Bitcoin Forum

Hi guys!

I'm currently drawing up a plan for creating and running a sportsbook based on bitcoin.

First thing will be that we'll focus on E-sports in the beginning, to add regular sports at a later stage.

Anonymous and Safe will be the lead words for this venture.

"Live" odds as people will bet against eachother. Meaning odds will change up until the match starts.

Investment option where we'll create "shares" these shares will be generating profits at the same time as you can buy/sell them from other users.

Manual drafting of games to ensure 100% legitimacy, will also keep goals to draft in a certain amount of time.

This is just starting to take form as of now, please tell me what you think and what we could add, appreciate any info/input/constructive criticism.

Thanks,
Hhampuz

Paramutual betting (I think that is what it is called) isn't very popular in the bitcoin world. There is a site called OneHash that is similar to what you are describing (except for the "shares" for investing), and it doesn't get a lot of volume. Granted, the fees are a bit on the high end (5% of the pot), but I don't think slightly lowering fees would make a huge difference. Unless you have something new to bring to the table, it will probably be a waste of time, since most people like a fixed odds system.

That's good to know.

So if we were to take 1% and just have the smoothest thing out there, you still believe it will frowned upon?

Will the investment shares be paying out dividends to their respective owners? If so, would there be a regular schedule of dividend payouts? Or has it yet to be determined if they will pay dividends?

Good Question. And yes, each share owned would generate profit at a set time. As we'll have the shares only on our website to buy/sell/collect dividends (no trading it to a wallet or another exchange). So if you hold one share at a certain time you'll get 0.1% of the profits (Amount of shares is yet not settled).

Yes. The thing is, people don't like the thought that there bet on something that might have a really bad value. (example: picks the favorite, a lot of others also take the favorite, odds end up being @1.2, while another site will offer @1.3) Granted, you can get better odds sometimes, but people don't like the risk. You also won't attract whales/larger bettors because throwing 1 BTC into a match where only 0.1BTC is placed on the other selection is stupid (unless the 1 BTC is bet on the favorite, and other sites give less than @1.1 (highly unlikely)). I personally wouldn't use it, and I'm betting most others won't. If you want to run a sportsbook, consider starting another exchange.

Yeah I get what you mean.

What would you expect to be needed in a bankroll to make those arrangements instead?

To run an exchange? You will probably need a bit of BTC for promotions, and of course the developing costs (assuming you hire others to help with it), but that is pretty much it. A sportsbetting exchange lets users pick the odds for an event they want (like @2 for Team A to win), and then to make the bet real, others have to lay it (probably @2.01 lay odds). The exchange would take a fee from the winnings. The hardest part is getting a user base at the start, but after that, if you get decent volume, you take no risk (except for hacks, e.t.c). Fairlay is a good example of a betting exchange.

Ah, so individual bets instead of of a bet where everyone decides the odds?

Seems like a smart Idea, had not thought about that one.

do you mean signature campaign? there no point asking for a signature campaign at the moment when "This is just starting to take form as of now," and there is no guarantee that they will run a signature campaign.

I'm not a huge sportsbook player but good luck to your project.

If you want to run a project like this, the first step you have to look at is the legal aspects.
If you are planning to run it with Crypto ony, then Costa Rica is the most cheap solution for a business license.
I only doubt if this will bring many customers. You can consider to take a license from Curacao, or Malta.
I see many sites coming here with cheap software for 250 usd, but that is not the way to make it.
Everything starts with a budget and a license.

we do not have so much betting exchanges like betfair, smarkets, matchbook, maybe its an idea to focus on that.
for sure you will get many people who are interested in this. since you will take a small % from the winnings customers do not have to fear they win to much as
they win from other players.

This is an old thread by our dear campaign manager @Hhampuz, hopefully he can share about the update of his project.

Hhampuz I am glad to see you are creating Bitcoin based sportsbook.
I am not much a fun of e-sport betting , but live sports betting is must have feature, and I would suggest you should add MMA/UFC and boxing along with other sports.
Not sure how you will solve fees and waiting time for deposits, but I would like to participate in testing phase.

PS
Ignore GP comments  ::)