared my review with a few others, but I didn't actually make a post about it. However now I guess it's the last chance I get. I hope that the creators of MFTD see this... because many of these problems I feel almost anyone could come to the same conclusion as me.  

NOTE: My language gets a little spicy, do forgive me for not being PC.

Online Only

One of the biggest problems with the game is it being online only. This means that if the game servers are shut down... simply the game doesn't work. Meaning if the game ends in 3 months (like now) everything you have to spend was pretty much wasted. It isn't like steam where you can buy and sell skins or items... you buy a digital product with the potential chance of it being taken away from you at any time.  
No one likes this... I would like to blame the devs, but typically it isn't them who make this decision. It's almost always someone higher up, but either way to be honest it was retarded.  
It should have been an offline game, are at least playable offline people wouldn't have felt so bad by buying stuff, since they could still use it after the servers are shut down.  

Multiple Versions

Having multiple versions of the game is stupid. Simply stupid. It is already hard enough for developers to support Android, Apple, and say the web... but now they need to support Android (jp), Apple (jp), Android (globe), Apple (global).  
You rarely see this in western games... However, it is pretty common for Asian games. Rpgs especially almost always get a special global version. My only guess is because of location and language... however you should have designed your app to work with multiple languages. This is web dev 101, you space things out or have scroll bars or cut it off with a popup to give the full name or details. There are tons of ways around this... It's the same story with locations, you should have designed the online game from the ground up to be usable with multiple servers.  
I don't want to go on forever about this, but it's basic things. Just add multiple languages, that was it. All you needed to do, yet tons of games every year get a "global" version just for it to die a few years later. STOP IT. Make 1 version, with servers globally. Not enough people in Germany?... shut that server down and move them to another server.  
Sorry for the rant on this part, I've played at least 20 games they forced you to play the global version and ended up shutting it down after a year or 2. Honestly, at as dev it drives me crazy they do this. People don't care you have a special ____ holiday or whatever... AWESOME, cool you have a holiday about some cucumber god, ok let us play it, we don't need a second version.  
I guess what I'm trying to get at... Crunchyroll shouldn't have been involved in the first place. Maybe as translators, but AAAaaah fuck me dude, why do they keep doing this?

Worse than Gambling...

You buy "chaos stones", which give you a chance to roll for people in the game. Aka gambling, but instead of getting a chance for money, you get a digital item that could disappear at any moment when they shut the game down. At least with gambling, you have a slim chance of getting your money back.  
There have been many countries trying to put regulations on loot boxes in games... I'm pretty sure this game would eventually fall into that category. If they are not forced to change it, at the very least they will probably make it 18+ or the local equivalent. Some countries have been trying to force similar taxes onto these types of apps that casinos have to deal with. Potentially they are going to run into an issue with this game because of the random aspect.  
They continue to make it worse by having "free" Choas Stones mixed with "paid" Chaos Stones. Honestly, I'm surprised some mom hasn't created a Facebook group about how it's tricking their children. Anyway, I don't care about this, but it is something to note, that this will probably be brought up against them later on.  
I know some people will probably argue saying baseball cards, or pokemon cards are similar... however you are getting a physical object. You have it forever, you can sell it, trade it, lick it. It's yours forever. Yes, they are both random chances, but as I explained above... at any moment you could lose it. I could go on with other things, but I'm ranting, so we will leave this here.

Price

... do I have to explain this. The prices are INSANE, let's just forget about it being something you could lose at any moment or the random chance. There are many packs and things for $32.99. Let's look at one. 515 paid stones plus some other stuff. That is 1 roll or ten items... WHAT?!?  
Look at any other game, even the MOST money-hungry games like Clash of Clash or Fortnite are 1/4 of this price... and they are games that have been around for years, with tons of content, and tons of game play, and large player bases.  
It's like paying $30 goto a movie... or $15 to goto another movie at a better theater, that also in 3d. Don't get me wrong... I LOVE OVERLORD. I love it, I read at least 2 novels a month... but the prices for MFTD are just crazy. Personally, I bought VIP, I think that it's a decent price to support the game and help them developed it... but to be honest for $20 you don't shit. I understand they need to make money, but I 100% guarantee if they cut the price in half, they would more than double their sales. Many of the people reading overlord are younger in high school or college... I can't imagine they are looking forward to throwing down $32 for a roll at 10 cards? (or whatever you call it)... however $16? it far more reasonable. How many of would have bought a "pack" for $16 yet didn't because it was $32?  
I'm an old (not really old, 31), and I didn't because it's a ripoff. I just feel like I'm getting bent over around back.

Summary / Horrible

LMAO, guys... honestly this game I love it. I love Overlord, but some of the ideas behind it were horrible. It isn't just 1 of them... but when you add them up all altogether I knew it wasn't going to last long.  
What is even worse... they announced they are closing the game down... YET you can still buy shit. YOU CAN STILL BUY DIGITAL ITEMS that will be gone in 2 months. WHAT THE FUCK?!? Am I'm crazy, or is this just me or is this a total douchebag move?  
They don't force you to see the notification, nothing pops up... just a quiet little whisper "psst, the game ends April". I will admit, they are at least shutting it down in march... Do they are not a complete scumbag... However, it should have been locked the moment they announced the ending of this game. People love this game, they are dedicated to it. They have spent thousands of hours grinding just to save up for the new stuff coming out next week. I'm sure there are people who just bought stuff yesterday...  
What is even worse, I'm pretty sure someone knew about this at least a week ago. I can't imagine some CEO just say, yea I'm done, lets tell them today the game ends. There were meetings, discussions, multiple companies involved... probably a public relations person who spend a day to come up with that announcement.  
I'm going to end it here, while I wasn't surprised I wish it continued or was offline as its a fun little game to play throughout the day.

