The right-back was signed by Jose Mourinho from Porto for a fee of £19million in 2018 but he has fallen down the pecking order at Old Trafford.

Manchester United defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka has heaped praise on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for helping him perform this season. He says Solskjaer 'wants every player to improve'

The 21-year-old right-back joined the club from Porto in 2018 for around £18m.but he has had few opportunities this season due to sensational form of Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

The US Department of Health and Human Services announced that it is delivering drug remdesivir to Illinois, New Jersey, Michigan, Connecticut, Maryland and Iowa.

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes playmaker Bruno Fernandes and record signing Paul Pogba can form a strong midfield partnership when the Premier League season resumes following the COVID-19 disruption.

Archives, Room Use Only - HJ5321.Z7 R53 1947

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Archives, Room Use Only - HE7781.C65 1844

Historic maps from the Library's collections documenting battles and campaigns of the Civil War, and other historical events.  The site sill be updated regularly with a selection of new maps, accompanied by captions, in chronological order.

Click here for more information.

Modi had on Friday urged people to turn off lights at their homes for nine minutes at 9pm to display the country's collective resolve and solidarity to defeat the virus.

Non-native plant species pose a significant threat to the natural ecosystems of the United States. Many of these invasive plants are escapees from gardens and […]

The post Escape of the invasives: Top six invasive plant species in the United States appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

By now, most of the United States has started to feel the first cool caresses of winter. Everything is pumpkin spiced, and the last crickets […]

The post Feathered diplomats unite pupils in North and Central America appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Source: Knox Henderson for Streetwise Reports   05/05/2020

News Update: A quick update since FansUnite Entertainment Inc. went live on Tuesday, May 5, because big things are happening in the industry, thus showing there is an enormous appetite for this kind of technology especially now, as we (very slowly) emerge out of this COVID pandemic. . .FansUnite is at a small-cap entry point with tremendous upside. After a financing at $0.35, the now-trading company rests slightly above that as a relatively new and unknown entity—so far—which is why now is great opportunity participate in a smaller scale, yet leveraged, consolidation play. "We have a great opportunity to use our stock as currency, and then grow and scale companies through our team and resources," says CEO Darius Eghdami. Read the entire update here.

Lets face it: gamers love games. While currently there's a dearth of real sports activity, that doesn't mean people aren't starving something to speculate on. No sports? No problem. Consider that there is $50 billion dollars placed online every year, according to ESPN. That's a lot of hungry money looking for a place to play.

So, despite the absence of the NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB, new online platforms are offering fun times for taking your chances on everything from reality TV shows, award shows, online gaming and virtual sports along with real in-the-flesh nail-biters like horse racing, table tennis and snooker. Who cares? It's all about the thrill of playing and winning. According to The The Guardian, just last week, "as coronavirus and the subsequent shelter-in-place orders have shut businesses around the globe and forced people to stay inside, some jobs have proven more stable than others," it said referring to online players. "The four U.S. states with legal sites—New Jersey, Nevada, Delaware, and Pennsylvania—reported record revenues in March." Meanwhile despite our current "modified behaviors" and "slowing of the economy," investors are also very keen on speculation in the gaming industry itself.

"FansUnite is at a small-cap entry point with tremendous upside."

Take, for example, DraftKings (NASDAQ:DKNG), which launched as recently as April 23, in the thick of this stay-at-home pandemic. After completing a merger with Diamond Eagle, a special purpose acquisition company, and back-end technology provider SBTech, its stock soared. Not only did DraftKings' stock jump 14% in its first day of trading before closing up 10.38% at $19.35, but the company was also able to add another half a billion dollars on the balance sheet at a time when it's not easy to raise money. The company is currently nearing a $1 billion market capitalization.

In this game, consolidation is key. Another highly successful big gaming conglomerate over-the-pond is UK-based GVC Gaming Group, which has been consolidating gaming assets over the last 15 years and is now worth $7.5 billion.

This week on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) an emerging player is launching its platform onto the public market. FansUnite Entertainment Inc. (FANS:CSE), a company active in the gaming industry since 2014, is led by industry veterans who are looking to unleash their own high-growth consolidation strategy. The company is focusing on technology related to regulated and lawful internet activity and other related products.

Its business is to consolidate business-to-business (B2B) partnerships worldwide, operate its FansUnite business-to-consumer (B2C) coined Sportsbook launching later this year, and operate its recently acquired (March 26) Scottish subsidiary, McBookie, an online white-label sportsbook licensed and regulated by the U.K. Commission. Even considering the "COVID" delays in traditional sports, the company expects to generate at least $1 million in 2020. Considering FansUnite's experience in the space and its established technologies in an industry that is truly trending, FansUnite has a long runway from its current $25 million market cap to the billions-dollar peers it's chasing, and that is why this looks be a great stock to hold right out of the gate.

