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Wrestling News
WWE star Rhonda Rousey tipped to leave WWE soon; May return to UFC - July 2023
“This was always, always, always the plan. What screwed it up, and admittedly, and everyone will admit this, as far as it was screwed up – when I was telling everyone a long time ago, hey, Ronda and Shayna are gonna win the tag team titles, it kept getting delayed and then Ronda got hurt.
“The thing was, and I don’t know the date, it might be SummerSlam, it might be a little bit after. The deal is that Ronda has a hard out. She gave a date, ‘This is my last date’.
“Because I remember talking to somebody there and it’s like, well, I know they’re gonna do this, make the big match for WrestleMania, and it’s like, ‘No, her hard out is long before WrestleMania’.
“The point is that, whatever it is that they’re planning to do… they wanna do a feud. The whole tag team was to set up Ronda and Shayna doing a feud. Ronda wanted to do this feud with Shayna, she got what she wanted. She’s always wanted to do it because Shayna’s the one that got her basically into pro-wrestling.
“Shayna developed Ronda’s love for professional wrestling, so to her pay her back, they’re gonna do a program. I don’t know if it’s one match, I don’t know if it’s two or three, but based on whenever that out is, they had to get it done now.
“This was the latest they could go. They wanted a long title reign to build it up and to do the whole thing where you can see the (turn) coming, the little teases and everything – they didn’t have time.” - Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer
Boxing News: Jake Paul speaks on PPVs
Boxing: "Piracy is rampant, competition for eyeballs non-stop. "Doing a million buys today is like doing two million buys 10 years ago." "current PPV movers no matter the opponent" are Tyson Fury, Canelo Alvarez and self. One of boxing's top 3 PPV attractions; Believes that he is one of the top attractions with Tyson Fury & Canelo Alvarez. "Selling PPV is really hard". "Less than 10 fighters in the world can truly move six figures on their own consistently: Jake Paul
Wagering, TV bodies slam proposed gambling ads ban; AFL wary of impact - June 28th, 2023
Some of Australia’s biggest bookmakers have decried a potential ban on gambling advertisements as an ineffective and short-sighted way to remediate gambling harm, after a parliamentary inquiry report recommended the Albanese government commit to a comprehensive ban across all sectors within the next three years.
Responsible Wagering Australia (RWA) is the body that represents gambling giants including Sportsbet, PointsBet and Ladbrokes. It said the proposal, one of 31 recommendations raised by the House of Representatives standing committee on social policy and legal affairs, was a step too far and jeopardised the future of sporting codes and local broadcasters.
“Other more measured options which could be considered by the government include capping the numbers of gambling ads to be shown,” RWA chief Kai Cantwell said on Wednesday.
“By doing this, the expectations of the community to see less advertising would be met, while also maintaining the crucial support to sporting codes and local broadcasters.”
Tabcorp, which is not a member of RWA, welcomed the proposal after previously joining advocates in supporting a total ban on gambling broadcast advertising.
Tabcorp chief Adam Rytenskild said the report’s release marked an important moment for the sustainability of the wagering industry, reiterating a point from the inquiry’s hearing that the proliferation of gambling advertising is excessive.
“Tabcorp welcomes the committee’s recommendation for a nationally consistent regulatory framework. All wagering operators should have to adhere to the same regulations.”
Tabcorp’s stance is motivated by a keenness to protect its market share, according to rivals, and Rytenskild’s comments offer a stark contrast to RWA chief Cantwell who said the recommendations fail to consider the evidence from the committee hearings earlier this year.
“RWA recognises community concerns around online wagering advertising and there are more effective ways of meeting community expectations,” Cantwell said.
RWA and Free TV Australia, which has acted on behalf of Seven, Ten and Nine (the owner of this masthead), have argued for frequency caps on the number of ads shown across different channels, rather than a blanket ban.
Cantwell said by capping the number of ads, the community’s expectations to see less advertising would be met, while maintaining the support to sporting codes and local broadcasters.
He added a blanket ban through a phased roll-out was “short-sighted, ineffective and not the answer”, and could lead to more Australians turning to illegal offshore markets.
The AFL’s chief financial officer and general manager of broadcasting and clubs, Travis Auld, said on Wednesday it was too early for the league to have a response, and it had been consulting with the federal government about changes that could work.
“Any changes we make and the consequences of those changes need to be well thought through and well understood. There are some significant decisions within there that have impacts potentially on our industry,” Auld said.
He said that money from wagering firms was part of the AFL’s infrastructure, helping the competition keep its prices low, as well as invest in the game at a grassroots level. The AFL has an $8 million a year deal with Sportsbet.
“Of course money is part of it. It’s what allows us to keep our prices where we are, it’s what allows us to invest in boys and girls playing football at this level,” said Auld.
Despite a record $4.5 billion broadcast agreement signed with Seven Network and Foxtel in 2022, Auld said the AFL and both of its partners would represent themselves independently in any conversations around potential financial impacts.
“The commerciality from their point of view will remain known to them. I think we’ve been clear on the impacts on us.”
