Arif Efendi | Business Leader, Philanthropist and Investor
This is the blog of Arif Efendi who has 15 years of experience in the financial services, commodities trading and banking sectors. This blog will explore various aspects of Mr Efendi’s professional life and interests, covering a variety of topics including sports management, football, how AI is changing the hospitality industry and how to launch a start-up business.
Sports
Today, sports science is increasingly being incorporated into training to boost football club performance. By quantifying training loads and advising on the design of multidisciplinary and personalised preparation programmes, sports science and medicine can help us to better understand the effects of training. By minimising the chances of illness and injury, this approach may enhance the availability of players for both training and selection, inform decision making, positively influence risk management and improve game understanding.
In September 2009, the UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations (FFP) were agreed to by the organisation’s Financial Control Panel, setting out sanctions that will be taken against football clubs who, over several seasons, exceed spending within a clearly defined budgetary framework. The most severe sanction is disqualification from European competitions, while other penalties include player transfer bans, fines and the withholding of prize money. The regulations’ ultimate aim is to prevent professional football clubs from spending more than they earn in a bid for success.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI is revolutionising the hospitality industry, with new use cases emerging almost daily. For example, AI tools and platforms are already improving hotel revenue management, deploying predictive modelling to forecast future demand and revenue and optimising availability and pricing. It can set dynamic pricing, taking into account occupancy, demand and other factors, and enhance inventory management by adjusting room availability based on the predicted demand.
Fantasy Football
Mr Efendi is a fan of fantasy football; this game places the player in the virtual role of a football club manager. This player’s task is to select a team of real-life footballers – these players score points in the game based on their match performance in the real world. Fantasy football managers choose a squad of 11 (or sometimes 15) to represent them each week of the football season. Over the course of this season points are added or subtracted to form a total that can be compared to other teams within the manager’s mini league or in the fantasy football game world, with prizes to be won. Points are scored by playing matches, scoring goals, playing well, keeping clean sheets and earning assists, while points can be lost if goals are conceded or players are booked.
