Soccer is not a profitable business, and just about everybody knows it. Team owners around the world know that they will not see any profit from the sport, and the sport has gotten used to rich, level-headed tycoons who are experts in their core businesses pouring good money into their teams without any accounting.

Arcadi Gaydamak's behavior since he bought the Beitar Jerusalem club two years ago should be viewed in this way, since it was clear that the purchase was not a financial move, but more an efficient public-relations tactic that would allow him to enter the heart of the Israeli consensus.

However, something in Gaydamak's financial moves in the last month reminds us of his soccer adventure.

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One of Gaydamak's affects on the league was to cause a jump in salaries for top players. When he wanted a big name, money was no problem. He offered wages above the market price, more than such players could expect to earn overseas or on any other Israeli team.

Similarly, he is paying a 80 percent premium over its market value for Tiv Taam, a 46 percent premium for Gilon and 86 percent for Ocif.

Buy low and sell high? Gaydamak seems to be reminding us in every deal that what happens in Israeli business is small change for him. Just as in sport, on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Gaydamak does not waste his time bargaining over a few tens of millions of shekels, since it seems that he has billions -- even though no one really knows how much.

His behavior also reminds us of Beitar in another way -- in its impulsiveness. He hires and fire a coach over the course of a month, makes press announcements every other day, and players are surprised almost every day to see his criticism or compliments in the headlines.

The same applies to his behavior in the markets. One expects less impulsiveness from a billionaire, but he approaches a company, offers a price and buys within hours, or at the very most days.

It is hard to understand where this comes from. Are the purchases really only for one purpose: to buy legitimacy in the Israeli business world? Even if the answer is yes, one of the characteristics of reasonable businessmen -- even the richest -- is that they hate making a bad deal. Why does Gaydamak not bargain, instead earning himself a reputation for overpaying?

There is something worrying about such behavior. Maybe it is connected to how he made his fortune. A small-time businessman who slowly built up his wealth through hard work, one deal at a time, is much more sensitive to every dollar spent -- compared to a meteoric entrepreneurn who made a killing with the fall of the Soviet Union.

And what might this mean for investors in his public companies? Will he spend enough time running them properly?

It certainly paid off for Beitar fans, who saw their team win the championship this year, a championship bought by Gaydamak.

There is no precedent for Gaydamak in Israel, and the people love him. They are buying shares in his new companies. The question is whether Gaydamak's impulsiveness will be good for them too.