Skip to main content

how exactly do you send a lottery company broke?

I haven't followed this whole story, but this really is bizarre. A proper lotteries company with a local monopoly should be a licence to print money....

Sazka board declares insolvency

Prague, March 22 (CTK) - The board of Czech lottery operator Sazka said the company is in insolvency and asked its chairman Ales Husak to file an insolvency petition on the firm or join the previous one filed by deputy chairman Roman Jecminek, server iHNed.cz said yesterday.


Surely there's more to this than meets the eye...
Labels:

Comments

  1. nt28 March 2011 at 15:44

    quite complicated story, which would be very good inspiration for michael-lewis-style novel :). basically, sazka has invested to build multifunctional stadium in prague, which was highly needed for ice hockey WC 2004. under time pressure and czech cleptomania hands, direct expenses grow approx. 4times and this debt is killing "licence to print money".

    ReplyDelete
  2. Scott28 March 2011 at 16:01

    Ah, many thanks for that. I knew the reasons had to be more than just a bad business plan. Hopefully enough of that story is available in English for me to find it later.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comments, but if you're a spammer, you've just wasted your time - it won't get posted.

Popular posts from this blog

Spot-fixing - you will never, ever be able to stop it

According to this report , IPL tournaments so far have been rife with spot-fixing - that is fixing minor elements of the game - runs in a single over, number of wides bowled etc. The curious part of that article is that the Income Tax department are supposed to have found these crimes. What idiot would be stupid enough to put down 'big wad of cash handed to me by bookie' as a source of income? Backhanders for sportsmen, particularly in a celebrity- and cricket-obsessed culture like India are not rare. They could come from anything like turning up to open someone's new business (not a sponsor, but a 'friend of a friend' arrangement), to being a guest at some devoted fan's dinner party etc. The opportunities are always there, and there will always be people trying to become friends with players and their entourage - that is human nature. This form of match-fixing (and it's not really fixing a match, just a minor element of it) is very hard to prove, but also, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

lay the field - my favourite racing strategy

Dabbling with laying the field in-running at various prices today, not just one price, but several in the same race. Got several matched in the previous race at Brighton, then this race came along at Nottingham. Such a long straight at Nottingham makes punters often over-react and think the finish line is closer than it actually is. As you can see by the number of bets matched, there was plenty of volatility in this in-play market. It's rare you'll get a complete wipe-out with one horse getting matched at all levels, but it can happen, so don't give yourself too much risk...
33 comments
Read more

It's all gone Pete Tong at Betfair!

The Christmas Hurdle from Leopardstown, a good Grade 2 race during the holiday period. But now it will go into history as the race which brought Betfair down. Over £21m at odds of 29 available on Voler La Vedette in-running - that's a potential liability of over £500m. You might think that's a bit suspicious, something's fishy, especially with the horse starting at a Betfair SP of 2.96. Well, this wasn't a horse being stopped by a jockey either - the bloody horse won! Look at what was matched at 29. Split that in half and multiply by 28 for the actual liability for the layer(s). (Matched amounts always shown as double the backers' stake, never counts the layers' risk). There's no way a Betfair client would have £600m+ in their account. Maybe £20 or even £50m from the massive syndicates who regard(ed) Betfair as safer than any bank, but not £600m. So the error has to be something technical. However, rumour has it, a helpdesk reply (not gospel, natur...
14 comments
Read more