The movie starts with a bunch of people trying to clear their debt with a mob boss. Two guys, one older and one younger are the last two. The older gentleman tells the younger one about his daughter but dies. The younger guy finds the daughter. He ends up going to the casino where she works (???). At the casino, there's a game that no one can win but he tries anyways. Somewhere along the line he meets an old friend, who helps him rig the game so he can win. Also, at point there's a weird game where he must choose between three buttons to save his life.
Saw this movie about 5 years ago on Netflix, but it has since been removed. Any help is appreciated.

EDIT - one week after i posted this, Britain's most successful hedge fund manager Michael Platt has taken a 6.5% stake
tl;dr
At-NAV new SPAC with world-leading expertise in online gambling. Worth a bet on potential to be next DKNG on the hype train
   
+++++++
Hi all - have had a lot of great tips from this sub. Hopefully this pays some of you back. I have been watching and researching this since 23 December when it first filed S1, awaiting the units to be listed - they are available today trading as ADERU
Positions - 500 units @ 10.42 to start. Will be monitoring and building position below $15, especially if attention starts to build ahead of units and warrants splitting and shares coming available to Robinhood.
(My other SPAC positions are OPEN, IPO-E-F, PSTH, FUSE, PIPP, ACTC, CCIV and DMYD, 100 to 1000 shares each mostly around NAV and numerous warrants and options around these.)
As ever, this is not investment advice and do your own research
+++++++
   
26 Capital Acquisition Corp or ADER
is a 240m SPAC with usual terms - 10$ units, 1/2 warrants. Seeking a merger in "gaming and gaming technology, branded consumer, lodging and entertainment, and Internet commerce sectors".
I think this is highly worth a play on the online gambling hype if you can get in at near NAV, based entirely on the management which is unbeatable in its knowledge of the gambling industry
   
CEO Jason Ader
has held director level positions at Las Vegas Sands Corp. ($42bn one of biggest casino groups in world), IGT (£3.72bn multinational gambling firm specialised in software and slot machines) and Playtech (£1.4bn multinational gambling software firm)
Before starting his own fund in 2013 he was regularly ranked Wall Street's top analyst on the gambling and leisure sector
His fund, Spring Owl Capital, is a small activist fund focused on gambling and leisure. They are probably most famous for ousting the CEO of Viacom in 2016 and a crusade against Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer in 2015.
Ader knows the gambling - and online gambling - industry inside out. He drove bWin to a £1.1bn takeover by gambling giant GVC (now Entain) in 2016, and has been driving similar change and demands for improvement at board level at Playtech
The fund mostly manages money for a select group of wealthy families, which could be a positive sign for the SPAC (although I don't know how much skin in the SPAC the fund has, if any)
Here is a video of Ader from November talking about how he's excited about SPACs. He talks about how he has been advising certain States about legalising sports betting and how to maximise value and liquidity by linking up with European companies in the space (Playtech e.g.??).
Ader is extremely bullish on US legalising online casino and more sports betting options, accelerated by need for revenue because of pandemic
   
Rafi Ashkenazi
One of the most highly respected names in the online gambling world, including COO and CEO positions at major online gambling firms such as Playtech and Stars Group (a world leader in online poker and casino). At Stars he led the $4.7bn takeover of Sky Betting to create the world's largest publicly listed online betting firm in 2018. Most recently he led the £10bn merger between Flutter (biggest gambling company in world by revenue, market cap £26bn), and Stars Group (Ader also involved). Also has connections into the booming Israel tech space which is interesting
   
Joseph Kaminkow
Special Advisor to the Chief Product Officer at Aristocrat, a leading gambling software provider and games publisher, previously Vice President of Game Design at Zynga Inc. This guy is a former video game / pinball designer who is credited with revolutionising the slots industry after moving into gambling software from video games in 1999. Regarded as a "legend" and "hall of famer" in this niche. At Zynga he designed so-called 'social casino games' which don't involve real-money gambling but are otherwise basically gambling apps (revenue from microtransactions etc). 130 patents on gambling/gaming design inventions
   
Greg Lyss
This is a very interesting but extremely low profile person. He was Bill Ackman a.k.a SPACman's right hand man at Gotham Capital. Ackman respected him so much that when Ackman set up a personal hedge fund to invest the Ackman family's money, he put Lyss in charge of it. To repeat - Bill Ackman thinks this guy is such a good investor and trustworthy that he put him in charge of investing his family's money. Don't know anything more about him, but I like this association with Ackman, which suggests to me some integrity around management of this SPAC, especially as the gambling world can be very murky.
The other member of the team is the CFO of SpringOwl with 20+ years' hedge fund experience and not notable (although clearly competent)
   
Thesis / potential targets
Based on the above experience and many public comments by Ader over the past year, I would be very surprised if ADER is not looking to merge with an online gambling technology provider / existing online betting website / social casino app / possibly a supporting technology provider
They are activist inventors, and specifically say in the IPO prospectus that they could look for businesses that can benefit from turnaround or are not being run well. I speculate that their deep knowledge of the European / global online gambling industry means they have a target in mind that they think would benefit from their expertise and US liberalisation of gambling legislation.
   
