Hello, I am using a throwaway.
I am an ex-con released in 2018 for car crime. You can read one of the links from my post history if you want more details but the relevant facts are these:

• - I started with the group in 2011 when I was just out of my teens
• - I carried on for 4 years
• - I got arrested in 2015 and received a 6 year prison sentence. All my cash (£4,000) and cars were seized during the raid at my rental house. Most of the the money was returned to me as they were proceeds of gambling (I was a heavy drinker and gambler). Some of the cash and all of the the cars that belonged to the group I was involved in were confiscated. I had no POCA or HMRC action against me.
• - I was released in 2017 on tag.

Right before I was arrested in 2015 I bought bitcoins in cash from a BTC ATM machine. I had 20.33 BTC in my possession, they were bought for around £400 each back then. I gave them to my sister to hold onto when my landlord kicked me out of my rental house and I left my personal possessions with her when I went inside. I have proof of receipts for the purchases and I have the gambling transactions from my William Hill online account that show I made purchases from the BTC ATM next door to the bookie each time I had a good day at the bookies and bought one coin.
When I came out of prison, I spoke to an accountant about them. He showed me guidance from HMRC that said that bitcoins were considered gambling and therefore not subject to tax.
I have been selling them for the last few years, in cash and used them to fund my living expenses and equipment for my job (I was living in a probation service approved hostel whilst working as a painter and decorator and would sell them when I was low on work).
I still have just over 16 bitcoins left. However, I went to my accountant just before Christmas and gave him my receipts for my painting and decorating jobs. He said guidance has now changed in 2018 and that the bitcoins would also have to be accounted for also and that they were subject to capital gains tax less my personal allowance. I would also have to redo my tax returns for 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 to account for the ones that I sold previously, less my allowance.
My question is, if I redo the tax returns, is there a possibility that my bitcoins could all be confiscated as Proceeds of Crime?
My accountant seemed shocked when I pointed out to him that they had climbed in price and were now standing at £16,000 (he said I'm the only client with bitcoins he has, and he doesn't know much about them). He said that he would try to speak to a HMRC officer off-the-record and see if there was a chance to do a full disclosure. He said there is something similar called a Code 9 but that is for criminal offences of tax fraud or tax evasion. He is worried that HMRC might not believe that I bought the coins with the proceeds of gambling, but that they were proceeds of crime from the car ringing I was doing. I still have some of my ATM receipts and I have the blockchain records that show I bought the bitcoins and transferred them onto paper printouts from bitaddress.org (they are now kept on a Trezor). But there's no proof they were bought in cash with the gambling proceeds.
He seem quite concerned that I am sitting on assets worth £250,000 and that I could potentially be liable to lose them all. He has suggested that he won't submit my tax returns yet, until he speaks to some colleagues of his and a tax investigator that he knows. Then he says, it might be better to speak directly to HMRC and ask for a sit-down interview or a Zoom call and make a full disclosure.
He said I also have the possibility of leaving the United Kingdom and moving to a tax haven. However I am now married and my wife's little boys from her previous marriage are in school, they call me 'dad' now. I'm not sure £250,000 would last forever in Switzerland or wherever, plus I'm an ex-con and might not get a residency permit. I'd prefer to stay in the UK and pay my taxes and get on with my life. My painting and decorating job is going really well now and I've got a full order book for spring 2021. I no longer drink or gamble. I moved away from my hometown and no longer have any contact with any of my old group. Any advice any accountants here can give is most welcome.
Tl;DR: I'm scared HMRC might confiscate my 16 bitcoins as Proceeds of Crime for an earlier offence, is there anything I can do and what's the % chance of me losing my coins?

There are some heavy hitters on GME's Board and in the C-Suite. IMHO, the company should have spoken out about what's happening regarding their stock. They should also have a plan to address changes in the marketplace re Covid19, the push for digital and cryptocurrency, etc. Positive statements from them would improve the stability of the stock.
Why have they been silent throughout this entire event? Wouldn't they speak out against the disparaging remarks from various HF reps in recent weeks which have negatively impacted the value of the stock? Or, do they agree with the HFs that the stock is worthless, which would suggest that GME is behind a pump and dump which has enriched them and left us holding the bag? This is the kind of letter we need to send, en mass, to the Chairman of the Board: Kathy Vrabeck, and to the media.

GME Governance

Management

• George ShermanChief Executive Officer and Director George E. Sherman is the chief executive officer of GameStop. He was appointed to this role in April 2019.George is a member of GameStop’s Board of Directors, a seat he has held since April 2019.George brings to GameStop more than 25 years of senior management experience serving in a variety of retail leadership roles for several major retail brands like Advance Auto Parts, Best Buy, Target and Home Depot.Prior to joining GameStop, George served as CEO of Victra, the largest exclusive authorized retailer for Verizon Wireless products and services. Before this, he served as president and interim CEO for Advance Auto Parts where he was responsible for more than 4,000 stores, merchandising, marketing, IT, supply chain and commercial sales.George also served as president of Best Buy Services, where he led consumer services, small- and medium-business capabilities, channel partnerships and Best Buy for business. Prior to Best Buy, he ran the operations and home services divisions of Home Depot and spent 14 years with the Target Corporation in various leadership roles.He received his master’s degree from Central Michigan University and served as an officer in the United States Air Force for nearly seven years. George is an active community volunteer with veteran’s causes and currently serves on the board of directors of Building Homes for Heroes, which builds mortgage free homes catered to the unique needs of disabled veterans.
• Jim BellEVP and Chief Financial Officer Jim Bell serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for GameStop, a role he was appointed to in June of 2019. Prior to joining GameStop, Jim served as CFO and interim CEO of Wok Holdings, Inc., the parent company of P.F. Chang’s, Pei Wei and True Food Kitchen restaurants, where he successfully designed and led the company’s overall strategic plan and omnichannel digital transformation and the successful sale of each of these brands. Previously, Jim served as EVP and CFO at RLH Corporation and President and CEO of Coldwater Creek, Inc. Earlier in his career he held senior finance roles at Harry & David Holdings, Inc. and The Gap. Jim received his MBA from the University of Maryland and a B.S. in Economics from the U.S. Naval Academy. Following graduation, Jim served as a Naval Flight Officer leading squadron and flight operations in the U.S. Navy from 1989 to 1998.
• Dan ReedGeneral Counsel and Corporate Secretary Dan Reed serves as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for GameStop. In this role, Dan oversees all company domestic and international legal matters and works closely with the executive leadership team and the Board of Directors to ensure legal compliance and success in meeting business objectives.Prior to joining GameStop in 2006, Dan worked in private practice as a business lawyer. Dan holds a J.D. degree from the University of Texas and a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University.

Board of Directors

• Kathy VrabeckBoard Chair Kathy P. Vrabeck is Board Chair and a member of the Compensation Committee. She has served as a Director since June 2012. She is currently a senior client partner in the consumer markets division of Korn Ferry. Previously, she was a Partner at Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. (“Heidrick & Struggles”) in their Media, Entertainment and Digital practice. Prior to joining Heidrick & Struggles in July 2011, Vrabeck was with Legendary Pictures from March 2009 to March 2011 where she served as president, Legendary Digital and was responsible for the creation, management and delivery of digital entertainment, with a focus on video games, across current and next-generation platforms. From May 2007 to November 2008, Vrabeck was with Electronic Arts, Inc. (“EA”) where she served as president, EA Casual Entertainment and led EA’s efforts in the fastest growing segments of the video game market: mobile, online, social networking and global media sales. Prior to joining EA, Vrabeck was with Activision, Inc. (“Activision”) from August 1999 to April 2006 where she served as president, Activision Publishing, overseeing Activision’s product development and global brand management and publishing operations. Earlier in her career, Vrabeck held various marketing, sales and finance positions with ConAgra, The Pillsbury Company, Quaker Oats and Eli Lilly and Company. Vrabeck currently serves on the DePauw University Board of Trustees.
• George ShermanChief Executive Officer and Directo rGeorge E. Sherman is the chief executive officer of GameStop. He was appointed to this role in April 2019.George is a member of GameStop’s Board of Directors, a seat he has held since April 2019.George brings to GameStop more than 25 years of senior management experience serving in a variety of retail leadership roles for several major retail brands like Advance Auto Parts, Best Buy, Target and Home Depot.Prior to joining GameStop, George served as CEO of Victra, the largest exclusive authorized retailer for Verizon Wireless products and services. Before this, he served as president and interim CEO for Advance Auto Parts where he was responsible for more than 4,000 stores, merchandising, marketing, IT, supply chain and commercial sales.George also served as president of Best Buy Services, where he led consumer services, small- and medium-business capabilities, channel partnerships and Best Buy for business. Prior to Best Buy, he ran the operations and home services divisions of Home Depot and spent 14 years with the Target Corporation in various leadership roles.He received his master’s degree from Central Michigan University and served as an officer in the United States Air Force for nearly seven years. George is an active community volunteer with veteran’s causes and currently serves on the board of directors of Building Homes for Heroes, which builds mortgage free homes catered to the unique needs of disabled veterans.
• Carrie TeffnerDirector Carrie Teffner is a director and was appointed to the board in 2018. Carrie is chair of the Audit Committee and brings 30 years of financial leadership and experience in the consumer products and retail industries. Carrie has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Crocs (NASDAQ: CROX) since 2015. Before assuming her executive positions at Crocs, she served on the Crocs board of directors, which she joined in June 2015. Prior to joining Crocs, she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at PetSmart and, before that, at Weber-Stephen Products. Prior to those roles, she served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Timberland and spent 21 years in various leadership positions at Sara Lee Corporation. Carrie holds Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of Vermont.
• Raul FernandezDirector Raul is a director and was appointed to GameStop’s board in April 2019. He serves as a member of the company’s Audit Committee. Raul serves as Vice Chairman and Owner of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, a private partnership that co-owns the NBA’s Washington Wizards, the NHL’s 2018 Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals, the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, Team Liquid eSports and Wizards District Gaming NBA 2K, as well as co-owns and operates Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. He also serves as Special Advisor and Limited Partner to General Atlantic Partners, a growth equity firm with more than $31 billion under management. He previously served in several leadership roles at various technology companies, including as Chairman and CEO for Object Video, a leading developer of intelligent video surveillance software. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Maryland and is an active philanthropist, focusing his energy primarily on education reform in the D.C. region.
• Lizabeth DunnDirector Lizabeth is a director and was appointed to GameStop’s board in April 2019. She serves as a member of the company’s Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and the Compensation Committee. Lizabeth is the Founder and CEO of Pro4ma Inc, an information technology services consulting firm that provides cloud-based data forecasting and predictive analytics tools to retailers. She also is the Founder and CEO of Talmage Advisers, a retail and branded consumer products consulting firm that provides a full range of services across brand strategy, pricing analysis, financial benchmarking and transactional due diligence. Prior to founding these firms, Lizabeth served in various consulting and financial analyst roles for leading financial firms and retail organizations, including Macquarie Group, FBR, Thomas Weisel, Prudential Equity Group, Bear Stearns, Gap Inc. and Liz Claiborne. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Spelman College.
• William SimonDirector Bill Simon has more than 30 years of operational and strategic advisory experience in the retail, consumer and food and beverage industries. Since 2014, he has served as a Senior Advisor at KKR & Co. Mr. Simon previously served in multiple leadership roles at Walmart Inc. from 2006 to 2015, including as President and CEO of Walmart U.S. from 2010 to 2014; EVP and COO of Walmart U.S. from 2007 to 2010; and as EVP, Professional Services and New Business Development from 2006 to 2007. Earlier in his career, Mr. Simon served as VP of Marketing, Beverages at Cadbury Schweppes plc and held leadership roles of increasing responsibility at PepsiCo, Inc., after beginning his career at RJR Nabisco. Bill holds an MBA and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Connecticut. Mr. Simon was appointed to the board in 2020 and serves as a member of the Audit Committee and the chair of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.
• James SymancykDirector Mr. Symancyk brings more than 25 years of executive leadership and operational experience in the retail and consumer products industries. He has served as President and CEO of PetSmart, Inc. since 2018. Mr. Symancyk previously served as President and CEO of Academy Sports & Outdoors, Inc., a retail and ecommerce sporting goods chain, from 2015 to 2018. Prior to that, he held leadership roles of increasingly responsibility at Meijer, Inc., a regional supercenter chain store, including as President; COO; and EVP, Merchandising & Marketing. He began his career at Sam’s Club, where he served as Divisional Merchandise Manager, among other roles. Mr. Symancyk holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas. Mr. Symancyk was appointed to the board in 2020 and serves as the chair of the Compensation Committee.
• Reginald Fils-AiméDirector Reggie brings more than 35 years of experience transforming companies, revitalizing brands and reshaping industries. From 2006 to 2019, he served as President and COO of Nintendo of America, Inc. During his tenure, Mr. Fils-Aimé focused on the development and launch of industry re-defining products, including the Nintendo DS, Wii, Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch, quadrupling the company’s revenue from 2005 to 2010, and oversaw the successful implementation of the company’s digital strategy. He previously served as Nintendo of America’s EVP of Sales and Marketing from 2003 to 2006. Prior to joining Nintendo, Mr. Fils-Aimé served as SVP of Marketing for VH1 from 2001 to 2003, where he led a strategic shift to appeal to younger consumers that resulted in an increase in ratings of more than 30 percent. Earlier in his career, he held multiple marketing roles at a variety of consumer and manufacturing companies, including the Derby Cycle Corporation, Guinness Import Company, Panda Management Company, Inc., Pizza Hut, Inc. and the Procter & Gamble Company. Mr. Fils-Aimé holds a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Economics from Cornell University. Mr. Fils-Aimé was appointed to the board in 2020 and serves as a member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.
• Kurt WolfDirector Mr. Wolf is the Managing Member and Chief Investment Officer of Hestia Capital Management LLC. Previously, Mr. Wolf worked in a variety of financial, investing and operating roles, at First Q Capital, LLC, and as a co-Founding Partner at Lemhi Ventures LLC. Earlier in his career, Mr. Wolf worked as a consultant both with Deloitte Consulting and The Boston Consulting Group. Mr. Wolf earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Mathematics from Carleton College. Mr. Wolf joined the board in 2020 and serves as a member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.
• Paul EvansDirector Mr. Evans is a Senior Managing Director at Dillon Kane Group. Additionally, Mr. Evans is a Board Director at Hill International, Inc. Prior to this, Mr. Evans served in a variety of senior executive roles at MYR Group Inc. Earlier in his career, Mr. Evans held a number of executive management positions at several energy-related businesses. Mr. Evans is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Mr. Evans received a B.B.A in Accounting from Stephen F. Austin State University and a Masters of International Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management. Mr. Evans joined the board in 2020 and serves as a member of the Audit Committee.

