Neil Freiman

He said that prediction markets are, quote, super interesting.

He said he met with the two big prediction companies and their leadership in the last two weeks.

You have to think that's Cauchy and Polymark.

And he said it's something that Goldman Sachs might get into.

This is, you know, maybe the fastest growing aspect of finance.

I don't even know if you call it finance or trading or anything like that.

Some would call it gambling, but it seems like traditional finance is looking into that market and seeing whether it would make sense for their businesses.

Moving on, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are releasing a new movie today, The Rip on Netflix, but it's the behind-the-scenes business deal they inked with the streamer that's more intriguing than what's happening on the screen.

Affleck, Damon, and their production company, Artists' Equity, convince Netflix to do something it has never done before, allow the entire cast and crew to collect a bonus should the movie perform well.

That's typically how pay's been doled out by traditional Hollywood studios.

You get some cash up front just for making the movie, but if it does really well at the box office, bonuses are handed out to certain people who worked on it.

Netflix, ever the disruptor, scrapped that compensation model.

According to the New York Times,

Virtually all Netflix TV and movies pay cast and crew a bigger set fee up front, but with no potential upside on the back end.

The company says it's a system that's worked well for creators and Netflix.

Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria told The Times, "...a lot of talent likes that a company takes the financial risk and supports their vision and makes a movie.

That's why we're not changing our model."

And yet they did change their model for Affleck and Damon because who could say no to those guys?

The big question is, will other studios follow the Boston bros and begin pushing for the back end bonus system that proponents say better aligns incentives and will generate higher quality productions?

Time will tell whether a bigger shift is underway.