1) Ader believes the listing of UK-listed gambling companies in US is immediately big in terms of market cap because of the premium on online gambling stocks in US. He has pitched DraftKings to takeover Playtech and called on Playtech to spin off non-core business. This makes me wonder if he would spin off some element of Playtech to list in US to cash in on gambling hype.
This might be Finalto.com / TradeTech which is an online financial platform owned by Playtech. Playtech has been trying to sell this for 200 - 240m since August so it fits. This company provides liquidity and trading to brokerages and runs markets.com a trading site. I wouldn't be that excited although apparently the business has been booming during COVID and there could be a decent pop just on fintech hype.
   
2) This could be a 'picks and shovel' type data/B2B betting software play a la DMYD, or something like e.g. Israel based CRM software Optimove which works with some of biggest online gambling cos and has links to Ashkenazi. This would be interesting but probably not a huge pop
   
3) Possibly - given Ader's links to Sands - an online gambling tie-up with one of the big Vegas casinos who are desperate to get into the online betting space (see MGM's attempt to buy Entain for $8bn last week). Interestingly, Sands' owner Sheldon Adelson, previously a major opponent of online betting, has just died. Ader predicted a few months ago that Sands would be moving in this direction.

“There’s no stopping online gaming,” Ader said [before Adelson's death]. “(Las Vegas Sands’) initiatives to stop online gaming, at this stage, are largely historic. There hasn’t been a lot of spending recently to do that, especially post-pandemic.”
“I think the company will see the value created by DraftKings and FanDuel and Penn (National) Gaming and others. They’re not foolish,” Ader added. source

   
4) Ader is very confident that Macau will legalise online gambling in next year or two. Sands is big in Macau, the biggest gambling market in the world. A SaaS-type product positioned to capitalise on Asian gambling would be MASSIVE - at present however, China's attitude to gambling and local regulations mean this is unlikely
   
5) I also wonder if they might try to take legitimate one of the offshore bookmakers with big customer databases and brand recognition but which have been grey-area/illegal under US gaming legislation. For example, Five Dimes recently announced a settlement with the FBI to attempt to transition into newly legalised US markets. This might have the most hype potential
   
Potential upside
This is entirely a play on management experience and the meme factor / hype around online gambling in the US. I think if they pick a good target - which given their experience and connections seems likely - and get the right publicity and attention from retail investors looking for the next DKNG this could easily 3x and maybe 5-6x if on DKNG-type hype levels.
There is currently little spotlight on this and it is a good time to get in at NAV
   
Potential Downside

• Ader has been vocal that he thinks US online betting is overvalued and in a bubble - why is he starting his own SPAC in the space then? Does he just want to cash in while the hype is at all-time high or does he have a legitimate business goal?
  
• If he just wants to dump a part of Playtech which he does not like onto retail investors, this is a bad deal.
  
• Other targets could be e.g. hotel industry or other leisure sector which would be zero sexiness to retail. Given Ashkenazi and Kaminkow's background this seems unlikely though
  
• Usual SPAC caveats apply about potential difficulty finding a target, locking up your money for unspecified period of time, and the fact I may have completely misread the potential and my above thesis might be totally wrong
  

PLEASE/MUST READ BEFORE COMMENTING:

1. For redemption details, please refer to the 4K Sheet.
   
2. All codes come from 4K Blus; on rare occasions, the studio packs an HD digital copy instead of 4K. Buyers are responsible for following the directions in the Sheet above. If you do not check the redemption details and instructions, I am not responsible for you getting an HD copy.
   
3. All Disney/Marvel codes sold do NOT include DMR points.
   
4. Payment MUST be in PayPal and I will only e-mail the code to the email connected to that PayPal account. Check my transaction history for trustworthiness.
   