Free TV Australia’s CEO, Bridget Fair, warned a “kneejerk move” to implement an outright ban “will ultimately hurt viewers and the television services they love”.
“Many of the sports broadcasting deals have been agreed to beyond the three-year phase-out
period for advertising,” Fair said.
An NRL spokesperson said it recognised the significant stakeholder and community interest in gambling, saying it is committed to ensuring the NRL’s approach reflects this interest, “while also encouraging a holistic, evidence-based approach to mitigate the risks of gambling harm more broadly”.
A report earlier this year from the Australian Gambling Research Centre found most Australians (64 per cent) believe governments should play the biggest role in how wagering is advertised.
Dr Kei Sakata, the research centre’s acting executive manager, welcomed the report’s recommendations, saying it is a crucial step in reducing gambling harm.
Sakata also welcomed the committee’s recommendations of a national classifications scheme and effective warning labels for simulated gambling games and loot boxes, as well ongoing funding for gambling research.
(The Sydney Morning Herald)
WWE Money in The Bank breaks records - 2023
WWE Money in the Bank 2023 set a huge company record, as did this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown.
Both the June 30 SmackDown episode and the July 1 WWE premium live event emanated from the O2 Arena in London, England.
Both shows were eventful, with passionate UK fans filling the arena on both nights.
During the post-show press conference, Triple H revealed that Money in the Bank 2023 was the highest-grossing arena show in WWE history.
Triple H didn’t specify how much WWE brought in, but this would mean that the show earned more than any other WWE event to take place in an indoor arena.
The Chief Content Officer also revealed that the previous night’s edition of SmackDown was the highest-grossing SmackDown in WWE history.
He did state that over 37,000 fans were in attendance at the O2 Arena across both nights, noting that WWE is proud of the success of SmackDown and Money in the Bank.
As far as attendance figures go, WrestleTix previously reported that 17,617 tickets had been distributed for the sold out Money in the Bank event.
The premium live event was certainly eventful, with Jey Uso pinning Roman Reigns in the Usos vs Reigns & Solo Sikoa Bloodline Civil War.
This marked Reigns’ first pinfall loss since December 2019.
Reading restrictions imposed on Twitter users - July 2, 2023
Elon Musk has imposed temporary reading restrictions for Twitter users, announcing paying customers will be allowed to see more tweets than unverified accounts.
Mr Musk says extreme levels of data scraping has prompted the social media company to limit users to reading 6,000 posts per day.
Accounts without a blue tick will be restricted to 600 posts per day.
New accounts yet to be verified will be capped at 300 tweets.
Several US Agencies Set Up New Crypto Task Force in Arizona to Combat Illegal Online Activity - June 2023
Federal agencies have joined forces to combat crimes involving cryptocurrencies in Arizona after seeing an increase in digital transactions related to narcotics, firearms, and other illicit activity.
On June 15, Homeland Security Investigations in Arizona and representatives from four other federal agencies signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the “Darknet Marketplace and Digital Currency Crimes Task Force,” according to a June 20 press release by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The other agencies who signed the agreement are the IRS, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona.
Over the past several years, federal agencies have seen an increase in the use of the internet to facilitate illegal transactions involving narcotics, personal information, firearms, and other contraband, the report said, adding that the use of digital currency to facilitate these transactions has also risen.
The task force aims to “disrupt and dismantle criminal organizations that exploit the appearance of anonymity on the darknet or use digital currency to facilitate criminal activities, such as drug trafficking, money laundering, theft of personal information, and child exploitation.”
The new task force is expected to serve the needs of Arizona.
Darknets are internet-based networks that require special software and authorization to access. They’re designed to provide anonymity, making them a haven for criminal activity.
Illicit Crypto Activity
According to a February 2023 report by forensic cryptocurrency firm Chainalysis (pdf), the illicit transaction volume in the cryptocurrency market rose to $20.6 billion in 2022 from $18.1 billion in 2021 and $8.4 billion in 2020.
The share of illicit activity in the overall cryptocurrency activity stood at 0.24 percent. Although this is the second-lowest number in six years, it is up from 0.12 percent in 2021.
Darknet markets and fraud shops made an estimated $1.5 billion in 2022, down from $3.1 billion in 2021, the report said. The reason for the drop is attributed to the shutdown of Hydra Market, a leading darknet marketplace.
“Hydra’s closure prompted a sector-wide decline in darknet market revenues, with average daily revenue for all markets falling from $4.2 million just prior to its closure and to $447,000 immediately after. While drug markets’ collective revenue hasn’t recovered fully, it climbed slowly back toward previous levels in the second half of 2022. Fraud shops, however, have continued to decline,” the report said.
When it comes to scams, U.S. victims of cryptocurrency scams lost five times more money in 2022 compared to other types of internet crimes, according to a June 6 study by cybersecurity company Surfshark.
Each American victim is estimated to have lost an average of $86,000 per year due to cryptocurrency scams compared to the average loss of $16,000 per year in scams involving traditional payment methods.