NWGI getting more attention now that it has its certification in DC. Anyone still hot on this? They are comparing it to DKNG in other groups.
https://www.newgiocogroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/NWGI-Investor-Presentation-8.20.20-v10_compressed.pdf

Hello, I am using a throwaway.
I am an ex-con released in 2018 for car crime. You can read one of the links from my post history if you want more details but the relevant facts are these:

• - I started with the group in 2011 when I was just out of my teens
• - I carried on for 4 years
• - I got arrested in 2015 and received a 6 year prison sentence. All my cash (£4,000) and cars were seized during the raid at my rental house. Most of the the money was returned to me as they were proceeds of gambling (I was a heavy drinker and gambler). Some of the cash and all of the the cars that belonged to the group I was involved in were confiscated. I had no POCA or HMRC action against me.
• - I was released in 2017 on tag.

Right before I was arrested in 2015 I bought bitcoins in cash from a BTC ATM machine. I had 20.33 BTC in my possession, they were bought for around £400 each back then. I gave them to my sister to hold onto when my landlord kicked me out of my rental house and I left my personal possessions with her when I went inside. I have proof of receipts for the purchases and I have the gambling transactions from my William Hill online account that show I made purchases from the BTC ATM next door to the bookie each time I had a good day at the bookies and bought one coin.
When I came out of prison, I spoke to an accountant about them. He showed me guidance from HMRC that said that bitcoins were considered gambling and therefore not subject to tax.
I have been selling them for the last few years, in cash and used them to fund my living expenses and equipment for my job (I was living in a probation service approved hostel whilst working as a painter and decorator and would sell them when I was low on work).
I still have just over 16 bitcoins left. However, I went to my accountant just before Christmas and gave him my receipts for my painting and decorating jobs. He said guidance has now changed in 2018 and that the bitcoins would also have to be accounted for also and that they were subject to capital gains tax less my personal allowance. I would also have to redo my tax returns for 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 to account for the ones that I sold previously, less my allowance.
My question is, if I redo the tax returns, is there a possibility that my bitcoins could all be confiscated as Proceeds of Crime?
My accountant seemed shocked when I pointed out to him that they had climbed in price and were now standing at £16,000 (he said I'm the only client with bitcoins he has, and he doesn't know much about them). He said that he would try to speak to a HMRC officer off-the-record and see if there was a chance to do a full disclosure. He said there is something similar called a Code 9 but that is for criminal offences of tax fraud or tax evasion. He is worried that HMRC might not believe that I bought the coins with the proceeds of gambling, but that they were proceeds of crime from the car ringing I was doing. I still have some of my ATM receipts and I have the blockchain records that show I bought the bitcoins and transferred them onto paper printouts from bitaddress.org (they are now kept on a Trezor). But there's no proof they were bought in cash with the gambling proceeds.
He seem quite concerned that I am sitting on assets worth £250,000 and that I could potentially be liable to lose them all. He has suggested that he won't submit my tax returns yet, until he speaks to some colleagues of his and a tax investigator that he knows. Then he says, it might be better to speak directly to HMRC and ask for a sit-down interview or a Zoom call and make a full disclosure.
He said I also have the possibility of leaving the United Kingdom and moving to a tax haven. However I am now married and my wife's little boys from her previous marriage are in school, they call me 'dad' now. I'm not sure £250,000 would last forever in Switzerland or wherever, plus I'm an ex-con and might not get a residency permit. I'd prefer to stay in the UK and pay my taxes and get on with my life. My painting and decorating job is going really well now and I've got a full order book for spring 2021. I no longer drink or gamble. I moved away from my hometown and no longer have any contact with any of my old group. Any advice any accountants here can give is most welcome.
Tl;DR: I'm scared HMRC might confiscate my 16 bitcoins as Proceeds of Crime for an earlier offence, is there anything I can do and what's the % chance of me losing my coins?

Currently going through the process of buy my first house hopefully to live in for a long time if not forever although it wasn't planned to be this soon I recived a email from a housing associations saying they are building two new plots in a location not far from my workplace. So I was asked by the HS to contact a broker for a affordability check they asked for the usually stuff (payslips, I'd, statements ect) They approved and sent my application off too a lender.
PROBLEM is that I looked back at my statements and their are some gambling transactions made in November I have about 3 transactions to william Hill for around £30 But my main concern is we play the lottery Euro million at work and take turns who will buy the tickets online via the app and I have a 9 transaction split over 4 days in November adding up too £80.
And now I'm Very anxious and feel like this has come to bite me in the back 😔 I haven't herd anything back from the lender they will be contacting me in a few day, but I think this might have blown it for me.
Any advice

Based in England.
Hello, I am using a throwaway account.
I am an ex-con released in 2018 for car crime. You can read one of the links from my post history if you want more details but the relevant facts are these:

• - I started with the group in 2011 when I was just out of my teens
• - I carried on for 4 years
• - I got arrested in 2015 and received a 6 year prison sentence. All my cash (£4,000) and cars were seized during the raid at my rental house. Most of the the money was returned to me as they were proceeds of gambling (I was a heavy drinker and gambler). Some of the cash and all of the the cars that belonged to the group I was involved in were confiscated. I had no POCA or HMRC action against me.
• - I was released in 2017 on tag.

Right before I was arrested in 2015 I bought bitcoins in cash from a BTC ATM machine. I had 20.33 BTC in my possession, they were bought for around £400 each back then. I gave them to my sister to hold onto when my landlord kicked me out of my rental house and I left my personal possessions with her when I went inside. I have proof of receipts for the purchases and I have the gambling transactions from my William Hill online account that show I made purchases from the BTC ATM next door to the bookie each time I had a good day at the bookies and bought one coin.
When I came out of prison, I spoke to an accountant about them. He showed me guidance from HMRC that said that bitcoins were considered gambling and therefore not subject to tax.
I have been selling them for the last few years, in cash and used them to fund my living expenses and equipment for my job (I was living in a probation service approved hostel whilst working as a painter and decorator and would sell them when I was low on work).
I still have just over 16 bitcoins left. However, I went to my accountant just before Christmas and gave him my receipts for my painting and decorating jobs. He said guidance has now changed in 2018 and that the bitcoins would also have to be accounted for also and that they were subject to capital gains tax less my personal allowance. I would also have to redo my tax returns for 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 to account for the ones that I sold previously, less my allowance.
My question is, if I redo the tax returns, is there a possibility that my bitcoins could all be confiscated as Proceeds of Crime?
My accountant seemed shocked when I pointed out to him that they had climbed in price and were now standing at £16,000 (he said I'm the only client with bitcoins he has, and he doesn't know much about them). He said that he would try to speak to a HMRC officer off-the-record and see if there was a chance to do a full disclosure. He said there is something similar called a Code 9 but that is for criminal offences of tax fraud or tax evasion. He is worried that HMRC might not believe that I bought the coins with the proceeds of gambling, but that they were proceeds of crime from the car ringing I was doing. I still have some of my ATM receipts and I have the blockchain records that show I bought the bitcoins and transferred them onto paper printouts from bitaddress.org (they are now kept on a Trezor). But there's no proof they were bought in cash with the gambling proceeds.
He seem quite concerned that I am sitting on assets worth £250,000 and that I could potentially be liable to lose them all. He has suggested that he won't submit my tax returns yet, until he speaks to some colleagues of his and a tax investigator that he knows. Then he says, it might be better to speak directly to HMRC and ask for a sit-down interview or a Zoom call and make a full disclosure.
He said I also have the possibility of leaving the United Kingdom and moving to a tax haven. However I am now married and my wife's little boys from her previous marriage are in school, they call me 'dad' now. I'm not sure £250,000 would last forever in Switzerland or wherever, plus I'm an ex-con and might not get a residency permit. I'd prefer to stay in the UK and pay my taxes and get on with my life. My painting and decorating job is going really well now and I've got a full order book for spring 2021. I no longer drink or gamble. I moved away from my hometown and no longer have any contact with any of my old group. Any advice any accountants here can give is most welcome.
Tl;DR: Is there a good chance HMRC might confiscate my 16 bitcoins as Proceeds of Crime for an earlier offence, is there anything I can do and what's the % chance of me losing my coins?

Hello all,
Figured this would make for some good discussion https://luckboxmagazine.com/topics/betting-against-the-political-polls/
For those of you short on time, Crane looked at how one would have done had they decided to bet on every single state for which, according to 538's numbers, there was a discrepancy between the implied odds as reflected in Predict It's prices and the 'real' odds ('real' as stated by 538). So say Predict It says Biden has a 65 percent chance of winning Y state and 538 says he has an 80 percent chance, you would be wagering on Biden winning. And you'd be wagering more in total dollar terms on a state where the gap between 538's odds and Predict It's odds was 15 percent than a state where the gap was only five. This is standard gambling stuff so the methodology seems good.
The results though, Crane says, were none too good for believers in the Silver 538 model. After fees and commissions, you would have lost $$$ following it (he does note you would have made a modest profit before fees and commissions)
Really curious to hear your thoughts but a few initial observations.

1. Crane is absolutely right to say that if you can't beat the rake, then your model (whether it's politics, basketball, whatever) is not that good. But Predict It is infamous for its horrific fees and commissions. It just sucks. I would be curious if he had applied this at a standard sportsbook like William Hill, Pinnacle, or Bet Online.ag or, even better, Bet Fair. My guess is that the model would then have turned a small profit.
2. The much bigger problem-- the Predict It price on Biden simply winning the election, regardless of his performance in any given set of states, from the time Nate released the model to election day, if memory served, hovered between 55-67 cents a share. Even at its highest price, there was always a considerable gap between Biden's chances according to 538 and the implied probability according to Predict It's prices. So if you had just said 'I'm going to go with 538 and bet Biden to be prez' you would have done well. So why not just go with the main market? This is somewhat confusing to me unless there was more cumulative value in going state by state but some of those big bets lost (for instance 538 would have suggested a fairly large Biden wager on Florida...)

I could say a lot more but I might just save it for the comments as this is already getting long.

