Hey everyone
No updates here, been loads to update on too, but to be honest I've been struggling to get my head round everything that's been going on myself so wouldn't have had a chance to get it down in words!
Here's whats been going down...!
WORKWhen I first moved to London I was a little unsure what was going to go down, I was a bit worried as liquid cash flow wasn't at it's peak and firing 25 bags of in the front for rent, Laura not working and the inevitable increase in living expenses with a move down south, which by the way is quite hugely over-stated (more on that later) I was strongly considering full time work with a hospitality business. Had a very real offer from a big consultancy company down here, and a really interesting discussion with Uber eats but ultimately I decided that I am going to do what I do and just trust in my ability to keep things ticking over whilst Laura gets sorted and my other revenue tree's start to bear some fruit.
As it turns out it's been a great decision as things really kicked off, the biggest thing has been the betting site.
Betting Site!For those who don't know, last year I was (a small) part of a team who launched a betting site in east europe, the site started fine although I was such an insignificant part of the process I found it pretty frustrating. At the turn of the year a divide formed in the group and the group running it effectively split, I had the choice to keep my shares or sell and join the new team... The main person leaving was my biggest ally in the group and, imo, the most effective person professionally, so as soon as they offered me a more hands on role in the day - to - day of the site (along with significantly higher %) then I snapped it off, the new site, launches on Friday
Getting it all set up, handling all the software and merchant deals planning the marketing etc has been great fun feeling very happy about how it's looking, I don't expect to see a return on the investments for a fair while as the initial costs of acquiring your customers is pretty intense - building a 10k player database will cost easily more than £1m but we've timed it great and hopefully we'll be FLYING for the start of the football season!! Going to have some very good promo's on too i'll post more later on and try get you all involved.
My main role in the site is the back of house commercial stuff and it's been a big learning curve for me, one I am enjoying. We've been taking action on the BETA version and it's been PRETTTTTTTTTTY swingy. (Had a horrible reverse 7figure£ sweat on the masters) which was far from enjoyable.
I'm not going to share the site with you just yet as it's not up and running yet, but come launch date i'll show you all
We have a pretty good trading model so if anyone wants an account with a bookie that will actually give you some action... let me know
This project also involves pretty frequent trips to istanbul which is great (more on that later!)
Sports BettingSince being so involved in the building of the new site, I've become very involved in trading models from both sides and teamed up with a fellow young blonde member to look at some sports betting from the customers side... It's been great, we've done some pretty big turnover betting sports this year and some savage swings. It's fun, always something to sweat and the darts has been particularly fun!
HospitalityFound myself quite inundated with work offers since being in London, from all angles - some betting sites, hotels, restaurants, on trade hospitality companies and even for some writing offers. I wanted to keep focus mostly on the betting sites and sports betting as those two things are both pretty intense and also run side by side, but at the same time I felt pretty good about keeping my toes in the water with some hospitality work so when things are frustrating in gambling I have some more steady work to settle my head.
I have to be selective about what I take on, which is a pretty lucky position to be in, so I select the work based on what sounds the most fun and what will fit in best with my schedule. The two jobs I picked recently was some work for a yorkshire Gin company doing some promotional work down here in London, Gin Evenings etc which is just 1 million miles up my street, love the products, love the people, love doing public speaking stuff like that, charging them a very modest fee and would actually do it for free!
Second project was a funny one... It all started a few months back I got a call from a Lady who I've been doing little jobs for down here who runs a hospitality consultancy business, she is fantastic and has been a great help to me since moving here.
"Hey David, hotel client of mine just rang, they want to open a Tapas restaurant on site and need a feasibility study doing, that something you can do?"
"Yeh, absolutely."
First thing I did next was get onto wikipedia and find out wtf a "feasibility study" is. Upon discovering that it is basically as it sounds (a study of the feasibility of a project - good to double check though!) I got stuck in, managed to thoroughly convince the hotel manager I was a top pro at feasibility studies and beat a few other people to gig. The study went great, and the hotel manager was kind enough to show me the feasibility study that had been done internally which meant I even got a template for it
I've put in a quote with the consultant lady to work on the implementation of the restaurant and i've grown so fond of the project I really hope I get it.
Enjoyed this one, bit of "in the street" working which is how I grew up
Super Top SecretGoing to do a pleno on you all here, and say that I'm also involved in another massive project that has huge potential but I can't say anything about it...usually I would just not mention it but works for BiTB so i'll have a go.
London LifeAbsolutely LOVING it down here in london, I actually have more friends down here than I do in Leeds these days, seeing lots of my friends, went for a lunchtime drink with Tom and Jake the other day which turned into a 5am return home (laura was not overly impressed
) and i've not done that in a LONG time, I always really enjoy having out with Jake, Tom, Franky etc people who I was friends with right at the start of the gambling career before millions were won (and lost
) when we talk about some of the things we used to get up to I can't help but find it hilarious!
Had a funny incident the other day, Laura has made some new friends in London and we were invited to there house for a BBQ recently...I was on my best behaviour and being thoroughly charming and I'm sure everyone was thinking I'm great...
THEN...
We're leaving, I've had a few Rum&Cokes, on a bit of a high from my tip-top social performance and the couple (the new friends) are talking about plans for Monday night...the girl mentions meeting at 7:30 and the guy reacts in such a strange way, as if 7:30 was a ridiculous time to suggest meeting...
She says "whats wrong with 7:30"
I decided to go with "Who's gonna be making his dinner?"
Went down HORRRRRRRRRRRRRENDOUS, Laura had to pipe up with "he's not really sexist" which is EXACTLY what a women repressed by her partners relentless misogyny would say...
Whoops.
LIFEEverything else is going great, making a lot of trips to Istanbul to meet with my partners in the betting site and discuss business things, I really love the city and feel very happy there - not the safest place in the world but I stay in Besiktas which is (imo) one of the nicest parts. Very, very beautiful city steeped in history and heritage, and turkish people are typically very honourable and proud people. I am trying to learn Turkish also which is fun but also really fucking hard for me.
Anyone else had success learning a second language? Turkish is (according to my turkish friends) a pretty straightforward language - Laura is multi lingual and finds picking up words in new languages really easy...for me a staunchly uni-lingual (is that a word?) Brit i'm finding it really really hard... Been a dream for a decade to speak a second langage and to be honest it's kind of criminally lazy I didn't make it happen yet - lots of time, and lots of travel from 20-25, with a vast array of friends from different countries...really shouldn't have been that hard for me. I think some things come easy and hard to certain people and this is one thing that is really tough on me... I will be very proud if I manage to pull this off.
That's it, that's me, lots of going on, loving life, money coming and going - moving to London remains a great move and I am VERY excited for the rest of the year...ESPECIALLY for the start of the football season and even more so for the many, many upcoming darts tournaments!
Any questions? Any advice for me? Any comments? Love to hear it all.
David.