Bookie Pro World Cup Contest- Free Entry, $50,000 prize pool, only 90 competitors!

[WeetBixKid]

So Bookie Pro are trying to build an exchange to rival BetFair, only using BitCoin instead of local currencies so that punters in countries where gambling is banned can get in on the action.

They've released their beta for testing with play money (each account gets 10,000 units) and are giving away about 50k AUD in bitcoin throughout the world cup. Prizes will be given to the top 5 accounts (by units) at the end of the tournament, top punter for each match, a group stage sweep, & a finals sweep. It's all free- they really just want lots of people using their product so it can be stress tested before going live.

I'm shilling it because I'm invested and want the company to do well, but the promo is a great chance to make some money since they've got so few competitors so far. Less than 100 people to share in 50k!

If you wanna compete, here's the thread with the details.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4434686.0

There's only about 24 hours left to sign up for the first sweep (prize pool of about $8,000 AUD), but the rest will be active throughout the world cup.

 

[iluvparis]

Duritz

Is this $50,000 and current prices or the $5,000 it will be worth by competition end

 

[WeetBixKid]

You've got a point It's already actually a bit less than 50k, lol, but still a decent chunk. At least for now!

 

[Sabbathen]

Less than a 100 entrants? The bitcointalk thread is 8 pages long and filled with concerns about people creating multiple accounts...

Assume you were aware of fairlay, a bitcoin betting exchange that has already been fully operational for some time now before you invested in this.

 

[WeetBixKid]

Less than a 100 entrants? The bitcointalk thread is 8 pages long and filled with concerns about people creating multiple accounts...

Assume you were aware of fairlay, a bitcoin betting exchange that has already been fully operational for some time now before you invested in this.

I haven't heard of them actually, but I have my reasons for liking Peerplays (which are better suited to the crypto thread).

There's discussion in those 8 pages too & while there were less than 100 at my last count, even if there's say 120 (edit- there's 115) now ... That's about four users to a team in the first sweep, winning team receiving approx $8,000 ... so a free 1/32 shot at about 2 grand aint half bad in my opinion. And if some of those are proven to be fake accounts you may get even more.

 

[WeetBixKid]

One bump before we kick off tonight, you've got a few more hours if you're interested.

 

[Sabbathen]

Don’t want to hijack your thread but I am curious in what you saw in this startup that compelled you to invest money.
We can keep the discussion gambling related because I’ll be the first to admit I don’t have much knowledge in what makes a good block chain centric investment. However there does seem to be a huge amount of crypto currency bookmakers popping up and an alarming amount of them being accused of some very dodgy behaviour.

I see a lot of these block chain bookmakers or platforms marketing themselves as a “first” when there are already others doing it and I have to wonder how much research people are actually putting in before they invest money into it. With regards to a betting exchange for example, it’s success will hinge massively on it’s liquidity(how much currency people are actually gambling or trading). When there are already a number of fiat currency betting exchanges available e.g. betfair(and crypto only betting exchanges for that matter), I wonder how they will attract enough market share to get the sort of liquidity needed.
The US is obviously a big crypto currency gambling market due to the fact it has been largely illegal there. However just recently congress changed the federal law to allow gambling and it’s now up to each individual state to change their own laws. With the allure of additional tax dollars, you’d have to assume it won’t be long before the US gambling landscape looks much like ours and the UK’s. Only time will tell how much that affects the blockchain gambling industry I guess...

The one question I can never get a straight answer from people who gamble with crypto currency is this: How do you manage the risk of profit from a winning bet being less than what you originally staked?

 

[WeetBixKid]

Don’t want to hijack your thread but I am curious in what you saw in this startup that compelled you to invest money.
We can keep the discussion gambling related because I’ll be the first to admit I don’t have much knowledge in what makes a good block chain centric investment. However there does seem to be a huge amount of crypto currency bookmakers popping up and an alarming amount of them being accused of some very dodgy behaviour.

I see a lot of these block chain bookmakers or platforms marketing themselves as a “first” when there are already others doing it and I have to wonder how much research people are actually putting in before they invest money into it. With regards to a betting exchange for example, it’s success will hinge massively on it’s liquidity(how much currency people are actually gambling or trading). When there are already a number of fiat currency betting exchanges available e.g. betfair(and crypto only betting exchanges for that matter), I wonder how they will attract enough market share to get the sort of liquidity needed.
The US is obviously a big crypto currency gambling market due to the fact it has been largely illegal there. However just recently congress changed the federal law to allow gambling and it’s now up to each individual state to change their own laws. With the allure of additional tax dollars, you’d have to assume it won’t be long before the US gambling landscape looks much like ours and the UK’s. Only time will tell how much that affects the blockchain gambling industry I guess...

The one question I can never get a straight answer from people who gamble with crypto currency is this: How do you manage the risk of profit from a winning bet being less than what you originally staked?

If you're interested here's the value proposition as I see it.