When you consider "B2B" in this scenario, consider an entity that wants to create a sportsbook, to become "the house," if you will. That company would turn to FansUnite to set up a turnkey "white-label" (as in use FansUnite technology but with its own brand) online platform, complete with user onboarding, fan integration and access to fulfillment in fiat currency (hard dollars) or cryptocurrency. For this service FansUnite takes a percentage of the "house earnings" and also charges for its Software as a Service (SaaS) platform. In the B2C scenario, FansUnite itself is the "house," using its own sportsbook and technology platform, and executes the marketing efforts to on-board new users.

McBookie, the company's first acquisition, is a white-label sportsbook in the UK, focusing on the Scottish market. It offers 200,000 members active in sports, and virtual games and boasts over $100 million turnover cumulatively the last three years. "It's a great brand with an experienced team operating for over a decade," says FansUnite CEO Darius Eghdami. "We completed this acquisition late March, and our focus currently is going to continue building our presence in the Scottish market."

Moving forward, Eghdami says the team will be putting an emphasis on M&A activity. "We'll continue to look for strong assets with either great technology or a strong database of users where we can come in with our team and resources and really grow and scale the business," he says.

With strong financial backing, Eghdami is also looking at potential opportunities in the colossal U.S. market. "The big heavyweights are coming into the U.S.. We don't intend to be an operator in the U.S., so we're looking at other ways to get in the market and that includes social peer activity, fan engagement, as well as licensed affiliate opportunities."

Eghdami points to another big success story in Canada, Amaya (TSE:TSGI), which is now The Stars Group and has a market capitalization of $11.5 billion. "It's a tremendous story of how they built the company and started to acquire assets. It's a model that we would love to follow."

After a crushing dip into the pandemic, TSGI.T is big-board player that has catapulted to new highs once the reality set in that social isolation might not necessarily be a bad thing for online gaming providers. According to Bloomberg, "The Stars Group Inc. says it saw record revenue in its first quarter as COVID-19 led to an increase in online activity starting in March. And, it says, it has continued to see increased activity in its online playing into the second quarter. In an update to its expectations for the three-month period ended March 31, the company says it expects revenue of approximately US$735 million, up from US$580 million in the first quarter of 2019."

"The stay-at-home lifestyle we now face in 2020 could result in a massive shift in the habits of players," says Eghdami. "Players that are used to going to the physical house, or the horse track, may now shift their habits to online. The older generation now may be signing up on online platforms and realize they can do this a lot easier. We're getting new users on the platform every day, and players starting to turn to virtual sports as well."

FansUnite is the brainchild of three entrepreneurs who have each already carved out more than a decade of in-the-trenches experience in the industry. Two of them including founder Eghdami and his former associate at KMPG, Graeme Moore, are chartered accountants, while co-founder Duncan McIntyre is a practicing lawyer schooled in mergers, acquisitions and corporate development. The teams' first success was the development of the FansUnite B2C social platform, which they eventually sold to a public company in 2016. FansUnite Social uses a free virtual currency for members to simulate the real thing while following and learning from their online heroes. The endgame, of course, is toward transferring the activity to the real-dollar platforms.

FansUnite Technology—B2C Social Platform

After the sale of the social peer platform, Eghdami and company decided to maintain the "FansUnite" brand equity in their new venture, launched in 2017. "We had the idea of getting into real-money sports gaming, spun it out of the pubic company, raised money in 2018 and started down this path. For the last year and a half we've been building our own technology to launch our sportsbook from a B2C perspective as well as prepare it for a full turn-key B2B solution. An option on the B2B platform will be a "smart contract sports book" whereby the funds are held "in-trust" and not accessible to FansUnite or end users until the event is completed and funds are directly sent to the winning party. The FansUnite platform is expected to accept cryptocurrency and regular fiat currency on its sportsbooks.

As part of FansUnite's roll-up strategy of entering into other world markets, acquiring yet maintaining well-established brands is the key to building its global B2B customers and B2C end users. The company is well funded with access to capital. Much of its support comes from industry leaders on the board like Shafin Diamond, CEO of Victory Square since 2015, a venture builder that builds start-ups in web, mobile, gaming, AI and AR/VR. Diamond has launched 40 start-ups in 24 countries, employed more than 350 people, and has generated over $100 million in annual revenues. He has received numerous awards, including the BC Tech Person of the Year Award, BC Angel Investor of the Year in 2014, and Business in Vancouver's Top 40 under 40.

FansUnite recently completed a financing of $3.1 million at $0.35 (free trading upon listing) and used $500,000 cash for the McBookie transaction before launching its IPO on the CSE. Total consideration for the McBookie deal was for approximately CAD$2.2 million, composed of the $500,000 cash up front, and $500,000 cash to be paid within 12 months, the rest in stock, at $0.35 a share, vesting and unrestricting over a course of 36 months.