Team has been involved in a substantial number of the digital media, sports, entertainment, leisure and gaming industries’ most significant merger and acquisition transactions, holding key positions at, and transacting with Scientific Games Corp, Inspired Gaming Group, FOX Bets, Ocean Casino Resort, Resorts International Holdings, PokerStars, DraftKings, Mohegan Sun, Caesars Entertainment Corporation, Harrah’s Entertainment, Tropicana Entertainment, Inc., TSG/Sky Betting & Gaming, Facebook, Inc, Wynn Resorts, Dubai World/MGM Resorts
Here's all the Bios. These guys are stellar! TEKK closed at $10.30 today. Still cheap!
If you don't like to read... you don't like to make money!!!!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matthew Davey — Chief Executive Officer and Director
Mr. Davey has over 25 years of experience within the digital media, sports, entertainment, leisure and gaming ecosystems, as well as experience in the public sector. He is an experienced public company executive officer and board member. He has served in executive management positions across the gaming technology arena. Over the course of Mr. Davey’s career, he oversaw more than ten mergers and acquisitions and over $1.2 billion in debt and equity capital raised to support the companies he has led.
Most recently, Mr. Davey was Chief Executive Officer of SG Digital, the Digital Division of Scientific Games Corp. (“Scientific Games”) (Nasdaq: SGMS). SG Digital was established following the purchase by Scientific Games of NYX Gaming Group Limited (“NYX”) (formerly TSXV: NYX), where Mr. Davey served as Chief Executive Officer and Director. The NYX acquisition provided Scientific Games with a vehicle to significantly accelerate the scale and breadth of its existing digital gaming business, including the strategic expansion into sports betting. In his capacity as Chief Executive Officer of NYX, Mr. Davey developed and implemented a corporate strategy that generated strong revenue growth. Mr. Davey shaped company strategy to focus on digital gaming supplier platforms and content that provided various gaming operators with the underlying gaming and sports betting systems for their online gaming business. In 2014, Mr. Davey oversaw the initial public offering of NYX, and his experience in the digital media, sports, entertainment, leisure and gaming industries helped NYX recognize momentum as a public company. After the public offering, from 2014 to 2018, Mr. Davey oversaw seven acquisitions which helped establish NYX as one of the fastest growing global B2B real-money digital gaming and sports betting platforms. These acquisitions included:
• OpenBet: In 2016, NYX completed the $385 million acquisition of OpenBet. This was one of the more complex and transformative acquisitions that Mr. Davey oversaw at NYX. Through securing co-investments from William Hill (LSE: WMH), Sky Betting & Gaming and The Stars Group (formerly Nasdaq: TSG, TSX: TSGI), Mr. Davey was able to get the acquisition from Vitruvian Partners completed successfully, winning the deal against much larger and well capitalized competitors. By combining two established and proven B2B betting and gaming suppliers, NYX was well positioned to provide customers with exciting player-driven solutions across all major product verticals and distribution channels. This allowed NYX to become the leading B2B omni-channel sportsbook platform in the market and the supplier to over 300 gaming operators globally with an extensive library of desktop and mobile game titles, including more than 700 on NYX platforms and more than 2,000 on the OpenBet platform.
• Cryptologic/Chartwell: In 2015, NYX completed the $119 million acquisition of Cryptologic and Chartwell. The acquisition provided NYX with more than 400 titles of additional leading gaming content, a broader customer base, and direct exposure to PokerStars and Intercasino, part of the Gamesys Group (LSE: GYS) — two of the world’s largest online casino offerings.
• OnGame: In 2014, NYX completed the distressed acquisition of OnGame, a premier poker content, platform and service provider. This acquisition provided NYX with one of the best poker products in the industry, access to several regulated jurisdictions, and a valuable talent pool that was instrumental in the growth of NYX. The addition of OnGame further established a path for NYX to continue its growth in both European and U.S. markets.
These acquisitions, together with meaningful organic growth, increased NYX’s revenue from $24 million in 2014 to $184 million annualized in 2017. During that time, Mr. Davey helped build NYX to have over 200 customers in the global gaming industry and a team of 1,000 employees. Mr. Davey’s success at NYX ultimately led to its sale to Scientific Games for $631 million in 2018.
Mr. Davey joined Next Gen Gaming, the predecessor to NYX, in 2000 as the Vice President of Technology, was appointed as Executive Director in 2003 and named Chief Executive Officer in 2005. Prior to that, he was the Senior Consultant for Access Systems, a company that specializes in the provision of back-end software for licensed online casinos. Prior to joining Access, Mr. Davey worked for the Northern Territory Government specializing in matters pertaining to the internet and e-commerce along with roles in the Department of Racing and Gaming. Mr. Davey received a Bachelor of Electrical & Electronic Engineering from Northern Territory University, Australia (also known as Charles Darwin University).
Robin Chhabra — President
Mr. Chhabra has been at the forefront of corporate acquisition activity within the digital gaming landscape for over a decade. His prior experience includes leading corporate strategy, M&A, and business development at two of the global leaders in the digital gaming industry, The Stars Group (“TSG”) and William Hill, and a leading supplier, Inspired Gaming Group (Nasdaq: INSE). Mr. Chhabra served on the Group Executive Committees of each of these companies. From 2017 to May 2020, Mr. Chhabra served as Chief Corporate Development Officer at TSG and, from 2019 to August 2020, he also served as the Chief Executive Officer of Fox Bet, a leading U.S. online gaming business which is the product of a landmark partnership between TSG and FOX Sports, a transaction which he led. During that period, Mr. Chhabra led several transactions which transformed TSG into the largest publicly listed online gambling operator in the world by both revenue and market capitalization and one of the most diversified from a product and geographic perspective with revenues of over $2.5 billion. Mr. Chhabra’s M&A experience is extensive and covers multiple global geographies across the digital gaming value chain and includes the following:
• TSG/Flutter Entertainment Merger: In 2019, Mr. Chhabra led the TSG M&A team that was responsible for TSG’s $12.2 billion merger with Flutter Entertainment (LSE: FLTR). The merger between TSG and Flutter Entertainment is the largest transaction in the digital gaming industry to date. The combination created the largest publicly listed online gaming company with approximately 13 million active customers and leading product offerings, which include sports betting, online casino, fantasy sports and poker. The combined entity includes some of the world’s most iconic digital gaming brands such as Fanduel, Fox Bet, Sky Bet, PaddyPower, Betfair, PokerStars and SportsBet. TSG/Flutter Entertainment is one of the most geographically diverse digital gaming and media companies with leading positions in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Germany and Georgia.
• TSG/Sky Betting and Gaming (“SBG”): In 2018, Mr. Chhabra led the acquisition of SBG from CVC Capital Partners and Sky plc, Europe’s largest media company, in a transaction valued at $4.7 billion. At the time of the acquisition SBG was the largest mobile gambling operator in the United Kingdom and one of the fastest growing of the major operators having doubled its online market share in three years. The acquisition of SBG provided TSG with (a) greater revenue diversification, significantly enhanced expertise and exposure to sports betting just ahead of the judicial overturn of The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) by the U.S. Supreme Court, (b) a leading position within the United Kingdom, the world’s largest regulated online gaming market, (c) improved products and technology as a result of the addition of SBG’s innovative casino and sports book offerings and a portfolio of popular mobile apps, and (d) expertise in deeply integrating sports betting with leading sports media companies, positioning TSG to create more engaging content, deliver faster growth and decrease customer acquisition costs.
• William Hill (LSE: WMH): At William Hill, from 2010 to 2017, Mr. Chhabra served as Group Director of Strategy and Corporate Development where he led several transactions which contributed to William Hill’s transformation from a land-based gambling operator in the United Kingdom to a leading online-led international business. Mr. Chhabra led William Hill’s entry into the U.S. sports betting and online lottery markets with the acquisition of four businesses, including the simultaneous acquisitions of three U.S. sportsbooks, Cal Neva, American Wagering and Brandywine Bookmaking, in 2011 for an aggregate purchase price of $55 million. These businesses ultimately led William Hill to achieve a leading position in the U.S. sports betting market with a market share of 24% in 2019. Additionally, Mr. Chhabra played a key role in structuring William Hill’s successful joint venture with PlayTech Plc (LSE: PTEC) in 2008. The combined entity created one of the largest online gambling businesses in Europe at the time of its formation and led to William Hill’s buyout of Playtech’s interest for $637 million in 2013. Prior to the transaction, William Hill had struggled in its attempt to establish a strong online gaming platform and a meaningful presence outside the United Kingdom.
Mr. Chhabra has also successfully completed four transactions worth over $1.2 billion in Australia, the world’s second largest regulated online gambling market, and various partnerships in Asia. Additionally, he completed several technology and media related transactions, including William Hill’s investment in NYX, where he worked with Mr. Davey on NYX’s transformational acquisition of OpenBet.
Prior to working in the gaming sector, Mr. Chhabra was an equities analyst and a management consultant. Mr. Chhabra received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Eric Matejevich — Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Matejevich is a seasoned gaming executive with extensive experience in both the online gaming and traditional casino industries. From February to August 2019, he served as Trustee and Interim-Chief Executive Officer of Ocean Casino Resort (“Ocean”) (formerly Revel Casino, which had a construction cost of $2.4 billion) in Atlantic City, where he successfully led the management team through an ownership change and operational turnaround effort. Over the course of seven months, Mr. Matejevich managed to reduce the property’s weekly cash burn of $1.5 million to an annualized cash flow run rate in excess of $20 million.
Prior to Ocean, from 2016 to 2018, Mr. Matejevich served as the Chief Financial Officer of NYX. At NYX, he focused his efforts on integrating the company’s many acquisitions and multiple debt refinancings to simplify its capital structure and provided liquidity for growth initiatives. Additionally, Mr. Matejevich was instrumental to the executive team that sold NYX to Scientific Games for $631 million.
Prior to NYX, from 2004 to 2014, Mr. Matejevich was the Chief Financial Officer of Resorts International Holdings and later, from 2011, also the Chief Operating Officer of the Atlantic Club Casino, a property under the Resorts International Holdings umbrella — a Colony Capital (NYSE: CLNY) entity. As Chief Financial Officer, he provided managerial oversight for all finance functions for a six-property casino company with annual gaming revenue exceeding $1.3 billion, 10,000 gaming positions, 7,000 hotel rooms and over 11,000 staff members during his tenure. Mr. Matejevich led the transition effort to integrate a four-casino, $1.3 billion acquisition from Harrah’s Entertainment and Caesars Entertainment (Nasdaq: CZR). As Chief Operating Officer of Atlantic Club, he lobbied for and was successful in obtaining the first internet gaming legislation passed in the United States. The Atlantic Club was the sole New Jersey casino proponent of the legislation.
Prior to serving in various gaming positions, Mr. Matejevich was a Vice President of High Yield Research for Merrill Lynch, where he managed the corporate bond research effort for the gaming and leisure sectors and marketed high yield and other debt transactions totaling $4.8 billion. Mr. Matejevich received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Wharton School and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from The College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.
Our Board of Directors
Morris Bailey — Chairman
Over the past 10 years, Mr. Bailey has been a leader in turning around Atlantic City, as well as being among the first gaming executives to embrace online gaming and sports betting in the United States. In his efforts, Mr. Bailey partnered with two of the largest digital gaming companies in the world, PokerStars, part of the Stars Group, and DraftKings (Nasdaq: DKNG). In 2010, Mr. Bailey bought Resorts Atlantic City (“Resorts”) and initiated a comprehensive renovation which allowed for the property to be rebranded and repositioned. In 2012, Mr. Bailey signed an agreement with Mohegan Sun to manage the day-to-day operations of the casino. In addition to Mohegan Sun’s operational expertise and ability to reduce costs via economies of scale, Resorts gained access to their robust customer database. Soon thereafter, Mr. Bailey and his team focused on bringing online gaming to the property. In 2015, Resorts established a platform to engage in online gaming by partnering with PokerStars, now part of the $24 billion Flutter Entertainment, PLC (LSE: FLTR), to operate an online poker room in Atlantic City. In 2018, Resorts announced deals with DraftKings and SBTech to open a sportsbook on-property and online. For 2020 year-to-date, Resorts has performed in the top quartile in internet gross gaming revenue in New Jersey. Mr. Bailey’s efforts in New Jersey helped set the framework for expansion of online sports and gaming throughout the United States.
In addition to his gaming interests, Mr. Bailey has over 50 years of experience in all facets of real estate development, asset M&A, capital markets and operations and is the founder, Chief Executive Officer and Principal of JEMB Realty, a leading real estate development, investment and management organization. Mr. Bailey has notable investment experience within the energy, finance and telecommunications sectors through investments in the Astoria Energy Plant, Basis Investment Group and Xentris Wireless.
Tony Rodio — Director Nominee
Mr. Rodio has nearly four decades of experience in the gaming industry. Most recently, Mr. Rodio served as the Chief Executive Officer and director of Caesars Entertainment Corporation (“Caesars”) (Nasdaq: CZR), one of the world’s most diversified casino-entertainment providers and the most geographically diverse U.S. casino-entertainment company, from April 2019 until its acquisition by Eldorado Resorts, Inc. in July 2020. Mr. Rodio led Caesars through its $17.3 billion merger with Eldorado Resorts, one of the largest transactions in the gaming industry to date. Additionally, Mr. Rodio was instrumental to Caesars’ expansion into the digital gaming industry and oversaw the implementation of new digital segments such as its Scientific Games powered retail sportsbook solution that now operates in various states throughout the U.S. From October 2018 to May 2019, Mr. Rodio served as Chief Executive Officer of Affinity Gaming. Prior to Affinity Gaming, he served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of Tropicana Entertainment, Inc. (“Tropicana”) for over seven years, where he was responsible for the operation of eight casino properties in seven different jurisdictions. During his time at Tropicana, Mr. Rodio oversaw a period of unprecedented growth at the company, improving overall financial results with net revenue that increased more than 50% driven by both operational improvements and expansion across regional markets. Mr. Rodio led major capital projects, including the complete renovation of Tropicana Atlantic City and Tropicana’s move to land-based operations in Evansville, Indiana. Each of these initiatives, among others, generated substantial value for Tropicana. Ultimately, Mr. Rodio’s efforts at Tropicana led to its sale to Eldorado Resorts in 2018 for $1.85 billion. Prior to Tropicana, Mr. Rodio held a succession of executive positions in Atlantic City for casino brands, including Trump Marina Hotel Casino, Harrah’s Entertainment (predecessor to Caesars), the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort and Penn National Gaming. He has also served as a director of several professional and charitable organizations, including Atlantic City Alliance, United Way of Atlantic County, the Casino Associations of New Jersey and Indiana, AtlantiCare Charitable Foundation and the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming Hospitality & Tourism. Mr. Rodio brings extensive knowledge of and experience in the gaming industry, operational expertise, and a demonstrated ability to effectively design and implement company strategy. Mr. Rodio received a Bachelor of Science from Rider University and a Master of Business Administration from Monmouth University.
Marlon Goldstein — Director Nominee
Mr. Goldstein is a licensed attorney with nearly 20 years of experience in the gaming space. He joined The Stars Group (Nasdaq: TSG)(TSX: TSGI) in January 2014 as its Executive Vice-President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary until his retirement from the company in July 2020 following the merger of TSG with Flutter Entertainment, PLC (LSE: FLTR). Mr. Goldstein also previously served as the Executive Vice-President, Corporate Development and General Counsel of TSG. Mr. Goldstein was also the senior TSG executive based in the United States and was one of the primary architects of TSG’s strategic vision for its U.S.-facing business. During his tenure, TSG grew from an approximately $500 million market-cap company to an approximately $7 billion market-cap company through a combination of organic growth and strategic mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Goldstein participated in numerous M&A transactions and capital markets offerings at TSG, including several transformational transactions in the digital gaming industry. Notable transactions in which Mr. Goldstein was involved include:
• TSG/Flutter Merger: In 2019, TSG merged with Flutter for a $12.2 billion transaction value, the largest transaction in the digital gaming industry to date.
• TSG/Fox Bet Partnership: In 2019, TSG entered into a partnership with FOX Sports to create FOX Bet in the U.S., a leading U.S. online gaming business. Wall Street Research estimates an approximate $1.1 billion valuation for Fox Bet post-partnership with The Stars Group.
• TSG/Sky Betting & Gaming: In 2018, TSG acquired Sky Betting & Gaming, the largest mobile gambling operator in the United Kingdom at the time, for $4.7 billion.
• TSG/CrownBet and William Hill: In 2018, TSG simultaneously acquired CrownBet and William Hill, two Australian operators, for a total of $621 million in a multi-part transaction.
• TSG/PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker: In 2014, TSG acquired The Rational Group, which operated PokerStars and Full Tilt and was the world’s largest poker business, for $4.9 billion.
Through his ability to legally structure large and complex transactions, Mr. Goldstein was integral to TSG’s vision of becoming a full-service online gaming company. Additionally, he assisted in structuring TSG’s capital markets activity, which generated liquidity for acquisitions and strengthened its balance sheet.
Prior to joining TSG, Mr. Goldstein was a principal shareholder in the corporate and securities practice at the international law firm of Greenberg Traurig P.A., where he practiced for almost 13 years. Mr. Goldstein’s practice focused on corporate and securities matters, including mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, and financing transactions. Additionally, Mr. Goldstein was the founder and co-chair of the firm’s Gaming Practice, a multi-disciplinary team of attorneys representing owners, operators and developers of gaming facilities, manufacturers and suppliers of gaming devices, investment banks and lenders in financing transactions, and Indian tribes in the development and financing of gaming facilities.
Mr. Goldstein brings experience and insight that we believe will be valuable to a potential initial business combination target business. Mr. Goldstein received a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in accounting from Emory University and a Juris Doctorate with highest honors from the University of Florida, College of Law.
Sean Ryan — Director Nominee
Mr. Ryan is a digital media and technology operator with extensive global experience in online payments, e-commerce, marketplaces, mobile ad networks, digital games, enterprise collaboration platforms, blockchain, real money gaming and online music. Since 2014, Mr. Ryan has been serving as Vice President of Business Platform Partnerships at Facebook, Inc. (“Facebook”) (Nasdaq: FB), where he leads a more than 500 person global organization that manages the Payments, Commerce, Novi/Blockhain, Workplace and Audience Network businesses. Prior to his current role, Mr. Ryan was hired in 2011 as the Director of Games Partnerships to lead and grow the global Games business at Facebook. While the Director of Games Partnerships, Mr. Ryan focused on re-shaping Facebook’s games and monetization strategies to derive more value for Facebook, its users and its partners, including the addition of a Real Money Gaming offering in regulated markets. Mr. Ryan’s team helped accelerate a major trend in engagement through cross-platform games and therefore the opportunity to increase users through establishing games on multiple platforms. Prior to joining Facebook, Mr. Ryan created the new social and mobile games division at News Corp, an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by Rupert Murdoch. While at News Corp, Mr. Ryan led the acquisition of Making Fun, a San Francisco social-game start-up, that created News Corp’s games publishing division.
Before joining News Corp., Mr. Ryan founded multiple digital businesses such as Twofish, Meez, Open Wager and SingShot Media. Mr. Ryan co-founded Twofish in 2009, a virtual goods and services platform that provided developers with data analytics and insights for individual application’s digital economies. Twofish was later sold to online payments provider Live Gamer, where Mr. Ryan served on the board of directors. From 2005 to 2008, Mr. Ryan founded and led Meez.com, a social entertainment service combining avatars, web games and virtual worlds. The white label social casino gaming company Open Wager was spun out of Meez and was later sold to VGW Holdings, Mr. Ryan also co-founded SingShot Media, an online karaoke community, which was sold to Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: EA) and merged into its Sims division.
We believe Mr. Ryan’s experience will be valuable to a potential initial business combination target and would provide an expanded perspective on the digital gaming landscape. Mr. Ryan received a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Tom Roche — Director Nominee
Mr. Roche has more than 40 years of experience in the gaming industry as a regulator, advisor and independent auditor. Mr. Roche joined Ernst & Young (“EY”) as a partner in 2003 and opened its Las Vegas office. He was subsequently appointed as the Office Managing Partner and Global Gaming Industry Market Leader. In 2016, Mr. Roche relocated to the EY Hong Kong office to supervise the expansion of the EY Global Gaming Industry practice in the Asia Pacific region. Mr. Roche has been integral to numerous transactions that have shaped the current gaming landscape, including:
• Wynn Resorts (Nasdaq: WYNN) initial public offering: Mr. Roche was the lead partner on Wynn Resort’s initial public offering, which raised $450 million in 2002.
• Harrah’s Entertainment/Apollo Management Group & Texas Pacific Group: Mr. Roche headed the regulatory advisory services on the buyout of Harrah’s Entertainment, the world’s largest casino company at the time, for $17.1 billion.
• Dubai World/MGM Resorts: Mr. Roche headed the regulatory and due diligence advisory services to Dubai World in its approximately $5.1 billion investment in MGM. Dubai World bought 28.4 million MGM shares, or 9.5 percent of the casino operator, for $2.4 billion. It then invested $2.7 billion to acquire a 50% stake in MGM’s CityCenter Project, a $7.4 billion 76-acre Las Vegas development of hotels, condos and retail outlets.
• MGM Growth Properties (NYSE: MGP) initial public offering: Mr. Roche provided tax and structural transaction services to MGM Resorts in the creation of MGM Growth Properties, a publicly traded REIT engaged in the acquisition, ownership and leasing of large-scale destination entertainment and leisure resorts. MGM Growth Properties raised $1.05 billion in its 2016 initial public offering.
Mr. Roche also directed EY advisory services to boards and management teams for profit improvement and technology related initiatives. In addition, Mr. Roche provided advisory support to the American Gaming Association on several research projects, including those specifically related to sports betting, the revocation of The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) and anti-money laundering best practices in the gaming industry. Equally, he has assisted government agencies in numerous international locations with enhancing their regulatory approach to governing the industry especially in the online gambling sector.
Prior to joining Ernst & Young, Mr. Roche served as Deloitte’s National Gaming Industry Leader and as the co-head of Andersen’s Gaming Industry Practice in Las Vegas. In 1989, Mr. Roche was appointed by then Governor of the State of Nevada, Robert Miller, to serve as one of three members of the Nevada State Gaming Control Board for a four-year term, where he was directly responsible for the Audit and New Games Lab Divisions. As a board member, he spent a substantial amount of time assisting global jurisdiction regulators enact gaming legislation in the design of their regulatory structure. During his career, Roche has been involved in numerous public and private offerings of equity and debt securities. His background includes providing casino regulatory consulting services to casino licensees and to federal and state agencies including the National Indian Gaming Commission and the Nevada State Gaming Control Board, and industry associations such as the Nevada Resort Association and the American Gaming Association.
We believe Mr. Roche’s highly regarded reputation as a gaming auditor and advisor in the gaming industry will be valuable for us and a potential business combination target. Mr. Roche is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and is licensed by the Nevada State Board of Accountancy and Mississippi State Board of Public Accountancy. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Southern California.

