Sport is big business. That is something we’ve covered over and over again on this podcast. From lucrative TV rights deals to oil-states funding rival leagues, it is impossible to escape the headlines of the amount of money flowing into sport. In Australia this reaches a fever pitch this weekend as our two biggest domestic competitions - the AFL and the NRL - host their grand finals. So as Australia tunes in to see which team wins on the field, we wanted to have a look at the big winners off the...
Sep 28, 2023•21 min
On the weekend, a friend of the pod was sitting in a pub owned by Britain's biggest pub company, Stonegate Group. If you have ever drunk in a pub in the UK there is a good chance it may have been Stonegate Group - their brands include Yates’s, Be at one, and the Slug & Lettuce, they have over 800 venues. Recently, they’ve introduced a ‘dynamic pricing’ policy across all their locations. Think of it like ‘surge pricing’, it basically means the cost of drinking will go up at popular times. It’...
Sep 26, 2023•17 min
Build, build and build some more. That sums up our government’s approach to our current housing crisis. Just this month we’ve seen it from all levels of government. At a Federal Level, we’ve seen the government pass the Housing Australia Future Fund. At a state level, we’ve seen Australia’s biggest state - New South Wales - pass a budget with housing at the centre. And Australia’s second largest state - Victoria - released their housing policy statement that outlined a 10 year plan for the indus...
Sep 24, 2023•24 min
It’s another Fast 3 - the three stories that we thought you needed to hear this Friday. Today we’ll be talking about why Rotten Tomatoes scores aren’t so fresh, a massive discovery of lithium in the crater of a US volcano, and we’ve an update on those BMW heated seats. Sascha is joined by three of her Equity Mates colleagues to unpack these stories. Want more Equity Mates? Click here . In the spirit of reconciliation, Equity Mates Media and the hosts of The Dive acknowledge the Traditional Custo...
Sep 21, 2023•19 min
Last week we saw the biggest news on Apple’s calendar - Apple’s announcement of the new iPhone. There was a time when the world sat up and marvelled at what Steve Jobs and his team had managed to squeeze into the palm of our hand, but now it is a pretty routine update - new colour, better camera, faster chip - then they wave us all goodbye and set the date in the calendar for next year. Today Alec and Sascha ask - after the rounds of headlines announcing the iPhone 15 last week - does anybody re...
Sep 19, 2023•18 min
If you’ve booked an AirBnB recently, it seems like we're drowning in a sea of house rules: no parties, quiet hours after 10 pm, laundry duties before departure, and the stern warnings to meticulously follow instructions or risk facing fines. But that’s not the only issue they’re facing. Major cities from New York to London to basically everywhere in Australia are facing housing shortages and rent increases - and many lawmakers believe Airbnb and other short term rentals are partially to blame. A...
Sep 17, 2023•14 min
2003 was the most recent high water mark for Australian Rugby. We were hosting a World Cupt on our shores, and we very close to winning it all, before losing to England in the grand final. In the following two decades, it was besieged by scandals, pandemics, and public court cases, resulting in Rugby Australia facing the brink of bankruptcy. Today Sascha and Alec talk about the pivot point Rugby Australia finds itself at - and ask: is the next golden age of rugby still to come? Or is it too late...
Sep 14, 2023•21 min
It’s another favourite of The Dive fans - 3 stories in 15 minutes. We’ve gone around the office and asked for the stories that are grabbing our attention. We’re chatting about the new music deal Universal have arranged with a French music streamer, the concrete crisis that’s the main conversation in the UK, and a battle that’s bringing two major streaming services head to head. Want more Equity Mates? Click here . In the spirit of reconciliation, Equity Mates Media and the hosts of The Dive ackn...
Sep 12, 2023•21 min
The extension of oil production cuts by Saudi Arabia is driven by its geopolitical and economic ambitions. Last week the Australian Financial Review wrote a Chanticleer column about these ambitions connect to the massive contract that Cristiano Ronado has recently inked. Sascha is joined by AFR journalist James Thomson to talk about this today. Want more Equity Mates? Click here . In the spirit of reconciliation, Equity Mates Media and the hosts of The Dive acknowledge the Traditional Custodians...
Sep 10, 2023•12 min
It turns out that fake diamonds are having a moment. As a new threshold has been reached - Last year, lab-grown diamond jewellery surpassed 10% of the world’s total diamond jewellery sales for the first time. Today Sascha and Alec ask - what is happening in the diamond industry? And how is the traditional diamond industry responding to this surge? Want more Equity Mates? Click here . In the spirit of reconciliation, Equity Mates Media and the hosts of The Dive acknowledge the Traditional Custodi...
