HubDubs Nigel Eccles pinches Henry Blodgets nose (like trumpetist Miles Davies did for one of his musicians, on stage, one day), and the damn result of that, believe or not, is that the valuation of The Sporting Exchange (BetFair-TradeFair) drops from $5 billion to $3 billion. So, either Nigel shoul

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Nigel Eccles:

How did you forget yadda yadda yadda. [ Hilarious. :-D ]

Nice list, roughly makes sense but lots to disagree with (as you would expect). However one clear mistake is BetFair. They should be valued at $3 billion. They just did a recapitalisation which distributed 10% of the company in cash to shareholders (I got the check this morning). It was at a valuation of ?1.5 billion, so unless you are even more bearish on the exchange rate that works out at $3 billion.

Henry Blodget:

Thanks for the info on Betfair&#8211-that&#8217-s exactly the sort of concrete detail we&#8217-re especially looking for. We&#8217-ll see if we can confirm, and, if so, the valuation will drop to $3 billion.

And there&#8217-s another interesting comment, on the other page:

Insider:

why the gratuitous &#8212- and painfully ignorant – -swipes at the USA?

can&#8217-t you do your job without the silly &#8212- and, again, factually incorrect &#8212- morals lectureds and editorializing?

actually the U.K. is one of the few countries in the world where online gambling is essentially legal (though the U.K. still hasn&#8217-t sorted out all the laws it is creating to govern online betting)

many EU countries are literally at each others throats about how/when to tax internet gambling (principally because state-run lotteries are specifically carved out of the E.U. free trade agreements)

japan, australia and china have sever and horrible and harsh punishments for internet gambling

of course, pretty much all of the islamic world puts people to death or dismemberment for breaking qu&#8217-ran-ic law – and gambling is totally and utterly forbidden under the qu&#8217-ran

it is you who are &#8220-of arbitrary morals&#8221-. stick to blogging.

Insider&#8217-s comment sounds informed, but he/she should have avoided the nasty last line.

&#8220-Stick to blogging&#8221- is an insult I was served with, recently, (by a UK-based financial trader), so I can relate. But that&#8217-s never helpful. Educate that blogger, instead. You&#8217-ll get a better ROI, believe me.

HubDub wil redefine the play-money exchange landscape.

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In &#8220-private beta&#8221-.

So I can&#8217-t say anything.

Or, next thing, I&#8217-m a dead blogger.

As soon as you catch this post, RUSH THERE AND TAKE A VIRTUAL TOUR. Awesome. Nigel Eccles is the man. John Delaney, David Jack, Adam Siegel and Emile Servan-Schreiber can return to the locker room. Robin Hanson and Justin Wolfers are history artifacts, starting today. The whole world will look completely different after the HubDub launch.

How come nobody got that idea (news aggregation + prediction exchange) before HubDub???

Meet Nigel Eccles, a veteran of UKs betting exchange industry, and an innovator.

Nigel Eccles

Nigel Eccles (HudBud CEO – Previously with McKinsey, Betdaq, and BetFair-Flutter)

HubDub is developing a web application which will change the way people discover, track and interact with news stories.

His startup: HubDub – (What they are brewing: a news aggregator using some kind of prediction market mechanism.)

More info:

What we are developing is a social news aggregation site. Elements of it are similar to Digg but as a whole it is a totally unique concept (partially based on experience developing betting exchanges). The site will provide a whole new way of interacting with news and the site in turn generates its own news out of user interactions. Initially the site will be US focussed as it is the bigger market. The primary revenue stream would be advertising however there are a number of other very significant revenue opportunities once the site reaches some scale.

And, yes, they do have a blog. :-D

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

  • Oprah Winfrey
  • RIGHT-CLICK THIS IMAGE, AND FILL IN THIS SURVEY, PLEASE.
  • Papers on Prediction Markets
  • The Journal of Prediction Markets
  • The 45-degree Line
  • Implied Probability of an Outcome –BetFair Edition
  • Justin Wolfers on Rudy Giuliani = not convincing… yet