Fire Ice

What is Fire Ice?

Carrot Top’s legal team told TMZ that the comedian was the target of an extortion attempt in the weeks leading up to his suicide attempt, according to a Sept. 3 court filing obtained by the entertainment website. His attorney alleges that Brian Evans threatened to leak a sex tape involving the 61‑year‑old performer into the court docket unless he received a $500,000 payout.

In response, Carrot Top’s attorneys argued the messages were “a malicious threat to expose Thompson to disgrace… with intent thereby to extort money under the guise of litigation conduct.”

The comedian has headlined the Atrium Showroom since November 2005, performing a high-energy show that mixes prop comedy, blue humor, and topical material and has been extended in later contract deals.

How to play Fire Ice

“It’s profitable, it’s growing and it was for sale from a distressed vendor,” he says. “That combination rarely appears in regulated Europe, where scaling a B2C brand means paying up for customers against Flutter and Entain on thin margins.

“Africa isn’t saturated, but I wouldn’t call it easy either. Betway and the local incumbents are well dug in. The difference is that you’re competing for a market that’s still forming, at a fraction of the acquisition cost, and the operating margin is there if you get the payments and the product right. The risk is regulatory and currency rather than competitive.”

GiG’s immediate priority following the completion of the deal will be disciplined integration, says Richards. This includes bringing 888Africa’s financial reporting, compliance and operational processes in line with GiG’s standards.

How to play Fire Ice

As has been widely documented, sports event contracts are currently the lifeblood of the prediction market industry, but Bernstein notes that won’t be the case on a permanent basis. In fact, the research firm estimates that sports derivatives’ share of industry volume will decline to 35% in 2035, indicating that the aforementioned volume increase will be led by other categories.

The research firm estimates that by 2035, financial derivatives, including event contracts linked to commodities, cryptocurrencies and stocks, will account for 49% of turnover on yes/no exchanges, topping sports to become the largest volume driver. The research firm sees event contracts tied to key performance indicators (KPIs) leading the charge.

“We expect new products such as KPI markets, which allow users to trade a single corporate metric, such as production, deliveries, or subscriber growth, rather than the stock price itself,” observe the analysts. “Further, perp futures are expanding from crypto to commodities and single stock perps.”