Currently, management and insiders hold about 20% of the 70 million shares outstanding, and there are 3.5 million options and 1.4 million warrants with a weighted average price of $0.48 and $0.17 respectively, so no scary skeletons in the closet. Eghdami says the company is now sitting on about a $2 million war chest and burning about $175,000 per month. Should investor speculation lift its share price (as predicted here), it should be able to execute is M&A activity with a much stronger currency.

With $1 trillion waged annually, according to UK-based Football Report, the global market for this kind of technology is insane. Apparently, due to "COVID self-containment," it's "trending" even more as digital consumers are quarantined in their homes with nothing better to do but play on their computers.

As we hopefully ease out of this economic situation, FansUnite will have to execute fast and furiously. Now launching on the CSE at C$0.35 with a current market capitalization of $25 million, it has a long way to go, and much to prove, toward reaching the billion-dollar heights of its gaming peers, but the pie is big and the appetite is certainly there.

This is one race worth watching.

Knox Henderson is a journalist and capital markets communications consultant. He has advised for a broad range of small cap companies in the resource, life sciences and technology sectors for more than 25 years.

Disclosure:
1) 1) Knox Henderson: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: None. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: FansUnite Entertainment Inc. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: None. I determined which companies would be included in this article based on my research and understanding of the sector.
2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. As of the date of this article, an affiliate of Streetwise Reports has a consulting relationship with FansUnite. Please click here for more information. An affiliate of Streetwise Reports is conducting a digital media marketing campaign for this article on behalf of FansUnite. Please click here for more information. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.
3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy.
4) This article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.
5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article until three business days after the publication of the interview or article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of FansUnite, a company mentioned in this article.

( Companies Mentioned: FANS:CSE, )

Source: Knox Henderson for Streetwise Reports   05/07/2020

A quick update since FansUnite Entertainment Inc. (FANS:CSE) went live on Tuesday, May 5, because big things are happening in the industry, thus showing there is an enormous appetite for this kind of technology especially now, as we (very slowly) emerge out of this COVID pandemic.

On the sports front, Germany announced that its Bundesliga soccer will resume games in May, yet with tight restrictions and no fans. This is followed by the Turkish soccer league, which plans to resume playing on June 12. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), with a huge draw to the masses—the UFC 246 prelims averaged 1.767 million viewers on ESPN—will return at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla., on May 9, again featuring no live fans. So as more sports emerge in our "new reality," where will those fans be? Online, of course! In a fanless sports environment we're going to see a lot of online engagement no matter what sport or activity that may be. That's going to spawn even more online attention, which will likely hold firm even after we emerge from our home quarantine.

The industry is rapidly consolidating. On Tuesday we alluded to The Stars Group Inc. (formerly Amaya), which, according to Bloomberg, "saw record revenue in its first quarter as COVID-19 led to an increase in online activity starting in March. Indeed TSGI.T has had a great run from $18 mid-March to a high of $40 on May 1 after it confirmed shareholder approval of a friendly takeover by UK based Flutter Entertainment plc. (LSE:FLTR.L - News). The two create a £10 billion (US$12 billion) giant, according to Racing Post, and combine for more than 13 million customers, US$4.6 billion in revenue and US$1.7 billion in EBITDA.

Investors are getting on board

In our previous note we referred to DraftKings (NASDAQ:DKNG), which launched as recently as April 23, in the thick of this stay-at-home pandemic. After completing a merger with Diamond Eagle, a special purpose acquisition company, and back-end technology provider SBTech, its stock soared. DraftKings' stock jumped 14% in its first day of trading before closing up 10.38% at $19.35. The company was also able to add another half a billion dollars on the balance sheet at a time when it's not easy to raise money. That company currently has a $17 billion market capitalization.

Meanwhile there's been a noticeable correlation of trading activity in the industry from mid-March to the end of April:

• Prior to the merger with Canadian The Stars Group, Dublin, Ireland-based Flutter, trading as OTC:PDYPY in the U.S., had a good run of its own. Since mid-March it doubled from $31 to $64 by the end of April, despite any global sport-killing pandemic.

• UK-based GVC Holdings PLC (LSE:GVC) gained 23% in the last month, from $611 to $750, reaching a US$4.3 billion market capitalization.

• After falling from February highs of $30, Scientific Games (NASDAQ:SGMS) more than tripled from a $4 low mid-march to $13 by the end of April to again reach a $1 billion market valuation.