First of all they're (essentially) a publicly traded company on the Canadian stock exchange, which immediately gives them more legitimacy than a number of cryptos out there. Exeblock (CNSX: XBLK) are contracted by Peerplays to develop a number of Dapps on their platform, & in compensation they've been given 900,000 PPY units. These units are what give the company value.

XBLK's market cap is 8.9 million Canadian, which is 6.8 million U.S. 6.8 million divided by 900k = 7.5. So the stock market seems to value a unit of PPY @ about $7.50. You can buy PPY directly for under $3, so by this measure it's already undervalued.

Now this is all moot if the token is useless, or the company makes no profit. But the token has a clear use case-- it will pay dividends to holders. Everything they make (via rakes) will be paid out. Assuming a fee of 3%, we can start making calculations from here. If the company turns over 500 million @ 3%, that's 15 million in profit. There's about 5 million PPY units in circulation, so that's a dividend of $3 per unit per year or already more than 100% p.a.

Is this realistic? 500 million is 1% of BetFair's yearly turn over in matched bets so I think it is. And the bookie app is only one many apps being developed in the Peerplays ecosystem. The blockchain can handle heaps more, and there are all sorts of things in the works (Casino games, charity sweeps etc) that can turn money over & bring in fees.

It's also built with the same technology as cryptos like EOS & Bitshares which are valued in the billions/hundreds of millions. The Peerplays marketcap is only around 16 million, so there'a plenty of room for speculators to drive it up (granted it's not easy to buy at the moment). They're also claiming to have developed a BitCoin sidechain, which will allow BTC to be transferred seamlessly onto the Peerplays blockchain. This is completely new & if they do it will be a pretty big deal.

I'm no expert, but I think think these guys are undervalued and worth a punt. On your last question, the volatility of BTC does make it less than ideal as a unit to bet with, but if it allows easy access to the Chinese & other places where gambling is banned, & if the arbitrage potential is big enough, I think plenty of people will be willing to use it. I could be wrong. We'll see. And I'm not sure what you mean by "profit less than you staked", do you just mean taking odds less than $2.00? How does that change the risk factor from other bets with crypto?

 

[Sabbathen]

Yeah my point about volatility of betting with a crypto currency is you are essentially gambling twice. Anyone who takes an unbiased analysis of their gambling history will understand how difficult it is to win a bet once, let alone having your 1 bitcoin stake at 2:1 win, only to find just before kick off the value of that 1 bitcoin had halved.

An exchange like betfair works because the liquidity comes from professional users who are pumping a lot of money through it. Imagine if betfair’s liquidity was only 1% of what it is now, no one would use it. I’m assuming Peerplay’s exchange will charge a commission and there will be fees for depositing/withdrawing/buying/selling tokens? Not sure how that additional risk is attractive to professional users.

How did you invest exactly, did you buy shares in XBLK? Or did you buy PPY tokens with other crypto currency? Bear with me sorry, my knowledge is not great there. Cheers

 

[WeetBixKid]

Yeah my point about volatility of betting with a crypto currency is you are essentially gambling twice. Anyone who takes an unbiased analysis of their gambling history will understand how difficult it is to win a bet once, let alone having your 1 bitcoin stake at 2:1 win, only to find just before kick off the value of that 1 bitcoin had halved.

An exchange like betfair works because the liquidity comes from professional users who are pumping a lot of money through it. Imagine if betfair’s liquidity was only 1% of what it is now, no one would use it. I’m assuming Peerplay’s exchange will charge a commission and there will be fees for depositing/withdrawing/buying/selling tokens? Not sure how that additional risk is attractive to professional users.

How did you invest exactly, did you buy shares in XBLK? Or did you buy PPY tokens with other crypto currency? Bear with me sorry, my knowledge is not great there. Cheers

I don't invest in the shares, I buy the PPY units with bitcoin because it's much cheaper that way. While it's true that bitcoin is volatile, it's not so volatile that it will halve in a day. You can expect a daily swing of around 2-10%. Like I said this isn't ideal but if it gives easy access to people otherwise blocked out from the gambling world it's a price I think plenty will be willing to pay. As it stands the fees to transfer bitcoin into your account, going off what it costs to move PPY, will be negligible. Of course there will be fees to change BTC into fiat, but again-- I think some will just be happy to pay (and as there's more and more competition between crypto exchanges, this is becoming cheaper and cheaper to do), some will be bullish re: bitcoin anyway and happy to leave their winnings in BTC, and others will find ways around it. For example you can buy just about anything in Japan with bitcoin, so there's an easy solution for Japanese customers to quickly spend their winnings.

Liquidity could be an issue and that's my main concern, so you're right, but investing/speculating in this space is a high risk high reward game & I'm only playing with money I can lose so happy to roll the dice.

 

[WeetBixKid]

Final bump. You can still get in on the quarter final sweep if you're interested. I haven't done the exact calculations yet, but I'm up about 400 USD risk free from this so far & expect it to be more once the sweeps are over. Best promo I've gone in on, except for maybe William Hill's chase the ace.