BitcoinSportsBook.com

[TTBit]

I am excited to announce the launching of BitcoinSportsBook.com. It is a combination of my ideas and coins, and nelisky’s code and patience.

It is not a traditional sportsbook where there is fixed price betting, instead it is pari-mutual where everyone gets the same odds on an event (i.e. horse racing).

The site will explain a lot, but I plan on answering questions in this thread. Thank you nelisky!

Please ask questions about the site before using if not perfectly clear.

Disclaimer about the site:
BitcoinSportsBook.com is an experimental site for the bitcoin community. The purpose is to educate and demonstrate a use for bitcoins.

Play BITCOINSPORTSBOOK.COM AT YOUR OWN RISK! Sadly, it is beyond the ability of the creators of the site to guarantee anything. There is no staff, no customer service, and no insurance of any bitcoin balance.

Having said all that, we obviously do our best effort to keep things under control, backup often and keep logs of everything that goes on. We consider the approach we've taken very safe, and will do our very best to fix any issue that may arise. Still, no guarantees folks.

[TTBit]

Accounts and wagers are slowly trickling into BitcoinSportsBook.com, - thank you! I wanted to point out some major improvements to the site.

1)    All market maker accounts are now ‘margined’. Whats more, all accounts are currently market maker accounts! By ‘margined’, only your max possible loss is factored into your balance.  Example: you bet 20 coins on Team A and 10 coins on Team B. Your max loss is 20 coins. BSB allows you to float those 10 coins on other games.
2)    Once the game goes off and a final line is established, you are again credited with your worst case-scenario. So, if you have 20 on Team A and 10 on Team B, and the payout from Team A is 28 coins, and Payout for Team B is 35 coins, your worst-case is now 28 coins and that is credited instead of your 20 coin balance.

Why would you bet both sides?

This can allow the average guy to make a market. If you take a baseball game where the probability of team A to win is 60% and team B is 40%, you can wager 60% on A and 40% on B, and any deviation from that will result in net long term profits. It does not matter if joe six pack wants to bet on the favorite or underdog, you are protected.  Any sportsbook on the web will post spreads and lines, and one can get expected probability from these numbers. I’ll make a post if this needs to be expanded on.

Fees:
Currently, I’ve been setting the fees at 0.10% or 0.05% (1 coin per 1000 bet or 1 per 2000), but also have some free games, like Sunday and Monday night football. Nelisky has procured a hosting site that is payable in bitcoins (!), so we have a goal we are trying to meet.

That said, I will cap all fees at 25 bitcoins total from now through the end of October, which will be 25,000 – 50,000 coins wagered. This will come out of my personal account, not the site. You’ll need to PM me for a credit, and I’ll be happy to oblige.

Notice Sunday & Monday night football currently have a fee rate of 0.00. I’m going to put a surprise 100-200 coin straight-up bet before each game, if anyone wants some free edge. Disclosure: I am allowed to bet as the sportsbook as well, but will bet in proportion. I'll post my bet after the games start.

Thank you for visiting and supporting the site!

[TTBit]

True to my word, I put up 100 coins on the "New York Jets to win" tonight. While there is no pure arbitrage profit here, wagering the dolphins over the jets in a 6:5 ratio will result in a good bet, as the Dolphins should win about 6 out of 11 matchups.  So, putting 6 coins on the dolphins and 5 on jets (or 3 on dolphins, 2.5 on jets, etc etc)

I will not make any more wagers on this particular entry.

Couple more accounts have popped up. Thank you!

[FreeMoney]

True to my word, I put up 100 coins on the "New York Jets to win" tonight. While there is no pure arbitrage profit here, wagering the dolphins over the jets in a 6:5 ratio will result in a good bet, as the Dolphins should win about 6 out of 11 matchups.  So, putting 6 coins on the dolphins and 5 on jets (or 3 on dolphins, 2.5 on jets, etc etc)

I will not make any more wagers on this particular entry.

Couple more accounts have popped up. Thank you!

It make the Jets a worse bet though, correct?

[TTBit]

True to my word, I put up 100 coins on the "New York Jets to win" tonight. While there is no pure arbitrage profit here, wagering the dolphins over the jets in a 6:5 ratio will result in a good bet, as the Dolphins should win about 6 out of 11 matchups.  So, putting 6 coins on the dolphins and 5 on jets (or 3 on dolphins, 2.5 on jets, etc etc)

I will not make any more wagers on this particular entry.

Couple more accounts have popped up. Thank you!

It make the Jets a worse bet though, correct?

My 100 coin jets bet right now is really crappy. As more people bet on miami, my bet will become better.

Not quite sure what angle you're coming from, but the people who already have money on Miami now have a great bet, as the dolphins are a clear favorite in the game. If they were wagering at a typical book, they would have to put up 60 units to win 50 units (which is 1.8333 returned for each unit wagered, or -120 for american odds). Currently, people with money on the dolphins at bitcoinsportsbook are getting 2.0436 units returned instead of 1.8333 at another book.  So, bitcoinsportsbook is trying to attract miami investors right now.

