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I was thinking of trying to build a sports betting website with a 0% house edge.

I was wondering if anything like this existed now?

Basically, the website wouldn't use any of it's own money but would just hold funds in escrow, which would enable a 0% house edge.

For example, if you want to bet $100 on the Patriots and place it with a betting parlor, the house edge is like 10%. The casino needs to make a profit.

But if my best friend wants to bet $100 on the Rams, I can just bet against him and receive a 0% house edge.

But what if you don't have a best friend who wants to bet on the Rams?

This website would enable you to put $100 into a bitcoin escrow on the Patriots, and if another user wants to accept your bet, they put $100 into escrow for the Rams.

A smart contract would ensure automatic payoff upon completion of the game.

I mean, this is basically what Ethereum was built for I think, so I'm assuming someone has perhaps already done it?

I was living in England for a while and there's like sports betting parlors on every street corner. I'm just picturing like, all of this gone in 10 years, like what happened to blockbuster. When people figure out you can get a negligible house edge, why place bets where the juice is 10%?

I think you post it on the wrong section .
There is a gambling section in this forum you should move it there.

First this should be here Gambling discussion (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=228.0).

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I don't think that there is a sports gambling site like that nor I have ever encountered such a gambling site. I don't think that a gambling site like that would survive its operation just by escrowing funds.

A 0% house edge will not generate income for the online casino site, to keep their doors open. A 0% house edge will also generate a lot of trafic to the site and traffic = bandwidth. How will a site like this pay for the bandwidth and maintenance and also support staff?

The only way this will work, is if the site hosts many other games with a higher house edge, which would generate the income for the site, but their Sport betting games will have to draw in the crowd with it's 0% house edge. <The site might just get Sport betting players and they might not play the other games?>  :P

The possibility for a website with 0% house edge is simply an impossible thing to be done. That too with sports betting it isn't that possible. As an user mentioned in the above quote with all the traffic and more games it isn't possible to achieve an earning to meet the requirements. The fund required as a base is very high and there are sites that have gone into loss even when they had certain percentage as house edge.

So what is you main plan? Offering free service for sports bettors so they can avoid the juice and you do not want to earn profit by making the site?
Or you have other idea how to make profit as the owner of the site that offers 0% house edge? I cant even imagine how you can survive, as you need to pay some expenses as the owner of the gambling site.

This is already done by Onehash it's called parimutuel betting where odds of each side is determined by the total bet amount the site becomes the escrow but Onehash take a small fee from the winners. A sportsbook must have a house edge or at least have a way to profit because eventually you'll be forced to close your sportsbook because of the costs to maintain it.

Another way for it to work is to charge the players a fix deposit or withdraw fee.

This is working example but has low activity: https://0xgame.io/ (https://0xgame.io/)
Also look at: www.sportcrypt.com (http://www.sportcrypt.com) It has some activity, but platform needs improvements.
Also take a look at www.Fairlay.com (http://www.Fairlay.com) It is most active project nowadays. It will charge you up to 0.25% fee. But I think it's not a big deal compared to other bookies and exchanges.

All sites I was suing myself. Did not have any issues so far.

https://kryptium.io/ (https://kryptium.io/) This is another one you are looking for. But I did not try it yet.

I've never encountered such websites but the idea is not crazy per se. If the bets are only within the network of players, the website if not gaining anything from them. Here, of course, we also exclude a case in which there is zero house edge on bets but, say, withdrawal fees that go to the website.
Such a website gets really high traffic, as you mentioned, because people are excited to play under such terms. This means that website can be easily monetized through advertising. Another thing such a website can do is receive donations from people who'd like to support it. These things combined might bring enough profit.

What do you expecting if the sports betting website was 0% house edge? Although they say like that, I don't think that they are really 0% of house edge. You know what, I never think about 0% house edge or not because if you search that website, you need to check one by one until you find what you want. You cannot enjoy the game because you still search the website and I think you will spend your time to find to search almost impossible website.

I don't see what is the relation between sports betting and house edge because most betoors never talk about this since its not very important for them. When we are talking about sportsbooks we talk about which has the highest odds and that's what determines their house edge,but none sportsbook has a fixed edge because there are so many matches everyday and odds are completely different.

