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Esports Entertainment Group $GMBL – In the Video: This Is How #eSports is also Changing the Sports Industry $ATVI $TTWO $GAME $EPY.ca $TCEHF

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 4:10 PM on Monday, February 11th, 2019
SPONSOR: Esports Entertainment $GMBL Esports audience is 350M, growing to 590M, Esports wagering is projected at $23 BILLION by 2020. The company has launched VIE.gg esports betting platform and has accelerated affiliate marketing agreements with 190 Esports teams. Click here for more information
GMBL: OTCQB

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In the Video: This Is How eSports is also Changing the Sports Industry

  • At ISPO Munich 2019 eSports was represented for the first time
  • Competitive gaming has long been more than a hype. And the sports industry can also benefit.

Insights by: ISPO Digitize

Even the big football clubs have long since created facts: Schalke 04, VfL Wolfsburg or FC Bayern have their own departments and employ professional players. Training, competition, ambition and title – just like in any sport. Physical and mental fitness are basic prerequisites.

  The annual event for the digitalization of the sports business! Be a part of it on July 3rd and 4th!  

Martin Müller, Vice President of the German Sports Federation: “The sporting goods industry should have an interest in eSport. We have a relatively large merchandising sector. The big teams go on stage with their jerseys. So as a fan I would like to own such a jersey. When we talk about four million eSportsmen, four million eSportsmen also have to be equipped a bit. And I think there’s great potential for the sporting goods industry.”

Source: https://www.ispo.com/en/markets/video-how-esports-also-changing-sports-industry

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ThreeD Capital Inc. $IDK.ca Acquires Securities of GoldSpot Discoveries Corp. $NSM.ca $PEEK.ca $CKR.ca $ZC.ca $PNP.ca $VQS.ca $NXJ.ca $KXS.ca $PFM.ca $HIVE.ca $BLOC.ca $CODE.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 12:34 PM on Monday, February 11th, 2019
  • Announce that it has acquired ownership and control of an aggregate of 10,883,764 common shares of GoldSpot Discoveries Corp. on February 8, 2019. 
  • The Subject Shares represented approximately 11.5% of all issued and outstanding common shares of the Company as of February 9, 2019 immediately following the transaction described above.

TORONTO, Feb. 11, 2019 — ThreeD Capital Inc. (“ThreeD” or “the Acquirer”) (CSE:IDK), a Canadian-based venture capital firm focused on investments in promising, early stage companies and ICOs with disruptive capabilities, is pleased to announce that it has acquired ownership and control of an aggregate of 10,883,764 common shares (the “Subject Shares”) of GoldSpot Discoveries Corp. (the “Company”) on February 8, 2019.  The Subject Shares represented approximately 11.5% of all issued and outstanding common shares of the Company as of February 9, 2019 immediately following the transaction described above. Neither the Acquirer nor any of its joint actors otherwise own any securities of the Company.

The Subject Shares were acquired pursuant to a business combination transaction of which the security holders of GoldSpot Discoveries Inc. completed a reverse takeover of the Company (formerly Duckworth Capital Corp.) and not through the facilities of any stock exchange.  The Subject Shares were acquired in connection with the transaction are subject to a Tier 1 Value Escrow Agreement as required by the TSX Venture Exchange (the “TSXV”).  The Subject Shares shall be released in accordance with such escrow agreement as follows: 25% release on the date of the TSXV bulletin approving the transaction; 25% released six months after the date of the bulletin; 25% released twelve months after the date of the bulletin; and 25% released eighteen months after the date of the bulletin. The common shares of the Company are expected to resume trading on the TSXV under the symbol “SPOT” at a date to be approved by the TSXV and announced by the Company.

The holdings of securities of the Company by ThreeD are managed for investment purposes, and ThreeD could increase or decrease its investments in the Company at any time, or continue to maintain its current investment position, depending on market conditions or any other relevant factor.

The trade was effected in reliance upon the exemption contained in Section 2.3 of National Instrument 45-106 on the basis that ThreeD is an “accredited investor” as defined herein.  A copy of the applicable securities report filed in connection with the matters set forth above may be obtained by contacting the Company at 69 Yonge St., Suite 1010, Toronto, ON, M5E 1K3, Attention: Denis Laviolette, President and CEO (tel: 641-992-9837).