5. DO NOT SEND CHAT REQUESTS - I don't see them on my reddit client. Send Direct Messages for faster response.
   

|2001: A Space Odyssey|8|
|21 Jump Street|8|
|22 Jump Street|8|
|Aladdin (1992)|9|
|Alien|8|
|Alien: Covenant|8|
|Allied|8|
|Anna|7|
|Annihilation|7|
|Ant-Man and the Wasp|10|
|Apollo 13|8|
|Aquaman|8|
|Arrival|8|
|Atomic Blonde|8|
|Beetlejuice|8|
|Big Hero 6|9|SOLD
|The Big Lebowski|9|
|Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk|10|
|Emancipation of Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey|9|
|Batman ('89)|8|
|Batman Returns|8|
|Beetlejuice|8|
|Black Hawk Down|9|
|BlackkKlansman|8|
|The Blues Brothers|7|
|Black Panther|11|
|Brave|9|SOLD
|Bumblebee|8|SOLD
|The Cabin in the Woods|8|
|Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier|11|
|Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie|8|
|Cars|7|
|Cars 2|9|SOLD
|Cars 3|11|
|Casino|8|
|Cinderella (live action)|8|
|Close Encounters of the Third Kind|9|SOLD
|Coco|11|
|Crazy Rich Asians|8|
|Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon|8|
|Days of Thunder|8|
|Deadpool 2|8|
|Die Hard|8|
|District 9|9|
|Doctor Sleep: Director's Cut|10|
|Doctor Strange|8|SOLD
|The Equalizer 2|8|
|Everest|8|
|The Evil Dead (Original)|8|
|Evil Dead II|8|
|Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw & Kevin Hart|8|
|The Fate of the Furious|F8|
|Field of Dreams|10|
|Finding Dory|8|
|Finding Nemo|8|
|First Man|9|
|Full Metal Jacket|9|
|Furious 7|9|
|Fury|8|
|Gemini Man|11|
|Get Out|9|
|Ghost in the Shell (Original film)|8|
|Gladiator|10|
|Glass|10|
|Godzilla: King of the Monsters|8|
|The Goonies|8|
|Gremlins|9|
|Hacksaw Ridge|7|
|Halloween 2018|8|
|Hellboy (GDT) |9|
|Hellboy 2|9|
|Hereditary|8|
|Hell or High Water|8|
|Hitchcock Classics Collection (Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window, The Birds)|24|
|Hostiles|7|
|How to Train Your Dragon 1|9|
|Inception|10|
|The Incredibles 2|11|
|ID4: Independence Day|9|SOLD
|Inside Out|8|
|Interstellar|9|
|Iron Man|9|
|Iron Man 2|8|
|It's a Wonderful Life|8|
|It: Chapter 2|8|
|Jaws|9|
|Jumanji|9|
|Jupiter Ascending|8|
|Jurassic Park|9|
|Jurassic Park II: The Lost World|9|
|Jurassic Park III: ALAN!|8|
|Jurassic World|7|
|Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom|9|
|Kick-Ass|6|
|Kingsman: The Secret Service|8|
|Kingsman: The Golden Circle|8|
|Knives Out|11|
|Life of Pi|9|
|The Lion King (1994)|11|
|The Lion King (2019)|7|
|Logan|9|
|Logan Lucky|8|
|Lord of War|7|
|Mamma Mia! The Movie|8|
|Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again|8|
|The Martian (Extended Edition)|8|
|Mask of Zorro|8|
|The Matrix|9|
|The Meg|9|
|Minions|7|
|Mission: Impossible 1|8|
|Mission: Impossible 2|8|
|Mission: Impossible 3|8|
|Mission: Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol|8|
|Mission: Impossible 5: Rogue Nation|8|
|Mission: Impossible 6: Fallout|8|
|Moana|8|
|Moon|9|
|Mother!|10|
|Oblivion|9|
|Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood|10|
|Overlord|8|
|Pandas|9|
|Parasite|9|
|The Peanuts Movie|9|
|Peanuts Holiday Collection Deluxe Edition|13|
|Pet Sematary (1989)|8|
|Phantom Thread|11|
|Philadelphia|9|
|Planet of the Apes, Rise of the|7|
|Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the|7|
|Planet of the Apes, War for the|7|
|PredatoPredator 2/Predators 3-film collection|9 per movie|
|PredatoPredator 2/ Predators/The Predator 4-film collection|8 per movie|
|Pride Prejudice Zombies|7|
|Princess and the Frog|8|SOLD
|The Purge/The Purge: Anarchy/The Purge: Election Year 3-film collection|9 per movie|
|Queen & Slim|8|
|A Quiet Place|8|
|Red Sparrow|8|
|Requiem for a Dream|8|
|Saving Private Ryan|11|
|Scarface|7|
|Serenity (Whedon)|8|
|The Shape of Water|9|
|Shazam!|10|
|Sherlock Holmes|7|
|Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows|7|
|Sicario|7|
|Spartacus (Kubrick)|11|
|Spider-Man: Homecoming|7|
|Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse|7|SOLD
|Split|8|
|Star Trek (2009)|9|
|Star Trek Into Darkness|7|
|Terminator 2: Judgment Day|7|
|Terminator: Dark Fate|8|
|Thor: Ragnarok|11|
|Top Gun|8|
|Toy Story|9|
|Toy Story 2|9|
|Toy Story 3|9|
|Unforgiven|9|
|Us|10|
|Venom|9|
|War of the Worlds|8|
|Westworld Season 1|20|
|Westworld Season 2|20|
|Westworld Season 3|20|
|Whiplash|8|
|Widows|8|
|The Witch|8|
|Wizard of Oz|9|
|Wonder Woman|9|
|X-Men: Days of Future Past|8|
|Yesterday|8|
|Zombieland: Double Tap|9|
|Zootopia|10|

Welcome Bosses, Chicagoans and all! Today we bring you great news, crew. See here, we have decided to let the public in on the operation: we are now doing public betas of new patches!
This means that if you play Empire of Sin on Steam, you can now choose to opt into playing the latest stable beta build of the game. Here is how to do it:

1. Open Steam.
2. Go to the Library and right-click on Empire of Sin > Manage > Betas.
3. Choose the beta branch available in the drop down menu.
4. You should then be able to download the beta build. No password needed!

And that’s it, you’re good to go, boss! Of course, we would love to hear your feedback on the beta patch. Feel free to let us know in the comments below, in the Empire of Sin Discord or in the Empire of Sin Beta sub-forum.
Discord: https://discord.gg/qX2PTYK
Forum: http://pdxint.at/3tflvQ6
See below for a full list of Patch Notes for Beta Branch 1.03.

