Introduction
I came up with the idea of helium.bet as a satirical joke while conversing with a college friend of mine. We were actively using nitrogensports.eu at the time. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the site, it is one of the premier online sports book which operates solely using bitcoin as a currency.
The novelty of nitrogensports.eu is:
1) Anonymity — you can simply create an account in seconds, without divulging a tidbit of information.
2) Nearly instant buyin/cashout ability — Many books lock down your winnings for weeks. This makes cashing out cumbersome and an exercise in futility.
3) Better spreads and lower juice that most competitors.
I could go on, but I’ll stop before this becomes an advert.
Sportsbooks are a niche in the multibillion dollar gambling conglomerate. There are millions of dollars being wagered everyday on competitive sports. It’s a huge pie in the sky, which could use innovations of blockchain technology to create a more decentralized betting platform.
There are ample books in the world, physical and digital — one could argue that it’s somewhat of a saturated space. Yet what makes every book unique is the variance in lines and odds; which encourages a competitive marketplace, the most astute bettors usually flock to wherever they can get the best lines and odds.
Sportsbooks are third party middlemen, which take money from all bettors, handicapping both sides of an outcome, so that house always win. Often this handicap is a generous 10% of ones total bet size. The house refers to this handicap as the “juice”.
Example: Bobby feels that the Greenbay Packers are going to win versus the Minnesota Vikings this coming Saturday. The bookmaker is offering him -110 odds to win 100. George who is an avid Vikings fan, checks with his bookmaker, to learn that the game is coin flip, but his gut tells him that the Vikings have been humiliated from their last loss, and are going to annihilate the Packers. The odds, for the sake of simplicity are also, -110 to win 100. Regardless of who wins, there is an extra 10 units that remain with the house — and for what? A simple transaction of taking money from X to pay Y.
Now imagine if 100 million dollars are bet…that would be 110 million to win 100 million. The house would walk away with a cool 10 million no matter what. Someone has to win, and someone lose.
What I am sitting on is bigger than me. I am talking about revolutionizing the entire sports betting industry. The house will always exists to some degree. However, what does not exist currently is the ability for an individual to wager an autonomous bet independent of the house; creating his own line, and allowing another individual the opportunity to take that line. As a consumer, you have to take whatever the house offers. That is why so many people run to different books searching for “the line” that will give them an edge.
Helium.bet
A decentralized sportsbook cooperative that will allow the consumer to flirt with the house if they choose, but also become their own house — creating their own line, and allowing another individual to take that line.
To be continued.