About ThreeD Capital Inc.

ThreeD is a publicly-traded Canadian-based venture capital firm focused on opportunistic investments in companies in the Junior Resources, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain sectors.  ThreeD seeks to invest in early stage, promising companies and ICOs where it may be the lead investor and can additionally provide investees with advisory services, mentoring and access to the Company’s ecosystem.

For further information:
Gerry Feldman, CPA, CA
Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary
[email protected]
Phone: 416-941-8900 ext 106

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CLIENT FEATURE: Star Navigation $SNA.CA Real-Time Flight Tracking and Monitoring Technology

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:52 AM on Monday, February 11th, 2019

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS

SIGNED A COOPERATION AGREEMENT FOR THE EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES MARKETS

  • Will enable them to provide real-time monitoring of patients while in transit on the ground or in the air.
  • CHUSJ is one of the top 10 mother-child hospitals in the World, with over 3500 births a year.
  • Has over 1500 nurses, over 500 Doctors and over 200 researchers on staff.

COMPLETED SALE OF FIVE STAR-A.D.S SYSTEMS TO ALMASRIA UNIVERSAL AIRLINES

  • Announced that AlMasria Universal Airlines of Egypt has decided to proceed with the installation and activation of the STAR-A.D.S.® System across all five (5) of its current aircraft fleet, which includes A-320, A-321, A330 and B737 aircraft.

BOMBARDER JOINT RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

  • Joint research and development program with Bombardier and other industrials and universities of Canada is progressing very positively.
  • The STAR-A.D.S. ® system which is at the heart of the program, after having been validated and extensively used by the aircraft manufacturer, has now been transferred to another flight test vehicle to complete the flight testing and the data collection.

EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES APPLICATIONS

  • Star’s Land System Aided Medical Monitoring system for ground ambulance applications has undergone a series of demonstrations by a care organization in North America.
  • Its airborne parent system, the In-Flight System Aided Medical Monitoring system (STAR-ISAMM™â€), has now been demonstrated to several stakeholders of the commercial and civil air ambulance market.

CHECK OUT OUR RECENT INTERVIEW

FULL DISCLOSURE: Star Navigation Systems Group Ltd. is an advertising client of AGORA Internet Relations Corp.

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#Esports Versus Traditional Sports, U.S. Versus China – Let the Games Begin $EGLX.ca $ATVI $TTWO $GAME $EPY.ca $TCEHF

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 8:50 AM on Monday, February 11th, 2019
  • Total eSports revenues reached US $869 million in 2018 and are expected to surpass US$6 billion by 2028, according to Fact.MR.
  • NewZoo estimated the global eSports audience at 380 million for 2018, made up of 165 million Esports enthusiasts and 215 million occasional viewers.

POINT ROBERTS, Wash., Feb. 11, 2019 — Investorideas.com, a leading investor news resource covering gaming and eSports stocks issues a special edition of Play by Play looking at the explosive growth of the sector and how battles are playing out; eSports versus traditional sports and the U.S. versus China bid for leadership.

Total eSports revenues reached US $869 million in 2018 and are expected to surpass US$6 billion by 2028, according to Fact.MR.

NewZoo estimated the global eSports audience at 380 million for 2018, made up of 165 million Esports enthusiasts and 215 million occasional viewers. Meanwhile, Activate projects that by 2021 eSports will have more US viewers than all other professional sports leagues, with the exception of the NFL.

With all this money and viewership at stake, you can expect the big boys to enter the playing field; and yes they certainly have.  On July 2018, ESPN, Disney XD and Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI), announced an exclusive multiyear agreement for live television coverage of the Overwatch League™, the world’s first major global city-based eSports league.

Seeing the future shift in sports and eSports, Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots, Jeff Wilpon of the New York Mets and the LA Rams’ Stan Kroenke invested heavily into their own franchises within Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch eSports league.