Cuomo to add mobile sports betting to policy proposals, NY Daily News says New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will make the mobile sports wagering measure a central part of his policy proposals to be laid out in next week's State of the State address in an effort to to lessen the financial impacts of COVID-19, Denis Slattery of NY Daily News reported. This comes as New Jersey has regularly topped the online wagering market and New York faces a multibillion-dollar budget gap. Under Cuomo's proposal, the New York State Gaming Commission will request proposals to offer mobile sports betting in the state. Publicly traded companies in the gambling space include Boyd Gaming (BYD), Caesars (CZR), Churchill Downs (CHDN), DraftKings (DKNG), Flutter Entertainment (PDYPY), Gan Limited (GAN), Las Vegas Sands (LVS), MGM Resorts (MGM), Penn National (PENN), William Hill (WIMHY) and Wynn Resorts (WYNN).

Throughout the year (or half-year… I bought in February) I’ve pointed out a lot of flaws in the MyTeam segment of the game, much to the chagrin of those who think that the sun rises and sets on 2K’s MyTeam and that it’s the pinnacle of enjoyment for all concerned.
What the detractors do not understand is that the criticism is borne out of a profound love and respect for the NBA and wanting to see it properly represented in a video game.
Now that the game is dead, I compiled a list of all the issues I would hope the devs would look at and maybe implement in time for my possible return with 2K22 because, in its current incarnation, there is no way I am going to be anywhere near 2K21. I said the same thing at the conclusion of 2K19, however, when the game went on sale in February, I acquiesced and purchased as friends in this very thread were praising the Evo, Position Lock and Offline Content added this year. Right after purchasing, the Glitched and Out Of Position cards kept dropping and we all discovered that the blog 2K published at the onset was a veiled lie and we were all duped.
Anyway, here are the issues in no particular order.
BADGES ORDER
Such a relatively easy fix. There are 75 badges in total and they are static. Have them in an order and stick to it. If I am comparing GOAT LeBron James to Prime LeBron James, I should be able to view them side by side and easily discern what badges are missing from Prime that are added to GOAT. But this is not the case. The same badges appear in different orders depending on the card making it extremely difficult to compare. This is a 1/10 in terms of how easy it is to fix yet makes an impact of 7/10 to quality of life.
DEVALUED SET REWARDS
On June 25th, players looking to lock in for Zion Williamson, one of the most dynamic rookies in years, had to pay close to 2 million MT for the card. A better version of Zion came out for .3% the cost 5 weeks later. The cards for the original set were still holding value (albeit about half the original 2 million purchase price) so people were still paying an exorbitant amount for Zion the day before he was available for 6k. And because Zion was a lock-in reward, a lot of people were left with a 1.5 mil tab (on average) for a card they’d never use again after only 5 weeks. It was disrespectful to the consumers and forethought should be exercised in how 2K spaces out its content.
In a similar manner, after having no opals since they became prevalent in March, Damian Lillard got one on July 10th and then a better one on July 31st. The cost associated with this is minute compared to Zion but the principle is the same. No one wants to invest in a card and see its value tank so rapidly.
DE/RECOMISSIONED SERVERS
From the moment the focus shifted to 2K21, the long load times in between games, to return to the menu were very noticeable from about late July. It’s obvious that 2K recommissioned 2K20 servers to 2K21. This should not happen until the player base has also gone to 2K21 and should be ratioed accordingly.
As an aside to this, the disconnects from MyTeam weren’t as bad this year, but still more than acceptable for a multi-million dollar company like 2K.
ABILITY TO RECORD AUDIO IN GAMEPLAY
I am not sure the legal ramifications of why this is not so, but there are many times people record video and post out of context. There are multiple cases of abuse from the opponent and because when recording gameplay the opponent’s audio is not recorded there is no proof to report to either 2K or Sony/Microsoft. This would go a long way to cleaning up the toxicity as just knowing the option exists to be recorded and reported will serve as a deterrent to the profanity and slurs that are prevalent in the online portion of the game.
OPTION TO CANCEL WALKOUTS DURING PACK OPENINGS
Late in the cycle, no one wants to watch diamonds and amethysts walk out with all the animations. There should be a button to cancel it, so that even at the beginning, when people are elated to see an amethyst, they can still cancel if the walkout is “not their thing”
TRIPLE THREAT OFFLINE DIFFICULTY
After getting to 750 wins, the difficulty in offline Triple Threat increases to HOF. The last prize on the board is at 1,000 wins, and after that, there are only the same prizes everyone whether you have 1 win or 5,000 wins has (i.e. whatever is in the vault, changed bi-weekly.) The option should exist for those who have already grinded 1,000 wins, to change their difficulty to what they’re comfortable with, as they are on unequal footing chasing vault opals with people on 300 wins who are playing at All-Star difficulty and could conceivably get into the vault a lot more often as the game is easier.
If the vault opening odds were increased for higher difficulties, this would be a good payoff, but this is not the case which brings me to:
NERFED VAULT ODDS
As it stands, since they changed the vault prizes to 10 tokens, 5k MT and 4 opals, the vault opening odds have been horrendous at an anemic 19%, as opposed to the 44% before (I have numerous posts proving vault odds). Nerfing the odds when the prizes are better is devious. Consequently, even though the prizes are better than they used to be so too are what is available in packs/auctions/rewards at that time. As such, the odds should remain static and should also be displayed!
ABILITY TO SET GENERIC COURT/UNIFORMS FOR ONLINE PLAY
One of the most toxic things to encounter in games is the combination of black home uniforms, black court and the black ball. We know the community does this on purpose, specifically to annoy. There should be an option for those with black ball, court and uniforms to see their screen as they designed their court/uniforms, but the online opponent to see a generic 2K home white jersey and generic 2K regular parquet court with an orange ball.
Alternatively, if this programming is beyond their ability, they should just bar home uniforms from being darker than yellow and not allow blended colours (for instance, if you have a black court, then you cannot select any of the dark coloured balls for your team, or to put it another way, they will only display the light coloured balls when you are selecting the ball after the court. If you select the ball first and then attempt to select a blended, rather than a contrasting court colour, it will bar you from doing so. The court and the ball are in the same screen, therefore 2K could easily build that logic in there.
WHITE AWAY UNIFORMS IN SPOTLIGHT
This was a pretty big oversight when they put the Lakers away whites in some spotlight challenges, thereby creating the problem of 10 players on the court wearing white. Most people, like myself, backed out, changed our home uniforms to something dark and replayed the game. However, we all lost 13 contracts to do so. The MT hit was minor, but it’s the principle of the matter.
UNREALISTIC EVO’S
Evo’s were new so they may have used this year to tweak the formula and near the end of the year, guys like JR Smith, Jalen Rose, Walt Frazier, Elton Brand etc had very reasonable evo’s. The major exceptions to the late evos were guys like Kristaps Porzingis and Yi Jianlian: giants that needed 100 steals, Carmelo Anthony and Lance Stephenson who needed a lot of blocks with low block ratings, and perhaps the worst of all – Dikembe Mutombo who needed 1,500 three point attempts, where, the only way to get that is to actively sabotage your team’s gameplan and victory chances.
The beginning of the year ones like Isaiah Thomas, Serge Ibaka, Bob McAdoo etc. were long grinds and expected to be such, but by the time most got the requirements, better cards were available for a lot cheaper and they didn’t make sense anymore. Better balance needs to be struck. As I said, evos were new this year, so they get a pass on this one. I assume next year will be better and upon my return in 2K22, practically perfected.
“NO MORE GOOFY LINEUPS”
This one is a quote from their blog, and is the most egregious bait and switch they’ve done. Trumpeting the viability of point guards like Chris Paul and Isiah Thomas and then abandoning the concept to cater to a meta that they themselves created (despite claiming the consumers want this) was their biggest MyTeam sin this year, tied with the proliferation of opals.
Skirting the legalese by NOT giving Andrei Kirilenko a PG card (he was specifically mentioned in the blog as a PG we wouldn’t see), but doing so to 15-20 other players in the Glitched/OOP/GOAT series effectively damaged the game and set it right back to the major problem of 2K19 that they themselves identified. The hypocrisy is real…
CORNER 3’s
When the most expensive and desired cards in the game like LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh can’t shoot corner 3’s because of a wonky base, it’s either to change their base or fix the base itself. This was stupid and lazy.
LACK OF TUTORIAL FOR A LOT OF IN-GAME OPTIONS
Who knows what “Wall Up” means? What about “Pass And Screen Away”? What about the Defensive Settings? If I set Hedge at “Catch Hedge” does that negate “Help Defense” set to No? The community has figured out a lot of these things, but there’s no tutorial or explanation screen for the myriad of in-game options that make a huge difference to gameplay. And experimenting with certain things, doesn’t yield the same results if the players are changed or the plays, or the opponent’s gameplan etc. It’s hard to experiment with that many variables and even the constants can vary.
COACH SETTINGS
There is no reason these shouldn’t “stick” for online play as they do for offline. In offline play if you take off the Coach Adjustments it stays off. It does not do so for online. You have to pause and remove it every game, thereby using up one of the precious pauses and annoying your opponent.
The other settings that do NOT stick even in offline, should. If every game the Defensive Settings default to 2K’s default, why can’t it default to what I changed until I change it again, or until I “reset defaults”? I should not have to go into Defensive Settings every single game and change on-ball = tight, off ball = tight, on-ball screen = go over, Help Defense slider set to 0 etc. The camera stays on what I set, why can’t the other settings?
It’s unnecessary time wasted for both my opponent and myself.
THE AMOUNT OF GALAXY OPALS (THE REAL ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM)
There are 281 opals at the end of the game. There were 91 last year. The total player cards went from 1,861 to 1,945 so whereas the total cards changed showed a 4% increase, the highest tiered card showed a 208% increase. That is way unbalanced.
This 281 opals represent 229 different players with opals (therefore 52 players had multiple opals) and include cards that evo to opal but not those that DD to opal. We have ended up with 22 GOAT cards (effectively rated 100 as opposed to 99 for opals)
On top of limiting the Opals and GOATs to cards that really deserve them in real life, they also need to revamp the tiering system to better space out the cards so there are not 281 crammed into the same tier, with little to differentiate them other than a Sherlock Holmes level of investigation into their stats/badges.
I propose the following tiers and ratings:
1-10: BRONZE
11-20: SILVER
21-30: GOLD
31-40: EMERALD
41-50: SAPPHIRE
51-60: RUBY
61-70: AMETHYST
71-80: DIAMOND
81-90: PINK DIAMOND
91-99: GALAXY OPAL
100: GOAT
This tiering system allows the same tiers to be spread over 100 rankings as opposed to the 33 currently in operation (68-99) so there is that much variation to play with to properly evaluate cards.
You would have a Trae Young and Devin Booker opal rated 91 and a Donovan Mitchell rated 92 and a Prime Dwyane Wade rated 98 and right there you’d be able to see that Wade is way better than Spida, Booker and Trae, as opposed to now where they’re all rated 99 and it’s clearly not the case that the cards are anywhere close to equal.
I’d also suggest that not just attributes inform ratings, but also badges. So the badges would be weighted by their rank (Bronze, Silver, Gold, HOF) and added to the total score of the attributes to determine final ranking and tier. Some level of investigation would still be required to determine if the 91 opal guy with 10 HOF badges is equal to the other 91 opal guy with 10 HOF badges because one has Range Extender and the other has Ice In Veins (hint – the former is better)
This segues into who should and shouldn’t get an opal. Most would agree that 281 opals is too much and undermines the integrity of the source history.
Eddy Curry, Alex Caruso, Tacko Fall, Jonathan Isaac, Nicolas Batum, Jaren Jackson Jr. etc are not names your mom recognises. She probably knows who Shaq, Kobe, MJ and LeBron are though. I’m not advocating that only the biggest stars get opals (actually those 4 I named did, and should, get GOATs) but we want a comfortable medium where the casual fan can recognise and agree that Gary Payton, Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady deserve opals because they were multiple-selection All-Stars and are still recent enough that people know who they are. And then guys like Walt Frazier, Jack Sikma, Dennis Johnson and Mel Daniels also deserve opals. These are guys the average young fan may not have heard of but SHOULD hear about because they were awesome in their time. And part of this should be learning about the history of the NBA, otherwise, why bother licensing Earl Monroe’s name and likeness? I’m not really sure many people who watched basketball when Earl won in 1973 are playing 2K now. Even the biggest NBA historian, Bill Simmons, only knows about a lot of the players who are in MyTeam because of his teenage son.
So let’s try to have some standards when it comes to opals. If they’re retired, then they should have been 5 time All-Stars; if they haven’t, dealer’s choice. Giannis and Kawhi have only been to 4 ASG’s but we know more are coming and they absolutely deserve opals.
Same with Moments. If a fringe guy like TJ Warren goes off like he’s doing in the Bubble, he should get an opal Moments card. He should NOT get an opal in a random Flash pack anytime else.
Based on the 5 All-Star rule for retirees, I’d also add that this would have to be post-1965. A guy who made 8 All-Star teams when the league was only a couple teams and the competition wasn’t the best due to prejudices of the era, wouldn’t qualify for an opal. But the following guys are in the game this year and all would have under my amended rule:
John Havlicek, Moses Malone, Bob Lanier, LaMarcus Aldridge, Dave Bing, Willis Reed, JoJo White, Walter Davis, Joe Dumars, Richie Guerin, Lou Hudson, Jermaine O’Neal, Brad Daugherty, Gail Goodrich, Tim Hardaway, Al Horford, Marques Johnson, Sam Jones, Sidney Moncrief, Rudy Tomjanovich, Wes Unseld, Paul Westphal and George McGinnis.
65 guys got opals that never went to an All-Star Game and these were the most offensive (excluding the Players Club ones which were clearly useless, basically ingratiating themselves to current role players). But the rest of these guys are role players at best and would be hard-pressed to even qualify for a pink diamond.
