An Atlanta hair saloon is one of the many satisfied clients of WeatherBill.

Via Steve Roman, The Atlanta Journal – Constitution:

[&#8230-] Atlanta hair salon owners Ray Luciano and Spencer Malay recently reeled in a bundle — tens of thousands of dollars — after taking out insurance-like coverage called &#8220-weather derivatives.&#8221- Their Buckhead salon does well when it rains, drawing walk-ins and overflow from the nearby mall and movie theater. &#8220-If it&#8217-s a sunny day, they [shoppers] tend to do outside stuff, not go to the movies, not go shopping, not get their hair done,&#8221- Luciano said. [&#8230-] In the last nine months, the owners at Spencer Malay Hair have taken out four contracts, and Lady Luck has smiled on them three times. The most recent was for the holiday season between mid-November and just before Christmas. &#8220-We put a dry-season contract on it because we hired a couple of new stylists,&#8221- Luciano said. The proceeds, which he declined to talk about in detail, allowed them to &#8220-pay our staff while business was not as good as good as it could have been.&#8221- [&#8230-]

Previously: Eric Zitzewitz on WeatherBill

Read the previous blog posts by Chris. F. Masse:

  • Davos – World Economic Forum
  • CME Group = Chicago Mercantile Exchange + Chicago Board Of Trade
  • Democratic and Republican caucuses in Nevada + Republican primary in South Carolina
  • The BetFair blog is not a serious publication.
  • MICHIGAN PRIMARY @ BETFAIR: Niall O’Connor asks the very pertinent question.
  • One thing John Delaney and his Irish employees at InTrade-TradeSports can learn from the BetFair-TradeFair folks at HammerSmith.
  • BetFair compound chart on the Michigan primary

The BetFair blog is not a serious publication.

No Gravatar

I just got it that professor Leighton Vaughan-Williams&#8217-s story published on the official BetFair blog and the BetFair compound chart published on top of his story should be understood independently from each other, as the BetFair chart was pasted there by the BetFair blog editor.

(I have updated all my previous posts on the topic with the explainer above.)

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TAKEAWAY:

  1. Professor Leighton Vaughan-Williams talked about &#8220-betting markets&#8221- in his story. Those &#8220-betting markets&#8221- were not defined precisely on that page.
  2. The BetFair compound chart, pasted by the BetFair blog editor on top of Professor Leighton Vaughan-Williams&#8217- story, has lead readers (like the ultra-vigilant Niall O&#8217-Connor) to believe that &#8220-betting markets&#8221- meant the BetFair betting markets.
  3. It was probably not the case, in the writer&#8217-s mind. To be sure, though, an explainer should be issued by the BetFair blog.
  4. The BetFair blog editor has an omelette on his/her face.
  5. I told you many times that the Betfair blog is a piece of crap.
  6. A writer for this blog told us so, too.
  7. As I said many times, web journalism is not for anybody. It&#8217-s a specialty trade. It requires vertical skills. And, more precisely, prediction market journalism, in our digital times, is difficult and complex. It&#8217-s sad to see that the BetFair-TradeFair executives haven&#8217-t computed that.

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UPDATE: The BetFair blog has added a new label on the infamous compound chart&#8230-

Compound chart - BetFair blog fiasco

&#8212-

NEXT: Did the BetFair blog use trading data from InTrade to hint at BetFair&#8217-s accuracy??

One thing John Delaney and his Irish employees at InTrade-TradeSports can learn from the BetFair-TradeFair folks at HammerSmith.

POLITENESS.

Tomorrow’s overnight cards

Betfair Customer Services 18 Jan 19:14
Please be aware that all our overnight cards for Saturday’s racing are currently suspended while we investigate a potential technical issue. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience this will cause. At this stage it is unclear when they will be re-opened.

Betfair Customer Services 18 Jan 22:54
All tomorrow&#8217-s cards are now re-opened. Once again, please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Bombastic blogger Chris Masse could take some lessons from them, too. :-D

Read the previous blog posts by Chris. F. Masse:

  • Davos – World Economic Forum
  • CME Group = Chicago Mercantile Exchange + Chicago Board Of Trade
  • Democratic and Republican caucuses in Nevada + Republican primary in South Carolina
  • The BetFair blog is not a serious publication.
  • MICHIGAN PRIMARY @ BETFAIR: Niall O’Connor asks the very pertinent question.
  • BetFair compound chart on the Michigan primary
  • New Hampshire fiasco blamed on lack of InTrade traders’ diversity

New Hampshire fiasco blamed on lack of InTrade traders diversity

On A Limb

Mister Kirtland:

[&#8230-] I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the traders on InTrade may not be the most diverse group of people we could assemble. I would bet, for example, that not many people from New Hampshire – who would have more direct knowledge of the situation “on the ground” – bet on InTrade. [&#8230-]

As I already wrote here, I don&#8217-t buy the argument, but let&#8217-s put that aside.

In public prediction exchanges, traders are self selected. Nothing can be done to change that. Am I correct?

Read the previous blog posts by Chris. F. Masse:

  • Davos – World Economic Forum
  • CME Group = Chicago Mercantile Exchange + Chicago Board Of Trade
  • Democratic and Republican caucuses in Nevada + Republican primary in South Carolina
  • The BetFair blog is not a serious publication.
  • MICHIGAN PRIMARY @ BETFAIR: Niall O’Connor asks the very pertinent question.
  • One thing John Delaney and his Irish employees at InTrade-TradeSports can learn from the BetFair-TradeFair folks at HammerSmith.
  • BetFair compound chart on the Michigan primary

Startup Strategy: Innovate What Big Companies Are Commoditizing.

Startup Strategy: Innovate What Big Companies Are Commoditizing

Read the previous blog posts by Chris. F. Masse:

  • Hilarious.
  • Prediction market sessions of the O’Reilly Money-Tech Conference suffer fatally from the absence of the world’s most knowledgeable, most innovative and most trustworthy prediction market expert.
  • Bet2Give Presidential Widget —REDUX
  • Professor Leighton Vaughan-Williams becomes embroilled in BetFair blog controversy.
  • Bet2Give Presidential Widget
  • Did the BetFair blog use trading data from InTrade to hint at BetFair’s accuracy??
  • WordPress powers the MSM’s blogs: NY Times, WSJ, CNN, Fox, Time and People.

Davos – World Economic Forum

Hey, Davos starts on Monday.

WEF website

And they have a blog, of course. :-D

Twenty20 = Sure Bets and Wildcard scenarios to the year 2020. Nothing on that website, yet, but I&#8217-ll be monitoring it.

Read the previous blog posts by Chris. F. Masse:

  • Hilarious.
  • Prediction market sessions of the O’Reilly Money-Tech Conference suffer fatally from the absence of the world’s most knowledgeable, most innovative and most trustworthy prediction market expert.
  • Bet2Give Presidential Widget —REDUX
  • Professor Leighton Vaughan-Williams becomes embroilled in BetFair blog controversy.
  • Bet2Give Presidential Widget
  • Did the BetFair blog use trading data from InTrade to hint at BetFair’s accuracy??
  • WordPress powers the MSM’s blogs: NY Times, WSJ, CNN, Fox, Time and People.