Overwatch franchise valuations are $60 million to $80 million, depending on country and city according to a Forbes article. Adding to its value, news hit on Friday that Coca-Cola signed a deal with Activision Blizzard Esports Leagues to become the official non-alcoholic beverage of Overwatch League and all other Overwatch properties. 

With North America as the largest eSports market in 2018, Enthusiast Gaming (TSXV: EGLX.V) (OTCQB: EGHIF), a gaming company building the world’s largest community of authentic gamers.  strategically announced yesterday that it opened a US-based office and hired a sales team to drive advertising sales and increase annual revenue.

According to the news, “The US-based sales team is based in San Francisco and will be responsible for leading North American sales. This expands the company’s current reach with a sales team in San Francisco, London, UK, and the corporate head office in Toronto. The company kicked off the opening of the sales office with a West Coast advertising roadshow, meeting with top gaming publishers, global brands, and media agencies.”

Undaunted by the fact that they are a smaller company, Enthusiast Gaming is building their network and has positioned themselves at the forefront of the market, led by Menashe Kestenbaum, Founder and CEO. The numbers speak for themselves, with a platform of more than 80 owned and affiliated websites reaching 75 million monthly visitors and 900 YouTube channels with an additional 50 million monthly visitors.

Other major deal flow in the US; Take-Two Interactive Software’s deal with the NBA and Electronic Arts Inc.’s partnerships with the NFL and ESPN. The massive streaming player growth on YouTube and Amazon is yet another indication this industry is not going away anytime soon. 

The China eSports market is second to the United States and according to Dragon Social: “Live streaming, combined with video games has become one of the most popular forms of entertainment for people in China.”

China-based Tencent Holdings Ltd (OTCMKTS: TCEHY) (HKG: 0700) is the biggest gaming company in the world, spending $150 million a year to maintain that dominance. Bloomberg noted, “Along with Activision Blizzard Inc., Tencent’s become one of the most aggressive promoters of pro-gaming. It’s hard to overstate the mania that’s gripped China in particular: at least 10,000 teams exist across the country despite just 12 spots in this year’s marquee King Pro League tournament.”

Streaming video player Huya (NYSE: HUYA) provides a live-streaming platform for gamers to share their experiences and has been dubbed, the ‘Twitch of China’ and says they are the largest in China. Reporting on its NYSE IPO, Forbes said, “HUYA is known for its sticky gaming community who engage in interactive social media features such as gifting and adding commentary during online streaming sessions.”

US company Twitch is a live streaming video platform bought by Amazon in 2014 for $970 million. Twitch viewers between Wednesday, 30th January and Tuesday, 5th February: lowest viewers 625,376 (Monday, 4th 09:00) and peak viewers 2,240,001 (Saturday, 2nd 19:00). 

It’s game on for the US versus China and eSports versus traditional sports. Let the games begin.

For investors following gaming & eSports stocks, Investor Ideas has created a directory of gaming stocks.

Read previous editions of Play by Play

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Esports Entertainment Group $GMBL – #Overwatch League to air on #ESPN, #Disney XD, #ABC $ATVI $TTWO $GAME $EPY.ca $TCEHF

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 3:05 PM on Friday, February 8th, 2019
SPONSOR: Esports Entertainment $GMBL Esports audience is 350M, growing to 590M, Esports wagering is projected at $23 BILLION by 2020. The company has launched VIE.gg esports betting platform and has accelerated affiliate marketing agreements with 190 Esports teams. Click here for more information
GMBL: OTCQB

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Overwatch League to air on ESPN, Disney XD, ABC

  • Overwatch League announced the broadcast schedule for Season 2, which begins Feb. 14.
  • Three matches per week will be broadcast on Disney XD: the final match each Thursday beginning at 11:30 p.m. ET along with the first two matches every Sunday at 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. ET.

All matches will be available on the ESPN app. Three matches per week will be broadcast on Disney XD: the final match each Thursday beginning at 11:30 p.m. ET along with the first two matches every Sunday at 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. ET.

The semifinals and finals for Stages 1 and 2 as well as the All-Star Game will air on ABC. ESPN2 will broadcast the Stage 3 finals, with the broadcast schedules for Homestand Weekends, season playoffs and the finals to be announced at a later date.