Socialbet.io (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5119108.msg50105832#msg50105832) is on beta test now. This site provide lottery games time based, they also have 0% house edge and KYC is needed there.
I don't know why people now have interest to create new gambling site with 0% house edge, do you not think about profit and maintenance fee when it needed?

For a gambling website to operate with 0% house edge is surprising to know. There will be question of, how will the platform survive in terms of it financial responsibilities? will be much interested to know how they operate and how beneficial it will be to the owner. Although some platforms listed by forum members are not active and some not 100% Zero house edge.

Sportsbook can have a fix house edge if they want to, on Darkstar's overview (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5040737.0) bitcoinrush has a consistent house edge of ~3% on most of their markets. House edge is an important factor when it comes to sports betting because that small 1% difference can be huge when you're a regular gambler. There's less discussion regarding sportsbooks because most gamblers are casino players and i'm sure there's at least one thread here I can still recall making a reply but I don't have time to look for it.

What can I say 0% is not an option here Sports Betting is offering a low percentage house edge already and this type of thing is pretty easy compared to traditional casino sites that are way more house edge than sports bets, I say it will deal on your familiarity on the kind of sports you will try and bet in and a familiarity with the teams and players or fighter that are playing the sports that you love I can say you can do well with sports betting if you had this kind of information instead of casino-like gambling that are straight pure luck only.

Such a scenario will work if bets only involve a few people and they have different choices, one person chooses team A and the other person has to choose team B. But when betting involves many people and because the chances of people having the same choice are high, the scenario like that won't work. That is why there must be bookies that are ready to accept whatever bets we make and that will only happen with the help of the house edge.

If they make it 0% how would they're going to stay in the long run? They aren't sure if their business will survive in the future, the house edge is their last final weapon in case if they get bankrupt due to people winning more than the casino earned. It's just a give and takes for both gamblers and the house.

Probably there are something on that gambling site because its too impossible for them to impose a 0% house edge. The system might be too risky for a gambler if they deal with those gambling sites. So far most of the gambling site have their own house edge and still many gamblers wants to play with them.

They are promoting 0% house edge that's why they are receiving a lot of negative criticisms. People don't believe that such kind of system will work in this business. And most of us are thinking that somewhere along the process, there is a loophole that might cheat the players. It is a new system, that's why gamblers are hesitant. Gambling websites are known to be suckers of money, then why now create a 0% house edge?

They could easily change their rules or add things to make it more convincing. Also with a 0% house edge it's not risky if they're true to their words the only risk is they don't have any reputation and could run away with everyone's funds. Anyways they're in beta we shouldn't judge it like everything is final.

Sorry to  tell and do not be offended, I tell you prankly nothing can do that ideas 0% edge or the house getting with nothing while the player getting enjoy playing and the house using their facilities it is talking all about bussiness not charity.

Gambling website offering 0% house edge will have long journey here in the gambling community to prove that they are offering legit operations. They are going against the norms of gambling business, so how can they change the world of gambling business? It might be possible but what's the catch?

From my understanding of sports gambling it is this house edge that keeps the casinos in business.
It guarantees them a 10% "vig" as its called so they can make a profit regardless of outcome.
Without a house edge, the casino is taking a risk of losing money in the long haul.

you need to google betting exchanges cause this is the closest thing to what you are thinking about
for example fairlay - the most popular bitcoin betting exchange- , they used to have 0% commissions in the past so basically they were just matching bettors without charging commisions
but of course such offer or such site can't last forever cause it won't make sense to create such service in the first place
now there is a small fee on winnings ( for me it's 0.081% of winnings ) which is really so low comparing it with other exchanges ( kinda free and the exchange enables you to put orders for the odds you want and wait till someone else match it)

That's exactly how the site will make money. You can get the zero house edge only if you find another user willing to bet against you. For example, if there are exactly 100 people wanting to bet on the Patriots and 100 wanting to bet on the Rams, then everyone would get a zero house edge.

But that scenario is not realistic. You might get 80 people who want to bet on the Patriots and 50 people who want to bet on the Rams.

For those additional 30 people to bet, they would have to bet against the house's money, which would have a house edge.

You could also offer table games like blackjack, etc with a house edge.

But the lure to get people in the door would be the possibility of a zero house edge on sportsbetting.