Update Notes - Beta Branch 1.03​

Please Remember:​

• Back up your game save folder to ensure any issues during this test do not affect your main game saves
• When reporting issues, please include the build version number in the report. You can find the version number on the main menu, or by dropping down the developer console.
• You may be asked to attach a game save or log to a report. You can find your save games at C:Users[username]AppDataLocalLowRomeroGamesEmpireOfSinGameSaves
• Player logs can be found at C:Users[username]AppDataLocalLowRomeroGamesEmpireOfSin.... Look for the folder that matches the time the game crashed
• If a build update happens while you are playing the game you will need to restart Steam to get the update

Known Issues:​

• We're aware of an issue where you can receive notifications & loot regarding Big Jims Stash incorrectly. The team is working on a fix for this.
• We're aware of some stability issues around the tutorial. The team is working on a fix.
• We're aware of rare issue where buildings in the world can occasionally disappear. If you encounter this issue any additional Information you can provide would be very helpful.

Changelog​

The Highlights​

• Safehouses are now hidden
• Combat AI has been improved and provides more challenge
• An option to avoid nuisance combat demands has been added, a new system will be implemented in the next update (1.04)
• Fast travel has been limited
• You can no longer attack an Enemy Faction you’re not at War with

​

General Changes​

• AI ignores temporary alliances when deciding to break an alliance
• Loot crates are now rebalanced
• Adjusted racket income filter list to take the prosperity modifier into account
• Added separate notoriety gains for raze, ransack, and smash up
• Prevented Personality Traits from reapplying every time you save/load
• Removed time-free teleporting
• Fix disappearing gangsters
• UI polish
• Locale polish
• Prevented alcohol resource errors when ransacking that could lead to inventory corruption
• Fixed instances of disappearing actors when upgrading ambience
• Fixed severe issues when a game is loaded where "master hotelier" is in effect
• Fixed an issue where actors could be sent to the void if two buildings changed their racket type at the same time
• Added more building and colour variety in the neighbourhoods
• Player cannot scroll the claim list without using virtual cursor mode when using a controller
• Gangster Talents need to be unlocked
• Fix boss ability items inheriting incorrect modifiers through weapon stats
• Add a wait to the flee action so players can see the characters leave the area
• Character model improvements
• When editing a building name, if player adds a space or lowercase letters, the building name will not be displayed correctly
• Adding more building variety throughout the neighbourhoods
• Better telegraphing and delay for Hotels Disbanding
• Better notifications for players when hotels are disbanded
• Fixed a softlock when assigning Lieutenants
• Fixed issue where if a character has more than 9 Status Effects on them, the UI will start to overlap. If they receive 28 or more, the icons will start to go off screen
• Empire screen filter lists scroll resets on repopulating
• The missing synergy icon has been found and returned to its rightful slot
• The Crew screen and Black Market now have no whitespace issues when viewed in 4:3
• The issue when switching to Asian languages and switching back would cause text to disappear in the tutorial is now resolved
• We have updated the hiring costs for the starting gangsters
• An issue with Safehouse discovery resetting on load has now been laid to rest
• The awkward silences in sitdowns have now been filled with conversation. We Cleared the truce/end war sitdowns when war is removed
• Missing translations in the Settings window from the Title screen have been replaced
• Increased the difficulty of the difficulty levels
• Change Threaten Option in sitdown pop up
• Fixed alcohol resource being released twice
• Save upgrader to fix older saves not loading from alcohol issue
• Saltis issue with rackets being locked fixed
• DMJ issue for Thompson not on map in Blues fixed
• Capone softlock when talking to Guard fixed
• When skipping to Ronnie’s phone call in the tutorial, we didn't have a valid reference to the brewery
• Increased the tiers for racket guards for all major factions
• The issue with gangster talents not needed to be unlocked has been whacked
• Multiple tooltips were missing in the Empire Overview, Finances and Alcohol info screen. We found them
• The name of the neighborhood is now added to the surrender dialog options
• Various UI fixes
• Fixed an issue where sitdown and mission icons stayed fixed on screen if the player pressed 'f' to transition to another neighbourhood
• Made sure that the tutorial safehouse doesn't spawn exterior guards while the tutorial is active
• Addednew advertisements, see if you can spot them all
• Fixed Safehouse Discovered Softlock in Tutorial
• Friend In Need mission fix for not completing after killing lodge members
• Jaqcues Attacks mission fix for not completing if you upgrade all rackets at once
• Fixed crate positions
• Increased the sitdown timeout from 5 minutes to 15 minutes
• Unknown characters will no longer reveal the faction name if we start pre-combat near them
• Mark Target will now work in pre-combat and start combat immediately when activated
• Resolved an issue where the AI could initiate combat while a sitdown was beginning. This would result in a soft lock in some cases
• Added recruiting time to AI squads
• Removed war-free attacks, you want a fight, start a war
• Raul is placed so close to a building that his arm was in it
• Genna fix for Round The World mission not completing
• When the player refuses the police request for cash, their rating with the police is reduced depending on their notoriety. If they pay up, their rating with the police is increased
• Fixed a cursor issue when cancelling a load game request
• Nicknames should display how you got them in pop up
• Fixed issue where all tutorial attacks by player were asking for confirmation
• Fixed Issue with safehouse storages being nil
• Prevented Moles from being added to selection
• Non-tutorial AI Factions now start with a safehouse security level of 2 instead of 1
• Fixed bookshelf collisions in bars
• Created a Sal's Tips update for 1.03 to advise players in-game as to what the updates are
• Updated Large Casino interiors
• Different colors for the Explore and the Exterminate Agenda icon outline on the minimap and street view. This change also fixes colors of agenda icons not updating when you encounter a squad from an unknown faction
• Fixed Status bar icons overlap with combat status UI
• Police now resume patrolling correctly after TurningABlindEye is over in a location
• Made all loot in crates uncommon
• OBanion's mission POI not updating if racket becomes invalid is now fixed
• Duarte's mission racket showing 0 cost for buildings after takeover, CMA mission not continuing
• Injured Gangsters are now correctly disappearing after taking over a racket when they become injured
• Fix for Word on The Street mission not continuing because combat was starting during a conversation
• Various save game fixes
• Made prosperity only update on weekly events
• Fixed issue where character entered into a t-pose if they travel while paused
• Fixed issue where players could end up not being able to move long distances