Season 2 of the OWL kicks off on Feb. 14 with the Philadelphia Fusion facing the London Spitfire in a rematch of the Grand Finals from the inaugural season.

— Field Level Media

Source: http://www.espn.com/esports/story/_/page/overwatchseason2schedule/overwatch-league-air-espn-disney-xd-abc

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Tartisan Nickel Corp. $TN.ca – #Megafactories buildout could up #nickel demand in batteries 19 fold—Benchmark

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 1:21 PM on Friday, February 8th, 2019

SPONSOR: Tartisan Nickel (TN:CSE) The company’s Kenbridge Property has a measured and indicated resource of 7.14 million tonnes at 0.62% nickel, 0.33% copper. Tartisan also has interests in Peru, including a 20 percent equity stake in Eloro Resources and 2 percent NSR in their La Victoria property. Click her for more information

TN:CSE

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Megafactories buildout could up nickel demand in batteries 19 fold—Benchmark

  • Moores said that these megafactories are being built almost exclusively to make lithium ion battery cells using two chemistries: nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) and nickel-cobalt-aluminium (NCA)
  • “Under this scenario, lithium demand will increase by over eight times, graphite anode by over seven times, nickel by a massive 19 times

Amanda Stutt

It was encouraging for miners when Simon Moores, managing director, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on Tuesday.

Moores was summoned by the Senate Committee to testify on the lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite supply chains for energy storage.

“Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is now tracking 70 lithium ion battery megafactories under construction across four continents, 46 of which are based in China with only five currently planned for the US. When I gave my last testimony in October 2017, the global total was at 17,” Moores said.

Moores said that these megafactories are being built almost exclusively to make lithium ion battery cells using two chemistries: nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) and nickel-cobalt-aluminium (NCA).

“This means the supply of lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese to produce the cathode for these cells, alongside graphite to produce battery anodes, needs to rapidly evolve for the 21st century,” Moores testified.

Moores presented a chart based on the assumption that all of these megafactories are built and run at 100% capacity utilization.

“Under this scenario, lithium demand will increase by over eight times, graphite anode by over seven times, nickel by a massive 19 times, and cobalt demand will rise four-fold, which takes into account the industry trend of reducing cobalt usage in a battery,” Moores testified.

Also on Tuesday, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence launched lithium carbonate and hydroxide price indexes, which draw from the data collected by analysts across 11 market prices. See more on price boosts here.

Moores’ full testimony is available here.  

Read more here. 

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Enthusiast Gaming $EGLX.ca – Esports Playing in the Big Leagues Now $ATVI $TTWO $GAME $EPY.ca $TCEHF

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 11:21 AM on Friday, February 8th, 2019

SPONSOR: Enthusiast Gaming Holdings Inc. (TSX-V: EGLX) Uniting gaming communities with 80 owned and affiliated websites, currently reaching over 75 million monthly visitors. The company partial 2018 reported revenue of $7.4 million representing a 625% increase over the same period in 2017.

Images
EGLX: TSX-V
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Esports Playing in the Big Leagues Now

  • In 2018, esports captured the attention of nearly 400 million viewers worldwide—and cable and OTT platforms took note, with media rights revenues topping $180 million.
  • Total esports revenues reached $869 million in 2018, and is forecast to more than triple by 2022, reaching $2.96 billion, according to an October 2018 report by Goldman Sachs.

By Lucy Koch

In 2018, esports captured the attention of nearly 400 million viewers worldwide—and cable and OTT platforms took note, with media rights revenues topping $180 million.

Total esports revenues reached $869 million in 2018, and is forecast to more than triple by 2022, reaching $2.96 billion, according to an October 2018 report by Goldman Sachs.

More modestly, a report from PwC (cited by the Goldman Sachs report) projected worldwide esports revenues of $1.58 billion by 2022—an 18.4% compounded annual growth rate.

Ad Revenue

According to PwC, esports revenues totaled $805 million in 2018, with the largest portion coming from sponsorships ($277 million), followed by media rights and streaming advertisements.

PwC estimated that over the next three to five years, media rights revenue would grow 11.5%—to roughly $449 million by 2022. That’s more than twice the growth rate of sponsorship and advertising, at 5.5%.

