Sleeping Dragon

About Sleeping Dragon

As ever, I am indebted to too many people to mention, but Derek, Bill, Jasmine and every one of the Calvin Ayre team, as well as Calvin himself of course, have all shown a lot of faith in me to carry the torch and I hope I’ve done them all credit.  

Finally, I really want to thank you, the reader who has kept coming back to find out what else I’m writing about each day, week, month and year. It is you to whom I write, constant reader, and if you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read, then feel free to follow me on Twitter, where a new destination will shortly be announced. 

I’m as excited about my own future as the future of poker itself and while I’m changing seats, I’ll be staying at the table.  

What is Sleeping Dragon?

As Macquarie analyst Chad Beynon points out, prediction markets generated $4.3 billion in taker volume during the first week of September without any help from the NFL, building on momentum from the 2026 World Cup. However, the NFL’s impact was immediate, with taker volume hitting a daily record during Week 1 of the campaign.

With all that in mind, it’s not surprising that Macquarie expects sports event contracts will drive approximately 80% of taker volume this year, but Beynon sees other categories growing over the long term.

“We expect non-sports categories such as economics, politics, crypto, and entertainment to gain share over time,” says the analyst.

How to play Sleeping Dragon

In the Ministry of Finance’s view, this ended “any institutional ambiguity” over who should oversee the DRC’s gambling industry.

“The Ministry of Finance reaffirms its determination to drive the reform of the gambling and games of chance sector in accordance with government directives, while upholding legal certainty for operators, transparency in activities and the protection of the Public Treasury’s interests,” said the press release, signed by Alain Malata Kafunda, the chief of staff to the DRC minister of finance.

The press release also warned operators against complying with any payment requests from departments that aren’t legally authorised to do so.