Tennis Corruption in The NY Times

The NY Times has a follow-up article on the after effects of the tennis betting scandal for the pros. During the August match strange betting patterns alerted the authorities that something was amiss. BetFair ended up voiding all the bets on the match. Tennis pro Nikolay Davydenko is still being investigated according to this latest NY Times article on the scandal:

Kris Dent, an ATP spokesman, also acknowledged that a “highly subjective” list of 140 suspicious matches dating from 2002 had been compiled by a European bookmaker and provided to investigators.

“There is a clear risk to the sport because players are being approached,” Mr. Dent said. “We take this incredibly seriously.”

UPDATE: The NY Times got the chart wrong, see more info here: http://blog.hubdub.com/ Thanks Nigel for the heads-up.

Casino Fact of the Day

Which US states generate the most tax revenue from casino gaming?

Nevada is obviously first. Not so obvious is that Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri all generate more tax revenue from casinos than New Jersey - mainly due to the lower tax rate.

The Failure of the Corporate Fraud Task Force

An article in The American Lawyer digs into the numbers behind the decline of corporate indictments and finds that the CFTF was mostly PR.

...we found several high-profile acquittals, hung juries and appellate reversals -- and some of those prosecution failures were due specifically to questionable tactics by the Justice Department. In all, 27 of the defendants whose cases we examined, including executives from Adelphia, America Online Inc., PurchasePro.com Inc. and Qwest Communications International Inc., were acquitted at trial. Another 28 cases were dismissed. There were 22 mistrials. And nine convictions were overturned on appeal, including those of such high-profile defendants as Credit Suisse First Boston Corp. banker Frank Quattrone and the Enron "Nigerian Barge" defendants from Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.

...And while many of the lawyers we interviewed say that the task force's directives did result in more corporations cooperating with the government, defense lawyers and even some federal judges came to believe that that cooperation was won at a high cost: the erosion of such basic defendant's rights as the attorney-client privilege and the right to counsel.

The decline in corporate prosecutions should be celebrated. It seems as if the bureaucrats have move onto other ways to justify their existence.

Non-Farm Payroll (NFP) Predictions for October

Consensus: 82,000
ADP: 106,000

Last: 110,000

DailyFX on how to play the number:

Trying to trade a long dollar position on the employment data should be done conservatively considering the steady downtrend the currency. On the fundamental front we will look for consistency across the various indicators: a strong NFP number for October, an upward revision to September, perhaps a downtick in the jobless rate and sustained rebound in the annual earnings report. Of course, the headline number and revision take precedence, but the fewer points of support for the dollar, the more suspect dollar momentum will be. On a strong fundamental release and a green five-minute candle, we will look to take a short EURUSD position on two lots at the close of the 12:35 GMT bar

New PM Site for Marketers - Predictify.com

Predictify allows any user to post a basic question for free, while premium questions cost $1 per response and come with detailed demographic data. Users are incentivized for accurate predictions with cash and status rewards. Uniquely with this site, accurate predictors are paid more for their responses that less accurate users.

The site is aimed at people who want to use the demographic data and is a unique take on an increasingly crowded PM field. Despite the sports contract section, Predictify won’t substitute for Tradesports just yet.

Are certain types of questions prohibited?

Yes. Predictify may not be used for securities replication, odds-making, betting, gambling, or wagering.

More information about the firm here.