Alex Caruso, Anthony Edwards, Bol Bol, Cameron Reddish, Cole Anthony, Corey Maggette, Dino Radja, Eddy Curry, Gerald Green, Gheorghe Muresan, James Wiseman, Jaren Jackson Jr., Jason Williams, Jeremy Lin, John Collins, Jonathan Isaac, Kyle Kuzma, LaMelo Ball, Lance Stephenson, Larry Hughes, Michael Beasley, Michael Porter Jr., Mohamed Bamba, Nick Young, Nicolas Batum, Onyeka Okongwu, Patrick Beverley, RJ Hampton, Richard Jefferson, Stacey Augmon, Tacko Fall, Thon Maker, Tony Allen, Yi Jianlian.
You’ll see I included all the Next prospects. They shouldn’t be in the game at all. If you’re going to put the rookies into the prior year, what’s the point of the next version of the game? If they dropped Zion, Ja and RJ Barrett opals in 2K19, not much reason to rush into 2K20, is there?
UNREALISTIC OPAL ATTRIBUTES
We all know this one. Shaq shooting limitless 3’s being one example. Eddy Curry being anything other than wasted potential being another. If Shaq can have a 90 3-ball, why can’t John Stockton be 7 feet tall? They mess with every attribute/skill but leave the vitals untouched. So basically they’re putting a Shaq skin on a Stephen Curry player. If you buy Shaq, it’s because as a fan in real life you want to do Shaq things, not Curry things. If you buy Curry, you’re not expecting to score via skyhooks in the lane. Let the players be who they are, because as mentioned above with Earl Monroe, why license them if they’re not gonna be anything close to their real life counterpart?
Take that same Shaq and call it John Smith and people would still use it if it was that good, so why not do that? The reason is that they are relying on name recognition for the sales and it’s another bait and switch.
STATIC PRIZES
In September 2019, 300 MT on the TTO prize board can help. In June 2020, it does not. As the cards get better and more expensive the MT and token prizes should ascend in parallel. Not exactly a 1:1 ratio (the inflation can be a little more than the income but not that much more.) This includes the daily login prizes and the daily agenda. No one will be enticed to win a Domination game by 20 using 3 Heat players for 350 MT in June. They’d barely be enticed in November.
Speaking of prizes:
TTO BOARDS NOT FIXED AT HIGH WINS
No one wants to grind through win after win with crappy prizes, only to reach the final board model (Wins 8-10) and see crappy prizes there too, with 4 and 5 balls available to bounce around for 500 MT. Once someone gets to 12 wins in MTU they’re guaranteed a POTM, but once one reaches 10 wins in TTO they’re exposed to random rubbish that more often than not ends in disappointment.
Make Boards 8-10 have a floor of 500 MT as the lowest reward (in those blue side trays) and have guaranteed 10 tokens in the yellow middle trays and randomised good prizes in the two bottom green trays (packs/players/5k MT etc)
TOKEN REWARDS
Biggest disappointment for token hoarders was the rewards in the token market this year. When tokens debuted in 2K19, the prizes were spectacular and better or comparable to currently available cards. Therefore, those who grinded tokens hard could have a Base 11 James Worthy or Bob Pettit to flex with, or dominate with Wilt, Clyde, Vince, AI, Butler, Elgin, Mitch, Mikan, Embiid, McHale, Walt, Payton etc. HUGE and recognisable names. Multiple all-star selections for each one of those! Scalabrine was the only “undeserving” token reward. But the token reward opals had 14 big stars.
This year, other than the 3 at launch, every subsequent update posted lesser players (other than Tim Duncan). Admiral, Grant Hill and Penny were huge stars and set a precedent about the calibre of player to expect. Josh Smith, Richard Jefferson, Bol Bol, John Collins, Mo Bamba and Nicolas Batum were decidedly less so. The last update took forever and was the biggest disappointment with 7 new opals, none of whom were All-Stars other than Gilbert Arenas, who most people already had for free and weren’t wasting 750 tokens for a minor upgrade (i.e. his shot is the same and all he’s good for is his shot)
They threw tokens at us a lot more this year and gave us a lot less for them. Last year 14/15 NBA greats, this year 6/19 (Hill, Robinson, Penny, Duncan, Parker, Beal)
Last year, guaranteed GOAT for 1,750, this year 33% gamble to get a piece of a GOAT (Rashard for KAJ) for 1,000. This would be even more of a letdown if the token rewards weren’t so bad it made the gamble enticing.
MY TEAM UNLIMITED – STRESS AND SWEAT
Once a week there are two multiplayer challenges. Other than that, the only 5-on-5 competitive mode for online play is MTU. Due to the “all or nothing” design of 12-0, the play was anything but casual, with players using every devious tactic to win the game, culminating in the infamous lineup glitch that ultimately shut down MTU for weeks until 2K stepped in and banned people.
MyTeam is desperately in need of a mode that is both competitive and casual. Something along the lines of “Win 20 out of 30 games in a month” for 100 tokens or something like that (opals later in the year etc.) This would allow players to try different lineups and not stress over a single loss since they don’t need a 12 win streak to get the prize. MTU in its current incarnation can stay, but there needs to be a third multiplayer option.
There are so many variations and possibilities and the 20 in 30 is just one suggestion. Greater minds than mine can come up with others but specific lineup restrictions would be a great insertion for weekend events in the third mode (8 Celtics required, or 5 diamonds maximum or something).
ONLINE MATCHMAKING
Overall cheesing is a thing. We know this. Even the YouTubers across the Atlantic were doing it and as such, the disciples accepted this method as gospel and propagated it hard. Lower your overall by giving all the minutes to low level players and dominate with your one or two beasts like Giannis or Kareem.
This works. But it does nothing to promote parity and fairness for the opponent who is legitimately running an all-ruby/amethyst/diamond lineup because he just started and this is what he can afford. And he won’t be able to afford or even striving for more than this, because the first time someone in Dublin runs up on him with GO Giannis and blows through his entire team, he’s not going to get an upgrade to his rubies, amethysts and diamonds… he’s going to go play The Last Of Us II and delete NBA 2K20.
INSTANT TIMEOUTS
For offline play, one of the most annoying things is pressing the button for a timeout and having to view all the animation and coaches on the benches etc, when all you are doing is trying to instantly move your players fatigue’ from 64 to 70. There should be an option for an instant timeout that immediately raises stamina and has the guy ready to inbound the ball in less than 2 seconds.
TAKEOVER GUIDES
Tell us what we need to do to get Player X to get Takeover Y. The guesswork shouldn’t be part of it. If I have to boost his SWB to XX to get Slasher Takeover, I should know this, not have to experiment. If I need him to be Sharpshooter, what do I need to get his 3 point attribute to? If I want him to be Lockdown what’s the plan? Stop keeping this a secret!
JUMP BALL AFTER CHALLENGES (OFFLINE)
After winning a coach’s challenge, it goes to a center court jump ball. Problem is the camera is stuck on the coach’s expression and we can’t win the jump because the action starts before the camera switches back. Pretty big bug that a QA team should have identified. This occasionally, but rarely, also happens on inbounds, resulting in your pressing the inbound button and having it be intercepted.
ON-GROUND TIE-UP
When a ball is stolen and the thief falls to the ground exposing the ball, pressing X does not pass it, instead your player lies on his back, waiting on the opposing team to come and hold the ball, resulting in a jump ball. The only way out of this situation shouldn’t be calling timeout.
LAZY COMPOSITION OF CPU TEAMS
In most of the challenges, the CPU team is not going to have the 8th and 9th men on (for example) the 1979 Sonics title team. That’s fine. But this results in the starters playing minutes for the full game and showing no signs of fatigue at all. If the CPU doesn’t want to sub in John Brown #97, then the guys on the court should start missing shots because they’re tired. This is not only for historic teams. A team from last year (Brooklyn Nets) in Dwight Spotlight Game 16 has D’Angelo Russell play the full game of 7 minute quarters regardless of score.
AUCTION HOUSE ERRORS
This is clearly a direct result of their inadequate servers but the amount of errors when attempting to access the auction house, and the inability to set correct filters to see cards now posted at 4 hours, is a major hurdle for people using the auction house to increase their MT. They need more processing power to see the full range of cards posted and if they can’t? Well, maybe they have too many cards in the game…
These same auction house errors that result in a guy getting 300k for a 800k card because it disappeared after the first bid, leave VERY bad tastes in consumers’ mouths.
INABILITY TO SET A BENCH
In the minutes of team composition, you can set minutes for all your players. This is what should be used by the CPU if I use the quick in-game menu to select BENCH. There are 5 starters and 8 bench players. If I have minutes on only 5 bench players that all fit into one of the 5 positions, send them on when I click bench. I don’t want Shaq (who I have at Position #13 with no minutes set and on the team in case KAJ and Yao get into foul trouble or I need a bigger PF) coming in at center to back up KAJ when I set minutes for Yao on the bench.
The “Bench” option looks for the first person in your lineup to fill each spot, based on their highest level and THEN on a reverse alphabetical order by team. Therefore, if you have only 2 PG’s on your bench and one is Steph and the other is Giannis, they’re bringing in Steph when you click BENCH because the Warriors comes first (reverse alphabetically) before the Bucks (close to last.) Using the same example, if you had Giannis and Ben, it will take Giannis. Ben is the last PG because 76ers is last reverse alphabetically. Stupid and lazy.
INABILITY TO CHANGE IN-GAME ONLY SETTINGS IN THE PAUSE MENU
I’ll try to explain. In every game I crash both the offensive and defensive boards. This is available as an in-game option in the quick menu and as an option in the timeout menu, but not an option in the pause menu. I have to pause at the beginning of each game anyway to change defensive settings and I’d prefer to adjust ALL my settings there, including the Hawks 2018 Freelance I am running (not assigning the Hawks 2018 Freelance to a slot and then having to select it in-game)
All too often when the game actually starts, when you’re adjusting the in-game settings, the opponent will score on you. And in close MTU games this could be the difference between a victory and a loss
PASSING LANE STEALS
When I am passing to a player, one assumes in real life, since he’s running at an angle, he’s watching and waiting on the pass and should collect it if I have all the required HOF passing badges and attributes. What one does NOT assume, is that the defending player, who has his back to the play, can stick out his hand at the precise moment and collect the ball like a magnet. This is not realistic.
This also goes for the stupid CPU teammates who after I press the ball to pass, cut to the basket resulting in an interception because now there REALLY is an opponent facing me because the idiot teammate just ran behind him putting the opponent in a direct line between the passer and recipient.
CUSTOMISABLE CHARACTERS
I don’t know whose bright idea it was to take Dwight Howard’s Evo which represents his 16 year career and model it after his 1 year Lakers appearance with the spiked blonde hair. There should be an option for us to change the skins on our players, so two people could have the exact same LeBron card but one has a headband and wears #6 and the other doesn’t and wears #23.
Customisable skins are a staple in EVERY loot box game and I don’t know how 2K missed it. I don’t even care if they monetise it. I don’t mind paying 3k in endgame to change my Kareem from his GOAT look to a bald KAJ wearing goggles. As long as the monetising is not to change but to acquire the different skin (meaning I’m not paying 3k to change it back to its default, like the damn MyCareer haircuts in 2K19)
CITY COURTS
Currently only Brooklyn’s City Court (and maybe one or two others that I can’t recall) can be triggered by wearing the City uniforms. Only if it’s a home uniform does it work. As a Utah fan I’d like to get Utah’s city court. Every team that uses city courts pair them with their city jerseys even though they’re home and the jerseys are classified as “away”. 2K needs to bring these courts into MyTeam in the same manner that you can trigger them in MyCareer.
CUSTOMISABLE STATS – TOP RIGHT OF SCREEN
Currently it will show the Points, Assists and Rebounds of the player you are currently controlling along with useless grades (A- etc) in categories I don’t even remember because they’re useless to the point of amnesia.
These should be customisable. Get rid of the category grades and expand to steals, blocks and 3’s. Allow 6 stats and allow us to choose them. This is very important during evo’s. Sometimes you need a triple double with a PG and want to know how many steals you have without going to the box score.
TEAM SHOOTAROUND
This should not be limited to a selected team lineup. Since I am trying out/shooting around with one card at a time this should be selected directly from My Collection. This is particularly helpful when I get a new GOAT Giannis and want to try him out and then quickly change to OOP2 Giannis to compare shots, speed, sigs etc. I can’t load up two Gianni in the same lineup so to do this would involve leaving shootaround and coming back with another team that has the other Giannis. At this point there would be no point in comparing since I can’t remember the first Giannis from 5 minutes ago.
GALAXY OPAL PACK ODDS
There were odds floating around earlier in the year about percentages of pulling a particular tier. They have proven that to be poppycock because when the entire pack was guaranteed opals (like NIB), the majority of the players were pulling Jokic, Kemba etc and very few pulling the highly desired cards like Kawhi, Ben and AD. So the pack odds aren’t just different per tier, but different per player.
ABILITY TO CREATE LINEUPS FROM COLLECTION SCREEN
Oftentimes when searching through your collection, you may come across a player and say “yeah, I want to try him out”. There should be an option to press a button that says “Add To Lineup” which would bring up the lineup screen with the 8 teams, then you select the lineup and drop him on whoever you want to replace or into a new lineup if necessary, then when you press the back button it returns you to your previous screen where you were viewing your collection so you can put the next guy in via that method.
OFFLINE/ONLINE CARDS
For those who play offline only there should be a market for them to buy new cards directly with MT from the market. These cards would be offline ONLY. Online cards can be used for both, but offline is offline only.
For instance, Throwback Moments drops with GO Gerald Wallace and GO Greg Oden and D Wesley Johnson. I can buy offline unsellable versions of the opals for 5k and the diamond for 1,500k. I can not sell them back for those prices, because then I would be able to break even and use the reclaimed MT to shop for other cards on auction that I can use in both online/offline. If I buy them, they’re there for good. Like Reward cards. They also wouldn’t count to Collector Level.
It’s basically for collectors and historians. Online players don’t wanna use Xavier McDaniel in July anyway, so no one pulls the packs and he becomes rare enough to price himself out of an offline player’s budget. This way offline players can play with who they want.
CONCLUSION
All right. I think that’s it. I think I covered everything, but if I didn’t, please feel free to add anything in the comments.
Hopefully some dev or 2K employee reads this at some point and takes some of the points and incorporates into a future iteration.