Combat Fixes/Changes​

• Issues with the AI not using grenades if they have to step out from cover have been fixed.
• Dead combatants can no longer panic during combat
• Allowed the boss to gain notoriety if anyone in their faction performs an execution
• Ensure AI squads that are about to attack a building are not used by other tactics before they have attacked
• Reduce the OW Angle for Dart Gun from 180 to 130 degrees and reduced the OW Angle for LP08 Pistol from 180 to 150 degrees
• Suppressed Fire shot does not deal damage to targets
• Ensured combat can't start during conversations
• Fixed issue where player is able to equip regular rounds on dart gun
• Tweaked Last Rites as it can deal more damage than it is supposed to: All attacks with more than one shot would always deal crit damage after the first crit shot
• Fixed issue where certain conversations couldn't start combat
• Stop heal over time effects being applied when their item is equipped
• Fixed a softlock in combat when moving characters who had been revived from bleeding out as the result of an overwatch shot
• Fixed Ability & Melee descriptions being truncated during combat
• Fixed issue where Gun panel would stay up with no gun icon
• Fixed an issue where entering combat during the war tutorial softlocks the game
• Remove the drunk animation while in combat to fix characters teleporting across the map
• Ensured errors in AI tactics don't block AI behaviour
• Fixed softlock related to a primary faction being eliminated in a war
• Fixed softlock when a revenge reaction turn was triggered after shooting
• Fixed softlock when using batter up on a character that doesn't die
• Weapon Balance: Reduced the effectiveness of a number of weapons. Critical hit damage has been reduced across the board. Removed the instant kill modifier from the Funeral Arranger Shotgun and the Deceiver Rifle. Added Knockback and Bleed to the Deceiver
• Fixed for knife attack anim freezing
• Fixed save games with broken melee weapons after using a batter up reaction attack
• Fixed an issue where Knocking Out a character with an overwatch shot would softlock the game
• Fixed issue where character can be stuck in the knocked out pose after combat ends
• Last Rites ability has limited range, which was not implied by the game in any way
• Fixed issue with Remedy not appearing on action bar
• Fixed issue with Hair Trigger ability activation popup showing even when character is knocked down
• Fixed an issue where certain combat reactions were using stale position / vision data. Could cause an issue where a character would "step out" to an old position several meters away
• Time Bomb will disrupt overwatch when thrown
• Characters no longer get up after they have been executed if they were put in the BleedingOut state by a critical hit
• Fixed issue where Last Rites doesn't indicate that DMJ's Mauser has 10 shots leading people to believe it is bugged
• Characters no longer get stuck in the overwatch pose at the end of combat
• Characters rotate back to their overwatch direction after getting attacked
• Run Away option is displayed in surrender dialogue if gangster is under attack outside
• If a gangster or boss will be affected by the exterior combat, the dialogue offering surrender now shows their name
• The camera will no longer move after the player abandons exterior combat when the attackers are attacking the outside of a building
• AI attacking building exteriors will now attack between 8-15 metres from the building door instead of between 0 - 5 meters
• Fixed issue where corpses would block player moving to tiles
• Vicekings boss Donovan leaned on us for getting his name wrong in German
• The camera will no longer move after the player abandons exterior combat when the attackers are attacking the outside of a building
• If a gangster or boss will be affected by the exterior combat, the dialogue offering surrender now shows their name
• We have ensured the Run Away option is displayed in surrender dialogue if the character is under attack outside
• Added even more variety in the buildings
• Made sure characters cant get stuck in the overwatch pose at the end of combat
• Characters now rotate back to their overwatch direction after getting attacked
• Increased the duration before an AI will declare war without an antagonizing incident
• Adjusted weapon ranges and stats
• Smooth out the curves for weapon ranges to reduce a number of sharp drop offs.
• Lowered a number of critical damage multiplier values for numerous weapon types.
• Removed critical hit chance from a number of explosives weapons.
• Removed armor damage from rifles
• Fixed an issue where the AI would get close to the player
• Added new movement parameters that allow the AI to want to move towards the effective range of their weapon
• Improved the performance for moving towards enemies and grouping with allies
• Fixed an issue with all tiers of Saltis melee racket guard being equipped with Brass Knuckles. Now each tier of Salltis melee racket guard is equipped with appropriate tiers of melee weapon
• Wandering thugs and thugs near loot crates will no longer attack the player on sight. They will attack if the player opens a loot crate near them
• Guards of major and minor factions will now only attack the player faction characters on sight if they are at war
• Melee attacks now trigger the correct animation if the target bleeds out
• That combatant who started a battle while in sitting pose, will no longer stay in that pose for the whole fight
• Guards in rackets will no longer sit in chairs
• Resolved a UI Overlap in combat with large text settings
• Further updates to the combat AI to help them move when no targets are visible and stay put when they can do actions from their current position
• Made sure bleeding out targets are prioritised correctly in the chance to hit order
• Friendly fire no longer removes non-aggression types of pacts (ceasefires/defense agreements..etc)
• Fixed issue where Unleash Fury could fail to activate
• Reduce the movement debuff from exhaustion from -2 to -1
• Fixed an issue where clicking the "Exit Ambush" button did nothing in combat
• Character speed returns to normal if Drunk status wears off during combat
• Only play Gut Shot sfx when someone

