The Reel Steal

About The Reel Steal

Last season, in the corresponding fixture, Chelsea twice had goals correctly ruled out for a foul and then offside as Frank Lampard’s team were unable to prevent Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United team doing the league double over them.

This season, the two teams have only met once in competition, with a drab 0-0 draw at an empty Old Trafford all that has taken place to date between the two great rivals of the Premier League era.

With it being Thomas Tuchel’s first taste of the bizarrely feisty fixture – before the turn of the Millennium, there was little to suggest this would develop into any kind of fierce rivalry – this is sure to be a decent game.

What is The Reel Steal?

But Klebanow argues that pachinko engages only one specific demographic of Japan’s spciety. Despite the industry’s scale, the format appeals primarily to young men.

Its noisy and crowded parlours, he notes, do little to attract Japan’s critical demographic of women aged 40 and over. They “do not find pachi facilities comfortable or appealing”.

Given that women account for nearly 60% of gaming customers in the US, Klebanow argues that Japan’s IRs should instead offer environments where this demographic feels “safe and comfortable”. The key lesson from pachinko, he concludes, is therefore “not to create gaming environments that mimic them”.

About The Reel Steal

iGaming was not the industry I set out to work in. Before 2021, I worked in finance and business – agro companies, management consultancy and investment funds, none of which were remotely linked to the industry.

In 2021, I joined an investment fund focused on startups harnessing AI and machine learning. In the process, I had a chance encounter with an iGaming investor. This sparked a conversation that would change the course of my career. He pointed out that iGaming was dramatically underutilising its data potential. There was an opportunity here, and once we began exploring it, the thread just kept unravelling.

I started out as an adviser with the Playa, but was appointed the company’s CEO in 2024, a position I did not expect to find myself in, but an opportunity I have embraced with open arms. As a company, we provide AI personalisation solutions to businesses, something that was totally new to the market.