4 ms·

I just released a barebones MVP yesterday for a sports betting site with a little twist: We give users a little bit of money each week to play with ($0.50 righ

I just released a barebones MVP yesterday for a sports betting site with a little twist: We give users a little bit of money each week to play with ($0.50 right now) and if they can run it up past a certain point we'll pay them out in cash. If they lose the money, we put another $0.50 in the next week. It's legal in the US since the users aren't allowed to deposit and mainly for entertainment purposes. The plan is to make money through affiliate referrals if users want to bet with real cash. I think sports betting is inherently social, so the end game is to create more of a social sports betting experience where you can invite friends and talk shit about their bets, have leaderboards and so on, so forth. I'm a front-end dev / designer with some back-end chops but not great. I'd be down to chat with anyone who has a complementary skill set. Hit me up at will@pennywagers.com Stack: Next (serverless back-end), React, Tailwind, Prisma ORM, Postgres https://www.pennywagers.com https://www.pennywagers.com

vgeek 5y ago
Reminiscent of the old Centsports?
- wallawe 5y ago
  Haha exactly, actually talked to one of the cofounders before writing any code to figure out what happened to them. TLDR: when the DOJ cracked down on offshore sports books it cut off their revenue.
  - quadcore 5y ago
    when the DOJ cracked down on offshore sports books it cut off their revenue. Id be curious to learn more, how essentially did the US DOJ cracked down on offshore website - since they are offshore?
    - wallawe 5y ago
      I believe it was this https://www.justice.gov/olc/file/1121531/download https://www.justice.gov/olc/file/1121531/download in congruence with Poker's Black Friday crackdowns[0] where they shutdown many high profile gambling .com domains (which have since moved to .ag and .eu TLDs) [0]: https://www.beatthefish.com/poker-black-friday/ https://www.beatthefish.com/poker-black-friday/
remram 5y ago
So you get them hooked and hand them off to where they can lose real money? Even if you are hoping not many people move over, and are mostly focusing for the people who will stay with you, your revenue model is that funnel.
- wallawe 5y ago
  You could put it that way. I'm a huge fan of sports betting, poker, blackjack, you name it and have been gambling for well over a decade and this is something I enjoyed back when it existed as CentSports (2008-2011 era). So I'm just building something I wished existed (and is legal), and I'll leave the morality judgements to others.

vgeek 5y ago

Reminiscent of the old Centsports?

wallawe 5y ago
Haha exactly, actually talked to one of the cofounders before writing any code to figure out what happened to them. TLDR: when the DOJ cracked down on offshore sports books it cut off their revenue.
- quadcore 5y ago
  when the DOJ cracked down on offshore sports books it cut off their revenue. Id be curious to learn more, how essentially did the US DOJ cracked down on offshore website - since they are offshore?
  - wallawe 5y ago
    I believe it was this https://www.justice.gov/olc/file/1121531/download https://www.justice.gov/olc/file/1121531/download in congruence with Poker's Black Friday crackdowns[0] where they shutdown many high profile gambling .com domains (which have since moved to .ag and .eu TLDs) [0]: https://www.beatthefish.com/poker-black-friday/ https://www.beatthefish.com/poker-black-friday/

remram 5y ago

So you get them hooked and hand them off to where they can lose real money? Even if you are hoping not many people move over, and are mostly focusing for the people who will stay with you, your revenue model is that funnel.

wallawe 5y ago
You could put it that way. I'm a huge fan of sports betting, poker, blackjack, you name it and have been gambling for well over a decade and this is something I enjoyed back when it existed as CentSports (2008-2011 era). So I'm just building something I wished existed (and is legal), and I'll leave the morality judgements to others.