Sep 07, 2023•20 min
QANTAS has had an interesting time of late. Everything started well, reporting a recording $2.5 billion dollar pre-tax profit. But since that announcement it’s gone downhill. Australia’s national airline is now mired in multiple scandals, their CEO is getting grilled at Parliamentary hearings, and the Australian government is being accused of prioritising QANTAS’ bottom line over the concerns of the Australian people. And yesterday, all of these controversies came to a head with QANTAS CEO Alan ...
Sep 05, 2023•21 min
China has too much debt, has over-built infrastructure, has youth unemployment north of 20% and is facing a slow moving economic crisis as its years of unproductive spending are coming home to roost. That is a sentence you could’ve read in an economic publication at any time over the past 5 years. China’s collapse has been called before, and over the past few weeks we saw the latest round of dire predictions for the world’s second largest economy. But we want to drill down on one part of that st...
Sep 03, 2023•20 min
EU food producers are incredibly protective of their products and the history that surrounds them - that’s why there’s such specific rules around who can make a Champagne, or Burgandy, when we’re really drinking a sparking wine or a glass of light pinot. But it’s one thing to want to call your product by that name to get the accolades, and another to fabricate its origins to benefit from the higher prices. That’s fraud. So when we learned Italy’s renowned makers of Parmigiano Reggiano, favoured ...
Aug 31, 2023•15 min
There’s two big space stories that have happened recently that we wanted to talk about. The world’s leading space company Space X had their financials leaked, and India has just landed on the moon - just the fourth country to do so. Today Alec and Sascha chat about how these stories show how much cheaper space travel is becoming. Want more Equity Mates? Click here . In the spirit of reconciliation, Equity Mates Media and the hosts of The Dive acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of country thr...
Aug 29, 2023•19 min
The Commonwealth Games has not been having a great time of late. Here in Australia you couldn’t miss the headlines last month, when Victorian Premier Dan Andrews cancelled the event, citing a huge blowout in the budget as the reason behind the decision. This isn’t the first time the games has been without a home - last year, Birmingham stepped up to the host role four years early, when South Africa were stripped of hosting rights. At the beginning of August, the Canadian province of Alberta with...
Aug 27, 2023•16 min
In July, the Australian government put a huge stimulus into the childcare system - increasing Child Care Subsidy payments for many families. In Australia, over one million households used childcare last year. That’s 1.275 million children - and there are two broad reviews currently underway. Still, even with significant funding - childcare is still really expensive for most families. So when we heard our Canadian neighbours are looking at us and saying - nice try, but you’ve got it all wrong, we...
Aug 24, 2023•19 min
Bryce is back from holidays! While we’ve all been chained to our desks, covering multiple stories in detail, Bryce has been swanning about in Europe. Ok, that’s a little harsh, but he’s brought us a few topics to chat about today. So, what’s the agenda? A company that was once valued at $47 billion dollars is now on its knees, Saudi Arabia seemingly has a blank chequebook when it comes to sport, and with an Australian woman recently being fired for her lack of output when working from home… What...
Aug 22, 2023•18 min
You may have recently seen the headlines that the founder of Barstool Sports recently bought his media company back for $1 after selling it for $840 million. That sounds like a pretty good deal… We knew there was more of a story there. Today, Sascha is joined by Equity Mates colleague Alf Eddy to discuss how Dave Portnoy regained control of the massive media empire BarStool Sports all for a tiny piece of change. Want more Equity Mates? Click here . In the spirit of reconciliation, Equity Mates M...
Aug 20, 2023•15 min
Earlier this week, we read that the skies above Melbourne and Adelaide have ghost planes flying overhead every day. No, it’s not planes piloted by poltergeists, it’s just near-empty planes, operating every day. The Guardian has reported that Qatar Airways has been exploiting a legal loophole, operating these "ghost flights" to run extra services to Australia. These 354-seater Boeing 777s sometimes fly with no passengers at all, all to adhere to a complex bilateral agreement. But what does this m...
Aug 17, 2023•17 min
Here’s a sentence we thought we'd never write - there's multiple stories about flying cars in the news. Not one story, but several! We’ve got multiple companies getting regulatory approval to start testing their flying cars and we’ve got the world’s first flying taxi service slated to kick off in 2024. That's next year. Today, Simon and Sascha discuss just what has to happen, before we're all sitting in cars that are flying above our heads! Want more Equity Mates? Click here . In the spirit of r...
