Gambling mobile app idea feedback
Discussion
Afternoon fellow PistonHeads business people, a quick-ish call for feedback on an idea for an app, for anybody who cares to provide their opinion.
The app is for "social gambling", where you would make fun bets with friends on anything that takes your fancy. e.g. whether a best man's speech will be over 10 minutes long, whether Liverpool will beat Real Madrid in the Champions League final, whether Donald Trump will play Kim Jong-un at golf by the end of the year etc etc. The basic business model is that users would load their virtual "wallets" via a credit/debit card payment, and then if they lose a bet the balance would be adjusted accordingly. The app would make its revenue by taking a percentage commission from the total winnings. It would be possible for multiple friends to be invited to take up a bet, up to a total limit set by the user who created the bet. I guess the overall idea could be summed up as betting meets WhatsApp.
The benefits of using the app over just a WhatsApp group would be:
1. The payments are all handled via the app, so no awkward chasing of the odd pound here or there.
2. The app would make it easy for you to create new bets using bet templates.
3. The app would allow you to analyse your bet data, allowing you to see if you're up or down overall with certain friends over a period of time.
I'm not much of a gambler, hence my reaching out to people who might have more of an interest in such an app.
My main question is do you think this will work? Reasons for/against would be helpful.
Also, the app's percentage commission would have to be around the 5% mark to accommodate debit/credit card payment fees and basic anti-fraud checking. Betfair charge 5% for their commission for low value accounts, so there is grounds to prove this is acceptable to users. Do you feel a 5% commission is acceptable.
Thanks in advance for any help given!
The app is for "social gambling", where you would make fun bets with friends on anything that takes your fancy. e.g. whether a best man's speech will be over 10 minutes long, whether Liverpool will beat Real Madrid in the Champions League final, whether Donald Trump will play Kim Jong-un at golf by the end of the year etc etc. The basic business model is that users would load their virtual "wallets" via a credit/debit card payment, and then if they lose a bet the balance would be adjusted accordingly. The app would make its revenue by taking a percentage commission from the total winnings. It would be possible for multiple friends to be invited to take up a bet, up to a total limit set by the user who created the bet. I guess the overall idea could be summed up as betting meets WhatsApp.
The benefits of using the app over just a WhatsApp group would be:
1. The payments are all handled via the app, so no awkward chasing of the odd pound here or there.
2. The app would make it easy for you to create new bets using bet templates.
3. The app would allow you to analyse your bet data, allowing you to see if you're up or down overall with certain friends over a period of time.
I'm not much of a gambler, hence my reaching out to people who might have more of an interest in such an app.
My main question is do you think this will work? Reasons for/against would be helpful.
Also, the app's percentage commission would have to be around the 5% mark to accommodate debit/credit card payment fees and basic anti-fraud checking. Betfair charge 5% for their commission for low value accounts, so there is grounds to prove this is acceptable to users. Do you feel a 5% commission is acceptable.
Thanks in advance for any help given!
Edited by billythekid001 on Monday 14th May 20:18
There is nothing there which isn't doable from a technical perspective. The main issue I see with this is you need a licence to run online gambling in the UK. Peer to Peer is recognized by the Gambling Commission and can be licensed but where I think you may come unstuck is you are allowing gambling on private events where the result could easily be disputed unlike peer to peer poker for example.
I suspect you would have to make the bet limit very low (say £10 or £20) and you may well end up having to implement some sort of third party arbitration scheme. Your apps and back end will also have to go through an annual test and security audit by a third party tester who is recognized by the Gambling Commission.
I think if there were to be any money to be made at this someone would already be doing it.
I suspect you would have to make the bet limit very low (say £10 or £20) and you may well end up having to implement some sort of third party arbitration scheme. Your apps and back end will also have to go through an annual test and security audit by a third party tester who is recognized by the Gambling Commission.
I think if there were to be any money to be made at this someone would already be doing it.
I believe it's how Betfair started out. There was a similar concept to the OPs called flutter. It was for fun bets and matched layer with punter. It was the first time I can remember a normal punter being able to play bookie and lay bets instead of back them (not including spread betting). Betfair came shortly after, either through acquisition or just using the idea.
I think it's a great fun idea but not sure how much money would be in it.
I think it's a great fun idea but not sure how much money would be in it.
Hi everyone, thanks very much for the opinions, they really help clarify that the idea needs a bit more work. For me the point made about arbitration of disputed bets is a key one. As the original idea was that users could write their own bets, then there would likely be a high number of disputes about bets where the terms are unclear or cover a private event, and this would be a real headache to administer.
Back to the drawing board for a while I think!
Back to the drawing board for a while I think!
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