Prediction market blogger quits InTrade.

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Ben Shannon:

New Year Update

Posted by Jesse Livermore on Sunday, January 3, 2010

I&#8217-ve been gone for a while. There just hasn&#8217-t been that much happening on Intrade, and I&#8217-ve been focusing on neuroscience.

Intrade has definitely gotten tougher over the past year. I think the 2008 election drew in a lot of people who weren&#8217-t very good at politics or gambling. By now those people have either lost their money or gotten better. Hopefully the 2010 elections will draw in a new crop.

In the mean time, Intrade&#8217-s management has not done a great job in developing the brand. My impression is that volume is off by more than 50% compared to last year. Chief difficulties:
Absolutely no advertising whatsoever.
Diminished interest in politics in an off-year.
Getting money onto the site requires a lot of determination and a visit to a gas station to buy a Netspend card.

Future updates on this blog will be less-than-daily, basically when I have an opinion about politics that I feel like sharing.

BetFair co-founder Ed Wray laments the suppression of UKs tax incentive for startup entrepreneurs.

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BetFair chairman Ed Wray: &#8220-Too many hurdles in the way of enterprise&#8221-.

Wray refers to a tax incentive that he and Black used to launch Betfair after they were forced to go to friends and family for funds, having failed to raise capital from institutional investors.

&#8220-That was very useful in terms of getting the business off the ground. Everything I see now is about cutting back on those opportunities.&#8221-

Is Apple becoming evil? – Jason Calacanis vs Guy Kawasaki

External Links: Paul Graham&#8217-s criticism of Apple + Phil Schiller Grants Interview About Apple’s App Store, Claims Devs Actually Like Approval Process. + The BusinessWeek interview + iPhone developers are stupid.