As it turns out, the best strategy is to just bet the ratio that other books are offering, which is now about 6:5 in favor of miami. You could just bet on miami, but you open the door to someone else betting on miami, in which case you have a bad bet.

Hope I'm making sense...

[FreeMoney]

I think I understand. You are potentially giving expected value to the other side by moving the line away from 'correct'. Only potentially because people could fix the line by betting the appropriate amount. Do I get it?

[TTBit]

I think I understand. You are potentially giving expected value to the other side by moving the line away from 'correct'. Only potentially because people could fix the line by betting the appropriate amount. Do I get it?

exactly.

[nelisky]

I have added ssl to bitcoinsportsbook.com and you'll all get redirected to https when you visit the site. Let me know of any problems!

[TTBit]

If anyone wants to explain bitcoins to their family and friends over the thanksgiving holiday, please consider bitcoinsportsbook.com. The site will take wagers down to 0.01 btc.  I have cut fees to zero (from .001 per 1 btc) all weekend.

Please excuse the bump, but I believe the site is a good way to show how bitcoins work. I then suggest you withdraw some of your coins and show how the transaction shows up at the explorer http://blockexplorer.com/

Happy thanksgiving

[nanotube]

1iDonOTwAntYouRBITcoInsSAvEthem

good thing that isn't a valid address otherwise people might just try to donate to it.

[bencoder]

I just asked about a betting exchange in the irc today, didn't notice this thread before. I was thinking of starting to work on one for football(soccer, that is).

Any chance of being able to change the odds display? I can't understand American/US style odds very easily at all. Decimal makes the most sense to me, but lots of people swear by fractional - you should probably try and support all of them if possible.

How are you settling your bets by the way? That would seem to be the most difficult part to me, seeing as most of the live scores & results feeds available charge massive amounts. Been looking out for some decent free feeds for football results that are updated in a timely manner and not finding anything yet.

[TTBit]

I just asked about a betting exchange in the irc today, didn't notice this thread before. I was thinking of starting to work on one for football(soccer, that is).

Any chance of being able to change the odds display? I can't understand American/US style odds very easily at all. Decimal makes the most sense to me, but lots of people swear by fractional - you should probably try and support all of them if possible.

How are you settling your bets by the way? That would seem to be the most difficult part to me, seeing as most of the live scores & results feeds available charge massive amounts. Been looking out for some decent free feeds for football results that are updated in a timely manner and not finding anything yet.

We quote the decimal line along with the american odds in brackets. i.e decimal: 4.5454 / 1.2804 and american: +355/-357 for tomorrow nights game.  I'm unfamiliar with fractional, if a game is 5/2, are you credited with 50 for 20 bet? Is there rounding involved, possible I get 50.29 for 20 bet?

All settling is done by hand right now. Nelisky did the programming and has tinkered with auto settling, but it hasn't been necessary. When we expand, it would be included.

Currently we book based on a pari-mutal basis. With this, market makers can put in their own odds and gain edge from gamblers.

[DELTA9]

Is there any way to recover a lost password? Can't login to my account...

[nelisky]

Is there any way to recover a lost password? Can't login to my account...

PM me all you know about your account (so I can establish you are you) BCIN, BCOUT, login, current balance, last transfer (in or out), last bets, anything that can help me make sure it is your account.

[jib]

My account is angus, BCIN 1JiUeYrHu1QcDM26wZ4BFtmLqDV4sNwx4H

I don't think the 0.836 bitcoins shown here in blockexplorer ever actually showed up in my account.
http://blockexplorer.com/address/1JiUeYrHu1QcDM26wZ4BFtmLqDV4sNwx4H

I'm guessing the reason is that it's because they weren't transferred but were put in directly from generation using one of those pooled mining things.

[theymos]

I'm guessing the reason is that it's because they weren't transferred but were put in directly from generation using one of those pooled mining things.

Don't generate directly to site balances. The current version of bitcoind is incapable of detecting these transactions. There's nothing sites can do to fix it.

[jib]

Ok, I won't do that then. Thanks.

Theoretically they could manually fix it and give the bitcoins back, but I guess for this small amount it's not really worth it.

[theymos]

Theoretically they could manually fix it and give the bitcoins back, but I guess for this small amount it's not really worth it.

If I owned BSB, I wouldn't mind. Your claim doesn't take long to verify.

[nelisky]

Ok, someone please explain what this generation to BSB is all about? So there was a generated something on a mining pool and the receiving address was the one on BSB? Why would this not work, aren't the profits of pool mining distributed using simple transactions?

[ribuck]

aren't the profits of pool mining distributed using simple transactions?

These profits have been generated directly to the recipient's bitcoin address. The coins have never been owned by anyone else before, so there is no "simple transaction".