Charlie Munger on China, BYD

Kenya and World Leading Sports Betting Technology

John Powers Kenya announced a major innovation in Sports Betting in Kenya, with the release of its MPESA betting system, which now allows clients from all over Kenya to place bets on international football events using only their mobile phone.

"The system has been specifically designed for the Kenyan market, and utilises Safaricom’s MPESA system. Customers simply MPESA their stake to the dedicated number, and then make their bets from advertised coupons using a simple code. For example, Manchester United against Liverpool is advertised as Match number 101. A home win (i.e. Manchester to win) is identified as #1, an away win (i.e. Liverpool to win) as #2 and a draw as #0. Following this the client identifies how much they want to stake with a * and the sum they want to stake. Thus, 100 shillings on Manchester to win becomes in this example 101#1*100. Reference numbers are issued via SMS and the bet is trackable. To collect their winnings, winner simply text W and the amount they wish to withdraw, which is settled via MPESA."

Brilliant!

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Patents and R&D in Emerging Markets

Number of international patents and R&D show how the future of innovation is taking shape.

There is a strong link between the number of international patents that a country is granted and the amount that it spends on research and development. A 2007 snapshot shows this clearly, and also that America and Japan led the pack.

The size of each dot represents total spending, and their colours represent the number of patents per capita, red for higher intensity and blue for lower.

Click “play” on the bottom left to watch as the countries that spent more on R&D over the past two decades reaped the benefits by gaining progressively more patents. Then click on "Emerging markets take off" above.

Click here for The Economists interactive tool.