The Saga of the Over 50s
Politicians advising people on their personal lives does not normally end well. It has perhaps to be taken as “don’t do as I do, do as I say.” The latest is that the over 50s should be getting back to work, presumably so that the Exchequer can get in some more cash. The pinnacle of this is being told by Jeremy Hunt to get off the golf course. As a well over 50s person myself, the temptation is to take up the sport with relish, and of course do as much business as possible from the fairways.
Doomsters
In the markets we have seen a gravity defying performance by leading stocks. For this we should perhaps thank all the economic doomsters, as stocks have been climbing a wall of worry. The missing part for small caps is the need to get liquidity back into this area. The problem with this is that many retail investors quite understandably have the choice between buying shares, and buying groceries, or paying energy bills and mortgages. Once again, because of the siren voices, we do not really know how bad the situation is yet.
URA Holdings
One of the more gratifying situations of the past week has been the recovery in shares of URA Holdings (URAH). This was always going to be a stock to watch for 2023, in the wake of the November announcement of 29 million carats of contained emeralds, with a value of over $250m. All this with a company that had a market cap of £3m. At some point the disconnect was going to be resolved. The share price rise this week suggests that this process has finally begun.
Streaks Gaming
A company which may follow the URA Holdings example from being an unsung hero to hero, could be Streaks Gaming (STK). This is one of the new IPOs for 2023, with the added hope that this year could not be worse than 2022. Of interest here is that AQRU (AQSE: AQRU), an incubator specialising in opportunities in DeFi, invested £2.3m of the £3m raised by the conversational gaming platform developer. Apart from AQRU’s hefty skin in the game here, the kicker is Streaks’s business model itself. For most things in life it used to be said that the U.S. is five years ahead of the UK. However, in the case of Steaks, it may taking advantage of the way that Stateside gaming regulation is well behind what it is here.
This means that the company is a play on the rollout of the gaming industry across the pond, something which has been accelerated since the pandemic, as cash strapped States look to deliver new sources of revenue. The idea that Streaks has is that it will capture the first time sports bettor, as they enter their journey, before they actually press the button on betting. Given how massive the sports betting business is in the UK, one would imagine that STK starting off with a market cap around the £12m, the potential is significant.
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