To all who know me, you know I’m an ardent remainer. I’ve enjoyed the benefits of being a part of Europe as I’ve experienced some of my best years of my life living in Spain. I do though respect the will of the people so I’m now fully behind our withdrawal from Europe.
Being back in England though it’s actually soul destroying to see how my home city is literally dying. The city centre (Derby) to me is unrecognisable, literally turning into a ghost town as are all city centres throughout the UK. Of course the outbreak of the virus has amplified the demise, but to me it’s blatantly clear there is a real enemy which is really raping the country and it certainly is not anything to do with Europe. Over the last few years we have all seen the rapid rise of a new global market which is of course the internet. Any country that does not get a foothold in the internet is doomed!
Britain is renowned for innovation and has given the world much in regards to new tech including the invention of computers and the first design of the internet. Sadly though, every single one of us is helping the demise of Britain.
If you look at the top 40 internet companies, then you’ll sadly find that there is only one British company listed which is Bet365 ranked around 36th. A very sad demise indeed for such a proud and inventive country.
Every minute of every day we are all responsible for the demise of Britain as we are lining the pockets of American companies who are literally raping UK business. Let me explain why.
If you own a hotel or B&B then you simply can’t survive without be listed on Booking.com and similar sites. Such sites take up to a staggering 30% of the actual booking which is funnelled back to the good old USA with little return in the form of taxes.
The same is true with the likes of UBER who are taking a cut of every taxi fare. Ebay who are taking a cut of every sale from their site and another cut when you pay with PayPal. Netflix are funnelling millions back to the USA again with limited tax paid. Expedia with every holiday booked. Spotify funnelling millions back to the US each month with UK subscriptions. Amazon with not only their own products but their global marketplace which takes a cut of every item sold from British company selling through their market place. Sadly the list of American companies which we all gladly line their pockets goes on and on!
And it’s also a fact for any business to survive that they need to advertise online with the like of Google and Facebook who are in effect sticking two fingers up to us all with the petty taxes they pay. Not to mention how they track us and profile us. Just remember Google and Facebook know where you go, they know where you eat and where you shop. They harvest your clicks and likes which they freely sell to advertisers.
It is a fact that Covid 19 is the biggest gift the American internet companies could have ever dreamt of!
As an analogy imagine all the funds from the UK as water sitting in a big bucket. Then imagine every American internet company that is trading in the UK as a hole in the bucket with the funds flowing back to America. The British bucket is draining rapidly and more so every day. We simply can’t go on topping the bucket up by printing money and sadly there is little coming back in the form of taxes!
10 years ago British gambling sites, the likes of Ladbrokes, William Hill, Party Poker etc became a global success. The American government saw funds flowing out of their country so acted swiftly banning UK companies and fined them heavily instantly stopping the flow. Now we have the reverse but we literally let them bleed us dry. It’s no surprise to me that the US government is forcibly taking control of tiktok because America thinks it owns the internet!
Getting back to Brexit, as I’ve said I now accept it but to me there is no plan! Surely is we had leaders with any brain cells they would be working hard to build our very own internet businesses but the truth is there is fuck all on the horizon!
With the final throws of Brexit now kicking in we need to reinvent our country. We need to piss off all the American companies that are bleeding our country dry. We need British equivalents of the likes of Amazon, Ebay, Booking.com, Ebay etc. etc. We have the tech and expertise to do exactly that. All we need is strong leaders who really do understand what is really happening and focus on making Britain a major part of the global internet market.
Rant over!

Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives.
PREVIOUSLY:

• Observer Rewind - 1987 by SaintRidley
  
• The Complete Wrestling Observer Rewind 1991-2001
  

1-7-2002	1-14-2002	1-21-2002	1-28-2002
2-4-2002	2-11-2002	2-18-2002	2-25-2002
3-4-2002	3-11-2002	3-18-2002	3-25-2002
4-1-2002	4-8-2002	4-15-2002	4-22-2002
4-29-2002	5-6-2002	5-13-2002	5-20-2002
5-27-2002	6-3-2002	6-10-2002	6-17-2002
6-24-2002	7-1-2002

• Dave opens with a brief history of the cursed Hart family before going into the latest story, that Bret Hart has suffered a stroke. Hart suffered a blood clot on the right side of his brain, causing temporary paralysis on the left side of his body after hitting the back of his head on a rock following a bicycle accident. Hart was going down a hill and not wearing a helmet when he hit a hole on the bike path and flew over the handlebars. He distinctly remembers the accident, hitting the ground, and being unable to get up. He was able to call his ex-wife Julie on his cell phone and help was summoned. At the hospital 12 hours later, doctors determined he had suffered a stroke. His back is still in great pain but as of press time, he's made a lot of progress and is able to use his left leg again. At one point, that went away and he wasn't even able to wiggle his toes, but the feeling has since come back. He still has no control over his left arm however. But doctors are optimistic that he'll be able to walk out of the hospital on his own power eventually. Doctors are saying they don't believe the stroke was related to his concussion history at the moment, but more tests are being done. He does have a family history of strokes, as Helen Hart suffered several in her final days. He's currently bedridden or using a wheelchair and will have to re-learn how to walk again. While they do expect him to walk again, a full 100% recovery from something like this is a bit more rare, so he may have lifelong lingering effects. On WWE's website, Jim Ross wished him well and even Vince McMahon chimed in, giving a comment to the Calgary Sun saying, "Despite our differences of opinions, I respect him. Bret's contributions to the WWE are enormous and everyone thinks very highly of him" and wished Hart well.
  
• WWE's latest business reports are out and shows that, despite the downturn in business, WWE is still doing just fine financially. Even though they're facing 5-year lows when it comes to attendance and TV ratings, the previous quarter was the largest grossing quarter in company history (due to the success of Wrestlemania and a lot of international touring). Even though the popularity of the product is down, between merchandise, licensing deals, etc. WWE has figured out how to milk more money out of a smaller fanbase via other avenues. Plus, every time business in the U.S. goes down, they're able to tour more overseas to make up for it. During the bad mid-90s years, as terrible as things got in the U.S., they were still doing huge business overseas and those tours were vital in sustaining the company during those times. There was a lot of talk about international expansion this week, which means that's probably the plan again. And even with declining ratings, WWE is still the top rated show for TNN and UPN, but despite the high ratings, neither shows are strong moneymakers for the networks because wrestling still has a negative reputation among sponsors. So it will need to sustain higher ratings than most shows would in order to stave off cancellation, but there's no danger of that yet. Ratings haven't gotten that bad.
  
• During the investors call, Linda McMahon blamed competition from shows such as The Osbournes, Fear Factor, Spongebob, and Survivor as contributing to the falling ratings. All of those shows do higher ratings than WWE, but for those keeping track, Survivor is the only one that even airs head-to-head against WWE. The other 3 are on different days at different times and have zero bearing on WWE's ratings. Linda McMahon also blamed video games for the declining ratings, as if those are a new phenomenon that didn't exist last year. The departure of Steve Austin was completely avoided until someone outright asked about it, at which Linda said that Austin is currently suspended for conduct reasons and said it would only have a short-term impact and noted that new stars like RVD, Chris Jericho, Booker T, and Brock Lesnar are being pushed to take his place. She noted that WWE made a flat $2 million from Rock's involvement in Scorpion King because he's under WWE contract and they will also make a portion of the profits on the back-end. Anyway, the rest of this is "blah blah blah revenue is down such-and-such % from last year." So just imagine a bunch of big numbers in 2001 and then imagine all those same numbers, but smaller, in 2002. See, easy peasy!
  
• XWF has just about thrown in the towel. After a lengthy meeting this week, the powers that be pretty much realized that it's going to be all but impossible to get this promotion off the ground. After shooting 10 episodes last year, they've spent much of this year trying to secure a television deal without success. In the TV industry, despite the success of WWE, wrestling is seen as a fad that was hot for a while but has since died out. XWF's last-ditch effort was with WGN in Chicago, a local station that does have some national coverage. But it would have cost them $300,000+ just to pay for 5 episodes to air. Buying TV time is what has killed other promotions in the past and XWF wasn't making enough on live shows to pay that cost. Plus, WWE's success has changed what a national promotion is expected to look like. If networks are going to put you on their TV, they want you to have big budget production, pyro, effects, etc. Nobody other than WWE can afford to do that and everyone else looks minor league in comparison because of it. Bottom line, it's pretty much impossible to run a profitable wrestling company on a national level without a strong TV deal to off-set the costs. And it's impossible to get that TV deal without having the money to put together a big budget product that can attract them. Officially, XWF isn't folding completely just yet, though all the wrestlers have been released from contracts and most of the employees have been cut as well. The plan for now still seems to be to sell the original tapings overseas and try to follow up by running a tour over there with many of those same stars. But those tapes are a year old. Hogan and Lawler are back in WWE, and a lot of the footage already feels dated. And they obviously won't be able to bring Hogan on the tour. European fans can just wait for WWE to come if they want that. So needless to say, this is pretty much the end of the road for XWF.
  
• The second NWA-TNA show is in the books and was highlighted by an incredible 4-way main event of Low-Ki vs. Jerry Lynn vs. AJ Styles vs. Psicosis that Dave says was every bit of 4.5 stars. But the rest of the show was an embarrassment. Don West is enthusiastic but adds nothing else as a commentator and Ed Ferrara is obnoxious enough to make you want to change the channel on a show you paid for. Furthermore, the response Dave heard from readers on this show was about half as much as the first show, which isn't a good sign for potential PPV buys, but it was also expected. No one knows the actual numbers for the first show yet. Dave has heard estimates anywhere from 25,000 to 80,000 buys. Regardless, just from anecdotal research, the second episode is probably looking at around a 50% drop from whatever the debut did. Jarrett vs. Scott Hall was passable, but everything else was terrible until the main event. Bad production, no graphics, bad camerawork, half the stars are no-names to all but the most hardcore fans...it's becoming very apparent how much of a stranglehold WWE has on American wrestling and how difficult it's going to be for anyone else to gain a foothold. The atmosphere was awful (remember, this was taped after the first show, so the half empty building had already sat through several hours of this already). The lingerie battle royal, on PPV, was less risque than what WWE does on network TV every week, with women who don't have a fraction of the star power. Dave desperately wants to see an alternative company make it, but this is 2 weeks in a row of a show that felt like WCW Thunder: dead crowd, bad show, with only one redeeming Lucha-style match to save it. That being said, the match was as good as any match he's seen this year and for that reason alone, Dave can't give the show a complete thumbs down. But they've got a steep mountain to climb if they want to survive.
  

WATCH: Low-Ki vs. Jerry Lynn vs. AJ Styles vs. Psicosis (TNA Weekly PPV #2)

• Taping for the 3rd season of Tough Enough has been postponed due to Kelsey Grammer. Yup. The plan was to film the show over a 9-week period from July-September at a home in Malibu, in the neighborhood Grammer lives in. Grammer, along with several other neighbors, expressed concern about disruptions in the usually quiet neighborhood and found a municipal code that restricts filming in the area, noting that any filming can only take place during a 14-day period. Grammer and his neighbors went to the city council who voted 5-0 to enforce the code. WWE had already spent more than $100,000 on pre-production in the area but now may be forced to find a new location to film. If they can't find a similar beachfront location, they may just move it back to Stamford like they did before.
  
• Diamond Dallas Page's in-ring career is officially over, after his insurance company and WWE management all decided to listen to the doctors because his back is a mess. Lloyd's of London informed DDP this week that if he wrestled again, they would terminate his insurance policy. Vince McMahon and Jim Ross agreed, after receiving letters from DDP's doctors recommending retirement. He still has 2 years remaining on his contract and is expected to stay with the company in a different role, perhaps announcing, though DDP has said he would be interested in a public relations role. From here, Dave recaps DDP's career as if he died, full obituary style. It's a long piece on every major storyline and angle DDP was ever involved in, but it's not particularly newsworthy. Great read though.
  
• Dave has seen the recent PRIDE show that was headlined by Don Frye vs. NOAH star Yoshihiro Takayama and hoooooly shit. Original reports of this fight were that it was one of the best in MMA history. Now that Dave has seen it....yeah. "You could have said the first two minutes of the match were the greatest two minutes in the history of MMA, boxing, kickboxing, pro wrestling and just about anything short of sex, and not have been disappointed, because it was," Dave writes. He says it was the fight of the year but he also hopes we've seen the last of these two men in PRIDE. Takayama took a merciless beating because he's all offense and no defense but he can take a punch. It makes for exciting fights, but he's going to get seriously hurt fighting like that some day. And Frye, who has been doing this for years, also needs to face reality at 36 years old after the beating he took in this fight and against Shamrock a few months back. Basically, both men are the type of guys who will go in there and die in the ring before they give up and that's not good. And stepping away from the sport after this, arguably one of the greatest fights in MMA history, would be the perfect time to escape with their health still relatively intact (I posted this in last week's Rewind, but it deserves to be seen again).
  

WATCH: Don Frye vs. Yoshihiro Takayama - PRIDE 2002

• Ratings news: Raw was the lowest rated show in over 4 years, so that's not good. And Smackdown didn't fare much better. And in fact, the Jeff Hardy vs. Undertaker ladder match (more on that in a bit) was an outright disaster, with viewers tuning out in droves, despite how well the match seems to have gotten over with fans. Overall, more than 1.1 million viewers tuned out during that particular match, a staggering loss, to the point where Dave actually wonders if there was a clerical error from the Neilsen ratings people or something. It also shows how little people care about the Hardyz right now and Dave thinks Jeff in particular needs to go away for awhile.
  
