The New Sports Economy

Download the IRS confirmation letter here: http://thenewsportseconomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/501c3.Ack_.6.15.12.pdf

Download documents here: http://thenewsportseconomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/501c3.Final_.Documents.zip

Educating the public

The recent financial crisis has touched the lives of many people. Jobs were lost, homes were vacated and businesses went bankrupt. Morale declined significantly, retirement ceased being an option for a lot of individuals and pessimism took over. While the economy seems to be improving slightly, a broad recovery is yet to be felt by the general public. The experience is likely to stay with us and change our behavior for many years to come.

The financial markets became so complex that uncovering the exact reasons of the crisis is an elusive task. However, the evidence is undisputed that the broader public was removed from the intricacies of the financial world more than ever before. While this cannot start a crisis on its own, it certainly made the effects felt more widespread and the path to a recovery longer.

So, what do we do? Financial reform is a step in the right direction for certain. But, the best protection comes from understanding the risks and inner workings of the financial world, not from eliminating certain practices or creating a few more agencies with oversight responsibilities. To be clear, better oversight is sorely needed and will, to some extent, ensure that corporations do not benefit at the expense of the consumer. However, unless the consumer is well-educated and understands the risks and what can be done to manage those risks, the cycle is likely to repeat placing wide-ranging policy decisions in the hands of a handful of people once again.

We believe that the public is smart but it is unfair to expect them to be up to date with everything going on in the financial sector. Making things worse, money attracts all types of people into the finance business. There are those who are very skilled at what they do and hold themselves to the highest ethical standards. There are some whose practices are technically legal but not necessarily ethical.  Finally there are con artists and crooks doing everything possible to make a quick buck at your expense.

So, how do you separate one from another?

There is only way: knowledge and understanding.  Every individual and every family must understand finance and money at a basic level to distinguish between the good, the bad and the ugly.

Of course, teaching finance is already a lucrative business. There are many excellent books and advisors providing good advice. But the same problem exists: how do you separate the good from the bad and good intentions from crooked ones? The business of making money may be bigger than the business of teaching money but the latter is still significant so it draws a mixed crowd to the field.

Finally, the ever increasing complexity of finance makes it very difficult for the general public to digest advanced concepts.

Overall, there are some decent attempts in the marketplace. But, is it really working? No, not really.

The rules of financial education need to be rewritten.

The solution is to go back to square one and start the learning process over. The best way to learn something is start at a familiar place and work your way up the learning curve identifying similarities and differences.

That familiar place is sports.

Most of us watch sports, play sports and consume it heavily. We talk sports and we live sports.

We know sports.

The idea of using sports to educate is not new but it presently exists in disconnected and unorganized pieces. A college professor may use the technique in his class. A company may encourage sports for team building and morale. Those efforts are laudable but they don’t achieve a certain threshold to become widespread and meaningful for the society at large. The process has to be more organized to reach a tipping point and to make a lasting difference.

The New Sports Economy Institute will provide comprehensive finance education using a sports-based curriculum so the public will make better personal financial decisions in their daily lives. To this end, public and private funds will be sought along with available accreditations and certifications. Best available practices will be maintained throughout to facilitate the normal functions, operations, programs and pursuits incidental to a fully recognized and operational nonprofit institute for the effective delivery of global public education. Building out this mission is a full-time effort currently carried out by volunteers and company directors.

Since incorporation on July 9, 2011 the core team has been actively engaged in the planning stages. Presently we continue to build on our core implementation plan with an eye toward specific objectives, budgets and timelines.  The primary delivery vehicle will be the Internet and a prime driver will be ease of access at little to no cost. Our mission is to deliver valuable and practical sports-based finance content that can be readily accessed on a mobile device from New York to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

for opposition:  http://thenewsportseconomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/THE-NEW-SPORTS-ECONOMY-85347002-PubPage.pdf

See 3 entries dated 4.25.12: https://register.epo.org/espacenet/application?number=EP09835790&lng=en&tab=doclist

A legal opinion on how to proceed was ordered today from our agent in London. That opinion will be published when received in about 14 days.

Washington, DC – The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today issued an order pursuant to Section 5c(c)(5)(C)(ii) of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC Regulation 40.11(a)(1), prohibiting the North American Derivatives Exchange (Nadex) from listing or making available for clearing or trading a set of self-certified political event derivatives contracts. The contracts are binary option contracts that pay out based upon the results of various U.S federal elections to be held in 2012.

Nadex self-certified the contracts on December 19, 2011, and on January 3, 2012, the CFTC initiated a 90-day review period of the contracts pursuant to CFTC Regulation 40.11(c). As a result of reviewing the complete record, the CFTC determined that the contracts involve gaming and are contrary to the public interest, and cannot be listed or made available for clearing or trading. By a separate letter, the CFTC also requested that Nadex withdraw its self-certification of related rule amendments that were submitted by Nadex to enable trading of the contracts.

Last Updated: April 2, 2012

The CFTC order is here: http://www.cftc.gov/ucm/groups/public/@newsroom/documents/file/nadexorder.pdf 

credit to: http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/pr6224-12