Mission Fixes/Changes​

• Auto focusing missions that come from quest givers and boss missions
• Fixed failing Ryley mission when Alfred dies
• Fixed Helen being placed in Dyer mission when placement invalidated
• Removed repeated objectives failing missions
• Fixed alcohol production being stopped forever in CMA mission and Burned Bozze and Ruined Barley event
• Fixed unclickable option for DMJ's mission
• Added placement invalidated to RPC missions so they stop failing when a building is upgraded
• Moved Kicking the Habit mission to mid game to stop both maria missions spawning together
• CMA fixes - Stopping All Good Things on Alt time auto-completing, fix for Jaques Attack and They're on to Us
• Boss mission fixes - Stopping NPCs from spawning on band stand, buildings taken over by killing boss now count as conquering and progress mission, fix for DMJ mission Down Hearted Blues
• Fixed missions not completing in groups
• CMA fixes, Auto accepting mission rewards instead of relying on resolution pop up
• Persisting mission npcs that are going to be resurrected to stop them from disappearing, misc boss mission fixes
• CMA fixes, body bag removal fix, removing persistent POI over Maria's head, adding do not revive tag to mission npcs to stop them getting up after combat
• Moved any mission npcs standing on stages in bars off them
• Fixed an issue where interior guards could duplicate themselves after winning a defensive fight
• Union mission, family business mission and npc approaching player to talk fixed

Thug Variants​

• You should now see 13 different thugs
• The appearance is randomly selected

Racket Guard Changes​

Any old saves that were made before these changes were introduced will keep their previous racket guards until that racket is upgraded or sold and purchased again. Once upgraded or purchased the racket will start using the new guard configs.

• With each level of security upgrade the guards will now become much tougher
• A new tier of racket guard has been introduced at security upgrade levels 4 and 5
• These changes only attribute based. The number of guards has not changed and there has been no changes made to the guard inventories
• Fixed issue with racket guards not being replenished

Faction Changes​

• Allowing the boss to gain notoriety if anyone in their faction performs an execution
• Fixing Spiffing Brit minor faction exploit
• Faction AI no longer attacks buildings outside of war. Existing attacks outside of war in older saves are cancelled.
• The diplomacy option for retribution demands has been removed

Safehouse Changes​

Gameplay change to safehouses hiding has been pushed.

• Safehouses start out as hidden (white buildings you can't interact with)
• Discovery chance increases by 1% a week from meeting a faction
• Once a month a safehouse discovery chance checked and the safehouse is revealed if the check passes
• Diplomacy screen shows your current discovery chance
• Taking over that faction's rackets further increases the discovery chance and checks (dynamic percentage based on faction rackets remaining)
• Event fires on safehouse being discovered
• Guards don't show up outside the safehouse until the safehouse is discovered by the player
• Ensuring taking over safehouses correctly assigns lieutenants
• Fixed issue with gangsters flagged as “away” being able to be assigned to a safehouse

Public Beta of Patch 1.03 - get in on the action! | Paradox Interactive Forums (paradoxplaza.com)