• The wrestling war in the U.S. may be finished but it's still boiling over in Puerto Rico. In noting the TV ratings for both WWC and IWA, Dave mentions that for the first time since it was founded in 1973, Carlos Colon's WWC promotion is solidly in 2nd place. IWA is on fire right now in Puerto Rico, outdrawing WWC in both TV ratings and live crowds.
  
• Eric Bischoff had meetings this week with Keiji Muto and Motoko Baba of AJPW, but it appears that the meetings didn't lead anywhere. Dave talks about how a lot of Japanese companies like to try and work out deals with the U.S. promotions and promoters because it gets good coverage in the magazines and newspapers and makes them appear like a major, international brand. But ultimately, the deals never seem to go anywhere. Muto and Ms. Baba were in Hawaii a few weeks ago meeting with people in WWE for the exact same reason. Bischoff does have interest in any idea that comes along if it's viable, but he's told friends he doesn't see anything viable coming along because TV networks aren't interested in wrestling right now. In order to get a real product off the ground, Bischoff estimates you'd need a $75 million commitment from a TV network and even then, it's not guaranteed to succeed and if it fails, whoever approved it at the network would probably be looking for a new career. So it's a huge gamble that none of the networks want to take, which means there's nothing viable in the wrestling world right now for Bischoff to get involved with (oh, I suspect he'll find something new to do in a few weeks...)
  
• Hayabusa announced plans to start his own promotion called WMF (Wrestling's Marvelous Future), or FMW backwards. He will appear in public as Hayabusa for the first time since his career-ending injury last year that left him paralyzed.
  
• Women's indie wrestler Ms.Chif is a genetic research scientist by day and was featured on a news show discussing her work on the Human Genome Project. Dave goes into what this is and how groundbreaking the project is and how it could change sports forever due to the way they've been able to engineer muscle mass in lab rats and things like that. Click for example
  
• A couple weeks ago, Road Warrior Animal and Keiji Muto put together an indie show in Atlantic City featuring a bunch of washed up 80s names from the past. I didn't mention it because it didn't seem like a big deal but some fun news coming out of it: everybody's check bounced. Even Road Warrior Animal's check, because he was working with some other guy who was acting as the promoter. Needless to say, a bunch of wrestlers are pretty pissed off, in particular at Animal who they all know and trust and thought he wouldn't allow everybody to get fucked over like this by some snake promoter.
  

WATCH: full show of this big indie show Animal put together

• Dave saw a tape of the latest Ring of Honor show and says it was as good a show from top-to-bottom as he's seen from any promotion in the world all year. Several 4-star level matches. AJ Styles, Low-Ki, Bryan Danielson, Spanky, Amazing Red, Doug Williams.....Dave sees star potential in all of them and thinks Low-Ki and Danielson in particular could be cult superstars in Japan (especially if Danielson puts a mask back on)
  
• Deathmatch wrestler Necro Butcher nearly had to have his arm amputated after a match with Mad Man Pondo left his arm punctured with a light bulb tube. Here's the spot. NSFL, obviously.
  

WATCH: ouch.

• NWA president Jim Miller is expected to get involved with TNA in an on-screen role. Miller is currently a huge heel for Zero-1 in Japan but for now, the plans are not for him to do the same in TNA. Reportedly, they want to avoid doing the heel commissioner gimmick that WWE does constantly and that everyone else has been copying ever since.
  
• Terry Taylor had talks with TNA about coming in but they only wanted to pay him $500 per week to work the gorilla position at the shows, and he turned it down.
  
• TNA has signed a new wrestler named Monty Brown, who has been wrestling on the indies in Michigan under the name Alpha Male (god I wish that guy had gotten the chance to live up to his full potential).
  
• AJ Styles was on Observer Live this week and talked about why he chose not to sign with WWE. He said the offer they gave him was for only $500-per-week and he couldn't justify uprooting his family from Atlanta and moving to Cincinnati for so little money. His wife is currently in college in Georgia and that also played a role in wanting to stay where they are. Aside from wrestling, Styles is currently working full-time as a landscaper because even at the level he's at, as one of the hottest stars in the indies, there's very little money in pro wrestling outside of WWE.
  
• Lots of news on Vince Russo. For starters, his lawsuit with Hulk Hogan has not been settled yet, although Russo has said he would be agreeable to working with Hogan. As for Hogan, just like everybody else, he was blindsided by Russo being re-hired by WWE and, just like everybody else, his reaction was pretty much, "WTF? No. Fuck that guy." There also appears to be no truth to the rumor that WWE rehired him in an effort to quash a potential tell-all book. Dave doesn't buy any of those conspiracy theories. He thinks the answer is as simple as it looks: Vince McMahon realizes the writing is in a rut, he's panicking, and he's going back to what worked in the past. And most recently, that was Vince Russo. So there ya go. In an interview on WWE.com, Undertaker was asked about it and was also negative and said if he was McMahon, he wouldn't be so forgiving on people who walked out on the company like Russo did, and compared it to Austin walking out. So seems like Taker isn't too keen on Austin right now either. Triple H was more diplomatic and just said basically, "Hey, whatever is good for the company." But his girlfriend, Stephanie McMahon, is the current head of the writing team and she's made NO secret about how pissed she is over Russo's return, so you gotta figure Triple H is just trying to play it cool. Jim Ross also commented on it, admitting he doesn't have much personal respect for Russo, especially after the way they mocked him in WCW, but also said he's okay with whatever is best for WWE. So that's where it stands: Russo is still basically a consultant who may or may not be taking over as head of creative if/when Vince finally decides to make a change. And in the meantime, fuckin' nobody likes him or wants him around.
  
• WWE seems to have finally realized that building Raw so heavily around Ric Flair in 2002 probably isn't the way to keep your product feeling hot and fresh. Flair has basically been positioned as the focal point of Raw, as both heel and babyface, for the last few months. And he was even scheduled to work main events on all upcoming house shows (4 nights per week). As much as Dave loves him, even he realizes that, at 53 years old, building around Flair as your top full-time babyface headlining all the house shows isn't an ideal solution. So he wasn't used on Raw last week and was only used this week in a brief segment to help get Lesnar over, and his house show schedule has been cut back as well.
  
• Notes from Raw: the show opened with Lesnar issuing an open challenge, mocking the Kurt Angle/John Cena open challenge match from Smackdown a few days earlier (more on that in a moment). Dave thinks this is a tease for an inevitable Lesnar vs. Angle feud (indeed, Wrestlemania 19 is on the horizon). Ended up being answered by Flair, who got beat by Lesnar. More of Trish Stratus (and Jackie Gayda this week, for whatever reason) humiliating Molly Holly for being "fat" and pulling her pants down to reveal her wearing granny panties. This fuckin' company, man. They announced Chris Benoit is now a member of the Raw roster, without even bothering to try and give an explanation for why or how. The last year of WWE has shown a staggering level of complacency since WCW folded. No competition, so no need to put any effort into telling stories that make sense. Because what else are you gonna watch? Fuck you, that's what. X-Pac was shown knocked unconscious backstage, causing the rest of the NWO members to freak out and leading Dave to joke that Scott Hall used to be unconscious backstage all the time and no one seemed to care then so what's the big deal? Then the UndertakeJeff Hardy match which Dave really liked and says built to the finish well and the live crowd was super into it. But man, the TV ratings fell right off a cliff during this match. It ended with Undertaker winning and then shaking Jeff's hand to show he respected him and to help Taker's babyface turn. Dave thinks it was a great angle, but on the flip side, they just had Undertaker do the same thing on Smackdown last week, shaking John Cena's hands and endorsing the new rookie, and having Taker do this for 2 young guys in the same week kinda lessens the impact of the moment the second time. Also, as great an angle as it was, Jeff Hardy isn't salvageable right now. He needs to go away for awhile and come back with a fresh character. The Hardyz in general have had almost negative momentum lately and an Undertaker handshake ain't fixing that (yeah, Jeff was so mentally checked out at this point. He needed help, not an endorsement.)
  
• Notes from next week's Smackdown: this show hasn't aired yet but Dave has reports about an UndertakeKurt Angle match where the finish was totally botched. After the show was over and all the fans had left, they sent Angle and Undertaker back out there and had them redo the finish. They put a bunch of employees and people in the front row and then filmed the end of the match using mostly closeups so you couldn't see that the rest of the arena was completely empty. Gonna be interesting to see how it looks after editing (I just watched it on the network and they end up using the original ending that Dave describes. Didn't look particularly botched to me. Doesn't appear any of the close-up later shots were ever used that I can see EDIT scratch that). Also, Hogan and Edge won the tag titles. More on all that next week.
  
• Notes from THIS week's Smackdown: one of the best WWE shows in a long time because it showed an actual focus on pushing new talent, with Dave saying this is the first time in a long time that he's seen light at the end of this dark tunnel WWE is in. The show was mostly built around the debut of OVW wrestler Prototype, using his real name John Cena. He was brought in to answer Angle's open challenge, and you'd expect a squash, but instead they had a hell of a competitive match and Dave says Angle is the best wrestler in the business today because he carried Cena to what was easily the best match of his young career. Afterwards, everyone congratulated Cena, with Undertaker giving him the big endorsement. Rico was out next and he and Cena were actually a great tag team in OVW, with a ton of chemistry. But Cena is now being groomed to possibly become a big star, while Rico is basically dead in the water with this hair stylist gimmick. Batista also finally got a chance to look good without this stupid Deacon gimmick hampering him. Chris Jericho vs. Hogan was the best match Hogan has had since his WCW days when he was still a babyface feuding with Flair.
  

WATCH: John Cena debuts against Kurt Angle - Smackdown 2002

• X-Pac and Kevin Nash are at it again, getting a finish changed to a match on Raw last week. The Booker T & Goldust vs. X-Pac and Big Show match was supposed to end with Booker T pinning X-Pac. But Pac and Nash went and complained again and the finish got changed to Big Show pinning Goldust. It was a little bit of a bigger deal this time than the last time because WWE is making an actual attempt to push new stars and Booker T is one of the ones they're focusing on building. He needs big wins, and having the finish changed on this one directly hurts Booker.
  
• John Cena didn't receive word that he would be debuting on Smackdown until about 3 hours before the show began. He had been on the road doing house shows with the Smackdown crew, so he was already there and they made the call to throw him on TV (and, while they were at it, base half the show around his big debut). Having him use his real name was also a last minute decision, with programs printed up for the following week still advertising him as "Prototype."
  
• WWE's Divas Undressed special was canceled by TNN at the last minute and did not air as scheduled. TNN determined that it was full of "gratuitous sexual innuendo and was exploitive of women," leading Dave to wonder who TNN thinks they've been working with all this time? "Gratuitous sexual innuendo and was exploitive of women" is what TNN paid all that money for when they stole them away from USA. What'd they think they were getting with a spin-off called "Divas Undressed?" (I think this did eventually air somewhere, it's out there online if you look for it).
  
• Chris Benoit has been fully cleared as of the beginning of this month and should be back in the ring wrestling again any day now. He's been told he'll have to adjust his style some because he can no longer take bumps on his head and neck like he used to.
  
• Hulk Hogan did an interview with a Virginia newspaper and it was hilarious. He pretty much framed his return to WWE as Rock leaving to go make movies and so Vince called Hogan to come save the company in Rock's absence. Oh that's how it went, is it? I see. When asked about Rock's Hollywood success eclipsing his own, Hogan had a response for that too. Basically, Hogan claimed he was competing with Stallone and Schwarzeneggar when he was making movies, whereas Rock has an open field with no real competition in the action movie star department (this is around the same time Vin Diesel and Jason Statham were becoming household action star names so I dunno about all that).
  
• WWE sued a small New Hampshire record label called Stone Cold Records for obvious reasons, arguing that the name creates confusion in the marketplace and interferes with WWE's own Stone Cold marketing. Dave thinks this is funny just because this is the EXACT scenario that led to the WWF/WWE name lawsuit. In that case, of course, WWE was arguing the complete opposite. Anyway, the owner of the record label (which was formed in 1999) says he'd never heard of Stone Cold Steve Austin until a WWE lawyer called and that he doesn't watch wrestling (this lawsuit drags on for months).
  
• Construction is underway at WWE Niagra Falls, a new entertainment complex being built there which will have a restaurant, rides, indoor laser tag, etc. They hope to have it open in the summer (this ends up lasting for almost 10 years before it finally closed in 2011).
  

NEXT WEDNESDAY: Vince Russo joins NWA-TNA, Kevin Nash tears his quad, WWE spanks the PTC in court, Vader arrested, and more...