As audiences grow, so do expectations. Esports viewers want to be able to watch their favorite teams, players and tournaments on any screen, at any time—and this will push profitability.

Paul Verna, principal analyst at eMarketer, explains: “Marketers who try to reach esports fans through video ads will be able to tap into the sophisticated targeting and measurement capabilities that streaming services offer. In that sense, there’s more value to a marketer in attaching itself to game streams than sponsoring an event or team. It’s all about harnessing data.”

And there’s plenty of data to harness.

Esports Viewers

There were approximately 380 million esports viewers in 2018, and that’s expected to surge to roughly 557 million viewers by 2021, according to a report from Newzoo. Of those 557 million projected viewers, 307 million will identify as “occasional viewers” and 250 million will consider themselves “esports enthusiasts”.

Breaking Down Key Players

Occasional Viewers: People who watch professional esports content less than once a month.

Esports Enthusiasts: People who watch professional esports content more than once a month.

What’s more, Asia-Pacific leads the global esports market and is projected to capture the largest market share, with $1.5 billion by 2022, according to a study from Activate. Close behind, Europe and the US tie for second at $1.2 billion.

“The US is a natural growth opportunity for esports because of the strong gaming culture here, the ties between gaming and sports, and the country’s natural inclination toward competitive endeavors. The same is true of Western European markets, particularly the UK, Germany, and France,” Verna said.

Somewhat behind the curve due to the lack of fixed broadband, Latin America will account for just $100 million of esports market share by 2022. However, growth is expected in Brazil and Mexico, where esports is officially recognized as a sport.

What This Means for Marketers

With such expansive reach, it’s no surprise that marketers have taken note. According to Newzoo, global “brand investment revenues”—including advertising and scholarships—will nearly double from $694 million in 2018 to $1.39 billion by 2021.

But in today’s fast-paced society, it’s necessary to mirror esports’ form when it comes to implementing advertisements in that space.

Joshua Dyck, associate professor and co-director of the Center for Public Opinion at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, says that people—teens specifically—can be receptive to esports marketing depending on execution. Dyck explains that “the important thing to look at is whether the ad slows down play performance. If the ad forces people to watch a 30-second spot, it will probably make them angry. Part of the enjoyment comes from the continuous play.”

Verna adds that the majority of the esports market is young and is “therefore less likely to be reached through traditional ad channels than an older TV audience,” saying that “sponsorships and endorsements are equally viable for marketers whose brands align with the target audience.”

Source: https://www.emarketer.com/content/esports-disrupts-digital-sports-streaming

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Bougainville Ventures Inc $BOG.ca – #POT Ticker Generates Frenzy As WHO Softens Stance On Marijuana $CROP.ca $VP.ca NF.ca $MCOA

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:12 AM on Friday, February 8th, 2019
SPONSOR:  Bougainville Ventures Inc (CSE: BOG) Converting irrigated farmland to greenhouse-equipped farmland. Bougainville does not “touch the plant” and only provides agricultural infrastructure as a landlord for licensed marijuana growers. Click here for more info.
BOG:CSE
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POT Ticker Generates Frenzy As WHO Softens Stance On Marijuana

  • Little illustrates the mania for cannabis investments better than the unprecedented demand over the stock symbol POT.
  • But new recommendations from the World Health Organization suggest some of that frenzy may not be unwarranted.

Tiny Vancouver-based cannabis company Weekend Unlimited saw its stock gain as much as 148% Feb. 1 after winning out over 40 other companies in the first-ever lottery for a stock ticker held by Canadian exchanges. Weekend Unlimited, which previously traded under YOLO, short for “you only live once,” wasn’t exactly lacking a memorable ticker before it won the POT ticker.

In a weird twist, the YOLO symbol may find new life in another pot-related security, as the AdvisorShares Pure Cannabis ETF has filed to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under YOLO.

In more serious news, the WHO is recommending that cannabis and its resin be removed from Schedule IV, the most restrictive category of a 1961 drug convention that governs international treaties. The WHO is also moving to clarify that CBD containing less than 0.2% THC is not under international control at all.