All this with GameStop has got me thinking-even in a market as hot as the one now, there have still got to be plenty of undervalued stocks. Given that hypothesis, I have decided to gather information and produce bull theses on stocks that I believe are dramatically undervalued in the stock market from time to time. I do not know how often I will do this, it just depends on whether or not it picks up steam, but it is something fun to occupy my time with! Keep in mind, that I am not a financial advisor, and none of this is financial advice. So, without further ado, I present my first case:
I believe that Las Vegas Sands (LVS) is dramatically undervalued-even as a resort chain during a global pandemic. There are a number of reasons for this:
To put it simply, the stock has taken an unjustified beating during the pandemic, especially on this last earnings report. Other casino stocks, such as MGM and Wynn Resorts, have recovered at a far greater rate while not being as attractive as LVS in my opinion.
Locations: LVS has an attractive portfolio of locations, including the very popular Venetian in Las Vegas-which includes an expo/convention center for the NUMEROUS corporate conventions that do and will continue to take place- as well as the Palazzo. Additionally, LVS has multiple resorts in Macao, where it holds one of only SIX casino licenses to serve the entire Chinese economy. Finally, LVS also operates Marina Bay Sands in Singapore-where they have one of only TWO casino licenses. In short, Sands is a leader in the US and Asian casino markets, both highly lucrative areas in the industry.
Asia: As the middle class in China continues to grow at a rapid rate, more consumers will vacation to Macao and Singapore and drive up revenues in the area post-pandemic. Sands’ casino license is good through May of 2022, so they will be able to serve this growing middle class for the next 15 months and, I believe, well beyond. If you are concerned about the expiration of the licenses, don’t be. MGM and SJM holdings both had licenses set to expire in 2020, but both were renewed until 2022 by the Chinese government. The gaming industry in Macao has some serious weight, being the city’s largest employer and accounting for 82% of government revenue to the city. The Chinese government would have very little interest in adjusting or revoking the licenses unless a company made an egregious misstep. A misstep by LVS is highly unlikely, as the market is very lucrative and doing anything to compromise access to that market would be nonsensical. Further, Sands' Singapore license is highly coveted given that the only other license belongs to Genting Group, a company based in Malaysia-LVS has no US competitors in Singapore, and no competitors that are listed on US stock exchanges, making them your best bet for the Asian casino market in the United States.
The balance sheet: As of December 31, 2020-nearly a year into the pandemic-LVS had a cash balance of $2.12 billion, which is quite healthy. While LVS does have outstanding debt of roughly $14 billion, this is not really of any concern, as net revenue amounted to just shy of $13.8 billion in 2019, a number I would expect to return-and even grow-after the pandemic. Additionally, capital expenditures for LVS amounted to only $252 million in 2020, giving some longevity to the balance sheet as revenues continue to recover slowly.
New CEO: Robert Goldstein has been with LVS since 1995, when The Venetian was in its planning phase. During this time, he was instrumental in attracting restauranteurs and retailers. He has served in a variety of leadership positions, including as COO of the company. Under Goldstein’s leadership, LVS achieved financial performance records and has been positioned a leader in regulatory compliance, an important note when considering the casino industry-especially in Asia, where noncompliance could get their highly coveted license revoked.
Nobody can say that it is easy to be in the hospitality industry during a global pandemic, but I believe that Las Vegas Sands has the market, the balance sheet, and the knowledge to weather this storm and grow in the aftermath.
I first bought in to LVS at approximately $59 per share before cutting my losses at $56 to wait for a better buy point. Well, that buy point has been achieved. As of January 29, I am back in on LVS at $48 per share with a price target of $65.

I have been installing more mods over the last few days, and have noticed that I can load a save from the main menu fine, but when I try to load a save while in-game, or quit to the main menu, the game crashes to desktop. Other loading screens such as entering buildings, or fast travel are fine though. I am using MO2, but I've also installed a few mods manually.
My load order is as follows:

• FalloutNV.esm
• DeadMoney.esm
• HonestHearts.esm
• OldWorldBlues.esm
• LonesomeRoad.esm
• GunRunnersArsenal.esm
• Fallout3.esm
• Anchorage.esm
• ThePitt.esm
• BrokenSteel.esm
• PointLookout.esm
• Zeta.esm
• CaravanPack.esm
• ClassicPack.esm
• MercenaryPack.esm
• TribalPack.esm
• TaleofTwoWastelands.esm
• YUPTTW.esm
• JSawyer Ultimate.esp
• JSawyer Ultimate -TTW Patch.esp
• Delay DLC - TTW.esp
• WeaponJamming.esp
• EuclidCFPlus.esp
• Weapons of the Wasteland.esm
• Big Guns Compatibility.esm
• Big Guns Perk Pack 1.esp
• Better Burned Man.esp
• MigBigGuns.esp
• MigBigGuns - PerkInclusiveness.esp
• Lore Fix - Asian Daniel.esp
• TWO BEARS HIGHFIVING.esp
• Deputy Weld and Steel - Badges and Hats.esp
• WazerWifle.esp
• TTWRangerHelmet.esp
• High Noon Restored.esp
• Snowglobe Tweaks.esp
• Casino Exchange All.esp
• Diagonal movement.esp
• Functional Post Game Ending.esm
• Anchorage+NV.esp
• TTW New Vegas Speech Checks - TTW Reputations Patch.esm
• TTW New Vegas Speech Checks.esm
• TTW Reputations.esm
• RetrievableThrowables.esp
• The Mod Configuration Menu.esp
• FOVSlider.esp
• JSaweyer Ultiamte - GRA Merged
• SawedOffForCowboyTTW.esp
• TTW_fo3_Artificial_Difficulty_Fix.esp
• hz_Automatic Weapons Fix.esp
• TTW RWL - Black and White TranquilityLane.esp
• TTW Realistic Wasteland Lighting.esp
• ILO - Tale of Two Wastelands.esp
• Interior Lighting Overhaul - Core.esm
• Interior Lighting Overhaul - L38PS.esm
• Interior Lighting Overhaul - Ultimate Edition.esp
• Dynamic Pipboy Light.esp
• JustWeaponHweel.esp
• CPI Icons.esp
• Vanilla UI Plus.esp

​
Any help is appreciated as I have no idea how to fix this.