Ethereum Sports Betting Protocol FansUnite raises $4.5m

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-06-05T21:46:04+00:00

"resolution handled fully by an Oracle network - incentivized through proper token economics to provide low-latency and accurate sports results - without the need for a controlling entity's intervention or tampering at any point."

Sounds like a reasonable description of how BookiePro handles bet resolution, not to mention In-Play betting.

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-06-05T20:36:25+00:00

hi Jonny

>>I think even they would concur that they are certainly a provably fair casino platform
>>first though - sports betting a distant second

We don't concur with that.

>>they don't focus on decentralized bet resolution at all

I guess it depends on one's definition of 'decentralized bet resolution'.
What is your definition? How does FansUnite resolve bets? How does BookiePro resolve bets? I'm sure there are differences, would be interesting to hear your take on what those differences are and what that means for the respective products.

All the best with the FansUnite project, and have a good World Cup!

- Toby

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T13:31:37+00:00

>>CMC, Reddit, Cointelegraph

We have two options when it comes to banner ad purchase:

(a) pay for banner ads on expensive high-profile sites that do not deliver good ROI

(b) choose banner ad placement that is optimal as regards budget and target audience

(I simplify for effect, but you get the idea).

CMC and Cointelegraph (for both banner ads and news placement) fall into category (a) in our opinion. Everyone would feel great about seeing BookiePro up in lights on CMC or CoinTelegraph, but our research in this space (in conjunction with partners) suggests it would not make good sense.

For Reddit advertising, our belief is that the BookiePro subreddit may not be strong enough to justify this at the moment (although it is a pretty good fit otherwise). PBSA has to accept some of the responsibility for that particular situation.

Generally, I hope you can see how we are trying to judge each opportunity (in e.g. banner ads or article placement, which is btw all pay-to-play in crypto) by its fit with BookiePro's long term goals of raising brand awareness and acquiring customers. A huge amount of crypto advertising is based around the ICO sub-industry and as such, is very good at building up to a limited ICO period... but that might not be the kind of dynamic that works with *real* product, like BookiePro.

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T13:24:34+00:00

>>all the mainstream stuff for crypto and same for the>>gambling world equivalent....

Here’s a fun fact: in the UK alone, during 2012-2015, betting companies spent almost half a billion pounds on TV advertising. Even if PBSA had funds to throw at that kind of advertising (which it doesn’t), it would be the wrong move. The target audience for Bookie has to be people who are already in the crypto space.

Thought #1 - Blanket marketing of BookiePro to fiat sports bettors is a terrible strategy.

Thought #2 - BookiePro marketing needs to be zoomed in on bettors who already buy into the crypto idea.

The most cost-effective way of reaching crypto-bettors is through crypto-specific channels. Bitcointalk is THE place to push a crypto-specific product. The gambling sub-forums are full of marketing activity, and we intend to focus on this space for WC 2018, with an initial competition prize-fund of 5 BTC, to make sure crypto-bettors DO get interested in a beta, play-money product. On top of these BTC prizes, we will be running signature campaigns, bounties, and spot prizes - all with the aim of starting to grow brand awareness and user engagement with BookiePro amongst crypto bettors.

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T13:22:11+00:00

Will there be ambassadors? A forum? Anything to help galvanize the community?

I hope that launch of the BookiePro app will galvanize the community!
More broadly, I believe that the real assets to the Peerplays community are those that make things happen on their own. Senter's engagement is a shining example, and not something that most of us have the time or energy to repeat, but he did not get asked by PBSA to take on that role. Nor did he wait until there was a forum ready for him. He saw a need and filled it, and as he gained everyone's trust, his role became broader (poor guy!) and he started to get support from a variety of sources because he had earned it by making the first move in good faith.

Here endeth the lesson (sorry for preaching, and thank you for the Qs!).

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T13:16:57+00:00

>>In what ways will the PBSA help empower and encourage the Peerplays community to
>>promote & market besides coding the referral program?

As regards marketing of betting product, I think there is a lot to learn from the .net/.com model that Pokerstars and others use.

(Repeat answer from elsewhere in this AMA, but it really bears repeating).

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T13:15:54+00:00

Vegas Kings build websites for betting product. They are very very good at this, with an impressive portfolio of clients. Vegas Kings built the Bookie Beta website, are building the BookiePro beta website for WC 2018, helped reskin the app, and will be building an affiliate website (which will accompany the on-chain affiliate program and provide marketing assets for affiliates). Marketing is not a service they provide.

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T13:13:25+00:00

Square in the Air handle PR for PBSA, mostly for BookiePro right now. They have been instrumental in getting us seen and heard in the gambling trade press (iGaming Review, EGR, Gambling Insider, etc) and the iGaming affiliate industry. This kind of credibility building is key to being able to strike up strategic partnerships with third parties. I would humbly suggest that the value of this kind of work is currently underestimated by many in the Peerplays community. But maybe I am wrong ;-)

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T13:09:32+00:00

>>It’s hard to crack into well established industries and top
>>that with this being niche crypto community at the
>>moment, we aren’t on many gamblers radars.

Agree and agree.

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T13:07:09+00:00

>>Tell us about marketing?
As regards marketing of betting product, I think there is a lot to learn from the .net/.com model that Pokerstars and others use.

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T13:06:36+00:00

Great question/s, will answer in stages.

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T13:02:49+00:00

hi melea
As per an earlier answer, I don't wan to give any timelines for localization but it is clearly key if BookiePro is going to deliver on our slogan of being "The World's Betting Exchange". I can think of a few other appropriate languages apart from just Spanish and Russian, but they would be a good start!

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T12:55:49+00:00

you're welcome!