If adopted, these recommendations would recognize changing attitudes toward the drug and its medical properties, potentially encouraging fence-sitting politicians to speed up the pace of legalization. They could also be a “catalyst for Big Pharma to further assess the global medical cannabis opportunity,” according to BMO analyst Tamy Chen.

Advertising Challenges

“The treaty’s recommended cannabis rescheduling provides countries additional political cover to re-examine their current state on cannabis, given it serves as the regulatory framework for many,” writes Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Kenneth Shea.

The proposals will now go to the United Nations’ Commission on Narcotic Drugs, whose 53 member nations will have the chance to vote on them, likely in March.

POT hype and WHO recommendations aren’t making it any easier to advertise cannabis brands, at least not yet. Earlier this month, CBS declined to air a commercial touting the benefits of medical marijuana during the Super Bowl and Facebook (FB) has booted some pot sellers off Instagram, Bloomberg’s Craig Giammona reported last week.

The restrictions are even tighter in Canada, where nearly all forms of marketing and branding are prohibited.

Canadian Supply

The Canadian government reported that total cannabis sales in December were up 4% from the month before, a muted gain given that November sales marked a 42% decline in per-day recreational pot sales from October, when legalization took effect.

The fact that total inventory continues to grow, hitting nearly two months’ worth of dried pot and five months’ of cannabis oil at the end of December, indicates that Canada’s ongoing supply shortage is more a function of supply-chain problems than a lack of product, according to Eight Capital analyst Graeme Kreindler.

“The process of getting products from vault to shelf remains a key step in alleviating supply issues in the Canadian market,” Kreindler said.

Edibles Question

The ongoing shortages, whatever their root cause, have raised concerns among some in the industry that it won’t be ready to meet demand for edibles and concentrates, which were expected to join dried flower and oils on store shelves by October of this year. However, Justin Trudeau’s pot czar told Bloomberg’s Josh Wingrove last week that sales may lag regulations, citing the 17-week gap between the federal pot law passing last June and the formal market opening in October.

According to Keith Merker, CEO of WeedMD, “It’s classic cannabis industry stuff; you’re operating in this mist of uncertainty and trying to make business decisions that are appropriate.”

The lack of clarity isn’t deterring big U.S. funds from sniffing around the industry. Funds with $100 billion or more in assets under management are exploring lending to Canadian cannabis companies as a way to gain expertise in the burgeoning market ahead of potential legalization.

The idea is to provide first-lien loans, which are first to be repaid when a company fails, to mid-tier pot firms, according to Cormark Securities’ Alfred Avanessy. This would open up a whole new world of financing to the industry, which has largely relied on equity raises and convertible debt to date.

Source: https://www.investors.com/etfs-and-funds/etfs/pot-ticker-frenzy-who-marjijuana-stance/

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Good Life Networks $GOOD.ca – How #Blockchain Integration Will Evolve #Programmatic RTB for Smart TV $TTD $RUBI $AT.ca $TRMR $FUEL

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 4:23 PM on Thursday, February 7th, 2019
SPONSOR: Good Life Networks (GOOD:TSX-V) Video advertising is the future! Company’s A.I. makes 80,000 calculations / second, targeting 750 million users to deliver higher prices and volume. Company announced combined trailing 12 month revenue at just over $40 Million, $7.9M EBITDA, $3 Million net income. Click here for more information.
GOOD: TSX-V

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How Blockchain Integration Will Evolve Programmatic RTB for Smart TV

  • Programmatic RTB(Real-time bidding) is set to become a leading method for advertising on Smart TV.
  • The global Smart TV market, according to Grand View Research, was valued at $145 billion in 2017,
  • Is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 9.5% during the forecast period and reach $292.55 billion by 2025.

Alex Bornyakov, founder of Adtelligent, talks about how the growth of blockchain will help in the transformation of programmatic advertising through RTB for Smart TV.

The programmatic advertising industry is rife with issues, including fraud, manipulation of data, low traffic quality, and lack of transparency of the bidding process. Despite these issues, programmatic RTB(Real-time bidding) is set to become a leading method for advertising on Smart TV. The global Smart TV market, according to Grand View Research, was valued at $145 billion in 2017, is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 9.5% during the forecast period and reach $292.55 billion by 2025.

