There’s lots of Rebel Billionaire press coverage to review, and we’ll get to that tomorrow (after watching one more episode tonight), but first, a couple other stories from the world of Richard Branson. I noticed the Tivo recorded a Jane Pauley Show episode yesterday, with Richard as her guest. More on that after I watch it. Also, several sites have the news that Virgin is exploring options to enter the UK casino arena.  

The company has been approached by several casino operators about a tie-up which could use the Virgin brand name.

Discussions are at an early stage but Virgin believes there may be synergies between gaming and its existing music retail and mobile phone businesses.

I was considering this the other day, that the synergies between the different Virgin brands allows cross-marketing to offset results in a single field. It seems obvious, but actually gives them a significant advantage over other competitors in each field. Consider: The Apprentice may have higher ratings than The Rebel Billionaire, but if Virgin sells more mobile phones and airline tickets from Branson’s show, he wins in the arenas that really matter. So with casinos leveraging synergies into music retail and mobile phone markets, Virgin again makes supplemental income by cross-selling to existing customers. Given the per-customer acquisition costs of most companies, this is rather brilliant.