Aug 15, 2023•16 min
Two weeks ago week, we did an episode on mining’s giant decarbonisation opportunity. And it got a lot of interest, in particular, in Indonesia’s opportunity. Here in Australia, Indonesia is our largest neighbour. It is 270 million people directly to our north. It is the 4th largest country in the world by population after India, China and the United States. And it is the world’s largest supplier of nickel, a critical metal for the world’s push towards net zero. Basically, Indonesia is going to b...
Aug 13, 2023•21 min
It feels like cigarettes were replaced seemingly overnight by a new and different way to get your nicotine high, and what started as potential bridge to quit smoking has given rise to entirely new industry - Vaping. Big Tobacco companies are getting involved in a BIG way, but governments are already trying to crack down on this 'modern' tobacco industry. Today Simon and Sascha talk about the business of vaping. Want more Equity Mates? Click here . In the spirit of reconciliation, Equity Mates Me...
Aug 10, 2023•16 min
Professional cricket has come to America. The first season took place over three weeks, finishing up on the 30 July. This has been a dream for cricket lovers in America. There was the Pro Cricket league that played one season in 2004. And the American Premier League was a proposed partnership between USA and NZ cricket that never got off the ground. But this tournament has come about after a $1 billion investment from American Cricket Enterprises, a company backed by some of the wealthiest men i...
Aug 08, 2023•22 min
It's a returning favourite! It’s earnings season. When all the companies gather their shareholders and tell them what they did for the last three months, what went well, what didn’t go so well, and what’s coming up. You’ve told us how much you love this format before, so Sascha and Alec are back - this time with 3 themes to explore. Want more Equity Mates? Click here . In the spirit of reconciliation, Equity Mates Media and the hosts of The Dive acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of country ...
Aug 06, 2023•20 min
Tiktok - the addictive, video-hosting giant has launched a closed beta for its subscription-only music streaming service to Australia, Mexico, Singapore, Indonesia and Brazil. But music is an expensive playground to join, and when so many of the incumbents - Spotify, Amazon, Apple - are already losing money - why is TikTok pursuing this line of thinking? Today Sascha is joined by Jessica Weatherbed from The Verge to talk about this decision today. Want more Equity Mates? Click here . In the spir...
Aug 03, 2023•17 min
Yesterday, Core Logic released their monthly Home Value Index report - and it showed that property prices are still on the rise. Despite interest rates being their highest since 2012 - this is the 5th consecutive month we’ve seen an increase in national figures. However, it was a smaller climb in comparison to previous months, and then the RBA decided to keep the cash rate the same. Today, Sascha is joined by Eliza Owen from Core Logic and is asking: What does this data tell us about the future ...
Aug 01, 2023•18 min
How exciting - the latest figures report that quarterly inflation is lower than expected! Inflation numbers on the decline is great - that’s more money in the bank accounts. After a steep incline in the cost of items globally, I think we all are breathing a sigh of relief. Mostly though, we pay attention to inflation because of its effect on mortgages. Today Alec and Sascha ask: does deflation mean we’ll finally see an end to these interest rate rises? Want more Equity Mates? Click here . In the...
Jul 30, 2023•18 min
Here’s something that was pitched in our weekly meeting that immediately hooked us: Scientists in Japan are regrowing teeth. It raises more questions than it answers, doesn’t it? In digging a little deeper to this story, we found it’s all about research that will define the next generation of healthcare. This is a story about gene therapies. Today Alec and Sascha ask - what’s the story behind Japanese scientists regrowing teeth? And what more can we expect? Want more Equity Mates? Click here . I...
Jul 27, 2023•15 min
Does your instagram feed look like everyone you know is in Europe? Friends, family, enemies, exes, those podcasters you follow on social media… Everyone is gallivanting around the south of France, or posing like Russell Crowe in the Colosseum, or sinking a stein in Germany. Well.. it feels that way. If you’re one of those lucky Australians escaping the cold winter months and enjoying Europe, well, from us here at The Dive - thanks for tuning in. But also, you may be part of what more and more Eu...
Jul 25, 2023•16 min
Here’s a big number for you - $15 to 20 trillion dollars. That is the amount of money Ken Hoffman, the head of the battery minerals team at McKinsey, estimates that decarbonising the modern world will make the mining industry. If we play a bit of word association - when I say mining, many of us think dirty, pollution or unsustainable. But that’s going to change. Put simply, the mining industry is going to become the world’s most important industry to achieve net zero. Now that statement might su...
Jul 23, 2023•24 min