I, along with other leaders in the digital advertising space, believe that blockchain integration has the potential to satisfy the market demand for transparency and reinstate trust in programmatic advertising. This will be achieved by creating a new blockchain-based RTB protocol for Smart TV that propels industry growth, meets required thresholds for transaction speeds, and fights fraud through irrefutable smart contracts.

Big potential for industry growth

Programmatic and RTB have had a tremendous impact on the web, becoming the most popular and widely-used types of digital display advertising in the USA and the UK in 2015. In the US alone, $27.47 billion was spent on programmatic digital display advertising just last year.

Programmatic RTB for Smart TV has the potential to scale into an increasingly valuable ad channel. 32% of TV buyers today own Smart TVs, totalling 1 billion devices worldwide. Yet, this form of advertising has several new roadblocks when it comes to growth. One such example is the current low availability of premium inventory. Publishers today have to adapt quickly to the latest media buying trend if they want to remain on board.

Blockchain removes intermediaries, meaning that brands and content owners can directly transact with one another. Content owners, as a result, are faced with fewer restrictions and will be able to attract with smaller and niche brands of all shapes and sizes. Due to the nature of P2P transactions through blockchain and less funds going to middlemen, brands will have the opportunity to place targeted advertisements at lower costs than ever before. With all transactions recorded on an irrefutable ledger, blockchain ensures marketing budgets are used effectively, another compelling impetus to advertise and for industry growth.

A need for speed

One of the central issues with executing blockchain RTB for Smart TV today is transaction speed. A system does not yet exist that allows large enough volumes. This inhibits the potential for advertisers.

What’s needed is a new protocol that can handle sending sufficient volumes of data to the blockchain.. With transaction volumes up to speed, brands will be able to optimize their costs, better target clients, and choose the time and amount of advertising scrolling at suitable prices. In turn, enabling brands to not only pay for the number of scrolls, but also the displayed duration which cannot be done today. As an example, this approach would allow advertising at a time when a television is being viewed across many devices, increasing audience coverage and the overall effectiveness of advertising.

Enforcing safeguards to fight fraud

Trust is eroding in the ecosystem for a number of reasons. For one, ad fraud is alive and well across OTT channels, typically in the format of masking n techniques that go undetected. In fact, Pixalate, the first MRC accredited vendor of detecting and filtering invalid traffic in OTT, reported that global OTT fraud rates average 19% and that Marketers may lose $10 billion annually in OTT ad spend by 2020.

Due to the aforementioned issues, advertisers are demanding transparency from partners to ensure fair value. Blockchain integration would allow brands to control pricing and manipulation of data, ensure transparency of the bidding process, target users at the right time through access to user data via blockchain smart contracts.

Today, there are a few major players working to make RTB for Smart TV a reality.

In September 2017, The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Technology Lab announced version 3.0 of their OpenRTB framework which was, “evolving to handle new kinds of programmatic buying and selling, such as header bidding, content sales, product recommendations, Smart TV, or perhaps even products.” It was the biggest revision to the protocol in seven years and has recently been rolled out in beta, with mass adoption projected for 2019.

Such innovative types of the business models which combine B2B marketplaces and blockchain technology has created a new system that allows accumulating a large volume of events, and after that sends this data to blockchain in one package. In other words, it’s not necessary for B2B advertising marketplace to save each transaction from RTB to the blockchain due to the fact that customers of such type of platforms will use an independent verification accounting system that will be able to benefit from internal RTB. Not all data will be saved into blockchain, but only critical resulting events such as division of profits among participants.

Integrating blockchain technology into the RTB system for Smart TV shows promise for growth of the advertisement industry and the elimination of fraud and lack of transparency. By eliminating intermediaries and introducing smart contracts to the platform, brands large and small have more opportunity to be profitable and are granted access to accurate analytics and data.

