Midas Links

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After leading his financial conglomerate for more than six decades, Warren Buffett is stepping down as Berkshire Hathaway chairman, effective immediately. Buffett has transitioned to the role of chairman emeritus and will remain on the company’s board of directors.

Greg Abel took over as CEO of the $1 trillion organization in early 2026. While Buffett continued to visit the office daily, he indicated he is now ready for a slower pace.

“Recently, I celebrated my 96th birthday with family and friends, including one of my great-grandchildren, who had just turned one. He’s moving a bit faster than I am these days,” Buffett wrote in a letter to shareholders. The billionaire credited Abel with exceeding his “sky-high” expectations, giving him complete confidence in completing the transition.

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“People will lose money faster on exchanges for lots of reasons,” Marantelli says. “It inherently increases spend, volatility, lots of things. And you’re playing against a sharper audience than you’re playing against at the DraftKings sportsbook.”

He compares the effect with sportsbook cash-out features, which gave customers more apparent control over their bets but may also have encouraged greater spending. The crucial difference is that an exchange customer can be facing a specialist whose entire business is identifying inaccurately priced contracts.

Kendrick sees a warning in the history of betting exchanges. In their early growth phase, there was sufficient retail liquidity for numerous market makers to profit. As that retail pool weakened, the sharper firms increasingly found themselves trading against one another.

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Excluding lotteries, the Gambling Commission reported that GGY rose 4.7% to £13.2 billion ($17.7 billion) between April 2025 and March 2026.

Growth was strongest online, where remote casino, betting, and bingo GGY climbed 6.9% to £8.3 billion ($11.1 billion), compared with a modest 1.1% increase across land-based sectors.

This digital expansion coincided with a continued shrinkage in physical retail. Great Britain had 8,081 licensed premises at the end of the period, down 2% year-on-year.