El Vigilante

What is El Vigilante?

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is in the middle of a heated US Senate campaign against Democratic challenger James Talarico. Paxton will be succeeded as Texas AG by state Senator Mayes Middleton, a Republican from Galveston, or his Democratic opponent Nathan Johnson, a state senator from Dallas.

State Senator Bob Hall represents Senate District 2 in Texas, a district that contains parts of Dallas. Hall, 84, did not see a distinction between event contracts and sports wagers, noting that the former is just dressed up in a different manner.

“They’re different costumes on gambling,” he said. “Some have high heels and a tiara and others have on miniskirts or a bikini.”

How to play El Vigilante

The news comes as prediction market operators continue to form alliances with major media outlets. These deals allow news outlets to embed event contract data into their reporting and offer prediction platforms more visibility to investors and news audiences. 

Polymarket has developed its media presence elsewhere. In January, it signed a deal with Dow Jones to provide its prediction market data to several of the publisher’s consumer platforms. The deal covers publications including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch and Investor’s Business Daily.

Prediction markets have become more and more intertwined with sports and entertainment businesses. Polymarket has agreements with Major League Baseball and Sportsradar. Sportsradar provides data and services for more than 20 sports leagues and competitions. 

About El Vigilante

I’ll start with a story. Once I had a job I didn’t like. I was an affiliate manager at some jewelry company. I’m not a marketer. I’m a thinker, trader, investor, writer. I was there for two years, marketing. After two years I decided I had to move on because I hated marketing. I wanted to go into finance. So I submitted a financial article somewhere and it was accepted. Then on my birthday in 2012, I decided with my wife I was going to quit and focus on finance. That morning, we went out for a birthday breakfast. We share the same birthday. It makes things easier, more convenient. I was going to show up late to work after breakfast and then announce I would be leaving.

After breakfast, before I got in the office, I get a call from my manager. He tells me the company decided to close up shop suddenly so there is no need for me to show up. Well, that’s convenient. I showed up anyway, said goodbye to my friends there, and I went off home, a burden lifted from my shoulders.

Two years later, I see a post from my friend Robbie Strazynksi of CardPlayerLifestyle, about this guy Bill Beatty looking for a new financial writer for some gambling website called CalvinAyre.com. I said I was interested, didn’t know much about gambling, but I know about finance. I could swing it. Bill gave me a shot, trusted me, and in March 2014, I wrote my first article. Macau stocks were at all time highs, and I wrote that they were about to implode. They did, for the next two years. But not for the reason I thought.