In total, over $2.3 billion worth of cryptocurrencies are calculated to have been lost to internet crimes across the United States last year.
Crypto Use by Sanctioned Entities
The Chainalysis report also pointed out that 43 percent of 2022’s illicit transaction volume came from activity associated with sanctioned entities. It gave the example of cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, which accounted for the majority of the sanctions-related transaction volume last year.
The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Garantex in April 2022, but “as a Russia-based business, the exchange has been able to continue operating with impunity,” the report said.
“Transactions associated with Garantex or any other sanctioned crypto service represent, at the very least, substantial compliance risk for businesses that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction, including fines and potential criminal charges.”
America’s rivals like China and North Korea also use cryptocurrency for illicit activities. A June 11 report from The Wall Street Journal claimed that North Korea stole more than $3 billion in cryptocurrency and used it to fund about half of its ballistic missile program.
A May 23 report by Elliptic highlighted China’s use of cryptocurrencies in its fentanyl trafficking operations.
“Elliptic’s blockchain analysis shows that the cryptocurrency wallets used by these [Chinese fentanyl precursor] companies have received thousands of payments, totaling just over $27 million, and that the number of transactions has increased by 450 percent year-on-year,” the study said.
“$27 million would purchase enough precursor to produce fentanyl pills with a street value of approximately $54 billion,” it said.
What's going on at Twitter? Elon Musk's latest controversial decision is 'read limits' - 3rd July 2023
As Twitter imposes limits on the number of tweets users can view, we look back at Elon Musk's tumultuous and confusing ownership of the social media platform.
KEY POINTS
Twitter has limited the number of tweets an unverified user can read to 1,000 a day.
The decision has been taken to reportedly limit data scraping.
Owner Elon Musk has cut the company's value by more than half since October.
Twitter owner Elon Musk has introduced a limit on how many tweets users can view, meaning verified accounts will have a 'read limit' of 10,000 posts a day and unverified accounts can only read 1,000 posts a day.
Twitter's decision was made to discourage "extreme levels" of data scraping and system manipulation by actors, including AI companies, Mr Musk wrote on the platform.
It's the latest eyebrow-raising move at the company since the billionaire bought the company for US$44 billion ($66 billion) and took over in October last year, with many wondering what his strategy is.
Here's a look back at the confusing and controversial decisions at the company, which even Mr Musk admits is now worth far less than what he bought it for - he reportedly sent a memo to staff suggesting it was worth US$20 billion ($30 billion).
Why did Elon Musk fire so much of Twitter's workforce?
One of Mr Musk's first decisions at the company was to sack thousands of workers globally, allegedly to reduce costs.
He has since said around 80 per cent of staff have gone from the company, meaning its books now have around 1,500 staff, compared to over 8,000 before his takeover.
The purge included former chief executive Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal and other executives, and also led to mass sackings of curators and moderators which has had knock-on effects to the product's algorithm and advertisers abandoning it.
Twitter's Australia operation lost most of its workers.
Linda Yaccarino was appointed to take over the reins in May.
Many at the company were hoping the former ad executive would help bring back advertisers who had abandoned the platform since the Musk takeover.
What happened when Twitter introduced verified accounts?
Twitter began charging $12 a month for the iconic blue tick in a 'Twitter Blue' subscription, again under the banner of eliminating data scraping and managing bots.
The tick was once known as a symbol to verify one's identity and granted to high-profile figures such as celebrities, politicians and journalists for free, but those who declined to pay for the new subscription have since lost their ticks.
Mr Musk said that those who have a Twitter Blue subscription are being prioritised in the algorithm.
Twitter Blue users also get access to posting longer videos, the ability to edit tweets and an ad-free experience.
Is Twitter allowing hate speech to go unchecked?
Australia's eSafety Commission has issued Twitter a warning and threat of hefty fines if it does not deal with a surge of online hate.
Mr Musk allowed 62,000 banned or suspended users to be reinstated to the platform, many of which had been banned for hate speech.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in June there have been more complaints about online hate on Twitter in the past year than any other platform, and complaints have spiked since October.
Ms Inman Grant said Twitter's policies prohibited hateful conduct on the platform but rising complaints to eSafety and reports of the toxic content remaining on the platform show that Twitter was probably not enforcing its own rules.
"We are also aware of reports that the reinstatement of some of these previously banned accounts has emboldened extreme polarisers, peddlers of outrage and hate, including neo-Nazis both in Australia and overseas," Ms Inman Grant said.
US advocacy group GLAAD has designated Twitter as the most hateful platform towards the LGBTQ+ community.
Research by the UK-based Centre for Countering Digital Hate demonstrated that slurs against African Americans showed up on Twitter an average of 1,282 times a day before Mr Musk took over the platform. Afterwards, they more than doubled to an average of 3,876 times a day.
Reversing ban on COVID-19 misinformation
Similarly, Twitter's terms and conditions were changed to reverse a ban on posting misinformation related to COVID-19.
"Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy," the terms said.
Public health officials condemned the decision and said it could lead to more false claims about the virus or the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.
With additional reporting by AAP.