Colin Cameron, 2009
You Bet: The Betfair Story
Somebody built a market where there had only ever been a middleman, and the middlemen have still not forgiven it.
Lorenzo Ayres / 1 min
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Betfair let people bet against each other directly instead of against a bookmaker, which meant the bookmaker's margin, the thing the entire industry was built on, became a fee on a transaction rather than a spread nobody could see.
What I take from it is that the best version of attacking an industry is not doing the same thing cheaper. It is removing the position the incumbent occupies, so that competing with you means dismantling themselves.
The newsletter. That is the whole ask.
Every new piece I write, sent to your inbox.
Build the engine
- Eugene Schwartz, 1966Breakthrough AdvertisingThe best book on persuasion ever written, and the one that taught me you cannot create demand.
- Claude Hopkins, 1923Scientific AdvertisingA hundred years old, free online, and still more useful than most of what got published last year.
- Gary Halbert, 1984The Boron LettersLetters from a copywriter to his son, written from federal prison, and better than that sounds.
Deals and structure
- Way of the WolfJordan Belfort, 2017
- Ogilvy on AdvertisingDavid Ogilvy, 1983
- Secrets of Professional Turf BettingRobert L. Bacon, 1956
- Margin of SafetySeth Klarman, 1991
- The special situations booksMaurece Schiller, 1955 to 1966
- Mosaic: Perspectives on InvestingMohnish Pabrai, 2004
- globalization: n. the irrational fear that someone in China will take your jobBruce Greenwald and Judd Kahn, 2008
- Competition DemystifiedBruce Greenwald and Judd Kahn, 2005
- Distress InvestingMartin Whitman and Fernando Diz, 2009
- Merger MastersKate Welling and Mario Gabelli, 2018
- King IcahnMark Stevens, 1993
- Dear ChairmanJeff Gramm, 2016
- Barbarians at the GateBryan Burrough and John Helyar, 1989
- Buy Then BuildWalker Deibel, 2018
- The Art of M&AAlexandra Reed Lajoux and Stanley Foster Reed, 1989
- The Strategy and Tactics of PricingThomas Nagle and Georg Müller, 1987
- Setting the TableDanny Meyer, 2006
- 100 BaggersChristopher Mayer, 2015
- World Commodities and World CurrencyBenjamin Graham, 1944
- Storage and StabilityBenjamin Graham, 1937
- Walker's Manual of Unlisted StocksHarry Eisenberg, editor, the 2000 edition
- The Takeover GameJohn Brooks, 1987
- Bankruptcy Investing: How to Profit from Distressed CompaniesBen Branch and Hugh Ray
- The Crash and Its Aftermath: Securities Markets 1929 to 1933Barrie Wigmore, 1985
- Selling America ShortRichard C. Sauer, 2010
- Outsmarting the Smart MoneyLawrence A. Cunningham, 2002
- The Inefficient Stock Market and The New FinanceRobert A. Haugen
- Distant ForceGeorge A. Roberts, 2007
- Rising To Power: Paul Desmarais and Power CorporationDave Greber, 1987
- The Joy of Achievement: Conversations with J.R.D. TataR.M. Lala
- Pleased But Not SatisfiedDavid L. Sokol
- The Story of Bank of America: Biography of a BankMarquis James and Bessie Rowland James, 1954
- Citibank: A Century in AsiaPeter Starr, 2002
- See's Famous Old Time Candies: A Sweet StoryMargaret Moos Pick, 2005
- The Farmer From MernaKarl Schriftgiesser, 1955
- Shaw Industries: A HistoryRandall L. Patton, 2002
- Iron Will: Cleveland-Cliffs and the Mining of Iron OreTerry S. Reynolds and Virginia P. Dawson, 2011
- The Little Book That Beats the MarketJoel Greenblatt, 2005