• Penn National Gaming (NASDAQ:PENN), now at a US$1.8 billion market capitalization, has a chart that mirrors SGMS. After February highs of $38, PENN rebounded through the COVID crisis. It also more than tripled from a low of $4.50 mid-March to a $17.80 high by the end of April.

• Score Media and Gaming (SCR.V,) with a market capitalization of $185 million, during that same period, ran from $0.32 to $0.42 mid-march to April 29, gaining 31%

• (are you starting to a pattern here?)

On the regulatory front, Colorado, became the next state to legalize sports bargaining following New Jersey, Nevada, Delaware and Pennsylvania. The state is poised to generate $6 billion in annual wagers and an estimated $400 million in revenue once the industry matures, according to Dustin Gouker, chief analyst for PlayColorado.com. According to the Denver Post, Colorado fans will have their pick of 17 digital sportsbooks currently licensed to operate in the state.

FansUnite Is at a Small-Cap Entry Point with Tremendous Upside.

It is in this environment that FansUnite launched on the Canadian Securities Exchange on May 5. "We are just getting started," said CEO Darius Eghdami. "We've bought a great asset in McBookie and will be continuing to focus on M&A." McBookie, the company's first acquisition, is a white-label sportsbook in the UK, focusing on the Scottish market. It offers 200,000 members active in sports and virtual games, and boasts over $100 million turnover cumulatively the last three years. "We want to be active in finding that next 'McBookie' operating in a niche market, looking at Esports assets and also creative ways to get into the U.S. market. "

After a financing at $0.35, the now-trading company rests slightly above that as a relatively new and unknown entity—so far—which is why now is great opportunity participate in a smaller scale, yet leveraged, consolidation play. "We have a great opportunity to use our stock as currency, and then grow and scale companies through our team and resources," says Eghdami.

"We also have great investors and support, a very experienced board and management team and a clear vision of how we want to be that next gaming giant. The path has been shown by other Canadian gaming companies such as Amaya, and we want to follow that path and execute on our vision."

It's an ambitious plan: a CA$25 million market-cap company, $2 million in the bank, with a consolidation plan to attack a $1 trillion online industry. Yet FansUnite comes out of the gate with strong financial backing led by board member Shafin Diamond, CEO of Victory Square since 2015, a venture builder that builds start-ups in web, mobile, gaming, AI and AR/VR. Diamond has launched 40 start-ups in 24 countries, employed more than 350 people, and has generated over $100 million in annual revenues.

Eghdami says the immediate plan is to strengthen its UK presence with McBookie and focus on M&A activity, while continuing to develop its software platform.

The games are just beginning.

Knox Henderson is a journalist and capital markets communications consultant. He has advised for a broad range of small cap companies in the resource, life sciences and technology sectors for more than 25 years.

Disclosure:
1) 1) Knox Henderson: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: None. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: FansUnite Entertainment Inc. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: None. I determined which companies would be included in this article based on my research and understanding of the sector.
2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. As of the date of this article, an affiliate of Streetwise Reports has a consulting relationship with FansUnite. Please click here for more information. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security.
3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy.
4) This article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.
5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article until three business days after the publication of the interview or article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of FansUnite, a company mentioned in this article.

( Companies Mentioned: FANS:CSE, )

Policymakers, employers, and educational institutions should take steps to strengthen the nation’s skilled technical workforce, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

NASA’s large strategic missions like the Hubble Space Telescope, the Curiosity rover on Mars, and the Terra Earth observation satellite are essential to maintaining the United States’ global leadership in space exploration and should continue to be a primary component of a balanced space science program that includes large, medium, and smaller missions, says a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

For his pioneering role in national health policy and health services research, the National Academy of Medicine today announced Stuart Altman is the recipient of the 2018 Gustav O. Lienhard Award for Advancement of Health Care.

Together, European policy and research initiatives provide a sound basis for actions to tackle eutrophication in the Mediterranean Sea, a recent analysis concludes. The review brings together scientific understanding from over 50 years of research on eutrophication and a discussion of the policy frameworks currently in place to deal with this issue.

Watford fans should be able to enjoy Christmas a little more after the Hornets gave their survival prospects a sizeable boost with a memorable 2-0 victory over Manchester United to finally pick up their first Premier League win of the season at Vicarage Road.

Ben Foster produced one of the saves of the season as Watford's recent revival continued with a draw against Sheffield United.

Watford were unable to capitalise on defeats for some of their fellow Premier League strugglers as they fell to a 3-0 loss at Manchester United.

...

Professor Su Guaning, President Emeritus of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), has been elected to the United States' National Academy of Engineering (NAE)....

American Norwood Thomas traveled to Australia to see his lost love Joyce Morris for the first time since 1945.

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Discussions about the Russian meteor explosion and Earth's encounter with asteroid 2012 DA14 were high on the Feb. 15 agenda of a UN meeting.