The only other way to keep the house edge zero, might be through advertising and scaling to a massive, massive size. That would require deep pockets to get off the ground though.

If they applied a 0% edge, I don't think that they can be online for a long time. They need to run their business on the internet, and they need to pay the expenses that appear on every month. But if you can find gambling websites or sports betting websites which have 0% house edge, then you are lucky, and you can play in that site.

Sportbets actually don't have any house edges since you're not playing against the house. Probably you'll pay for making a bet but that's one gambling type that you pit your money against other players, not the casino or the gambling site. And that's also what makes it  better choice for a lot of casual gamblers.

This is a very good idea. A gambler can just put on a bet and the system will match them to the bets of other gamblers.

It just needs a way to fund its operation. Ads is a bad idea. It hinders good user experience of the site. A premium looks good but I bet there are very few gamblers will pay for a premium. A fee can do.

for the record , i dont see a gambling websites that claims to have a zero percent house edge ,  so far the lowest i see is 1 percent house edge and that is from yolodice if im not mistaken  .

 however if a gambling site claims that they have zero house edge , i dont think that you can now always win against them  .  gambling is still a gambling and that will will depend on how lucky you are  .  other sites are also cheating  . thier house are actually high but they only advertise lower percents  .

That is a strange name in the title thread, sport betting has no house edge as you are choosing an outcome for a game of your choice, in sport betting real persons, real players of a sport are competing against each other and are not controlled by any computer like you may find in casino slots.

Great ideas actually. 0% house edge but you provide scripts even, or like a marketplace for people to create scripts and smart contracts, then you get a fee or percentage from any rentals or sales.

OR even, with the traffic, you have advertising and newsletter subscriptions to sell. You are correct, there are other ways to make money but we see some people try it. Even with tiny sports fees marketplaces cannot really attract gamblers.

I dont think any sportsbook would accept that(since house edge is the insurance they have to profitability) but I have an idea, why dont you just find a few capers and make the bets P2P. You can make a telegram group out of it. There are a few sites/betting exchanges which have very low house edge, as low as 0.5% but with 0 house edge, the website will be providing you free service/charity. Aint gonna happen.

A site like this could easily make a profit from ad revenue alone if they were able to attract a lot of players.  A 0% house edge will have people scrambling to get a piece of the action.

Lol.  :D
If what you wish will be followed then there will be no gambling sites ever. 0% house edge mean there will be no profit for the house and how are they going to stand and sustain their expenses if you won't give them profit? That is their lot, their business, if they are not going to earn then they cannot continue. Maybe, just maybe if they have other business and gambling is just their side job or strategy to attract users or other people to the site so they can lead them to their main business. Just assumption though.

Well, that is just a type of the gambling and not all the gambling websites are dealing with sports bet so that is an exception. See these companies are in the market to make money okay and they simply cannot be too good to keep the house edge 0% because if they do so, how would they make money ?

They will be done with in few days after making nothing and providing the services so I do not think there would be any website with a 0% house edge.

I was thinking of how can they generate revenues if its 0% house edge and I forgot about the ads but isn't it that too much ads in a website turns away users? Its like every time you go to another page you will get an ad first before the page starts to load and I think thats annoying. Banner ads are not really that income generating I guess.

I agree with you. If it will be implemented just for 0% house edge sake and pop-ads appear in everywhere before the page work properly. I think most of users are not longer stay on the site.

That's the very reason why even owners tried to generate profits from this kind of ways they won't last long as gamblers won't stayed with annoying ads
that keeps popping while they are playing inside the house, house edge is the very best to gain profits and that's the reason why gambling business is keep on spreading around.

I think there are because I have see many posts here specially on this gambling board about free or 0% edge.  I think there are many house edge that offer 0% on sports betting and other gambling services.

This might be but this is unreal. How do the house profit if they dont have any house edge?. Its like doing a job free or making an expensive portrait to everyone for free. Its a real deal for players but if your the house, how can you get the fund for all your expenses including site maintenance, jackpots, etc.? This wouldnt work.

I think that it is not possible to find or having a sportsbetting websites with 0% house edge but it is possible if it's not 0% something like 0.1, 0.5 or more but I think it will be very rare to find one as the site also need money to help the site keep it running and reliable as soon as possible.