Source; https://www.martechadvisor.com/articles/ads/how-blockchain-integration-will-evolve-programmatic-rtb-for-smart-tv/

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North Bud Farms Inc. $NBUD.ca – Canada’s top marijuana enforcer stands by Liberals’ new pot policy $ACB $WEED.ca $HIP.ca

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Canada’s top marijuana enforcer stands by Liberals’ new pot policy

By Kory Dragon

  • A former police chief and narcotics enforcement officer, federal Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction Bill Blair is convinced Canada has done the right thing with its new marijuana decriminalization and regularization laws.
Martin C. Barry

As the federal minister responsible for the implementation and enforcement of Canada’s new marijuana legalization and regularization laws, there’s no mistaking the fact Bill Blair stands one hundred per cent behind the Trudeau Liberal government’s groundbreaking policy.

If anybody might be in a position to question the government’s stance, it could easily be Blair. The veteran policeman and former chief of the Toronto Police Service spent years fighting on the front lines against drug-related crime as a narcotics squad officer.

Former narcotics cop

“As a police officer for 40 years, I was involved in drug enforcement,” Blair, who is Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction, said in an interview with Newsfirst Multimedia while on a ministerial stopover in Montreal.

As chair of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police’s Organized Crime Committee, he said he was “well aware of the impact that illegal drug trafficking as controlled by organized crime was having in all of our communities.”

Drugs and violence linked

While noting that the link between organized crime and illegal drug trafficking had a lot do with an escalation of violence in Canadian cities these past few decades, Blair also pointed out that organized crime was earning billions of dollars in profits each year being the sole purveyors of a range of illegal substances that included marijuana.

Since the only means of controlling the situation available to society was criminal sanction, young people got swept up in the overall enforcement of the country’s drug laws, “which was disproportionate,” added Blair, “and was actually causing in many cases more harm. We wanted to discourage their use of the drug. But we also did not want to saddle that child with a criminal record for the rest of their life.”

Approached by Trudeau

According to Blair, all of this transpired long before he was asked by Justin Trudeau to run in the suburban Toronto riding of Scarborough Southwest in the October 2015 election. Blair and the future Prime Minister discussed the possibility of radically changing Canada’s cannabis laws.

“We talked about Canada’s control of cannabis. And he said ‘What do you think of legalizing it?’ And I said if we lift the criminal prohibition it gives the opportunity to get the situation back under control. Because currently the situation we were in was we had the highest rates of use among our kids in the world. And this is a dangerous drug for children. This is a drug that can have very serious implications for children.”

One third were breaking law

Leading up to the changes last October by the Liberal government to the country’s longstanding prohibition on cannabis, more than a third of Canada’s population had been breaking the law, Blair added. As such, “we began the process of looking at how do we reduce the harm of this drug.

“Some people say to me, ‘Well you’ve legalized cannabis.’ And I say no – we’ve regulated the daylights out of it. We’ve brought in all sorts of new rules – enforceable, proportionate, sensible rules – that control every aspect of its production, its sale and its consumption.

Says no to other drugs

“Whereas before we had only one tool and it was like a sledgehammer and we were trying to drive a nail. And no one wanted to swing the sledgehammer. But now we have the right suite of tools to control the system. And I believe it’ll result in a healthy situation for our children and a safer situation for our communities.”

Blair insisted that neither he nor the Liberal government would ever consider going down the same route with other street drugs as it has done with marijuana. “Cannabis is not a drug that kills people,” he said.

“But unfortunately with other more serious drugs which are deadly – the opioid crisis, for example, crystal methamphetamine, which is ravishing some of our prairie and northern communities – those drugs represent such a significant risk. And we don’t have a system of regulated production and control.

Meth and fentanyl out

“There is no alternative. We can go to a Health Canada-regulated production facility for marijuana, for cannabis. But we’re not going to create a similar thing for crystal methamphetamine. So there will be no other source other than the criminal source.” For drugs like methamphetamine and fentanyl, Blair said an important of the approach for dealing with them is to “interdict the supply to keep those drugs out of our country. We need to be very effective at restricting the supply. But we also have an enormous amount of work to do – and we have embarked as a government on this – to reduce the demand for those drugs. And that’s to prevent people from beginning to use them in the first place.”

Source: https://www.lavalnews.ca/2019/02/06/bill-blair-marijuana/

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