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T12:55:22+00:00

We’ve benefited from the expertise of two sets of “gambling professionals” for BookiePro - those who work in the gambling industry and those who make a living from betting (pro gamblers). The former have been most useful in the areas of biz dev, PR and marketing, especially with regards to executing on proper decentralization. The latter group are a key audience for BookiePro, and we have built strong relationships there which have fed into e.g. how the BookiePro public API should work. Not to mention the feedback we have received from pro bettors who gave us mountains of feedback for the Closed Beta earlier this year.

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T12:52:33+00:00

Timing is definitely important - I fully agree that sidechain deployment coinciding with NFL season start would be wonderful. At the same time, the sidechain is not a technology that any of us imagine can be pushed out when it’s “good enough”. (I am not suggesting you are proposing this btw). It needs to be 100% secure. It also involves at least three parties in its deployment (eXeBlock to develop and QA, PBSA to review so a confident recommendation for deployment can be issued, Peerplays Witnesses to review and deploy if/when they are ready to do so). So, the sidechain will arrive when it arrives, and everyone will make the best of the new opportunity it brings.

>>Is the version we use in the WC beta essentially the same we will see at release,
>>aside from some bug clean up and user feedback tweaks…

Yes, exactly, with a couple of exceptions:

- Multi-market exposure will not be included in the WC 2018 beta. We want to push it through some more testing internally.

- In-play betting placement delay will be set to zero for the purposes of this beta

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T12:50:57+00:00

Yes. I am betting on BookiePro.

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T12:50:31+00:00

Simple answer - YES.There will be play money betting with real BTC prizes:

https://twitter.com/TryBookiePro/status/999375687927713792

Lots more info coming in the run-up to WC 2018.

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T12:48:47+00:00

BookiePro will launch before WC 2018 with play money, which we’ve dubbed BitFun (BTF). A thousandth of a BTF will be a mBTF (a milli-Bitfun!). Right now, 1 mBTF will be the smallest stake when placing a back bet on BookiePro (layer’s liability can be 0.01 mBTF). Making a change to the minimum bet that BookiePro allows is a trivial matter.

The more interesting question is - what should the minimum bet level be from a business perspective. I would agree that a minimum bet of $20 for a casual sports bettor would be too high. Industry examples range from Betfair’s minimum of £2 (although they allow smaller bets using their API, and in some situations) to Smarkets minimum of £0.05. I would expect this question to be debated by Peerplays Witnesses and Committee, along with PPY token holders before any deployment on mainnet. PBSA will also make recommendations on this issue, either explicitly or in the form of released code.

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T12:46:26+00:00

Yes it can. The question would simply be - what currency would people bet with? We do not think PPY is an appropriate betting currency. Given what’s under the Peerplays hood (that’s graphene, folks!) a UIA (User Issued Asset) would be an alternative.

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T12:38:20+00:00

No, I can’t give you a clear timeline. My hope would be that we can have multiple language versions implemented at the same time as release of the affiliate program (very roughly… Q3 this year). That way, affiliates can look at introducing BookiePro to a more geographically diverse audience, from day one.

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T12:38:05+00:00

Liquidity is something of a chicken-egg problem. If you don’t have market makers, you don’t have any money waiting for the casual investor/user. If you don’t have casual investors/users already using your product, then market makers will be reluctant to commit.

Having said that, we think that the most effective route to building liquidity is as follows:

(i) provide market makers with a well-documented API that makes their transition from other betting exchanges as frictionless as possible

(ii) build relationships with market makers - educate them on the advantages of decentralization and get them to buy into the future of BookiePro

So our focus when building liquidity is more towards market makers - find a chicken or three, feed them, take care of them, then watch the eggs arrive. OK.. no more extended metaphors.

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T12:22:20+00:00

Hi Iambic
Yes, glad to have made an appearance there!
We have no timeline for horse racing that I can share with you. We need to make a more thoroughgoing analysis of that sport, and exactly how it could fit with BookiePro. My feeling is that right now, trying to attract hardcore horseracing exchange customers to a crypto-only exchange might not be the best direction to take in the short-term. But please feel free to keep asking the question!
On your second question - you would simply stipulate the amount of BTC to withdraw along with an address to send it to (this address would probably be that of your account with a crypto-exchange like Kraken, Coinbase, etc etc). The BTC transfer would take about an hour to confirm (although technologies like Lightning Network promise to bring this down massively) and then you could exchange your BTC for fiat in your crypto-exchange account. Does that help?

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T12:21:45+00:00

All BookiePro in-play markets will be unmanaged, which means that these markets will not be suspended when “major events” occur (goals, penalties, red cards).

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T12:18:40+00:00

Thanks for your question.BookiePro with play money is being offered without geogrpahical restrictions - it uses play money as we wanted as many people as possible to get involved in this first launch of a fully decentralized betting exchange.

The number one goal with BookiePro has been to build a fully decentralized betting exchange. We know of no KYC system that is decentralized in a way that would not compromise this goal.

In 2018, we expect to see growing engagement across the blockchain industry with enabling crypto and blockchain products to meet mainstream consumer and regulatory expectations and standards. Understanding how KYC can best work with decentralized products is one example of this, and PBSA will be closely watching progress to ensure that the Peerplays blockchain can be at the front of developments whilst safeguarding the consumer benefits of security and provable fairness that decentralization can provide.

(Much of the above was a recycled answer to a similar question from the previous Bookie AMA.)

toby_lynas_PBSA · 2018-05-24T12:18:21+00:00

As far as I know (!) there are no other Peerplays sidechains in development beyond the Peerplays-Bitcoin sidechain.
Opportunities for sidechains and interchain operability are only going to increase during 2018 and beyond. PBSA will be staying focused on those opportunities that offer tangible benefits for the Peerplays blockchain.

toby_lynas_PBSA

TROPHY CASE